News roundup, 9 Jan 2023

- Former Tory MLA Kevin Klein is not happy with the proposed changes to his party's leadership selection process, which among other things will cap the influence of constituencies with a lot of members. The proposal is for a point system whereby each constituency's votes would be weighted based on the number of votes cast in that constituency; the changes will be voted on in the party's convention on Saturday. Klein, who is considering a run for the leadership himself, believes that the new system will "tilt the playing field", however he declined to elaborate when asked.

- The province is planning a redesign of the intersection near Carberry where 17 people were killed in a bus-truck collision last year. One proposed design, known as a "restricted crossing U-turn" (RCUT) or "superstreet" is uncommon in Canada but is used in some places in the US.

- Montreal mayor Valerie Plante has announced that a major street through Mount Royal Park will be closed to non-emergency motor traffic. Expect a lot of screaming and stomping from the "truck go vroom vroom" crowd, but it's a good move.

- The US Supreme Court will hear Donald Trump's appeal of the Colorado court decision barring him from the primary ballot in February. If the "originalists" want to reverse the decision they'll have to do a lot of legal gymnastics to justify such a move, and in any case whichever way they rule will be very divisive, especially given the number of death threats that are already being made by the MAGA crowd.

- Speaking of The Donald's legal troubles, one of his lawyers argued in a federal appeals court that executive immunity is absolute, to the point where even a president who had ordered a rival to be assassinated could not be prosecuted unless convicted in an impeachment. Some have pointed out that if Trump wins this argument, it would essentially give Biden license to have him rubbed out prior to the election. In the words of newspaper editor Mark Jacobs, "Good lord, his lawyer is a dipshit." Nor has this stopped Trump from saying that he would have Biden indicted if he wins.

- Trump himself is demanding that the charges against him be dropped on the grounds that nobody told him that his conduct could be considered criminal; I don't think the argument that ignorance of the law is an excuse holds water in any jurisdiction, though.

- Lauren Boebert is running in a different district to maximize her chances of being reelected. No guarantee that she will succeed, mind you.

- The man who attacked the judge about to sentence him has been returned to court for sentencing... by the same judge. He got four years; he has yet to be tried for attacking the judge though.

- Some American officials are worried about their ability to keep a reign on Benjamin Netanyahu, since he depends on even more extreme politicians than himself to retain his power (and quite possibly his freedom). It's been said in the past that Israel is to the US what the DPRK is to China - that extreme and unstable friend that is a source of trouble and embarrassment but that they feel like they can't afford to drop. That is more true now than ever.

- The Winnipeg Art Gallery is dropping founder Ferdinand Eckhardt's name from its main entrance hall following revelations about his Nazi past.

- A Rebel News personality was arrested following a scuffle with Chrystia Freeland's security detail, however he was released after it was determined that there was "no credible security threat".

- A Republican legislator in Florida has introduced a bill that would make "an allegation that the plaintiff has discriminated against another person or group because of their race, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity constitutes defamation per se". Previous attempts to pass such a law have failed, and if passed it would likely not withstand a court challenge, however that may not be the point.

News roundup, 8 Jan 2024

- The Biden administration plans to add new restrictions on logging in old-growth forests. Such a move is sorely needed in this country; a huge amount of damage has been done to the boreal forest in Ontario and Quebec in recent decades.

- The water crisis in the American southwest is being exacerbated by corporate farms that are exporting water-intensive crops such as alfalfa. In 2022, exports of alfalfa from Arizona consumed as much water as 241,500 residents.

- The Great Lakes are seeing far less ice than usual for this time of year. The total ice cover as of 1 January was less than 1% of the lakes' surface, compared to the 50 year average of 9.45%. Lake Erie and Lake Ontario have no ice at all.

- The fossil fuel industry in the US is playing the freedom card to ensure that they're able to keep misleading the masses about climate change. They argue that their messaging constitutes First Amendment-protected "political speech" - even as they ruthlessly fight people's right to protest their operations.

- The City of Winnipeg has projected a deficit of $7.1 million for 2023. Causes include higher-than-expected costs for snow clearing, road construction and street cleaning, as well as other factors; this may lend support to the concerns raised by Coun. Russ Wyatt about budget cuts, unless council can agree on a tax increase.

- A total of 14 MPs, 10 of them Liberals, have announced that they will not be running again in the next election. This is not a surprise given the Liberals' poor standing in the polls.

News roundup, 7 Jan 2024

- The US Supreme Court will be reviewing a Colorado court's decision to keep Donald Trump off the primary ballot in that state. The matter is of some urgency because Colorado's primaries occur in early March and a decision is needed in time to print advance ballots.

- Trump's competitors for the nomination are starting to overcome their reluctance to criticize him, perhaps concluding that they have nothing to lose.

- Justin Trudeau's approval ratings are at historic lows. Some of this is justified, some of it not; in any case the prospects for recovery by 2025 are not good.

- Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt is warning that across the board cuts to the city budget are expected. This follows a confidential briefing to council regarding a draft version of the budget; it's not clear if Wyatt will face any penalty for releasing details.

- Winnipeg police are investigating after explosives were found in a condo building in the St Vital neighbourhood of River Park South.

- A study has found that taxes on sugary beverages like pop are effective in reducing sales. So yes, sin taxes work, to an extent at least.

- Alaska Airlines has grounded its fleet of 737 MAX 9 aircraft for inspection following an incident in which a window and a piece of the fuselage skin tore off as the aircraft climbed through 16,000ft. The FAA has ordered other airlines to follow suit.

News roundup, 6 Jan 2024

- Tory MLA (and former cabinet minister) Jeff Wharton is denying the claims made by the new government as well as by two of his former colleagues, Kevin Klein and Rochelle Squires, that he tried to push through the Sio Silica mine during the caretaker period. Seems not too many people believe him.

- A trustee in the River East Transcona School Division has been suspended for releasing confidential information; this is the second time within a matter of months that he's been suspended for this.

- Over 2,000 Manitoba Housing units are vacant currently, including over a thousand in Winnipeg, due to a backlog in repairs. Apparently there hasn't been sufficient money in the corporation's budget to properly repair them; hopefully the new government will add that to their rather long list of tasks. It should be possible, though; certainly public housing wasn't always the hellhole it is now.

- A federal court has denied a student visa to a Chinese engineering student on the grounds that he could be "pressured" into spying for China, despite the lack of evidence of his previous involvement in espionage, or that his field of research has military uses.

- The founder and CEO of GFL Environmental, which holds the contract to collect garbage and recycling in the eastern half of Winnipeg, owns a yacht worth $350 million. Ain't contracting out grand?

- It appears that the next COP summit will be headed by yet another oil industry veteran. Mukhtar Babayev, the ecology and natural resources minister of host country Azerbaijan, spent 26 years with that country's state oil company before entering politics.

- ISIS has claimed responsibility for a bombing at a memorial for Iranian general Qassem Soleimani which killed nearly 100 people.

- A conservation organization in BC has been buying up trophy hunting rights for the Great Bear rainforest; even though this doesn't impact most hunters, there's some predictable outrage from hunting advocates.

- An Air Canada flight from Toronto to Calgary was forced to divert to Winnipeg after a teenage boy allegedly assaulted a family member on the plane.

News roundup, 4 Jan 2024

- To the surprise of few, Donald Trump is musing about pardoning the Jan 6 rioters and their ilk; for their part, federal prosecutors are looking at this as possible evidence against Trump himself. The thing is, if Trump is able to defer prosecutions against himself till after the election, and win the election, there's very little that can be done to stop him. Many doubt that he will win, so there's that, but a lot of these people didn't think he could win in 2016 either; then again, a lot of people who might have voted for him in 2016 as a sort of "screw you" might think twice now that they have more information about what he's actually like. The thing is, though, even if he is defeated (and I do think that's more likely than not, though far from guaranteed) the potential for extreme violence from his supporters exists, not to mention that they are a big enough swath of the population that they probably won't go away even when he does, and could be a problem for years to come. A country where as many people are actively pro-fascist as the US is going to take a long time to fix. Meanwhile, some of the ultra-rich Silicon Valley techbros think the solution is just to separate themselves from the rest of society, ideally forming new states where they don't have to follow rules so they can be the dukes and barons in the new Dark Ages.

- If Trump does somehow get in again in the fall, one wonders if the guy just convicted of a hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband will be among those issued pardons.

- A senior adviser on education in the Biden administration has resigned in protest against the administration's unwavering support of Israel at all costs. This follows another advisor, this one with the State Department, who resigned in October.

- In California, the site of several large scale experiments with autonomous vehicles, the state's traffic legislation has not been updated to enable the owners of fully autonomous vehicles to be ticketed. Arizona and Texas, hardly hotbeds of regulation, have at least had the sense to allow said ticketing, but I guess Silicon Valley lobbyists are working hard to keep the status quo. Because "freedom", or something.

- On a macro scale, the US economy (and numerous others, including ours) are caught between a rock and a hard place with regards to housing prices. If prices keep going up, you have an affordability crisis; if they fall, you get a deep recession. Not an easy problem to solve, and either could make the masses look for scapegoats and vote for extremists.

- Germany's CO₂ emissions in 2023 were the lowest in 70 years. Some of this is attributable to a reduction in coal-fired electricity generation (though they wasted years by panicking and closing the nuclear plants first). Unfortunately some of it is simply because industries ramped down their operations due to issues with natural gas supply, thanks to the Russia-Ukraine war.

- A 17 year old student shot six people, one fatally, at the local school before turning his gun on himself. Pretty small potatoes by American standards.

- The Golden Gate Bridge now has suicide nets to catch people who jump from it.

- A 71 year old woman from the English town of Lewes has died as a result of a "slapping therapy" workshop she was participating in, apparently because she stopped taking insulin during the program on the advice of the man delivering the workshop; he has been charged with manslaughter.

News roundup, 3 Jan 2024

- Donald Trump is appealing the decision of the state Supreme Court in Colorado regarding his eligibility to appear on the ballot to the federal Supreme court. In Maine, a Republican member of the legislature has introduced a resolution to impeach the state's Secretary of State for her role in keeping Trump off the ballot. And one of Trump's lawyers, Christina Bobb, essentially said sure, maybe he is guilty of insurrection, but that if he is he shouldn't be kept off the ballot for that.

- The legislatures of several American states were evacuated today due to bomb threats. The motive is unclear; targetted states include the hard-red Mississippi and Montana as well as purpler states like Michigan.

- Most municipalities, at least in North America, get much of their revenue from property taxes. The thing is, the taxes are levied on the value both of the land itself and any structures built thereon, with the result that speculators who sit on vacant lots or condemned houses don't pay much in the way of tax. But what if the taxes were levied solely on the value of the land itself (but at a higher rate so as to give similar amounts of revenue to what we have now)? That would mean that building and maintaining housing would not be penalized in the way that it is now (if you build on a vacant lot, or fix up the building on it, your taxes go up). This idea is sometimes called "Georgism", after Henry George, an early proponent, and is getting a serious look today, by some on the left as well as by some libertarian types. Seems worthy of consideration, anyway.

- Despite the legal setback experienced by the City of Berkeley when they attempted to ban natural gas appliances in new construction, Seattle is moving ahead with their own legislation, which might be more legally defensible since it doesn't explicitly ban these appliances, it just requires that all buildings over 20,000ft² be net zero by 2050, and that clearly won't be possible with natural gas. In fact in a way this goes further than Berkeley's attempt, since it applies to existing buildings as well as new ones.

- The Dash 8 of the Japanese Coast Guard that strayed into the path of that JAL A350 the other day apparently had not been cleared for takeoff, which would seem to suggest that it shouldn't have been on the runway at that time. Its captain, the only survivor of the six people on board, seems to have thought he had been cleared to enter the runway, but I'd say he's got some 'splaining to do. Kudos to the JAL crew for successfully evacuating a widebody without loss of life to their own passengers and crew, though.

- Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe used to be really big on the rule of law, but not so much now that he plans to defy federal law on carbon pricing.

- A BC lawyer who was using a lot of sovereign citizen-type pseudolegal nonsense to harass a neighbour has been suspended by the province's law society.

- A judge in the Clark County District Court in Las Vegas was attacked by a man she was about to sentence for "aggravated battery with substantial bodily harm" after he realized that his request to get off with probation wasn't going to be granted. I doubt this will help his efforts to avoid prison.

- A deaf man in Colorado was arrested and roughed up for failure to comply with police commands.

- Someone cut down Kenora's public Christmas tree with a chainsaw. The motive is unknown.

News roundup, 2 Jan 2024

 - A new report suggests that about 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions result from tourism. Not surprisingly, air travel is the biggest reason. However, there is also some goodish news on the climate front; many experts believe that overall fossil fuel consumption has peaked and may be heading into terminal decline. Too late for Tuvalu and the Maldives probably, not to mention Bangladesh, but it offers hope that there will be something left of civilization in a hundred years. As a specific example, electric school buses have more than doubled in the US in a 15 month period. Of course electric vehicles have their own environmental impacts, but this has to be put into perspective and weighed against the harms that they are offsetting.

- Over 70% of the homes in Gaza have been destroyed, along with over 200 heritage and archaeological sites, since the start of the most recent round of conflict in October. For his part, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich is calling for the removal of around 90% of Gaza's current inhabitants and the reestablishment of Israeli settlements there. When Serb leaders say things like this, folks in the West rightly describe it as a call for ethnic cleansing, but apparently we're not supposed to say that when it's the Israelis doing it.

- A series of major earthquakes in Japan has killed at least 48 people and raised fears of tsunamis. And a Dash 8 operated by Japan's coast guard, in service with the relief effort, has collided with a Japan Air Lines Airbus A350 on a runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport; five of the six people on board the coast guard aircraft were killed, though all 379 occupants of the airliner escaped before it was destroyed by fire. This is the first hull loss of an A350.

- The experts who torment themselves by listening in detail to Donald Trump's speeches are warning that his rhetoric is increasingly overt in its authoritarian and fascistic tone. On a positive note, though, regional branches of the Republican Party are tearing themselves apart in internal conflict; the Michigan branch of the party is facing a revolt against its election-denying leader.

- Jill Wine-Banks, who served as part of the team for Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, agrees with the attempts to use the 14th amendment to remove Donald Trump from ballots, saying "if we don't enforce that amendment we are devaluing the entire Constitution". Whether these efforts, or the various criminal trials he is facing, will proceed in time remains to be seen.

- During the latest bombardment of Ukraine, the Russian military accidentally bombed one of their own villages near the Russia-Ukraine border; no casualties have been reported but at least six homes were damaged.