Hey Regina! It’s a warm, grey March Thursday and the new Prairie Dog is out, hooray! You can read a lot of it online (I recommend this and this). I’ve already read it, so I’m just going to enjoy the 16°C weather and the fact the sun stays up until 7:28 tonight. Here’s the day’s news links, as I randomly picked ’em.
1. DID BRAD WALL BREAK TRADE RULES? Saskatchewan’s premier may have violated the New West Partnership between Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia and Sask, which would be ironic since his government was such a cheerleader for it. Anyway, as you’d guess Wall is unapologetic.
2. SASKATCHEWAN’S EDUCATION MINISTER SAYS THERE ARE TOO MANY LIBRARIES He really did. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue and he meant coyotes?
3. UNIVERSITY OF REGINA GETS A SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION ADMINISTRATOR It’s the first of nine recommendations in the Gender-Based Violence needs assessment report, which you can download from the University’s website here (unless I’m missing something, you can’t read it online, unfortunately).
4. U.S. VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE CASTS TIE-BREAKING VOTE TO ALLOW BACKWATER STATES TO DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD Women will die because of this but Pence calls himself a Christian so it must be okay. In other scumbag news, two men who secretly filmed Planned Parenthood employees then released the edited-to-be- misleading videos were just charged with conspiracy and illegal recording.
5. CALGARY THINK-TANK SAYS LEAVING THE TARSANDS IN THE GROUND INCREASES GHG EMMISSIONS Up is down, black is white, peace is war and Conservative think tank reports aren’t disingenuous shills for fossil fuels.
6. MONTREAL EX-MAYOR SENTENCED TO JAIL One year for corruption.
7. SOMEONE IS KILLING ANIMALS IN MANITOBA AND TAKING THEIR EARS Okay that’s creepy.
8. EVERY ONCE IN A BLUE MOON A SNAKE REALLY DOES EAT SOMEONE This link is for the 900 zillion texts, e-mails and messages I’ve received in the past few days about the reticulated python that ate an Indonesian farmer. Yes, for the record, it should be legal to keep retics as pets, although they have specialized requirements and it would be reasonable to require a license. And no, I don’t have one and I’m not getting one. I’m a colubrid guy. Anyway here’s a cute, thirsty king cobra to make everything better.