News gathered 2024-04-21
(date: 2024-04-21 09:33:11)
23 Apr 2024
date: 2024-04-24, from: Miguel de Icaza’s blog
Embeddable Game Engine
Many years ago, when working at Xamarin, where
we were building cross-platform libraries for mobile developers, we
wanted to offer both 2D and 3D gaming capabilities for our users in the
form of adding 2D or 3D content to their mobile applications.
For 2D, we contributed and developed assorted Cocos2D-inspired libraries.
For 3D, the situation was more complex. We funded a few over the years, and we contributed to others over the years, but nothing panned out (the history of this is worth a dedicated post).
Around 2013, we looked around, and there were two contenders at the time, one was an embeddable engine with many cute features but not great UI support called Urho, and the other one was a Godot, which had a great IDE, but did not support being embedded.
I reached out to Juan at the time to discuss whether Godot could be turned into such engine. While I tend to take copious notes of all my meetings, those notes sadly were gone as part of the Microsoft acquisition, but from what I can remember Juan told me, "Godot is not what you are looking for" in two dimensions, there were no immediate plans to turn it into an embeddable library, and it was not as advanced as Urho, so he recommended that I go with Urho.
We invested heavily in binding Urho and created UrhoSharp that would go into becoming a great 3D library for our C# users and worked not only on every desktop and mobile platform, but we did a ton of work to make it great for AR and VR headsets. Sadly, Microsoft’s management left UrhoSharp to die.
Then, the maintainer of Urho stepped down, and Godot became one of the most popular open-source projects in the world.
Last year, @Faolan-Rad contributed a patch to Godot to turn it into a library that could be embedded into applications. I used this library to build SwiftGodotKit and have been very happy with it ever since - allowing people to embed Godot content into their application.
However, the patch had severe limitations; it could only ever run one Godot game as an embedded system and could not do much more. The folks at Smirk Software wanted to take this further. They wanted to host independent Godot scenes in their app and have more control over those so they could sprinkle Godot content at their heart’s content on their mobile app (demo)
They funded some initial work to do this and hired Gergely Kis’s company to do this work.
Gergely demoed this work at GodotCon last year. I came back very excited from GodotCon and I decided to turn my prototype Godot on iPad into a complete product.
One of the features that I needed was the ability to embed chunks of Godot in discrete components in my iPad UI, so we worked with Gergely to productize and polish this patch for general consumption.
Now, there is a
complete patch
under review to allow people to embed arbitrary Godot scenes into
their apps. For SwiftUI users, this means that you can embed a Godot
scene into a View and display and control it at will.
Hopefully, the team will accept this change into Godot, and once this is done, I will update SwiftGodotKit to get these new capabilities to Swift users (bindings for other platforms and languages are left as an exercise to the reader).
It only took a decade after talking to Juan, but I am back firmly in Godot land.
https://tirania.org/blog/archive/2024/Apr-23.html
Summer camp options
date: 2024-04-21, from: The Signal
Summer camp season will be here before parents know it. While children anxiously await the last day of school, adults know that it can be challenging to keep kids occupied and mentally stimulated when they aren’t in the classroom. Although it may be alright to enjoy a few days lounging around and playing video games, […]
The post Summer camp options appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/summer-camp-options/
How to find the right fit for summer camp
date: 2024-04-21, from: The Signal
Many adults fondly recall their days at summer camp. The increase in households with two working parents has made it more important than ever to find a camp to accommodate youngsters who need to remain engaged and entertained throughout over summer vacation. That reality has led to more summer camp options, but it’s not always […]
The post How to find the right fit for summer camp appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/how-to-find-the-right-fit-for-summer-camp/
Upstart Lucid has new models, CEO talks pending SUVs, EV future
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
One showroom at Lucid One, the headquarters of Lucid Motors in Newark, includes a display of stators, the electric motor component that helps create a magnetic field. It’s a mini-museum and geek-out showcase for electric vehicle engineering enthusiasts.
The 2024 Mercedes Maybach GLS 600 Ultra Luxury SUV
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
What is a GLS 600? The GLS 600 is an ultra luxury full size SUV built in the Vance, Alabama assembly plant, and sold worldwide by Mercedes Benz. The Maybach brand is at the top of the Mercedes Benz S Class lineup of luxury vehicles, and is built with an exquisitely furnished and extra indulgent cabin.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/21/the-2024-mercedes-maybach-gls-600-ultra-luxury-suv/
@Tomosino’s Mastodon feed (date: 2024-04-21, from: Tomosino’s Mastodon feed)
If any of you are going by the kitchen can you grab me some water? Thanks
https://tilde.zone/@tomasino/112310028733771128
Ukrainian and Western leaders laud US aid package while the Kremlin warns of ‘further ruin’
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Ukrainian and Western leaders on Sunday welcomed a desperately needed aid package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, as the Kremlin warned that passage of the bill would “further ruin” Ukraine and cause more deaths.
TikTok raises free speech concerns on bill passed by US House that may ban app
date: 2024-04-21, from: VOA News USA
Washington — TikTok on Sunday raised free speech concerns about a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would ban the popular social media app in the U.S. if its Chinese owner ByteDance did not sell its stake within a year.
The House passed the legislation on Saturday by a margin of 360 to 58. It now moves to the Senate where it could be taken up for a vote in the coming days. President Joe Biden has previously said he will sign the legislation.
The step to include TikTok in a broader foreign aid package may fast-track the timeline on a potential ban after an earlier separate bill stalled in the U.S. Senate.
“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in a statement.
Many U.S. lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties and the Biden administration say TikTok poses national security risks because China could compel the company to share the data of its 170 million U.S. users. TikTok insists it has never shared U.S. data and never would.
Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Sunday said TikTok could be used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese government.
“Many young people on TikTok get their news (from the app), the idea that we would give the (Chinese) Communist Party this much of a propaganda tool as well as the ability to scrape 170 million Americans’ personal data, it is a national security risk,” he told CBS News.
Some progressive Democrats have also raised free speech concerns over a ban and instead asked for stronger data privacy regulations.
Democratic U.S. Representative Ro Khanna said on Sunday that he felt a TikTok ban may not survive legal scrutiny in courts, citing the U.S. Constitution’s free speech protections.
“I don’t think its going to pass First Amendment scrutiny,” he said in an interview to ABC News.
The House voted on March 13 to give ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app, or face a ban. The legislation passed on Saturday gives a nine-month deadline which could be further extended by three months if the president were to determine progress toward a sale.
TikTok was also a topic of conversation in a call between Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping earlier this month. The White House said Biden raised American concerns about the app’s ownership.
Microsoft is a national security threat, says ex-White House cyber policy director
date: 2024-04-21, updated: 2024-04-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
With little competition at the goverment level, Windows giant has no incentive to make its systems safer
Interview Microsoft has a shocking level of control over IT within the US federal government – so much so that former senior White House cyber policy director AJ Grotto thinks it’s fair to call Redmond’s recent security failures a national security issue. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/21/microsoft_national_security_risk/
Lana Del Rey’s Motorcycle Coachella Entrance Was More of a Thing Than You Know
date: 2024-04-21, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The fire marshalls had some issues.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/716647/lana-del-rey-motorcycle-coachella-ryvid/
Facing Facts
date: 2024-04-21, from: Gary Marcus blog
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.” If all we had was ChatGPT, we could say, hmm “maybe hallucinations are just a bug”, and fantasize that they weren’t hard to fix. If all we had was Gemini, we could say, hmm “maybe hallucinations are just a bug”.
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/facing-facts
Firstgreen remote operated electric skid steer hopes to reduce mining deaths
date: 2024-04-21, from: Electrek Feed
Mining fatalities climbed more than 30 percent from 2022 to 2023, with construction fatalities also continuing to rise. In a bid to help keep miners safe, FIRSTGREEN Industries has launched a new line of cabinless, remote operated skid steers designed specifically for use in critical mining operations.
Milpitas police launch transparency portal
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Website’s resources aimed at increasing accountability.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/21/milpitas-police-launch-transparency-portal/
Saratoga Rotary Art Show’s impact is felt throughout South Bay
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
In its 65th year, event’s support of local nonprofits has ripple effect.
Burglars break into 6 vehicles at Saratoga apartments
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Value of items stolen is about $125.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/21/burglars-break-into-6-vehicles-at-saratoga-apartments/
Mavis Staples joins lineup for Heritage Theatre’s 20th anniversary
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Iconic musician, 84, takes the stage May 10 at Campbell venue.
Saratoga Blossom Festival rescheduled to June 8 after weather delay
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
April event date was rained out.
South Bay springs forth with wine and food events
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Area is replete with Derby Day events, wine dinners.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/21/south-bay-springs-forth-with-wine-and-food-events/
AccuWeather Calls Out Tesla Cybertruck Caught In New Orleans Storm
date: 2024-04-21, from: Inside EVs News
Wade Mode may get you out of a tough spot, but best to avoid these situations if you can.
https://insideevs.com/news/716032/tesla-cybertruck-rainfall-water-new-orleans/
Five hundred and thirty reasons to visit Bradford
date: 2024-04-21, from: RiscOS Open
This year’s show organised by WROCC is once again taking place in the Cedar Court Hotel in Bradford on Saturday 27th April from 10:30am to 4:30pm. The venue has convenient road and rail access – see the Google map for directions.
Worth a visit
Whether you’re travelling from La Rochelle (France), Mannheim (Germany), Svenstrup (Denmark), or even Hovden (Norway), that 530 mile trip is sure to be worth making – drop by the RISC OS Open stand to discuss the latest developments in RISC OS and share your thoughts for the future with us.
Over in the show theatre a number of talks will be taking place during the day, including RISC OS Open.
http://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2024/04/21/five-hundred-and-thirty-reasons-to-visit-bradford
Saratoga city manager to depart in June after 10 years
date: 2024-04-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
James Lindsay has worked for the city since 2011.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/21/saratoga-city-manager-to-depart-in-june-after-10-years/
LEVER WEEKLY: Affordable Medicine Is Locked Up In The Ivory Tower
date: 2024-04-21, from: The Lever News
From public universities colluding with Big Pharma to Democrats crushing voter choice, here’s all the news from The Lever this week.
https://www.levernews.com/lever-weekly-affordable-medicine-is-locked-up-in-the-ivory-tower/
Have You Seen Beta’s New 390 and 500 RS Special Editions?
date: 2024-04-21, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
All the enduro you need in a street-legal package.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/716524/beta-390-500-rs-special-edition/
NF really is consistent
date: 2024-04-21, from: Logic Matters blog
About eighteen months ago, I noted here that a project was underway to verify Randall Holmes’s rather impenetrable claimed proof of the consistency of NF, using the Lean proof verification system. The project has now been completed by Sky Wilshaw, a Part III student in Cambridge, building on the earlier work of some other students. […]
The post NF really is consistent appeared first on Logic Matters.
https://www.logicmatters.net/2024/04/21/nf-really-is-consistent/
Uber goes to Washington
date: 2024-04-21, from: Enlightenment Economics
Uber arouses strong opinions, for some good reasons. The trouble is – for those who strongly dislike the company’s treatment of its drivers – that it offers a service users and even some drivers seem to like a lot. That … Continue reading
http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.php/2024/04/uber-goes-to-washington/
David Hegg | Stick to Your Values
date: 2024-04-21, from: The Signal
By David Hegg With election season in full swing and electioneering filling our mailboxes and TV screens, it’s time to remind ourselves that the most important decisions we make as Americans don’t come in the voting booth. I’m talking about the bedrock values upon which our great democracy is built. As Abraham Lincoln described […]
The post David Hegg | Stick to Your Values appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/david-hegg-stick-to-your-values/
Brian Richards | Useful Idiots!
date: 2024-04-21, from: The Signal
Many of us who have been in California have lived through droughts. I remember my grandparents in Hayward capturing shower water in the early 1970s so they could water their plants. This was back when the climate was perfectly static and never changed. Through 2021-22, California experienced a drought. They tend to happen given our […]
The post Brian Richards | Useful Idiots! appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/brian-richards-useful-idiots/
Rob Kerchner | Presidential Chutzpah
date: 2024-04-21, from: The Signal
It takes a lot of chutzpah to stand before America and condemn the money-grubbing “rich” who “don’t pay their fair share of taxes” in a State of the Union when your son is facing multiple felony counts for not paying any income tax at all, and you received much of the money yourself, also without […]
The post Rob Kerchner | Presidential Chutzpah appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/rob-kerchner-presidential-chutzpah/
Sunday caption contest: The twelve
date: 2024-04-21, from: Robert Reich on Substack
And last week’s winner
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-caption-contest-support
Tesla lowers price of ‘Full Self-Driving’ to $8,000, down from $12,000
date: 2024-04-21, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla has once again lowered the price of its Full Self-Driving software by $4,000, now costing $8,000, down from a previous price of $12,000 in the US.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/21/tesla-lowers-price-of-full-self-driving-to-8000-down-from-12000/
Hawaii lawmakers take aim at vacation rentals after wildfire amplifies housing crisis
date: 2024-04-21, from: VOA News USA
HONOLULU — A single mother of two, Amy Chadwick spent years scrimping and saving to buy a house in the town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. But after a devastating fire leveled Lahaina in August and reduced Chadwick’s home to white dust, the cheapest rental she could find for her family and dogs cost $10,000 a month.
Chadwick, a fine-dining server, moved to Florida where she could stretch her homeowners insurance dollars. She’s worried Maui’s exorbitant rental prices, driven in part by vacation rentals that hog a limited housing supply, will hollow out her tight-knit town.
Most people in Lahaina work for hotels, restaurants and tour companies and can’t afford $5,000 to $10,000 a month in rent, she said.
“You’re pushing out an entire community of service industry people. So no one’s going to be able to support the tourism that you’re putting ahead of your community,” Chadwick said by phone from her new home in Satellite Beach on Florida’s Space Coast. “Nothing good is going to come of it unless they take a serious stance, putting their foot down and really regulating these short-term rentals.”
The August 8 wildfire killed 101 people and destroyed housing for 6,200 families, amplifying Maui’s already acute housing shortage and laying bare the enormous presence of vacation rentals in Lahaina. It reminded lawmakers that short-term rentals are an issue across Hawaii, prompting them to consider bills that would give counties the authority to phase them out.
Gov. Josh Green got so frustrated he blurted an expletive during a recent news conference.
“This fire uncovered a clear truth, which is we have too many short-term rentals owned by too many individuals on the mainland and it is b———t,” Green said. “And our people deserve housing, here.”
Vacation rentals are a popular alternative to hotels for those seeking kitchens, lower costs and opportunities to sample everyday island life. Supporters say they boost tourism, the state’s biggest employer. Critics revile them for inflating housing costs, upending neighborhoods and contributing to the forces pushing locals and Native Hawaiians to leave Hawaii for less expensive states.
This migration has become a major concern in Lahaina. The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, a nonprofit, estimates at least 1,500 households — or a quarter of those who lost their homes — have left since the August wildfire.
The blaze burned single family homes and apartments in and around downtown, which is the core of Lahaina’s residential housing. An analysis by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization found a relatively low 7.5% of units there were vacation rentals as of February 2023.
Lahaina neighborhoods spared by the fire have a much higher ratio of vacation rentals: About half the housing in Napili, about 11 kilometers north of the burn zone, is short-term rentals.
Napili is where Chadwick thought she found a place to buy when she first went house hunting in 2016. But a Canadian woman secured it with a cash offer and turned it into a vacation rental.
Also outside the burn zone are dozens of short-term rental condominium buildings erected decades ago on land zoned for apartments.
In 1992, Maui County explicitly allowed owners in these buildings to rent units for less than 180 days at a time even without short-term rental permits. Since November, activists have occupied the beach in front of Lahaina’s biggest hotels to push the mayor or governor to use their emergency powers to revoke this exemption.
Money is a powerful incentive for owners to rent to travelers: a 2016 report prepared for the state found a Honolulu vacation rental generates 3.5 times the revenue of a long-term rental.
State Rep. Luke Evslin, the Housing Committee chair, said Maui and Kauai counties have suffered net losses of residential housing in recent years thanks to a paucity of new construction and the conversion of so many homes to short-term rentals.
“Every alarm bell we have should be ringing when we’re literally going backwards in our goal to provide more housing in Hawaii,” he said.
In his own Kauai district, Evslin sees people leaving, becoming homeless or working three jobs to stay afloat.
The Democrat was one of 47 House members who co-sponsored one version of legislation that would allow short-term rentals to be phased out. One objective is to give counties more power after a U.S. judge in 2022 ruled Honolulu violated state law when it attempted to prohibit rentals for less than 90 days. Evslin said that decision left Hawaii’s counties with limited tools, such as property taxes, to control vacation rentals.
Lawmakers also considered trying to boost Hawaii’s housing supply by forcing counties to allow more houses to be built on individual lots. But they watered down the measure after local officials said they were already exploring the idea.
Short-term rental owners said a phase-out would violate their property rights and take their property without compensation, potentially pushing them into foreclosure. Some predicted legal challenges.
Alicia Humiston, president of the Rentals by Owner Awareness Association, said some areas in West Maui were designed for travelers and therefore lack schools and other infrastructure families need.
“This area in West Maui that is sort of like this resort apartment zone — that’s all north of Lahaina — it was never built to be local living,” Humiston said.
One housing advocate argues that just because a community allowed vacation rentals decades ago doesn’t mean it still needs to now.
“We are not living in the 1990s or in the 1970s,” said Sterling Higa, executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future. Counties “should have the authority to look at existing laws and reform them as necessary to provide for the public good.”
Courtney Lazo, a real estate agent who is part of Lahaina Strong, the group occupying Kaanapali Beach, said tourists can stay in her hometown now but many locals can’t.
“How do you expect a community to recover and heal and move forward when the people who make Lahaina, Lahaina, aren’t even there anymore?” she said at a recent news conference as her voice quivered. “They’re moving away.”
CSUN drops series to Highlanders after intense final game
date: 2024-04-21, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
After splitting the first two games of the series against UC Riverside (14-24, 8-10 Big West) on Friday, the Matadors lost a closely contested ball game on Saturday to close…
https://sundial.csun.edu/180894/sports/csun-drops-series-to-highlanders-after-intense-final-game/
Today in SCV History (April 21)
date: 2024-04-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1994 – Sand Canyon homeowner Eddie Murray sets MLB record for switch-hit home runs in games (11 times). [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-april-21/
How to get rid of New York City rats without brutality? Birth control is one idea
date: 2024-04-21, from: VOA News USA
Chicago’s response to migrant influx stirs long-standing frustrations among its Blacks
date: 2024-04-21, from: VOA News USA
CHICAGO — The closure of Wadsworth Elementary School in 2013 was a blow to residents of the majority-Black neighborhood it served, symbolizing a city indifferent to their interests.
So when the city reopened Wadsworth last year to shelter hundreds of migrants without seeking community input, it added insult to injury. Across Chicago, Black residents are frustrated that long-standing needs are not being met while the city’s newly arrived are cared for with a sense of urgency, and with their tax dollars.
“Our voices are not valued nor heard,” said Genesis Young, a lifelong Chicagoan who lives near Wadsworth.
Chicago is one of several big American cities grappling with a surge of migrants. The Republican governor of Texas has been sending them by the busload to highlight his grievances with the Biden administration’s immigration policy.
To manage the influx, Chicago has already spent more than $300 million of city, state and federal funds to provide housing, health care, education and more to over 38,000 mostly South American migrants who have arrived in the city since 2022, desperate for help. The speed with which these funds were marshaled has stirred widespread resentment among Black Chicagoans.
But community leaders are trying to ease racial tensions and channel the public’s frustrations into agitating for the greater good.
Political reactions
The outcry over migrants in Chicago and other large Democrat-led cities is having wider implications in an election year: The Biden administration is now advocating a more restrictive approach to immigration in its negotiations with Republicans in Congress.
Since the Wadsworth building reopened as a shelter, Young has felt “extreme anxiety” because of the noise, loitering and around-the-clock police presence that came with it. More than anything, she and other neighbors say it is a reminder of problems that have been left unsolved for years, including high rates of crime, unemployment and homelessness.
“I definitely don’t want to seem insensitive to them and them wanting a better life. However, if you can all of a sudden come up with all these millions of dollars to address their housing, why didn’t you address the homeless issue here?” said Charlotte Jackson, the owner of a bakery and restaurant in the South Loop neighborhood.
“For so long we accepted that this is how things had to be in our communities,” said Chris Jackson, who co-founded the bakery with his wife. “This migrant crisis has made many people go: ‘Wait a minute, no it doesn’t.’”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to comment for this story.
The city received more than $200 million from the state and federal governments to help care for migrants after Johnson appealed to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and President Joe Biden. The president will be in Chicago in August to make his reelection pitch at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
Some see opportunity
Some Black Chicagoans are protesting the placement of shelters in their neighborhoods, but others aim to turn the adversity into an opportunity.
“Chicago is a microcosm to the rest of the nation,” said the Reverend Janette C. Wilson, national executive director of the civil rights group PUSH for Excellence. Black communities have faced discrimination and underinvestment for decades and are justifiably frustrated, Wilson said. The attention the migrants are receiving is deserved, she added, but it’s also a chance for cities to reflect on their responsibility to all underserved communities.
“There is a moral imperative to take care of everybody,” Wilson said.
After nearly two years of acrimony, the city has begun to curb some accommodations for migrants – which has caused its own backlash. The city last month started evicting migrants who overstayed a 60-day limit at shelters, prompting condemnation from immigrant rights groups and from residents worried about public safety.
Marlita Ingram, a school guidance counselor who lives in the South Shore neighborhood, said she was concerned about the resources being shared “equitably” between migrants and longtime residents. But she said she also believed that “it doesn’t have to be a competition” and sympathized with the nearly 6,000 migrant children now enrolled in Chicago’s public schools.
As the potential for racial strife rises, some activists are pointing to history as a cautionary tale.
Hundreds of thousands of Black Southerners moved to Chicago in the early 20th century in search of greater freedoms and economic opportunities. White Chicagoans at the time accused them of receiving disproportionate resources from the city, and in 1919 tensions boiled over.
In a surge of racist attacks in cities across the U.S. that came to be known as “Red Summer,” white residents burned large swaths of Chicago’s Black neighborhoods and killed 38 Black people, including by lynching.
“Those white folks were, like, ‘Hell, no, they’re coming here, they’re taking our jobs,’ ’’ said Richard Wallace, founder of Equity and Transformation, a majority-Black community group that co-hosted a forum in March to improve dialogue between Black and Latino residents.
Echoes of past
He hears echoes of that past bigotry — intentional or not — when Black Chicagoans complain about the help being given to migrants. “How did we become like the white folks who were resisting our people coming to the city of the Chicago?” he said.
Labor and immigrant rights organizers have worked for years to tamp down divisions among working class communities. But the migrant crisis has created tensions between the city’s large Mexican American community and recently arrived migrants, many of whom hail from Venezuela.
“If left unchecked, we all panic, we’re all scared, we’re going to retreat to our corners,” said Leone Jose Bicchieri, executive director of Working Family Solidarity, a majority-Hispanic labor rights group. “The truth is that this city wouldn’t work without Black and Latino people.”
Black Americans’ views on immigration and diversity are expansive. The Civil Rights Movement was instrumental in pushing the U.S. to adopt a more inclusive immigration policy.
About half of Black Americans say the United States’ diverse population makes the country strong, including 30% who say it makes the U.S. “much stronger,” according to a March poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Many leaders in Black neighborhoods in and around Chicago are trying to acknowledge the tensions without exacerbating them.
“Our church is divided on the migrant crisis,” said the Reverend Chauncey Brown, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Maywood, Illinois, a majority-Black suburb of Chicago where some migrants are living in shelters.
There has been a noticeable uptick of non-English speakers in the pews, many of whom have said they are migrants in need of food and other services, Brown said. Some church members cautioned him against speaking out in support of migrants or allotting more church resources to them. But he said the Bible’s teachings are clear on this issue.
“When a stranger enters your land, you are to care for them as if they are one of your own,” he said.
Update: Man Dies After Plummeting 50 Feet off Cliff in Isla Vista
date: 2024-04-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The fall occurred behind 6625 Del Playa Drive on Saturday afternoon after the unidentified male reportedly climbed over a barrier fence.
The post Update: Man Dies After Plummeting 50 Feet off Cliff in Isla Vista appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/20/man-plummets-50-feet-off-cliff-in-isla-vista/
Artists stun at Day 1 of Coachella’s second weekend
date: 2024-04-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The Daily Trojan covered the music lovers’ mecca live for the first time, and the start of 2024’s Weekend 2 did not disappoint.
The post Artists stun at Day 1 of Coachella’s second weekend appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/20/artists-stun-at-day-1-of-coachellas-second-weekend/
April 20, 2024
date: 2024-04-21, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
Cheering broke out in the gallery and among Democrats on the floor of the House of Representatives this afternoon when the House passed the $60.8 billion aid bill for Ukraine. The vote was 311–112, with all Democrats and 101 Republicans voting in favor and 112 Republicans voting against. One Republican voted present.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-20-2024
Taiwan to discuss with US how to use new funding
date: 2024-04-21, from: VOA News USA
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s defense ministry said Sunday it will discuss with the United States how to use funding for the island included in a $95 billion legislative package mostly providing security assistance to Ukraine and Israel.
The United States is Taiwan’s most important international supporter and arms supplier despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
Democratically governed Taiwan has faced increased military pressure from China, which views the island as its own territory. Taiwan’s government rejects those claims.
The defense ministry expressed thanks to the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the package on Saturday, saying it demonstrated the “rock solid” U.S. support for Taiwan.
The ministry added it “will coordinate the relevant budget uses with the United States through existing exchange mechanisms and work hard to strengthen combat readiness capabilities to ensure national security and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Taiwan has since 2022 complained of delays in deliveries of U.S. weapons such as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, as manufacturers focused on supplying Ukraine to help the country battle invading Russian forces.
Underscoring the pressure Taiwan faces from China, the ministry said Sunday morning that during the previous 24 hours 14 Chinese military aircraft had crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait.
The median line once served as an unofficial border between the two sides, which neither military crossed. But China’s air force now regularly sends aircraft over it. China says it does not recognize the line’s existence.
On Saturday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said China had again carried out “joint combat readiness patrols” with Chinese warships and warplanes around Taiwan.
China’s defense ministry did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours Sunday.
The island’s armed forces are dwarfed by those of China’s, especially the navy and air force.
https://www.voanews.com/a/taiwan-to-discuss-with-us-how-to-use-new-funding-/7578608.html
Once foreign aid bill signed, this is how US can rush weapons to Ukraine
date: 2024-04-21, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days once Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs.
Moving fast is critical, CIA Director Bill Burns said this past week, warning that without additional aid from the U.S., Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year.
“We would like very much to be able to rush the security assistance in the volumes we think they need to be able to be successful,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.
The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday. It still needs to clear the Senate and President Joe Biden’s signature.
Once that happens, “we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters this past week. “We can move within days.”
Ready to go
The Pentagon has had supplies ready to go for months but hasn’t moved them because it is out of money. It has spent the funding Congress previously provided to support Ukraine, sending more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
By December, the Pentagon was $10 billion in the hole, because it is going to cost more now to replace the systems it sent to the battlefield in Ukraine.
As a result, the Pentagon’s frequent aid packages for Ukraine dried up because there had been no guarantee that Congress would pass the additional funding needed to replenish the weapons the U.S. has been sending to Ukraine.
The lag in weapons deliveries has forced Ukrainian troops to spend months rationing their dwindling supply of munitions.
How US can quickly move weapons
When an aid package for Ukraine is announced, the weapons are either provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the military to immediately pull from its stockpiles, or through security assistance, which funds longer-term contracts with the defense industry to obtain the systems.
The presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, as it’s known, has allowed the military to send billions of dollars’ worth of ammunition, air defense missile launchers, tanks, vehicles and other equipment to Ukraine.
“In the past, we’ve seen weapons transferred via presidential drawdown authority arrive within a matter of days,” said Brad Bowman, director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies center on military and political power.
Those stocks are pulled from bases or storage facilities in the U.S. or from European sites where the U.S. has surged weapons to cut down on the amount of time it will take to deliver them once the funding is approved.
Storage in US
The military has massive weapons storage facilities in the U.S. for millions of rounds of munitions of all sizes that would be ready to use in case of war.
For example, the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma sprawls across more than 16,000 hectares connected by rail and has a mission to surge as many as 435 shipping containers — each able to carry 15 tons worth of munitions — if ordered by the president.
The facility is also a major storage site for one of the most used munitions on Ukraine’s battlefield, 155 mm howitzer rounds.
The demand by Ukraine for that particular shell has put pressure on U.S. stockpiles and pushed the military to see where else it could get them. As a result, tens of thousands of 155 mm rounds have been shipped back from South Korea to McAlester to be retrofitted for Ukraine.
Storage in Europe
According to a U.S. military official, the U.S. would be able to send certain munitions “almost immediately” to Ukraine because storehouses exist in Europe.
Among the weapons that could go very quickly are the 155 mm rounds and other artillery, along with some air defense munitions. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss preparations not yet made public.
A host of sites across Germany, Poland and other European allies also are helping Ukraine maintain and train on systems sent to the front. For example, Germany set up a maintenance hub for Kyiv’s Leopard 2 tank fleet in Poland, near the Ukrainian border.
The nearby maintenance hubs hasten the turnaround time to get needed repairs done on the Western systems.
CSUN alumnus becomes ambassador for Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign
date: 2024-04-21, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
Dominic Parker was seven years old when Barack Obama won the 2008 election. His older sister, Rochelle, who is African-American, had followed the campaign closely along with his mother. In…
First ever electric semi truck rides into Mexico with SDG&E
date: 2024-04-21, from: Electrek Feed
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) says the maiden voyage of their Class 8 heavy-duty electric semi marks the first time an electric semi has crossed the border hauling a standard load, marking an important milestone as the two nations move toward a net zero future.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/20/first-ever-electric-semi-truck-rides-into-mexico-with-sdge/
Full Circle Weekly News 362
date: 2024-04-21, from: Full Circle Magazine
Credits
- Host: @bardictriad, @zaivala
- Bumper: Canonical
- Theme Music: From The Dust - Stardust
- https://soundcloud.com/ftdmusic
- CC BY 4.0
https://fullcirclemagazine.org/podcasts/podcast-362/
Liebherr electric excavator reaches million ton milestone, scores more orders
date: 2024-04-20, from: Electrek Feed
This massive Liebherr electric excavator reached a major operational milestone earlier this month when it moved its one millionth tonne of dirt. And now, its buyers want more!
US House speaker, who strongly opposed Ukraine aid, ushers it through
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
Washington — Republican Mike Johnson came out of nowhere six months ago to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, before emerging as an ardent defender of military aid to Ukraine, which the chamber approved Saturday.
The evolution of this 52-year-old Southerner with carefully coiffed hair has been stunning.
An arch-conservative Christian from Louisiana, he shot to the top leadership position in the House in October after the unprecedented ouster of then-speaker Kevin McCarthy in a rebellion by far-right lawmakers allied with Donald Trump.
After several candidates were proposed, then discarded, Johnson’s name came up — he was a virtual unknown to the American public — and with the blessing of Trump, Johnson become leader of the House and of a Republican congressional caucus at war with itself.
Johnson had for months blocked a vote on the aid desperately needed by Ukraine’s army as it defends against Russian invasion forces.
But recently his tone began to soften. And then, in a head-spinning shift, Johnson last week emerged as a passionate defender of a long-delayed aid package.
That culminated in the vote Saturday in which his chamber, by a strong bipartisan majority, passed more than $60 billion of additional military and financial support for Ukraine.
Metamorphosis
What was behind Johnson’s metamorphosis?
“I believe Johnson has been convinced, gradually, that America must support Ukraine in our own interests, and that the far-right Republicans demanding otherwise were simply wrong,” Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, told AFP.
In December, as previously approved U.S. funding for Kyiv was drying up, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine made a last-ditch visit to Washington to plead for a new aid package.
Zelenskyy made his way through the halls of Congress accompanied by the Senate’s top Democrat and Republican, both vocal supporters of President Joe Biden’s request for $60 billion.
But his meeting with Johnson was held behind closed doors.
Johnson afterward said Biden was asking for “billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight, no clear strategy to win, and none of the answers that I think the American people are owed.”
Since then, however, a series of U.S. and world figures — including British Foreign Secretary David Cameron — worked to persuade Johnson of the high stakes, with some warning that Ukraine could fall by year’s end unless the U.S. aid came through.
One concession
On Monday, Johnson announced the House would, after all, take up separate bills to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and that he would support them.
Johnson did make one concession to Trump — who had demanded that aid to Ukraine be at least partly in the form of loans — making a part of the package subject to repayment.
But the debt can still be forgiven, and the aid package is almost exactly for the amount requested months ago by Biden.
What was behind Johnson’s rethinking?
“He didn’t want the fall of Ukraine on his hands,” Sabato said.
Johnson provided further insight during a news conference Wednesday.
“To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys,” he said, before adding, his voice choking with emotion, that his son is about to enter the U.S. Naval Academy.
“This is a live-fire exercise for me, as it is for so many American families,” Johnson said.
It remains unclear whether some of the far-right legislators behind last year’s ouster of McCarthy might work to unseat Johnson after the perceived betrayal.
The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, struck a philosophic tone when describing Johnson’s thorny choices.
“This,” he said, “is a Churchill or Chamberlain moment” — referring first to the wartime British prime minister known for his steely determination and then to Churchill’s predecessor, his name forever linked to a policy of appeasement.
Without quite casting himself in those terms, Johnson said he views himself as “a wartime speaker.”
In a somber tone, he added, “We have to do the right thing — and history will judge us.”
Photos: Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Signal
The city of Santa Clarita held its annual Cowboy Festival, where residents could practice their lasso skills, listen to music and even wed during the city’s first-ever “The Big I Do, Cowboy Festival Edition.” The festival will continue through Sunday to carry on the traditional Western atmosphere.
The post Photos: Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/photos-santa-clarita-cowboy-festival/
Tesla Cut Model S, Model X And Model Y Prices By $2,000
date: 2024-04-20, from: Inside EVs News
Will this move boost sales to a point to balance supply with demand?
https://insideevs.com/news/716837/tesla-cut-models-modelx-modely-prices/
US ponders trade status upgrade for Vietnam despite some opposition
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
Washington — U.S. officials are considering a request from Vietnam to be removed from a list of “nonmarket” economies, a step that would foster improved diplomatic relations with a potential ally in Asia but would anger some U.S. lawmakers and manufacturing firms.
The Southeast Asian country is on the list of 12 nations identified by the U.S. as nonmarket economies, which also includes China and Russia because of strong state intervention in their economies.
Analysts believe Hanoi is hoping for a decision before the November U.S. election, which could mean a return to power of Donald Trump, who during his previous term as president threatened to boost tariffs on Vietnam because of its large trade surplus with the United States.
Under the Trump administration, the Department of Treasury also put Vietnam on a list of currency manipulators, which can lead to being excluded from U.S. government procurement contracts or other remedial actions. The Treasury, under the Biden administration, removed Vietnam from this list.
On the eve of President Joe Biden’s September visit to Hanoi, where he and Vietnamese Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong elevated the U.S.-Vietnam relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
Vietnam formally asked U.S. Department of Commerce to remove it from the list of nonmarket economies on the grounds that it had made economic reforms in recent years.
The Biden administration subsequently initiated a review of Vietnam’s nonmarket economy (NME) status. The Department of Commerce is to issue a final decision by July 26, 270 days after initiating the review.
“Receiving market economy status is the highest diplomatic priority of the Vietnamese leadership this year, especially after last fall’s double upgrade in diplomatic relations,” said Zachary Abuza, a professor at National War College where he focuses on Southeast Asian politics and security issues.
He told VOA Vietnamese that the Vietnamese “are really linking the implementation of the joint vision statement to receiving that status.”
The U.S. is Vietnam’s most important export market with two-way trade totaling more than $125 billion in 2023, according to U.S. Census data. But Washington has initiated more trade defense investigations with Vietnam than with any other country, mainly anti-dumping investigations. Vietnam recorded 58 cases subject to trade remedies of the U.S. as of August 2023, in which 26 were anti-dumping, according to the Vietnam Trade Office in the U.S.
Vietnam has engaged a lobbying firm in Washington to help it win congressional support for a status upgrade. A Foreign Agents Registration Act’s statement filed to the U.S. Department of Justice shows that Washington-based Steptoe is assisting the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and supporting the Vietnamese government in “obtaining market economy status in antidumping proceedings.”
“I understand why Vietnamese are lobbying,” said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“One reason is U.S.-Vietnam relations have come so far, and to hold the non-market [status] is a little bit disingenuous because most of the countries that have this status are countries like China, Russia, North Korea, who are not so friendly with the United States. So I think [the U.S. recognition of Vietnam as a market economy] would be a sign that relations have improved.”
US election key
Both Abuza and Hiebert believe that Vietnam is pushing hard to secure the upgrade before the November U.S. election that could bring Trump back into office.
“Trump began an investigation of Vietnam’s dumping just before the end of his administration. He may again start that process,” said Hiebert, who was senior director for Southeast Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before joining CSIS.
But Vietnam’s campaign faces opposition from within the U.S.
More than 30 U.S. lawmakers in January sent joint letters to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo urging the Biden administration not to grant market economy status to Vietnam. They argued that Vietnam did not meet the procedural requirements for a change of status and that granting Hanoi’s wish would be “a serious mistake.”
The U.S. designated Vietnam as a nonmarket economy in 2002 during an anti-dumping investigation into Vietnamese catfish exports. Over the past 21 years, the U.S. has imposed anti-dumping duties on many Vietnamese exports, including agricultural and industrial products.
In a request sent to Raimondo to initiate a changed circumstances review, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade said that over the past 20 years, the economy of Vietnam “has been through dramatic developments and reforms.” It said 72 countries recognize Vietnam as a market economy, notably the U.K., Canada, Australia and Japan.
‘Unfairly traded Chinese goods’
U.S. manufacturing groups have expressed opposition to Vietnam’s request, arguing that Vietnam continues to operate as a nonmarket economy. In comments sent to Raimondo, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AMM) said that Vietnam “cannot reasonably be understood to demonstrate the characteristics of a market economy.”
“There’s still heavy intervention by the governing Communist Party [of Vietnam],” said Scott Paul, president of AMM. “There’s a lot of indication that China may be using Vietnam as a platform to also export to the U.S., which is obviously concerning to firms here,” he said.
In a letter dated January 28, eight senators wrote “Granting Vietnam market economy status before it addresses its clear nonmarket behavior and the severe deficiencies in its labor law will worsen ongoing trade distortions, erode the U.S. manufacturing base, threaten American workers and industries, and reinforce Vietnam’s role as a conduit for goods produced in China with forced labor.”
Many Chinese products have been found to be disguised or labeled as “Made in Vietnam” to avoid U.S. tariffs since Trump launched a trade war with China in 2018. Vietnam has promised to crack down on the practice.
Abuza pointed out what he called a contradiction in U.S. policy.
“Vietnam is too important to the United States economically in terms of trade and foreign direct investment, and we cannot look to Vietnam for supply chain diversification out of China if it doesn’t have market economy status.”
Hiebert said the U.S. “should do this and get moving” as Vietnam is “one of the U.S.’ best friends in Asia and Southeast Asia and help stand up to China.”
Tennessee Volkswagen employees vote to join United Auto Workers union
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
Chattanooga, Tennessee — Employees at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted to join the United Auto Workers union Friday in a historic first test of the UAW’s renewed effort to organize nonunion factories.
The union wound up getting 2,628 votes, or 73% of the ballots cast, compared with only 985 who voted no in an election run by the National Labor Relations Board.
Both sides have five business days to file objections to the election, the NLRB said. If there are none, the election will be certified, and VW and the union must “begin bargaining in good faith.”
President Joe Biden, who backed the UAW and won its endorsement, said the union’s win follows major union gains across the country including actors, port workers, Teamsters members, writers and health care workers.
Twice in recent years, workers at the Chattanooga plant have rejected union membership in plantwide votes. Most recently, they handed the UAW a narrow defeat in 2019 as federal prosecutors were breaking up a bribery-and-embezzlement scandal at the union.
But this time, they voted convincingly for the UAW, which is operating under new leadership directly elected by members for the first time and basking in a successful confrontation with Detroit’s major automakers.
The union’s new president, Shawn Fain, was elected on a platform of cleaning up after the scandal and turning more confrontational with automakers. An emboldened Fain, backed by Biden, led the union in a series of strikes last fall against Detroit’s automakers that resulted in lucrative new contracts.
Next up for a union vote are workers at Mercedes factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who will vote on UAW representation in May.
Fain said he was not surprised by the size of the union’s win Friday after the two previous losses.
“This gives workers everywhere else the indication that it’s OK,” Fain said. “All we’ve heard for years is we can’t win here, you can’t do this in the South, and you can.”
Worker Vicky Holloway of Chattanooga was among dozens of cheering workers celebrating at an electrical workers union hall near the VW plant. She said the overwhelming vote for the union came this time because her colleagues realized they could have better benefits and a voice in the workplace.
“Right now, we have no say,” said Holloway, who has worked at the plant for 13 years. “It’s like our opinions don’t matter.”
In a statement, Volkswagen thanked workers for voting and said 83.5% of the 4,300 production workers cast ballots in the election.
Six Southern governors, including Tennessee’s Bill Lee, warned the workers in a joint statement this week that joining the UAW could cost them their jobs and threaten the region’s economic progress.
But the overwhelming win is a warning to nonunion manufacturers, said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who studies the union.
“This is going to send a powerful message to all of those companies that the UAW is knocking at the door, and if they want to remain nonunion, they’ve got to step up their game,” Masters said.
Shortly after the Detroit contracts were ratified, Volkswagen and other nonunion companies handed their workers big pay raises.
Last fall, Volkswagen raised production worker pay by 11%, lifting top base wages to $32.40 per hour, or just over $67,000 per year. VW said its pay exceeds the median household income for the Chattanooga area, which was $54,480 last May, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
But under the UAW contracts, top production workers at GM, for instance, now earn $36 an hour, or about $75,000 a year excluding benefits and profit sharing. By the end of the contract in 2028, top-scale GM workers would make over $89,000.
@Chris Coyier blog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Chris Coyier blog)
You’re doing yourself a grave disservice if your writing opens with something boring or banal. You’re going to lose me, at least. I’ve got a list of stuff to read and watch as long as your arm. Maggie really digs into this, in an effort to get better. Your challenge is finding the compelling problem […]
https://chriscoyier.net/2024/04/20/11284/
Kia Affordable Subcompact EV Crossover Seen Testing (Updated)
date: 2024-04-20, from: Inside EVs News
The captured footage appears to show the car being tested for left-hand drive markets.
https://insideevs.com/news/716813/kia-affordable-ev2-caught-video/
Miracle-wm 0.2.0 released
date: 2024-04-20, from: OS News
Miracle-wm is a Wayland compositor built atop of Mir, and its core is a tiling window manager like i3 and sway. It intends to offer more features compared to those, though, gunning more for swayfx. The project, led by Canonical’s Matthew Kosarek, recently released version 0.2.0, which comes with a bunch of improvements. It supports sway/i3 IPC now, so that it can function in conjunction with Waybar, a very popular tool in the build-it-yourself Wayland window manager space. There’s also a new feature where individual windows can live on top (Z-axis wise) of the tiling grid, where they work pretty much like regular windows. Another handy addition is that the configuration can be automatically reloaded when you change it. Miracle-wm comes in a snap package, but rpm and deb will arrive in a few days, as well. As the version number suggest, this project is in heavy development.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139378/miracle-wm-0-2-0-released/
Up on the Eighth
date: 2024-04-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
My fondest memories aren’t of the theater at the Granada, but rather the eighth floor when it was the home of Santa Barbara’s KTYD.
The post Up on the Eighth appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/20/up-on-the-eighth/
Housing and Traffic Snarls Goleta and County of Santa Barbara
date: 2024-04-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
City protests new County Planning idea to allow developers to fudge on traffic impacts of thousands of new homes.
The post Housing and Traffic Snarls Goleta and County of Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Pakistan protests ‘erroneous’ US sanctions on Chinese firms over missile program allegations
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
Islamabad — Pakistan criticized the United States on Saturday for penalizing four international companies on charges they are aiding its ballistic missile program.
“Pakistan rejects political use of export controls,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch.
The reaction came a day after Washington imposed sanctions on three Chinese companies and one Belarus-based firm for their alleged links to Islamabad’s missile development program.
“These entities have supplied missile‐applicable items to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, including its long-range missile program,” the U.S. State Department said on Friday.
It noted that the sanctions are part of U.S. efforts to disrupt and target “proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery” and strengthen the global nonproliferation “regime.”
“Such listings of commercial entities have taken place in the past as well on allegations of links to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program without sharing any evidence whatsoever,” Baloch said.
“We have pointed out many times the need to avoid (the) arbitrary application of export controls and for discussions between concerned parties for an objective mechanism to avoid erroneous sanctions on (the) technology needed purely for socio-economic development pursuits,” she added.
Baloch renewed Islamabad’s readiness to discuss “end-use and end-user verification mechanisms so that legitimate commercial users are not hurt by discriminatory application of export controls.
She asserted that Pakistan has in the past come across instances where mere suspicions led to the blacklisting of foreign companies.
The U.S. identified the alleged suppliers to Islamabad’s ballistic missile program as China-based Xi’an Longde Technology Development Company Limited, Tianjin Creative Source International Trade Co. Ltd., Granpect Company Limited, and Belarus-based Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant.
Under the U.S. executive order, all assets, properties, and interests in properties of the sanctioned companies located within the United States or controlled by U.S. citizens must be blocked and reported to the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC.
The listing makes it illegal for any individual or entity within the United States, or any U.S. citizen to engage in any transactions involving property or interests in property of designated or blocked companies unless authorized by a specific or general license issued by OFAC or exempted.
Without naming the U.S. or any other country, Baloch stated that “the same jurisdictions” claiming “strict adherence” to the nonproliferation of weapons and military technologies would sometimes make exceptions “for some countries” and have even waived licensing requirements to help them obtain advanced military equipment.
“Such discriminatory approaches and double standards are undermining the credibility of nonproliferation regimes and accentuating military asymmetries, which, in turn, undermine the objectives of regional and global peace and security,” she said. “This is leading to arms buildup (in the region).”
Baloch was apparently referring to Washington’s close military and nuclear cooperation with Pakistan’s archrival India. The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors have fought three wars, and their decades-old territorial dispute over the divided Kashmir region remains the primary source of mutual tensions.
Groupthink versus Tulips. What will historians think of 2024?
date: 2024-04-20, from: Gary Marcus blog
Some thoughts occasioned by Meta’s new model and a bad week in the stock market
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/groupthink-versus-tulips-what-will
Coachella: Week 2, Day 2 — as it happened
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
No Doubt; Tyler, the Creator; Blur; Girl Ultralive and more as we report live from Indio, Calif.
The post Coachella: Week 2, Day 2 — as it happened appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/20/coachella-week-2-day-2-live-updates/
Blinken returns to China next week amid ongoing tensions, with no breakthrough expected
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to China April 24 through 26 for talks with senior officials in Shanghai and Beijing.
Blinken’s second trip to China comes as the United States warns it against enabling Russia in its war on Ukraine, with Chinese firms directly supplying critical components for Russia’s defense industrial base.
Other pressing matters on the agenda include counternarcotics, bolstering military-to-military communication, establishing talks on artificial intelligence risks and safety, and exploring ways to strengthen people-to-people ties, according to the State Department.
A senior State Department official said in a briefing Friday the U.S. is “realistic and clear eyed about the prospects of breakthroughs” on any of the issues on the agenda. Some analysts said they do not anticipate any major advances to emerge from the talks.
China aiding Russia in Ukraine war
In a joint statement this week, foreign ministers from the G7 leading industrialized nations urged China to stop transferring dual-use materials and weapons components that Russia is using to advance its military production.
U.S. officials said those materials include significant quantities of microelectronics, unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missile technology, and nitrocellulose, which Russia uses to make propellants for weapons.
“China can’t have it both ways” – helping Russia and keeping good relations with Europe, Blinken told reporters at a press conference in Capri, Italy, Friday.
A senior State Department official told VOA during a virtual briefing Friday that the United States is “prepared to take steps” when necessary, against Chinese firms that “severely undermine security in both Ukraine and Europe.”
The United States may sanction Chinese banks that facilitate the transfer of these materials, according to analysts. Washington has sanctioned Chinese individuals and companies that provide material support to Russia, and is enlisting European allies for similar measures.
“In contrast to the United States, the European Union has not really sanctioned Chinese individuals or companies to the same degree,” Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Center, told VOA.
Grieco said the U.S. is working with other G7 members to garner more support from European nations to take similar actions.
Beijing dismissed what Chinese officials labeled as Washington’s attempt to “smear” or “attack the normal relations between China and Russia.”
China maintains it regulates the export of dual-use materials to Russia in accordance with laws. The U.S. “should not harm the legitimate rights and interests of China and Chinese companies,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said during a recent briefing.
Taiwan
Blinken’s visit to China is scheduled just weeks before the inauguration of Taiwan’s president-elect Lai Ching-te on May 20.
The U.S. is sending an unofficial delegation to attend his inauguration, which includes former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Laura Rosenberger, who chairs the American Institute in Taiwan.
Blinken will underscore America’s enduring interest in preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
“During this important and sensitive time leading up to the May 20 inauguration, all countries will contribute to peace and stability, avoid taking provocative actions that may raise tensions and demonstrate restraint. That will be our message going forward,” the senior State Department official said.
Counternarcotics
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death of Americans between the ages of 18 to 49.
China remains the primary source of fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations, serving as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances entering the United States, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“It’s in China’s interest to cooperate in reducing and ending the flow of chemical precursors to the United States,” the State Department official said.
He added that the U.S. delegation traveling to China next week will “get down to detailed implementation” of the agreement reached in November 2023 to restart cooperation, particularly focusing on “concrete progress” between the law enforcement agencies of the two countries to curb the flow of these chemical precursors.
Some analysts said the extent and durability of the cooperation is yet to be seen.
“China sees counternarcotics and more broadly international law enforcement cooperation as strategic tools that it can leverage to achieve other objectives,” wrote Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution.
“Even though China’s current goal is to reduce tensions, China’s drug cooperation is vulnerable to new crises in the bilateral relationship,” she added.
Blinken’s visit to China is the latest in a flurry of high-level diplomacy aimed at stabilizing China-U.S. relations. It follows Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s recent trip to Guangzhou, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Munich in February, and U.S. President Joe Biden’s talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Woodside, California, in November.
China said it welcomes the top U.S. diplomat’s visit soon.
CBID Another Tax
date: 2024-04-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Property owners already pay for the services to be provided by the proposed CBID through existing taxes.
The post CBID Another Tax appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/20/cbid-another-tax/
US House passes $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday passed with bipartisan support a four-part, $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, putting the legislation on track for enactment following a long, difficult path through Congress.
The legislation includes $61 billion for Kyiv’s ongoing war against Moscow’s invasion, as well as $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza, and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, structured the bills so that they can be combined into one after each bill is approved, to prevent opposition to any one piece from derailing the entire deal.
“Today, members of both parties in the House voted to advance our national security interests and send a clear message about the power of American leadership on the world stage. At this critical inflection point, they came together to answer history’s call, passing urgently needed national security legislation that I have fought for months to secure,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday.
“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law, and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” he noted.
The Democratic-majority Senate is to take up the legislation early next week and then send it to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, confirmed in a statement on Saturday that the Senate would “finish work on the supplemental with the first vote on Tuesday afternoon.”
“To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to our allies in Israel, and to civilians around the world in need of aid: rest assured America will deliver yet again,” he added.
The bill imposing new limits on the social media platform TikTok was the first of the four measures to pass Saturday, with a vote of 360-58. That measure requires Bytedance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell its stake within a year or face a ban in the United States. It would also allow the president to level new sanctions against Russia and Iran.
The second bill, which passed with a bipartisan majority of 385-34 votes, provided billions in aid to the Indo-Pacific region. The $8 billion bill is intended to counter China through investing in submarine infrastructure and helping Taiwan through military financing.
The third bill to pass was a significant aid package — $61 billion — for Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia. The bill passed with a vote of 311-112.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Congress for the passage of the aid bill.
“I am grateful to the United States House of Representatives, both parties, and personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X.
The bill has important implications not just for Ukraine but for all of Europe, according to Steven Moore, founder of the Ukraine Freedom Project, which delivers humanitarian and military aid to the front lines.
“[Russian President] Vladimir Putin has made it clear that if he takes Ukraine, then NATO countries are next,” he told VOA. “This is not just about Ukraine. This is about standing up to a terrible human being who wants to subjugate the rest of Europe.”
“This sends a message to Vladimir Putin, to Iran, to North Korea, and to China, that we are not abdicating our role as a leader in the world,” added Moore, who is
based in Kyiv.
The bill’s passage in the House comes after a monthslong Republican effort to block additional aid to Ukraine.
“The Republican leadership, I think, delayed this unnecessarily,” Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state, told VOA’s Ukrainian Service on Saturday.
Smith said he expected the aid to be delivered to Ukraine “almost immediately” once the legislation is passed by the Senate and signed by President Biden.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Saturday that U.S. legislation providing military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan would “deepen crisis throughout the world.”
The final measure to pass Saturday was a $26 billion aid package for Israel, including $9.1 billion for humanitarian needs.
Biden reaffirmed support for the aid package earlier this week.
“Israel is facing unprecedented attacks from Iran, and Ukraine is facing continued bombardment from Russia that has intensified dramatically in the last month,” he said in a statement.
“The House must pass the package this week and the Senate should quickly follow,” Biden added. “I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.”
The weekend votes follow a rare show of bipartisanship Friday, when a coalition of lawmakers in the House helped the foreign aid package clear a procedural hurdle to advance the four-part legislation. That Friday vote passed 316-94.
Johnson went ahead with the vote despite strong opposition from some factions of his party.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia threatened to try to force a vote to oust Johnson from the speakership if he went ahead with the Ukraine aid vote. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky has also called for Johnson to resign.
Still, other members of the Republican Party support Johnson and the aid package.
“You’re never going to agree with every little aspect of legislation. There’s always going to be things you may quibble with, but the reality is that we need to get aid to our allies,” Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, told VOA’s Ukrainian Service.
“The time for debate and discussion over this has long passed, and the time for action is here,” he said.
VOA’s Kateryna Lisunova contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
USC Spring Game — as it happened
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Leila MacKenzie and Kasey Kazliner report live from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The post USC Spring Game — as it happened appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/20/usc-spring-game-live-updates/
Microsoft wants to hide the ‘Sign out’ button in Windows 11 behind a Microsoft 365 ad
date: 2024-04-20, from: OS News
Microsoft is not done adding more odd stuff into its operating system. Following the not-so-great reception of new Start menu ads in one of the recent Beta builds, Microsoft is bringing even more ads, which, besides being slightly annoying, come at the cost of existing features. In build 22635.3500, the Sign Out button is now hidden behind a menu with a Microsoft 365 ad. Microsoft calls the new thing “Account Manager.” In a nutshell, it is a flyout with your existing subscriptions, a Microsoft 365 upsell, and a few account-related notifications, like a prompt to add a backup phone number or enable OneDrive backups. There is now also a link to your Microsoft Account settings. ↫ Taras Buria at Neowin The beatings will continue until moral improves.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
How the push to unseat Johnson could unfold.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump Doesn’t Talk About the Pandemic.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/04/20/trump-doesnt-talk-about-the-pandemic/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
All 16 teams in NBA Playoffs, ranked by chances to win 2024 championship.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Flickr Foundation.
The Alternative Implementation Problem
date: 2024-04-20, from: Pointers gone wild blog
In this post, I want to talk about a dynamic that I’ve seen play itself over and over again in the software world. In fact, I would venture a guess that this kind of situation probably happens in the hardware world as well, but I’ll speak about software systems since this is where my experience […]
https://pointersgonewild.com/2024/04/20/the-alternative-implementation-problem/
101st birthday surprise: Therapy horse visits senior living facility
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Signal
Cornerstones Companions founder Britany Morano and her mentor Cindy Toganazzini made their way to Sunrise Senior Living in Santa Clarita with Wilma, a certified therapy rescue horse, on Thursday to surprise multiple residents who were celebrating their birthdays, including Rene Singleton, who will be turning 101. Singleton was being assisted by Debbie Gutierrez, the facility’s […]
The post 101st birthday surprise: Therapy horse visits senior living facility appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/101st-birthday-surprise-therapy-horse-visits-senior-living-facility/
Record numbers in US are homeless: Can cities fine them for sleeping in parks and on sidewalks?
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The most significant case in decades on homelessness has reached the Supreme Court as record numbers of people in America are without a permanent place to live.
The justices on Monday will consider a challenge to rulings from a California-based appeals court that found punishing people for sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.
A political cross section of officials in the West and California, home to nearly one-third of the nation’s homeless population, argue those decisions have restricted them from “common sense” measures intended to keep homeless encampments from taking over public parks and sidewalks.
Advocacy groups say the decisions provide essential legal protections, especially with an increasing number of people forced to sleep outdoors as the cost of housing soars.
The case before the Supreme Court comes from Grants Pass, a small city nestled in the mountains of southern Oregon, where rents are rising and there is just one overnight shelter for adults. As a growing number of tents clustered in its parks, the city banned camping and set $295 fines for people sleeping there.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals largely blocked the camping ban under its finding that it is unconstitutional to punish people for sleeping outside when there is not adequate shelter space. Grants Pass appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the ruling left it few good options.
“It really has made it impossible for cities to address growing encampments, and they’re unsafe, unhealthy and problematic for everyone, especially those who are experiencing homelessness,” said lawyer Theane Evangelis, who is representing Grants Pass.
The city is also challenging a 2018 decision, known as Martin v. Boise, that first barred camping bans when shelter space is lacking. It was issued by the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit and applies to the nine Western states in its jurisdiction. The Supreme Court declined to take up a different challenge to the ruling in 2019, before the solidification of its current conservative majority.
If the decision is overturned, advocates say it would make it easier for cities to deal with homelessness by arresting and fining people rather than helping them get shelter and housing.
“In Grants Pass and across America, homelessness has grown because more and more hardworking people struggle to pay rent, not because we lack ways to punish people sleeping outside,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director for the National Homeless Law Center. Local laws prohibiting sleeping in public spaces have increased at least 50% since 2006, he said.
The case comes after homelessness in the United States grew by 12%, to its highest reported level as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more people, according to federal data. Four in 10 people experiencing homelessness sleep outside, a federal report found.
More than 650,000 people are estimated to be homeless, the most since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. People of color, LGBTQ+ people and seniors are disproportionately affected, advocates said.
Two of four states with the country’s largest homeless populations, Washington and California, are in the West. Officials in cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco say they do not want to punish people simply because they are forced to sleep outside, but that cities need the power to keep growing encampments in check.
“I never want to criminalize homelessness, but I want to be able to encourage people to accept services and shelter,” said Thien Ho, the district attorney in Sacramento, California, where homelessness has risen sharply in recent years.
San Francisco says it has been blocked from enforcing camping regulations because the city does not have enough shelter space for its full homeless population, something it estimates would cost $1.5 billion to provide.
“These encampments frequently block sidewalks, prevent employees from cleaning public thoroughfares, and create health and safety risks for both the unhoused and the public at large,” lawyers for the city wrote. City workers have also encountered knives, drug dealing and belligerent people at encampments, they said.
Several cities and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged the high court to keep some legal protections in place while reining in “overreach” by lower courts. The Martin v. Boise ruling allows cities to regulate and “sweep” encampments, but not enforce total bans in communities without enough beds in shelters.
The Justice Department also backed the idea that people shouldn’t be punished for sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go, but said the Grants Pass ruling should be tossed out because 9th Circuit went awry by not defining what it means to be “involuntarily homeless.”
Evangelis, the lawyer for Grants Pass, argues that the Biden administration’s position would not solve the problem for the Oregon city. “It would be impossible for cities to really address the homelessness crisis,” she said.
Public encampments are not good places for people to live, said Ed Johnson, who represents people living outside in Grants Pass as director of litigation at the Oregon Law Center. But enforcement of camping bans often makes homelessness worse by requiring people to spend money on fines rather than housing or creating an arrest record that makes it harder to get an apartment. Public officials should focus instead on addressing shortages of affordable housing, so people have places to live, he said.
“It’s frustrating when people who have all the power throw up their hands and say, ‘there’s nothing we can do,’” he said. “People have to go somewhere.”
The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of June.
Voltpost Introduces Lamppost EV Charger For Major Metro Areas
date: 2024-04-20, from: Inside EVs News
The curbside solution is promised to be easy to install and cost-efficient.
https://insideevs.com/news/716786/voltpost-lamppost-ev-charger/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
ChatGPT is dumber than it looks.
https://seths.blog/2024/04/chatgpt-is-dumber-than-it-looks/
4/20 grew from humble roots to marijuana’s high holiday
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
SEATTLE — Saturday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in legal-weed states thank their customers with discounts.
This year’s edition provides an occasion for activists to reflect on how far their movement has come, with recreational pot now allowed in nearly half the states and the nation’s capital. Many states have instituted “social equity” measures to help communities of color, harmed the most by the drug war, reap financial benefits from legalization. And the White House has shown an openness to marijuana reform.
Here’s a look at 4/20’s history:
WHY 4/20?
The origins of the date, and the term “420” generally, were long murky. Some claimed it referred to a police code for marijuana possession or that it derived from Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35,” with its refrain of “Everybody must get stoned” — 420 being the product of 12 times 35.
But the prevailing explanation is that it started in the 1970s with a group of bell-bottomed buddies from San Rafael High School, in California’s Marin County north of San Francisco, who called themselves “the Waldos.” A friend’s brother was afraid of getting busted for a patch of cannabis he was growing in the woods at nearby Point Reyes, so he drew a map and gave the teens permission to harvest the crop, the story goes.
During fall 1971, at 4:20 p.m., just after classes and football practice, the group would meet up at the school’s statue of chemist Louis Pasteur, smoke a joint and head out to search for the weed patch. They never did find it, but their private lexicon — “420 Louie” and later just “420” — would take on a life of its own.
The Waldos saved postmarked letters and other artifacts from the 1970s referencing “420,” which they now keep in a bank vault, and when the Oxford English Dictionary added the term in 2017, it cited some of those documents as the earliest recorded uses.
HOW DID 420 SPREAD?
A brother of one of the Waldos was a close friend of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, as Lesh once confirmed in an interview with the Huffington Post, now HuffPost. The Waldos began hanging out in the band’s circle and the slang spread.
Fast-forward to the early 1990s: Steve Bloom, a reporter for the cannabis magazine High Times, was at a Dead show when he was handed a flyer urging people to “meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais.” High Times published it.
“It’s a phenomenon,” one of the Waldos, Steve Capper, now 69, once told The Associated Press. “Most things die within a couple years, but this just goes on and on. It’s not like someday somebody’s going to say, ‘OK, cannabis New Year’s is on June 23rd now.’”
While the Waldos came up with the term, the people who made the flier distributed at the Dead show — and effectively turned 4/20 into a holiday — remain unknown.
HOW IS IT CELEBRATED?
With weed, naturally.
Some celebrations are bigger than others: The Mile High 420 Festival in Denver, for example, typically draws thousands and describes itself as the largest free 4/20 event in the world. Hippie Hill in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park has also attracted massive crowds, but the gathering was canceled this year, with organizers citing a lack of financial sponsorship and city budget cuts.
College quads and statehouse lawns are also known for drawing 4/20 celebrations, with the University of Colorado Boulder historically among the largest, though not so much since administrators banned the annual smokeout over a decade ago.
Some breweries make beers that are 420-themed, but not laced, including SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta, which is throwing a 420 music festival this weekend and whose founders went to the University of Colorado.
Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California, releases its “Waldos’ Special Ale” every year on 4/20 in partnership with the term’s coiners. That’s where the Waldos will be this Saturday to sample the beer, for which they picked out “hops that smell and taste like the dankest marijuana,” one Waldo, Dave Reddix, said via email.
4/20 has also become a big industry event, with vendors gathering to try each other’s wares.
THE POLITICS
The number of states allowing recreational marijuana has grown to 24 after recent legalization campaigns succeeded in Ohio, Minnesota and Delaware. Fourteen more states allow it for medical purposes, including Kentucky, where medical marijuana legislation that passed last year will take effect in 2025. Additional states permit only products with low THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive ingredient, for certain medical conditions.
But marijuana is still illegal under federal law. It is listed with drugs such as heroin under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, meaning it has no federally accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
The Biden administration, however, has taken some steps toward marijuana reform. The president has pardoned thousands of people who were convicted of “simple possession” on federal land and in the District of Columbia.
The Department of Health and Human Services last year recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration that marijuana be reclassified as Schedule III, which would affirm its medical use under federal law.
According to a Gallup poll last fall, 70% of adults support legalization, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm and more than double the roughly 30% who backed it in 2000.
Vivian McPeak, who helped found Seattle’s Hempfest more than three decades ago, reflected on the extent to which the marijuana industry has evolved during his lifetime.
“It’s surreal to drive by stores that are selling cannabis,” he said. “A lot of people laughed at us, saying, ‘This will never happen.’”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
McPeak described 4/20 these days as a “mixed bag.” Despite the legalization movement’s progress, many smaller growers are struggling to compete against large producers, he said, and many Americans are still behind bars for weed convictions.
“We can celebrate the victories that we’ve had, and we can also strategize and organize to further the cause,” he said. “Despite the kind of complacency that some people might feel, we still got work to do. We’ve got to keep burning that shoe leather until we get everybody out of jails and prisons.”
For the Waldos, 4/20 signifies above all else a good time.
“We’re not political. We’re jokesters,” Capper has said. “But there was a time that we can’t forget, when it was secret, furtive. … The energy of the time was more charged, more exciting in a certain way.
“I’m not saying that’s all good — it’s not good they were putting people in jail,” he continued. “You wouldn’t want to go back there.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/grew-from-humble-roots-to-marijuana-s-high-holiday/7578120.html
Unity in a Time of Darkness: UC Santa Barbara’s ‘Mega Shabbat’ Takes On a New Meaning this Year
date: 2024-04-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
UCSB’s Jewish community and friends gather for the largest turnout since tradition began more than a decade ago.
The post Unity in a Time of Darkness: UC Santa Barbara’s ‘Mega Shabbat’ Takes On a New Meaning this Year appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Haiku’s Genio IDE introduces symbol outline feature
date: 2024-04-20, from: OS News
Genio, the Haiku OS integrated development environment (IDE), is receiving another exciting update in preparation for the upcoming summer release. The update focuses primarily on improving the Language Server Protocol (LSP) stack and introduces a cool new feature: Symbol Outline. Symbol Outline allows Genio to retrieve the list of symbols defined in a source file from the language server. This list can be sorted, nodes can be expanded or collapsed, and now a symbol can be renamed directly from there. Being part of the standard LSP specification, Symbol Outline should be supported by all language servers. The development team has tested it with clangd and OmniSharp. ↫ Andrea at Desktop on fire! Improvements to tools to develop truly native Haiku applications are exceptionally welcome, if only to prevent Haiku from becoming a worse way than Linux to run Qt applications.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139372/haikus-genio-ide-introduces-symbol-outline-feature/
Microsoft teases deepfake AI that’s too good to release
date: 2024-04-20, updated: 2024-04-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
VASA-1 framework can turn a still image and a cloned voice file into a plausible video of a person talking
Microsoft this week demoed VASA–1, a framework for creating videos of people talking from a still image, audio sample, and text script, and claims – rightly – it’s too dangerous to be released to the public.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/20/microsoft_deepfake_vasa/
US campuses are battlegrounds in free speech debate
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-campuses-are-battlegrounds-in-free-speech-debate/7578095.html
Net positive, maybe
date: 2024-04-20, from: Rachel Kwon blog
This is a half-baked thought I’ve been preheating for a bit. Technology has changed the way we consume and create media has evolved, and considering all the benefits against the drawbacks, sometimes it doesn’t feel like a net improvement to me. Or maybe it’s just that things evolved too quickly, we got excited about all the upside and didn’t think enough about second and third order effects, and now we’re still figuring out a way to catch up.
https://kwon.nyc/notes/net-positive-maybe/
New Merida eOne-Forty And eOne-Sixty E-MTBs Are Here To Shake Up The Trails
date: 2024-04-20, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
For diehard MTBers and casual commuters alike.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/710931/merida-eone-forty-eone-sixty-emtbs/
The Volkswagen ID.4 Will Soon Be A Union-Made EV
date: 2024-04-20, from: Inside EVs News
The vote represents a major coup for the United Auto Workers, and means one of VW’s most important cars will soon be union-made.
https://insideevs.com/news/716835/vw-tennessee-uaw-vote/
Theater Review | ‘The ‘A’ Train’ Hits the Station with a Laugh and a Tear
date: 2024-04-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Powerhouse piece about riding the Autism train at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre.
The post Theater Review | ‘The ‘A’ Train’ Hits the Station with a Laugh and a Tear appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
US presidential contenders differ on who’s better for economy
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
The U.S. economy is always a major factor in the presidential campaign because the president plays a key role in setting and shaping trade and economic policies. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti reports on how the economy is doing and the difference between how the two presidential contenders would handle it. Camera: Mike Burke
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-presidential-contenders-differ-on-who-s-better-for-economy/7578057.html
Tesla Cybertruck’s Pedal Fix Isn’t Pretty But Deliveries Can Resume
date: 2024-04-20, from: Inside EVs News
While not especially elegant, the quick rivet fix has reportedly allowed Cybertruck deliveries to resume.
https://insideevs.com/news/716812/tesla-cybertruck-rivet-accelerator-fix/
See you in Wakefield in one week’s time
date: 2024-04-20, from: RiscOS Story
No wait, Wradfold… no, I mean Bradford! That’s right, this year’s Wradfold Wakefield Show is just one week away. It takes place on 27th April – next Saturday – in Bradford. The continued unavailability of the more usual Cedar Court Hotel on the outskirts of Wakefield is the reason for it being held just a short distance further afield again, though it’s still being held in a Cedar Court Hotel. If you haven’t visited the show since they switched to the new/temporary venue, you may wish to tweak your satnavs…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/see-you-in-wakefield-next-week/
13s turns 1.01 after 14 years
date: 2024-04-20, from: RiscOS Story
One developer that pops up a lot on RISCOSitory is Kevin Wells, aka Kevsoft, who has a number of applications – which he updates fairly regularly – that make use of APIs from third party websites and online resources, providing a way to access and use information from them on the RISC OS desktop, that might not otherwise be accessible. That isn’t the only type of software he has available, though. Some fourteen years ago, he released version 1.00 of a patience game called 13s – and all these years…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/13s-becomes-1-01/
YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: Friends Of The Court Could Lose Their Benefits
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Lever News
Plus, a pipeline company is caught trespassing, corporations face heat for shady stock deals, and law enforcement’s pseudoscience doesn’t hold up.
https://www.levernews.com/you-love-to-see-it-friends-of-the-court-could-lose-their-benefits/
Aprilia And RideSmart Motorcycle School Make Track Riding More Accessible
date: 2024-04-20, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The long-term partnership will give riders access to Aprilia rentals and iconic circuits like COTA.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/716528/aprilia-partnership-ridesmart-moto-school/
Senate passes reauthorization of key US surveillance program after midnight deadline
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — After its midnight deadline, the Senate voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance law after divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search for Americans’ data nearly forced the statute to lapse.
The legislation approved 60-34 with bipartisan support would extend for two years the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden “will swiftly sign the bill.”
“In the nick of time, we are reauthorizing FISA right before it expires at midnight,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said when voting on final passage began 15 minutes before the deadline. “All day long, we persisted, and we persisted in trying to reach a breakthrough and in the end, we have succeeded.”
U.S. officials have said the surveillance tool, first authorized in 2008 and renewed several times since then, is crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions, and foreign espionage and has also produced intelligence that the U.S. has relied on for specific operations, such as the 2022 killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
“If you miss a key piece of intelligence, you may miss some event overseas or put troops in harm’s way,” Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. “You may miss a plot to harm the country here, domestically, or somewhere else. So, in this particular case, there’s real-life implications.”
The proposal would renew the program, which permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. The reauthorization faced a long and bumpy road to final passage Friday after months of clashes between privacy advocates and national security hawks pushed consideration of the legislation to the brink of expiration.
Though the spy program was technically set to expire at midnight, the Biden administration had said it expected its authority to collect intelligence to remain operational for at least another year, thanks to an opinion earlier this month from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which receives surveillance applications.
Still, officials had said that court approval shouldn’t be a substitute for congressional authorization, especially since communications companies could cease cooperation with the government if the program is allowed to lapse.
House before the law was set to expire, U.S. officials were already scrambling after two major U.S. communication providers said they would stop complying with orders through the surveillance program, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Attorney General Merrick Garland praised the reauthorization and reiterated how “indispensable” the tool is to the Justice Department.
“This reauthorization of Section 702 gives the United States the authority to continue to collect foreign intelligence information about non-U.S. persons located outside the United States, while at the same time codifying important reforms the Justice Department has adopted to ensure the protection of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties,” Garland said in a statement Saturday.
But despite the Biden administration’s urging and classified briefings to senators this week on the crucial role they say the spy program plays in protecting national security, a group of progressive and conservative lawmakers who were agitating for further changes had refused to accept the version of the bill the House sent over last week.
The lawmakers had demanded that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer allow votes on amendments to the legislation that would seek to address what they see as civil liberty loopholes in the bill. In the end, Schumer was able to cut a deal that would allow critics to receive floor votes on their amendments in exchange for speeding up the process for passage.
The six amendments ultimately failed to garner the necessary support on the floor to be included in the final passage.
One of the major changes detractors had proposed centered on restricting the FBI’s access to information about Americans through the program. Though the surveillance tool only targets non-Americans in other countries, it also collects communications of Americans when they are in contact with those targeted foreigners. Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber, had been pushing a proposal that would require U.S. officials to get a warrant before accessing American communications.
“If the government wants to spy on my private communications or the private communications of any American, they should be required to get approval from a judge, just as our Founding Fathers intended in writing the Constitution,” Durbin said.
In the past year, U.S. officials have revealed a series of abuses and mistakes by FBI analysts in improperly querying the intelligence repository for information about Americans or others in the U.S., including a member of Congress and participants in the racial justice protests of 2020 and the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
But members on both the House and Senate intelligence committees as well as the Justice Department warned requiring a warrant would severely handicap officials from quickly responding to imminent national security threats.
“I think that is a risk that we cannot afford to take with the vast array of challenges our nation faces around the world,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Friday.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Real software crashes, loses data, is hard to learn and hard to use. But it's a process. We'll make it less shitty. Just watch!
http://scripting.com/davenet/1995/09/03/wemakeshittysoftware.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
A Fallout fan’s spoiler-laden review of the new TV series.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
A New York-style pizza recipe with extraneous information.
https://www.richardeaglespoon.com/articles/how-to-pizza
Lightweight LXQt 2.0.0 updates to same toolkit as KDE Plasma 6
date: 2024-04-20, updated: 2024-04-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
4-letter survivor’s move to Qt 6 means that, love it or hate it, Wayland is looming
Version 2.0 of the LXQt desktop updates its foundations to Qt 6, as also used in KDE Plasma 6 – but still has one foot in the Qt 5 past, to ease the transition.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/20/lxqt2_updates_to_qt6/
Deepfakes: Did Joe Biden Really Call?
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Markup blog
A guide to spotting audio and video deepfakes from a professor who’s studied them for two decades
https://themarkup.org/hello-world/2024/04/20/deepfakes-did-joe-biden-really-call
Tesla Cybertruck turns into world’s most expensive brick after car wash
date: 2024-04-20, updated: 2024-04-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Bulletproof? Is it waterproof? Ts&Cs say: ‘Failure to put Cybertruck in Car Wash Mode may result in damage’
The perils of turning cars into computers were laid bare by a hapless Cybertruck owner who claimed his ride was rendered an $80,000 “paperweight” by something as benign as a wash.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/20/cybertruck_car_wash_mode/
Man who set himself on fire outside Trump trial dies of injuries, police say
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said.
The New York City Police Department told The Associated Press early Saturday that the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital.
The man was in Collect Pond Park around 1:30 p.m. Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said.
A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed to the aid of the man, who was hospitalized in critical condition.
The man, who police said had traveled from Florida to New York in the last few days, hadn’t breached any security checkpoints to get into the park.
The park outside the courthouse has been a gathering spot for protesters, journalists and gawkers throughout Trump’s trial, which began with jury selection Monday.
Through Friday, the streets and sidewalks in the area around the courthouse were generally wide open and crowds have been small and largely orderly.
Authorities said they were also reviewing the security protocols, including whether to restrict access to the park. The side street where Trump enters and leaves the building is off limits.
“We may have to shut this area down,” New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said at a news conference outside the courthouse, adding that officials would discuss the security plan soon.
https://www.voanews.com/a/7577976.html
Firefox nightly now available for Linux on ARM64
date: 2024-04-20, from: OS News
Linux distributions running on ARM have had to roll their own Firefox builds for the architecture since forever, and it seems that Mozilla has taken this to heart as the browser maker is now supplying binary ARM builds of Firefox. They come in either a tarball or a .deb package installable through Mozilla’s apt repository. Do note, though, that Mozilla does not give the same kinds of guarantees for the ARM build of Firefox as they do for the x86 builds. We want to be upfront about the current state of our ARM64 builds. Although we are confident in the quality of Firefox on this architecture, we are still incorporating comprehensive ARM64 testing into Firefox’s continuous integration and release pipeline. Our goal is to integrate ARM64 builds into Firefox’s extensive automated test suite, which will enable us to offer this architecture across the beta, release, and ESR channels. ↫ Gabriel Bustamante These new builds won’t mean much for the average ARM Linux user since distributions built Firefox for the architecture already anyway, but it does offer users a direct line to Firefox they didn’t have before.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139369/firefox-nightly-now-available-for-linux-on-arm64/
Robert Lamoureux | The uncertainty of leak repairs
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Signal
Question: Good afternoon, Robert. I’m hoping you can help with a problem we’ve discovered during all of the rains this season. The south side of our home has leaked over the last few years, though minor. We never dug deep into the issue before this year — just managed the water and then forgot about […]
The post Robert Lamoureux | The uncertainty of leak repairs appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/robert-lamoureux-the-uncertainty-of-leak-repairs/
Mike Garcia | A Crisis in Security, and Accountability
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Signal
The world today is a more dangerous place than it was three years ago. This didn’t happen overnight or by accident – our crisis in security is a man-made problem, and those men are in the White House. America’s enemies are emboldened on the international stage – whether they be in the Pacific or the […]
The post Mike Garcia | A Crisis in Security, and Accountability appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/mike-garcia-a-crisis-in-security-and-accountability/
Mark Blazer | Passover and Remembering the Innocents
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Signal
This Passover, as Jews around the world gather to celebrate our liberation from Egyptian bondage, some of our people will have spent nearly seven months in captivity. An unknown number of Israeli men, women and children may still be alive, ranging in age from an infant who turned 1 during his captivity to an 85-year-old […]
The post Mark Blazer | Passover and Remembering the Innocents appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/mark-blazer-passover-and-remembering-the-innocents/
A knotty problem: Boffins working on fuel-efficient trajectories for space travel
date: 2024-04-20, updated: 2024-04-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Not yet the London Underground style efficient schematic we want, but it’s a start
Boffins at the UK’s Surrey Space Centre have devised a way of determining the optimal route for spacecraft that doesn’t require the engines to burn precious fuel.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/20/at_last_a_tube_map/
Trump’s Trials and Tribulations | The Coffee Klatch, Saturday, April 20, 2024
date: 2024-04-20, from: Robert Reich on Substack
with Heather Lofthouse and Yours Truly
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trumps-trials-and-tribulations-the
Today in SCV History (April 20)
date: 2024-04-20, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1874 – First train out of Los Angeles to reach new town of San Fernando; Newhall two years later. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-april-20/
How a Louisiana speed trap could be a constitutional crisis
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
New Orleans — Texas nurse Nick Nwoye had never heard of Fenton, Louisiana, before their police pulled him over. It’s how a lot of people first learn about the town.
“I was driving home to Houston a few years ago and had to pass through Fenton,” he told VOA. “The moment I saw the speed limit had changed from 65 mph to 50 mph [105 kph to 80 kph], I began to slow down. But it was too late.”
Nwoye says a police car was waiting behind a tree. The officer turned on his lights and pulled him over.
“He said I was driving 77 mph in a 50-mph zone [124 kph in an 80-kph zone], and there’s no way I was,” Nwoye explained. “The officer had this big smile on his face like, ‘I got you,’ as if this was a game the police played.”
Deciding to challenge the ticket, Nwoye called the town’s court to speak to the judge. That’s when he realized how difficult it would be to appeal the Louisiana fine.
“You know who the judge was?” he asked, exasperated. “It was the mayor. The mayor was his own town’s court judge. So on one hand, he’s deciding whether or not I should have to pay, and on the other hand he’s incentivized to have me pay because this is the money he needs to run Fenton.”
“He told me there was nothing he could do,” Nwoye scoffed. “But why would he want to do anything other than have me pay the town?”
Small town, big revenue
Located in western Louisiana, about an hour drive from the Texas border, Fenton’s 226 residents have a city hall, a gas station, a library, a grain elevator, a Baptist church, a public housing complex and a Dollar General store.
For such a small place, Fenton finds itself regularly in the news.
At first glance, its notoriety might appear to come from being a “speed trap town” — an area near a municipality in which the speed limit drops suddenly and drastically. Police officers wait for drivers to miss the speed change or fail to slow down in time and then pounce, writing them a costly ticket.
When those tickets are paid, the revenue can be substantial. In Fenton, for example, the 12 months ending in June 2022 brought $1.3 million to the town’s coffers from traffic violations. By comparison, that is about the same as Louisiana’s third-largest city, Shreveport.
While speed traps are not illegal, some legal experts caution that a quirk in the judicial system used in small Louisiana towns unfairly disadvantages those seeking to challenge their fines.
‘Write more tickets’
“They have a real racket going on in Fenton,” says Bo Powell, a retiree from Monroe, Louisiana, who was pulled over in Fenton in 2014.
The non-profit investigative journalism group ProPublica obtained and published a recording of Fenton Mayor Eddie Alfred, Jr. telling police officers last September that they needed to write more tickets or there would be layoffs in town government.
“Our main income is traffic tickets, and they ain’t getting written,” said the mayor in the recording. “We need to write more traffic tickets.”
“It’s like the whole village is a crime family,” Powell tells VOA. “Everyone in that courtroom — the mayor, the clerk, the police officer — is paid for by these tickets. How is this legal?”
But a “Mayor’s Court,” as it’s called, is legal in the states of Louisiana and Ohio.
Mayor’s Court
Bobby King is city attorney for Walker, Louisiana. He helps train mayors on their responsibilities in Mayor’s Courts, which have jurisdiction over municipal ordinance violations including traffic fines, but not over felonies or juvenile offenses.
“Mayor’s Courts are important for helping with managing a crowded docket of cases, and for providing a more economical option to smaller towns that can’t afford to pay for a judge and a city court,” King told VOA. “But the potential for bias due to revenue generation is definitely a valid concern.”
A just way forward
Mayor’s Courts were more common before a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a driver in Monroeville, Ohio, was denied a fair trial because the mayor who ruled against him was responsible for both law enforcement and generating municipal revenue.
“However, that case wasn’t a blanket ruling saying all Mayor’s Courts are unconstitutional,” explained Eric Foley, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center, which litigates for civil rights in criminal justice. “The ruling said that the law must consider whether ‘the mayor’s executive responsibilities for village finances might make him partisan to maintain the high level of contribution from the Mayor’s Court.’”
Louisiana and Ohio concluded that a mayor could be an impartial judge. For Ohio, where one out of every six traffic tickets are issued in jurisdictions governed by a Mayor’s Court, a federal judge ruled in 1995 that a mayor could be considered biased if at least 10% of the town’s revenue came from its Mayor’s Court.
Louisiana’s Judicial College recommends that Mayor’s Courts exceeding that 10% threshold should hire a magistrate.
“It’s still a Mayor’s Court,” says King, “but having someone else oversee cases could help ensure impartiality and fairness in the judicial process.”
Foley says it’s not a question of “whether there’s a percentage of overall revenue before a Mayor’s Court becomes unconstitutional.”
“Rather, these kinds of courts just shouldn’t exist,” says Foley. “The financial conflicts of interest are too great. A Mayor’s Court is largely unaccountable to anyone, and they lack the safeguards we should expect in criminal proceedings.”
The Mayor’s Court in Fenton generates more than 90% of town revenue. After some resistance, Mayor Alfred agreed in December to appoint a magistrate to his court.
“But why does a town of 226 people require its own court anyway?” asks Joanna Weiss, co-executive director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center. “The conflict is present in the existence of the court itself. The court, a key government function meant to protect everyone’s rights and responsibilities, is instead being used to meet a budget.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/how-a-louisiana-speed-trap-could-be-a-constitutional-crisis-/7576404.html
US beach aims to disrupt Black students’ spring bash after ’23 chaos
date: 2024-04-20, from: VOA News USA
TYBEE ISLAND, Georgia — Thousands of Black college students expected this weekend for an annual spring bash at the largest public beach in the U.S. state of Georgia will be greeted by dozens of extra police officers and barricades closing off neighborhood streets. While the beach will remain open, officials are blocking access to nearby parking.
Tybee Island east of Savannah has grappled with the April beach party known as Orange Crush since students at Savannah State University, a historically Black school, started it more than 30 years ago. Residents regularly groused about loud music, trash littering the sand and revelers urinating in yards.
Those complaints boiled over into fear and outrage a year ago when weekend crowds of up to 48,000 people daily overwhelmed the 4.8-kilometer island. That left a small police force scrambling to handle a flood of emergency calls reporting gunfire, drug overdoses, traffic jams and fistfights.
Mayor Brian West, elected last fall by Tybee Island’s 3,100 residents, said roadblocks and added police aren’t just for limiting crowds. He hopes the crackdown will drive Orange Crush away for good.
“This has to stop. We can’t have this crowd anymore,” West said. “My goal is to end it.”
Critics say local officials are overreacting and appear to be singling out Black visitors to a Southern beach that only white people could use until 1963. They note Tybee Island attracts vast crowds for the Fourth of July and other summer weekends when visitors are largely white, as are 92% of the island’s residents.
“Our weekends are packed with people all season, but when Orange Crush comes, they shut down the parking, bring extra police and act like they have to take charge,” said Julia Pearce, one of the island’s few Black residents and leader of a group called the Tybee MLK Human Rights Organization. She added: “They believe Black folks to be criminals.”
During the week, workers placed metal barricades to block off parking meters and residential streets along the main road parallel to the beach. Two large parking lots near a popular pier are being closed. And Tybee Island’s roughly two dozen police officers will be augmented by about 100 sheriff’s deputies, Georgia state troopers and other officers.
Security plans were influenced by tactics used last month to reduce crowds and violence at spring break in Miami Beach, which was observed by Tybee Island’s police chief.
Officials insist they’re acting to avoid a repeat of last year’s Orange Crush party, which they say became a public safety crisis with crowds at least double their typical size.
“To me, it has nothing to do with race,” said West, who believes city officials previously haven’t taken a stronger stand against Orange Crush because they feared being called racist. “We can’t let that be a reason to let our citizens be unsafe and so we’re not.”
Tybee Island police reported 26 total arrests during Orange Crush last year. Charges included one armed robbery with a firearm, four counts of fighting in public and five DUIs. Two officers reported being pelted with bottles, and two women told police they were beaten and robbed of a purse.
On a gridlocked highway about a mile off the island, someone fired a gun into a car and injured one person. Officials blamed the shooting on road rage.
Orange Crush’s supporters and detractors alike say it’s not college students causing the worst problems.
Joshua Miller, a 22-year-old Savannah State University senior who plans to attend this weekend, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the crackdown was at least partly motivated by race.
“I don’t know what they have in store,” Miller said. “I’m not going down there with any ill intent. I’m just going out there to have fun.”
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson was one of the Black students from Savannah State who helped launch Orange Crush in 1988. The university dropped involvement in the 1990s, and Johnson said that over time the celebration “got off the rails.” But he also told reporters he’s concerned about “over-representation of police” at the beach party.
At Nickie’s 1971 Bar & Grill near the beach, general manager Sean Ensign said many neighboring shops and eateries will close for Orange Crush though his will stay open, selling to-go food orders like last year. But with nearby parking spaces closed, Ensign said his profits might take a hit, “possibly a few thousand dollars.”
It’s not the first time Tybee Island has targeted the Black beach party. In 2017, the city council banned alcohol and amplified music on the beach only during Orange Crush weekend. A discrimination complaint to the U.S. Justice Department resulted in city officials signing a non-binding agreement to impose uniform rules for large events.
West says Orange Crush is different because it’s promoted on social media by people who haven’t obtained permits. A new state law lets local governments recoup public safety expenses from organizers of unpermitted events.
In February, Britain Wigfall was denied an permit for space on the island for food trucks during Orange Crush. The mayor said Wigfall has continued to promote events on the island.
Wigfall, 30, said he’s promoting a concert this weekend in Savannah, but nothing on Tybee Island involving Orange Crush.
“I don’t control it,” Wigfall said. “Nobody controls the date that people go down there.”
Punishing personal opinions is the first step toward authoritarianism
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
I cofounded the resistance to genocide minor. It is appalling that USC has caved to unfounded accusations against the valedictorian.
The post Punishing personal opinions is the first step toward authoritarianism appeared first on Daily Trojan.
Tesla is ending its referral program on April 30th worldwide
date: 2024-04-20, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla is once again axing its referral program, which allowed owners to earn prizes by referring new buyers to buy a Tesla.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/19/tesla-is-ending-its-referral-program-on-april-30th-worldwide/
Tesla cuts prices by $2,000 in US, Model Y back to its lowest price ever
date: 2024-04-20, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla has dropped the price of the Model Y, Model S and Model X by $2,000 each in the US. Model 3 prices remain the same, as do prices of the newly-released Cybertruck.
So long, Z80
date: 2024-04-20, from: Old Vintage Computer Research
You can still buy 6502s from Western Design Center and others, but Zilog’s getting out of Z80s (PDF), announcing earlier this week that after June 14th you won’t be able to buy them anymore (specifically the last-part-standing Z84C00 which comes in various speeds from 6-20 MHz) and what you buy you can’t return. This covers the Z84C0006VEG, Z84C0006PEG, Z84C0010PEG, Z84C0008AEG, Z84C0020VEG, Z84C0008PEG, Z84C0010AEG, Z84C0008VEG, Z84C0010VEG, Z84C0010VEG00TR (!), Z84C0020AEG, Z84C0020PEG, and Z84C0006AEG. Get ’em while they’re hot. The Z180 and eZ80 are not affected by this announcement.
https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2024/04/so-long-z80.html
April 19, 2024
date: 2024-04-20, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
The last several weeks of news have been relentless, and I suspect things will not slow down anytime soon. In the midst of all of it, I don’t think I took a night off last weekend, and have hit the wall tonight. Going to bed and will regroup tomorrow.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-19-2024
The Daily Trojan Editorial Board demands Asna Tabassum’s speech be reinstated
date: 2024-04-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The University’s decision to silence the valedictorian is one of cowardice and should be reversed.
The post The Daily Trojan Editorial Board demands Asna Tabassum’s speech be reinstated appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/19/daily-trojan-calls-for-valedictorians-speech-to-be-reinstated/
VW Chattanooga plant, where ID.4 is made, votes to unionize in historic move
date: 2024-04-20, from: Electrek Feed
VW’s Chattanooga Assembly Plant has voted to join UAW, in a historic move on the back of several recent union wins in the US.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Succession star Brian Cox blasts Joaquin Phoenix’s "truly terrible" Napoleon.
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-04-20, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Kudos to the Googlers that stood up.
Kudos to the students that stood up.
You did not stand for genocide and we will remember that.