News roundup, 12 Dec 2024

- As expected, the new draft budget for the City of Winnipeg includes a 5.95% property tax increase. The budget includes money for 36 more police officers and 15 community safety officers, but none for the Community Connections facility in the Millennium Library lobby; it also initiates a pilot study to defer residential snow clearing until a 15 cm snowfall instead of the current 10. Even with the tax increase the city will still have some of the lowest property taxes in the country, but that may be a hard sell with a lot of residents. There seems to be little alternative, though.

- Cycling activists in Toronto have launched a court challenge against the Ford government's anti-bike lane legislation, citing the rights to life and security of the person in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Not sure what the chances of success are, but one thing they have in their favour - the fact that the government saw the need to specifically exclude lawsuits for deaths or injuries resulting from the law does suggest that it is not a good thing for the aforementioned rights.

- Doug Ford has responded to Trump's proposed tariffs by threatening to stop supplying electricity to the US. Whether he has the nerve to actually follow through on this threat is another question, though.

- A poll has found that just over a third of Canadians think the response of governments to COVID-19 was excessive. This happens to be in the same ballpark as the baseline level of support for the Conservatives, which shouldn't be surprising.

- FBI director Christopher Wray will be stepping down at the end of Biden's term in January, despite having more than two years left in his own appointment. Trump has expressed the intention to appoint former national security aide Kash Patel; RFK Jr., though, thinks his daughter-in-law Amaryllis Fox Kennedy would be a better choice. Trump is apparently open to the idea.

- One of the more disconcerting things about the climate crisis is that as it proceeds, it causes inflation, not least because it impacts food production and thus increases prices. And because measures to contain and mitigate climate change are expensive, inflation dampens the political will to proceed with such measures, even as they're needed more than ever; instead the sheeple are driven to vote for rightwing populists who tell them what they want to hear. This has the potential to create what some call a "doom loop" where climate change and far-right politics feed on each other.

- Teachers at the London District Catholic School Board have apparently been ordered not to teach certain books by black authors because they contain the N-word. Among them is The Book of Negroes, by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, who had this to say about the matter. A teacher who spoke to Hill about the matter was subsequently reprimanded.

- A Houston judge has rejected an attempt by The Onion to buy Alex Jones' media empire. Judge Christopher Lopez cited what he considered a "lack of transparency" in the process, as well as an alleged failure to maximize value towards Jones' creditors. It's worth noting that bankruptcy courts are federal courts, and that Lopez was appointed to the court in 2019, so it's just possible that he's not as impartial as judges are theoretically supposed to be.

- Researchers at MIT have found that people are more likely to eat vegan food if it isn't labeled as vegan. I guess some of them are worried that if they eat it they might become annoying or something.

- Tokyo University's website for graduate student applications apparently had a hidden keyword, not visible by looking at the page normally, that made reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre, thus preventing the page from being displayed in mainland China and preventing Chinese students from applying. The university says that they have since removed the offending word.

- The College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba has suspended the license of a man who was found not criminally responsible for killing his parents and attacking a former coworker. Seems like a reasonable decision to me...

News roundup, 31 July 2024

- The leader of the political wing of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an airstrike in Tehran. Launching an airstrike at a foreign country to take out someone who lives there might seem to be a reckless move, but I'm guessing Netanyahu wouldn't mind a war with Iran. After all, he needs some kind of foreign threat in order to maintain his grip on power. And given that he's at risk of going to jail as soon as he leaves office, he has a rather strong incentive to retain power at all costs, no matter how many people (including Israelis) have to die as a result. As for the Americans, they say they hope it doesn't escalate, but that they'll step in to defend Israel if it comes down to it. Because, well...

- In 2016, Facebook introduced a feature called CrowdTangle, a feature that journalists have found extremely useful to track what's going viral. Now, parent company Meta has decided to shut it down, perhaps fearing that it reveals too much about the effects of Facebook's algorithms on the broader society. This is alarming to many, especially given that it's happening in the lead-up to one of the most divisive elections in American history.

- The County Recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, Stephen Richter, has been defeated in the Republican primary by far-right challenger Justin Heap. Richter, a moderate Republican, had been a strong defender of the integrity of the 2020 election, which naturally made him a target. Stuff like this does not bode well for the integrity of future elections.

- Following a mass stabbing at a children's dance workshop in the English town of Southport that killed three young girls, disinformation circulating on social media attributed the attack to Islam (even though the actual suspect has no known links to the religion). As a result, rioters vandalized cars in the parking lot of a mosque, torched a police van, and injured several cops.

- Just weeks after a cyclist was killed in a hit and run on Wellington Crescent, a teenage cyclist was injured by another motorist. She'll apparently be OK, but the cycling community is calling for a 30 km/h speed limit for the entirety of Wellington. That might be a big ask; even though much of the street is already subject to such limits during the summer, the section from River to Academy is a major route for motorists and one could expect a lot of sound and fury from them if such measures were taken there.

News roundup, 24 April 2024

- The US aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan has now cleared both houses of Congress. The pill was sweetened a bit by adding a possible ban on TikTok to the package unless the Chinese owner of the app divests. More details on the package may be found here. Republican leaders in both houses now face an uncertain future; House speaker Mike Johnson still faces a possible ouster, while Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has said that he will be stepping down from his leadership role after becoming "increasingly distanced" from his colleagues on Ukraine and other issues.

- Protesters at Columbia University in New York City have been camping out on the university campus, demanding that the institution divest from corporations that benefit from the war on Gaza. The university has ordered that the encampment be cleared by 8:00 AM this morning, lest the university "consider alternative options" for clearing it. Similar conflicts are happening at other campuses across the US.

- Apparently some of the speeches made at a pro-Palestinian rally in Ottawa over the weekend were sufficiently extreme that police are investigating whether they qualify as hate speech, with slogans such as "Long live October 7th".

- The latest federal budget is disliked by half of Canadians, according to a new poll from Leger. I think that what this really reflects, though, is not the actual contents of the budget but who is putting it forward.

- In Ontario, the Ford government's cancellation of the basic income pilot that had been introduced by the previous government is leading to a class action on behalf of the recipients.

- Winnipeg is signing on to the 529 Garage system as a replacement for the existing bicycle registry. The main advantage of this is that it's continent-wide; thus a bike stolen here and shipped to Vancouver could potentially be identified and recovered.

- Conservative MP Gary Vidal, who represents the northern Saskatchewan riding of Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River, will no longer reside in the district under the new boundaries. He hoped to seek the nomination for the new riding that contains his hometown, but the party has already decided not to hold an open nomination race for that riding. In response, Vidal has announced that he will not be running again.

- Some military horses ran amok in central London, UK; several people as well as some of the horses suffered minor injuries before the situation was brought under control.

America rediscovers the bicycle

This is a positive development:

America is known for its enduring love affair with the automobile. But in the last few years cities across the US have reported a surge in bicycle use, as people search for greener, healthier - and cheaper - transport options. The BBC's Daniel Nasaw looks at what Washington DC is doing to push two-wheeled travel.

America is a land of long distances, of thousands of virtually empty square miles of prairie, farmland and baking desert and frozen tundra.

US cities sprawl on a level unseen in Europe, Canada, and Australia, a consequence of transport priorities that have long favoured motor vehicles. And in all but a handful of US cities, it is virtually impossible to get by without a car.

But in recent years, amid widespread concern about US dependence on foreign oil, high petrol prices, signs of global warming and an obesity epidemic, a number of US cities have taken steps to increase bicycle usage.

These cities hope that by adding relatively low-cost bicycle lanes, bike parking and bike sharing programmes and making other city plan adjustments, they can lessen traffic congestion, reduce the strain on public transport, and promote healthier citizens.

From the Beeb. The biggest thing that stands out for me is the fact that Canadian and Australian cities themselves sprawl on a level that I'm pretty sure is unseen in Europe, which makes me wonder if American cities are really that much worse than ours, or if the author has a romanticized image of Canada and Australia. There doesn't seem to be a byline on the article, so I don't know if the author is from the UK, the US, or somewhere else. I kind of doubt s/he comes from Canada or Australia, though. Seriously; people commute to Toronto from Waterloo, and I've even heard of people driving from Stratford for crying out loud. That's 150 km each way, five days a week. Are the Americans worse than that??

Teabaggers -- the paranoia continues

Exhibit A is Dan Maes, who hopes to be governor of Colorado. He thinks bike share programs are a UN plot:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are "converting Denver into a United Nations community."

"This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial.

Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor's efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes "that's exactly the attitude they want you to have."

"This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes said.

He added: "These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to."

From the Denver Post. Happily, virtually every comment that I read on that story thought Maes' position to be ridiculous.

Exhibit B is an organization called the Family Research Council (and yes, this is one book that you can judge by its cover). Not surprisingly, they aren't at all happy to hear that their beloved Proposition 8 runs afoul of their supposedly even more beloved Constitution. As Ken at Popehat points out, the judge in the case, Vaughn Walker, is a longtime Republican, appointed by Reagan against the will of liberal Democrats. So when he doesn't do what conservatives think he should do, they have a novel explanation:

It turns out that the Judge behind Proposition 8′s undoing was just biding his time until he could unleash his ultimate agenda: decimating marriages that have defined civilization since the beginning of time.

Straight from the horse's mouth, via the above linked Popehat post. A sinister sleeper agent, presumably put there by Satan, the Communists, the Freemasons, the Elders of Zion, lizards from outer space, or some combination thereof, for the sole purpose of destroying the institution of marriage. I guess it makes sense to somebody...

Panic as US transportation secretary acknowledges existence of cycling

Seriously:

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a weekend bicyclist, might consider keeping his head down and his helmet on. A backlash is brewing over his new bicycling policy.

LaHood says the government is going to give bicycling – and walking, too – the same importance as automobiles in transportation planning and the selection of projects for federal money. The former Republican congressman quietly announced the "sea change" in transportation policy last month.

"This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized," he wrote in his government blog.

Not so fast, say some conservatives and industries dependent on trucking. A manufacturers' blog called the policy "nonsensical." One congressman suggested LaHood was on drugs.

The new policy is an extension of the Obama administration's livability initiative, which regards the creation of alternatives to driving – buses, streetcars, trolleys and trains, as well as biking and walking – as central to solving the nation's transportation woes.

Source. Nothing shocking here; no plans to ban cars, just no more unduly favouring them over bikes:

"It didn't seem that controversial to me," he wrote in a second blog item. "After all, I didn't say they should have the only voice. Just a voice."

Nonetheless, the usual suspects are saying crazy things in response:

The National Association of Manufacturers' blog, Shopfloor.org, called the policy "dumb and irresponsible."

"LaHood's pedal parity is nonsensical for a modern industrial nation," said the blog. "We don't call it sacrilege, but radical is a fair description. It is indeed a sea change in federal transportation policy that could have profound implications for the U.S. economy and the 80 percent of freight that moves by truck."

More of this nonsense can be found at Shopfloor.org's own site.Given that bikes and trucks serve entirely different purposes, and thus aren't in competition with each other, this is a pretty strange thing to say. What, exactly, are they afraid of? Perhaps a clue can be gained by something a friend of mine attributes to an economics professor at the U of M -- "People with cars buy more stuff". So, do they fear that if things are favourable enough for bikes and public transit that fewer people need cars, consumer culture will decline and the manufacturers will suffer? Or do they take the Limbaughs and Becks of the world seriously, and think that this is all part of some nefarious plot?