US commits to 61% greenhouse gas emissions cut by 2035NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A scruffy little fugitive is on the lam again in New Orleans, gaining fame as he outwits a tenacious band of citizens armed with night-vision binoculars, nets and a tranquilizer rifle. Scrim, a 17-pound mutt that's mostly terrier, has become a folk hero, inspiring tattoos, t-shirts and even a ballad as he eludes capture from the posse of volunteers. And like any antihero, Scrim has a backstory: Rescued from semi-feral life at a trailer park and adopted from a shelter, the dog broke loose in April and scurried around the city until he was cornered in October and brought to a new home. Weeks later, he'd had enough. Scrim leaped out of a second-story window, a desperate act recorded in a now-viral video. Since then, despite a stream of daily sightings, he's roamed free. The dog’s fans include Myra and Steve Foster, who wrote “Ode to Scrim” to the tune of Ricky Nelson’s 1961 hit, “I’m a Travelin’ Man.” Leading the recapture effort is Michelle Cheramie, a 55-year-old former information technology professional. She lost everything — home, car, possessions — in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and in the aftermath, found her calling rescuing pets. “I was like, ‘This is what I should be doing,’” Cheramie said. “I was born to rescue.” She launched Zeus’ Rescues, a nonprofit shelter that now averages 600 cat and dog adoptions a year and offers free pet food to anyone who needs it. She helped Scrim find the home he first escaped from. It was Cheramie's window Scrim leaped from in November. She's resumed her relentless mission since then, posting flyers on telephone poles and logging social media updates on his reported whereabouts. She's invested thousands of dollars on wildlife cameras, thermal sensors and other gear. She took a course offered by the San Diego Zoo on the finer points of tranquilizing animals. And she's developed a network of volunteers — the kind of neighbors who are willing to grid-search a city at 3 a.m. People like writer David W. Brown, who manages a crowd-sourced Google Map of all known Scrim sightings. He says the search has galvanized residents from all walks of life to come together. As they search for Scrim, they hand out supplies to people in need. "Being a member of the community is seeing problems and doing what you can to make life a little better for the people around here and the animals around you," Brown said. And neighbors like Tammy Murray, who had to close her furniture store and lost her father to Parkinson's Disease. This search, she says, got her mojo back. “Literally, for months, I’ve done nothing but hunt this dog,” said Murray, 53. “I feel like Wile E. Coyote on a daily basis with him.” Murray drives the Zeus' Rescues' van towards reported Scrim sightings. She also handles a tactical net launcher, which looks like an oversized flashlight and once misfired, shattering the van's window as Scrim sped away. After realizing Scrim had come to recognize the sound of the van's diesel engine, Murray switched to a Vespa scooter, for stealth. Near-misses have been tantalizing. The search party spotted Scrim napping beneath an elevated house, and wrapped construction netting around the perimeter, but an over-eager volunteer broke ranks and dashed forward, leaving an opening Scrim slipped through. Scrim's repeated escapades have prompted near-daily local media coverage and a devoted online following. Cheramie can relate. “We’re all running from something or to something. He's doing that too,” she said. Cheramie's team dreams of placing the pooch in a safe and loving environment. But a social media chorus growing under the hashtag #FreeScrim has other ideas — they say the runaway should be allowed a life of self-determination. The animal rescue volunteers consider that misguided. “The streets of New Orleans are not the place for a dog to be free,” Cheramie said. “It’s too dangerous.” Scrim was a mess when Cheramie briefly recaptured him in October, with matted fur, missing teeth and a tattered ear. His trembling body was scraped and bruised, and punctured by multiple projectiles. A vet removed one, but decided against operating to take out a possible bullet. The dog initially appeared content indoors, sitting in Cheramie's lap or napping beside her bed. Then while she was out one day, Scrim chewed through a mesh screen, dropped 13 feet to the ground and squeezed through a gap in the fence, trotting away. Murray said Cheramie's four cats probably spooked him. “I wholeheartedly believe the gangster-ass cats were messing with him,” Murray said. Cheramie thinks they may have gotten territorial. Devastated but undeterred, the pair is reassessing where Scrim might fit best — maybe a secure animal sanctuary with big outdoor spaces where other dogs can keep him company. Somewhere, Murray says, “where he can just breathe and be." Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96
by Michael West | Dec 1, 2024 | Scam of the Week Senate mayhem, Albo, Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison, Simon Birmingham, Penny Wong, Kim Williams ABC, Angus Taylor, Lidia Thorpe, Chris Bowen. #auspol #scamoftheweek Support Us here https://linktr.ee/michaelwestmedia.com.au Story: https://michaelwest.com.au/green-guillotine-how-politics-prevailed-over-principles-in-legislative-avalanche/ Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker. Don't pay so you can read it. Pay so everyone can!
Quantum Computing: To The MoonThere’s an unexpected name joining the ranks of Booker Prize judges, but she’s not an unfamiliar force in publishing – you’ve probably even seen this book ally reading across TV on “And Just Like That.” Sarah Jessica Parker will sit alongside four authors on the 2025 Booker Prize judging panel, the Booker Prize Foundation announced Tuesday. This is far from the “Sex and the City” star’s first rodeo in the book arena, but it is her most ambitious. Parker launched her imprint, “SJP Lit,” last year through independent publisher Zando and was previously the editorial director of another, “SJP for Hogarth.” “Even when I went into publishing, I felt very nervous about people taking me seriously. I felt like an interloper, and that I was constantly in a position of having to prove myself,” Parker told The New York Times . “So to be a judge on the Booker, which is the greatest literary award bestowed — it felt very daunting.” Sarah Jessica Parker is ready to ‘listen a lot’ on Booker Prize judge panel Parker grew up in a household of readers, she told The Times – her mother used to drive with a book in her lap, sneaking in a few sentences at red lights. Check out: USA TODAY's weekly Best-selling Booklist Parker’s love of books continues that legacy: “When they are changing the lens” she captioned one of her Instagram photos that showed her reading on a film set. The props team on "And Just Like That" compiled 120 books for Carrie Bradshaw's bookshelves from a list curated by SJP herself . You can often find her posting about recent reads on social media. And this year, she’ll likely have to read as many as 170 titles, helped by a break in filming commitments. “Oh let me try!!!!” she commented on a 2022 Instagram post from the Foundation titled “What is it really like to be a Booker Prize Judge?” What is the Booker Prize? Founded in the U.K., the Booker Prize is a prestigious annual literary award given to what judges deem the single best work of fiction written in the English language. The Foundation will announce a “Booker Dozen” of 12 or 13 books in July, a six-title shortlist in September and the 2025 winner in November. Winning titles receive £50,000 (about $63,000). The winner of this year’s Booker Prize was “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey, a literary science fiction novel that tells the stories of six astronauts circling the Earth in 24 hours. Booker judges are typically academics or authors themselves, a fact that Parker is well aware of. “I’m just going to listen a lot. That’s the way I’ve probably created a career outside of acting: just being surrounded by people who are expert and listening, listening, listening,” Parker told The Times. Parker's admission to the Booker judging panel reflects a trendy new marriage between pop culture and literature – in the last decade, celebrity book imprints and book clubs have been on the rise. Kiley Reid, Roddy Doyle and others round out 2025 judges This is the first time the Booker has had three winning or nominated authors on its panel, according to the Foundation. Rounding out the judges are 1993 winner Roddy Doyle , writer, broadcaster and literary critic Chris Power and Booker Prize-longlisted authors Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ and Kiley Reid . Irish writer Doyle has penned 13 novels, including his Booker Prize-winning novel “Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha” and "The Commitments," of which he also co-wrote the screenplay. He is the first previous winner to chair the panel. Adébáyọ̀ is the author of “Stay with Me” and “A Spell of Good Things,” longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize. In addition to his novel “A Lonely Man” and short story collection “Mothers,” Power was a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s “Open Book” and has vast literary judging experience. Reid’s “Such a Fun Age” was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Her second novel “Come and Get It,” was named one of the best books of 2024 by the New Yorker, NPR, Elle and Vulture. Looking for your next great read? USA TODAY has you covered. Taste is subjective, and USA TODAY Books has plenty of genres to recommend. Want a buzzy new literary fiction title? Read our review of “Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney . Are mysteries your thing? Try these titles similar to "Verity" by Colleen Hoover or see if you’re brave enough for one of our favorite horror novels. Or if you want something with lower stakes and loveable characters, see if a "cozy mystery" or "cozy fantasy" book is for you. If you want the most popular titles, check out USA TODAY’s Best-selling Booklist .
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Indonesia is considering building a huge seawall to prevent its largest city Jakarta from sinking into the ocean. The country is the world’s largest archipelago consisting of over 17,000 islands but rising sea levels are putting its future in peril. It’s capital Jakarta sinks roughly 25cm annually because of excessive groundwater extraction and urban development leading authorities to consider the options at their disposal. Airlangga Hartarto, the coordinating minister for the economy, recently spoke on the need to protect the city from disaster. He said: “We need the giant sea wall to stop the land from sinking and the sea from flooding, which keep happening all the time.” If completed, the project would be one of the most ambitious developments ever undertaken in the country and one of the most expensive. The wall would include the building of a 74.5-mile coastal and river dike by 2030 and an adaptive sea wall to the west and east of Jakarta by 2040 before closing the sea wall with a reservoir by 2050 at a cost of £48 billion. Hartarto acknowledges the steep cost of the project but warns that the country cannot afford not to act. He believes that the country loses £107 million a year due to flooding, a figure that could rise in future as Jakarta sinks further and sea levels continue to rise. Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto agrees that the project’s hefty cost is a necessary expense to address geological concerns on Java’s north coast. He recently told a seminar: “The Netherlands did the same thing, and it took them 40 years. “The challenge is to have political leaders who can think ahead and use all their resources for 40 to 50 years.” But critics have argued that the government is not doing enough to address the underlying issues causing the flooding. Elisa Sutanudjaja, the executive director of Rujak Center for Urban Studies, said government officials aren’t doing anything to prevent groundwater extraction. She told BenarNews: “They don’t talk at all about how to stop subsidence, it is as if there was a hidden agenda.” Jakarta sits on the island of Java, one of the largest in Indonesia . This century, it has been hit by several large floods, most recently in 2020 which claimed the lives of 48 people and left thousands more displaced.