News roundup, 21 Sept 2026

- New polling gives Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham a significant lead for this fall's municipal election. Notably, however, 51% of voters say they are undecided; 20% said they would vote for Gillingham with Kevin Klein at 8% and 4% for Mike Vogiatzakis. 13% said that they would not vote at all. While it may be a reassuring sign that Klein and especially Vogiatzakis don't seem to be making much of an impact, there's a caveat in that the kind of person who would vote for Vogiatzakis might also the sort of person to not answer pollsters' questions about the matter.

- Kerry-Lynne Findlay has resigned as leader of the BC Conservative party, mere hours after Surrey-Serpentine River MLA Linda Hepner became the 14th MLA to resign or be expelled from the party's caucus since August. It is widely suspected that premier David Eby is considering a snap election call in order to take advantage of the Conservatives' disarray. 

- BC's efforts to improve rural healthcare by requiring foreign trained doctors to spend a few years working in remote areas before being able to practice in major cities was struck down by the province's top court.

- The far-right AfD has won the largest share of the vote in elections in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, winning 38% of votes cast. Fortunately the Social Democrats were a close second at 36% and are expected to gain the support of enough of the remaining parties to form a government; unfortunately AfD are not likely to go away anytime soon. In Berlin, which also held an election for its combined state/municipal government, the leftwing Die Linke (which has its roots in the East German Communist Party, though it is considered a democratic socialist party today) won a plurality and may be able to form a government with the support of the Greens and Social Democrats. The real losers in both elections were the centre-right Christian Democrats, who appear to have gotten less than the 5% threshold needed to win seats in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania legislature; they don't seem to have done very well in Berlin either.

- Donald Trump has announced in a caps-laden Truth Social post that he is banning reporters from CNN, Politico, and MS NOW (the former MSNBC) from the White House grounds.

- Sleep medicine experts continue to weigh in on Manitoba's move to permanent daylight saving time. The consensus among them continues to be that ending the time change is good, but leaving it on DST is the wrong way to go about it. The main concern has to do with the impact of a lack of morning sun on circadian rhythms, which they say teenagers in particular are susceptible to.

- The FBI has issued a warning to ICE agents that they should be wary of "tradwife" dating site profiles, saying that these could be honeypot accounts set up to dox the agents. Details about whether this has actually happened are sparse at best. Some posters in this Reddit thread thinks that the real purpose of this warning is to instill a general sense of paranoia and distrust of the agents among outsiders, and/or to make people forget about Kash Patel's rather embarrassing public statements of late. In any case, the story has spawned the best description I've seen of "tradwives" in this article - "conservative women who dress like the women in The Sound of Music, but without the opposition to the Anschluss".

News roundup, 3 Sept 2026

- The latest person to enter the Winnipeg mayoral race, Kevin Klein, used to work for convicted sex offender Peter Nygard. This point is being raised by provincial cabinet minister Nahanni Fontaine as well as incumbent mayor Scott Gillingham. Klein, for his part, argues that thousands of people have worked for Nygard's company and that he had no idea of the crimes Nygard was committing, but Gillingham points out that Klein worked as a "political fixer" for Nygard in the Bahamas, which raises questions about the veil of ignorance that he's claiming.

- Manitoba Hydro's plan to install build a new natural gas powered generating station in Brandon is coming into question following the revelations that the turbines for the plant would be built by US manufacturer GE Vernova. Environmentalists had already questioned the plan; now the premier is raising doubts about it as well. There's still a good chance the plant will still be built, of course, but some are calling for the turbines to be bought for the European manufacturer Siemens rather than from the American company (which, as some have pointed out, contributed money to Trump's inauguration).

- A Maltese businessman who had been implicated in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been acquitted. Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in 2017; several people have already been convicted in her death, but Yorgen Fenech, suspected by many of being the mastermind in the killing, managed to convince the jury otherwise.

- Former UK prime minister Keir Starmer has resigned his parliamentary seat. Green Party leader Zack Polanski intends to run in the resulting byelection.

- A 32 year old woman who rescued two people, including a toddler, from the Red River in Winnipeg's St. John's Park last week says she is uncomfortable with being called a hero.

- Noted feminist Gloria Steinem has died at the age of 92.

News roundup, 17 June 2026

- Israel launched a series of new strikes on Lebanon, in defiance of Donald Trump's request. I think the real issue here is that the two leaders have different priorities - Trump wants the war to end in the hope that gas prices will come down in time for the midterms in November, while Netanyahu wants the war to continue until October to maximize his chances of winning the election and thus avoiding a corruption trial that could send him to prison.

- Savneet Talwar, a tenured professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), has been suspended and placed under investigation after giving students an assignment that made a passing reference to Palestine. The student who complained had a history of making similar complaints, and the school warned Talwar that the assignment could be seen as constituting "discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation".

- The yearbooks at two different Canadian high schools, one in Toronto and one in Bedford, NS, published quotes from students that appeared to question the Holocaust. Apparently it was worded in such a way as to question the number who died without making direct reference to the event; the exact wording isn't included in the article so it's hard to say how subtle it was. The Bedford school has asked students to return the yearbook for a reprint with the offending quote removed, while the Toronto school has offered to do the same. Interestingly, a school in the Pittsburgh area had a similar thing happen, but has not recalled the yearbook, saying it wasn't feasible to republish.

- A proposed mixed-use development called the Waters Urban Village would add nearly 3,000 housing units in a largely industrial area of east Winnipeg. The development would be a mix of multi-family and commercial. Seems pretty reasonable, but Transcona councillor (and sex assault suspect) Russ Wyatt is up in arms about the matter. Mayor Scott Gillingham called Wyatt a "desperate man", suggesting that he might be looking for a distraction from his legal issues.

- The town of Sundre in central Alberta has an annual rodeo, and normally there is an accompanying parade. This year, however, the parade was cancelled after organizers were subjected to severe harassment from Alberta separatists who were angered after being denied a float in the parade.

News roundup, 29 Sept 2025

- A man opened fire on parishioners at a Mormon church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan on Sunday, and set fire to the building. Four people were killed before the suspect was shot to death by police. He was a veteran of the Iraq war, and social media pictures show him wearing a "Trump 2020" shirt, something that will doubtless be downplayed by the authorities.

- Russia launched a barrage of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least four people. The attack on Kyiv was one of the one of the biggest since the full-scale invasion began. Among the buildings hit was a cardiology clinic; one could be forgiven for questioning whether that constitutes a legitimate military target.

- Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham is asking Transit to look into the cost of extending late night bus service. Of the numerous complaints about the changes to Transit's network, many relate to reductions in service towards the end of the day, when some people still have to get home from work.

- US ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra is musing about doing away with preclearance at Canadian airports. Hoekstra says that the decline in tourism from Canada calls into question whether it's worth the expense; Canadian airlines and airport authorities are wondering what will happen to cross-border ticket sales if preclearance is eliminated. Some folks in this Reddit thread think that the real motivation is to boost the number of immigration-related detentions, either for propaganda purposes or to funnel money to the private companies who run the detention facilities. Viewed that way it kind of makes sense; if someone is deemed inadmissable during preclearance, they're still in Canada and can't be hauled off to Alligator Alcatraz or similar facilities.

- Several FBI agents who were photographed kneeling at a protest about the murder of George Floyd in 2020 have been fired by the agency. They say they did this as a deescalation tactic, but photos of this naturally drew the ire of the far right at the time. Their conduct had been reviewed by the agency and they had been cleared, but the new regime was evidently not satisfied with this and wanted them gone.

- Proposals for bail reform in Manitoba are running up against an awkward reality - the fact that the province's jails are already overcrowded and understaffed, and that about 75% of the people incarcerated in these institutions are on remand. Presumably what's really needed is to speed up the court process so people aren't on remand for so long, but that's easier said than done, given that the slow pace of justice in this country has been the subject of discussion for decades with no signs of progress. I'd think hiring more prosecutors would be a start, though.

News roundup, 18 March 2025

- The second set of remains found at the Prairie Green Landfill have been identified as having been Marcedes Myran, another victim of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. In other news, a woman from Buffalo Point First Nation who was severely injured in a hit and run in Winnipeg last Friday believes that she was hit intentionally - she says a van followed her as she walked down Osborne Street, then as she crossed the street she made eye contact with the driver, only for the van to strike her, reverse over her, and drive over her again.

- A poll by Leger Marketing suggests that Canadians' sense of national pride is increasing overall - but has decreased by 10% in Alberta. There is also a slight (2%) decline in Atlantic Canada; whether this is statistical noise is hard to say, since the poll was conducted online and doesn't give a margin of error. The Alberta thing, though, is probably real (and would probably be much worse if you didn't include Calgary and Edmonton).

- The Canadian government is seriously reconsidering whether it's a good idea to buy any more F-35 fighters beyond the 16 we've already paid for, especially given that we'd be dependent on the (possibly hostile) US for maintenance and software upgrades. Defence Minister Bill Blair is suggesting that the remainder of the fleet could be made up of the Saab Gripen; as a bonus, Saab has promised that assembly and maintenance of the aircraft could be done in Canada under license, potentially bringing a lot of jobs.

- Canadians crossed the US border by car 23% less last month than they did the previous February. Air travel dropped as well, albeit by only 2.4%. I suspect if you don't count non-discretionary (e.g. job related) crossings, the drops would be considerably higher.

- In his most recent "state of the city" address, Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham mused about ending remote and hybrid work. CUPE Local 500 has filed a grievance on the matter; the local's president Gord Delbridge points out the fact that remote work has been beneficial for employee retention and has not significantly harmed productivity. Gillingham says that bringing workers back into the office will help downtown businesses; no doubt that is the real motivation here, especially since a decline in the value of commercial real estate will be bad for the city's revenue stream. Delbridge, however, questions the benefit to downtown businesses; he says some of his members are vowing to boycott downtown businesses if forced back into the office.

- The Canadian woman who was detained in an immigration facility in Arizona has been released and has returned home to BC. Most of her fellow inmates are not so fortunate; to her credit, she recognizes that.

- The metaphor of the "dumpster fire" has been used to describe a number of things, including Trump's first term. Now, in Brandon we finally have something worthy of comparison to Trump's second term - a whole landfill is burning.

News roundup, 6 March 2025

- The Trump regime is deferring some of its tariffs, specifically those on Big Three automakers, for another month. Whether this is a result of Trump seeing the impact of tariffs on share prices, or if it's just another move meant to confuse us isn't clear.

- The regime has stayed its decision to fire nearly 6,000 employees of the US Department of Agriculture, following an order from Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) to reinstate the employees pending an investigation of the legality of the layoffs. Of course, knowing who we're dealing with, this might just mean the regime has to dissolve the MSPB before they re-fire them.

- The US has stopped sharing intelligence on Russia with Ukraine. Whether they are sharing intelligence on Ukraine with Russia is another question, of course.

- A Canadian teenager who was backpacking through Europe was recruited by the FSB after volunteering with what he initially thought was a humanitarian organization in Donetsk; he then went to Poland so he could make contact with the Polish military. He was caught after getting drunk and spilling the beans to hotel staff in Warsaw, and has now received a 20 month sentence.

- Manitoba's interim opposition leader, Wayne Ewasko, has belatedly apologized on behalf of the entire Progressive Conservative party for their stance in opposition to searching the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of murdered indigenous women. The fact that human remains now appear to have been found probably meant that the party's previous position was even less tenable than it was when they were defeated in the election in which they campaigned on that.

- Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham has rejected a recommendation from city administrators that the upgrade of the North End Sewage Treatment Plant be financed by hiking water and sewer rates. The upgrade definitely is needed; Gillingham favours a more modest increase to keep the work moving along while trying to find another source of revenue.

- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports an increase in the number of complaints about inaccurate or misleading country of origin labels in grocery stores.

- Two people have been arrested after driving their cars into a picket line at the Region of Waterloo International Airport. Nobody was seriously hurt.

News roundup, 17 Jan 2024

- The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas (which both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are trying to take credit for) has experienced a last-minute hiccup after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu delayed the cabinet meeting where this was supposed to be ratified. Netanyahu claims that Hamas made demands for a "last minute concession"; Hamas denies this, and Netanyahu refuses to discuss what part of the agreement Hamas has reneged on. Extremist members of his cabinet had allegedly threatened to resign if the agreement is ratified, which would bring down the government and possibly end Netanyahu's premiership - and with it the protection from prosecution that he has enjoyed until now. In any case, these issues seem to have been contained; Netanyahu now expects the deal to be approved today.

- South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, who is suspended pending his impeachment trial in the country's Constitutional Court, has been arrested following a lengthy standoff, something that has never previously happened to a sitting president in the country.

- Residents of the Ukrainian city of Kherson are accusing Russian drone pilots of using civilians for target practice. Local officials say that at least 16 people have been killed and 144 injured in this way.

- The City of Winnipeg has cancelled a plan to save money for the snow clearing budget by deferring residential plowing until 15 cm of snow have fallen, instead of the current 10 cm. Mayor Scott Gillingham says that his office received more complaints about this proposal than about a planned tax increase.

- China's demand for oil seems to have peaked in 2023; an increase in aviation fuel consumption was more than offset by a decrease in other fuel use, as surface transportation has been increasingly electrified. This is good news for the climate, though nowhere near good enough to prevent an awful lot of bad stuff in the coming decades. I suspect it's got the Russians worried too.

- A Donald Trump campaign rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota last summer has left the city wondering how to collect on a $209,000 bill for measures taken to accommodate the rally. Trump's campaign says the costs are the responsibility of the Secret Service; the SS, for their part, claim that the agency "lacks a mechanism" to reimburse states or municipalities for these costs.

- Trump wants to stop the impending TikTok ban, presumably because no other social media platform is as effective at rallying the sheeple for him.

- A SpaceX rocket disintegrated shortly after launch, forcing several flights to alter their courses to avoid falling debris. In response Elon Musk, trying to put the best possible face on the situation, tweeted that "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!"

- The Washington Post has scrapped the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" in favour of a new one, "Riveting Storytelling for All of America". Because journalism is just storytelling, right? I guess in Trump's America, Jeff Bezos doesn't want it to be more than that - certainly not any journalism that the administration can associate with him, lest he fall out a window or something. One is also reminded of Google's abandonment of their old motto "don't be evil" a few years back.

- An employee of a flight training school in St. Andrews, Manitoba was severely injured after attempting to hand-prop an aircraft and getting hit by the propeller.

News roundup, 4 March 2024

- The response to Mayor Scott Gillingham's announcement that he wants to see the barriers come down at Portage and Main has so far been better than you might expect. The owners of most of the neighbouring buildings agree with the decision; some folks, though, are concerned about the fates of the businesses that draw much of their customer base from users of the underground concourse.

- Donald Trump faces yet another trial this summer over the classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago. With luck it could be completed before November, not that this will stop most of his sycophants from voting for him.

- Super Tuesday is this coming week. Most of the states involved use a winner take all system, meaning that it's Nikki Haley's last realistic chance of avoiding annihilation (and a pretty slim chance at that).

- Desjardins Group, North America's largest federation of credit unions, has announced that they will no longer issue mortgages for properties at high risk of flooding. 

- Haiti is under a state of emergency after armed gangs stormed a prison, releasing around 3,700 prisoners.

- Germany is accusing Russia of eavesdropping on a military conference call in which the war in Ukraine was discussed. Of course, that's kind of what espionage is all about...

- Transnistria, that breakaway region of Moldova that looks like a Soviet theme park, is requesting protection from Russia, accusing the Moldovan state of "genocide" against its people.

- The city of Ithaca, NY is pushing hard to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to heat buildings. They have set a goal to eliminate these emissions by 2030.

- Do you use your phone for online banking? I don't. If you do, make sure your phone doesn't get stolen, or at the very least have it well secured.

News roundup, 1 March 2024

- The Center for Renewing America, a think tank with ties to Donald Trump, is overtly calling for a Christian nationalist revamp of government. Funny thing is, Christian nationalists are really getting their knickers in a knot about the fact that someone had the audacity to report on this.

- A lawyer who has previously worked with Trump says that the former president is very embarrassed about his inability to come up with the bond money in the E. Jean Carroll case. Assuming Trump is actually capable of shame, it would make sense that not being as rich as he's supposed to be would be the thing to bring it on. Potentially even better news, though, is the fact that his party is worried about their fundraising prospects for the fall election.

- A bill working its way through the Kentucky legislature will, if passed, do away with many basic rights that workers have, including the right to lunch and rest breaks, the right to overtime pay if you work seven days in a row, and the right to be paid for the time taken to get to a job site. It also decreases the statute of limitations for the violation of whatever remaining rights workers have.

- A report commissioned by the City of Winnipeg has concluded that the repairs necessary at Portage and Main would cost some $73 million if the present pedestrian-free configuration is to be maintained, as well as creating several years of traffic disruption that would likely be far worse than any disruption that might result from reopening it to pedestrians. Faced with this, Mayor Scott Gillingham now says that he favours reopening it and closing down the underground concourse, which the report says would cost only around $60 million. Suburbanites who only encounter the intersection on their commutes will not be happy, but oh well.

- A community meeting on Toronto's cycling plan was held in the suburban district of Etobicoke (the Ford brothers' home turf), hosted by the local city councillor, Stephen Holyday. The meeting devolved into chaos after a presenter went into an unhinged anti-cyclist rant, to a chorus of cheers from the audience, and then said "Personally, I'd like to run them [cyclists] over". Reportedly city staff were berated at the meeting as well, and some members of the general public who attended were also a bit uncomfortable with these antics. Despite this, Holyday apparently made no attempt to stop the speaker from rousing the rabble. Everything I hear about Etobicoke, in fact, makes it sound like the worst that Canadian suburbia has to offer.

- A group of young adults who got lost while trying to find the party to which they'd been invited in rural New York state turned into the wrong driveway. The resident of the property, like any good red-blooded rural American would, opened fire with a shotgun as the vehicles were leaving, killing a 20 year old passenger in one of the vehicles. Unfortunately for him, the victim was a white girl, and he was therefore convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison.

- A number of Indians who answered an ad from a Dubai-based recruitment agency thinking they were going to get jobs in the UAE learned to their dismay that they had been duped into joining the Russian army and sent to Ukraine instead. Well, I guess they both begin with U...

News roundup, 16 Feb 2024

- The federal Environment Minister, Steven Guilbeault, said earlier this week that the federal government would stop investing in new road infrastructure, then revised this statement to say that the government would not invest in "large" road projects. This has led to a backlash from many politicians. Winnipeg councillor Janice Lukes, who represents the suburban Waverley West ward, nattered on about how we "need to move goods" (not that Guilbeault or anyone else is saying we don't, but whatever), while Mayor Scott Gillingham said Guilbeaut is "out of touch" with the reality of what Winnipeg and other cities need. In fact he isn't, though perhaps he is out of touch with the reality of what suburbanites want. Or maybe he no longer cares; given the dismal situation of his party in the polls, perhaps he figures the best that he can do is kick the can down the road a bit. Unfortunately, the present political culture combined with first past the post voting means that it's suburbanites who determine the results of most elections.

- The Manitoba government has rejected Sio Silica's application to mine sand in Springfield (the one the Tories tried to push through during the transition period). They have, however, approved Canadian Premium Sand's application to mine sand near Hollow Water First Nation; a notable difference is that the First Nation itself has agreements with the company (though not all of its residents agree with the decision). This project is also linked with plans to create a solar panel manufacturing facility in Selkirk; if nothing else solar panels are a far better use for sand than fracking is.

- The cyclotron at Health Sciences Centre, which is critical for the production of isotopes needed for PET scans, has failed a safety audit by Health Canada for the fourth time in a decade. This could theoretically lead to it being shut down, which would not be good news for cancer patients in this province.

- Several mayors in BC are complaining about the provincial government's abolition of exclusive single-family zoning. Tellingly, most of the cities in question are suburbs; the exceptions are Nanaimo and Nelson.

- Alexey Navalny has died at the gulag where he was imprisoned; official Russian reports make no mention of radioisotopes or defenestration.

- Some people involved with the "Freedom Convoy" plan to be back in Ottawa to mark the second anniversary of their protest/occupation, despite the fact that the mandates that they were protesting are long gone. It's as if this has become their entire identity and they don't know what else to do with themselves other than to make lots of noise and disruption to stick it to the big city libtard ay-leets.

- The credit union that sponsored Tucker Carlson's recent visit to Alberta is reaping significant rewards, as Carlson fans move their money to the institution, though other members are repelled by this.

- A New York City resident apparently bought three young Burmese Pythons in Montreal, then tried to smuggle them home in his pants. Unfortunately for him US customs officers noticed something amiss and he was fined $5,000 US as well as getting a year of probation.

News roundup, 12 Feb 2024

- Winnipeg's draft budget continues to be debated. On the positive side, the additional money for the planting and maintenance of city trees was well received by community groups like Trees Winnipeg, although the executive director of that organization fears that it won't be enough to make up for years of neglect. On the other hand, arts organizations are not happy that there's no money for public art in the budget.

- Also in city news - Mayor Gillingham gave his State of the City speech; he and Premier Kinew are looking at ways to increase the availability of housing, mostly by removing potential barriers (notably, the Municipal Board's ability to block housing developments already approved by council).

- An interesting fact - Manitoba's Clean Environment Commission, while sometimes thought of as a "regulatory body", is actually only able to make recommendations to the Minister. Until the Filmon government took power in 1988, this was not the case. The Manitoba Law Reform Commission has recommended changes to this and other sections of the Environment Act; a former deputy minister, Norm Brandson, has concerns about this, being of the view that elected officials should have the final say. This view has some populist appeal, but I'm not at all sure I agree. And it's worth noting that while the article does not say when Brandson held that position, this earlier one does; sure enough, he served from 1990 to 2006, which would make him a Tory appointee (albeit not one so partisan that the incoming NDP government saw reason to immediately get rid of him).

- The European Union is toning down its climate policies in response to a paroxysm of populist rage led by farmer protests. These protests aren't spontaneous, though; they're being whipped up by the usual suspects.

- On a more positive note, China's rollout of clean energy continues apace. Actually it's a bit better than that; international observers are now predicting that their emissions will peak much sooner than predicted even a few years ago, possibly as early as next year. And while the prospect of Trump retaking the White House is very disconcerting, some think that even that won't be the end of the world (though it will definitely mean the end of more individuals, and possibly more communities or even nations, than if Trump doesn't win). What a Trump victory will do, though, is pretty much guarantee that the US will fall behind in clean energy technology and will have to buy it from China and the EU.

- Fears of political violence are growing in the US. It's not just actual politicians who are at risk either; just ask this guy or this one. Oh wait, you can't - they're both dead.

- The Liberal candidate in the federal byelection in Durham booked an event at a small brewery in Bowmanville, Ontario last week, which was attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This, of course, sent the frothing-at-the-mouth right into a tizzy; the brewery was barraged with negative online reviews, offensive emails, and threatening phone calls. Now maybe you could argue it would be wise for businesses not to book such events at all, but never forget that these are the same kind of people who did the same thing to an Alberta restaurant for not hosting a Take Back Alberta event. Then again, consistency isn't a big thing for these people; they probably think it's only for big city libtard ay-leets anyway, and having to be consistent is an affront to their freedumb.

- The extent to which Canada (and most other developed countries) has urbanized in the last half century is dramatic. For example, in 1966 Ontario had a population of 7 million, of which 2.6 million lived in rural communities. In 2021, the rural population of Ontario has actually declined slightly to 2.5 million, while the overall population of the province had more than doubled. The biggest reason - fewer and fewer immigrants want to settle in those communities, something sociologist Lindsay Finlay attributes to limited opportunities as well as xenophobia. But as one comment on this Reddit thread points out, maybe it's a bigger problem than that:

This article doesn't really address the question of why you want to prevent these places from withering away? If less people need to live there because, for example, agriculture has become more efficient, is that a bad thing? Should policies just be focused on managing the decline rather than reversing it?

Of course, to a lot of rural folk, them's fightin' words.

- A physician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto is alarmed at a dramatic rise in the incidence of congenital syphilis. Nor is the problem limited to Canada; the Center for Disease Control in the US reports an 80% increase in syphilis cases since 2018 and a staggering 937% increase in a decade. Curiously, the word "swinger" does not appear in either article.

- A woman opened fire at the Houston megachurch run by celebrity pastor Joel Osteen. Two people, including a child, were wounded before the attacker was shot to death by off-duty cops.

News roundup, 7 Feb 2024

- The City of Winnipeg's budget is expected to be tabled before council's Executive Policy Committee this afternoon. Mayor Scott Gillingham has already vowed that taxes will not increase by more than 3.5%, but given the city's known and expected costs many fear that this will necessitate service cuts.

- Several remote First Nations in northeastern Manitoba have declared a state of emergency because the mild winter has prevented winter roads from being put into operation, leading to shortages of essential supplies.

- Solar and wind produced 27% of all electricity in the European Union last year. Good news for everyone except the fossil fuel fans, though much more is needed to meet emissions targets.

- NDP MP Charlie Angus has introduced a private member's bill that would restrict advertising by the fossil fuel industry in a similar way to what was done with tobacco ads in the 1990s. Given that the two industries have very similar relationships with the truth, this seems like fair game, but no doubt the oil barons will do some extra rabble rousing among the "freedumb" sheeple if this bill looks like it might pass.

- Say what you will about Joe Biden, he's taken a very promising stand against the fossil fuel industry by announcing a halt to new permits for liquefied natural gas export terminals. He's also vowing to veto any Israel aid bill that doesn't also include aid for Ukraine and for the border. These might be signs that he's kinda, sorta developing a backbone, which is sorely needed if he's to move past his mediocre position in the polls.

- Water pollution with nitrogen compounds that cause potentially toxic algal blooms threatens the drinking water of 3 billion people worldwide.

- A California legislator has introduced a bill that would require all new vehicles sold in the state to be equipped with a governor that would use GPS information to determine the speed limit and prevent the car from exceeding the limit by more than 10 mph. Expect a lot of Rams and F-150s to suffer dents to the firewall under the accelerator pedal if this passes.

- Far-right American "journalist" Tucker Carlson conducted an interview with Vladimir Putin; Carlson may face sanctions from the European Union as a result.

- A man has been charged with handing out free samples of cocaine, with a business card attached, to casino patrons in Calgary. The name on the card was fake, and presumably the phone number was a burner, but he was caught anyway.