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The failed Ohio amendment reflects Republican efforts nationally to restrict direct democracy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — After Ohio voters repealed a law pushed by Republicans that would have limited unions’ collective bargaining rights in 2011, then-GOP Gov. John Kasich was contrite.“I’ve heard their voices, I understand their decision and, frankly, I respect what people have to say in an effort like this,” he told reporters after the defeat.The tone from Ohio Republicans was much different this past week after voters resoundingly rejected their attempt to impose hurdles on passing amendments to the state constitution — a proposal that would have made it much more difficult to pass an abortion rights measure in November.During an election night news conference, Republican Senate President Matt Huffman vowed to use the powers of his legislative supermajority to bring the issue back soon, variously blaming out-of-state dark money, unsupportive fellow Republicans, a lack of time and the issue’s complexity for its failure. He never mentioned respecting the will of the 57...

China evacuates residents and searches for mudslide victims as storms lash parts of the country

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in China’s southwest after heavy rain caused hillsides to collapse, while two people died and 16 are missing following a mudslide in the country’s west, state media reported Saturday.Meanwhile, a powerful storm lashed China’s northeast, leading to a breach in a river dike and the cancellation of at least 20 trains. Parts of China suffer heavy rains and flooding every summer, but this year has been unusually severe in some areas, while other regions struggle with drought that is damaging crops.Rescuers were searching for survivors after a mudslide killed at least two people Friday on the outskirts of the city of Xi’an, Xinhua reported. It said roads, bridges and power supplies were damaged.In the southwest, some 81,000 people were evacuated from high-risk areas of Sichuan province, the China News Service reported. It said heavy rain caused hillsides to collapse and disrupted traffic, but...

The Pentagon plans to shake up DC’s National Guard, criticized for its response to protests, Jan. 6

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is developing plans to restructure the National Guard in Washington, D.C., in a move to address problems highlighted by the chaotic response to the Jan. 6 riot and safety breaches during the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, The Associated Press has learned.The changes under discussion would transfer the District of Columbia’s aviation units, which came under sharp criticism during the protests when a helicopter flew dangerously low over a crowd. In exchange, the district would get more military police, which is often the city’s most significant need, as it grapples with crowd control and large public events. Several current and former officials familiar with the talks spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They said no final decisions have been made.A key sticking point is who would be in control of the D.C. Guard — a politically divisive question that gets to the heart of what has been an ongoing, turbul...

Montreal’s Sarah Bernstein explores power and prejudice in Booker longlisted ‘Study for Obedience’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

When Sarah Bernstein started writing her second novel, “Study for Obedience,” the words of another artist were on her mind. She had previously attended a retrospective of visual artist Paula Rego’s work in Edinburgh, Scotland and was struck by a particular quote emblazoned on the art gallery wall. “She said something like, ‘I can turn the tables, I can do as I want, I can make my women obedient and murderous at the same time,'” Bernstein recalled in an interview. The Montreal-born author said that quote captured an “interesting tension” and provided inspiration for the novel that has now been longlisted for this year’s prestigious Booker Prize. The literary award recognizes the best long fiction work published in the U.K. and Ireland and written inEnglish.Bernstein, who lives and teaches in Scotland, said she was in “disbelief” when her editor told her about the Booker Prize nod.“I can’t stress enough how inconceivabl...

Québecor stops paying rent at legislature, says 100K fee a threat to democracy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

MONTREAL — A major Quebec media company is at risk of becoming a squatter in the province’s legislature district.Montreal-based media and telecom conglomerate Québecor has announced it will stop paying rent for the office its political journalists use in one of Quebec’s legislature buildings, in the provincial capital. The company, which owns television station TVA and newspapers Journal de Montréal and Journal de Québec, says its rent amounts to $8,448 per month — more than $100,000 per year before tax.In a letter to the legislature, Québecor vice-president Jad Barsoum said the company’s rent “goes against the principles of access and is detrimental to democratic life.”Quebec’s legislature, known as the National Assembly, charges media outlets at an annual rate of $269.86 per square metre of office space they occupy — a “prohibitive” sum, according to Canadian Association of Journalists president Brent Jolly.“I think it’s ...

Children of man who died in N.S. floods question why roads open, alerts delayed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

TANTALLON, N.S. — It doesn’t make sense to Robie Holland that — as 250 millimetres of rain poured down in rural Nova Scotia — there was nothing to stop his father from travelling down a rapidly flooding road.“Why was the road open? That’s the main question I keep coming back to …. It was flooding, and it wasn’t safe for people to be going down those roads. Why, if you’re out in the rural communities, is it a free-for-all?” he asked in an interview Friday.“In my eyes, this was an avoidable situation.”Nicholas Holland, 52, was among the four people who died in the historic, inland flooding on July 22, as torrential waters poured over rural Route 14 near Brooklyn, N.S. — northwest of Halifax — and swept two vehicles into a hayfield.Robie Holland, 25, and his sister Sophie Holland, 23, said in an interview that while they’re grateful for the efforts of searchers that night, an independent probe is needed to answer questions abo...

Sunday Bulletin Board: How a collector of postcards became a collector of ribbons!

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

Dept. of Neat Stuff . . . The Best State Fair in Our State DivisionGREGORY J. of Dayton’s Bluff reports: “I attended my first Minnesota State Fair in 1958 and have been hooked ever since.“At some point, I realized I wanted to be a participant and enter something to be exhibited at the Fair and possibly win a bona fide State Fair ribbon.“It was a long journey. I finally got around to doing it in 2010.“One major stumbling block was figuring out what to exhibit. It was fairly easy to eliminate such things as cows, pigs, chickens, giant vegetables, and anything that requires artistic ability, baking skills or handiwork of any kind. However, I do collect stuff — but there is no category for Neat Stuff as such. Creative Activities does have a postcard-collection category, and I also collect postcards, beginning with, you guessed it, Dayton’s Bluff postcards and others related to St. Paul.“So in 2010 I put together a postcard frame titled ‘A ...

Rockies Journal: Ryan Feltner takes big steps three months after skull fracture

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

In the blink of an eye, Ryan Feltner’s life was upended.His season, his career and even his long-term well-being were put in jeopardy May 13 at Coors Field. For those who saw the game live, or later on replays, it was a chilling moment.Now, remarkably, Feltner is edging closer to returning to the big-league mound. In a difficult Rockies season colored by injuries and mounting losses, Feltner’s comeback is something for fans to hold on to. For Feltner, returning this season is vital.Three months ago, in the second inning, the Phillies’ Nick Castellanos scorched a 92.7 mph line drive toward the mound. Feltner had just enough reaction time to avoid getting hit in the face, but the baseball struck Feltner in the back of his head, just above the right ear.He sprawled on the mound, blinking his eyes and shaking his head, not quite knowing what had happened. Castellanos crouched near first base, hands to his face, eyes wide, as he hoped for the best.Feltner, a 26-year-old...

Why CU Buffs’ return to Big 12 has some parents singing Pac-12 blues: “It’s a little bit sad.”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

BOULDER — Kevin Moschetti will go to Moon and back to watch his daughter play soccer for the Buffs. Although from his home Irvine, Calif., Morgantown, W.Va., might as well be the Mare Tranquillitatis.“As far as travel, sure it’s a bummer,” said Moschetti, whose daughter Angelina is a freshman defender for the CU women’s soccer team. “(Angelina) played club soccer in both the Seattle area and in Southern California, so she had friends and former teammates from every former Pac-12 school. And we had parent friends at all those schools, too. So we’re looking forward to being able to reunite with them and to (be) around to watch her play.”Last season, the Buffs played twice in Northern California and twice in Washington. This fall, they’re slated to play once in Southern California, twice in Washington and twice in Oregon.Suddenly, the news of CU re-joining the Big 12 next year, a league they’d left in 2010, could make the 2023 regular season, which kicks off Thursday night agains...

Mathews: Which is more dangerous, ‘Oppenheimer’ or ‘Barbie’?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

Which region is the greater threat to humanity: Northern California or Southern California?That’s the most urgent question raised by 2023’s great cinematic contest between “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie”.Sure, these are entertaining films about a physicist and a doll. But both movies are also, in no small part, California-based stories about global nightmares, about the earth-altering threat of bombs and bombshells alike.Embedded in those nightmares are warnings about the damage that Northern and Southern California can do when we send our ideas out into the world.Oppenheimer is the Northern California nightmare. While much of Christopher Nolan’s film takes place in New Mexico, where the first atomic bombs were built, the most important moments occur at Berkeley, where J. Robert Oppenheimer was a a professor from 1929 to 1943.It’s there that he meets the Manhattan Project’s military chief, Leslie Groves, and befriends the physicist Ernest Lawrence (the Lawrence of...