kijiji farm equipment
kijiji farm equipment
Jeremy Clarkson forced to close Diddly Squat farm shop in devastating blow
GlobalFoundries confirms $1.5 billion award from the US Chips and Science Act
Joly touts ‘private’ diplomacy as Mexico criticizes Canada’s culture, trade
Nathan Hochman, who campaigned for district attorney espousing a "hard middle approach" to battling crime and scored a resounding victory over progressive incumbent George Gascón in last month's election, is set to take the oath of office Tuesday as L.A. County's 44th head prosecutor. The 61-year-old former federal prosecutor -- who ran as an independent after seeking the state attorney general's office as a Republican in 2022 -- will be sworn in at noon in a ceremony outside the Hall of Justice, with former GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger administering the oath. Hochman will carry what amounts to a mandate from L.A. County voters to get tougher on crime -- with the latest numbers giving him more than 1.9 million votes, or just under 60%, compared to Gascón's 1.3 million votes. Gascón conceded defeat on Nov. 6, one day after Election Day. Gascón was swept into office four years ago on a progressive platform - - but he became a target of critics, prominently Hochman, who accused him of being soft on crime as high-profile robberies, assaults and killings grabbed headlines. Gascón defended his record, denying that his policies led to an increase in crime and insisting that statistics show actual drops in many categories. But Hochman disputed those claims. "We'll go back to just two things -- the facts and the law," Hochman told his supporters on election night in Beverly Hills, where he grew up. Even while the votes were still being tallied on election night, Hochman told his backers that "the voices of the residents of L.A. County have been heard and they're saying enough is enough of George Gascón's policies and they look forward to a safer future." The Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which represents county prosecutors, hailed Hochman's victory as a "pivotal moment in the fight to return balance and accountability to the justice system and to prioritize public safety in a county that has seen a dangerous decline under the failed leadership of George Gascón." During a pre-election debate hosted by KNX News and the Los Angeles Times, Gascón highlighted his progressive policies -- several of which he implemented once he took office in 2020 -- such as limiting extra-long sentences for people accused of using a gun or being a gang member, prosecutions of juveniles as adults and no longer seeking the death penalty, though he later revised some of his policies. Gascón sought to go after corporate corruption, like on June 21, 2023, when he filed 22 felonies and two misdemeanor counts against S&W Atlas Iron & Metal Co. and its owners, Gary Joseph Weisenberg and Matthew Jacob Weisenberg, the father and son duo. But Hochman said such policies led to an increase in crime across the county, and that he would revoke several of Gascón's directives. Hochman had touted his "hard middle approach," stating it will not lead to mass incarceration but rather that cases would be reviewed individually and punishment meted out proportionally for the crime committed. According to the California Department of Justice, violent crime is up about 8% from 2019 to 2023 countywide, though in Los Angeles violent crime decreased by about 6%. "We should not be worse than any other D.A.'s office out there. The L.A. County D.A.'s Office used to be the gold standard by which all other D.A.'s offices had measured," Hochman said. Gascón insisted that his office had been holding criminals accountable for their crimes, including retail and residential theft. However, Hochman pointed to high-profile robberies of homes, 7-Eleven stores, retail and other local businesses that he said have led to increased concerns from residents and business owners over public safety. "We need to send a very strong message of enforcement, accountability and ultimately deterrent to those residential burglaries, and if they're coming, for instance, (from) overseas, from Chile or from Venezuela, we have to work with the federal government," Hochman said. Gascón survived two attempts to recall him, and during his tenure was also accused by 20 prosecutors of workplace retaliation. Hochman said morale in the D.A.'s office is at a "all-time low," accusing Gascón of creating "a dysfunctional office." During his campaign, Hochman touted what he calls his "Blueprint for Justice" that he said would "restore safety and justice to our county." As part of that blueprint, Hochman vowed to "restore the purpose of the District Attorney's Office to fairly, effectively and vigorously prosecute those who break laws in Los Angeles County based on the evidence and the law." Hochman said he would also "restore the integrity and independence of the district attorney by not making decisions based on a party affiliation or political ideology but solely on the facts and the law." One of Hochman's early high-profile cases will involve Erik and Lyle Menendez , who are serving life sentences without parole for the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. The brothers are waiting for a decision on their bid for release based on what their attorneys say is new evidence that they were sexually abused by their father. In the run-up to the election, Gascón announced that he supported the resentencing of the brothers, but a judge last week delayed a decision on the matter until January, giving Hochman time to review the case. The Menendez brothers' defense team submitted papers to Gov. Gavin Newsom requesting clemency, but the governor said he would not make any decision on the request until Hochman has a chance to review the nearly 35-year-old case. "The governor respects the role of the district attorney in ensuring justice is served and recognizes that voters have entrusted District Attorney-elect Hochman to carry out this responsibility," a statement from the governor's office said. "The governor will defer to the DA-elect's review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions." Additional reporting by City News Service.RALEIGH, N.C. — The State Board of Elections on Wednesday voted mostly along party lines to dismiss Republican Jefferson Griffin’s challenge of over 60,000 ballots cast in the North Carolina Supreme Court election. Griffin, who trails his Democratic opponent, Allison Riggs, by over 700 votes, made a variety of legal arguments claiming that ineligible voters were allowed to participate in the election — potentially changing the outcome. The board disagreed, rejecting all of Griffin’s protests. “The idea that someone could have been registered to vote, came to vote and then has their vote discarded is anathema to the democratic system and simply cannot be tolerated,” Board Chair Alan Hirsch, a Democrat, said. The board’s Republicans voted against dismissing some of the protests, saying they would’ve preferred to proceed to a further hearing to gather more evidence. After the hearing, Riggs told reporters she was grateful that all lawful votes would be counted. “These are eligible voters,” she said. “My job is now — and will continue to be, because the voters of North Carolina saw fit to keep me in my seat — is to defend the constitutional rights of North Carolinians and to do so with no regard for political ideology, with no regard for political goals or dreams or aspirations.” The chair of the NC GOP, Jason Simmons, blasted the board’s ruling in a statement released after the vote. “Unsurprisingly, the most partisan State Board of Elections in history has once again failed the people of North Carolina,” he said. “The board’s continued efforts to engineer political outcomes for Democrats is shameful. We will review the board’s decision and reserve the right to any future actions to protect the integrity of our elections.” The board’s rulings are the latest development in a race that still does not have an official winner over a month after Election Day. A statewide machine recount and a partial hand recount of the results both affirmed Riggs’ lead, but the board could not declare a winner until hearing Griffin’s protests. Democrats have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to invalidate the protests, arguing that they could disenfranchise valid voters. Now, the protests could head to state court. State law allows Griffin to appeal the board’s rejection to Wake County Superior Court. From there, the case could work its way all the way up to the Supreme Court itself. The board also rejected election protests filed by several Republicans who lost legislative races. That included Granville County Rep. Frank Sossamon, whose loss to Democrat Bryan Cohn was decisive in breaking the GOP’s veto-proof supermajority in the General Assembly. Most of the board’s votes split 3-2 along party lines. Griffin had requested that a Democratic member of the board, Siobhan Millen, recuse herself from the case because her husband is a partner at the law firm representing Riggs. Hirsch said he concluded that Millen did not have a conflict and would be able to participate in the hearing. He noted in a memo that the law firm had an ethical screen shielding Millen’s husband from any matters relating to Riggs. “Given these circumstances, it would be inappropriate for Member Millen to be removed from consideration of this matter,” Hirsch wrote. State lawmakers approved a new law last month that would shift control of the State Board of Elections to the GOP by stripping incoming Democratic Gov. Josh Stein of his appointment power and transferring it to the newly elected state auditor, Republican Dave Boliek. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed that bill, but the House is set to vote on overriding his veto on Wednesday. What did Griffin’s protests argue? While some of Griffin’s protests dealing with factual allegations were considered at the local level, the majority of his protests dealt not with specific allegations of fraud — but rather with legal arguments about voter eligibility that have so far been rejected by state and federal courts. The State Board of Elections took jurisdiction over all protests dealing with legal issues and heard arguments from attorneys for Riggs and Griffin at a hearing on Wednesday. Attorneys for Griffin argued that the board misapplied state law and allowed ineligible voters to participate in the election. “We filed these protests because we believe the winners of these elections should be determined by eligible voters and only eligible voters,” Griffin’s attorney, Craig Schauer, told the board. Ray Bennett, Riggs’ lawyer, argued that Griffin’s protests sought to institute new voter requirements after the fact, throwing out legitimate votes in the process. “The election protests here violate a bedrock principle so basic you learn it in elementary school: If you lose, you don’t try to change the rules so you can claim that you won,” he said. The most common reason Griffin challenged voters was his allegation that the voter did not have a driver’s license number or Social Security number attached to their voter registration. In his legal brief filed with the board, Griffin’s lawyer argued that requiring this information was a “decades-old feature of American election law that protects the integrity of our elections.” The Republican National Committee also made this argument in a lawsuit filed this summer which sought to purge 225,000 voters from the rolls. A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump rejected part of the RNC’s argument, though the case is still ongoing. Stacy “Four” Eggers, a Republican on the board, called the issue a “self-inflicted wound,” noting that the board had been made aware that its registration form did not clearly indicate to voters that they were required to provide the information. A new form was created last year to make the requirement more clear, but the board did not attempt to collect the information from voters who already registered without providing it. Democrats on the board said this was not a legitimate reason to throw out the votes, especially since all voters still had to show ID in this election. “There’s nothing those individuals could have done — as far as they could tell, they were properly registered,” Hirsch said. Bennett also noted that Griffin’s attorneys had not actually identified any voters on their lists who were ineligible to vote, based on current state law. Strach, one of Griffin’s lawyers, conceded this point, but said it was because the board hadn’t provided sufficient data for their analysis. Griffin also argued that the board should not count votes from adult children of North Carolina residents living abroad who have never resided in the state. A state law passed in 2011 explicitly permits those voters to participate in the state’s elections, but Griffin argued that that law violates the state constitution. The RNC made the same argument earlier this year, but had its lawsuit rejected by a state court. The final protest category before the board on Wednesday argued that votes from military and overseas voters who do not provide voter ID should not be counted. An administrative rule exempts these voters from the ID requirement, but Griffin argued that the rule violates state law. The board’s Republicans joined the Democratic majority to unanimously reject this protest, finding that the rule was binding. An N&O analysis of Griffin’s protests found that Black registered voters were twice as likely to have their votes challenged as white voters. ©2024 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Scientology Expands Its Impact in Santo André, the Industrial Heart of São PauloSpecial counsel moves to abandon election interference and classified documents cases against Trump
HOUSTON (AP) — An elaborate parody appears to be behind an effort to resurrect Enron, the Houston-based energy company that exemplified the worst in American corporate fraud and greed after it went bankrupt in 2001. If its return is comedic, some who lost everything in Enron’s collapse aren’t laughing. “It’s a pretty sick joke and it disparages the people that did work there. And why would you want to even bring it back up again?” said former Enron employee Diana Peters, who represented workers in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings. Here’s what to know about the history of Enron and the purported effort to bring it back. What happened at Enron? Once the nation’s seventh-largest company, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 2, 2001, after years of accounting tricks could no longer hide billions of dollars in debt or make failing ventures appear profitable. The energy company’s collapse put more than 5,000 people out of work and wiped out more than $2 billion in employee pensions. Its aftershocks were felt throughout the energy sector. Twenty-four , including , were convicted for their roles in the fraud. Enron founder Ken Lay’s convictions were vacated after he died of heart disease following his 2006 trial. Is Enron coming back? On Monday — the 23rd anniversary of the bankruptcy filing — a company representing itself as Enron announced in a news release it was relaunching as a “company dedicated to solving the global energy crisis.” It also posted a video on social media, advertised on at least one Houston billboard and a took out a full-page ad in the Houston Chronicle In the minute-long video full of generic corporate jargon, the company talks about “growth” and “rebirth.” It ends with the words, “We’re back. Can we talk?” In an email, company spokesperson Will Chabot said the new Enron was not doing any interviews yet, but “We’ll have more to share soon.” Signs point to the comeback being a joke. In the “terms of use and conditions of sale” on the company’s website, it says “the information on the website about Enron is First Amendment protected parody, represents performance art, and is for entertainment purposes only.” Documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show College Company, an Arkansas-based LLC, owns the Enron trademark. The co-founder of College Company is Connor Gaydos, who helped create a joke conspiracy theory claiming all birds are actually government surveillance drones. What do former Enron employees think of the company’s return? Peters said she and some other former employees are upset and think the relaunch was “in poor taste.” “If it’s a joke, it’s rude, extremely rude. And I hope that they realize it and apologize to all of the Enron employees,” Peters said. Peters, 74, said she is still working in information technology because “I lost everything in Enron, and so my Social Security doesn’t always take care of things I need done.” “Enron’s downfall taught us critical lessons about corporate ethics, accountability, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Enron’s legacy was the employees in the trenches. Leave Enron buried,” she said. But Sherron Watkins, Enron’s former vice president of corporate development and the main whistleblower who helped uncover the scandal, said she didn’t have a problem with the joke because comedy “usually helps us focus on an uncomfortable historical event that we’d rather ignore.” “I think we use prior scandals to try to teach new generations what can go wrong with big companies,” said Watkins, who still speaks at colleges and conferences about the Enron scandal. __ This story was corrected to fix the spelling of Ken Lay’s first name, which had been misspelled “Key.” ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano on X at Juan A. Lozano, The Associated PressSecond-warmest November on record means that 2024 is likely to be Earth's hottest year
Legislation allowing terminally ill individuals to legally end their lives through medication is back on the table for next year’s legislative session but with one change – patients would be prohibited from taking the prescribed medication in public spaces. State Rep. Bob Lynn, a Windham Republican and the bill’s primary sponsor, explained that the revision addresses concerns about the possibility of those eligible for the end-of-life care taking the medications in public areas like beaches, alleys, parks or lakes. However, Lynn believes these fears are unfounded. “It really sounds to me, to be honest, respectfully to those who don’t like this bill generally, it’s almost a frivolous kind of argument,” said Lynn. “Somebody that’s terminally ill and within six months of death is probably not likely to be tooling around in public. But nonetheless, to address that issue, we put that in there.” To qualify for life-ending medications under this bill — similar to the previously debated House Bill 1283 — individuals must be at least 18 years old, have a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less to live, possess sound mental capacity and be able to self-administer the medication. The process also requires verification from two healthcare providers before any prescription is issued. The bill drew significant public attention, with over 1,780 people testifying both for and against it. Among them, 1,125 voiced opposition before the measure ultimately failed in the Senate. The opposition wasn’t focused on the medication or the methods, but rather the concern that the bill would effectively condone suicide. Steven Wade, executive director of the Brain Injury Association, views the bill as a potential risk for abuse within the disability community, warning that it sends a dangerous message that suicide is an acceptable solution. “Having a difficult life and being in pain, those are things that people with brain injury and people with disabilities live with every day,” said Wade. “It’s devaluing the lived experience of people living with severe disability in the community and it’s also putting folks like that at risk in the sense that all of a sudden it becomes, maybe becomes an obligation to end your life rather than necessarily a choice.” But, the bill does not allow individuals with a terminal illness and a severe disability to be eligible for the end-of-life option, as they must be capable of self-administering the medication. Article continues after... Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess Opponents of the end-of-life care option believe the state should prioritize expanding palliative care to ensure greater comfort for individuals with terminal illnesses, rather than promoting medication to end suffering through death. The National Alliance on Mental Illness New Hampshire has chosen to remain neutral on the bill. Modeled after similar laws in 10 states and the District of Columbia, including neighboring Maine and Vermont, the bill gives those with terminal illnesses the power to control their own death. Once the medication is prescribed, patients retain full autonomy over its use, deciding when — or if — they wish to take it, whether at home or in a hospice setting. For supporters, it is a matter of personal liberty and bodily autonomy. “If I had some really terrible disease and was in pain and suffering and the doctor told me I only had six months to live, I think I would want to have the option of being able to die peacefully, rather than not peacefully,” said Lynn, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court. Although the bill received bipartisan support this year, with more Democrats favoring it, the recent elections have shifted the political landscape, giving Republicans greater control in both the House and Senate. To get the bill passed, Lynn said he is focused on educating the public and addressing misconceptions about the bill. “I hope it’ll get bipartisan support this year because I think it really is the right thing to do if you believe in liberty and you believe that people who are suffering should be able to have a right to make the decision when they’re very close to death, but not continue their suffering,” said Lynn. Sruthi Gopalakrishnan can be rea ched at sgopalakrishnan@cmonitor.comOne of the most challenging aspects for the celebs on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! is to survive without their home comforts for three weeks. And while you'd imagine they'd be yearning for luxury skincare or eager to scroll through their mobiles, this year's contestant GK Barry shared an amusing and very down-to-earth essentials list on Instagram after her departure from the show. Posted by either GK or a member of her social team, the post revealed: "POV: Grace packed her suitcase with her Jungle Essentials. Wine to handle those Jungle nights, fake tan for the glow, and the Canesten... well that's self explanatory x" READ MORE: GK Barry debuts her own jewellery range on I'm A Celebrity including her personalised name necklace READ MORE: I'm a Celeb's Danny Jones' favourite LED face mask has a £70 discount The post had fans howling with laughter, sparking comments like: "Rescue Remedy is so real" and another fan chiming in with "A bit of us." Ready to find out GK's must-haves for...
Gordo navideño 2024: Bolitas que repartirán millonarios premios ya están listas para el sorteoRobinson scores 25 in Mercer's 90-89 OT win against Jacksonville
Olivia Hussey, star of the 1968 film 'Romeo and Juliet,' dies at 73
FBI Director Wray says he intends to resign before Trump takes office in JanuaryNone
A limited number of tickets will be available online for $9 apiece during their upcoming Black Friday sale. From Friday to Dec. 2, fans can buy 500-level seats (with a maximum of 11) for 21 games throughout the 2025 season — including seven — against the Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves, Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies. A similar promotion ran last season. This is the Jays’ first single-game ticket offering of the off-season. Single tickets for all games will go on sale Dec. 5 at 10 a.m. The Jays open at home against the Baltimore Orioles on March 27.