Monthly Archives: July 2021

Ben & Jerry's will no longer sell ice cream in occupied Palestinian territories, saying it's inconsistent with the values of the socially conscious brand.

The ice cream company, which is owned by Unilever, has been doing business in Israel since 1987.

The Vermont-based company has aligned itself with liberal causes, including diverting some funds destined for police departments and investing "that money in community-driven solutions that foster real health, peacekeeping, and safety," it said in a statement in June 2020. The company has called on the United States to end white supremacy and launched a podcast on racism in America last year. In December 2020, Ben & Jerry's unveiled a Colin Kaepernick-inspired nondairy ice cream flavor called "Change the Whirled."

Fans have taken the company to task for doing business in Israel - especially in West Bank settlements, considered illegal under international law - arguing it doesn't align with Ben & Jerry's liberal image.

The company has been mostly silent on the topic. In 2015, Ben & Jerry's posted on its website that it was "keenly aware of how complex the local market can be," and it believed it could affect positive change by maintaining a presence in the region.

But Monday, Ben & Jerry's had a change of heart, saying it heard and recognized the concerns shared by its fans and partners.

Israeli politicians blasted the decision by the ice cream brand. The country's new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, said that Ben & Jerry's has decided to brand itself as the"anti-Israel ice cream."

Ayelet Shaked, Israel's minister of interior, tweeted her disdain for Ben & Jerry's decision Monday.

"Your ice cream is not in line with our taste," she said. "We will manage without you."

The Israeli-Palestinian relationship is fraught with conflict, with some of the disagreements stemming from who settled in the land thousands of years ago. International law considers East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and Gaza as occupied territory under United Nations Security Council Resolutions, though that characterization is disputed by Israel.

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Ben & Jerry's will stop selling ice cream in Occupied Palestinian Territories - WLS-TV

Tevita Pangai is set to join Penrith for the final five games of the NRL season after his move to Canterbury in 2022 was finalised on Wednesday. In a whirlwind 24 hours, the Panthers withdrew interest in the controversial Brisbane forward for the remainder of the season and then reignited it after it became clear James Fisher-Harris would miss valuable game time. The Penrith prop is set to head home to Sydney for the birth of his child following Saturday's clash with the Broncos and will need to isolate for 14 days upon his return to Queensland. The opportunity then to sign Pangai for a late-season cameo became an obvious fix for the injury-hit Panthers as they charge towards a top-two finish. Penrith are expected to confirm the signing within the next 24 hours after a shift in salary cap priorities at the club allowed the move. Once his early release from the Broncos is confirmed, Pangai could then line up for the Panthers in their round 20 clash with Melbourne. It comes as the Bulldogs confirmed a three-year-deal for the 25-year-old as their most significant middle recruit of the past few seasons. The Tongan prop knocked back a similar offer from Wests Tigers to join Canterbury's rebuild from 2022, adding another big name to the list of incoming stars including Josh Addo-Carr and Matt Burton. Australian Associated Press

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Tevita Pangai is set to join Penrith for the final five games of the NRL season after his move to Canterbury in 2022 was finalised on Wednesday.

In a whirlwind 24 hours, the Panthers withdrew interest in the controversial Brisbane forward for the remainder of the season and then reignited it after it became clear James Fisher-Harris would miss valuable game time.

The Penrith prop is set to head home to Sydney for the birth of his child following Saturday's clash with the Broncos and will need to isolate for 14 days upon his return to Queensland.

The opportunity then to sign Pangai for a late-season cameo became an obvious fix for the injury-hit Panthers as they charge towards a top-two finish.

Penrith are expected to confirm the signing within the next 24 hours after a shift in salary cap priorities at the club allowed the move.

Once his early release from the Broncos is confirmed, Pangai could then line up for the Panthers in their round 20 clash with Melbourne.

It comes as the Bulldogs confirmed a three-year-deal for the 25-year-old as their most significant middle recruit of the past few seasons.

The Tongan prop knocked back a similar offer from Wests Tigers to join Canterbury's rebuild from 2022, adding another big name to the list of incoming stars including Josh Addo-Carr and Matt Burton.

Australian Associated Press

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Panthers to land Pangai until end of 2021 - Daily Liberal

Sunderland City Council has banned live animals from being given out as prizes at all events held on its land.

Councillor Graeme Miller, Leader of Sunderland City Council, said providing pets as prizes is "an outdated and cruel practice that needs to end".

However, under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 section 11, it is only illegal to transfer a pet as a prize to an unaccompanied person under the age of 16.

Read more:Police investigating multiple reports of man exposing himself in Sunderland

But the council has now imposed conditions to the grant of licences on council land which prohibits any live animals to be given as prizes at fairgrounds and similar events.

It comes after Liberal Democrat councillors in Sunderland backed a campaign by the RSPCA to protect animals, often goldfish, which die before they reach their new homes.

Fairs, circuses, events and performances being held on council land were already prohibited from featuring the performance of wild animals and now there is a ban on pets being given as prizes.

Lib Dem councillor for Doxford and Tunstall Heather Fagan said: "We are a nation of animal lovers and Sunderland is no different. But whilst we rightly dont allow circuses or fairs to use wild animals for performances, we should also protect animals from suffering or dying as a result of being given as prizes at fairs.

"Giving away goldfish as prizes has gone on for a long time but we need to make sure that acquiring an animal to be kept as a pet is properly planned, and that animals arent dying before people can get them home.

"The RSCPA report that goldfish given as prizes at fairs are easily stressed and very often suffer miserably from shock, oxygen starvation or from changes in water temperature.

"It is great news that Sunderland Council has listened and will make sure there are no pets as prizes on fairs being held on council land in our city."

Councillor Graeme Miller, Leader of Sunderland City Council, said: "Sunderland City Council agrees that providing pets as prizes is an outdated and cruel practice that needs to end.

"Unfortunately, under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 section 11, it is only illegal to transfer a pet as a prize to an unaccompanied person under the age of 16.

"While the law still allows this practice, as a council we are able to impose conditions to the grant of licences on Council land.

"We have recently looked at our standard agreements, and a new clause is now in place that will prohibit any live animals to be given as prizes at fairgrounds and similar events. This clause will be applied to any future agreements granted on council land."

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Sunderland Council bans using goldfish and all live animal as prizes at fairgrounds coming to city - Chronicle Live

More than a year after protests erupted over a plan to use radar satellites to monitor farmland use in southern B.C., that project has not returned, but satellite imagery is increasingly in use in farming.

Questioned in the latest debate about her ministrys budget for 2021-22, Agriculture Minister Lana Popham didnt rule out an effort to monitor farmland from the sky for non-farm uses, after a contract with a B.C. satellite pioneer was awarded and then quickly withdrawn after it was revealed on the provinces B.C. Bid website in late 2019.

The contract announcement specified that a pilot project had been awarded to B.C.-based MDA without a public bid, so monitoring of an unspecified area of southern B.C. could be conducted without tipping off people who might be using Agricultural Land Reserve property for non-conforming uses.

Im just wondering if satellites are still something that we are concerned about in British Columbia with the Agricultural Land Commission making use, through their bylaws enforcement, of satellite imagery of our farms and ranches in British Columbia to detect whatever theyre trying to detect with housing, truck parking, different things like that, B.C. Liberal agriculture critic Ian Paton asked Popham in June. Are satellites still on the table?

RELATED: B.C. to ease restrictions on farmland homes in 2022

RELATED: Farmers call for more business flexibility in B.C.

Popham replied that she was not aware of any contract going ahead with MDA, formerly McDonald Dettwiler and Associates, a Richmond-based pioneer of radar imaging that has since gone on to space exploration work.

The particular project that the member is talking about never came to fruition, but I can say that theres a lot of other projects that are probably up and going and on their way, Popham said. Im sure that the member knows that satellite imagery is used all the time with land use planning. Google Earth, for example, tracks changes on the land base. The Ministry of Forests uses it. Many ministries that rely on data thats collected around the Earths surface use this type of imagery.

Popham said agricultural technology companies are also finding applications for drones to monitor vineyards for early detection of disease. As we move into a world of more and more agritech, were going to see technology like this used.

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Eyes in the sky have a future for BC farmland, minister says Saanich News - Saanich News

The candidates in the Preston riding (left to right): Angela Simmonds (Liberal), Archy Beals (PC), and Colter Simmonds (NDP)

For the first time in Nova Scotia history, there is a riding in the upcoming provincial election where all of the candidates for MLA are Black.

In the riding of Preston, which encompasses Nova Scotias most predominantly Black community, Angela Simmonds (for the Liberals), Archy Beals (for the PCs), and Colter Simmonds (for the NDP) are all vying to replace Liberal MLA Keith Colwell, who has served four terms as the ridings MLA since 2003.

Colwell, who was the ridings sole white candidate in the last election, announced that he would not be reoffering earlier this month, just two days before it was announced that Angela Simmonds would be running for the Liberals instead.

Angela Simmonds is a lawyer from Cherrybrook, and served as vice chair on the commission that suggested switching the boundaries in the Preston riding and ridings with other communities of interest back to their original form despite decreasing population (that suggestion was adopted for this election). She also sits as the executive director of the Land Titles Initiative in the provinces office of equity and anti-racism.

Archy Beals is from North Preston. He serves as the Co-Chair of the Preston Township Emergency Response and Impact Team. Beals was the last African Nova Scotian representative on the Halifax school board before the McNeil Liberals replaced it with an unelected advisory council in 2018.

Colter Simmonds online bio says he is from all the communities that make up the Preston district. Simmonds is a basketball coach, nicknamed C.C. (short for Coach Colter), and is the founder of a community organization, We Will Win Youth Association, that focuses on educating and developing community youth.

Where Black people make up roughly only 3% of the provinces overall population, mathematically its hard to make the argument that there is a strong voting block of Black voters ie: a Black vote that has a significant impact on election issues in the province, let alone overall voting results.

It is unlikely that Black issues topics such as Afrocentric education, racism in the justice system, racism in healthcare, specific allegations of racism toward RCMP and municipal police forces, racism within municipal services, any specific correlation between racism and the hot topic of mental health and mental health services, or even racism in of itself beyond general talking points will take shape in the form of any major campaign issues in the upcoming election. They never do.

Simply put: Black issues are arguably of little-to-no interest to most Nova Scotians. They dont see them as applicable to them.

Sadly, the mere mention or suggestion of any sort of Black issue(s) annoys a lot of people. Many people find it offensive. Some, if not many, would argue their mere suggestion to be, in of itself, racist or indictive of reverse-racism. And then there are people who, themselves, are simply racist. An argument could be made that the racist people alone vastly outnumber the mere 3% of the provinces Black population. The stark reality is: were all eligible to vote.

However, unlike the other 54 ridings the vast majority of whom have a Black population much lower than 3% the community of Preston has the highest population density of Black people in all of Atlantic Canada. And though the riding itself encompasses additional surrounding communities that are mostly white, and whose voters are believed to still outnumber the Black vote in the riding, its not unlikely that Simmonds, Simmonds, and Beals will have more knowledge of, and freedom to openly and honestly discuss Black issues with voters on the campaign trail.

Highlighting and engaging in issues Black issues that could have the potential to cost other candidates votes could, in fact, be what is needed to get one of these three candidates past the post. A startling and sad irony when you stop to think about it.

As for the historic dynamic in the Preston riding this election, East Preston native, Marshall Williams Jr., finds reason to be optimistic about it. At least they cant really split the vote so that others can win, he said. I usually vote NDP but in this case, I may bend depending on who is running and how I feel about them and their ideas.

Nova Scotias 41st general election takes place on August 17. Of the three major political parties, there are a total of 11 candidates who are Black another historic first.

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For the first time in Nova Scotia election history, all the candidates in one riding are Black - Halifax Examiner

In summary

The candidates in the California recall election are required to submit tax returns to get on the ballot. Here are some interesting takeaways.

Gov. Gavin Newsom knew he was forcing his future opponents to make more information about themselves public when he signed a law in 2019 requiring gubernatorial candidates to release five years of tax returns. What he didnt know then, however, was that the first round of competitors would surface during a recall election in 2021.

This month, for the first time in California history, candidates for governor were required to make their tax returns available to the public. Forty-two candidates properly submitted their tax returns to the secretary of states office and are qualified to appear on the Sept. 14 ballot.

Eight other candidates did not qualify at least in part due to the tax return requirement, according to rejection letters released by the secretary of state.

They include conservative talk show host Larry Elder, who is disputing the rejection. Secretary of State Shirley Weber said his documents were not submitted properly and so she left him off the ballot. Elder announced Monday that hes suing to get on the ballot, arguing that he shouldnt be disqualified over a redaction error but also that the tax return requirement shouldnt apply to the recall.

I will not stand for these shenanigans, and I know you wont either, he tweeted, asking for campaign donations.

Newsoms spokesperson said the governor submitted five years of tax returns, the same records hes allowed reporters to review in the past. Webers office is not publishing them, however, because Newsom is not technically a candidate on the recall ballot.

But she has published tax returns of the candidates hoping to replace Newsom. Heres what weve learned from reviewing them:

GOP businessman John Cox has poured $5 million into his second run for governor, but he and his wife Sarah Hall Cox reported a taxable income of zero in 2019.

Even though Cox reported receiving more than $1 million that year from apartments and other investments he owns, he reported losses of more than $2 million. His charitable donations included stock shares to the Rescue California Education Fund and use of his jet.

The end result was $294,000 in deductions and $279,000 in adjusted gross income, so no federal tax obligation.

In 2018, Cox reported an adjusted gross income of $910,105 and paid $11,654 in taxes an effective tax rate of about 1.3%.

In 2017 and 2016 before the tax cut pushed through by then-President Trump and the Republican Congress Cox had to pay the alternative minimum tax, so he wasnt able to reduce his bill as much through various deductions.

Some current and former elected officials on the ballot submitted rather pedestrian tax filings.

Republican Kevin Kileys taxes were fairly straightforward. His salary since he began his state Assembly term in 2017 has remained steady around $100,000. Prior to that, he reported income as a contract attorney. In 2020, Kiley reported net profit from a cattle business of $1,436.

As mayor of San Diego, Republican Kevin Faulconer and his wife Katherine Stuart reported combined adjusted gross incomes ranging from $142,609 in 2016 to $358,119 in 2019. Stuart was the primary breadwinner as president of Restaurant Events, Inc., a company that plans block parties and other events. Faulconer reported around $70,000 in wages from the city of San Diego.

GOP Board of Equalization member Ted Gaines had the most complex filings among the elected officials. He and his wife Beth Gaines run an insurance business and own numerous rental properties. In 2020, they reported wages from the state of California of nearly $106,000, earnings from the Gaines Insurance Agency of $172,000 and income from their rental properties of nearly $136,000. However, after expenses and deductions, their adjusted gross income was about $241,000. They paid a little more than $31,000 in federal taxes last year. The couples adjusted gross income in 2019 was $405,000, up from $311,000 in 2018.

While Caitlyn Jenner is reportedly in Australia to compete in Celebrity Big Brother, she reassured the public on Twitter that there would be no pause at all on this race to save CA.

Her multinational presence while campaigning is a reflection of her taxes: Over the last few years, Jenner has paid taxes not only in the U.S., but also to Australia, Greece and Indonesia in 2019, as well as to the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2018.

She hasnt yet filed her 2020 taxes, but her filings since 2016 show a mix of business income, and her earnings from rental real estate, partnerships and royalties. In both 2019 and 2018, Jenners total income amounted to more than $500,000, a drop from the $1.94 million she reported in 2017 and $2.52 million in 2016, which was likely fueled by the publishing of her memoir in 2017.

She has also claimed tax deductions for gifts and charities, including the donation of a 2011 Porsche to her foundation.

California, the land of opportunity. Want to make billboards of yourself driving around in your Corvette? Want to lead a sanctuary for spiritual enlightenment and holistic healing? Anything is possible here with the right tax accountant.

Angelyne, a SoCal billboard icon, and Holly Baade, a Marin County shaman and yoga teacher, are two of the most eccentric gubernatorial candidates. Both of them reported negative adjusted gross incomes last year (due to business losses), received unemployment benefits and owed no federal taxes.

Baade, a Democrat, reported $51,000 in sales and $150,000 in expenses related to her center that offers tai chi, meditation, shamanic healing and ayurvedic therapy. She also reported nearly $21,000 in unemployment payments.

Angelyne, who has no party preference, reported $28,200 in unemployment compensation. Known for plastering her image on Los Angeles billboards, the one-named personality reported nearly $360,000 in business expenses, including $7,800 for costume supplies and more than $58,000 for 102,000 miles on her three Corvettes.

Like many Californians, some average folks on the ballot got hammered financially by the pandemic-related economic crisis.

Heather Collins, a Playa del Rey hairstylist, reported $93,294 in income from her business in 2019. But last year, that income plummeted to $16,504, and she collected $15,450 in unemployment benefits.

David Bramante, a Calabasas real estate agent and developer, reported that his business income dropped from $127,485 in 2019 to $74,983 in the coronavirus year of 2020. And David Lozano of San Marino, a former deputy sheriff, and his wife said they made $68,330 from real estate in 2019, but lost $67,289 in 2020 and collected more than $23,000 in unemployment.

But others capitalized on the soaring stock market. Major Singh, a software engineer, reported $540,000 in capital gains for 2020, compared to $132,300 in 2019.

Liberal and conservative activists among the candidates may have different political views. But some of their tax returns show them to be more alike financially.

Michael Loebs of San Francisco is an organizer with the California National Party, which advocates for universal basic income and single-payer health care. Sarah Stephens is a Riverside County pastor who has held events calling for the reopening of the state during the pandemic. They both make far less than the median household income of $80,440 a year.

In 2020, Loebs reported wages of $32,510 and federal taxes paid of $2,230. In 2020, Stephens and her husband made $49,452 and paid taxes of $2,530, but claimed an earned income credit of $1,552 and child tax credits of $7,000.

Meanwhile, former labor leader Joel Ventresca, a San Francisco Democrat, and Chauncey Slim Killens, a Republican pastor from Hemet and supporter of former President Trump, get by mostly on pensions and other retirement earnings.

In 2020, Ventresca reported $76,495 from pensions and $25,015 in Social Security. Killens and his wife said they received $64,974 from pensions and $11,444 from Social Security last year.

Of the 41 candidates on the ballot, two Democrat John Drake and Republican Nickolas Wildstar didnt have to file federal tax returns.

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Six things to know about the Newsom recall candidates tax returns - CalMatters