________
________
from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
________
Elon Musk reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion on Monday, promising a more lenient touch to policing content on the platform where he promotes his interests, attacks critics and opines on social and economic issues to more than 83 million followers. The outspoken Tesla CEO, who is also the world’s wealthiest person, has said he wanted to own and privatize Twitter because he thinks it’s not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech.
Paul Graves: Even as a child, I was mildly confused by how God could be loving and yet punish people with hell. As I near 80, that confusion about God is gone. God lands on the side of love. Maybe it’s we who are confused about why the Christian tradition has settled for controlling its followers with the threat of punishment both here and eternally. I can’t turn the tide theologically. But I can offer people another valid way to look at God’s relationship with you.
Near downtown Spokane, a tidy boutique-style outlet has racks of apparel for babies, children and teenagers. There are new shoes, jewelry, makeup and grooming products. The site is Teen & Kid Closet, a 15-year-old nonprofit providing free clothes and accessories for children and youth living in poverty, foster care or homelessness in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. The site, at 307 E. Sprague Ave., serves about 2,000 kids a year.
The head of the Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday the department will not need to request more money from Congress to complete the nationwide rollout of a computer system projected to cost at least $16 billion over a decade, after an internal watchdog agency said the already-delayed effort’s cost is likely to rise. VA Secretary Denis McDonough’s remarks came after the VA Office of Inspector General released a report Monday morning that estimated the effort to replace the department’s homegrown electronic health record system – which health care providers use to track patient information and coordinate care – would cost roughly an additional $2 billion for each year it runs behind schedule.
Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management are offering to acquire retailer Kohl’s in a deal that would be worth more than $8.6 billion, according to a report in the New York Post. Simon and Brookfield, which bought rival department-store chain JCPenney out of bankruptcy, have offered $68 a share, according to people with knowledge of the talks whom the Post didn’t identify.
President Joe Biden is endorsing incumbent Democrat Rep. Kurt Schrader for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District. The endorsement was the president’s first this year. Schrader is a moderate who has voted against some of Biden’s priorities in the past, including a money-saving plan to let Medicare negotiate the price it pays for prescription drugs. “We don’t always agree, but when it has mattered most, Kurt has been there for me,” Biden said in a statement Saturday. Schrader is running against Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the recently redrawn 5th District in the May 17 primary. He’s seeking an eighth term. McLeod-Skinner has the backing of many progressives.
The case before the justices on Monday involves Joseph Kennedy, a Christian and former football coach at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Washington. For years, the coach would kneel at the center of the field following games and lead students in prayer. The school district eventually learned what he was doing and asked him to stop. Kennedy stopped leading students in prayer but wanted to continue praying, with students free to join. His lawyers say the Constitution’s freedom of speech and freedom of religion guarantees should allow that practice. But the school district has said Kennedy’s religious speech interfered with students’ own religious freedom rights and could have the effect of pressuring students to pray and opened the district itself to lawsuits. The school district says it tried to work out a solution so Kennedy could pray privately before or after the game, including on the field after students left, but Kennedy’s lawsuit followed.
The railroads, the public and lawmakers were all on board roughly 50 years ago when the old trestles in the middle of downtown were ready to be torn down. Everyone seemed to be on the same page, including Mayor David Rodgers and a representative of the Milwaukee Road line that had just deeded land to the city for its permanent downtown park. Everyone except the decorative wrecking ball employed for a ceremony marking the occasion. “The ceremony ended, to the amusement of spectators and the chagrin of Glen A. Yake, assistant to the city manager-engineering, when the wrecking ball fell off the end of the chain,” The Spokesman-Review reported on June 2, 1972. “ ‘Great show, Glen,’ someone observed. ‘At that rate you should have it down sometime before Expo ’74 opens.’ ”
________
No comments:
Post a Comment