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.

Plug-in hybrids, summer jobs for inner-city youth among latest promises

Greg Selinger wants to create a centre of excellence at Red River College for plug-in hybrid cars (source). Makes a fair bit of sense, given how much hydroelectric capacity we have in this province. In fact, the college has already been adding plug-in functionality to some older Priuses, giving them a 40 km electric-only range. The province's fleet is expected to have nine of these vehicles by December, just in time for the biggest test plug-in vehicles will face in Manitoba. Ironically, Selinger himself does far better than that with his own commute; he frequently rides a bicycle to work. He also picked up one more endorsement -- Science, Technology, Energy, and Mines Minister Jim Rondeau.

Meanwhile, from the same article, Steve Ashton has set an ambitious target for dealing with child poverty -- ensuring that every inner-city youth has a job. He hopes to accomplish this by "working with private businesses to create openings" but no further details are given. He also vows to increase the minimum wage every year, and create a minimum of 300 affordable housing units per year for the next five years.