Thursday, October 10, 2024

News roundup, 10 Oct 2024

- Hurricane Milton hit Florida last night as a Category 3 storm, with winds up over 160 km/h (86 kt, 100 mph). Fortunately the worst of it did not hit Tampa directly, hitting instead in the smaller city of Sarasota, 112 km to the south. Nonetheless, St Petersburg still got 41 centimetres (not millimetres) of rain. Several fatalities have been reported from the hurricane and spin-off tornadoes, and power is out for more than 3 million people.

- Federal Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the Trudeau government is "seriously considering" a high speed option for the proposed high frequency rail link between Toronto and Quebec City. Certainly this is a good idea, but it's a bit late in the game to be doing something like this given that they've been in power since 2015 and are almost certain to be replaced next fall by the Poilievre Conservatives, who will likely cancel the project.

- The former clerk of Mesa County, Colorado has been sentenced to 9 years in prison for her role in a breach in the security of the county's electoral system. Following the sentencing, staff at the county courthouse have reported being threatened by members of the public.

- The landlord who evicted dozens of people from his apartment complex in Winnipeg's North End earlier this year has been fined $9,000. This is apparently the largest fine ever issued by the Residential Tenancies Branch; apparently all previous fines for this sort of thing add up to a total of $28,000. Nonetheless, it's probably pretty much a rounding error for the landlord. Current legislation only allows a fine of $1,000 for each tenant who actually comes forward. And according to Street Links, who had made the arrangements to house several previously homeless people in the building, several of those people are now back on the street following the eviction, and thus probably have bigger things on their mind than talking to authorities.

- A 10 year old boy in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil was severely scalded when boiling water was poured over him. A woman in her 40s has been arrested. The accused apparently claimed that the boy had been knocking on her door as a prank for "the last three years"; according to the boy's family they haven't even lived in the area for that long. Most likely racism as well as psychiatric factors played a role here.

- A researcher at the University of Michigan proposes that autonomous vehicles be required to take a national driving test in order to be certified for road use. Seems eminently reasonable, even if the Silicon Valley boys think rules cramp their style.

- The Trump Bible (which Oklahoma was originally going to make required reading in state schools before a backlash forced them to amend the requirements to allow other editions) was printed in China. That's awkward...

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