- Opinions continue to pour in about Canada's federal budget. Bill Morneau, who served as finance minister under Trudeau until 2020 (and seems to have left his position on bad terms) is condemning the increase in the capital gains tax, fearing that it will discourage investment. That's pretty standard fare for Morneau's kind of Liberal. The real problem with this budget, though, is not what's in it but the fact that it's not going to save the government anyway and thus the good parts won't be followed through with long enough to have a beneficial effect.
- Ukraine scored a series of hits on a Russian airfield in Crimea; on the other hand they suffered a number of fatalities from a Russian attack on the city of Chernihiv. Looking at the big picture, though, things are starting to look pretty bleak for Ukraine; while the Russians have lost around 50,000 troops so far, Ukraine has also lost over 31,000, and Russia simply has more reserves. Some think Ukraine's defenses could collapse as early as this year; in any case, though, it seems unlikely that Russia's victory will be complete. Perhaps the least bad realistic scenario is that Russia gets bogged down in a long, drawn out guerilla campaign that saps their resources and kills any possibility of them attacking other countries; maybe Ukraine can do to Putin's Russia what Afghanistan did to the USSR. No doubt Ukraine deserves better than to serve as Europe's sacrificial anode, but that's how it goes I guess.
- The situation in the Middle East has gotten more awkward for Joe Biden following Iran's retaliation for Israel's attack on their embassy in Damascus. Unfortunately Israel has been spoiling for a fight with Iran for years now, so long as they can get the Americans to back them up. And if the Americans don't back them up after strikes on their own soil, I'm sure the folks at AIPAC would have something to say about that.
- Red River College Polytechnic's medical lab technologist program only filled 28 of 40 available spots for their newest cohort of students. This is likely to lead to problems down the line for the healthcare system, especially in rural areas that have a harder time attracting educated and skilled workers anyway.
- Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee are voting on whether to join the United Auto Workers. VW themselves don't seem particularly bothered by this; then again, all of their other plants are already unionized. State politicians, though, are freaking out at the example this might set for other workers in the state if it goes through.
- Several people, including two former Air Canada employees, have been arrested in connection with a huge gold heist that happened at Pearson airport last year.
- A developer who built two condo towers in San Jose, California was not able to sell all the units in the towers. Since they remained the owners of the units, they were supposed to pay condo fees for those units - but they fell behind on their payments, and the condo association decided to auction off the units to cover the delinquent fees. They sold for an average of $30,000 each, a very low price anywhere, but unheard of in the Bay Area. The developer isn't taking this lying down, though; they're suing the trustee who auctioned off the units, as well as the buyers of the units.
- Tim Hortons emailed a number of people indicating that they had won a boat worth $55,000. The company attributes this to a "technical error"; the people whose hopes were raised are less than impressed.
- A school bus driver in western Manitoba was arrested for driving a busload of kids with a blood alcohol content double the legal limit. I can't say that sounds like a good career move.
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