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José Moya confirma su regreso al Tolima, "le di mi palabra a don Gabriel"




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Daniel Giraldo y lo que le dijo Arturo Reyes para que no abandonara Junior




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Colombia se aseguró un lugar en el Mundial de Indonesia

Analizamos el empate de Colombia 1-1 ante Brasil y su clasificación al Mundial Sub-20 de Indonesia y a los Juegos Panamericanos de Chiel.




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Santiago Giordana: “Millonarios es el club más grande en donde he jugado”

Santiago Giordana, delantero argentino de Millonarios que se sumó este semestre para reforzar el ataque del equipo de Alberto Gamero, aseguró, en diálogo con El Alargue de Caracol Radio, que el cuadro bogotano es el club más grande en el que ha jugado durante su carrera. El atacante de 28 años también habló de su combinación con Leonardo Castro y de lo que han sido sus primeras semanas con la institución.




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En una casa abandonada está la empresa de venta de carrotanques a la Guajira

La empresa Impoamericana Rogers SAS, la que le vendió los carrotanques a la UNGR por $46 mil millones, registró como domicilio comercial una dirección en Cúcuta en la que no existe ninguna empresa.




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Proyecto de Ley que incentiva donación de alimentos: “El único objetivo es erradicar el hambre”

Saray Robayo Bechara, representante a la Cámara explicó en 6AM en qué consiste la iniciativa que busca garantizar la seguridad alimentaria para más de 14 millones de colombianos que no consumen sus tres comidas al día




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Con donación a Banco de Alimentos empresas tendrán descuento sobre impuestos: Congresista

En Caracol Radio estuvo Saray Robayo, representante a la Cámara, explicando la iniciativa




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“Hubo fallas en la seguridad de Donald”: portavoz de campaña Trump tras el atentado

En entrevista con 6AM, Jaime Flórez, portavoz en español de la campaña de reelección de Donald Trump y del partido republicano, cuestionó al Servicio Secreto luego de que se revelara que el tirador estaba ubicado en el techo de una edificación cercana al escenario donde se encontraba Donald Trump.




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A Fondo con Juan Carlos Echeverry: ¿Qué podría venir después del atentado contra Donald Trump?

El mundo sigue conmocionado por el atentado contra Trump y lo que podría ver detrás del ataque




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Hay bloqueos en el corredor vial Cajicá-Chía y variante Chía-Cota: Alcalde Donoso

Leonardo Donoso habló con 6AM, expuso las medidas que tomó el municipio frente a los bloqueos de los trasportadores.




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CONTEST: Don’t Miss Your Chance To Be Part Of The 11th Edition Of The 7 Virtual Jazz Club International Improvised Music Contest!

New Application Deadline: December 31, 2024 With the eleventh edition of our international improvised music contest, we reaffirm our commitment to promoting talent from around the world and across all musical genres, making our format even more open and inclusive to celebrate every form of music. ...




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AWARD / GRANT: Donald Vega Earns Grammy Nomination For 'As I Travel' - Best Latin Jazz Album

Celebrated pianist and composer Donald Vega receives a GRAMMY nomination in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album for his 2023 recording of As I Travel, an autobiographical suite of compositions inspired by his journey to the United States from his native Nicaragua, and the people and experiences that shaped him along the way....




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President-elect Donald Trump still must decide who will lead the Justice Department

The incoming Trump administration has expressed a desire for a big overhaul at the Department of Justice and the FBI.





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Friday, Feb. 17, 2023: P!nk and Sarah Gadon

Today on Q with Tom Power: pop music superstar P!nk and actor Sarah Gadon




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Thursday, March 2, 2023: Rick Rubin and Barbara Brandon-Croft

Today on Q with Tom Power: music producer Rick Rubin and cartoonist Barbara Brandon-Croft




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Children's hospital crisis, migration to Mastodon, Crown Lands, Herb Carnegie's daughter, and more

How parents of sick kids are coping with the children's hospital crisis; what Mastodon could teach Twitter users about 'netizenship'; Bernice Carnegie's call to action for hockey; Lindsay Lohan's Falling for Christmas; and more.



  • Radio/Day 6

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Why don't we get all the cities on the new iPhone App

CBC.ca has launched our new iPhone App for radio. We were so excited about this app that we decided to put it out before all the individual stations were ready to go. Although right now we already have 9 Radio One stations, 4 Radio 2 stations and Radio 3 on board.

We are trying to get all the other stations up within the next couple of weeks so please check back.

Go to our site iPhone for all our services.





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Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy - Don 2

The trio’s soundtrack for this 3D blockbuster falls between pastiche and progress.




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Various Artists - 7 Welcome to London

A soulful soundtrack that transcends the language barrier on its emotional journey.




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Systemic Racism in the Home Mortgage Context: We Don't Have Time to Notice


In 2020, pivotal events ushered in a season of antiracism rhetoric in the U.S. The brutal deaths of unarmed black Americans at the hands of police officers and white vigilantes, and the disproportionately harsh impact of COVID-19 in the black American community, launched the nation into a discussion about systemic racism. Unfortunately, it seems likely that the 2020 antiracism discourse was merely seasonal rather than enduring, and unlikely to result in meaningful change. 


Black American’s vulnerability in the face of systemic racism is not limited to death, sickness and injury as a result of COVID-19 or antiblack bias in police departments. Our vulnerability is precipitated by things like lack of access to nonpredatory financial services. This is just one of the contexts that compromise black Americans’ economic survival. Unacknowledged systemic racism destroys the wealth and wellbeing of black individuals, families and communities, sometimes causing working and middle-class black Americans to plummet into poverty. As 2020 comes to a close, an election that threatened democracy in the U.S. and the existential threats of an uncontrolled pandemic, eclipse a system of intentional antiblack racism on the part of the financial institutions that engaged in predatory mortgage lending in the years leading up to and beyond the 2008 recession. It is now well documented that lenders, brokers, and mortgage servicers engaged in conduct that was fraudulent and misleading. The mortgage market charged excessively high rates and fees, engaged in high-pressure sales tactics, imposed unnecessarily harsh prepayment penalties, and distorted loan structures to avoid the application of consumer protection statutes.  But, more than a decade later, many black Americans are still fighting to prevent financial institutions from taking away their homes. 


In a book I coauthored with Dr. Janis Sarra, a law professor at the University of British Columbia, Predatory Lending and the Destruction of the African American Dream (Cambridge University Press, 2020), we describe new iterations of predation that continue to target black consumers years after financial institutions settled litigation that alleged pervasive fraud on their part for steering black Americans into predatory subprime loans. But these renovated predatory practices are obscured by the nation’s focus on COVID-19 and a vitriolic election season. Meanwhile, more black Americans will lose their homes even after investing all or most of their wealth in attempts to keep them. This reality requires the calls for moratoriums on mortgage foreclosures to be answered in the affirmative.





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New York v. Donald J. Trump: the Triumph of the Rule of Law in America 2024?

Currently, the nation and perhaps the world struggles with the recent jury verdict against Donald Trump finding him guilty of 34 felony counts. Trump claims that the verdict proves Joe Biden uses the criminal justice system as a political tool intended to defeat his political opponents, in this case him. On the other hand, many take the position that the case demonstrates the triumph of the rule of law because it proves that even the most privileged and powerful of citizens must ultimately reckon with legal accountability. I opt for the conclusion that the case exemplifies a healthy rule of law operating to impose reasonable and predictable accountability and consequences for even the most powerful governing elites in American today for the following six reasons.

First, and foremost, the guilty verdict reflects the unanimous conclusion of 12 jurors, after careful deliberation and judicial instruction, empaneled pursuant to pre-announced New York Law. Donald Trump, like all criminal defendants, held the power to refuse a limited number of jurors without cause and to move to strike jurors for cause. The jurors hailed from Trump's former home state and the headquarters of the Trump Organization—New York. It is noteworthy that not a single juror dissented from the verdict and that they reached the verdict without any judicial cajoling through, for example, an Allen charge. The jury questioned the evidence and the instructions to assure they acted properly. They deliberated about 12 hours after spending five weeks listening to witness testimony and reviewing other evidence including extensive documents. Trump's high-powered legal team exercised their right to cross-examine witnesses, explain away evidence and submit their own exculpatory evidence. Despite these rights, the best legal team money could buy failed to raise any reasonable doubt with even one juror, on even one count, regarding Trump’s guilt.


Second, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg holds a well-earned reputation as a professional prosecutor who gets the job done and gets it done professionally. Recall that Bragg endured severe criticism for declining to prosecute Trump for tax fraud in 2022, prompting two prosecutors to resign. Bragg apparently found the case against Trump too risky to warrant pursuit. Instead, he meticulously built this case which proved bullet-proof. Bragg won his office through an election of local voters and does not work for Joe Biden or even the federal government. The man holds total legal independence from the Biden Administration and proved himself as a non-partisan prosecutor by letting Trump walk on other fraud charges in 2022. The fact that he sought a Grand Jury indictment against Trump on this case suggests that there was probable cause that Trump committed the crimes—a fact that the jury's verdict fully vindicates.

Third, Justice Juan Merchan presided over the entire Trump matter with appropriate judicial restraint. Given Trump’s contemptuous misconduct and constant threats of violence against the judge, his family, his staff and the jury, Merchan certainly held the power to imprison Trump for contempt. He held his fire and allowed the jury to do its job. Despite Fox “News” reports to the contrary, the evidence suggests the Judge ruled on objections and other procedural matters with judicious wisdom. He righteously rejected Trump’s efforts to dismiss the charges, as proven by the unanimous jury verdict on all counts. Again, Merchan, a New York state judge, holds total legal independence from the Biden Administration and, Trump and his team produced zero evidence that Biden even attempted to influence Merchan.

Fourth, Trump himself knew he faced an uphill battle once he decided not to testify and take the stand to declare his innocence. Due to Trump’s decision the jury never heard Trump deny the charges, claim innocence or explain the mountain of evidence against him in the form of witnesses, key documents, or the tape-recording directing Cohen to pay Daniels by check. In fact, there was no defense theory of the case. Trump would not exude credibility as a witness due to his history of fraud, and he would risk a finding of perjury if he claimed innocence under oath or if he simply made-up stories on the stand. In any event, many defendants face challenges testifying on their own behalf, but Trump made that call, not Joe Biden.

Fifth, after reviewing the jury instructions, I saw no error, in that the instructions fairly reflect governing law in New York. While some complain reasonably that the jury was not required to identify the precise crime that transforms misdemeanor falsification of records into a felony, there is Supreme Court authority in support of this. Juries typically do not need to identify with particularity (nor even agree upon a particular predicate crime) a predicate crime to a felony charge; here the crime Trump intended to further with false business records. The US Supreme Court might well make up some means of saving Donald Trump (see Trump v. United States and Trump v. Anderson). Justice Merchan, however, cannot read the minds of the conservative Court majority and it is not his job to predict ways the Supreme Court can throw lifelines to former President Trump. Merchan’s instructions reflect the law today and that is the goal of jury instructions, not to craft new innovations to save Trump.

Sixth, all the cries of conspiracy theory and a rigged justice system from Trump and his minions lack any evidentiary foundation. They produced zero evidence that Joe Biden masterminded this entire prosecution. The claim is facially absurd. Biden did not set up Trumps illicit and adulterous liaisons, Trump did. Biden did not meet with David Pecker to set up a scheme to hide Trump’s prior bad acts in the run-up to election 2016. Trump signed the checks reimbursing Cohen the hush money paid to Trump’s co-adulterers. Trump can only blame Trump for his 34 felony convictions.

In light of the above, I conclude that Donald Trump enjoyed all the due process the US Constitution accords criminal defendants. Of course, with his billions, Trump can afford the very best lawyers which most defendants cannot. As former President, Trump enjoys the right to argue before many justices he appointed which most defendants do not. From a rule of law perspective the case proves that even the richest and most politically powerful must answer for their crimes.




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FINAL WARNING: Donald Trump seeks a Fascist Dictatorship

 


No President nor nominee in US history so openly and brazenly pursued a fascist dictatorship like Donald Trump does today. In fact, many of Trump's own handpicked senior advisers from his first term as President issue urgent warnings today about Trump's drive to dictatorship. For example:

1)    TRUMP'S LONGEST SERVING CHIEF OF STAFF MARINE GENERAL JOHN KELLY

John Kelly enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1970, and was discharged as a sergeant in 1972. Following college graduation in 1976, he returned to the Marines as an infantry officer. Kelly rose to Brigadier General and served in Iraq for the better part of 2 years. Kelly deployed again to Iraq in 2008 after promotion to Major General. Ultimately, in his last military post, from 2012 to 2016 he served as a four-star general leading the United States Southern Command, the unified combatant command responsible for American military operations in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

President Trump appointed Kelly the Secretary of Homeland Security in 2017. Trump promoted Kelly to Chief of Staff on July 31, 2017. At the time, Trump called Kelly a "great American" who has "done a spectacular job at Homeland Security" and "been a true star of my administration."

The New York Times published an interview with Kelly, on Oct. 22, 2024, available here. According to General Kelly: “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist. . . . He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.” Further, the General said that "a very big surprise for him was that we were — those of us who were former generals and certainly people still on active duty — that the commitment, the loyalty was to the Constitution, without question, without second thought. That was a big surprise to him that the generals were not loyal to the boss, in this case him.” Trump apparently failed middle school history.

2)      TRUMP'S HANDPICKED CHAIR OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF MARK MILLEY

Four star General Mark Milley became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 30, 2019, and served as the nation's highest ranking military officer for four years until September of 2023.  Milley first became a commissioned officer in 1980 after graduating from Princeton University. As chairman, General Milley acted as the principal military advisor to the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council.

When Milley took his oath as Chair, Donald Trump said of his appointee: "In his new role as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley will serve as my top military advisor. I have absolute confidence that he will fulfill his duty with the same brilliance and fortitude he has shown throughout his long and very distinguished career."

Today the retired General says of Trump: “He is the most dangerous person ever. [N]ow I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country, a fascist to the core.” In his retirement speech Milley stated: "“We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or tyrant or a dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

3)    13 FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS IN SUPPORT OF THE GENERALS

In the wake of comments from General Kelly (and fully consistent with the comments of General Milley), 13 Trump appointees wrote a letter of support stating:

Donald Trump's disdain for the American military and admiration for dictators like Hitler is rooted in his desire for absolute, unchecked power. This is a man who threw his own Vice President – Mike Pence – at a violent mob in a desperate bid to hold on to power. When Donald Trump says he wants to be a "dictator" on "day one" and deploy the military against American citizens he deems “the enemy from within"--he means it. . . . We did not take the decision to come forward lightly. We are all lifelong Republicans who served our country. However, there are moments in history where it becomes necessary to put country over party. This is one of those moments.

All of these Trump Administration appointees, including many serving in senior positions, worked day-to-day with Trump and witnessed first hand how he governs and how he seeks to accumulate dictatorial powers.

4)     FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JAMES MATTIS

Four star Marine General James Mattis served as Trump's first handpicked Secretary of Defense, from Trump's inauguration through early 2019. Mattis previously served as a Marine officer starting in 1971, and saw combat in Operation Dessert Storm, Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

General Mattis posits that Donald Trump is unfit because he places himself above the Constitution. More specifically, Mattis issued a statement after the J6 insurrection that said:

Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice. Our Constitution and our Republic will overcome this stain and We the People will come together again in our never-ending effort to form a more perfect Union, while Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country.

Mattis previously levelled serious objections to Trump's fitness as President due to his misconduct in the summer of 2020, in the wake of protests triggered by the police murder of George Floyd. He stated:

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. 

5)    FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE MARK ESPER 

After graduating from West Point, Mark Esper joined the United States Army and served during the 1990-91 Gulf War as an officer with the 101st Airborne Division. Former President Trump appointed him as the Secretary of Defense and he assumed office on July 19, 2019.

When asked about the former Generals assertions that Trump seeks to impose a dictatorship Esper stated: "It's hard to say that he doesn't. . . .he certainly has those inclinations. And I think it's something we should be wary about." Esper suggests voters look up the term "fascism" and determine on their own if Trump fits the bill. He also praised the Generals for raising the issue and gave them high marks for integrity and honesty.

The Esper interview with CNN is available here.

6)   FORMER VICE PRESIDENT PENCE

In an extraordinary development, Vice President Mike Pence refuses to endorse Donald Trump for President in election 2024. Pence stated that Trump should never sit in the Oval Office again because Trump put himself and his hold on power above the Constitution. The video above explains his position best.

CONCLUSION

The 18 patriots quoted above all say in unison that Donald Trump cannot rule our country again because he cannot adhere to the Constitution. Instead he will seek extra-Constitutional power and try to rule as a dictator. Trump himself promises to rule as a dictator on Day 1. These warnings come from life-long conservatives and from Trump's hand picked officials at the most senior levels of the Trump Administration. They saw Trump at work in the Oval Office daily--they know much more than us. They risk their lives and the lives of their family. We must heed these unprecedented warnings and take Trump at his word. The Constitution today demands that we all follow the distinguished leaders above and act courageously to protect our Great Constitutional Republic. History will judge us on this most important issue. We must not elect a dictator who promises to "terminate" the Constitution for power.







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Gordon DCC star Cahlin driven to succeed

Meet the talented 18-year-old Gordon District Cricket Club opener and NSW U19 representative with the winning combo of talent and a great attitude.




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JavaScript dos and donts @ Mu-An Chiou




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What Does It Mean That Donald Trump Is a Fascist? | The New Yorker

When the Soviets called their enemies “fascists,” they turned the word into a meaningless insult. Putinist Russia has preserved the habit: a “fascist” is anyone who opposes the wishes of a Russian dictator. So Ukrainians defending their country from Russian invaders are “fascists.” This is a trick that Trump has copied. He, like Vladimir Putin, refers to his enemies as “fascists,” with no ideological significance at all. It is simply a term of opprobrium. Putin and Trump are both, in fact, fascists. And their use of the word, though meant to confuse, reminds us of one of fascism’s essential characteristics. A fascist is unconcerned with the connection between words and meanings. He does not serve the language; the language serves him. When a fascist calls a liberal a “fascist,” the term begins to work in a different way, as the servant of a particular person, rather than as a bearer of meaning




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Don't Do This - PostgreSQL wiki




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I Don't Have Spotify | Hacker News




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I don't have spotify

Effortlessly convert Spotify links to your preferred streaming service




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GitHub - sjdonado/idonthavespotify: Effortlessly convert Spotify links to your preferred streaming service

sjdonado/idonthavespotify: Effortlessly convert Spotify links to your preferred streaming service https://ift.tt/dH4YICR music, streaming, spotify, tools




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Sin señales de abandono de la energía fósil: las emisiones de CO2 en 2024 marcarán otro récord

Las emisiones mundiales de dióxido de carbono (CO2) debidas a la energía fósil, el principal factor de calentamiento de la Tierra, siguen sin tocar techo. via Pocket




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(3) John LeFevre on X: "I don't care about the Royal Family, but the Kate Middleton (Princess of Wale) story is wild: - In high school, she and her sister (Pippa) were called the "Wisteria Sisters" for being shameless social climbers. &

I don't care about the Royal Family, but the Kate Middleton (Princess of Wale) story is wild: - In high school, she and her sister (Pippa) were called the "Wisteria Sisters" for being shameless social climbers.   - She got into a relatively prestigious college (Edinburgh) and then switched to a less prestigious school (St. Andrews) after it was announced that Prince William would be attending. - She delayed starting by a year to be in the same class as William, and then changed her major to Art History to match his.  - She dumped her boyfriend after being told that Prince William said she was "hot." - Her mom gave William an ultimatum that he needed to propose, which Kate then helped plan.  Mission accomplished.




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Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department | Donald Trump | The Guardian




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President-Elect Donald Trump Picks GOP Rep. Mike Waltz to Be National Security Adviser

President-elect Donald Trump selected Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) to serve as his National Security Adviser, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

The post President-Elect Donald Trump Picks GOP Rep. Mike Waltz to Be National Security Adviser appeared first on Breitbart.




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Report: President-Elect Donald Trump Considering Marco Rubio as Secretary of State

President-elect Donald Trump is considering tapping Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as secretary of state, according to the New York Times.

The post Report: President-Elect Donald Trump Considering Marco Rubio as Secretary of State appeared first on Breitbart.




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Report: Donald Trump to Address House Republicans in D.C. on Wednesday

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly set to address the House Republican Conference on Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol. 

The post Report: Donald Trump to Address House Republicans in D.C. on Wednesday appeared first on Breitbart.




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Donna Raynor Hails Success Of Symposium

Several top Bermudian female athletes shared their inspiring stories during the Girls Sport Symposium at the HSBC Bank on Front Street on Friday [November 8]. The event was dedicated to supporting and inspiring the next generation of female athletes on the island, with a particular focus on keeping girls engaged in sports. The symposium featured […]




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Donations Scam - Attention: From Gloria Mackenzie 9/9/2014

So you are no longer winning lotteries, you are getting donations from generous lottery winners.




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Charity Scam - YOUR DONATION FUND(REPLY)

Margaret Loughrey wants to give you some of her winnings... not really... 419 scammers are piggybacking on her story, which is already OLD news.




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WATCH: Donald Trump focuses on immigration at Colorado rally, says Democrats “are ruining your state”

Live updates from former President Donald Trump's rally in Aurora today. Speakers have included U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and state Rep. Gabe Evans, a congressional candidate.




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WATCH: Donald Trump focuses on immigration at Colorado rally, says Democrats “are ruining your state”

Live updates from former President Donald Trump's rally in Aurora today. Speakers have included U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and state Rep. Gabe Evans, a congressional candidate.




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Safe street advocates don’t feel safe amid many car-related pedestrian deaths

By Keyshawn Davis

One October morning in 2019, 12-year-old Alena Wong got on her bike and headed to class at California Middle School. 

She followed her usual route. But as she crossed Sutterville and Mead Avenue, a high school senior driving a car struck her. The vehicle hit the back of her bike, she slid up the hood of the car and flew 10 feet in the air.

Wong sustained numerous injuries from the accident, including a broken femur, humerus, tibia, mandible, three of her teeth were broken into her jawline and she got a traumatic brain injury. 

Her father, Kevin Wong, said he found out Alena was involved in a collision and rushed to her location, at which point the police and paramedics had also arrived and were attending to her. He said Alena was taken to UC Davis Medical Center after the accident. 

“The driver was a senior at McClatchy,” Kevin Wong said. “He was actually on his way to school. He wasn’t breaking the law, he wasn't speeding. He was just driving in traffic and didn't see her. The sun was in his eyes.”

Alena Wong spent three and a half weeks in the hospital. She couldn’t remember much because of her traumatic brain injury, but as time went by she said her memory started to come back.

“My mom says I would ask, ‘Why am I here? What are we doing here?’ She'd answer me, 10 minutes later, I'd have to ask the same question because I just didn't remember,” Alena said. “She'd read the same chapter of a book to me every day until finally, I said, ‘we already read that. Why are you reading that?’”

Alena made a full recovery during her time at UC Davis Medical, her father said. During her time there, she underwent multiple surgeries plus physical and occupational therapy. By the time she left the hospital she was in a wheelchair and had to use crutches.

Although Wong survived her collision in the streets of Sacramento, that isn’t the case for many others. There have been 162 motor vehicle crash-related deaths this year, according to the Sacramento County coroner's office. Out of the 162 deaths, 16 were cyclists and 44 were pedestrians.

Sacramento Vice Mayor Caity Maple proposed a state of emergency at a City Council meeting in September as a result of the third fatal collision that occurred that month. 

“I’m devastated to see yet another person critically injured after being struck by a vehicle on Sacramento’s roads,” Maple said in September on social media. “Even beyond our City’s commitments to eliminate traffic deaths through Vision Zero, we need to take immediate and urgent action.”

Maple and her team have since been working on the proposal, which would require the city manager to identify funds for a public awareness campaign to educate drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians about traffic safety. It would also mobilize the Sacramento Police Department to ramp up enforcement of traffic laws on city streets. 

Ryan Brown, the chief of staff for Vice Mayor Maple, told CapRadio that the proposal is expected to be further discussed at the Nov. 12 Law and Legislation Committee meeting. 

“Our next steps include a series of meetings with key advocates and stakeholders (including experts in the field) who are helping make our proposal as strong as possible,” he added.

Advocates push for safety changes 

In 2021, Sacramento had the highest amount of total traffic fatalities and injuries compared to 15 other California cities with a similar population size, like San Francisco and Stockton, according to data from the California Office of Traffic Safety. The city was also in the top five California cities with the highest amount of pedestrian fatalities and injuries.

Sacramento Area Bike Advocates is a nonprofit that advocates for safe streets and bicycling infrastructure for the city. Executive Director Debra Banks said if the city had good bicycling infrastructure, it would help reduce collisions.

Banks said she’s “fearless” when she rides her bike and isn’t afraid of riding into traffic, but there are people she knows who avoid cycling altogether. 

“Those are the people that we'd love to make them feel safer, so that they would feel comfortable to ride their bike,” she said.

Banks said she was also once a victim of “vehicular violence.” Almost 10 years ago, she was hit by a 3,000-pound vehicle and was severely injured. But her experience spurred her toward activism.

“The person has paid the consequences [and] ended up going to jail. But that didn't make our streets safer,” Banks said. “It just took one person off our streets. The best way that we can make our streets safer is by changing the design of the street.”

She added she’d like to see road improvements like narrowing streets and increasing bike lanes, which makes cyclists feel safer and slow traffic.

In 2017, the city of Sacramento adopted a resolution called Vision Zero. This traffic safety policy doesn’t refer to car collisions as accidents; rather, it views them as preventable incidents that should be systematically addressed.

The Vision Zero Action Plan was adopted in 2018 with the goal to have zero traffic collision deaths in Sacramento by 2027. Banks said the city isn’t close to hitting that target. 

But Banks added she’s thrilled that there is momentum amongst the elected city council members to make changes with the state of emergency proposal. 

“That's great, but there has to be funding,” Banks said. “If there's no funding, then everything sounds great. We can draw up plans, we can sign a declaration, but without funding those streets aren't going to change because street design costs money, costs a lot of money, and Sacramento is low on funds for that.”

Slow Down Sacramento is a grassroots organization focused on increasing awareness of slowing vehicular traffic speeds. According to Executive Director Isaac Gonzalez, SDS advocates for changes to road infrastructure that make it less conducive for people to drive recklessly or at high speeds.

“The thing that we advocate for the most is changes to the built environment, because we know that through changes to the built environment, we get the results that we want,” Gonzalez said. “So narrowing lanes, decreasing the amount of opportunities for people to drive fast, making the lanes narrower, adding protected bike lanes, stop signs, that just make vehicles slow down.” 

Gonzalez said there have been “far too many people dying” on city streets, and said anyone who isn’t in a car is considered a vulnerable road user. 

“We know that crashes are going to happen. We know there's going to be collisions,” he said. “That's an eventuality with traffic, but the greatest thing that impacts whether or not that will be a fatal injury is speed.”

According to the Safe Transportation Research Center at UC Berkeley, speeding related fatalities increased in California by 16.5% between 2020 and 2021. Sacramento was in the top five counties in California for speed related fatalities and serious injuries in 2021. 

Gonzalez said as vehicle speeds go up, collisions are more likely to result in fatalities.

“If we could decrease those average vehicle speeds down to 25 miles per hour, or even 20, which would be better, we can really decrease the likelihood of a crash resulting in a fatality demonstratively,” Gonzalez said. 

City infrastructure is changing, but advocates say it could be done faster

The City of Sacramento has recently made a few changes to its streets, most notably with the Central City Mobility Project. The project includes protected bikeways and lane reductions. It has converted 5th Street from a one-way street to a two-way street as part of the project.

“That’s a new conversion. It's brand new, and it's fantastic,” Banks said. “Personally, as a cyclist and as an advocate, I would love to see every single road in the grid be turned back into a two way street.”

Banks added that SABA takes people on social rides around the city to teach cyclists about infrastructure. She said the process of learning how to navigate through the streets safely helps build confidence. 

She said many of these injuries happen at intersections: “People are doing right turns on red and if you're in a protected bike lane and it ends just as a car is coming up, they may not see you until the very last minute,” Banks said.

Gonzalez said SDS is advocating for the city to utilize quick-build tactical urbanism, which involves making rapid changes to a roadway immediately after a collision occurs. He added that these changes aren’t permanent — road workers can move pieces around to experiment with what works and what doesn't.

“When a crash happens in the city of Sacramento that results in a fatality, typically, nothing changes the next day,” he said. “Nothing may change for a very long time unless neighbors and advocates really press the city to do something.”

He said those changes could sometimes take a decade or more to happen. 

“We want the city to look at every instance of serious injury or death as it is an immediate, urgent remedy that must be required,” Gonzalez said. “We want the next day for cones and signage to go up, for temporary traffic calming measures to be implemented, and then, if successful, put in permanently. That's called tactical urbanism.”

The city of Hoboken, New Jersey has reached its own Vision Zero Action Plan goals after adopting this style of tactical urbanism. Starting in 2021, Hoboken immediately made changes to roads after serious crashes that resulted in injury or death. It hasn’t seen a traffic-related fatality on its roads since.

Over the last year, Hoboken has added multi-way stops at 14 intersections, six of which were identified as high-crash intersections. It’s also installed 418 delineators, which can help navigate drivers through hazardous conditions. An estimated 61 crosswalks were re-striped with high visibility markings, and 27 curb ramps were upgraded. 

In 2019, the New Jersey Department of Transportation awarded Hoboken over $730,000 for transportation funding, which the city used towards its Vision Zero infrastructure and safety upgrades. 

Gonzalez said he wants Sacramento to view this issue with the same urgency as Hoboken, and added it’s a solution the city can do for a lower price than permanent fixes. 

“I could go to a store today and buy the things needed to change traffic patterns on some of our hotspots and get the driver behavior that we want to see,” Gonzalez said. “But it takes policy, and it's not currently the policy in the city of Sacramento, so that's what we want to see.”

After Alena Wong’s accident in 2019, the city took some small measures to ensure that more people wouldn’t get hurt at the intersection. 

Kevin Wong, Alena’s father, said then-council member Steve Hansen’s office was working on installing a traffic light there, but it didn’t end up happening.

“They're telling us that maybe they can get something done, but ultimately, there wasn't any funding for that to get done. So nothing has been done since then,” he said.

Wong said he met with District 7 council member Rick Jennings earlier this year, who said it's his top priority to make the intersection where Alena was struck by a car safer. 

“They did say that they do want to put a mini roundabout, which is something that we have been advocating for,” Wong said.

Six months after Alena’s accident, she was able to start running and biking again. 

“She was eager to do so, in fact,” Kevin Wong said. “After leaving the hospital, physically she was able to make, I'll call it a 95% recovery. She has ongoing dental trauma.” 

Nearly five years later, Alena still rides her bike to and from school everyday.

“I remember while I was in the hospital, mainly my mindset was that I just needed to get back to where I was before, and having that one goal made it a lot easier to just push towards it,” she said. “Once it all slowed down and I looked back at it, I realized how hard it must have been.”

She said she’s realized recently that she’s glad it happened when she was 12 as opposed to the age of 40 because she can learn with her injuries, rather than have lived most of her life and then have to start a new one.

“I think that it's made a lot of who I am, like, how determined I was to get better again,” Wong said. “That's a lot of my personality now. I honestly don't know who I would be without having had that.”

Kevin said he and his wife were comforted by the fact that Alena wasn't afraid to face the fears that other people might have after her accident.

He added the family has made a habit of speaking at city council meetings, transportation-adjacent committee meetings, and various neighborhood association meetings to continue to advocate for traffic safety in Sacramento.  





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