News roundup, 20 April 2024

-  Jury selection is now complete for Donald Trump's trial on the Stormy Daniels case. In other trial-related news, the New York Times has obtained information about where the jurors and alternates get their news; looking at juror #2, I have to wonder why the prosecution allowed that one. Meanwhile a man has died after setting himself on fire in front of the courthouse yesterday.

- Mike Pence accuses Trump of "betraying the pro-life movement" by moderating his stance on abortion. Division of this sort is good news for the Democrats.

- The US Forest Service is losing firefighters, even as the wildfire situation gets worse.

- Mayoral candidates in two different Mexican cities were found dead on the same day. Some 15 other candidates have been killed in the campaign period leading up to the elections scheduled for June; drug cartels are the most likely suspects.

- Assiniboine Credit Union is seeking to absorb two more institutions, Westoba Credit Union and Caisse Financial Group; if approved by the membership of the three entities this will be the only bilingual credit union in the province.

- While you can hardly throw a stone in Winnipeg without hitting a dope store, the province currently prohibits people from growing their own. This may be about to change, however; the government is expected to announce that Manitoba will be joining most other provinces in allowing it.

- Apparently they've developed an algorithm that tries to assign a risk score indicating how likely a person is to become addicted to opioids. Since this is a proprietary algorithm, though, it can't be easily scrutinized for accuracy, and it could leave a mark on patients' records that could be very hard to remove.

- Researchers are trying to selectively breed corals for heat tolerance in the hope of saving some coral reefs.

News roundup, 16 March 2024

- While cities like to tout how many trees they plant, many are not very good at maintaining them. The small city of Morden, Manitoba is an exception. 

- Municipalities in Minnesota are apparently able to set their own minimum wage. Minneapolis' city council passed a bylaw last fall that applies this to rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft. Mayors there have the power to veto a bill, and did so, whereupon a supermajority of council exercised their power to override the veto. Now, Uber and Lyft are threatening to pull out of the city entirely.

- Mike Pence is not endorsing Donald Trump this time round. Funny that.

- Cape Tribulation, a hamlet in far north Queensland, is dependent on tourism for its very existence. The destruction of the only road to the community by a cyclone is therefore a serious problem.

- Quebec premier François Legault claims that his province is "full" and has asked the federal government for full power over immigration. The feds have refused.

- A Winnipeg doctor who suffered significant injuries when an elevator in the parkade across from HSC suddenly fell while she was using it is suing the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Shared Health, and the elevator manufacturer.

- A man in Richmond, BC has been arrested after police executed a search warrant and found over $150,000 worth of stolen Lego, other toys, and clothing in his home.

- Police have arrested a man for several instances of damage to gas lines serving businesses at several locations near Winnipeg's downtown, causing an extremely hazardous situation. Whether this was motivated by some sort of animus against those businesses, or just the act of a methhead who realized that a gas meter or regulator is several kilograms of scrap metal is not clear.

- American pop singer Olivia Rodrigo allowed reproductive rights activists to set up at her concerts, and at one concert in Missouri they were handing out condoms and morning after pills (particularly bold in that state given that abortion is banned in nearly all cases in that state). However, her management subsequently decided that actually handing these things out went too far, although the groups will still be allowed to distribute information and collect donations.