- Officials have abandoned hope of finding any more survivors from the hapless construction crew that was on the Francis Scott Key bridge when it collapsed. Meanwhile the next priority is to clear the remains of the bridge so that shipping can resume. As to how long that could take, an engineering professor said "I'd be shocked if it's weeks, but I don't think it'd take a year." That's a lot of uncertainty.
- The Kinew government in Manitoba has cleaned house at Efficiency Manitoba, removing nine out of the ten board members appointed by the Tories. They have also restored the standard 1 to 1 supervisor to apprentice ratio in the trades, a move welcomed by Manitoba Building Trades as well as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, but condemned by the Winnipeg Construction Association. In addition they're tinkering with the credits for property taxes, in order to shift a bit more of the burden onto high value properties. On the downside, though, they have joined the chorus of provincial leaders calling for an end to the carbon tax. Don't get me wrong, I kind of understand why they're doing it (the right has been very successful at making carbon pricing politically toxic) but I wish they'd have pushed for a more creative approach to the problem than simply doing away with the tax. Like if you're concerned about the cost of living, why not hit the PST, and if that costs too much in revenue, hike the carbon tax to compensate? That would keep average costs around the same but make greener products cheaper while making more polluting products more expensive, and I'd like to think the public could be sold on that idea, but maybe not. Or maybe there are administrative barriers that aren't obvious except to insiders in finance ministries, I dunno.
- School boards in Toronto, Peel, and Ottawa are suing Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok, alleging that they are harming students' mental health. I wish them luck (it's almost certainly true, after all). I have to admit that this is one of the very few issues on which I find myself in agreement with Ron DeSantis, at least in principle (the devil is always in the details with something like this, though, and DeSantis isn't someone I'd count on getting it right with something like this).
- The judge who issued the gag order prohibiting Donald Trump from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors did not include himself or his family on the list. No doubt he had to do it that way to avoid any perceived conflict of interest, but it's no surprise that Trump is taking full advantage of that omission.
- The city of Richmond, California now has only one remaining local news website, the Richmond Standard. It's owned by Chevron, which has a huge presence in the city and seems to get away with a lot of shenanigans as a result.
- Former US senator Joe Lieberman has died. Hopefully No Labels will follow.
- A Boston Dynamics robot dog used by the Massachusetts State Police was shot during a standoff.
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