MY SUMMER VACATIONS WERE SPENT HERE

Price hike for Radium Hot Springs in southeast B.C. has residents steaming

Sat, January 21, 2023

Radium Hot Springs is pictured in fall. Most visitors come to the park during the summer months, with a drop-off during the fall. (Bram Rossman/Parks Canada - image credit)

A soak in the sun at Radium Hot Springs in B.C.'s Kootenay region has become much pricier since the year began.

The pools, part of the Canadian Rockies Hot Springs that include Banff and Miette, are a popular attraction run by Parks Canada.

It's not just for B.C. visitors, over 140,000 of whom were recorded from April 2022 to Jan. 19: it's also a community pool for locals of the east Kootenays, in the province's southeast.

Since Jan. 1, however, entry fees to the federally-run park went up, prompting complaints from residents. The cost of a single adult-entry ticket has doubled from $8 to $16.50, with an annual adult pass going up 47 per cent to $220.50.

Natasha Schorb says she's worried about having a safe, affordable place for her young children to learn how to swim.

"I understand that Parks Canada is not in the business of providing municipal pools," said Schorb, who lives in Invermere near Radium Hot Springs, during a protest with other locals against the fee hike on Saturday.

"But we don't have an alternative."

Radium Hot Springs fee increase on January 3, 2023

It's led some residents to pitch a cost-sharing arrangement between the local community and Parks Canada, so tax dollars can be used to subsidize the cost of entry at the Kootenay National Park, where the hot springs are located.

"Prices have doubled and people who live in remote areas like Invermere and Radium, we don't have rec centres," said Rob Morrison, the Conservative MP for Kootenay-Columbia.

"That's just putting it over the top for them to be able to take their families and be able to go and have some fun."

Greg Eymundson/insight-photography.com

Julian England, chief operating officer for the Canadian Rockies Hot Springs, says prices at the park have been frozen since 2004.

"[They] have not substantially increased over the past 18 years and during this time, operational costs have obviously increased significantly," he told CBC News.

"The fees are used to cover operating, maintenance and capital repair costs that are required to ensure the long-term operation of the Hot Springs for current and future generations to enjoy."

Fee hike unrelated to infrastructure upgrades: COO

Mike Gray, mayor of the Village of Radium Hot Springs, says community members love having the national park nearby to enjoy.

"We think we still offer a great package and the pools, even with the change in price, is still part of that incredible value package," he said.

"That impact is significant when you're looking to take your family out and keep them active. That's why we make sure we're trying to keep our other activities low in cost."

Parks Canada recently announced a $13-million investment to restore facilities at the park, include erosion protection "to safeguard nearby fish habitats," foundation improvements and hand rail improvements.

England says the fee hikes were not related to the infrastructure investments, adding the last time there were significant upgrades was in the 1990s.

Cost-sharing proposals

England adds the multi-entry passes offer the best value.

"The annual pass … is comparable in price to other community facilities, and that price did not increase as much as the overall entry fee," he said.

The official says operating pools was expensive, with community pools only recovering around 30 per cent of their costs through fees — the rest made up for through taxes.

He adds he would be "very happy" to have a conversation with local officials about a cost-sharing arrangement to subsidize fees for local users.

Olivia Robinson/Parks Canada

The local MP says doing so would help locals access the springs for a lower price.

"Maybe we can work with the regional districts and some of the smaller rural communities to lower the prices," Morrison said.

"Everybody can chip in [within] that area for locals to be able to have a lower price."

Meanwhile, the mayor says there is currently no mechanism to operate a cost-sharing system under the regional district model of park and facility governance.

"We're open to hearing anything they have to say and want to make sure it's something that's feasible for our community," Gray said.

ALBERTA'S SHORTEST PREMIERSHIP
Alberta premier orders review after CBC reports of emails over Coutts cases between her office, prosecution


Sat, January 21, 2023 

Premier Danielle Smith said Saturday she has ordered the independent public service to do a review of emails sent by her office. (Samuel Martin/CBC - image credit)

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she has called for a review that she says will examine emails between her office and Crown prosecutors.

Smith said Saturday — on Corus Entertainment's Your Province, Your Premier radio program — that she has ordered the independent public service to do a review of emails sent by her office, which will be conducted alongside the IT department.

CBC previously reported that a staffer in Smith's office sent a series of emails to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, challenging prosecutors' assessment and direction on cases stemming from the Coutts border blockades and protests.

The emails were sent last fall, according to sources whom CBC has agreed not to identify because they fear they could lose their jobs. CBC has not seen the emails.

Smith said there are hundreds of Crown prosecutors and she has 34 staffers in her office, which means it is likely the review will take the entire weekend.

"As soon as we see if the emails exist, then we'll make sure that we have a presentation to the public. We'll know next week," Smith said.

The premier also confirmed that she had called an emergency caucus meeting to take place Saturday.

"I want my caucus to understand the nature of the story," she said.

CBC News

Last week, Smith's office issued a statement saying she used "imprecise" language after two instances when she said she had contacted Crown prosecutors — once during an on-camera interview with Rebel News, and a second time during a press conference in Edmonton.

At that time, the premier's office said that she had actually contacted Attorney General Tyler Shandro and the deputy attorney general, and denied contacting Crown prosecutors.

On Saturday Smith said that during her leadership campaign she had many people ask her if there was an avenue for amnesty for people who had violated COVID-19 public health orders.

"I probably used imprecise language, but all of my dealings with the department have been appropriate and it's been through the Attorney General and department officials."

Alberta NDP MLA Rakhi Pancholi issued a statement following Smith's comments, saying that Smith is "hiding the truth behind IT processes and a caucus presentation meant to shore up her chaotic leadership."

"If Danielle Smith doesn't know what the staff in her office are doing, she shouldn't be premier," Pancholi wrote in the emailed statement.

"These allegations are extremely serious and yet, her story keeps changing. Albertans know the UCP cannot be trusted to investigate themselves."

Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said the emergency caucus meeting taking place Saturday could be an attempt to "smooth the waters" with caucus.

He said emergency meetings of this type on a Saturday are rare.

"The reason that this is significant is we have video of Danielle Smith … saying that she had contacted Crown prosecutors about COVID cases," Bratt said.

"There's a lot of questions about what did the premier know, when did she know it? And just the relationship between the Government of Alberta and Crown prosecutors as it relates to COVID."

He said he thinks Smith is working to reassure caucus that appropriate action will be taken.

"We don't really know what the state of caucus relations is."

UCP FAUX OUTRAGE PRE ELECTION

Canada's energy jobs transition bill sparks discord in oil heartland


Sun, January 22, 2023 
By Nia Williams and Steve Scherer

(Reuters) - In Canada's western oil patch, controversy is raging over federal government legislation intended to help the fossil fuel labour force transition to a greener economy, but union and community leaders are warning politicization of the Just Transition bill obscures the needs of workers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government is expected to table its long-awaited workforce transition bill this spring, ahead of economic changes expected as they pursue ambitious goals to slash climate-warming emissions.

The government of Alberta, Canada's main crude-producing province, says the legislation will dismantle the oil and gas industry that makes up 5% of Canada's GDP.

"When I hear the words "Just Transition" it signals eliminating jobs and for Alberta, that is a non-starter!" Alberta's Conservative Premier Danielle Smith wrote on Twitter last week.

The oil and gas sector employs around 185,000 workers, making the bill a hot topic in Alberta ahead a provincial election in May. Smith is using the threat of job losses to attack Trudeau and rally her conservative base, although she has been criticised for misinterpreting how many jobs may be at risk.

The Trudeau government is trying to soothe concerns about the bill, first promised in 2019. A government source familiar with the file, who is not authorized to speak publicly, said the legislation will be about principles to guide decisions and creating jobs.

Trudeau told Reuters in a recent interview that the sooner Alberta's "political class" understood the future is not to be feared, the better.

"This shouldn't be a political issue, this is an issue about what's really happening in the global economy," said Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).

COAL PHASE-OUT LESSONS

The focus should be on helping communities adjust to sweeping industrial changes and economic diversification, McGowan said, pointing to Alberta's recent coal phase-out as a case study.

Later this year, Alberta's last coal-fired power station will convert to natural gas, part of an accelerated energy transition first announced in 2015 that will wrap up seven years ahead of schedule.

More than 3,100 people worked in the province's thermal coal industry in 2015. Some workers took early retirement, others went north to the oil patch or moved to other industries, while others found work in mine reclamation or the newly converted gas power stations.

The Parkland Institute research centre estimated in 2019 that up to 3,500 new jobs would be created in renewable energy and coal-to-gas power station conversions, but lead author Ian Hussey now says that number was far too low.

"Renewable investment has taken off in Alberta in a way that was never even dreamed of when we did that research," he said.

The oil and gas sector is currently experiencing a skills shortage amid tight labour markets globally, but the current workforce is 18% smaller than the 2014 peak of 225,900, according to Energy Safety Canada. Think tank Clean Energy Canada estimates there could be 200,000 clean energy jobs created by 2030.

If done right, the bill could incentivise technologies like carbon capture and hydrogen and be Canada's answer to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, the $430-billion green energy subsidy package passed last year, the AFL's McGowan added.

Ex-coal miner Len Austin, who now runs a government-funded Just Transition centre supporting former coal workers, said policymakers made a "really good effort" with programs such as retirement bridging, relocation packages and C$12,000 ($8,945.21) retraining vouchers.

But there was insufficient funding for economic diversification and infrastructure projects within coal communities to create new jobs, and governments need to understand not everyone can work in renewables, he added.

"It's 100% not that simple...to go from making C$100,000 to C$40,000 plays a big part in the decision-making that comes with the idea of losing your livelihood," Austin said.

($1 = 1.3415 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Editing by Denny Thomas and Josie Kao)

Investigation cannot say whether Russia uses Iranian-made drones



Ukrainska Pravda
Fri, January 20, 2023

The Ukrainian investigation has not yet determined the origin of the combat drones that Russia has been using against Ukraine since September and which are considered Iranian.

Source: Ivan Chyzhevskyi, Prosecutor of the Department of Combating Crimes in the Armed Conflict of the Prosecutor General's Office, in a comment for Suspilne

Quote from Chyzhevskyi: "We cannot yet say whether these are Iranian-made drones or not.

A pre-trial investigation is currently underway. It won't be fast. After all, the necessary examination is not simple, but with the participation of specialists on a large scale, who will be able to find out what these components are, and their origin. The expert examination will determine the origin of these drones and the manufacturer of the components.

We cannot specify how long the examinations will last due to the fact that the Russian Federation is actively shelling Ukraine."

Details: The prosecutor explained that the investigation seeks to establish all components related to drone attacks.

"How did this drone appear in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, why is it called Geranium and Geranium-2, why is it so similar to Shahed-131, Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6? In general, where is the construction of these drones carried out, what are the supply routes, and who supplied them? The date and place of production, what contracts were concluded, who signed them – this is also very important during the pre-trial investigation, during the establishment of all schemes," Chyzhevskyi said.

Using intelligence data and technology, the investigation will try to identify the drone operators, the prosecutor said.

However, the Russians are trying to confuse Ukrainian investigators and experts.

"There are cases when the aggressor country deliberately puts markings of a certain company in order to mislead us. Or vice versa, we recorded traces of the destruction of names, markings or stickers on products," Chyzhevskyi said.

"The investigation will have to establish each component: the country of origin, the date of manufacture and make sure that the abbreviation or name of the company that manufactured it is not a fake," he added.

Ukraine will sue international courts over Russia's use of kamikaze drones.

"Foremost, the pre-trial investigation should be completed by our bodies, in our country, with the participation of specialists. Of course, Ukraine will sue international courts for using the drones. But at the moment, I think it would be rather wrong to say in which instance, the time frame," Chyzhevskyi said.

The prosecutor added that Ukrainian experts and law enforcement officers are assisted by international partners. The Ukrainian investigation has not yet approached Iran.

According to Chyzhevskyi, more than 50 criminal proceedings have now been opened over the use of kamikaze drones. If necessary, the cases can be combined.

Background:

In September 2022, Russia began using combat drones to strike Ukraine. Two months earlier, the United States announced that Russia would receive kamikaze drones from Iran.

The Ukrainian authorities and military personnel have repeatedly reported the downing of Iranian drones Shahed-131, Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6, and in November, the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine showed components of kamikaze drones, which included components from Europe, the United States and inscriptions in Farsi, the language of Iran, were found.

According to Ukrainian Intelligence, Russia has ordered more than 2,400 kamikaze drones from Iran. Iran denies providing Russia with weapons for the war in Ukraine.

The US, EU, Canada and Great Britain announced sanctions against Iran for providing Russia with drones.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iran, has stated that Iran does not recognise Russia's annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories.

JUST THE FACTS MA'AM 

New Brett Kavanaugh Sexual Assault Allegations Revealed in Secret Sundance Doc


Nick Schager
Sat, January 21, 2023 

THE UGLINESS OF

THE ANGRY ENTITLED WHITE MAN

Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 confirmation to the Supreme Court was embroiled in controversy when multiple women accused him of sexual assault. One of them, Christine Blasey Ford, testified before Congress about the alleged attempted rape she suffered at his hands in high school. Justice is a horrifying and infuriating inquiry into those claims, told in large part by friends of Ford, lawyers and medical experts, and another of Kavanaugh’s alleged victims: Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of his at Yale.

Most damning of all, it features a never-heard-before audio recording made by one of Kavanaugh’s Yale colleagues—Partnership for Public Service president and CEO Max Stier—that not only corroborates Ramirez’s charges, but suggests that Kavanaugh violated another unnamed woman as well.

A last-minute addition to this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Justice is the first feature documentary helmed by Doug Liman, a director best known for Hollywood hits like Swingers, Go, The Bourne Identity, and Edge of Tomorrow. His latest is far removed from those fictional mainstream efforts, caustically censuring Kavanaugh and the political process that elevated him to the nation’s highest judicial bench, and casting a sympathetic eye on Ford, Ramirez ,and their fellow accusers.


Liman’s film may not deliver many new bombshells, but he and writer/producer Amy Herdy makes up for a relative dearth of explosive revelations by lucidly recounting this ugly chapter in recent American history, as well as by giving voice to women whose allegations were picked apart, mocked and, ultimately, ignored.

Win McNamee/Getty

The biggest eye-opener in Justice comes more than midway through its compact and efficient 85-minute runtime, when Liman receives a tip that leads him to an anonymous individual who provides a tape made by Stier shortly after the FBI—compelled by Ford’s courageous and heartrending testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee—briefly reopened its investigation into embattled then-nominee Kavanaugh.

In it, Stier relays that he lived in the same Yale dorm as Kavanaugh and, one evening, wound up in a room where he saw a severely inebriated Kavanaugh with his pants down, at which point a group of rowdy soccer players forced a drunk female freshman to hold Kavanaugh’s penis. Stier states that he knows this tale “first-hand,” and that the young woman in question did not subsequently remember the incident, nor did she want to come forward after she’d seen the vile treatment that Ford and Ramirez were subjected to by the public, the media, and the government. The Daily Beast has reached out to Justice Kavanaugh for comment about the fresh allegations.

Stier goes on to explain that, though he didn’t know Ramirez, he had heard from classmates about her separate, eerily similar encounter with Kavanaugh, which she personally describes in Justice. According to Ramirez, an intoxicated Kavanaugh exposed himself right in front of her face in college, and that she suppressed memories of certain aspects of this trauma until she was contacted by The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow.

Christine Blasey Ford’s Grace Exposes Her Questioners’ Cruelty

As Ramirez narrates in a trembling tone that seems on the perpetual verge of cracking, she suffered this indignity quietly, convinced that she was to blame for it (because she too was under the influence) and humiliated by the guffaws of the other men in the room. Her account is convincing in its specificity, and moving in its anguish.

Ramirez confesses that some of Farrow’s questions made her worried that she still wasn’t recalling everything about that fateful night, and it’s Stier’s recording that appears to fill in a crucial blank. Stier says he was told that, after Kavanaugh stuck his naked member in Ramirez’s face, he went to the bathroom and was egged on by classmates to make himself erect; once he’d succeeded in that task, he returned to harass Ramirez some more.

It's an additional bit of nastiness in a story drowning in grotesqueness, and Liman lays it all out with the sort of no-nonsense clarity that only amplifies one’s shock, revulsion and dismay—emotions that go hand-in-hand with outrage, which is stoked by the numerous clips of Kavanaugh refuting these accusations with unconvincing fury and falsehoods.

Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty

Through juxtapositions of Kavanaugh’s on-the-record statements and various pieces of evidence, Justice reveals the many lies advanced by the judge in order to both sway public opinion and to give Republicans enough reasonable-doubt cover to vote in favor of his confirmation.

Moreover, in a lengthy segment about text conversations between Kavanaugh’s college buddies and Ramirez’s Yale classmate Kerry Berchem, the film persuasively suggests that Kavanaugh and his team were aware of Ford and Ramirez’s charges before they became public, and sought to preemptively counter them by planting alternate-narrative seeds with friends and acquaintances.

While Liman relies a bit too heavily on graphical text to convey some of this, the idea that Kavanaugh (or those closest to him) conspired to keep his apparent crimes secret—along with his general reputation as a boozing party-hard menace—nonetheless comes through loud and clear.

Surprisingly, although Ford is seen speaking to Liman just off-camera at the beginning of Justice, she otherwise doesn’t appear except in archival footage. Still, her presence is ubiquitous throughout the documentary, which generates further anger by noting that the FBI ignored Stier’s tip, along with the majority of the 4,500 others they received regarding Kavanaugh. The Bureau instead chose to send along any “relevant” reports to the very Trump-administration White House that was committed to getting their nominee approved.

The Brett Kavanaugh Probe Should Be About One Thing: Sexual Assault

The effect is to paint the entire affair as a charade and a rigged game in which accusatory women were unfairly and maliciously put on the defensive, and powerful men were allowed to skate by on suspect evasions and flimsy denials.

Justice is more of a stinging, straightforward recap than a formally daring non-fiction work, but its direct approach allows its speakers to make their case with precision and passion. Of that group, Ramirez proves the memorable standout, her commentary as thorough and consistent as it is distressed.

In her remarks about Kavanaugh’s laughter as he perpetrated his misconduct—chortling that Ford also mentions to Congress—she provides an unforgettable detail that encapsulates the arrogant, entitled cruelty of her abuser, as well as the unjust system that saw fit to place him on the nation’s highest legal pedestal.

The Daily Beast.

Here's what federal scientists say is likely killing whales off the NJ coast

Amanda Oglesby, Asbury Park Press
Thu, January 19, 2023 

Seven whale deaths along the coasts of New Jersey and New York in as many weeks have marine scientists seeking answers and federal authorities making assurances that offshore wind development is not to blame.

On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, held a phone conference with journalists across the country to address what the agency called an ongoing "unusual mortality event" among humpback whales.

Since early December, four dead humpback whales and one sperm whale have washed ashore New Jersey beaches. Another two whales washed up dead on Long Island beaches.

Researchers perform a necropsy on a female humpback whale that washed ashore in Brigantine on Jan. 12, 2023. The whale is the latest to wash onto New Jersey beaches in recent weeks.

Since 2016, 178 humpback whales deaths were documented along the Atlantic Coast, according to NOAA. Of those, 22 washed onto New Jersey beaches, according to the agency.


On Tuesday, a 20-foot humpback whale washed ashore on Assateague Island in Virginia, the latest in a concerning recent spike along the mid-Atlantic coast.

At issue is claim by some environmental and citizens groups that noise created from underwater mapping and soil testing spooks whales and causes them to strand or die. Last week, the environmental organization Clean Ocean Action called for a halt to offshore wind farm surveys until the whales' deaths could be fully investigated.

The high death rates predate any offshore wind activity in the Atlantic, according to NOAA.

Related:Why are so many dead whales washing up on NJ shores?

There is no evidence that sound generated during high-resolution geophysical surveys, which are used to map sea floors for offshore wind farms, harms marine mammals, said Erica Staaterman, a bioacoustician at the federal Buruea of Ocean Energy Management's Center for Marine Acoustics. The surveys map the ocean floor by bouncing sound waves.

Whales also use sound and calls to communicate, locate food and identify potential predators, according to NOAA's National Ocean Service. Vessel- and human-generated noise in water decreases the distance over which humpbacks can communicate and detect predators and prey, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

But not all sound generated by human activity and high-resolution geophysical surveys can be heard by large whales like humpbacks, who hear in lower frequencies than other species, Staaterman said.

In addition, no whale strandings have ever been documented from offshore wind development noise, said Benjamin Laws, deputy chief for the permits and conservation division at NOAA's Fisheries Office of Protected Resources.

Volunteers and marine mammal experts gather on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023 to analyze and prepare to bury a dead whale that washed ashore in Atlantic City.

About half of the dead humpback whales documented by NOAA were necropsied, with the remainder being too decomposed for research teams to determine their cause of deaths, said Sarah Wilkin, coordinator of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program at NOAA's Fisheries Office of Protected Resources. Of the half that were thoroughly examined, about 40% of the animals showed signs of entanglements with fishing gear or ship strikes, she said.

Minke and North Atlantic right whales are also dying in unusually high numbers, according to NOAA researchers.

"Unfortunately, it's been a period of several years where we have had elevated stranding of large whales," said Wilkin. "But we are still concerned about the pulse (of whale deaths) over the past six weeks or so."

Humpback whale populations have risen in the New York Harbor and New Jersey coastal areas over the past decade, said Paul Sieswerda, executive director of Gotham Whale, an advocacy and research organization focused on marine mammals in and around New York. The humpbacks are being attracted to the coast by large schools of menhaden, he said.

"It's kind of a a good news story of the Hudson River cleaning up and influencing the area around New York and New Jersey in a positive manner," said Sieswerda. "I'm afraid to say that the increase in numbers of whales has increased the risk to those whales, in an area that is the most active port on the Eastern Seaboard… They're playing in traffic."

Wilkin said scientists at NOAA are still evaluating the causes of deaths of the humpbacks and whether vessel strikes are becoming more common among whales.

"Samples were collected for most of these cases that will be sent off to different laboratories and other scientists for analysis," she said. "That may give us some answers in the weeks and months to come, but it may also unfortunately… remain inconclusive."

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers Brick, Barnegat and Lacey townships as well as the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ whale deaths likely caused by vessel strikes, fishing gear: Feds

Search for missing activists intensifies in western Mexico

MARIA VERZA
Thu, January 19, 2023 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Concern grew in Mexico Thursday over the fate of two environmental and community activists who disappeared five days ago in a dangerous corner of western Mexico.

Farmers blocked roads on the border between the western Mexico states of Michoacan and Colima to protest the disappearance of lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and schoolteacher Antonio Díaz.

The government announced Thursday that it has sent soldiers, National Guard and aircraft to search for the pair, whose bullet-ridden vehicle was found Sunday on a road in the area, where warring drug cartels are active.

“Currently, searches are being carried out on land and in the air in the area,” the Interior Department said in a statement.

Fellow activist Sergio Oceransky, of the Yansa Foundation, said farmers had blocked roads in the area to demand that authorities find Lagunes and Díaz.

The two had been active in fighting a massive iron ore mine in the town of Aquila. Inhabitants have long complained the massive open-pit mine caused pollution and drew violence to the area, while offering little benefit to residents. The Aquila mine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The town of Aquila is located in area of the western state of Michoacan, which long been disputed between drug cartels. The two disappeared Sunday night on the border between Michoacan and the neighboring state of Colima.

Díaz was a leader in the largely Indigenous community of Aquila, while Lagunes had long been involved in defending communities in several states in land and development disputes.

In the past, the area’s rich iron ore deposits have drawn the interest of competing drug cartels, which have either extorted money from the mining community, or become directly engaged in the ore trade.

María de Jesús Ramírez Magallón, Lagunes' wife, said in a statement that “abandonment, exclusion and inequality have kept our communities in poverty, and have made us vulnerable to the dynamic of violence and decay in our communities.”

“The goal of defenders like my husband and Prof. Antonio was to change that reality, but often the (government) institutions block that work, rather than help,” she wrote.

One resident of Aquila, who fled the village after her husband and son were killed last year, described Díaz as “somebody who helped us.”

The resident, who asked her name not be used for security reasons, said the abductions came just as community residents were about to elect representatives for talks with the mine and the government.

Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez said Wednesday that authorities in both states had mounted searches.

“We hope to find these two people alive,” Ramírez said.

The U.N. human rights office called on authorities to do more to protect activists.

“The disappearance of these two (rights) defenders is a terrible and alarming thing,” according to a statement by Guillermo Fernández-Maldonado, the Mexico representative of the U.N. rights office.

He said one of the two had been granted government protection, “which did not prevent his disappearance.”

Michoacan has long been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Jalisco cartel and the Viagras cartel, as well as local gangs.

Tax the rich? Liberals renew push for state wealth taxes

SUSAN HAIGH
Fri, January 20, 2023 

Supporters of taxes on the very rich contend that people are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic with a bigger appetite for what they’re calling “tax justice.”

Bills announced Thursday in California, New York, Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Washington and Connecticut vary in their approaches to hiking taxes, but all revolve around the idea that the richest Americans need to pay more.

All of the proposals face questionable prospects. Similar legislation has died in state legislatures and Congress. But the new push shows that the political left isn’t ready to give up on the populist argument that government can and should be used as a tool for redistributing wealth.

“Under the pandemic, while people struggled to put food on the table, we saw billionaires double their wealth,” said California Assembly Member Alex Lee, a Democrat.

The Tax Foundation, a conservative-leaning policy organization, called wealth taxes — which levy taxes not just on new income, but on a person’s total assets — “economically destructive.”

It also said in a statement that such taxes create “perverse incentives” for the rich to avoid taxes, including simply moving to states with a lower tax burden.

“Very few taxpayers would remit wealth taxes -- but many more would pay the price,” the group said in a statement. Progressive Democrats, however, argue they are not seeing wealthy taxpayers leaving their states due to higher taxes.

California already taxes the wealthy more than most states. The top 1% of earners account for about half of the state’s income tax collections. But this week, Lee proposed a “wealth tax,” similar to one promoted for years by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat.

It would impose an annual tax of 1.5% on assets of more than $1 billion and 1% on assets of $50 million or more. The new tax on wealth, not annual income, would affect an estimated 23,000 “ultra-millionaire” and 160 billionaire households, or the top 0.1% of California households, Lee said.

In Connecticut, progressive lawmakers are proposing more traditional hikes: a higher tax rate on capital gains earnings for wealthy taxpayers and higher personal income tax rates for millionaires,

“We need to ensure that the wealthiest in our state truly pay what they owe and not expect working families across our state to continue to subsidize their share,” said state Rep. Kate Farrar, a deputy majority leader in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.

One obstacle to such proposals is that some states where the idea might be popular are currently running budget surpluses, meaning there is little pressure to raise revenue.

Connecticut is expected to end its fiscal year with a $3 billion surplus. Hawaii is projecting a budget surplus of $1.9 billion going into the new legislative session.

But Hawaii state Rep. Jeanne Kapela, a Democrat, said a proposal there to increase the state’s capital gains tax is more about economic equity than raising money.

“If you look at our tax code now, it’s really the definition of economic inequality,” Kapela said.

The lowest-paid workers in many states often see a far bigger percentage of their income go to pay taxes every year than the very rich, particularly in states that don’t have a graduated income tax.

Voters in Massachusetts, which had a flat income tax, approved an amendment to the state constitution in November that sets a higher rate for those earning more than $1 million a year.

Despite optimism expressed by liberal lawmakers that 2023 could be the year, many of these proposals face an uphill battle, even in blue states with Democratic governors.

“This ‘tax the rich’ has been around before and it’s present again. And quite frankly, it never got traction before and I seriously doubt there’s an appetite for it now," said Gary Rose, professor of political science at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

A lot of people, he said, don't resent the rich as much as some progressive Democrats.

“I think if you polled the American people, a lot of people want to get rich themselves and it’s part of, if you will, the American Dream,” Rose said. "We’ve never really had in this country a tremendous appetite for taxing the rich because getting rich ... is really part of who we are and what separates this country from many Democratic socialist countries.”

A wealth tax bill in California never even got a public hearing last year. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who was just elected to a second term in a landslide, has actively campaigned against efforts to increase taxes on the rich.

His opposition helped sink a 2022 ballot initiative that would have raised taxes on the rich to pay for electric vehicle charging stations and wildfire prevention.

In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, a multimillionaire, says he wants to focus his second term on reducing taxes rather than raising them.

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Associated Press Writer Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Hawaii and Adam Beam in Sacramento, Calif. contributed to this report.

California lawmaker joins other blue states in latest attempt to tax rich people

Mackenzie Mays
Thu, January 19, 2023 

Even in progressive California, passing a new tax on ultra-rich residents is a longshot. But a Democratic lawmaker is trying again, this time flanked by similar efforts in other blue states.

San Jose Assemblymember Alex Lee plans to introduce a bill that would impose new taxes on California's "extremely wealthy," at a rate of 1.5% on those worth more than $1 billion starting next year, and at 1% for those worth more than $50 million starting in 2026.

If passed, the tax would affect 0.1% of California households and would generate an additional $21.6 billion in state revenue, according to Lee.

"This is all in the spirit of making those who are not paying their fair share pay what they owe," Lee said, pointing to a ProPublica report that exposed how the world's richest people use legal loopholes to avoid paying income taxes, instead amassing wealth through assets like stocks that are not taxed unless sold.

Lee's proposed tax focuses on a person's "worldwide wealth" — not just their annual income — including such diverse holdings as stocks and hedge fund interests, farm assets and arts and collectibles. It's similar to proposals progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) championed during the 2020 presidential campaign, and to a plan President Biden floated last year that never passed Congress.

In the absence of a federal wealth tax, the State Innovation Exchange, a progressive nonprofit, and the State Revenue Alliance, which works with labor groups to call for taxing rich people, gathered a handful of states to create policy as part of the "Fund Our Future" campaign. The California bill was announced as a joint effort on Thursday alongside officials promoting similar wealth taxes targeting capital gains and "unrealized gains" in Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Washington.

"States are leaning into their power. They're reminding us that states are the laboratories of democracy," said Charles Khan, who serves on the advisory committee for the State Revenue Alliance.

But the initiative faces an uphill battle in California despite the Democratic stronghold in the state Legislature. Similar attempts by Lee have failed before, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has shown no signs of supporting such a measure.

Newsom parted with his own party last year when he came out against Proposition 30 on the November ballot, which would have raised income taxes on the richest Californians and used the money to subsidize electric vehicles and suppress wildfires. The governor said that plan was "fiscally irresponsible" and criticized Lyft for bankrolling it, calling it a "cynical scheme to grab a huge taxpayer-funded subsidy” because ride-hailing companies must add more electric vehicles to their fleets.

Another measure that would have raised taxes on California's richest in order to fund pandemic public health programs also lacked Newsom's support, prompting organizers to keep it off the 2022 ballot.

In the Legislature, past attempts at a wealth tax have not made it far. Last year's version was basically dead on arrival and did not get taken up for a vote in a single committee.

But Lee believes the legislation is more likely to succeed this time around, in part because of California's projected $22.5-billion budget shortfall. Revenue from the proposed tax would go to the state general fund.

"This is how we can keep addressing our budgetary issues," he said. "Basically, we could plug the entire hole."

Lee said the national push also helps thwart concerns that California's richest will leave to avoid new taxes, as more states could do the same. "It's a 'they can run but they can't hide' situation," he said.

A report by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab found that there’s “little evidence that wealthy Californians are leaving en masse,” but the threat of such a loss remains.

That's because California’s progressive tax structure makes the state budget disproportionately dependent on the wealthiest residents — and was largely to thank for the state's flush years even during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill is supported by the California Federation of Teachers and opposed by the California Taxpayers Assn.

California Taxpayers Assn. President Robert Gutierrez said the state should not jeopardize losing its top earners at a time of economic uncertainty. He also questioned the fairness and practicality of a first-of-its-kind tax on assets and total wealth.

“When would the state determine the tax on stocks, whose value can change dramatically from minute to minute? Would California’s tax auditors travel around the globe every year to attempt to locate and verify the value of one-of-a-kind artwork, vehicles, iconic Hollywood props and other items whose market value can’t be known with any degree of certainty?" he said. "Would wealthy individuals stay in California and wait for these questions to be answered?"

But Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at UC Berkeley, said the initiatives can work successfully and make a significant difference in "restoring tax justice."

"Our current tax system, both at the federal and state levels, fail to tax the enormous wealth amassed by billionaires. Billionaires can keep profits inside their businesses and if they don’t sell their stock, they can avoid the individual income tax. If they retire in Florida and sell their businesses then, they will never pay income taxes in the state where they built their fortune," he said. "Relative to their true economic income, billionaires end up paying a lower tax rate than the rest of us."

The bill's odds of passing are further complicated by the legislative procedures required to make it law.

As a tax increase, the bill requires approval from two-thirds of the lawmakers in both houses. In addition, a two-thirds supermajority would have to support an accompanying constitutional amendment to lift the current cap on taxing personal property. Then the proposal would go before voters for final approval.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

India female wrestlers allege sexual harassment by officials


Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia, center, speaks during a protest against Wrestling Foundation of India President Brij Bhushan Charan Singh and other officials in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. Top India wrestlers led a sit-in protest near the parliament building on Thursday accusing the federation president and coaches of sexually and mentally harassing young wrestlers.

 (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) 

ALTAF QADRI
Thu, January 19, 2023

NEW DELHI (AP) — Top India wrestlers led a sit-in protest near the parliament building on Thursday accusing the federation president and coaches of sexually and mentally harassing young wrestlers.

Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia led about 100 protestors in demanding the immediate removal of Wrestling Foundation of India President Brij Bhushan Charan Singh and other officials pending an inquiry against them.

Protesters at Jantar Mantar carried placards reading "Dictatorship can't go on," "We will fight for our rights," and "Boycott the WFI president."

Singh, a lawmaker representing the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, rejected the accusations and said he was ready to face any probe.

"If there were complaints against me or some coaches, they should have come forward earlier," he said.

Some wrestlers later left to meet India Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur.

The ministry on Wednesday asked the wrestling body to answer the accusation made by the wrestlers by Friday “otherwise, the ministry will proceed to initiate action against the federation."

Phogat said she knew of at least 10-20 female wrestlers who were sexually exploited by Singh and others and she will reveal their names when she gets to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah.

Phogat won a world championships bronze medal last year. Punia won bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and Malikkh a bronze at the 2016 Olympics.

Indian wrestlers continue protest over sexual harassment





Sakshi Malik, Indian wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, second left, and Bajrang Punia, who won a Bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, left, participate with other wrestlers in a protest against Wrestling Federation of India President Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and other officials in New Delhi, India, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Top India wrestlers led a protest near the parliament building accusing the federation president and coaches of sexually and mentally harassing young wrestlers. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

ASHOK SHARMA
Fri, January 20, 2023 

NEW DELHI (AP) — Top Indian wrestlers continued a sit-in protest near the parliament building for a third straight day Friday as the federation president they accused of sexually and mentally harassing young female athletes remained defiant and refused to quit.

The wrestlers and their nearly 200 supporters at Jantar Mantar carried placards reading “We will fight for our rights,” and “Boycott the WFI president.”

Wrestlers Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia are scheduled to meet Indian Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur for a second time in the past 24 hours to press their demands.

They are seeking the immediate removal of Wrestling Federation of India President Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and some other officials pending an inquiry against them.

Singh, a lawmaker representing the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, rejected the accusations and said he was ready to face any probe.

“Why should I resign?” Singh said.

Indian media reports said the protesting wrestlers have sent a letter to the Indian Olympic Association demanding its intervention.

P. T. Usha, the IOA president, in a tweet promised a complete investigation into their complaint to ensure justice.

"We also have decided to form a special committee to deal with such situations that may arise in the future, for swifter action,” she said.

Usha said she has discussed the wrestlers’ accusations against Singh and some coaches with IOA members and urged athletes to come forward and voice their concerns with the association.

The ministry earlier asked the wrestling body to answer the accusation made by the wrestlers by Friday “otherwise, the ministry will proceed to initiate action against the federation.”

Phogat said she knew of at least 10-20 female wrestlers who were sexually exploited by Singh and others and that she will reveal their names at an appropriate time.

Jagmati Sangwan, a former volleyball player and an activist, said the cases of harassment voiced by women wrestlers were merely the tip of the iceberg.

“The true shape of this particular problem has become quite gigantic,” Sangwan wrote in a newspaper column.

She added that the measures taken so far to hear the complaints of sportswomen “have been absolutely ineffective and have instilled zero confidence in women to come out and report their abuse.”

Phogat won a bronze medal at the world championships last year. Punia won bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and Malikkh a bronze at the 2016 Olympics.

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India’s top wrestlers accuse wrestling body chief of sexual harassment

Sravasti Dasgupta
Thu, January 19, 2023 

India’s most decorated wrestling stars, including Olympians, are on a silent sit-in protest in the national capital alleging sexual harassment by the federation chief, a lawmaker from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as well as other coaches.

At least 200 wrestlers, including Olympians Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, and Commonwealth and Asian Games medalist Vinesh Phogat have been sitting at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar – a common protest site – demanding action against federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Addressing the media after the protest on Wednesday, Phogat, who has won gold medals at both the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, accused Mr Singh of sexually harassing several women athletes.

“Women wrestlers have been sexually harassed at national camps by coaches and also the WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan. Some of the coaches appointed at national camps have been sexually harassing women wrestlers for years. The WFI president is also involved in sexual harassment,” she said.


While she said she had not faced sexual harassment herself, she “knows of dozens of women who have come up to her with their accounts”.

“I know at least 10-20 girls in the national camp who have come and told me their stories,” she said.

Malik, who won bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics, said: “We have just come to save them. We are fighting for them. When the time comes, we will speak up.

“We will give the names of those who have been exploited to whoever is doing the probe.”

The women wrestlers have been joined by their male colleagues, including Tokyo Olympics medalist Bajrang Punia.

“The federation’s job is to support the players, and take care of their sporting needs. If there is a problem, it has to be solved,” he said in a tweet.

Phogat also highlighted the high-handedness of the federation under Mr Singh.

“He mentally tortures me for everything. To get anything (permissions), we have to beg. The assistant secretary also. The kids are giving him gifts (cash, milk, ghee) to get their name into the national camp. Coaches too do the same to get into the national camp,” she was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

“When we win medals for India everyone celebrates but after that nobody cares about how we are treated, especially by the federation,” Punia told the outlet.

Later on Wednesday, amid nationwide outrage, India’s federal sports ministry asked the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to respond to the allegations within 72 hours.

Federation president Mr Singh, however, denied the allegations against him and said that he will kill himself if they are found to be true.

“All the sexual harassment allegations are false, and I will commit suicide if they are found to be true. I tried to get in touch with the wrestlers, including Bajrang Punia, but was unable to do so,” the 66-year-old BJP MP was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Mr Singh is a BJP parliamentarian from northern Uttar Pradesh state’s Kaiserganj.

He is a six-term MP, five as a BJP candidate and one as a candidate from the Samajwadi Party.

He has held the post of the wrestling federation chief since 2011.

On Thursday, Babita Phogat, a former wrestler who is now a member of the BJP, met the protesting wrestlers and promised to be their messenger to the government.

“I am a wrestler first. The BJP government is with the wrestlers. I will make sure that action is taken today itself. I am a wrestler, and I am in the government as well, so it is my responsibility to mediate,” she said.

Delhi Commission for Women, the Delhi government’s nodal body for women’s issues, has also issued a notice to the federal sports ministry to take action.

While the wrestlers resumed their protest on Thursday, later a meeting was held with the sports ministry on Thursday afternoon with the athletes presenting their grievances.

After the meeting the wrestlers said that their protests would continue demanding Mr Singh’s removal as they did not get a satisfactory response from the government.

Last June, India’s national cycling team coach RK Sharma was sacked after allegations of sexual harassment by a top woman cyclist.

CUT NOSE TO SPITE FACE 

Youngkin Says Ford Has ‘Trojan Horse’ Relationship With Chinese Battery Maker


Keith Laing and Ed Ludlow
Fri, January 20, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is calling an electric-vehicle battery plant planned by Ford Motor Co.     and a Chinese partner a “Trojan horse” for China that would undermine policy efforts to strengthen the US auto industry.
   
The Republican governor, who  is considered to be a possible 2024 presidential candidate, defended his decision to remove his state from consideration for the proposed plant, a joint venture between Ford and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., also known as CATL.

“I look forward to bringing a great company there. It won’t be one that uses kind of a Trojan-horse relationship with the Chinese Communist Party in order to gain,” Youngkin said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

He also said that vying for the plant would have undermined the premise of recently passed legislation championed by President Joe Biden’s administration. That law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, directs subsidies for EVs and batteries made in North America to wean the US off its dependence on China for battery materials.

“To have that site embroiled in what would have clearly been a deal that contravened the intent and purpose of the Inflation Reduction Act incentives — which is why it was being structured the way it was — could have taken that site offline for an extended period of time,” he said.

The proposed plant, which Michigan and other states have also vied for, is part of a wave of investment by automakers and battery manufacturers. They are spending billions of dollars — and receiving billions more in state and federal subsidies — as part of a transition from gasoline-powered vehicles to EVs.

CATL, the world’s largest battery maker, supplies cells to Tesla Inc. and will begin providing batteries for Honda Motor Co.’s electric vehicles in 2024. It recently opened a factory in Germany and is looking to establish manufacturing in North America.

Ford had no comment on Youngkin’s remarks. A spokesperson for CATL didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of business hours in China.

Asked about a similar accusation from Youngkin on Jan. 18, Ford declined to directly respond and instead said in a statement: “Our talks with CATL continue – and we have nothing new to announce.”

Youngkin said he would be open to working with Ford on future opportunities, as long as they do not also involve CATL. He has expressed regrets about missing out on other major factory deals in recent months.

Read more: Youngkin Says Virginia Missed on Intel, Hyundai on Poor Planning

“This is not a zero-sum game and I would have loved to have Ford come to Virginia and build a battery plant, if they were not using it as a front for a company that’s controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.

Youngkin declined to comment on the status of the site and any specific candidates, citing confidentiality agreements.

--With assistance from Keith Naughton, Gabrielle Coppola, Jacqueline Lopez and Will Shaker.

(Updates with bckground on CATL from seventh paragraph.)