Drum lines used to kill sharks in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park will be removed after the Queensland Government lost a challenge in the Federal Court to continue its culling program in the protectedarea.

Regional communities are being touted as winners in this year's New South Wales budget, crowned by a Regional Growth Fund of more than $1 billion for projects to promote economic advancement outside of cities.

Natural disasters can have devastating effects on communities, with the ensuing financial and psychological pain taking years to ease, but being prepared can reduce the impact.

Central coast residents have launched a scathing attack on the NSW Government after recent works let tonnes of silt, clay and rocks wash into Bangalow Creek, renowned for its wildlife.

A Victorian dairy lobby group calls for the New South Wales Government to stop subsidising the cost of transporting fodder.

Residents in a NSW central-west town where the dam has dried up will now receive truckloads of water.

The ABC understands drought-stricken towns will be the target of federal stimulus potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars under a program designed to support regional communities enduring hardship.

(Supreme Court of California) - Reversing the judgment of the Court of Appeal insofar as it determined that a 2011 analysis of greenhouse gas emission impacts prepared as part of a project for the development of transportation infrastructure in San Diego was inadequate and required revision.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Remanded for recalculation of an attorney fee award in a trademark infringement action, in which one nonprofit organization accused another of stealing its logo. Both organizations endorse political candidates.

RT @antimega: At @GDSTeam we’re running a number of online events for Global Accessibility Awareness Day on 21 May - please join us! #accessibility #AccessibilityRegulations

(United States DC Circuit) - Vacated. A district court conclusion that executive orders regarding relations between the federal government and its employees was unlawful was in error. The district court lacked jurisdiction.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - In a complex matter which began more than fifteen years ago as a bid-rigging scheme conjured up by shipping businesses to defraud the United States, the District Court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant is vacated where the court erred by: 1) deciding that the successor corporation liability claims against defendant should be dismissed because they had been inadequately pleaded; and 2) ruling that there was insufficient evidence to justify a trial.

(California Court of Appeal) - In a government contractor's claim for an equitable adjustment arising out of its fixed price indefinite delivery contract with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)’s Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS), the Court of Federal Claims' denial of the claim is reversed where: 1) the Claims Court's findings that DRMS did not inadequately or negligently prepare its estimates and that Agility did not rely on those estimates are clearly erroneous; and 2) Plaintiff’s receipt of scrap sales and the parties' agreement to clause H.19 do not preclude plaintiff from recovering under this claim.

(United States DC Circuit) - Held that the State of Missouri lacked legal standing to sue the federal government on behalf of its citizens to challenge a federal water supply project that will divert billions of gallons of Missouri River water. The issue involved so-called parens patriae standing. Affirmed a dismissal.

(United States DC Circuit) - Vacated. A district court conclusion that executive orders regarding relations between the federal government and its employees was unlawful was in error. The district court lacked jurisdiction.

Friday on Fox News Channel's "Your World," Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) argued when determining how and whether or not China was responsible for coronavirus global pandemic, it was undeniable China allowed the virus to spread beyond its borders.

ZipX Bermuda has donated 5,000 face masks to the Bermuda Government for the island’s frontline workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. A spokesperson...

[Ministerial statement by Minister Jamahl Simmons] Mr. Speaker, Today I would like to provide this Honourable House with an update on the very...

The NBA team is estimated to be worth $4.4 billion.

Coincidental to TRB's 1982 promotion to a stand-alone unit within the NRC and its acceptance of the responsibility to oversee consensus studies, Congress was working on an update to surface transportation legislation. The timing meant that TRB was not going to be able to ease into its new responsibilities. To learn the whole story, check out the latest release in the TRB History Highlights series. As part of the Centennial Celebration, TRB has initiated the History Highlights series that will regularly r...

Lobbyists are buying our government out from under us Continue reading →

SAO PAULO and ARMONK, N.Y., Dec. 27, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The city government and IBM (NYSE: IBM) signed an agreement to build a public information management center for Rio de Janeiro. The Rio Operations Center, which will be located in Cidade Nova, will integrate and interconnect information from multiple government departments and public agencies in the municipality to improve city safety and responsiveness to various types of incidents, such as flash floods and landslides.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the successful delivery of the Core Services IT platform that supports the Australian Federal Government’s Standard Business Reporting (SBR) initiative, which aims to save businesses time, money and effort through the provision of an online reporting capability.

The Australian Federal Government today announced that it has awarded IBM (NYSE: IBM) a new AU$1B, five-year Whole of Government agreement to be a major technology partner with the Australian government.

Queensland Motorways has awarded IBM a technology and services contract to introduce automated free-flow tolling across south east Queensland’s toll roads.

In today's The Times, you can read in an article by David Pace O’Shea, that, in general, Maltese are a helpful people, generous, hardworking, humble, careful with their money, welcoming, peaceful and unaggressive and that they love their families and, especially, their children. In the Observer’s opinion, anyone who states that he or she has all those qualities also might add the words conceited and boastful. The word humble is not the first that comes to one’s mind when reading all the other characteristics Mr. O’Shea states that Maltese in general possess. Thank God (just an expression!) that most Maltese do not consider themselves to have all those qualities (and I do not know of any other country’s citizens that would claim all these good characteristics). Since the article is written by a convinced catholic believer it might be interesting to hear his humble view, from a moral and Christian standpoint, on prostitution in Malta. Every time one passes the area around the closed Empire Stadium one can see prostitutes hanging out from windows or standing on the street offering men their services. In Malta it is allowed to buy and sell sexual services; such services are forbidden in many other EU states. One can ask how this complies with the Maltese character as described in today’s Times. The Maltese government and the Church might not officially be in favor of prostitution but they certainly do not try hard to solve the problem. Prostitution is closely connected with criminality such as trafficking and drug related crimes. There is no reason whatsoever to let young women be treated like slaves in any country and especially not in a country like Malta, which is said to be one of the most Christian in the world. It is a shame for Malta!

When reading The Times one does not know if one should laugh or cry. Malta government seems more and more like a Donald Duck government, a joke, with government officials, sadly including members of the Judicial, being so dishonest that it is difficult to comprehend. The government officials seem so eager to be just bigwigs that they have forgotten who they are put to serve.The judicial system seems to be in a mess.

The Observer just wants to give a few examples from todays The Times.

Once more a new bribery probe is ongoing against Transport Malta officials.
This governmental body seems to be one of the most dishonest not only in Malta but in the whole EU. This time the bribery inquiry concerns three officials so far, but in 2010 another three officials and 230 other people were charged in connection with hundreds of driving licenses granted to people who had not even sat for a test. This proves that The Observer was absolutely right in the article “Traffic in Malta, a risky business” of Feb 14, although some of the licenses have been seized by the police. However, one thing was not correct; the driving licenses are not issued by Disney World or come with the cereal packages from Scotts, but are issued by Transport Malta against a monetary compensation. This way of giving out driving licenses must surely be promoting road safety in Malta.


Malta has a very old fashioned system for ensuring that people can show that they are entitled to vote in the coming council election. Policemen deliver the documents to every single voter in person. This means that the policemen knock doors for several weeks; no wonder that there are more policemen in Malta in relation to the size of the population than in most EU countries. In Sliema the police have failed to deliver documents to 58 % of the voters.

Since Sliema is said to be a PN stronghold one can wonder if this is one more situation in which bribes are occurring. A policeman who delivers documents in Sliema and is a convinced PL supporter can easily neglect to deliver in areas with strong support for PN. The Observer does not state that this is the case but has a time saving suggestion that also will exclude the possibility of bribes; Malta should modernize its system and this is very easily done. Malta has computerized lists of the population which easily can be sorted (if not this has been done already) by place of residence in voting lists. People then just have to show their ID cards when coming to the polls and be ticked off. The present system is just ridiculous.

The Observer just want to stress what is said in the article of Feb 15, “Reflections on the judicial system in Malta” by referring to the following articles in The Times of today. Here.

And do not forget to look into this one!

New campaign to promote human rights across the third sector.

The Chinese government has found a new use for animation: spreading anti-U.S. propaganda.

The post The Chinese Government Is Using Animation To Spread Anti-U.S. Propaganda appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Environmental News FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PHILADELPHIA – (May 7, 2020) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the 2019 winners of the National WasteWise Awards this month. The City of Chesapeake Garage, in Chesapeake, Virginia, was recognized as Local Government Partner of the Year.

National airline expected to gradually trim fleet size

Staff are 'being threatened' for not giving refunds

The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers bill is the most tedious outrage ever, right down to the dreary acronym. But oh, the horrors it will bring …

David Cameron cares about your safety. It's all he ever thinks about. It's his passion. He's passionate about it. Every time David Cameron thinks about how safe he'd like to keep you, passion overcomes him and he has to have a lie down. With his eyes shut. A bit like he's having a nap and doesn't care about your safety at all.

Right now he's so committed to keeping you safe, he's rushing something called the Drip bill through the House of Commons. Drip stands for Data Retention and Investigatory Powers and critics are calling it yet another erosion of civil liberties and … see, I've lost you because it's just so bloody boring. Maybe it's just me, but whenever I hear about some fresh internet privacy outrage my brain enters screensaver mode and displays that looped news footage of mumblin' Edward Snowden and I automatically nod off only to be awoken shortly afterwards by the sound of my forehead colliding sharply with the table.

With increasing reports of large public companies and politically connected ones receiving COVID-19 rescue aid and the Trump administration blocking proper oversight, business leaders can act on their own to protect the integrity of the government aid effort and of companies themselves. They can do that by disclosing their companies’ political spending to show that political influence is not a factor in who gets help.

Horse and greyhound racing is not due to resume until 29 June according to the Department of Agriculture, though Horse Racing Ireland remains hopeful restrictions will be lifted earlier.

Ideally, business owners and individuals will make the right decisions in the face of coronavirus. But then, there will always be companies like Tesla.