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Monday, May 30, 2022

Egypt displays trove of newly discovered ancient artifacts

By Associated Press
May 30, 2022

Painted coffins with well-preserved mummies inside, dating back to the Late Period of ancient Egypt around 500 B.C, are displayed at a makeshift exhibit at the feet of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, 24 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Cairo, Egypt, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

CAIRO — Egypt on Monday displayed a trove of ancient artifacts dating back 2,500 years that the country’s antiquities authorities said were recently unearthed at the famed necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo.

The artifacts were showcased at a makeshift exhibit at the feet of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, 24 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of the Egyptian capital.

According to Mostafa Waziri, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the find includes 250 painted sarcophagi with well-preserved mummies inside, as well as 150 bronze statues of ancient deities and bronze vessels used in rituals of Isis, the goddess of fertility in ancient Egyptian mythology, all from the Late Period, about 500 B.C.

A headless bronze statue of Imhotep, the chief architect of Pharaoh Djoser who ruled ancient Egypt between 2630 B.C. and 2611 B.C was also displayed.

The artifacts will be transferred for a permanent exhibit at the new Grand Egyptian Museum, a mega project still under construction near the famed Giza Pyramids, just outside Cairo.

The Saqqara site is part of a sprawling necropolis at Egypt’s ancient capital of Memphis that includes the Giza Pyramids and the smaller pyramids at Abu Sir, Dahshur and Abu Ruwaysh. The ruins of Memphis were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1970s.

Egypt has been heavily promoting recent archaeological finds, hoping to attract more tourists to the country. Its tourist sector, a major source of foreign currency, suffered from years of political turmoil and violence following the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The sector has recently started to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, only to be hit again by the effects of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Along with Russia, Ukraine is a major source of tourists visiting Egypt.

MANITOBA
Homeowners face 'absolutely dreadful' prospect of losing their houses as cost of living rises

Caitlyn Gowriluk -
CBC MANITOBA

Things were about to start looking up, Gordon McRae thought as he climbed the steps of the heritage home just outside of Brandon's downtown.

It felt massive, he said, especially compared to the basement apartment where he'd been living in the southwestern Manitoba city. And when it dropped to a price point he and his girlfriend could afford in early 2019, they bought it: their first house together.

"It felt absolutely amazing. That kind of a life goal was being completed — just that kind of relief that things are going to start looking good. Things are going to get better," the 35-year-old said.

As someone who's had to live in his car before, McRae said buying a house was something that had once felt out of reach for him. But at that moment, it was like everything had fallen into place.

"I was excited to start new and actually, you know, live a decent life," he said. "But that didn't last very long."

Less than a year later, McRae's hours at his wholesale job started getting cut. As the cost of living went up, he got a second job driving for a food delivery app in the evenings.

Gordon McRae stands outside his Brandon, Man., house, which he says he's afraid of losing as the cost of living increases.

In a span of a few years, he said he's gone from making enough money to put away some savings to racking up debt.

His bills are adding up too, like the nearly $250 he pays for phone and internet, which he needs for work and for when his 14-year-old daughter comes over on weekends and needs to do homework.

Now, as the inflation rate continues rising, McRae said he's running out of ways to cut back. Some days, he gets by on just the bowl of cereal he eats in the morning. Others, he turns off the heat to try to keep his utility bills down.

McRae said he's worried the next thing he'll have to give up will be a big one: his house.

He said he's not sure what he'll do if that happens, especially with many monthly apartment rents well above what he pays for his mortgage.

"I've been keeping up with my mortgage payments, but only because I'm not eating as much, just so I could at least keep a roof over my head," he said.

"It's absolutely dreadful knowing that I could be homeless again."
'Don't want to lose everything'

For Laura Warren, the fear of losing her house is front of mind lately.

While a paycheque from the hair salon where she works was once enough to afford the mortgage on her 700–square-foot bungalow in Winnipeg's West End, Warren said the pandemic has been tough on her industry.

First, there were the shutdowns. Now, once-regular clients are coming in less and less often, leading to a drop in income.

For a while, she got by on a line of credit. Then came a credit card. The 52-year-old took out the last of her retirement savings to pay the card off a few weeks ago, she said.

Her budget has been stretched even thinner by unexpected expenses. She needed to get financing to replace an air conditioner last year, and a reassessment of her house's value raised her property taxes a few months ago.

Warren said she's had to start choosing which bills will get paid on time every month. And when her mortgage comes up for renewal in a few weeks, she's afraid she won't be able to keep the house.

Laura Warren sits on a couch in her living room with Jewel, one of her rescue dogs.

Whether she could afford to rent an apartment is hard to think about — but even tougher is the thought of what selling her house could mean for her five pets, all adopted from rescue groups she volunteers with.

"I know with the housing market right now, sure, I'd probably make money on it. But then what? Then I'd have to go and try and afford something else, and I mean, you don't get a lot smaller than this. And I can't have two large dogs, a chinchilla and two lizards in an apartment," she said.

"I don't want to lose everything I've worked so hard for. Especially when it's something that's completely out of my control, because I'm doing everything I possibly can."

Right now, Faria Sheikh's mortgage payments still fit her monthly budget.

But with the cost of essentials steadily increasing, the Winnipeg support teacher said her budget has been stretched tighter than she's used to.

The 50-year-old said she's not losing sleep over whether she'll have to downsize from her house in St. Boniface right now and move somewhere else with the younger of her two children, nine-year-old Nicholas.

But she is thinking about it a lot more lately.

"It's probably a little far off still for me. I try not to worry about money because I feel like there is always a solution that doesn't involve spending as much money. I do feel like I'm running out of some of those creative ideas, however, at this point," Sheikh said.

"But it is definitely taking up a lot of my mental energy. I do consider it and think about it and wonder whether I should be planning for that outcome."
More affordable housing needed: expert

For some struggling homeowners, taking a step like downsizing to save money might be an option. But that choice isn't available to everyone.

Those who were already at the lower end of the housing market when they got in may now be holding on to their homes "by their fingernails" as costs rise, said Jino Distasio, a professor of urban geography at the University of Winnipeg.

"For some in the market, there is no further way down. They're at rock bottom. And it's really at that point where we've got to start seeing some more programs and solutions," he said.

Distasio said more effort needs to be put into developing affordable housing, starting with a focus on those who make the least money.

Jino Distasio, a professor of urban geography at the University of Winnipeg, says there's a clear need for more affordable housing, starting with those at the lowest income levels.

While money spent through the federal government's National Housing Strategy could help over the coming years, that won't be soon enough for some people.

"In some ways, we need things now. And we don't really have [the] mechanisms to rapidly support the housing market if conditions change dramatically," Distasio said.

"I think the next 12 months are going to be very, very challenging."

If one recent survey of mortgage customers is any indication, trends in the housing market could be placing even more people in a dicey living situation, said Shauna MacKinnon, an associate professor and chair of the University of Winnipeg's department of urban and inner-city studies.

Sixty-five per cent of the 3,502 recent mortgage consumers who responded to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation's 2021 survey said they paid the maximum price they could afford on the purchase of their home.

Another 17 per cent of those respondents indicated they preferred not to answer that question — which MacKinnon said suggests the actual number could be even higher.

"When you think about that in the context of rising prices for other things, these people are going to be in a very precarious situation, too," she said.

"So what happens to them? Do they just sell their homes? Do they wait and try to ride it out? Some will be able to, and then others may lose their homes."

The online survey was conducted across Canada in partnership with a third-party research firm between February and March 2021, and all of the respondents had undertaken a mortgage transaction in the past 18 months. Since the results of the online survey did not come from a random probability-based sample, a margin of error cannot be calculated.

Facing the future

For now, some struggling homeowners are focused on doing whatever they can to hold onto their houses.

Sheikh said she's thinking about whether she should fix up her basement suite to rent it out for some extra income.

Warren is also considering whether she needs to rent out her house's small second bedroom — even though that's usually where she puts up foster animals — or find a second job.

A 'for sale' sign outside a home is pictured. For some Manitobans, the fear of having to sell their houses is on the horizon as the cost of living increases.

And McRae said he'll keep skipping meals if he has to, because the roof over his head comes first. But he's worried his budget has already been stretched as far as it can.

"This is about as far as I can go, financially. If anything goes up by, like, a penny or a nickel, then I'm going to start going into debt just to cover that nickel," he said.

"And as inflation gets higher and higher, I'll be going further and further in debt, borrowing money just to get by."

This story was possible in part thanks to Manitobans who filled out CBC's survey on inflation. In it, we asked people to send us their top concerns about how steadily rising prices at the grocery store, gas pump and other places have affected their lives.

Without intervention, 'superpigs' could soon invade Alberta cities, researcher warns

Wallis Snowdon - Yesterday
cbc.ca

In the northeastern Alberta town of Lamont, residents have been warned to be on guard against a possible invasion of wild boars.

Urban and rural communities in Alberta should be on the watch for wild boars, says Ryan Brook, an associate professor of agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan.

Roaming swine have been spotted inside town limits, prompting the community to send out a safety advisory.

"Be calm and move slowly," reads the notice. "Do not corner or provoke the animal."

For decades, Alberta has waged a battle against wild boar — a term that refers to the Eurasian wild boar but also to hybrids of domestic pigs and Eurasian wild boar, and wild or feral pigs.

Wild boar have been spotted in at least 28 rural municipalities and counties.

The province recently stepped up eradication efforts with increased surveillance, trapping, and cash bounties in exchange for the animals' ears.
'Worst invasive large mammal'

Recent sightings are a reminder that the elusive animals remain a threat to rural and urban habitats, said Ryan Brook, an associate professor of agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan and director of the Canada Wild Pig Research Project.

Wild boars are expanding their range and could soon move from the bush into Alberta cities, Brook said.

"They're incredibly mobile. Very smart. They eat almost anything. They can survive in a huge range of habitats.

"And so this is, unfortunately, exactly what we should expect to see more of in the future."

Aggressive action will be required to keep the invaders from becoming a permanent fixture in backyards, city streets and town parks, Brook said. Any community south of the boreal forest border is at risk, he said.

"They're the worst invasive large mammal on the planet."

In Lamont, residents are on edge, said Kirk Perrin, the town's mayor. The province confirms reports of property damage in the area.

"It just shows that an invasive species like this can can come in and really throw a wrench in your plans — something that maybe you didn't really plan for until it's on your doorstep," Perrin said.

In Barrhead, 150 kilometres northwest of Lamont, residents' phones lit up earlier this month with an advisory from the town's crime watch alert system.

Three boars were spotted running through residential streets and on the grounds of the provincial offices.

It was determined that the pigs were not feral but recent agricultural escapees, said Jennifer Pederson, a communications co-ordinator for the town of Barrhead.

The boars were en route to the butcher when they broke free, she said. Two were destroyed. One remains at large.

Even a lone pig on the loose is disconcerting, Pederson said. Alberta's wild boar problem started with escaped farm pigs.

In a statement to CBC News, the province said it is actively trapping, conducting surveillance and closely monitoring wild boar in several counties.

It said a new bounty program that rewards hunters and trappers for killing boar will help government officials better track and eradicate the feral swine. No bounties have been claimed since the pilot program launched April 1.

Wild boars can weigh up to 150 kilograms. They are protected from the cold by a woolly undercoat. Highly adaptive, they can travel more than 40 kilometres in a day.

Their ability to survive in almost any climate makes them among the most prolific invasive species in North America.

A different kind of beast

The vast majority of wild boars in Alberta are hybrids.

Brook describes them as "superpigs."

Wild boars usually live in the forest, emerging to devour crops, contaminate water sources by wallowing in wetlands and harass livestock. They carry diseases that can be transmitted to domestic pigs.

Urbanized populations of the pigs found in the southern United States and European cities, including Berlin, have proven incredibly destructive, Brook said. The animals root through yards, devour flower beds and parkland, cause havoc in traffic, and attack people and pets.

Edmonton and Saskatoon will likely be among the first Canadian cities to contend with urban wild boars, Brook said.

"We've been monitoring here in Saskatoon for almost two years now with trail cameras in the city, with the notion that it's not if they arrive, it's when they arrive."
'We're really at a crossroads'

There is still time to keep boars out of Alberta's cities, he said, but communities need to act fast, Brook said.

He said Alberta's bounty program won't help eradication efforts and may have the effect of making the animals more elusive and nocturnal. However, he said increased surveillance and trapping efforts should prove effective.

"We're really at a crossroads," Brook said. "Are we going to get ahead of this and start to see some wins or is this going to get out of hand and become simply impossible?

"Once things become widely established, then you simply have to acknowledge that eradication is no longer feasible."

American comedian's racist remarks spark walkout at Winnipeg comedy show

An Ojibway woman says she was among at least 30 people who walked out of Rumor's Comedy Club in Winnipeg on Friday due to a number of racist and homophobic comments they heard from the stage.

Between 30 and 40 people walked out of a Rich Vos comedy show at Rumor's on Friday over jokes they deemed racist.

Rachel Bergen - 35m ago
cbc.ca

Kelsey Lenaghan says she was almost immediately turned off by comedian Rich Vos's set, which included what she called targeted harassment toward a table of Indigenous women.

"One of the things he said was, 'Listen, lady, I'm not your sponsor. You need to go to your next AA meeting.' ... He was making a joke about a talent show and saying that, you know, these ladies would likely come up and make dreamcatchers," she said.

The American comedian also made a joke about hoping the women would get ticketed for driving under the influence on the way home, she recalled, which she felt perpetuated offensive stereotypes.

Lenaghan, who is from Pinaymootang First Nation, says the table of women left in the middle of his tirade, and she left the club to follow them to make sure they were OK. When she reached them, she said they were upset.

"Why can't we be able to come out for a fun night out without our Indigeneity being brought up — without that being the centre of his jokes and attacks?" Lenaghan said. "To see my sisters and my relatives to be treated in this way, you get this sense of protection."

Although she was outside the auditorium for part of his set, Lenaghan says she could hear Vos continue his comments about the women.

"It completely ruined the evening and … is hanging over our heads for the weekend. It's disgusting," she said.

Shelly Lavallee, one of the women who was directly insulted by Vos, said in a statement to CBC News that she left the show feeling spiritually wounded.

"It should not be up to us to be prepared to toughen up our hearts and be equipped to laugh at the traumatic events," the Métis woman said in the statement. "Rumor's night club has an ethical responsibility to ensure that all people are safe from insensitive racial ambushes."

Mark Turner, who was sitting at a table with Lenaghan, says he felt uncomfortable throughout Vos's set, including when the comedian used the word "gay" in a derogatory sense, but didn't want to make a scene because he was at a birthday party.

However he said everyone in his party eventually reached a breaking point.

"The one that he said that caused our table to go, 'Right, that's it. We've had enough' and stand up and walk out in unison was he said, 'They should all go back to their f------ wigwam,'" Turner said, adding that particular comment was made toward the group of Indigenous women after they had walked out.

"It was very clearly racist and nobody was really laughing. It just felt like full on racial attacks, especially against the Indigenous community."

Tyler Schultz, the club's general manager and booker, says he was there for Vos's set that evening and confirmed he heard some of the racist comments toward the Indigenous women.

Schultz said he saw Vos becoming frustrated with them, as Schultz says the women were being loud and disrupting the show.

Prior to his performance, Schultz says, Vos had been clear to the security guard that he wanted to speak directly to hecklers or people who were talking during his set, and didn't want the guard to intervene.

Afterwards, Schultz says, he tried to educate Vos about how his jokes were perceived by the audience, and says the comedian seemed to have no idea how offensive they were.

"In a culture that's so quick to try to cancel people and jump on their megaphones on social media to try to cancel people, we believe in educating people," Schultz said.

"We don't want to censor our comics, but if that type of stuff happens, we definitely don't condone racist remarks like that."

Schultz says the rest of Vos's shows on the weekend went smoothly, and nobody walked out. Even so, he said he won't be booking Vos again.
Code of conduct

Both Lenaghan and Turner want to see Rumor's establish a code of conduct similar to one the Winnipeg Comedy Festival established that works to ensure all participants attend shows free of harassment, hostility and abuse.

"If we have comedians come here, these are certain things that you can't touch base on. These are areas that shouldn't be talked about. I think that code of conduct would be a good place to start," Lenaghan said.

"If you're going to come to Canada, learn about the people that are from this land, be willing to treat people with respect so we can go to a comedy show and we can have a lot of laughs together."

Lenaghan is also holding Rumor's staff responsible, including Schultz, for blaming the Indigenous women instead of cancelling the rest of Vos's shows that weekend.

Schultz says he advises comedians against jokes that could be very offensive, including sexually explicit or targeted material, before their performances because it doesn't normally "do well" with the Rumor's audiences, but he doesn't explicitly prohibit it.

Turner says what he witnessed at Friday's show was wrong.

"I think when minority groups or groups that are particularly being targeted in comedy, if they don't find it funny and if they find it hurtful or damaging, then I think that's a very clear indicator that it's not comedy," he said.

CBC News hasn't been able to reach Vos for comment.

Robot orders increase 40% in first quarter as desperate employers seek relief from labor shortages, report says

insider@insider.com (Bethany Biron) - Yesterday

An apprentice engineer programming robots in a car factory

Monty Rakusen/Getty Images
Robot orders increased 40% in the first quarter of 2022, as businesses seek solutions to the labor crisis.
The robot industry is now valued at $1.6 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Automation may provide a temporary salve, but some are concerned it will displace human workers as the shortage eases.

As employers around the country seek ways to fill labor gaps, many are increasingly turning to the assistance of automated technology and robots.

While pivoting to automation is certainly not a new phenomenon, it's become a salve for companies struggling to meet demand in a recent tight market, the Wall Street Journal reported. Robot orders increased 40% in the first quarter of 2022, and were up 21% overall in 2021, according to the Association for Advancing Automation, driving the industry to an estimated value of $1.6 billion.

"People want to remove labor," Ametek Inc. CEO David A. Zapico told Bloomberg in November, noting that the automatic equipment company had been "firing on all cylinders" to meet demand.

Robots are providing at least a temporary solution for businesses confronted by difficulty hiring in the tightest job market since World War II, marred by the pandemic, record-high quitting rates, and vast economic turmoil.

In March, US job openings reached a record high of 11.5 million, and some experts have predicted the labor crisis may last for several years. The shortages have already had significant impact on everything from air travel to retail, as companies are forced to reduce output with less resources.

Advanced technology, however, is allowing machines to assist a growing number of industry sectors, while at the same time becoming more accessible.

"The robots are becoming easier to use," Michael Cicco, chief executive officer of industrial robot provider Fanuc America, told the Wall Street Journal. "Companies used to think that automation was too hard or too expensive to implement."

But as robot usage climbs, some have expressed concern about the machines displacing human workers as the labor crisis eventually eases.

"Automation, if it goes very fast, can destroy a lot of jobs," Daron Acemoglu, an economics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the Journal. "The labor shortage is not going to last. This is temporary."

NUKE THE USA
Another nuclear plant closes: Get ready for electricity shortages

KEEP EM TILL YOU DON'T NEED THEM

Robert Bryce, Opinion Contributor - Yesterday
The Hill

America’s electric grid is being mismanaged and consumers will pay a heavy price for that mismanagement.

More evidence of that came with the recent closure of the Palisades Power Plant in Michigan. The 811-megawatt nuclear plant was shut down on the same day that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) issued a report saying the U.S. electric grid doesn’t have enough generation capacity and that blackouts are almost certain to occur across the country this summer.

In particular, NERC noted that the Midwest is facing a capacity shortfall that could lead to a “high risk of energy emergencies during peak summer conditions.” Palisades was located in the heart of the Midwest, immediately adjacent to the area served by the Mid-continent Independent System Operator (MISO), the region that NERC identified as being particularly short on juice. NERC said the MISO region has 3,200 megawatts less generation capacity this summer than it did in 2021. Despite this loss of generation capacity, NERC expects demand in the region to increase by about 1.7 percent this summer and warned that “extreme temperatures, higher generation outages, or low wind conditions” will mean that MISO will have a “higher risk” of “load-shedding to maintain system reliability” — the industry’s preferred term for rolling blackouts.

In a phone interview, Meredith Angwin, author of the 2020 book, “Shorting The Grid,” told me, “It is shocking to me how people can pretend this isn’t a problem. NERC just said the Midwest is headed for trouble this summer because the region doesn’t have enough reliable generation — and yet, they are closing Palisades. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Palisades was a zero-carbon workhorse. As Tim Cavanaugh of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy explained recently, Palisades was producing about 7 terawatt-hours of juice per year. That’s more energy than is generated by all the wind turbines in Michigan. It’s a key comparison because the backlash against the wind industry has been fierce in Michigan. Among the latest examples, last month the town board in Fulton Township voted unanimously to reject a project proposed by Chicago-based Invenergy that would put several dozen wind turbines in and around the township.

As I reported last month, the planned closure of Palisades was known for years and several politicians, including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, have said they wanted to prevent the closure. On April 20, Whitmer said, “Keeping Palisades open is a top priority.” She hoped to tap some of the $6 billion available in the Department of Energy’s Civil Nuclear Credit Program, created through the bipartisan infrastructure bill that President Biden signed into law in November. In a letter to the Department of Energy, Whitmer said stopping the closure of Palisades would “allow us to shore up Michigan’s energy supply to prevent price spikes on working families and small businesses.”

But, since the plant was closed on May 20 — 11 days earlier than expected because of a mechanical problem — Whitmer’s office has not issued any statements. Nor has there been any public statement from the Biden administration about trying to rescue the plant, whose decommissioning could take two decades. Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, repeatedly has called climate change “an existential threat.” If he believes that’s true, why hasn’t Kerry raised a stink about the Palisades closure?

There’s no doubt that the plant’s closure will result in more greenhouse gas emissions. When nuclear plants close in the United States, they are replaced by gas-fired generation. That happened in New York after the closure of the Indian Point Energy Center, and in Vermont after the premature shuttering of Vermont Yankee. The closure of such plans increases electricity costs because generators must burn more natural gas to produce power and gas prices are soaring.

Just like last year’s premature closure of the Indian Point, the loss of Palisades, which has been operating safely since 1971, is an inexcusable government failure. By any relevant metric — climate action, energy security, or resilience — the loss of Palisades is a blunder that could have and should have been avoided because it will further weaken our electric grid. The grid is the Mother Network for all of our critical systems: health care, GPS, communications, traffic lights, water, and wastewater treatment. Essayist and podcaster Emmet Penney had it right when he declared last year that “there is no such thing as a wealthy society with a weak electrical grid.”

In short, the closure of the Palisades Power Plant will increase emissions, reduce energy affordability, and hurt the resilience and reliability of America’s electric grid. That’s a lousy quadfecta.

Robert Bryce is the host of the Power Hungry Podcast, executive producer of the documentary, “Juice: How Electricity Explains the World,” and the author of six books, including most recently, “A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations.” Follow him on Twitter: @pwrhungry.

Trinidad and Tobago in talks with Quanten LLC for refinery sale -minister

PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - Trinidad and Tobago is in talks with U.S.-based Quanten LLC for the sale of the country's refinery, Energy Minister Stuart Young said on Sunday, more than a year after the government rejected a proposal by a local group to buy the facility.

The Caribbean nation's government three years ago shut down the state-run refinery Petrotrin, which at the time had a capacity to process about 140,000 barrels per day of crude, due to losses of over $1 billion in the prior five years.

"Quanten LLC is an American company that is engaged in the (request for proposal) process for the refinery," Young said in a statement.

"The company is engaged with TPHL and has to go through the standard and required processes in these types of matters," he said, referring to state-owned Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited, which is handling the request for proposal process.

Quanten did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trinidad and Tobago's government in early 2021 said Patriotic Energies, a subsidiary of a trade union which represents oil workers, could not provide any credible offer of financing for the refinery.

(Reporting by Linda Hutchinson-Jafar in Port of Spain and Brian Ellsworth in Miami; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Too often, U.S. mass shootings prove ‘very good’ for gun business: Frum

CANADIAN EX PAT DAVID FRUM AKA GEORGE BUSH'S MOUTHPIECE

Amanda Connolly -
© AP Photo/Michael Wyke

Too often, horrific mass shootings such as the massacre of schoolchildren at Sandy Hook in 2012 lead to a jump in gun sales rather than the calls for reform that most Americans support, says one U.S. writer.

In an interview with The West Block's Mercedes Stephenson, U.S. political commentator and staff writer with The Atlantic David Frum said the data is clear that at least half of Americans favour some form of gun control, but that the country's political power is skewed towards those that do not.

He spoke in the wake of yet another horrific mass shooting of schoolchildren last week — this time, at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 Grade 4 students and two teachers dead.

"People say nothing changed after Sandy Hook, but actually a lot changed. Things got worse," he said.

"These massacres are very good for the gun business," Frum continued. "About three per cent of Americans, by the way, own half the guns in the country — an average of 17 guns per person among that three per cent. So that group, any time there's a massacre, thinks, 'Oh my God, I might be unable to get my 18th gun.'

"And so they rush out and buy more guns."

A 2017 study published in the journal Science looked at the number of background checks done for gun purchases as well as search traffic online for buying and cleaning guns, and determined there was a spike of three million in the four months directly following the Sandy Hook massacre.

A 2016 New York Times investigation pegged the number of guns sold in the month immediately after the massacre at two million, citing fears of restrictions on gun sales.

Sandy Hook remains the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, with Uvalde now taking the grim spot in second place. Guns are now the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 18.

Calls are growing once again for gun violence reforms in the U.S.

However, there remains little in the way of clear signals that policy makers at the state and federal levels, as well as in the judicial system, are open to pursuing meaningful changes.

America is in the midst of a pressure cooker primary season and mid-term election year, sharpening the stakes for politicians on both sides of the spectrum as well as voter anger over the continued bloodshed.

"I'm not going to make any prediction about whether this is the massacre that will do it or whether it's the next one or the one after that. But I do firmly believe that eventually the forces of decency and kindness in American life are going to overcome the forces of grief and blood," Frum said.

Read more:
Texas school shooting: What’s changed in U.S. gun control since Sandy Hook?

According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, there are four gun control measures that get overwhelming public support, even if there isn’t the political will to act on them.

The Center cited their 2019 national survey of Americans which found 88 per cent of respondents support universal background checks for people buying firearms, 75 per cent support requiring licensing for handgun purchasers, and 74 per cent support requiring people to lock up their guns when not in use.

In addition, 80 per cent support what’s known as extreme risk protection orders, or red flag laws that allow a court to issue an order to remove firearms from an individual believed to pose a risk to themselves or others.

PROTEST AT TEXAS NRA MEETING MAY 29, 2022

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Will Angels bail on Anaheim after FBI probe into political corruption sinks stadium deal?

Josh Peter, USA TODAY -

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Madelyn Valdes wore her Angels cap, Angels pullover jacket and, while sitting among a crowd of 28,228 at Angel Stadium Thursday night, a look of concern.

It had nothing to do with Shohei Ohtani, the team’s two-way star, giving up two home runs in a 6-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. Because despite a recent slump, the Angels are 27-21 entering Sunday and averaging home crowds of almost 32,000 – the third-highest attendance in the American League.

“It’s really nice to have the energy and all of Orange County to come out and support the team now," Valdes, 42, told USA TODAY Sports.

But Valdes, a disabled U.S, Army veteran and Anaheim resident, said she’s worried the Angels might leave town after what has transpired: An FBI investigation into corruption in Anaheim prompted the City Council on Tuesday to cancel the planned $320 million sale of Angel Stadium and the 153 acres of surrounding property to SRB Management, which is led by Angels owner Arte Moreno.

Madelyn Valdes, a disabled U.S, Army veteran and Anaheim resident, says she's worried the Angels may leave the city.

Still no deal after more than a decade of talks between the team and the city – and another setback for Moreno's hopes of building a sports-themed entertainment district on the stadium site.

Harry Sidhu on Monday announced he was stepping down as Anaheim’s mayor, with the FBI accusing Sidhu of planning to solicit at least $500,000 from Angels contingent on the stadium and land sale being completed. He also stands accused of bribery, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering, according to the affidavit.

The Angels have not been accused of wrongdoing by the FBI, and in a statement the team said, “We are currently exploring all of our options.’’

What immediately came to mind for Valdes was Long Beach, the Los Angeles County city about 30 miles west of Anaheim where city officials and Angels executives discussed in 2019 the possibility of the team moving.

“That would be devastating,’’ Valdes said, with Las Vegas and Nashville seeking an Major League Baseball team and the Angels having previously engaged in talks with city officials in Tustin, a city in Orange County. “This is another kind of rough kick to the old baseball hardgear.’’

Valdes noted the FBI investigation that has at least temporarily derailed the stadium and land sale comes less than three years after Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died from an opioid-related overdose.

Eric Kay, the Angels’ communications director at the time of Skaggs’ death, was found guilty of supplying drugs to Skaggs. He was convicted of distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. Kay is due to be sentenced June 28.

The Angels faced no criminal charges, but the club has been accused of negligence in a civil lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ family.

The team said an independent investigation led by a former federal prosecutor hired by the Angeles “confirmed that no one in management was aware, or informed, of any employee providing opioids to any player, nor that Tyler was using opioids."

But while looking out at the field from her seat in the right-field terrace section Thursday night at Angel Stadium, Valdes said of her beloved team, “It just seems like behind the scenes and out here, we operate differently."

Scott Tenley, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and Orange County, said the federal investigation that followed Skaggs’ death and the current FBI investigation in Anaheim raises questions for the Angels.

“Obviously they recently had a run-in with the criminal justice system themselves on the Skaggs’ death, and there’s probably a lot of scrutiny in how their legal department is keeping them in compliance in all parts of the organization," Tenley told USA TODAY Sports. “I would just think about what is the culture that exists in the organization, what the internal controls in the organization are.

"And while stadium financing and potential drug distribution are very, very different, it just sets the tone of how secretive are employees? Or how much do the individuals at the top of the Angels’ organization not know what’s going on down below that? The Angels might want to investigate and put new policies and procedures into place."

As in the matter of Skaggs’ death, the Angels are defending themselves in the negotiations over the stadium and land sale.

“SRB and Angels Baseball have acted in good faith throughout their dealings with the City of Anaheim with the sole purpose to create a good and fair agreement for the residents of Anaheim and the Angels,” Angels attorney Allan Abshez wrote in a letter sent to Anaheim’s city manager.

But Councilman Jose Moreno said negotiations became “bad faith’’ when the Angels or a consultant working for the Angels received privileged information from Sidhu, the former mayor.

The information included an appraisal of the land that the city council voted to keep private despite objections from Councilman Moreno and a second council member. Moreno said he wanted the information to be public to allay any suspicions that the Angels were getting a sweetheart deal.

“It appears that (Sidhu), on at least two specific occasions, provided City-specific information to the Angels,’’ the FBI affidavit states.

“There are things that could have been worse for the Angels in the affidavit,’’ said Tenley, the former prosecutor. “They could have been listed as people who were engaged in criminal activity."

Tenley cited two aspects of the stadium negotiations that could be problematic for the Angels. The first, he said, is a federal crime known as “honest services fraud."

“So if they’re a participant in any way in the mayor breaching his duty of honest services to the city by stealing confidential information and providing it to the Angels to benefit the Angels, that could open them up to criminal liability," he said. “It kind of turns on, did they know it?’’

Council member Moreno said it should have been clear the information was confidential because the City Council had discussed the matter extensively during open sessions.

Tenley said the Angels also could face criminal charges if the team was aware Sidhu expected a campaign contribution for a role in helping them secure a favorable stadium and land sale. Sidhu, who was elected mayor in 2018 after campaigning to keep the Angels in Anaheim, faced re-election this year.

In the affidavit, a transcript of a phone call the FBI said it recorded between Sidhu and an informant shows Sidhu claimed an Angels representative asked him, “What can I do for your election?’ I said, 'Let me finish your deal first, and then we'll talk about that.' "

But in the affidavit, FBI agent Brian Adkins wrote, “I am unaware of any information confirming that Angels Representative 1 has, in fact, been solicited by (Sidhu) in the matter described herein, or is otherwise aware of Sidhu’s stated intent to do so."

After initially indicating it would push the city to honor the planned sale, the Angels indicated they have changed course.

“Given that the City Council unanimously voted to cancel the stadium land agreement, we believe it is the best interest of our fans, Angels Baseball and the community to accept the City’s cancelation,’’ Marie Garvey, a spokeswoman for the Angels owner and his SRB Management company, said in a statement. “Now we will continue our focus on our fans and the baseball season."

Garvey declined to comment on whether the team still is exploring all of its options.

Sue Laverty, sitting next to her husband at the Angels game Thursday night, said she used to ride her bike to Angel Stadium when it was being constructed. The stadium, which seats a capacity of 45,050, opened in 1966 and is the fourth-oldest stadium in Major League Baseball behind Fenway Park (1912), Wrigley Field (1914) and Dodger Stadium (1962).

“My girlfriend and I used to ride our bikes from the other side of Anaheim and ride around the parking lot and eat lunch and then ride back home,'' Laverty said. "I would hate to see the Angels move out of the city, but I’m not real fond of them being called the L.A. Angels now either. They’re Anaheim to me and they always will be.''

The day after Anaheim’s council members voted to kill the planned sale, however, Long Beach officials sounded ready to renew the courtship.

“If the Angels are interested in continuing those initial discussions, Long Beach would reengage in those discussions and seek direction from the City Council,’’ read a statement issued by the city manager.

Under a cloud of uncertainty, the Angels season and the FBI investigation are unfolding simultaneously.

“It’s heartbreaking because you want to know that everybody’s doing the right thing," said Valdes, the military veteran and diehard Angels fan. “But I love my city and I love my team. So I’m not going to abandon them."

May 28: Los Angeles Angels second baseman Luis Rengifo catches the ball as he turns a double play in the fifth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Angel Stadium.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Angels bail on Anaheim after FBI probe into political corruption sinks stadium deal?

Ex-guerilla, millionaire maverick in race for Colombian presidency

AFP -

Two former mayors -- a leftist and an independent outsider -- will fight it out for the Colombian presidency on June 19 after coming out tops in a first voting round Sunday.

Rodolfo Hernandez is not aligned to a political party

Gustavo Petro is hoping to become Colombia's first-ever leftist president

Gustavo Petro, 62, is hoping to become Colombia's first-ever left-wing -- and first ex-guerrilla -- president, having received more than 40 percent of votes to 28 percent for surprise second-place candidate Rodolfo Hernandez, 77.

A man waves a Colombian flag in the city of Bucaramanga on May 29, 2022 after the results of the presidential election first round

Here are the rivals at a glance.

- The leftist -

Petro was mayor of Bogota from 2012 to 2015 -- a stint that was not without controversy and gave birth to unflattering accounts of alleged despotic tendencies.

He entered the 2022 presidential race, his third, as a self-styled warrior for the marginalized -- Black and Indigenous people, the poor and the young -- promising to address hunger and inequality.

The father of six is described as a good orator, though not necessarily charismatic. He is a map buff and a keen social media user.

Born into a family of modest means on Colombia's Caribbean coast, Petro embraced leftist politics as a teenager after the 1973 coup d'etat in Chile that unseated the world's first elected Marxist leader Salvador Allende.

He joined the M-19 urban guerrilla group as a 17-year-old, but insisted afterward that his role in Colombia's decades of bloody civil war was as an organizer, never a fighter.

Petro was captured by the military in 1985 and claimed to have been tortured before spending almost two years in jail on arms charges.

He was freed and the M-19 signed a peace deal with the government in 1990. He has since served as a senator and mayor.

Petro's critics have sought to portray him as a radical populist who will bring about Venezuela-style economic collapse.

He has, however, railed against the "banana republic" rule of Colombia's neighbor and vowed there would be no expropriation on his watch.

Petro is no stranger to death threats, though he recently told AFP he tries to avoid thinking about that possibility in a country with a tradition of political killings.

He travels in a convoy of a dozen armored vehicles accompanied by police on motorcycles, an ambulance and snipers.

He has said he would reopen negotiations with Colombia's last guerrilla group, the ELN, and seek to peacefully dismantle the drug trade.

Petro has made it his mission to address climate change, somewhat controversially by phasing out crude oil exploration -- a major income-earner for Colombia.

- Colombia's 'Donald Trump' -

Rodolfo Hernandez, a businessman and political maverick, emerged as a surprise rival to Petro, edging out the right-wing candidate pollsters had placed second.

Not aligned to any political party and running on an anti-corruption platform, Hernandez -- the self-proclaimed "King of TikTok" -- has been likened to a Colombian Donald Trump.

His platform is described as inscrutable, with no obviously left- or right-leaning political doctrine.

Within weeks he made a U-turn from supporting fracking and the use of the poison glyphosate to destroy coca crops, to rejecting both.

He recently had to retract an expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, explaining that he had actually meant to say "Albert Einstein."

Hernandez's proposals include closing embassies to pay off student loans and making a visit to the sea at least once in life a right for all Colombians.

He has vowed to reestablish diplomatic ties with Venezuela, but threatens at the same time to deport hundreds of thousands of migrants from the neighboring country.

Hernandez "clearly falls into the world of populism," political scientist Angela Rettberg of the University of Los Andes told AFP.

A large part of his success, she said, was in his ability to "communicate in a very simple way using colloquial language."

An engineer by training, Hernandez made his fortune building low-cost housing in his native Piedecuesta, near the Venezuelan border, in the 1970s.

He served a single term as mayor of Bucaramanga, the largest city in the region, from 2016 to 2019, and is the subject of an investigation for alleged contract graft that dates from that time.

As mayor, he became known nationally for weekly Facebook broadcasts in which he answered questions from citizens, and for his public fights with city councilors he accused of being thieving "rats".

In 2018, Hernandez was suspended for three months for slapping a councilor.

Today, one of his campaign slogans invites voters to "slap corruption."

Hernandez followed Sunday's vote in his swimsuit, drinking beer next to his pool at home, according to videos distributed in the media, which he avoids as much as possible.

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