Austin Ekeler was concussed late in the Commanders' loss and taken to hospital for evaluationNittany Lions will face No. 1 Oregon next Saturday in Indianapolis Subscribe to continue reading this article. Already subscribed? To login in, click here.Cairns Don't miss out on the headlines from Cairns. Followed categories will be added to My News. A Far North local government has extended its consultation period for a suite of new laws feared by residents as an “overreach,” causing a social media storm of concerns. But Mareeba Shire Council has described the online commentary as “misinformation” while extending the community submission period for changes it has proposed to its local laws. The initial November 15 deadline has been pushed to 5pm, Wednesday December 4. In a statement, the council said the amendments were “minor adjustments to the existing local laws and in many cases, actually relax current regulations”. The changes included extending the time limit for temporary accommodation such as caravans to be lived on a property from four to six weeks. It also calls on private events held in public spaces to gain council approval, while creating provisions for officers to take regulated enforcement action when detecting illegal camping. Mareeba Shire Council’s proposed amendments to its local laws would give officers regulated enforcement authority in matters such as illegal camping. The proposed changes would also affect animal management by increasing the number of dogs which can be kept on a 450sq m property from one, to two, as well as a number of measures towards enclosures for animals. The council stated most of the laws had long already been in place and it was only providing definitions, clarifications, correcting grammatical errors and making some minor changes; however residents took to social media to describe the changes as a “dictatorial corporation at work,” as “draconian” and calling on the “sheeples to wake up”. Mareeba Shire Council’s proposed amendments to its local laws included changes to animal management. Stock photo. But Mayor Angela Toppin hit back, stating the social commentary was misleading and incorrect. “Recently, council has received submissions and calls from concerned residents about the proposed amendments, with a lot of the concern stemming from information that has been posted on social media that was misleading and incorrect,” she said. “We have published a summary of the proposed amendments, and we hope that this helps to alleviate anxiety in the community. Mareeba Shire Council Mayor Angela Toppin says a summary of the proposed amendments published by the local government should help alleviate concerns. “If residents would like anymore clarification on the amendments, please do not hesitate to contact council.” Written submissions may be provided to the council in writing during the consultation period and may be delivered to via email at info@msc.qld.gov.au, by post or by hand delivery the local government’s chambers at 65 Rankin St, Mareeba. arun.singhmann@news.com.au More Coverage ‘They are not eating dogs’: Grisly claim of backyard butchering debunked Peter Carruthers Sunshine and smiles: Family fun at Mareeba Rodeo Bronwyn Farr Originally published as Mareeba Shire Council local law changes consultation period extended after social media storm Join the conversation Add your comment to this story To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout More related stories Cairns Man allegedly stabbed in the eye with a machete A 21-year-old man is recovering after he was allegedly stabbed in the eye with a machete in Cairns. Read more Cairns Port Douglas’ gas supply cut, businesses close Port Douglas’ main street is without gas with some restaurants offering a “gasless menu” while others close their doors, with fears the issue could last days. Read more
In Atlanta’s Cascade neighborhood, a Black church has operated a community center next door for decades. The recently renovated space is simple inside—white walls and gray carpet—but that’s where the magic happens. There, the congregation runs a weekly food pantry where they feed up to 400 predominantly Black families a week. Now, with financial help from the Inflation Reduction Act , a landmark climate law passed by Democrats during the Biden administration, the church is offering even more services—by making the center the first community-owned resiliency hub in the city. The Vicars Community Center, which held its ribbon-cutting ceremony in July, is outfitted with solar panels and battery storage that can provide enough energy to power the building for three days should there be a blackout and no sunlight. The center is prepared to serve as an emergency shelter for locals in the face of a power outage. In the era of fossil fuel-powered hurricanes and heat waves , frontline community members need a safe place to turn when the lights go out. “It really fit into what we’re already trying to do,” said Pastor Kevin Earley of Community Church Atlanta, which worked with the clean energy nonprofit Groundswell to develop the resiliency hub in its community center. “We want to be the place that people turn to in the good times and the bad.” From 2000 to 2023, extreme weather caused 80% of power outages, according to the research and communications group Climate Central . Just last September, Hurricane Helene knocked out power for some 5.5 million people in the Southeast and Midwest. Some families were left in the dark for three weeks . | Thanks to federal tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, people in the Cascade neighborhood will now have a place to charge their phones, refrigerate their medicines, and plug in lifesaving medical devices if an extreme weather event cuts electricity off to their homes. What’s more, the center’s solar panels reduce planet-warming emissions—and save the center $6,000 a year in energy costs. Despite President-elect Donald Trump ’s promise to slash the law that helped make the resiliency hub possible, developers don’t expect the new administration’s plans to affect them. Even if Trump kills the extremely popular direct-pay tax credits program , where the federal government issues payouts to entities that have built qualified clean energy projects, the team in Atlanta will be filing for the IRA credits by May 2025 for the 2024 tax year. It would be an unlikely logistical nightmare for the president-elect’s administration to attempt a tax restructuring that would repeal credits retroactively, explained Friends of the Earth climate and energy justice deputy director Lukas Shankar-Ross. However, other communities of color hoping to tap into IRA dollars to fund similar safety nets in their hometowns may have limited time to take advantage of the law’s full benefits before Trump and his allies in Congress cut them. “It is now our responsibility to shout from the mountaintops how good and impactful these tax credits are for local community and economic development,” said Matthew Wesley Williams, senior vice president of community development at Groundswell. The organization partnered with the church to raise money for the solar panels and find the capital needed to own the setup without additional debt. “Organizations that support community resilience like churches, small municipalities, and rural utilities need these resources to stand firm and sustain their local impact.” The effort to create the resiliency hub came together in 2023 when Groundswell reached out to Pastor Earley after activists identified Community Church Atlanta as a key resource during local info-gathering meetings. At the height of the pandemic, Vicars Community Center offered COVID-19 tests and vaccines. It hosts meetings for local groups as well as blood drives and low-cost health checks. Groundswell connected the organization to $225,000 in donated philanthropic funding to upgrade the center with solar panels and batteries. The nonprofit will also soon help church leaders tap into those IRA tax credits. The nonprofit sees Vicarsasa demonstration that can build support for other community-owned, small-scale solar projects, Williams said. Groundswell has been seeding similar resilience hubs elsewhere in Atlanta and Baltimore . A majority of the residents who live within a half-mile radius of Vicars are Black, according to data from an Environmental Protection Agency mapping tool . Over half are low-income. They also suffer higher rates of asthma, heart disease, and lower life expectancy than the national and state averages. Nearly a quarter lack access to health care or the internet. “Folks in our neighborhood who can’t drive away or get away now have a place just to even charge their cell phones or get information to be picked up or to receive help,” Pastor Earley said. Churches are a perfect way to introduce Black residents to clean energy initiatives, said Markeya Thomas, the Black engagement senior adviser at Climate Power , a communications group focused on clean energy. “All throughout history, Black people have had to rely on the church to be able to survive the world that we are existing in,” Thomas said. Pastor Earley is planning ahead to ensure the center’s fridges are stocked with food and water for the day an emergency arises. He’s exploring options to protect the building during high winds to make it structurally stronger. The solar panels can provide energy, but that’s only if the building itself remains out of harm’s way. Questions remain over how to make the space a safe overnight facility with cots and security, but the church is starting to map that all out. Community Church Atlanta has a mission to serve the community, including those who are not of faith. Now their food pantry can expand to feed more families with the money saved from the reduced energy bills. They fed some 32,000 people last year. In the coming years, the plan is to feed even more. This article is supported by the Solutions Journalism Network’s Climate Solutions Cohort program, of which the author is a fellow. This story was co-published with Next City , a nonprofit newsroom reporting on solutions for equitable and just cities. The application deadline for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards is Friday, December 6, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.AP Trending SummaryBrief at 3:17 p.m. EST
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January is the start of a new year, and it always feels like the start of a new beginning. It’s a hopeful time when people create new goals with a renewed sense of energy. This usually only lasts a few weeks, but sometimes if you create fun goals they stick with you for a little while. Last year, my goal was to read 12 books and 13 audiobooks (or 25 books for the year.) I came pretty close — if you count the two books I’m currently reading. If you do, I managed 24 out of 25 books! Yay! I managed to hit my audiobook goal ... if you count the one I’m currently reading, I actually did 14! This means I only read 10 books, but I think that’s still pretty good. Erica Rogers I know what you really want to know ... what were my favorites? My favorite physical book I read was “Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone” by Benjamin Stevenson. On the surface it’s your typical murder mystery at a ski resort during a snowstorm story. What makes it unique is back story that unfolds as the narrator explains how each family member has killed somebody and how it connects with the current mystery at hand. It has a few twists and turns and a lot of humor that kept me wanting more ... which is good because there are two more in the series! Now, picking my favorite audiobook is harder because so many of them knocked my socks off. I will instead narrow it down to three. Up first is “The Duke and I” by Julia Quinn. If you haven’t heard of this book, maybe you have heard of the Netflix show “Bridgerton,” which is based off of this series of books. This is the first book (and first season) in the series. It’s a regency love story about a girl named Daphne (who is one of EIGHT children) and Simon (a man with a past determined never to marry or have children.) Fair warning, it’s a little steamy at parts so if you’re listening to it as an audiobook, make sure there are no children around. I also read “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silvera. This book needs to be read with a box of tissues. It’s a tragic young adult novel about two teens who find out today is their last day to live. They start off as strangers, and become so much more by the end of the novel. It’s very heartwarming and even though I read it this summer, it has still stuck with me. Finally I choose “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir. This is the same author who wrote “The Martian,” which was turned into a movie starring Matt Damon a few years back. This is another “lost in space” book, but very different chain of events. This story follows Ryaland Grace, who wakes up mid-mission to discover his other crewmates are dead ... and he can’t remember anything else. He can’t remember his name, let alone why he is on a mission in space. As the story unfolds, his memory returns and he discovers his mission is to save Earth and everything living on it (no pressure!). I was hooked into this story. There was an edge of mystery to it, sympathy for Ryaland as he figures everything out, and a beautiful and unlikely friendship that develops as he realizes he’s not as alone as he might think. I have always looked to find something fun to accomplish that I will hopefully stick with and be proud of at the end of the year. Many times that goal includes books and movies, and this year is no different. I discovered a reading challenge called the Alphabet Challenge. The idea is that you read 26 books, one for each letter of the alphabet. It will certainly be a challenge, especially finding books that start with X and Z ... but I like a good challenge. Just for fun I checked how many I reached this year, and I managed to hit 18 unique letters without even trying! No matter what your new year’s reading or movie goal might be, make sure to checks us out to help you out! Erica Rogers serves as the technology and teen librarian for the Grand Island Public Library. Email her at ericar@gilibrary.org Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.'One and Three Quarters' book review: A rare find that enchants
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president Florentino Pérez has said he will propose a "corporate reorganisation" of the club, with members to vote on whether a change in ownership structure is necessary to protect its financial assets. Madrid are one of just four Spanish clubs -- with , and -- which remain member-owned, and weren't obliged to become public limited companies under a 1990 law. In a 90-minute speech to the club's annual assembly, Pérez claimed that a dispute with LaLiga over the CVC investment deal -- which saw other clubs receive a total of €2 billion in exchange for future broadcast income -- and the way the league collectively negotiates TV rights meant that a new structure was needed to guarantee the club's independence. "We're working on defending ourselves on attacks on our financial wealth," Perez said. "Our club should have a structure which protects us as an institution. We'll do everything necessary so that the club belongs to its members, so that nobody can take away our financial assets. "I can confirm that we'll bring a corporate reorganisation proposal to an assembly, which guarantees members are real owners of our club. They wanted to take away our income to give it to LaLiga." Pérez did not give details of what the reorganisation would involve. "I'll keep you informed, we'll have an assembly to explain it clearly," he said. "You'll understand it perfectly ... I'll give everything so that Madrid's income continues to be Madrid's, Barcelona's continues to be Barcelona's and Athletic Club's continues to be Athletic's. Our club should have a structure to protect us." The speech also saw Pérez criticize the decision not to hand the , reiterate his opposition to UEFA and support for the Super League, and dismiss concerns over lost revenue due to postponed concerts at the new Bernabéu. " [Hernández] is a great player, he's from Madrid, and he has our affection," Pérez said. "He deserved a Ballon d'Or, but not this one. He deserved it the year before. This year, the Ballon d'Or should have gone to a Real Madrid player: Vinícius, or our captain , or even . "Some of [the voters] didn't even include Vinícius in the top 10. Can anyone understand journalists not thinking Vinícius is one of the best in the world? Nobody knows who [the journalists] are ... The Ballon d'Or should be independently organized, and it should be in the hands of people who are recognized." In recent years, Pérez has used his speech at the assembly to repeatedly express his opposition to UEFA and the new Champions League format, and insist on the need for radical change in European football. "We don't want to go down in history like Blockbuster," he said, referring to the once-dominant video rental chain, and comparing it unfavourably with Netflix. "We want to embrace new technology ... There's a real opportunity for a change of direction, to restore football's greatness. This system doesn't work. The moment is critical. It's time to act." Pérez said the club's decision in September to postpone all planned concerts at the rebuilt Bernabéu stadium after complaints from neighbors over noise levels was a minor issue in terms of its financial impact. "The organization of concerts isn't especially lucrative for the club," he said. "We only rent out the stadium. The income is around 1% of our annual budget. "But we understand this activity is important. It means that all the citizens of Madrid benefit [from the stadium]. We're at the disposition of the local authorities."NEW YORK (AP) — Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa scored 27 points as Columbia beat Fairfield 85-72 on Saturday night. De La Rosa shot 8 of 15 from the field, including 5 for 11 from 3-point range, and went 6 for 6 from the line for the Lions (11-1). Avery Brown shot 5 of 8 from the field and 5 of 5 from the free-throw line to add 16 points. Kenny Noland went 5 of 12 from the field (3 for 7 from 3-point range) to finish with 15 points. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a week
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SAN ANTONIO — As technology advances vehicles come with more bells and whistles. And in tonight's Verify, we learn how those technological enhancements can make your car last longer, but when it comes to insurance, it often leads to higher bills. Most of us know, the more expensive your car, the higher your insurance rate. But starting next year for many drivers in Texas car inspections will no longer be required. THE QUESTION With the elimination of the state's required vehicle inspection will this cause insurance premiums to go up? THE SOURCES Chris Schafer, a senior editor with Insurify Rod Griffin, the Senior Director of Consumer Education and Advocacy with Experian Omar Ochoa, the managing attorney of The Ochoa Law Office THE ANSWER TRUE WHAT WE FOUND Schafer says the law won't make premiums go up, but it could lead to more accidents. "The fact that cars that are not being inspected, particularly when we're talking about issues like brakes and tires, all of a sudden lead to more accidents which lead to higher premiums," he said. Ochoa tells us premiums could rise because drivers may not be using proper maintenance. "One of the biggest examples is that a requirement of the vehicle inspection is that your tires have enough tread. A lot of people just don't really check that on a day to day basis," Ochoa said. Griffin says there are several other reasons why your insurance rate might continue to go up next year. "They'll look at your past claims behavior, see your driving record in the past. They will look at the type of car you drive. It is it costs more to repair. If so, your rates could be higher," Griffin added. So yes, it is true, the elimination of the state's required vehicle inspection could cause insurance rates to go up. Experian has an insurance marketplace to help you shop around for the kind of insurance you want at the right price.PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Boosts Stock Position in iShares MSCI USA Size Factor ETF (NYSEARCA:SIZE)