Author: Ethan Johnson
Families of Israeli prisoners being held in the Gaza Strip have called on their government to accept a ceasefire proposal put forward by U.S. President Joe Biden, and have called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly back the proposal. At its weekly press conference on Saturday, the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Hostages said it was calling on “Israelis to take to the streets to ensure the implementation of the agreement.” After Biden said at a White House press conference on Friday that Israel had presented a “comprehensive new proposal” to end the war, the forum…
A view of the Portland skyline and Mount Hood in the distance from West Hills on April 27, 2023 (KOIN) PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Metro is assessing whether there is enough land in the Portland metro area for growth over the next 20 years, and the city of Sherwood is proposing to expand its urban growth boundary. The public will have an opportunity to comment on Metro's assessment and Sherwood's expansion proposal from June 28 to July 28. The public can provide feedback on the draft Urban Growth Report and Sherwood's proposal to extend the urban growth boundary into the…
A new strain of bird flu is spreading rapidly. It began in Asia in 2020, reached Canada in 2021 and the United States a year later, killing tens of millions of birds and tens of thousands of marine mammals. So far, bird flu has only been transmitted from animals to humans, with a human mortality rate of up to 50%. However, avian flu DNA has been found in 20 percent of milk sold in the United States, and if it mutates, it could potentially spread from person to person. Avian flu is not the only threat to global health at…
Senator Sherrod Brown U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has urged administration officials to move forward with a proposal by Bartlett Marine Corps to build and operate a submarine parts repair facility in Lorain and Lordstown. In a letter to President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III and Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro, Brown urged their support for the proposal and called for them to “act swiftly to direct resources from the recently passed National Security Supplemental Act to the Bartlett Maritime Corporation to accelerate the delayed maintenance of the submarine fleet.” In his letter, Brown also said…
The opposition bill includes measures including expanding lawmakers' investigative powers, bringing Taiwan's legislature closer to an oversight role similar to that of the U.S. Congress.The new law makes “contempt of the legislature” a crime, with fines of up to NT$200,000 (US$6,170).This makes it a criminal offence for any public servant or official who makes a false statement at a public hearing or when questioned by a member of parliament on a significant matter.The Legislature also gained the power to request information and relevant documents from government agencies, the military, corporations, organizations and other relevant individuals, with failure to comply, delayed…
South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in the country's elections this week, a major setback for the party that led the country's liberation from white-minority rule. The ANC, which has led the country since 1994, has begun closed-door talks with other parties to form a governing coalition unlike anything it has ever had before. But analysts say the ANC's defeat and the pressure it will face from potential allies also cast a shadow over the future of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who the ANC had hoped would…
Michigan's two Democratic senators and two Republican congressional representatives gathered this week at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island to discuss the current political climate and what it takes to get things done in Washington. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are closely contested, with the House led by Republicans and the Senate led by Democrats. But when news and other media make political attacks the main story of the day, it makes it hard to focus on efforts toward progress, lawmakers said. “Stop reporting,” U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Bruce County, said Thursday about news organizations.…
Parking in Madison parking lots is set to get more expensive after the city's transportation commission voted to increase special event parking fees from $8 to $15 at a popular lot off State Street and near The Sylvie.The commission voted 7-3 to approve an increase in special event parking fees at the South Livingston Street and State Street campus lots, nearly doubling the rates, as well as a $2 increase at Wilson Street, State Street to the side of the State Capitol, Overture Center and Capitol Square North lots. The motion does not need to be presented to city council…
Photo credit Alan Wooten | Center Square (The Center Square) – One of the best ways to ease the burden on property taxpayers in Ohio is to reduce local taxing agencies, an Ohio policy group told members of the Legislature.[–>Greg Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, told the Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform the state has an “oversupply of local government,” which gives Ohio the 12th-highest local tax burden as a percentage of income in the nation.[–>“Local officials are friends, neighbors, and respected community members, making them responsive to constituents in ways that state and…
To what extent does this government care about the Greek Diaspora and the Ecumenical Patriarchate? Little to no. Not at all. There is no justification for this stance other than that the congregations of prominent Greeks abroad are represented by politically less well-known members. For the first time, archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate gathered in Athens, and hundreds of notable figures from the United States, Europe and elsewhere traveled by private jet and other means to attend “Greece 2.0,” the miracle country that the government boasts is the creation of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself. It is unclear why Foreign…