Brian Reade says scrapping the TV licence will leave the BBC at the mercy of the Tory party. He adds that when Tory politicians need to woo the populist vote they threaten to make the BBC pay for itself

As far as the right is concerned the BBC has always been the Great Distractor.

When foreign-based newspaper barons want to rail against the evils of liberal elites they home in on the leftie BBC. When Tory politicians need to woo the populist vote they threaten to make the Bloated Beeb pay for itself.

The last time Boris Johnson played this hand was during the 2019 General Election when he was attacked for refusing, while on-screen, to look at a Daily Mirror front page showing a sick four-year-old on an A&E floor.

Within hours he was threatening to scrap the TV licence.

And now, as he sups in the Last Chance Saloon, hes sent out his pom-pom swinging fangirl Nadine Dorries to tell BBC bosses she has their testicles in a vice. Thats the laughably titled culture secretary who believes taxpayers fund Channel 4 and probably thinks Lord Reith is something a peer lays at the Cenotaph.

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Tories like to pretend they are in favour of public service broadcasting, so long as it can be bent to their will. But what would it look like if they ran the stripped-down BBC today.

Here, Im guessing, would be the highlights: the day opens with a recording of Vera Lynn singing God Save The Queen and is followed by Wake-Up Dont Woke-Up presented by Esther McVey in the Downing Street TV studio with Julia Hartley-Brewer reviewing all papers except the Mirror and Guardian.

CBeebies flagship show is Watch With Nanny in which Jacob Rees-Moggs nanny plays the penny whistle as his children, dressed in naval uniform, recite important dates from the Napoleonic Wars.

Antiques Roadshow is revamped, with Bernard Ingham catching up with the latest views from local Conservative associations. As is Upstairs, Downstairs in which Rishi Sunak tells us what its like to live in a stately home during an energy crisis and how to cut off the heating in the servants quarters.

On The Travel Show, Mark Francois lists things to do when stuck in three-hour passport queues in Europe due to Brexit, and Dominic Raab gives tips on how to ignore your mobile while relaxing on a Corfu sunbed as Kabul falls.

In Flog It! think-tanks update us on ways to privatise the NHS and EastEnders becomes WestEnders, a story of First World problems in Fulham and Chelsea.

On Jobsearch, Nadine Dorries herself explains how you can get your daughters on the public payroll and Matt Hancock shows how to give multi-million pound contracts to the bloke down the pub.

Grandstand returns with polo, croquet and fox-hunting with a shower of Berkeley Hunts, and foodies are served Trusss Kitchen Nightmares, where the foreign secretary advises on how to cope when you run out of British cheese.

Theres Dragons Den Does Dover in which Priti Patel hears contestants pitch new ways to repel migrants and Hospital will show the NHS in a fresh light, with no A&E queues and staff delighted with their workload.

Comedy-wise theres Mock The Weak in which Jim Davidson and Roy Chubby Brown openly humiliate minorities, and Would I Lie To You? sees Boris Johnson do a weekly press conference.

And each day closes at midnight with Land of Dope and Tory played from a model of the new royal yacht.

Unless youve put your foot through your telly hours before and gone to bed, that is.

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'Public service Beeb saves us all from a Land of Dope and Tory' - Mirror.co.uk

The Supreme Court said on Friday that it would revisit part of a decision it made in 2020 on a case, which focused on Oklahomas ability to prosecute on Native American land.

The original decision, McGirt v. Oklahoma, sided with tribal leaders finding that a large part of land in the eastern part of the state qualified as Indian reservation, according to The Washington Post.

In the 5-4 decision, Justice Neil GorsuchNeil GorsuchSupreme Court to revisit part of Native American land decision in Oklahoma The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Biden talks, Senate balks Sotomayor, Gorsuch issue statement denying tensions over masks MORE sided with the more liberal justices for the majority.

The justices will revisit a more narrow part of their decision, about whether non-Native Americans who commit crimes againstthe native communityin areas of Oklahoma that are considered Native American land can be prosecuted by the state, The Associated Press reported.

The AP noted that since Native American-recognized land was expanded during that 2020 case to include most of Tulsa, it meant that criminal prosecution against Native Americans in those areas also could not be conducted by the state.

The state had urged the Supreme Court to have the 2020 McGirt v. Oklahoma decision overturned, but that request was denied by the justices, The Post noted.

Instead, part of that decision, issued one year ago, will be revisited by the high court in April.

Oklahoma officials, including Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) applauded the Supreme Courts decision on Friday.

The fallout of the McGirt decision has been destructive. Criminals have used this decision to commit crimes without punishment. Victims of crime, especially Native victims, have suffered by being forced to relive their worst nightmare in a second trial or having justice elude them completely, Stitt said in a statement.

The Republican governor said the 2020 decision has hamstrung law enforcement in half of the state.

Now that Governor Stitts fight against tribal sovereignty has once again come up short, we hope he will consider joining tribes, rather than undermining our efforts, so we can focus on what is best for our tribal nations and all Oklahomans, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said, according to The Post.

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Supreme Court to revisit part of Native American land decision in Oklahoma | TheHill - The Hill

In a mayoral election in the northern Okinawa Prefecture city of Nago, incumbent Taketoyo Toguchi, endorsed by the national government, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito, was reelected.

The national government is pushing forward with its plan to build a U.S. military base in the Henoko district of Nago to replace the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the Okinawa Prefecture city of Ginowan.

Yohei Kishimoto, the candidate endorsed by the "All Okinawa" bloc, including Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, who has opposed the construction of the base in Henoko, lost.

In response to the election results, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that the government would "continue steadily with the base relocation construction work in Henoko."

But Toguchi, like the first time he was elected mayor, has not made clear whether he is for or against the relocation of the Futenma base, saying he would "closely watch the trial between the prefectural and national governments." After he was reelected, he recognized that "there are many Nago residents who are against the base."

It is not possible to point to the election results as evidence that local residents have approved the base relocation plans. Plowing through with construction is unacceptable.

It was the seventh Nago mayoral election since the Japanese government's base relocation plan surfaced. Candidates who agreed with the plan won in the first three elections, and the opposite occurred in the next two.

Toguchi emphasized his success in making day care services and children's health care free -- the funds for which came from a portion of the approximately 1.5 billion yen (around $13 million) in U.S. forces realignment grants that the city received from the national government. The government did not provide such grants to the city when the then mayor was opposed to the Futenma relocation plan.

Voter turnout for the latest election was the lowest on record. Just before the start of the campaign period was announced, a quasi-state of emergency was declared in the prefecture due to the spread of the coronavirus, limiting what both camps could do.

At the same time, some point out that low voter turnout may have partly been the result of a spreading sense of helplessness among residents, as the government created a fait accompli by starting to reclaim land off the coast of Henoko.

The Japanese government has ultimately forced the residents of Nago to make an unreasonable choice in the election between opposing a military base and enjoying improvements in everyday life through grants.

There will be an Okinawa gubernatorial election in the fall. The administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is shaking down Gov. Tamaki by threatening to reduce the Okinawa Prefecture development budget, and is trying to give rise to a pro-base relocation governor.

But soft soil on the seafloor was found in an area planned for reclamation, and the situation changed drastically. To make improvements, the time span needed for construction has been significantly extended, and it will not be possible for the Futenma air base to be returned to Japan until the 2030s at the earliest. The prospects of "eliminating the dangers of the Futenma air base at the earliest date possible," which the Japanese government has claimed as its basis for forcing through construction, are unclear.

In May, it will have been 50 years since Okinawa was returned to Japan from U.S. military rule. The Japanese government, however, has continued to foist excessive burdens of military bases on Okinawa, and divide prefectural residents. The Kishida administration must confront its responsibility for that.

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Editorial: Gov't-endorsed mayor's win in Okinawa no green light for base construction - The Mainichi - The Mainichi

The task force askedto findways to make Ontario housingmore affordable wants to do away with rules that entrench single-family homes as the main option in manyresidential neighbourhoods, according to a draft report.

The nine-member Housing Affordability Task Force, chaired by Scotiabank CEO Jake Lawrence, wants to "create a more permissive land use, planning, and approvals systems" and throw out rules that stifle change or growth including ones that protect the "character" of neighbourhoods across the province.

The wide-ranging 31-page draft report, which is making the rounds in municipal planning circles and could look muchdifferentwhen it's officially released Jan. 31, makes 58 recommendations.

It includes discussions on speeding up approval processes, waiving development charges for infill projects, allowing vacant commercial property owners to transition to residential units,and letting urban boundariesexpand "efficiently and effectively."

It also calls for all municipalities and building code regulations not to make it just easier for homeowners to add secondary suites, garden homes, and laneway houses to their properties, but also to increase height, size and density along "all majorand minor arterials and transit corridors" in the form of condo and apartment towers.

But perhaps the most controversial recommendationis the one to virtually do away with so-called exclusionary zoning, which allows only a single-family detached home to be built on a property.

Instead, the task force recommends that in municipalities with a population of more than 100,000, the province should "allow any type of residential housing up to four storeys and four units on a single residential lot," subject to urban design guidance that'syet to be defined.

According to the report, Ontario lags behind many other G7 countries when it comes to the number of dwellings per capita. And housing advocates have long argued that more modest-projects duplexes, triplexes, tiny homes and townhouses are needed in established neighbourhoods, especially if the environmental and infrastructure costs of sprawl are to be avoided.

But neighbourhood infill and intensification is often a hard political sell.

"While everyone might agree that we have a housing crisis, that we have a climate emergency, nobody wants to see their neighbourhoods change," said Coun. Glen Gower, who co-chairs Ottawa's planning committee. "So that's really the challenge that we're dealing with in Ottawa and in Ontario."

After last week's housing summit with Ontario's big city mayors, reporters repeatedly asked Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark if he supported doing away with zoning for single-detached homes, as other jurisdictions like Edmonton and major New Zealand cities have done.

Clark said he'd heard the idea but did not give a direct answer one way or the other.

Many of the recommendations revolve around making it easierand fasterfor builders to construct homes.

According to the draft report, not only would a streamlined process allow dwellings to get on the market faster, but reducing approval times would also save developers money which, in theory, could be passed onto residents.

The report cites an Ontario Association of Architectsstudy from 2018 showing thatcosts for a 100-unit condo building increase by $193,000 for every month the project is delayed.

That's why, for example, the task force is recommending that any "underutilized or redundant commercial properties" be allowed to be converted to residential units without municipal approvals.

The draft report also calls for quasi-automatic approval for projects up to 10 units that conform to existing official plans and zoning, and goes so far to recommend that municipalities "disallow public consultations" for these applications.

The report speaks to reducing what the task force characterizes as"NIMBY" factors in planning decisions, recommending the province set Ontario-wide standards for specifics like setbacks, shadow rules and front doors, while excluding details like exterior colour and building materials from the approval process.

The task force would even eliminate minimum parking requirements for new projects.

The report touches on a number of subjects it believes unnecessarily delay the building of new homes, including how plans approved by city councils can be appealed.

It recommends the province restore the right of developers to appeal official plans a power that was removed by the previous Liberal government.

And in an effort to eliminate what it calls "nuisance" appeals, the task forcerecommends that the fee a third party such as a community group pays to appealprojects to the Ontario Land Tribunal should be increased from the current $400 to$10,000.

That doesn't sit well with NDP MPP Jessica Bell, the party's housing critic.

"My initial take is that any attempt to make the landtribunal even more difficult for residents to access is concerning," said Bell, adding theNDP is askingstakeholders and community members for feedback.

The tribunal can overturn a municipal council's "democratically decided law," she said, "and I would be pretty concerned if it costs $10,000 for a third party to go to the land tribunal and bring up some valid evidence."

While she was pleased to see the task force address zoning reform to encourage the construction of townhomes, duplexes and triplexes in existing neighbourhoods the so-called "missing middle" between single-family homes and condo towers Bell said increasing supply is not enough to improve housing for all Ontarians.

"We need government investment in affordable housing," she said.

"We need better protections for renters, and we need measures to clamp down on speculation in the housing market We need a more holistic and comprehensive approach than what we are seeing in this draft report right now."

(While the task force was directed by the province to focus on increasing the housing supply through private builders, it acknowledges in the report that "Ontario's affordable housing shortfall was raised in almost every conversation"with stakeholders.)

From his first reading of the report,Ontario Green Party leader Mike Schreineragreed with thezoning recommendationsbut said streamlined processes need to be balanced with maintaining public consultations and heritage designations.

"One of my concerns with my very quick read of the draft report is that it talks about expanding urban boundaries and I'm opposed to that," he told CBC.

"We simply can't keep paving over the farmland that feeds us, the wetlands that clean our drinking water [and] protect us from flooding, especially when we already have about 88,000 acres within existing urban boundaries in southern Ontario available for development," he said.

Schreinersaid he's also "deeply concerned" that the report discussesaligning housing development with the province's plan for Highway 413in the GTA.

"I simply don't think we can spend over $10 billion to build a highway that will supercharge climate pollution, supercharge sprawl, making life less affordable for people and paving over 2,000 acres of farmland, 400 acres of the Greenbelt and crossing over 85 waterways," he said.

According to the draft, the task force consulted with builders, planners, architects, realtors, labour unions, social justice advocates, municipal politicians, academics, researchers and planners.

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Why a 4-storey apartment could be coming to a residential street near you - CBC.ca

Grand Valley State Universitys University Academic Senate (UAS) voted to endorse the revised Reach Higher 2025 (RH2025) strategic plan. After the original document failed to secure approval in October 2021, UAS members came together once again to vote on President Mantellas strategic academic plan.

RH2025 is a guide constructed by the university and its administrators. Academic plans exist to provide information about the direction of a university, including their goals in academia and what their students can expect from them.

For most colleges, these plans last roughly five years before another one is drafted. This gives universities time to implement the document fully and see short and long-term results.

The Reach Higher 2025 website provides a snapshot of thecurrentdraft.This overview of the RH2025 plan includes a statement of five values: inquiry, inclusive and equitable community, innovation, integrity and international perspectives. Next, the plan details GVSUs vision and aspirations, mission and strategies, which include empowered educational experience, lifelong learning and educational equity.

During the vote on Oct. 1, 2021, the RH2025 plan didnt receive approval from the UAS.

This time, 87% of senate members voted to endorse the plan, according to a poll held during the UAS on the Jan. 21 meeting. 7% of members voted not to endorse the plan and another 7% voted to abstain.

After opening reports from Interim Provost Chris Plouff, and Student Senate President Autumn Muller, the Dean of Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies and RH2025 Steering Committee Co-lead, Mark Schaub, began the meeting with a presentation that highlighted the differences between the first iteration of the plan and the updated version.

Schaub also highlighted what steps the university took to allow GVSU community members to voice their concerns and ideas.

Changes to the document include improvements to syntax and clarity, as well as literary fixes regarding parallelism.

Parallelism refers to other plans that work in tandem with RH2025, such as the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan, the Digital Transformation Roadmap and the Division of Inclusion and Equity. All three programs will work alongside the RH2025 plan and help fulfill some of the goals identified in the strategic plan.

Other changes include the removal of certain bullet points that were deemed redundant in regard to the idea of an empowered education experience that the plan presents.

A land acknowledgment was also added to recognize GVSUs existence on the land of the Anishinaabe people, an addition that aligns with the principle of educational equity that is also key to the RH2025 plan.

There was a general consensus among UAS members who spoke during the meeting that the RH2025 plan was improved since October and that many of the concerns had been properly addressed.

When the RH2025 plan was presented to UAS on Oct. 1, 2021, members responded with concerns about vague language used in the document, calling it jargon-laden, unclear or open to multiple conflicting interpretations.

In a memo to GVSU President Philomena Mantella in October, UAS pointed to the lack of language regarding GVSU as a liberally-educated institution, as well as facultys unclear role in the implementation of the plan.

There was positive feedback regarding changes to the specificity of certain intentions, a deeper explanation of the role of faculty in implementing the plan and more.

Professor of Sociology and President of GVSUs American Association of University Professors (AAUP) chapter, Joel Stillerman, said the revised plan also highlights GVSUs identity as a liberal arts institution, which was a concern voiced by faculty when the first iteration of the plan was proposed in October.

It more forcefully articulates our liberal arts tradition, the essential role of faculty expertise and research in our mission and clarifies some of the language regarding new university initiatives, Stillerman said.

Stillerman said the RH2025 Steering Committee responded to faculty concerns by expanding the RH2025 committee, which he believes contributed to its endorsement.

I suspect this was largely due to the addition of more faculty members on the RH2025 committee who effectively articulated faculty concerns as well as feedback the committee received, Stillerman said.

One of those additions included Janet Winter as a third Steering Committee Co-lead.

Alongside Mark Schuab and Tara Bivens, the Steering Committee was able to continue hosting virtual events to gather feedback and concerns from the GVSU community. This included a faculty leadership series and a staff leadership series.

These events, dubbed Leadership Conversations, encourage open dialogues between community members, forgoing formal presentations in favor of an open forum where anyone with questions, concerns, feedback or suggestions was welcome to share and be heard.

These events will continue to be held throughout the winter semester.

The addition of more events to gather feedback was planned by the Steering Committee after the rejection of the original proposal.

All voices are important in this process, and therefore, the timeframe for working on the plan has been expanded and new opportunities have been developed to provide community members additional means for providing input before finalizing the plan, Provost Chris Plouff said in a prior interview.

Multiple UAS members also acknowledged the commitment they put forth to ultimately endorse the RH2025 plan.

Professor of English, Brian Deyo, said he is proud of the groups determination to improve the plan.

I think it says a lot about us as a community that were coming together and we did our best to be able to improve this document and improve what we do at this university, Deyo said.

With the plan now endorsed, GVSU will move on from the previous academic plan constructed in 2016, when former president Thomas J. Haas was still in office.

However, the endorsement does not signal the end of work on the RH2025 plan. UAS president Felix Ngassa said that minor changes may still be made to the document as it is implemented into life at GVSU.

It doesnt stop today, it doesnt mean thats it,Ngassa said. This is a living document.

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UAS endorses the Reach Higher 2025 plan Grand Valley Lanthorn - Grand Valley Lanthorn

It proposed allocating new strategic sites for 1,600 homes at Ansty, 1,400 homes west of Burgess Hill and 1,850 homes at Sayers Common.

A total of 21 other smaller sites were also proposed totalling 1,562 homes.

This is on top of the 11,519 dwellings already allocated or committed.

However amidst uproar at the plan, the Conservatives, who control the district council, are calling for the process to be paused.

Jonathan Ash-Edwards, leader of the Conservatives at Mid Sussex District Council, said: The council is mandated by national policy and by the planning inspector who examined the current District Plan to undertake a five year review which is now due. The results of this review have now been published so the community can understand the scale of the challenge we face in Mid Sussex.

It is now sensible to press the pause button given the significant issues which impact the Councils planning. I am writing to the Secretary of State, Michael Gove, calling for our housing targets to be reset to a level more consistent with our environmental and infrastructure constraints and liaising with our local MPs to make our case in Westminster. The Levelling Up White Paper will be published shortly and I hope the Government uses this as an opportunity to review the housing numbers currently set for parts of the South East such as ours.

It is essential that the plan maximises the amount of brownfield and windfall development that can be counted, although brownfield sites are limited in Mid Sussex. The amount of unmet need from neighbouring Councils that we are expected to take needs to be thoroughly scrutinised. The rapidly emerging issues raised by Natural England about water neutrality in West Sussex also need much greater clarity and resolution.

Mid Sussex is a great place to live and we must keep it that way by balancing the need for new homes for local people needing to get on the housing ladder with protections for our environment and the critical improvements to our infrastructure that must always come alongside new development.

Robert Salisbury, Conservative spokesman for housing and planning, added: Nationally, the Liberal Democrats have proposed that 380,000 new houses are built every year, a 26% uplift on the numbers currently set by the Conservative Government. This would require over 4,500 more houses to be built over and above the already increased numbers in the draft District Plan review. The Liberal Democrats must now explain to Mid Sussex communities where these additional houses would be built in our district.

Just las week, Mr Salisbury, who is the councils cabinet member for housing and planning, had said: The new plan must identify sites to meet at least 7,000 new homes. The method for selecting sites to be allocated has been via a transparent and robust site selection process.

Reacting to the news, Green district and town councillor Anne Eves said: Had the Conservative councillors taken a more collegiate approach to this whole exercise, they wouldnt have to be back-pedalling quite so furiously now. It is completely unreasonable to expect opposition councillors (many of whom have day jobs) to react to this 250-page dossier with only seven days notice.

The inflated figure of 18,000 new houses is based on the outdated dodgy algorithm, which penalises the South East, is utterly unsustainable and will lead to a haemorrhage in votes from the Tory Party.

Alison Bennett, leader of the Lib Dem group, added: We are delighted that local Conservatives have seen sense and joined us in calling to fix the broken planning system rather than progressing with a review of the District Plan that was clearly flawed and has angered residents across Mid Sussex since the proposals were abruptly published last week.

We are happy to help with the letter to Michael Gove, and welcome their interest in Liberal Democrat policy on this subject.

Liberal Democrats would give the power to build houses back to local authorities and social housing providers, rather than large private developers. That would provide more of the kind of housing that local people need, deliver homes that are genuinely affordable, ensure high sustainability standards are baked in, and give communities more control over where they are built.

We hope that Cllr Ash-Edwards will raise these policies in his letter to Michael Gove.

The District Plan review allocations have been widely condemned since they were publicly revealed last week.

Parish councillor Jon Gilley said: Ansty and Staplefield Parish Council are totally opposed to the draft District Plan proposal of a 1,600-home new town merging Ansty and Cuckfield.

Our parish has always adopted a pragmatic approach and has already agreed to 3,500 houses at the Northern Arc development a short distance down the road.

Mid Sussex District Council has also totally ignored our neighbourhood plan, which took years to compile and was supported by the electorate.

It seems district councillors are happy to put their heads in the sand and accept arbitrary housing numbers based on a central government algorithm.

In the process they are totally ignoring the views of the vast majority of local residents who will not accept this developer-led Cuck-Sty proposal.

The Green Party group on the district council said it deplores MSDCs District Plan which would concrete over large swathes of our Mid Sussex countryside.

They believe the draft plan is full of meaningless words such as where possible and should, pointing to the Northern Arc developers as an example where housebuilders are very rarely prepared to go the extra mile and provide renewable energy sources.

The Greens wanted to see photovoltaic panels planned in at the start, with homes built on the north-south axis to benefit from them.

They also do not want to see developments built with unsustainable gas boilers and suggest statements of intent such as to create and maintain town centres that are vibrant, attractive and successful would read like a sick joke to the people of Burgess Hill.

Meanwhile references to the creation of first-class cultural facilities will ring hollow with the people of both Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath when we have lost the Martlets Hall and are fighting to keep Clair Hall.

They believe the West of Burgess Hill allocation would wreck the rural charm of the Green circle, one of the greatest assets of the town.

On the subject of housing targets, the Greens suggest these are unfairly biased towards building in the South East and take no account of increased likelihood of flooding, water shortages, sewage discharges into rivers, and the release of carbon through the destruction of soil, trees and hedges and the use of concrete.

The revised plan would also cause yet more loss of biodiversity and fragmentation of habitats. They are unconvinced by the promise of 20 per cent biodiversity net gain and believe nature needs to be looked after to improve peoples wellbeing, catch carbon, reduce flood risk and attract tourism all of which are good for the economy too, but dont count for a bean in the planning laws.

The Greens also question where the new doctors will come from to man the GP surgeries and how hospitals and roads will cope with 50,000 extra people.

Their statement concluded: How would Greens do things differently? We would: focus on brownfield sites, and occupying empty homes; introduce checklists for housing developers to identify those who would go above the statutory requirements: are they prepared to install PV or heat pumps, offer water-saving appliances, rainwater collection, use of greywater, and use of local recycled materials; prioritise ancient woodland, green spaces, wellbeing and wildlife protection.

Last week Lib Dems in Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common made their opposition to the proposals clearly known.

This week, Robert Eggleston (LDem, Burgess Hill - Meeds) pointed out that of the extra new homes proposed the south of the district is taking more than 70 per cent.

He said: This is on top of the substantial house building target for the area. Looking at the plans overall it is clear the Albourne and Sayers Common effectively becomes one settlement and similarly Cuckfield and Ansty merge.

In his view salami slicing the greenfields of south Mid Sussex is proof the national planning system is broken and not working in favour of the district.

Although some new homes will need to be built, Mr Eggleston suggest the balance of power and rights between communities and giant developers is completely unbalanced.

He thought it was wrong for the district council to entertain proposals from developers without at the same time giving councillors and communities they represent equal time to make their views known before being in the middle of a planning inquiry.

He added: I am very concerned by the amount of greenfield land that is being surrendered in the south of the district and around Burgess Hill and our village neighbours.

I have strongly argued in favour of each community having its own separate identity (see, for example, my views on development south of Folders Lane) but the proposals coming out of Mid Sussex District Council are creating an urban sprawl by stealth.

As a district councillor I am being asked to consider and recommend substantial policy changes which will set the tone for further development in the district forever. I am expected to do this with barely a weeks notice. This is totally unacceptable, and it risks making bad decisions if all of us are not given sufficient time to scrutinise the proposals. A week is clearly not enough time.

Burgess Hill has, in the past, stepped up to the plate and done all the right things when it comes to supporting the housing needs of the district. We have done this, even though, there has been limited investment in the town centre over the years. But yet again these latest proposals do not address the town centre infrastructure gap and effectively leaves Burgess Hill short-changed again.

Although the proposed strategic site allocations have garnered the most attention, a number of smaller sites have also been put forward.

These are: Batchelors Farm, Keymer Road, Burgess Hill (33 homes), land off West Hoathly Road, East Grinstead (45 homes), land at Hurstwood Lane, Haywards Heath (55 homes), land at Junction of Hurstwood Lane and Colwell Lane, Haywards Heath (30 homes), land east of Borde Hill Lane, Haywards Heath (60 homes), land to west of Turners Hill Road Crawley Down (350 homes), Hurst Farm, Turners Hill Road, Crawley Down (37 homes), land west of Kemps Hurstpierpoint (90 homes), The Paddocks Lewes Road, Ashurst Wood (8 homes), land at Foxhole Farm, Bolney (100 homes), land West of London Road, Bolney (north) (81 homes), land rear of Daltons Farm and The Byre, The Street, Bolney (50 homes), land east of Paynesfield, Bolney (30 homes), land at Chesapeke and Meadow View, Reeds Lane, Sayers Common (33 homes), land at Coombe Farm, London Road, Sayers Common (210 homes), land to the west of Kings Business Centre, Reeds Lane, Sayers Common (100 homes), land to South of LVS Hassocks, London Road, Sayers Common (120 homes), Ham Lane Farm House, Ham Lane, Scaynes Hill (30 homes), land at Hoathly Hill West Hoathly (18 homes), Challoners, Cuckfield Road Ansty (37 homes) and land to west of Marwick Close, Bolney Road, Ansty (45 homes).

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Plans allocating thousands of new Mid Sussex homes set to be paused - Mid Sussex Times

David Condos| Kansas News Service

KISMET As morning light creeps across this pasture, Bryan Garrison all but disappears into the High Plains landscape.

Motionless and covered in camo, he reclines on a cushion next to a sagebrush.

With a shotgun in one hand and the remote to an electronic calling device in the other, he plays the role of DJ, spinning some of the coyote calling worlds greatest hits from cottontail distress to coyote yip duet.

I start most every set with a howl, Garrison said. Im setting a scene.

This is the opening day of the Southwest Kansas Coyote Calling Contest in Kismet. And Garrison, his son and a friendare competing with other teams to see who can call in and shoot the most coyotes from dawn till dusk.

Calling contests mark just the latest chapter in a centuries-long war between humans and coyotes as both species expand their range across the continent.

The coyotes are winning.

More: Kansas wildlife commission OKs use of thermal imaging, lights for coyote hunting at night

State estimates show the number of coyotes in Kansas has nearly tripled since the 1980s. But just because there are more of them around doesnt mean that outwitting this wily canine comes easily.

Garrisons heavy-duty coyote calling boombox sings out from the valley where he stashed it in a bush. Nearby, a motorized decoy waves a piece of fur back and forth.

After about 15 minutes, Garrison spots a flash of gray 40 yards ahead. He steadies his 12-gauge shotgun and fires twice. But the coyote is too quick. It disappears back into the brush.

Its fun because its hard, Garrison said. You dont turn on a call and every coyote in the country come running to you.

Their intelligence, resilience and extraordinary adaptability equip coyotes to thrive in the modern world,even as many other American mammals havedeclinedordisappearedsince European settlement.

Cutting down forests to create farms gave themmore habitat. Exterminating wolves removed theirchief rival.

Now, they are themost abundantlarge predator in the country.

So coyote callers figure that every animal they shoot means one less potential threat to livestock out on the range. Garrison, for example, said he regularly gets calls from neighbors asking him to come shoot unwelcome coyotes on their land.

(Hunting contests help) ranchers and farmers take care of a serious problem, he said. If somebody was breaking into your house and stealing your goods and messing with your well-being, youd do something about it.

While huntings power to actually make a dent in the greater coyote population is questionable, this adaptable animals improbable conquest of America is hard to ignore.

Once limited to high deserts and prairies in the middle of the country, coyotes have colonizednearly allof North America over the past two centuries. Its a feat made even more amazing by the fact that people have been trying to wipe them out just about that whole time.

Organized coyote hunts in Kansas go back more than 100 years, with communities fromLiberaltoMcPhersontoTopekacoming together to round up and kill them. Sometimes the townspeople made a day of it and ate dinner together after.

In the early 1900s, the state of Montanapurposefully infectedcoyotes with mange to see if the mite disease would exterminate them. By the mid-20th century, federal hunters across the West were tossing poison-laced baits fromairplanes and snowmobiles.

More: Kansas coyote-killing competition is so serious you'll need to pass a lie detector test

The USDA shoots downtens of thousandsof coyotes each year from helicopters and kills thousands more with spring-loadedcyanide trapsscented like meat.

Meanwhile, coyote hunting and calling contests remain legal in most states. In Kansas, thecoyote seasonruns year-round with no limit. The state also recentlylegalizedhunting coyotes after sundown with night vision scopes, which makes it easier to spot them during their active nocturnal hours.

Americans kill roughly500,000coyotes each year. But through it all, coyote populations just keep getting stronger.

People always talk about how if theres a nuclear war or whatever, theres going to be cockroaches and rats left. … I always throw coyotes into that, Kansas State University wildlife specialist Drew Ricketts said. Theyve survived as much persecution as any animal on the face of the earth, and theyve just expanded in the face of it.

More: Climate change means Kansas farmers are dealing with hotter nights and rainfall changes

Since the 1950s, coyotes havestretched their territory across North Americaby 40%, making themselves at home everywhere from the Alaskan tundra to the Florida coast to Americas largest urban centers. In his book,Coyote America, Dan Flores describes them as a cosmopolitan species whose adaptability mirrors that of humans.

They have crossed rail lines and bridges to make it to New YorksCentral Park. In downtown Chicago, theyve learned how tonavigate crosswalk signalsand cool off in aQuiznossoda fridge. And because theres no hunting in cities, urban areas have become a sort ofrefugefor coyotes.

Their flexible diet helps too. Unlike other predators like bobcats and cougars which eat strictly meat coyotes will dine on just about anything, from deer, rodents and birds to insects, trash and fruit. Ricketts said they can be a real pest on watermelon farms.

Most people think about them as predators, but really their diet breadth is about as broad as a raccoons, Ricketts said. They are very good at taking advantage of just about any resource that we make available.

More: 'Its got to translate to real climate policy': Kansas farmers could lose millions

Humans have unknowingly given coyotes a helping hand in other ways, too.

Before Europeans settled in America, wolves killed enough coyotes to keep them in check, creating a kind of canine predator equilibrium. But after centuries of government-encouraged extermination, wolves have been nearly wiped out in the lower 48 states. Thatpaved the wayfor coyotes to move up the food chain.

Then theres the biological phenomenon calledcompensatory reproduction. The year after people kill a bunch of coyotes in a given area, the remaining coyotes litters will double in size. And young females will start breeding a year earlier than they otherwise would.

Some studies have even shown that indiscriminate hunting and trapping coulddisrupt coyotes' social orderin a way that may increase the chance of a livestock attack. For example, the territory near a herd might be dominated by resident coyotes who have learned to hunt rodents there instead of livestock. But if those residents are killed, other transient coyotes who are more likely to eat calves could take over that territory.

For every coyote thats removed, Ricketts said, theres another one waiting to take its place.

On the final evening of the calling contest in Kismet, teams line up their coyote carcasses by the dozen on the grass behind city hall.

As coyote populations have grown in recent years, hunting competitions like this one have followed close behind. Just 85 miles up the road in Greensburg, thePasture Poodlescalling contest brought in 150 coyotes during the same weekend as the one in Kismet.

The contests have become more competitive, too.

To curb cheating, contestants need to follow a specific set of rules to get credit for each kill: submit a time-stamped photo of the coyote, zip tie a wooden block marked with the time of death between its teeth.

At the final check-in, volunteers use a small arsenal of kitchen thermometers to make sure the bodies are still warm. Then they check whether the coyotes have the right amount of rigor mortis based on the way their jaws clench those wooden blocks.

Most years, this is also when a scientist draws the dead coyotes blood to test for the bubonic plague. Its a golden opportunity to get a quick scan of how rampant the disease is among the local rodents these coyotes have been eating.

More: Kansas prairie tallgrass is changing with the climate. It's grasshopper-killing junk food.

Finally, theres the lie detector test.

Winning teams draw straws to see which member has to sit down with James Kelly, a retired cop and the contests last line of defense against cheating.

He has strapped thousands of coyote hunting contestants to his polygraph machine over the years. Hes seen teams try to pass off coyotes they didnt hunt themselves. Teams that shot coyotes in nature preserves or with illegal guns or out of moving vehicles.

Kelly said the key to uncovering a cheat is his special recipe of detailed questions that approach the contest like a criminal case and dont leave contestants any wiggle room.

We're not doing polygraph for the heck of it, he said. Were doing it for a specific goal to make sure that people aren't cheating.

On this night, the winners pass the test. Altogether, the teams bring in a total of 83 coyotes. And thats just a drop in the bucket.

Kelly said hell run polygraphs at eight other contests before the end of January.

These competitions draw their share of controversy, too.

A handful of states havebannedcoyote contests. And even where theyre legal, some have chosen to shut down amid pressure from conservation organizations and animal rights groups thatdescribe themas inhumane and detrimental to the natural ecosystem.

But Ricketts, the K-State wildlife specialist, said that, while controlling coyote population numbers through hunting would benext to impossible, the coyotes incredible resilience means that theyre able to bounce back from calling contests, too.

The reasons that broad-scale population control of coyotes doesnt work all that well, he said, those are also the reasons that make the calling competitions and continued intensive harvest of coyotes sustainable.

Meanwhile, predators causeroughly 5%of calf deaths in Kansas, and coyotes are blamed for nearly all of them. For ranchers, it adds up.

Even though that's not a huge percentage of calf losses, Ricketts said, thats still about $4 million annually that Kansas producers are losing.

Nationwide, predators accounted formore than 11%of calf deaths in 2015 up from 3.5% in 1995.

Rancher Bob Davies can hear them howling at night around his pastures in the Cimarron River valley near Kismet. A few years back, they dragged off several of his calves around a watering hole.

It was really bad, Davies said. Thats a big blow when you wait nine months for a baby, and the coyotes get your baby.

The coyotes got so thick that year, he ended up renaming that piece of land Coyote Pasture. He hasnt had as much coyote trouble this season, but hes learned to keep a close eye on his calves.

And ultimately, hes resigned to the fact that everyone who chooses to raise cattle in coyote country has to learn to live with these native predators.

Coyotes have called these plains home for millennia, and they dont plan on leaving any time soon.

They're gonna survive no matter what we do, he said. They're gonna be one of the last critters on earth.

David Condos covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service.

Original post:

Coyotes are thriving in Kansas despite competitive hunting events designed to reduce population - The Topeka Capital-Journal

Los Angeles (AFP) With its gun-totin' heroes, elegiac shots of rodeo horses and disparaging jokes about Californians, "Yellowstone" might appear to be a television show aimed squarely at America's conservative heartland.

But the Kevin Costner-fronted Western, which blends soapy melodrama with brutal vigilante violence, has become a rare crossover hit, bridging the stark cultural divisions of the United States.

The show follows the wealthy Dutton family, which owns a Montana ranch "the size of Rhode Island" and must protect it by any means necessary from corporate developers, greedy politicians and displaced Native Americans.

In its first seasons, "Yellowstone" cultivated a devoted fanbase in rural and smaller urban markets, benefiting from cross-marketing with NFL broadcasts in regions where live TV still rules over streaming.

But by the fourth season's premiere in November, a whopping 11 million people across the country tuned into cable TV channel Paramount Network -- numbers higher than "Game of Thrones" at the same stage.

"Just because it's in Montana and there are ranchers, people say it's a red-state show," Keith Cox, the network's president of development and production, told AFP, referring to states that typically vote Republican.

"Now we're seeing it's just an every state show."

This month, the show was finally even recognized by Hollywood, where it received its first nomination from the Screen Actors Guild.

So, how did a series about land rights, livestock officers and bucking broncos win a foothold among the coastal urban elites?

Costner -- a bona fide if ageing movie star in his first multi-season TV role -- is evidently a key draw.

As the show has gained popularity in liberal circles, it has increasingly been talked up as a frontier version of HBO's critically adored "Succession" -- another drama about a wealthy, warring family, set mainly in New York.

But while both shows center on seemingly omniscient patriarchs with political connections, private helicopters and petulant offspring, they preach very different values.

The nihilistic, amoral and selfish siblings vying to betray their father on "Succession" are off-putting to many Americans, said Mary Murphy, associate professor of journalism at University of Southern California.

Despite its wall-to-wall media coverage, "Succession" drew just 1.7 million to its latest finale.

By comparison, "Yellowstone" is essentially the story of a man "who uses all his simple connections with people to keep the land safe," said Murphy.

"The people who watch it, they feel reassured about a simpler way of life," she added, pointing to the "insecurity" of the pandemic-affected time we live in.

According to Murphy, "Yellowstone" is a "throwback" that evokes American values and reflects on "how America was built" -- themes that resonate across the coasts and middle America.

It also benefits from a sense of authenticity in representing the everyday world of ranchers, rodeos and cowboys, even if the violence and scandal are exaggerated to keep the plot moving.

Creator Taylor Sheridan ("Sicario"), a horse-riding, ranch-owning Texan, wrote every episode himself.

"This is his world and he knows it best," said Cox. "Hollywood can't come in and fake it."

Still, "Yellowstone" has been embraced by some on the right as a celebration of "red state" values, and a rejection of supposedly "woke," politically correct Hollywood dramas.

When yuppie coastal transplants in Montana's rapidly gentrifying cities condemn his vast domain and his cattle herds' massive carbon footprint, Costner's ranch owner John flags their hypocrisy and his family's long stewardship of the land.

But according to Cox, the show never "takes a stance."

"It doesn't like outsiders moving in and raising prices and taking away the tradition of the ranchers," he said.

"But I feel like this show is not waving a flag for either side... Anti-woke? I think it's just real."

Cox, whose family hail from conservative bastion states including Missouri and Kentucky, said he has "never spoken to my cousins so much" since the show first aired.

"They haven't watched a lot of my other shows. This one they're obsessed with, and it's brought us together."

And while it has taken them a little longer, many of the Hollywood executives he meets at industry lunches who previously refused to watch "Yellowstone" are now ardent fans.

"It's very funny. A lot of my peers poo-pooed it or dismissed it," said Cox.

"And suddenly, they're in."

2022 AFP

View post:

'Yellowstone': from 'red state' to 'every state' TV hit - FRANCE 24

GREENVILLE, N.C. (Stacker.com) Every state approaches education differently. For some states, investment in K-12 and higher education is paramount. For others, there is simply not enough tax money to both fully fund the states public education system and meet certain requirements for higher educationand how that manifests can speak to a students educational experience in that state.

New York, for example, has experienced ahistoric reshuffling of state-based college funding. Since 2012, the state has been pumping money into its higher education system, with total support for the 2020 fiscal year estimated at $7.6 billion. Beginning in the 20192020 academic year, the Excelsior Scholarship has allowed New York State residents who have a household income of $125,000 or less to enroll in a New York State public university tuition-free.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, California houses some of the best post-secondary schools in the nation. Well-funded up to the 1970s, the University of California and the California State University systems defined international standards.Budget cuts in the last four decades,however, have slowly driven up the cost of tuition, with state funding priorities now directed toward Californias community colleges instead of the states public universities. In recent years, the deficit has forced California to spend more on reinvestments than any other state.

But Californias situation is not unique. As state education budgets ebb and flow, so too do collegiate rankings.Stackerstudied Niches 2022 Best Colleges in America list, released on August 16, 2021, to determine which states have the most highly ranked colleges. For this list, states are ranked by the number of schools they have in the top 250 ofNiches Best Colleges in America rankings. Ties are broken by the highest-ranked school. Nine statesAlaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, and West Virginiaare not included as they didnt have any colleges in the top 250.

Keep reading to find out where your state ranks.

1 / 41Dan Lewis // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 1 Highest ranked schools: Dartmouth College (#10 national rank)

Dartmouth College is New Hampshires Ivy League institution. One of theoldest institutions of higher learningin the United States, the school was founded a full seven years before the United States declared independence. Dartmouth Medical School, in particular, isamong the best in the U.S., according to U.S. News & World Report.

2 / 41Canva

Schools in top 250: 1 Highest ranked schools: University of Delaware (#144 national rank)

The small state ofDelaware has eight colleges and universities, but the University of Delaware, located in Newark, is the states oldest and largest. U.S. News & World Report ranked the schoolsphysical therapy graduate programas the best in the country for 2020, and it wasthe 38th best public university in 2022.

3 / 41Thecoldmidwest // Wikimedia Commons

Schools in top 250: 1 Highest ranked schools: University of Wyoming (#207 national rank)

Wyoming is home tonine institutions of higher learning. Of these, the University of Wyoming is the only one that is a four-year, degree-granting school. TheUniversity of Wyoming has an acceptance rateof 94% and a graduation rate of 33%.

4 / 41Canva

Schools in top 250: 1 Highest ranked schools: Middlebury College (#32 national rank)

Middlebury College has deep historical significance for the U.S. One of the best liberal arts schools in America, the college was thefirst in the nation to see a Black graduate,Alexander Twilight, earn a bachelors degree. Twilight would go on to become the nations first Black state legislator.

5 / 41Forge Productions // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 2 Highest ranked schools: Arizona State University (#150 national rank), University of Arizona (#174)

Arizona has a strong public university network, withmore than 75 colleges and universitiesthroughout the state. Arizona State University, for example, isone of the nations largest public universitiesby enrollment, andU.S. News & World Report named ASUthe most innovative school in the nation in 2021.

You may also like:25 oldest colleges in America

6 / 41Ken Wolter // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 2 Highest ranked schools: Mississippi State University (#154 national rank), University of Mississippi (#186)

Mississippis schools are steeped in tradition and history, for better or for worse. Reflective of the part of the world they reside in, the states schools have struggled with race issues and coming to terms with their segregationist pasts. In recent years,the University of Mississippiand Mississippi State University have both declared themselves to be welcoming and inclusive.

7 / 41Wirestock Creators // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 2 Highest ranked schools: Kansas State University (#172 national rank), University of Kansas (#204)

Like many of the colleges and universities on this list, the University of Kansas is well known for its athletics along with its educational programs. One of the top Division 1 schools, its mens basketball team regularly participates in March Madness. Success on the court is one thing, but KU also boasts some impressive academics. In 2019,U.S. News & World Report rankedKUs city management and urban policy program the best in the nation.

8 / 41Matthew J Brand // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 2 Highest ranked schools: Creighton University (#180 national rank), University of Nebraska Lincoln (#188)

At 856 acres, theUniversity of Nebraska Lincolnboasts a sprawling campus. The school, which has a strong commitment to research, is also the alma mater of Warren Buffett. Its ranked slightly lower than Creighton University, a private Jesuit university located in downtown Omaha.Creighton has a 97% post-graduation success ratewithin six months and was one of the first schools to offer afinancial technology degree.

9 / 41AlexiusHoratius // Wikimedia Commons

Schools in top 250: 2 Highest ranked schools: Augustana University (#193 national rank), South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (#199)

Augustana University is South Dakotas largest private undergraduate university. The Sioux Falls school was ranked #10 on U.S. News & World Reports list ofBest Regional Universities Midwest 2022. Although Augustana is affiliated with the Lutheran Church, it accepts students of all faiths and promotes academic integrity that is free of religious bias.

10 / 41Fotoluminate LLC // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 2 Highest ranked schools: Tulane University (#73 national rank), Louisiana Tech University (#210)

New Orleans Tulane University is arguably Louisianas most prestigious school. Founded in 1834 as the Medical College of Louisiana,Tulanes medical and law collegesare among the oldest in the nation.

You may also like:Colleges that are richer than some countries

11 / 41Ken Wolter // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 2 Highest ranked schools: Brown University (#8 national rank), Rhode Island School of Design (#122)

Rhode Island is the smallest of the nations states, but its also one of the oldest and as such, it holds a significant place in U.S. history. For example, Brown University, one of the oldest colleges in the country, was thefirst to accept students without consideration of religious affiliation.

12 / 41Pastelitodepapa // Wikimedia Commons

Schools in top 250: 2 Highest ranked schools: Brigham Young University (#94 national rank), University of Utah (#146)

Brigham Young University is one of the few religious schools on Nicheslist oftop colleges. Owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, theschool has an honor codethat forbids extramarital sex, alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine and mandates Bible and LDS scripture studies. The schoolsforeign languageand business programs are among the best in the nation.

13 / 41jbdphotography // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 3 Highest ranked schools: University of Tulsa (#118 national rank), Oklahoma State University (#136), University of Oklahoma (#156)

The University of Tulsa manages the Gilcrease Museum, which houses the worlds largest collection of American Western art and indigenous American artifacts. Building on its tradition of conservatorship, the private research universitymade headlines in 2018 for taking over the Bob DylanCenter.

14 / 41Valis55 // Wikimedia Commons

Schools in top 250: 3 Highest ranked schools: Hendrix College (#151 national rank), University of Arkansas (#179), Ouachita Baptist University (#213)

Arkansas is another state whose schools are known for both athletics and academics, like the University of Arkansas and its Razorbacks. The agricultural university has also earned high ratings for its law and architecture programs.

15 / 41Jon Bilous // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 3 Highest ranked schools: Johns Hopkins University (#22 national rank), University of Maryland College Park (#109), Loyola University Maryland (#201)

Johns Hopkins University is not only thefirst center for researchin the nation, founded in 1876, but its also regarded as one of the finest to this day. The university is named for its first benefactorabolitionist and philanthropist Johns Hopkinsand its medical university is where thecardiac defibrillator was developed.

You may also like:Most liberal colleges in America

16 / 41Rob Hainer // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 3 Highest ranked schools: Georgia Institute of Technology (#30 national rank), Emory University (#35), University of Georgia (#57)

Georgias capital city of Atlanta is a university-dense metropolitan area. Besides Emory, Georgia Tech, and UGA, the city is home to Morehouse Universitywhich is the alma mater of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.as well Spelman College, Clark Atlanta College, Georgia State University, Oglethorpe University, and many others.

17 / 41Nora Yero // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 4 Highest ranked schools: Clemson University (#100 national rank), Furman University (#129), University of South Carolina (#153)

South Carolinas top college, Clemson University,ranked 30th inU.S. News & World Reports 2022 Top Public Schools rankings. The top-tier public research university has also emerged as a football powerhouse.

18 / 41Rob Hainer // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 4 Highest ranked schools: Auburn University (#140 national rank), University of Alabama Birmingham (#191), The University of Alabama (#192)

Yet another state that houses colleges with strong athletics programs, Alabama is home to Auburn University and the University of Alabama. Typically, both schools have starring roles in the end-of-year bowl games. But their football programs should not overshadow the Alabama schools educational prowessboth Auburn University and the University of Alabama have been recognized as top public universities.https://87813263fe6812e78afeefb4320d44ca.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

19 / 41EQRoy // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 4 Highest ranked schools: Bowdoin College (#27 national rank), Colby College (#58), Bates College (#62)

Maine is known for its liberal arts schools. Bowdoin College, for example, which is technically older than the state itself by 26 years, regularly ranks among the top liberal arts schools in the nation. The college has formed an athletic andlibrary-exchange consortiumwith fellow Maine liberal arts schools Bates and Colby Colleges.

20 / 41SoisudaS // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 4 Highest ranked schools: Princeton University (#5 national rank), Stevens Institute of Technology (#117), Rutgers University New Brunswick (#137)

New Jersey has one of the highest concentrations of colonial-era schools that are still in operation, among them being Princeton University and Rutgers University, which was originally called Queens College.New Jersey has invested a large amount of moneyin its higher education program. While Princeton is a founding member of the Ivy League, Rutgers is considered to be a Public Ivy,meaning its a top school capable of providing students with an education comparable to the Ivy League.

You may also like:Best value big colleges in America

21 / 41Aeypix // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 4 Highest ranked schools: University of Wisconsin (#65 national rank), Milwaukee School of Engineering (#169), Lawrence University (#195)

Like Rutgers, the University of Wisconsin Madisonor the University of Wisconsin for shortis also considered a Public Ivy. The oldest university in Wisconsin, the school scores high points for research, having yieldedrecipients of the coveted Fields Medalin mathematics.

22 / 41Png Studio Photography // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 5 Highest ranked schools: Reed College (#108 national rank), Lewis & Clark College (#155), University of Portland (#184)

If you havent heard of Reed College, its worth taking a look at. The Portland-based school is small yet distinguishedaccording to the National Science Foundation,itranks third in graduates that go on to get doctoratesin physical and social sciences, and fourth in humanities, the arts, and all other disciplines.

23 / 41Sean Pavone // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 5 Highest ranked schools: Vanderbilt University (#13 national rank), Rhodes College (#141), Union University (#205)

A legacy school,Nashvilles Vanderbilt Universitywas built from a $1 million endowment from railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, despite the billionaire never visiting the South. The university has emerged as one of the most prestigious private schools in the region, playing a key part in the intellectual heritage of the South.

24 / 41SNEHIT // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 5 Highest ranked schools: University of Michigan Ann Arbor (#25 national rank), Michigan State University (#111), Michigan Technological University (#126)

It is true that the University of Michigan Ann Arbor hasthe largest college football stadiumin the nation. It is also the eighth-best university in the world,per Scimago. One of the best research universities in the U.S., UM is also one of the most well-funded. Ithad a budget of more than $10 billionfor the2021-2022academic year.

25 / 41Chadarat Saibhut // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 5 Highest ranked schools: Duke University (#6 national rank), Wake Forest University (#45), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (#47)

Another legacy school, Duke University was founded from the Duke Endowment, funded by tobacco industrialist James Buchanan Duke. From 1986 to 2015,Duke had the fifth-highest numberof Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars in the nation.

You may also like:Best value public colleges in America

26 / 41Ken Wolter // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 5 Highest ranked schools: Grinnell College (#60 national rank), Iowa State University (#147), University of Iowa (#149)

Iowa is home tomore than 50 colleges and universities, including Grinnell College, a liberal arts school known for its high endowment,academic rigor, the pursuit of social justice, and diversity.

27 / 41cpaulfell // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 5 Highest ranked schools: University of Washington (#99 national rank), Whitman College (#106), Washington State University (#164)

Sometimes, a university can help a city to develop, like Seattles University of Washington, which played a key role in growing the citys tech industry. Boeing, Amazon, and Microsoft all chose the Seattle area for their main campuses in part due to the proximity to the University of Washington.

28 / 41Evan Meyer // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 6 Highest ranked schools: Washington University in St. Louis (#12 national rank), Saint Louis University (#128), University of Missouri (#166)

One of the best medical schools for research in the nation(ranked by U.S. News & World Report), Washington University in St. Louis is a world-renowned research university. The school has been at the forefront of modern political discussion asthe host of more presidential and vice-presidential debatesthan any other institution.

29 / 41Ken Wolter // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 6 Highest ranked schools: University of Notre Dame (#19 national rank), Purdue University (#77), Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (#97)

Any college football fan is probably familiar with Indianas schools. Whether its the University of Notre Dames Fighting Irish or Purdues Boilermakers, Indianas football prowess helps to highlight the academic excellence of these schools. One example? Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, was a graduate of Purdue, and the tradition holds: At least one person on almost one-third of NASAs space flights has been aPurdue alum.

30 / 41f11photo // Shutterstock

Schools in top 250: 6 Highest ranked schools: Yale University (#4 national rank), Wesleyan University (#53), University of Connecticut (#157)

Connecticut is one of the smaller states in the Union. Its proximity to New York City, however, positions it as a strategic option geographically for students. Take the University of Connecticut, for example. The schools presence in the New York City media market helped its athletics to draw better talent, which is reflected in the success of the schools mens and womens basketball teams. UConns athletic successes highlight the fact that the school has been recognized as a Public Ivy, one of the best public universities in the nation.

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States with the most highly ranked colleges - WNCT

Gladys Berejiklians performance at Icac has been watched in horror by her federal Liberal colleagues.

Not her lack of curiosity while her lover mapped out his plans for corrupt profit from a land deal; nor the way this fastidious lister of potential conflicts failed to see or declare the conflict in front of her, in the wheeler-dealer man she loved; nor even the way she revealed again how routinely pork-barrelling is woven into political practice.

The revulsion is that all this is being revealed.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is an obscenity, Berejiklians fellow north shore Liberal federal MP Jason Falinski told ABC radio. It is star chamber, kangaroo court, crowd-sourced McCarthyism all rolled into one.

Falinski claims to support a national integrity commission but sees more value in a beefed-up auditor general.

You will tend to pick up corruption not in intercepted phone calls, but when you see money transactions happening that dont make sense, he says.

Never mind that it was intercepts that flushed out Berejiklians corrupt former lover Daryl Maguire. The tapes left him no option but to reply with a curt yes when counsel assisting the commission Scott Robertson invited him to agree that hed used his position to benefit yourself and those close to you.

In a moment of grim comedy, one chat with Berejiklian captured Maguire railing against Icac. Its worse than the Spanish Inquisition, he moaned. They could be taping your conversation with me right now and you wouldnt know.

The lesson Scott Morrison has taken is that an Icac brings down leaders who are otherwise doing a good enough job.

Berejiklians plight has reinforced his distaste for a properly functioning national integrity commission. The model offered up, initially by Christian Porter, is much tougher on corrupt law enforcement officials than politicians. Its design gives the government of the day exclusive control over which MPs, senators and staff might face investigation.

The Centre for Public Integrity calls it a sham designed to hide corruption.

If you no longer care about corruption, then you are corrupt, says Centre director Geoffrey Watson SC, a former senior counsel with the NSW Icac.

Trust is the glue, he says. If you start losing that, you are taking a step towards losing why were bonded together as a community.

Icac put corrupt former NSW Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald in jail. Labor is still paying the price for failing to face down those sucking at its teat. In Victoria, Labor is yet to get the final bill for the branch-stacking scandal working its way through Ibac.

The Morrison government is trailing a dismal chain of scandals. But no one seems to get called to account. Ministers refuse to be interviewed by the AFP. Even a debate about referring Porter to the privileges committee over the secret sources of his legal funding is voted down by the government numbers.

No wonder cynics stalk the land.

So far there has been no knock-out punch against Berejiklian. It may never come. But Robertson, in his relentless way, is expected to quiz her more persistently next week on how she could have missed the signs her lover was corrupt. She claims she wasnt really listening when he let slip his expected $1.5m payday from a property deal in which he was neither the buyer nor the seller.

The Icac Act requires ministers to report any matter where there is a reasonable suspicion that corrupt conduct has occurred or may occur.

Berejiklians reputation will rest on whether the commissioner ultimately believes her.

Then theres the pork barrelling.

Stop calling it that! insists Geoffrey Watson. Start calling it misuse of public money.

As premier, Berejiklian passed it off as normal political business.

Its not an illegal practice, she said last November. The Icac tapes show how blithely she overruled bureaucratic processes and even her treasurer and successor, Dom Perrottet.

He just does what I ask him to, she said, promising Maguire he would get his $140m $170m whatever he wanted. Ill fix it.

Right now there is a mighty battle in NSW over legislation to reform the way developers pay contributions to councils, which in turn provide community infrastructure like parks, pools, community halls and the like.

A Productivity Commission report argued there were efficiencies if that money was instead fed into a centralised state government controlled fund.

Its a cash grab, retorts Sydneys lord mayor, Clover Moore.

They intend to possibly pocket $1bn a year $20bn over 20 years and that will be at the expense of our communities, says Blacktown mayor Tony Bleasdale, whose council area is expected to absorb another 250,000 people over the next 15 years.

I certainly dont believe in pork barrelling; I dont think its a practice that should be condoned, says planning minister Rob Stokes, the defeated NSW Liberal leadership contender but seen very much as a future potential leader. His planned state government development fund certainly wont be a vehicle to allow for that sort of activity.

But the trust is gone. The councils are in revolt. The Upper House has stalled the legislation. What might, in perfect hands, be good economic reform, right now has scant prospects for success. Blame that on the casual corruption of our times.

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Gladys Berejiklians Icac performance has horrified federal Liberals but only for exposing normal political practice - The Guardian Australia

Anytime you move you want to make sure that the town you are moving to has everything that you are looking for.

Niche.com recently ranked all the towns and villages in New York State and two towns here in Western New York landed in the Top 15 on the list.

Williamsville was ranked as the 8th best place to live in New York State. Williamsville got high marks for public schools and for being a good place to raise families. Williamsville also got A's for housing and nightlife.

With a population of just over 5200 residents, Williamsville's median home price is $170,800 while the average income is just over $71,000.

Williamsville's lowest grade in the ranking system was a B for residents. Nearly a quarter of the residents in Williams are 65 or older which is not great for the long-term future of the area.

Williamsville was also ranked the 7th place suburb in New York State to live.

The other Western New York town to land in the Top 15 was Eggertsville which was rated as the 14th overall best town to live in New York State. Eggertsville got A+ rankings for nightlife and being good for families.

Eggertsville has a population of 15,721 and the median home price is just under $160,000. The average income for Eggertsville was $72,652 per year, which is around $7000 more than the national average.

Eggertsville was also ranked in the Top 5 for places for young professionals and the best places to buy a home in New York State.

You can see the entire list of Best Places to Live in New York State HERE.

Best Places To Raise Families In WNY

There are so many things to do in Western New York, but here are 13 things that every person from Buffalo should do at least once in their life.

Buffalo is known as the home of the Chicken Wing, but did you know there were a lot more things invented in the Queen City.

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Two WNY Towns Land On Best Places To Live In New York List - wyrk.com

The Mountain Resort Municipality of Jumbo Glacier is no more.

In a media release Tuesday, the NDP Government said it took the step to dissolve the municipality in the Legislature with changes toBill 26.

People across the Kootenays and the Ktunaxa Nation fought the development of Jumbo from the start, and todays announcement is a win shared by everyone who worked so hard to keep Jumbo wild, said Brittny Anderson, NDP MLA for Nelson-Creston in a media release.

From the beginning, Jumbo was a clear example of disregard by the BC Liberals for the environment and surrounding communities.

Our government is dissolving the fake municipality, and finally putting an end to this saga.

Prior to Mountain Resort Municipality of Jumbo Glacier, a municipality could not be created without residents.

However, the BC Liberals changed the legislation to allow the creation of the Mountain Resort Municipality of Jumbo Glacier in 2013.

Anderson said the Liberal government was so brazen as to award grants to a municipality with no residents while then BC Premier Christy Clark appointed mayor and council.

Despite having no residents to benefit from municipal services, Jumbo was slated to receive over $1 million in grants from the BC Liberal government over a five-year period.

In response, the Union of BC Municipalities passed amotionin 2014 opposing the funding of any municipalities without residents.

This is a huge win for our communities and people across B.C., said Anderson. Jumbo should never have been allowed to proceed to begin with, and the BC Liberals intention to appoint their friends and then give them public money reminds us all of what they truly stand for.

The Jumbo Glacier area is one of the largest remaining swathes of land in B.C. without paved roads and is important habitat for many species, including grizzlies.

The area was protected by the BC NDP, working with the federal government and Ktunaxa Nation, in January 2020 and will be known as Qatmuk, the Ktunaxa name meaningHome of the Grizzly Bear Spirit

Jumbo is the first local government to be dissolved in the province in roughly 100 years.

Anderson said these amendments in the legislation prevent future governments from creating Mountain Resort Municipalities with no residents again.

Background:

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NDP MLA Anderson says the dissolution of the Municipality of Jumbo Glacier is a win for people, environment - The Nelson Daily

Britains business leaders are demonstrably the modern Bourbons, forgetting nothing and learning nothing. They permanently complain about the manifest iniquities of business rates, but completely fail to grasp the obvious alternative despite it being regularly set out and available for more than a hundred years (Retailers warn budget will cause unnecessary loss of jobs and shops, 27 October).

Very simply one taxes land, not property. When one reads of property prices rising it is not that bricks and mortar have increased in value but the land. Why? Because they stopped making it aeons ago and its supply is limited. Also, the value of a site is largely dependent on the planning permission it holds, ie the decision of the public authority. The value of my house in Leeds is double what it would be if one applied general inflation rather than land value inflation. Why should I have this potential windfall?

If a business increases its profitability it is penalised by an increase in its business rate, whereas taxing land encourages its profitable use as its valuation is on its maximum permitted use. Furthermore, taxing property encourages huge enterprises and many public utilities to hold land banks for future use because they pay nothing in rates. Taxing land values discourages such unprofitable holdings and encourages their use. Spreading the tax base reduces the rate of tax charged.

The practicalities of valuing land are relatively straightforward, even with transitional arrangements during a changeover. The switch lacks only the political will to introduce it. It became Liberal party policy in 1893 and Lloyd George put it into his radical 1909 budget, only to see it defeated in the Lords. It is high time the Confederation of British Industry, Chambers of Commerce and other organisations for business stopped mere complaining and put all their weight behind this much overdue change.Michael MeadowcroftLeeds

In the rush (including from the opposition) to redress the apparent iniquity represented by business rates, I havent seen any suggestions for making up the consequent shortfall in income for already cash-strapped local authorities. Can anyone enlighten me?Mike WakeWortley, Sheffield

Have an opinion on anything youve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

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The answer to business rates? A tax on land - The Guardian

Some activists defend the focus on language, saying that the way people use words is not mere symbolism but is necessary to achieving justice.

Saying something like, Black people are less likely to get a loan from the bank, instead of saying, Banks are less likely to give loans to Black people, might feel like its just me wording it differently, Rashad Robinson, president of the racial justice organization Color of Change, said. But Black people are less likely to get a loan from the bank makes people ask themselves, Whats wrong with Black people? Lets get them financial literacy programs. The other way is saying, Whats wrong with the banks?

Mr. Robinson added, When youve been on the margin, being able to claim a language and a narrative and a set of words to express yourself is incredibly important.

Still, some other self-identified liberals who said they care deeply about social justice feel uncomfortable with some of the changes and the pressure that can be associated with them.

Ms. ODonnell of Chicago said that, especially when she is among other white, college-educated liberals, Im exhausted by the constant need to be wary or youll instantly be labeled racist or anti-trans.

And Stephen Paisley of Ithaca, N.Y., said he cringed at hearing libraries described at an academic conference as sites of violence, which is intended to reflect biases in how their rare books collections are curated. Rather than language that tries to guilt people into action, he said, he wishes the message was white people, too, suffer from living in a society in which racial injustices and inequities persist.

Many of the words surfacing in todays language debates are not new.

Implicit bias traces to the work of psychologists in the 1990s, when the field began to document the subconscious associations that cause people to harbor stereotypes. The effort to substitute enslaved people for slaves has been long advocated by many Black academics to emphasize the violence that defined American slavery and the humanity of those subjected to it, said Anne Charity Hudley, a linguist at Stanford.

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BIPOC or POC? Equity or Equality? Debating Words on the Left - The New York Times

More than 100 world leaders will sign up to a landmark agreement to protect and restore the Earths forests, the UK Government has said.

On the second day of the Cop26 climate change summit in Glasgow on Tuesday, leaders covering 85% of the worlds forests will commit to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030.

Downing Street said the pledges were backed by 8.75 billion of public funding with a further 5.3 billion in private investment.

The commitment, to be formally announced at an event convened by Boris Johnson, has been welcomed by campaigners and experts, in particular the recognition of the role of indigenous people in protecting forests.

But there were warnings that commitments needed to be delivered on, and standing forests must be protected, as well as there being a focus on restoring forests.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking during the opening ceremony for the Cop26 summit (Jeff J Mitchell/PA)

The Prime Minister backed the move, saying it would support the Cop26 goal of restricting global warming to 1.5C through the absorption of carbon emissions by forests.

These great teeming ecosystems these cathedrals of nature are the lungs of our planet, he was expected to tell the event.

Forests support communities, livelihoods and food supply, and absorb the carbon we pump into the atmosphere. They are essential to our very survival.

With todays unprecedented pledges, we will have a chance to end humanitys long history as natures conqueror, and instead become its custodian.

The land covered by the agreement covers spans the northern forests of Canada and Russia to the tropical rain forests of Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo an area of more than 13 million square miles.

The UK is committing 1.5 billion over five years to support the forests pledge, including 350 million for tropical forests in Indonesia and 200 million for the Leaf Coalition.

(PA Graphics)

Britain is also contributing 200 million to a new 1.1 billion international fund to protect the Congo Basin.

Professor Simon Lewis, professor of global change science at University College London, said tackling deforestation is an essential component of keeping global warming below 1.5C.

Story continues

It is good news to have a political commitment to end deforestation from so many countries, and significant funding to move forward on that journey, adding that it was particularly welcome that indigenous peoples are finally being acknowledged as key protectors of forests.

However, the real challenge is not in making the announcements, but in delivering synergistic and interlocking policies and actions that really do drive down deforestation globally.

Careful monitoring of the delivery of each initiative is essential for success, he said.

Roberto Waack, Brazilian business leader and biologist and visiting fellow at international affairs think tank Chatham House, said: The deal is a significant milestone on the road to protecting our precious forests and tackling the climate crisis.

The deal combines action to stop deforestation with support for indigenous peoples who are the forests staunchest defenders. It also includes action to establish stronger sustainable forest economies.

Today we celebrate tomorrow we will start pressing for the deal to be delivered.

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More than 100 countries sign up to target to protect forests by 2030 - Yahoo News UK

It was a rainy October evening at the Heritage Inn in southwest Great Falls when about 20 or so people filed into the ballroom for a presentation, not a mask in sight.

It was the day after the New York Times published a story surrounding the misinformation campaign regarding the Big Sky County National Heritage Area that had swept through the town in 2020 and saw a resurgence in the summer of 2021.

However, folks werent there to talk about the BSCBA, they were there to learn about what was advertised as the 30 x 30 Land Grab, another conspiracy surrounding the federal government and land acquisition.

"30 x 30" refers to a goal set forth by President Joe Bidens administration to conserve 30% of Americas lands and waters by the year 2030 in an effort to combat climate change. Currently, about 12% of U.S. lands and 11% of freshwater ecosystems are protected.

The goal was included in an executive order issued in January with scant details. Months later, the National Climate Task Force published a preliminary report titled America the Beautiful'' which outlined principles towards achieving the goal, but not much on how it will follow through on them.

This ambiguity presented fertile ground for Margaret Byfield of American Stewards of Liberty (ASL), a non-profit working to protect private property rights and the liberties they secure, per their website.

The Colorado Sun reported the organization received $170,000 between 2015 and 2019 from DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, which serves to muddy the waters of political donations from right-wing billionaire donors like the Koch brothers and the DeVos family.

The group has made presentations in multiple states and already started making ground in Montana when Byfield went to Livingston earlier this year.

This is not about conservation, Byfield told the group of Montanans, claiming the program was from socialist countries, that the models used in climate science are informed with bias and funded with money from George Soros, a billionaire who often donates to Democratic causes. This is about control.

She also claimed private land was a target in the plan and that it would be naive to believe conservation easements would allow property owners to retain control of the land.

She said that when Biden was elected that her organization started to look at his environmental policies, but as she continued a voice from the crowd said loudly, He wasnt elected! the conspiracy that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

30 x 30is supported by 73 countries around the world that have also pledged to conserve 30% of their lands by 2030. The 30 x 30 initiative was kicked off by Hansjrg Wyss, a Swiss native now living in Wyoming whose Washington, D.C.-based foundation launched a billion-dollar campaign surrounding this conservation effort in 2018, according to the foundation website.

Byfield said that all of the science surrounding 30 x 30 tied back to a report from the Center for American Progress, a progressive policy institute that receives funding from Soros. However, neither the executive order nor the America the Beautiful report cite the report or the Center for American Progress directly.

Byfield included a quote in her presentation from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack as an example of the administration having to "defend itself" and the conservation plan. The quotewas reported in Farm Journal in Aprilwhere he said: I can assure you this: Theres no intention to have a land grab, Vilsack told reporters. Theres no intention to take something away from folks.

And what I really like about that is to explain to the press that it is not a land grab, that he has to say, land grab, Byfield said. That's how you frame a debate.

Byfields goal in this presentation was to foster a grassroots movement in the community to push local officials to oppose 30 x 30. She noted other communities and states that have already drafted resolutions in opposition and showed a map with four Montana counties that had already done so, including Valley County, Richland County, Fergus County and Pondera County.

However, three Montana mayors signed a letter in support of 30 x 30: Cynthia Andrusof Bozeman,Wilmot Collins of Helena and John Engen of Missoula.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte was one of 14 governors to sign a letter to President Biden that questioned his authority to conserve 30% of lands, arguing it would infringe on property rights and hurt the economy.

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts passed his own Executive Order in opposition to the 30 x 30 plan in June, which among other objectives sets up training to help local governments push back on 30 x 30.

In the Heritage Inn ballroom, Byfield invited those present to attend a $50 coordination class that would run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the following day. ASL describes coordination on their website as a process for reconciliation of conflicts between federal and local policies that provides local government with an equal seat at the negotiating table.

She noted a previous coordination meeting she held with local officials at the U.S. border with Mexico, saying the community was overrun and needed boots on the ground. She said the meeting got the Texas Department of Emergency Management to cooperate but didnt specify how that cooperation changed anything.

At the end of her presentation Byfield also promoted giving donations to the organization with a photo of a postcard reading Give $30 to fight to Land Grab! and advertising memberships running from $35 to $1,000, with the Chairman Councils level advertising an American flag print with the John Adams quote Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist.

Executive compensation accounted for 63% of the organizations 2019 tax filing, with Margaret and her husband Daniel raking in a total of $192,381 between the both of them.

During a question and answer session, Jeni Dodd, a local advocate against the National Heritage Area, asked Byfield if there was any relation between the National Heritage Area and the 30 x 30 plan.

Byfield described it as a boiling frog approach.

These little innocuous things that this really isn't any impact to your private property, you can opt out of it, this is just to help, you know, promote tourism, all of these kinds of things, Byfield said. Those are the things you have to really be careful about.

Anytime there's going to be any kind of federal oversight, federal funding tied to it, Federal management, National Park Service, you have to be very concerned especially, under the Biden administration, because we know what their ultimate agenda is," Byfield added.

BSCNHA is a non-profit working to bring the NHA designation to Cascade and Chouteaucounties. Its chair, Jane Weber, said that the NHA and the 30 x 30 goal are not related.

There are people that attempt to tie them together, but they're not part of NHA designation, Weber said.

Weber also referenced a Government Office of Accountability report which found that Heritage Areas did not impact property rights.

Heritage area officials, Park Service headquarters and regional staff, and representatives of national property rights groups that we contacted were unable to provide us with any examples of a heritage area directly affecting positively or negatively private property values or use, the 2004 report said.

It's just unfortunate that the political climate right now uses innuendo to try to sway people's minds on something that is a good thing to build economic development for our communities and help us with people who want to do something about interpretation or the preservation of historic buildings and historic places, and historic stories and our culture, Weber said.

An important note on the history of this land being discussed is that Cascade and Chouteau counties include homelands of the Salish Kootenai, Ochethi Sakowin, Crow, Metis, Blackfoot and Niitsitapitribes. The Little Shell Tribe is headquartered in Great Falls.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) described NHAs as partnerships among the National Park Service (NPS), states, and local communities, in which the NPS supports state and local conservation through federal recognition, seed money, and technical assistance. Since 1985, 55 NHAs have been established across the U.S.

Unlike lands within the National Park System, which are federally owned and managed, lands within heritage areas typically remain in state, local, or private ownership or a combination thereof, a CRS report from March of 2021 read.

There are no consistent standards across NHAs for funding and management. When a member of congress passes legislation to create an NHA, thats where the particulars for each area are determined including the management entity, usually non federal per the report, to coordinate the work of the partners. The plan must then be approved by the Secretary of Interior.

Rae Grulkowski, another local activist against the NHA who was prominently featured in the Times story, told the audience gathered that this was an opportune time.

Don't look down on the liberal news because they did this, this, that, the other, Grulkowski said. Let's pick it apart and get the good stuff going out in the community, use the energy, educate yourself and educate your community members, family and friends."

She said that after the Times story came out she disabled their Facebook page after obscene comments and Trump hater visuals became too much for her, but said their Facebook group is still active.

HB 554 was signed into law by Gianforte and requires the legislature to approve the designation of a NHA, but this doesnt go far enough for Grulkowski. She said she wants to tie their hands with funding to make sure that we're protected at any level that we can.

Richard Ecke, co-chair of BSCNHA, said that they are in the process of sending the feasibility study required to be considered for an NHA designation to the NPS soon and that hes not concerned about state approval.

Federal statutes trump state ones, and our attorney said it's very clear that it's unconstitutional, Ecke said of HB544. We're not concerned about it because it's a federal issue, not a state one.

This meeting comes as Montana experienced an intensefire season and drought.

Former legislator Kerry White, a Republican who represented Gallatin County, spoke during the meeting about how the smoke from fires affected Montanans this summer.

"This summer I counted the days, we had nine clear days down in the Gallatin," White said."I was born and raised here for generations. I have never seen our public lands in such a sad shape and it breaks my heart."

White asked Byfield at the end of his comments whether the bottom line agenda out there was to reduce the world population.

Byfield said in part that this was a spiritual battle.

Ive read the last chapter, and I like how it ends, Byfield said. That day is going to come, that doesn't mean that we aren't going to have a bumpy ride."

I absolutely believe this, there's two things you should do every day, read the Bible, read the newspaper, Byfield said. So that you know what both sides are doing, and you know which side you're on.

Former legislator and candidate for city commission in the Nov. 2 election Joe McKenney was in attendance as a member of the Great Falls Association of Realtors, which hosted the event. When asked afterward if he would support a draft proposal like what was passed in other counties if he was on the commission, he said it was too soon to tell.

I would say, if anyone wanted to bring it to the City Commission for discussion, I would welcome it, McKenney said.

The majority of candidates for city commission polled said they did not know enough about the 30 x 30 conservation goal to comment. Eric Hinebauch said he was familiar with it but did not have an opinion.

Fred Burow, candidate for mayor and former city commissioner, said he knew a little bit about 30 x 30.

To me, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would you push to have that much more nontaxable land? Burow said. I mean, I guess I don't know enough about it, definitely to support it, But it just seems like it's more of a land grab than anything.

Burow also said he opposes the NHA.

I just think that it could be a situation where you have an unelected board overseeing all this and making decisions and it could eventually create an issue with property rights, Burow said.

He said that the NPS has complained for years about not being able to afford maintenance on the land it manages already.

Ecke of BSCNHA responded to Burows comment saying that there are hundreds of nonprofits that operate in Montana that dont have elected boards. He added that members of the U.S. Congress will have to make the ultimate decision on whether or not to approve it, so people can contact their representatives. He said the organization has hosted public meetings in the past and has their annual meeting in January which they welcome the public to attend.

In response to the claim about property rights, Ecke said theres been no evidence of property rights violations regarding NHAs since they were first established.

There's a history of heritage areas going back to the 1980s. So if they can't find anything in 35 years, any bad things that have happened, it really makes you question why they continue to say that, Ecke said These opponents ought to be doing accurate research. And if they can't put up any information about violations of property rights, then they ought to shut up. So they need to put up or shut up.

Incumbent candidate Mayor Bob Kelly was the sole candidate to express support for the NHA.

In my view, it represents an opportunity to define the community, for ourselves and for tourists who are looking to focus on the particulars of our area, Kelly said. I don't believe that this is a federal land grab or will bring horrible things to ranchers, farmers and families that are currently being discussed.

Candidates Josh Copeland and Paige Turoski said they were both in opposition to the National Heritage Area. Copeland said it was a violation of personal privacy rights and a backdoor for government control of private property.

If you look at what happens in Yellowstone on an annual basis with people out there messing with livestock and going places where they aren't supposed to be, that's not the kind of attention that we need to attract to our farms and ranches in Cascade County, Copeland said.

Turoski echoed Copelands concern over private property as it relates to the NHA. She added that she also opposes it because none of [the NHAs] have become self-sufficient since the first two were created in 1985, like they were supposed to, and they're still receiving government funding.

It seems like it's a strain on taxpayer dollars at a federal level, Turoski said.

The CRS report on NHAs said past presidential administrations, namely the Trump Administration, expressed interest in having NHAs become financially self-sufficient. The report outlined that the NPS evaluates certain heritage areas at least three years before the expiration of the authorization for federal funds, adding that NPS has completed evaluations of 19 NHAs and continues to evaluate others.

In 2019, President Donald Trump signed into law the first act to create an NHA since 2009, creating six NHAs across states in Maryland, West Virginia, Washington, California, Arizona and Pennsylvania. According to the CRS report, the law authorized appropriations of $10 million for each of these NHAs, of which not more than $1 million is to be made available for any fiscal year with a sunset date15 years after enactment.

Candidate for city commission Vanessa Hayden was not immediately available for comment.

Nicole Girten is a Government Watchdog Reporter at the Great Falls Tribune. You can email her at ngirten@greatfallstribune.com.To supportcoverage of Great Falls and Cascade County subscribe to the Tribune by finding the "Subscribe" link at the top of the page.

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Opposition to the National Heritage Area gets a new boogeyman: Bidens 30 x 30 conservation plan - Great Falls Tribune

THE long-awaited COP26 climate summit has started in Scotland this week, with plenty of discussion about the global meat industry in the lead-up.

Meat taxes, drastic reductions in methane emissions and carbon abatement projects are on the agenda at the international policy summit, which is set to run for the next fortnight.

Since 1992 the United Nations has been bringing most countries on earth together for these climate change forums otherwise known as conference of the parties (COP).

This years Glasgow conference is the first significant meeting since the Paris agreement, where all countries agreed to work together to limit global warming. They each came up with a plan, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, and agreed to come back every five years with an update.

While countries have been formulating this years update, the beef industry has been prominent in discussions.

In the UK, the government has been debating whether to introduce taxes on red meat and dairy with some support in parliament and others, like the COP26 leader Alok Shrma, against the taxes.

A pledge to reduce global methane emissions by 30 percent before 2030 has been led by the US and European Union, with other countries signing on including Canada and the UK. Methane is the main emission from ruminant animals like cattle and sheep.

Australias contribution to the conference was centred around setting a target of net zero emissions by 2050, which came after drawn out negotiations between and Nationals and Liberal parties.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ruled out joining the Global Methane Pledge, opting for incentivised carbon sequestration projects and development of more efficient livestock supplementing.

Cattle Council of Australia president Markus Rathsmann.

The Cattle Council of Australia said it was on-board with cutting emissions and had been for a long time.

Weve cut our carbon footprint in half since 2005, while producing more beef, president Markus Rathsmann said.

Thats almost double our share of Australias 2030 Paris commitment with nine years to spare.

Mr Rathsmann said the cattle industry needed to be consulted before the government implemented more measures to reach its net zero plan.

The beef industry accounts for nearly 80 per cent of Australias agricultural land and will be vital to reaching any climate goals but it must be by choice. The right structure will create opportunities for producers, and they will want to be involved, he said.

I encourage our leaders to work in partnership with the beef producers so we can be part of the greater solution to our climate challenges.

While carbon sequestration played a major role the governments plan, The Australian newspaper reported at the weekend the Morrison Government plans to stop businesses from buying large tracts of agricultural land for carbon farming limiting carbon farms to a third of a farms area.

The plan was met with scepticism by industry association the Carbon Market Institute. CEO John Connor told Beef Central he was not sure how it could be legislated.

The Federal Government says it will be banning companies from buying large tracts of land for carbon farming.

We are still seeking clarification on that because its difficult to see how this will be operationalised in policy, Mr Connor said.

Arbitrary plans and numbers can be very unhelpful when landholders are trying to work out the best way to use their land.

We are still keen to work through this issue because we think carbon farming should enhance agricultural productivity, but we think there are other ways this can dealt with.

Mr Connor said he was hoping the summit answered some questions about the international carbon market.

There are rules about the carbon market, which were supposed to be resolved in 2018 and weve just been kicking the can down the road on them, he said.

We need to deal with some complex matters, like taking carbon credits and selling them from one country to another.

Hopefully we end up with a good simple set of rules for the Australian land sector and its competitors.

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Beef industry in the middle of COP26 discussions, starting in Glasgow this week - Beef Central

Deftly and unnervingly, all nine justices sidestepped that question and stuck to S.B. 8. Even Justice Clarence Thomas, perhaps the most antiabortion justice of them all, asked sensible procedural questions that revealed key weaknesses of S.B. 8. For instance, he asked the Texas solicitor general what is the civil injury in fact to the plaintiffs that the law was hoping to remedy. All Judd Stone, the Texas solicitor general, apparently could come up with was a scenario in which a pro-life person who finds out someone was having an abortion gets so upset that the injury suffered results in a tort of outrage. Thomas wasnt down with that. Forgive me, he said, but I dont recall an outrage injury.

The others followed suit. Does it matter that the bounty is $10,000 and not $1 million, as Roberts wondered? And given the procedural morass S.B. 8 has created, as Justice Elena Kagan put it, in the challenge brought by abortion clinics to the law, what should the Supreme Court fashion as the proper remedy? In the separate case by the Biden administration against Texas, does the Justice Department have limitless power to invoke that broad equity power to stop unlawful conduct whenever the government pleases, no matter the administration in charge, as Roberts asked? Or, at the request of the same federal government, is there precedent for allowing a judge to block the conduct of everyone in the country or the world [or] the cosmos, as Justice Neil Gorsuch seemed to worry might happen if the DOJ case were allowed to proceed?

These questions dont all have easy answers. And some of them, as is often the case in the gilded halls of the Supreme Court, were classic examples of justices playing devils advocate for extreme positions. A search for a limiting principle, as Roberts and other institutionalists who are afraid the floodgates will open, love to say. As for courts having the power to block anyone wishing to cash in on S.B. 8, Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administrations newly confirmed solicitor general, had this to tell Gorsuch, who suggested more than once that Merrick Garland may have overreached by suing Texas and all of its officers, employees, and agents, plus anyone else who ever invokes S.B. 8. In the history of the United States, Prelogar said, no state has done what Texas has done here.

A highly anticipated moment of the hearing came when Jonathan Mitchell, whom the New York Times identified as the architect of S.B. 8, took the lectern. The Supreme Court allowed him some time to arguenot to defend his own handiwork, but rather as the lawyer for a group of antiabortion private citizens contemplating lawsuits under S.B. 8. Kagan, earlier in the hearing, had already signaled disdain for Mitchell and his allies when she said that some geniuses had come up with a way to get around an earlier ruling that, in another era, might have stopped a law like S.B. 8 in its tracks. But none of the liberal justices pounced on Mitchell as may have been anticipated. And Mitchells own presentation, a little more than 10 minutes long, largely came and went without fireworks or major revelationsother than Mitchells clear antipathy towards the Justice Departments position.

The most important question of all may have come from Justice Stephen Breyer, who asked what would happen if what Texas patients are facing today were akin to Arkansas in 1957a dark time in our nations history, years after Brown v. Board of Education, when states were openly flouting that ruling and refusing to integrate their schools. What if someone wrote a bounty law to sue anyone who brings a Black child to a white school? Breyer wondered. Stone, the Texas lawyer defending S.B. 8, began to answer that Congress wouldve responded with a law to allow the federal government to intervene, as the Justice Department is intervening today to block the bounty hunter law. But Breyer wasnt having it. Congress was no help. I mean, believe me, they did nothing, or, if they did something, Im unaware of it, he said.

And thats the key weakness of S.B. 8. The reality remains that if that monstrosity is allowed to remain on the books, then theres no telling what other monstrosities are possible in the various states down the line. Itll be back to the 1950s. And Congress wont be able to stop them. Justice Sotomayor named a few of the likely consequences: Blue states could defy the Supreme Courts gun-rights decisions and allow anyone to drag to court law-abiding gun owners. Or states opposed to gay rights could defy the Supreme Courts pro-LGBTQ rulings and serve papers on anyone having consensual sex or officiating same-sex weddings. The sky is the limit. That would be an intolerable state of affairs and it cannot be the law, concluded Prelogar toward the end of the marathon session. Our constitutional guarantees cannot be that fragile. And the supremacy of federal law cannot be that easily subject to manipulation.

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An Intolerable State of Affairs: The Supreme Court Is Looking Awfully Skeptical of Texass Antiabortion Law - Vanity Fair

There were the usual election upsets and some surprises as voting in the Oct. 31 Lower House election pointed to a major victory for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

For example, attention on the Hiroshima No. 3 district prior to voting day largely concerned a money scandal that resulted in a husband-and-wife pair of LDP lawmakers resigning their seats.

But exit polls showed the seat will remain in the hands of the ruling coalition as Tetsuo Saito of junior coalition partner Komeito was set to win it.

The seat was formerly held by Katsuyuki Kawai of the LDP when he served as justice minister, but he was indicted on vote-buying charges stemming from the 2019 Upper House election of his wife, Anri. Both were found guilty and gave up their seats.

Saito is the land minister in Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas administration. Kishida represents a neighboring district in Hiroshima Prefecture.

The strong united front put up by the opposition parties resulted in the defeat of an LDP faction leader,Nobuteru Ishihara, a former LDP secretary-general and the son of former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara.

Helost in the Tokyo No. 8 district to Harumi Yoshida of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. But Nobuteru Ishihara was expected to retain a Lower House seat because he was also included in the LDPs proportional representation constituency in the Tokyo bloc.

Yoshida gained the support of other opposition parties, such as the Japanese Communist Party and Reiwa Shinsengumi, in the one-on-one battle with Ishihara.

A similar contest in Shikoku also led to the defeat of a former Cabinet minister.

Takuya Hirai, the state minister in charge of digitalization under Kishidas predecessor, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, before he resigned in September, lost in the Kagawa No. 1 district to Junya Ogawa of the CDP.

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Coalition retains seat once held by disgraced LDP lawmaker | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis - Asahi Shimbun

About 65 per cent of the Seychelles' economy is derived from tourism.Photo: iStock

The Seychelles and Romaniahavereopened to visitors from anywhere in the world who have received two doses of an authorised vaccine for COVID-19.

Iceland also plans to waive quarantine rules for visitors with an international vaccine certificate (it already does so for travellers who can prove they previously had the virus). The country isdue to finalise a system for Icelanders who have beenfully vaccinated to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination certificate.

Theannouncementfrom the Seychelles followedthe start of itsvaccination roll-out:it plans to become the first countryto immunise more than 70 per cent of its population over 18. "From there we will be able to declare Seychelles as being COVID safe,"said President of the Republic of Seychelles, H E Wavel Ramkalawan.

International visitorsare vital to the economy of the Seychelles.The contribution of travel and tourism to the Seychelles' GDP is around65 per cent.

Indeed, Romania has also cited economic reasons for opening up to vaccinated visitors. The country'sNational Committee for Emergency Situations (CNSU) said that people coming from countries or areas of high risk, or who have come into direct contact with someone who's tested positive forCOVID, are exempt from quarantine measures if they are fully vaccinated. The CNSU said this decision was reached based on adownward trend in infections in Romania. It added that there is a"need to create the necessary socio-economic conditions"to benefit the national economy.

In December, Cyprus also announced a plan to waive testing requirements for arrivals who have been vaccinated, making it the first destination to specify that immunised travellers will not need to meet other COVID-related entry rules. However, the country's ministry of health is yet to confirm if this will go ahead, as planned, in March.

Other countries have also made steps towards allowing unrestricted, or less restricted, entry to those inoculated against the virus. European Union membersare lobbying for a "vaccination passport" and Brussels has givententative backingto the idea.Other nations, such as Israel, have firm plans to launch one.

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Meanwhile, holiday firmSagahas said that its customers will need to prove they have been inoculated against the virus to travel with the company.

It should be noted that no approved COVID-19 vaccine has yet been shown toprevent transmission of the virus.

But which countries might be among the next to re-open to immunised tourists? Based on vaccination roll-outs, economic dependence on tourism and support for vaccine passports, these could be in the running:

Tourists walk around the Parthenonat the Acropolis in Athens last year.Photo: AP

EU countries should adopt a "standardised"vaccination certificate in order to boost travel,Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis saidin a letter to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, which was released by his office on January 12.

Mr Mitsotakis said people who have been vaccinated should be free to travel.

"It is urgent to adopt a common understanding on how a vaccination certificate should be structured so as to be accepted in all member states," he said, calling for a "standardised certificate, which will prove that a person has been successfully vaccinated".

Greece is quite far down the worldwide leader board of vaccine roll-outs with just 1.7doses delivered per 100 people.

However, mainland Greece and its islands, which remained one of a limited number of quarantine-free destinations for Britons for much of last summer, rely heavily on tourism: the contribution to its GDP is around 21.5 per cent.

The United Arab Emirates is at second place in the worldwide race to immunise populations; 25.9COVID jabs have been administered per 100 people.

Meanwhile, the UAE has licence for the Sinopharm vaccine, which it can produce itself rather than importing it. It has begun to donate doses to other, less developed countries: 50,000 were delivered to the Seychelles.

Dubai specifically was keen to welcome back tourists in 2020, opening up in July and allowing entry with a short quarantine and negative COVID test. This has since been changed to a negative COVID test taken no more than 96 hours before departure for UK travellers. The contribution of travel and tourism to the UAE's economy is 10 per cent.

Most recently, a UAE airline has launched a vaccine passport. In partnership with the International Air Transport Association, Emirates is one of the first airlines worldwide to trail the IATA Travel Pass, which comes in the form of a mobile app.

The pass will allow passengers to create a digital passport to verify their pre-travel COVID test or vaccination meets the requirements of their destination. It will also be used to share test and vaccination certificates with authorities and airlines. Emirates plans to start the first phase of this trial in Dubai, from April; customers travelling to Dubai will be able to share their COVID-19 test results with the airline prior to arriving at the airport.

Israel has been praisedfor launching what is, to date, the world's fastest vaccination programme. Some 44.8doses have been deployed per 100 people. This puts Israel's immunisation roll-out far ahead of that of the United Arab Emirates, which is currently second in the vaccine league table. Israel's health ministry aims to see 5.2 million of its eight million citizens vaccinated by March.

Last week, the ministry announced a "green booklet" as a form of vaccination certification. This document, effectively an immunity passport, will be given out to people who have received both doses. The country is mulling two forms of this booklet, effectively avaccine passport, one which will be valid for the 72 hours following a negative COVID test result and another which would be permanent for those who have received the first dose of the vaccine.

The ministry website says that those in possession of this document would be "eligible for relaxed restrictions in destinations around the world". For the moment though, Israel's borders are closed. The government announced on Sunday the country's only major airport would close for at least a week, effectively sealing itself off from international travel in a bid to vaccinate more of its population before new variants of the coronavirus take hold here.

Border restrictions for visitors is not so major an economic blow as for some countries on this list: in Israel, travel and tourism's contribution to GDP is around 6 per cent.

The Royal Palace in Madrid, normally crowded with tourists, is empty in August last year.Photo: AP

Another tourism-dependent country, Spain is among the EU members backing plans for a vaccine certificate.

According to Online newspaper El Diario, Spanish government sources said: "there must be an agreement on a mutual recognition mechanism because it is urgent to consolidate levels of mobility, which have an impact on the economy in general, not just tourism".

Last month, health minister Salvador Illa said Spain would create a vaccination registry that would track people who refuse a COVID-19 vaccine, which would create a document that could be shared with other countries in Europe.

"What we will have is a registry, that will also be shared with our European partners of those who have been offered it and rejected it," Illa told the broadcaster La Sexta. "The document will not be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for the legislation on data protection."

Spain has so far delivered 2.6vaccine doses per 100 people, putting it on par, or ahead of, most other EU countries.

However, after its summer tourist numbers were ravaged in 2020, Spain's travel industry will be keen to find a route around the current complex testing and quarantine rules. Last week,Reyes Maroto, Spain's ministerof industry, trade and tourism, said in a statement onJanuary 22: "Our priority in 2021 is to reactivate tourism and resume safe mobility on a global scale as soon as possible. We are working to adopt a common framework of a series of planned actions to give confidence to tourists.

"We hope that at the end of spring and especially during the summer, international travel will resume and travellers will choose Spain as their destination."

The UK is Spain's largest single visitor group, and in summer 2020 there were just three weeks when Britons could visit all of Spain without facing quarantine on return. The country garners around 15 per cent of its GDP from tourism.

In October, Estonia signed an agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to develop a digital immunisation certificate that would enable cross-border exchange of vaccination information. The Estonian Prime Minister Jri Ratas said on Twitter that he had invited Finland to take part in the scheme. Estonia has, thus far, administered 1.9 jabs per 100 people.

However, it is not clear that this trial is a precursor to a vaccine passport that could reopen international travel. In a meeting on January 14, the WHO committee said: "Being vaccinated should not exempt international travellers from complying with other travel risk reduction measures."

Denmark has said it will look at the development of a vaccine certificate in order to ease restrictions on travel and freedom of movement. It has delivered 3.6 doses of vaccine per 100 people.

Poland, where travel and tourism contributes around 4.5 per cent to GDP, recently announced the introduction of vaccine passports. The country's deputy health minister Anna Goawska said Polish nationals would be able to access certification in the form of a downloadable QR code once they received the second dose of a coronavirus vaccine. The code would allow the recipient to "use the rights to which vaccinated people are entitled". Thus far, Poland has administered 1.3 doses of the vaccine per 100 people.

Hungary's government said it could require visitors to prove their vaccination status to gain access to the country via an app showing immunity to COVID-19. "The need for citizens to provide proof that they have gained protection against the coronavirus is increasing all over the world," a government spokesperson said. In Hungary, 1.6doses of vaccine have been administered per 100 people. The country's foreign minister Pter Szijjrt has criticized the European Commission for "appallingly slow vaccine procedures".

He said: "In the wake of Brussels's pledges at the end of last year and at the beginning of 2021 it was expected that the EU would start vaccination with enormous speed, and restrictions in member countries could be eased it has not happened out of the EC's fault."Tourism contributes around 8.5 percent to Hungary's GDP.

While Belgium has administered 1.5doses per 100 people, the country's government said it supports a "verifiable COVID-19 vaccination certificate"that would be recognised across the EU, or even globally.

That said, the country's own regulator has advised against a vaccination database. It said that the given purpose for storing such data and how it would be shared are vague, and that authorities would hold onto the data for too long. The regulator said such a database "undoubtedly constitutes considerable interference in the right to protection of personal data." This echoed the EU's data protection chief Wojciech Wiewirowski who in 2020 said the idea of an immunity passport was "extreme".

The Telegraph, London

See also:Australia among world's top 10 countries worst-hit by drop in tourists

See also:Why the COVID-19 vaccine won't be like other travel vaccines

Emma Featherstone

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COVID-19 vaccines and travel: The countries opening borders to vaccinated tourists - Traveller