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The Canadian cannabis industry has been on a wild ride heading into legalization in 2018, and in the years following. Companies in this sector saw their valuations surge to multi-billion dollar market capitalizations (in many cases) as expectations of sky-high growth in a fully legalized market created a euphoria around this sector, which isn’t typically seen within the Canadian stock market. Companies like ( ) and ( ) saw absolutely remarkable valuations as investors looked to pinpoint which companies would see the greatest upside from legalization. However, as the stock charts below show, it’s been a rough past five years for these former high-flying in particular, and most in the sector. Now, the question is whether it’s possible the cannabis bubble could re-inflate, and what would drive outsized interest once again in these two stocks, and this sector as a whole. Canopy and Aurora I think Canopy Growth and Aurora Cannabis are two of the best companies to look at when assessing previous hype around the cannabis sector. These two companies produce both medical and recreational cannabis, under some of the most renowned brands in the market. Additionally, both companies have exported to other markets where medicinal marijuana is legal. They are companies many investors were betting could be beneficiaries of eventual legalization in the U.S. market. Unfortunately, despite some bullish rhetoric during the Biden administration, the legalization discussion in the U.S. never really took off as many industry experts were hoping. And with another Trump administration set to take hold, odds of legalization materializing appear to be getting lower by the day. Additionally, underlying fundamentals for both companies have taken a hit, in large part due to the accounting practices that allowed these companies to see their net income and revenue surge in the early days before and immediately following legalization (essentially, revenue was a function of plants grown but not yet sold), so when demand didn’t materialize as many expected, these companies’ valuations took a hit. In order for there to be a broad-based rebound among cannabis stocks, I think we’d need to see a resurgence of demand for legal weed in Canada. Right now, the black market appears to remain very strong, with too much activity taking place behind the scenes (to avoid very high taxes on legal product sold at retail stores). Additionally, it’s unclear that the cost-cutting measures Canopy, Aurora, and most companies in this space are putting forward will ultimately be good for growth. From both a supply and demand standpoint, cash flow projections for this sector remain muted, and that’s the underlying story here. So, a rebound can’t ever happen? In my view, there are some exogenous events that could re-inflate the hype bubble around the Canadian cannabis sector. For one, if a 180-degree turn is seen in the U.S. market and the incoming tariff war doesn’t happen, and cananbis is legalized or rescheduled on a federal level, maybe there’s something to the narrative that Canadian cannabis producers can benefit. That said, both Biden and Trump have taken an “America first” stance on trade. Trump has been even more antithetical to the idea that trade with Canada will boom anytime soon. So, there’s that. I think that a recovery in Canadian cannabis stocks will have to come from domestic demand picking up. Right now, I’m not seeing that in the data. So, until things change, this is a sector that could remain cheap on a valuation basis for a long time.How to digitize VHS tapes the cheap way
Oregon Health Authority director outlines goals to improve state’s health care system
OpenAI whistleblower death: Parents want to know what happened to Suchir Balaji after apparent suicideTrump’s comeback and goals please conservatives
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Arkansas defensive end Landon Jackson was carted off the field and taken to a hospital with a neck injury late in the first half of Saturday's game at No. 24 Missouri. Jackson appeared to injure his neck while trying to tackle Missouri running back Jamal Roberts. Medical personnel tended to Jackson for approximately 10 minutes before he was placed on a backboard and driven to a waiting ambulance. Jackson gave a thumbs-up sign as he was carted off the snow-covered field. Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said Jackson had movement in his arms and legs but was experiencing pain in his neck. He said Jackson was taken to the hospital as a precaution. Jackson leads the Razorbacks with 9 1/2 tackles for loss and 6 1/2 sacks, and is considered a potential first-round pick in next year's NFL draft. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up . AP college football: and David Solomon, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has identified what he sees as an all-purpose fix for what ails America: Slap huge new tariffs on foreign goods entering the United States. On Monday, Trump sent shockwaves across the nation's northern and southern borders, vowing sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada, as well as China, as soon as he takes office as part of his effort to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs. In a pair of posts on his Truth Social site Trump railed against an influx of immigrants lacking permanent legal status, even though southern border apprehensions have been hovering near four-year lows. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, as one of his first executive orders. He said the new tariffs would remain in place “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” The president-elect asserts that tariffs — basically import taxes — will create more factory jobs, shrink the federal deficit, lower food prices and allow the government to subsidize childcare. Economists are generally skeptical, considering tariffs to be a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money. They are especially alarmed by Trump’s latest proposed tariffs. Carl B. Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists with High Frequency Economics said Tuesday that energy, automobiles and food supplies will be particularly hit hard. “Imposing tariffs on trade flows into the United States without first preparing alternative sources for the goods and services affected will raise the price of imported items at once," Weinberg and Farooqi wrote. "Since many of these goods are consumer goods, households will be made poorer.” High Frequency Economics believes the threats are not meant to support new trade policy and are instead a tool to elicit some changes along the borders and for imports from Canada, Mexico and China. Though Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Trump’s tariff threats as unserious during her failed bid for the presidency, the Biden-Harris administration retained the taxes the Trump administration imposed on $360 billion in Chinese goods. And it imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. Indeed, the United States in recent years has gradually retreated from its post-World War II role of promoting global free trade and lower tariffs. That shift has been a response to the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, widely attributed to unfettered trade and an increasingly aggressive China. Tariffs are a tax on imports They are typically charged as a percentage of the price a buyer pays a foreign seller. In the United States, tariffs are collected by Customs and Border Protection agents at 328 ports of entry across the country. The tariff rates range from passenger cars (2.5%) to golf shoes (6%). Tariffs can be lower for countries with which the United States has trade agreements. For example, most goods can move among the United States, Mexico and Canada tariff-free because of Trump’s US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. There's much misinformation about who actually pays tariffs Trump insists that tariffs are paid for by foreign countries. In fact, its is importers — American companies — that pay tariffs, and the money goes to U.S. Treasury. Those companies, in turn, typically pass their higher costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices. That's why economists say consumers usually end up footing the bill for tariffs. Still, tariffs can hurt foreign countries by making their products pricier and harder to sell abroad. Yang Zhou, an economist at Shanghai’s Fudan University, concluded in a study that Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods inflicted more than three times as much damage to the Chinese economy as they did to the U.S. economy Tariffs are intended mainly to protect domestic industries By raising the price of imports, tariffs can protect home-grown manufacturers. They may also serve to punish foreign countries for committing unfair trade practices, like subsidizing their exporters or dumping products at unfairly low prices. Before the federal income tax was established in 1913, tariffs were a major revenue driver for the government. From 1790 to 1860, tariffs accounted for 90% of federal revenue, according to Douglas Irwin, a Dartmouth College economist who has studied the history of trade policy. Tariffs fell out of favor as global trade grew after World War II. The government needed vastly bigger revenue streams to finance its operations. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the government is expected to collect $81.4 billion in tariffs and fees. That's a trifle next to the $2.5 trillion that's expected to come from individual income taxes and the $1.7 trillion from Social Security and Medicare taxes. Still, Trump wants to enact a budget policy that resembles what was in place in the 19th century. He has argued that tariffs on farm imports could lower food prices by aiding America’s farmers. In fact, tariffs on imported food products would almost certainly send grocery prices up by reducing choices for consumers and competition for American producers. Tariffs can also be used to pressure other countries on issues that may or may not be related to trade. In 2019, for example, Trump used the threat of tariffs as leverage to persuade Mexico to crack down on waves of Central American migrants crossing Mexican territory on their way to the United States. Trump even sees tariffs as a way to prevent wars. “I can do it with a phone call,’’ he said at an August rally in North Carolina. If another country tries to start a war, he said he’d issue a threat: “We’re going to charge you 100% tariffs. And all of a sudden, the president or prime minister or dictator or whoever the hell is running the country says to me, ‘Sir, we won’t go to war.’ ” Economists generally consider tariffs self-defeating Tariffs raise costs for companies and consumers that rely on imports. They're also likely to provoke retaliation. The European Union, for example, punched back against Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum by taxing U.S. products, from bourbon to Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Likewise, China responded to Trump’s trade war by slapping tariffs on American goods, including soybeans and pork in a calculated drive to hurt his supporters in farm country. A study by economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Zurich, Harvard and the World Bank concluded that Trump’s tariffs failed to restore jobs to the American heartland. The tariffs “neither raised nor lowered U.S. employment’’ where they were supposed to protect jobs, the study found. Despite Trump’s 2018 taxes on imported steel, for example, the number of jobs at U.S. steel plants barely budged: They remained right around 140,000. By comparison, Walmart alone employs 1.6 million people in the United States. Worse, the retaliatory taxes imposed by China and other nations on U.S. goods had “negative employment impacts,’’ especially for farmers, the study found. These retaliatory tariffs were only partly offset by billions in government aid that Trump doled out to farmers. The Trump tariffs also damaged companies that relied on targeted imports. If Trump’s trade war fizzled as policy, though, it succeeded as politics. The study found that support for Trump and Republican congressional candidates rose in areas most exposed to the import tariffs — the industrial Midwest and manufacturing-heavy Southern states like North Carolina and Tennessee.
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AP News Summary at 2:01 p.m. ESTNo. 12 Boise State heads to Wyoming hoping to maintain No. 4 seed in College Football Playoff
Kings fire coach Mike Brown less than halfway through his 3rd season
The door is open for veteran edge rusher Shaq Barrett to play before the 2024 season is over. The Dolphins waived Barrett off of the reserve/retired list on Thursday and he would not be eligible to play if claimed because he was on the retired list. The NFL’s transaction report for Friday shows that he was not claimed, however, and that means he can sign with any team and play before the year is out. Barrett’s past production likely makes that a real possibility for a team looking to bolster their pass rush for the postseason. Barrett has 59 career sacks in 131 career games with the Broncos and Buccaneers. Barrett signed with the Dolphins as a free agent this offseason, but he retired over the summer and never appeared in a game with the team.Healey: Proscription status of Syria’s new rulers is not a matter for now
Who to start in fantasy football: Week 13 rankings, start-sit advice, sleepers for PPR leagues | Sporting News
Rachel Christian | (TNS) Bankrate.com Just because retirement planning involves some guesswork doesn’t mean it has to be a total mystery. Related Articles Business | The year in money: inflation eased, optimism ticked upward Business | Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds Business | How to protect your communications through encryption Business | About 2.6 million Stanley cups recalled after malfunctions caused burns. Is your mug included? Business | Musk says US is demanding he pay penalty over disclosures of his Twitter stock purchases Whether you’ve been saving since your first job or you’re getting a late start, you can leverage expert-recommended strategies to gauge your progress on the road to retirement. And if you’re not quite on track, don’t sweat it — the experts we spoke to offered actionable tips to help you close the gap. You might have a general idea of how much money you need to save for retirement . A few quick calculations can give you an estimate, but to truly appreciate where you stand, you’ll need to dive into the numbers. Here’s how to get started. A good rule of thumb to estimate your retirement savings goal is the Rule of 25 . Simply multiply your desired annual retirement income by 25. The result is roughly how much you’ll need to save before hitting retirement. For example, if you plan to spend $50,000 a year, you’ll need about $1.25 million to make it a reality. The Rule of 25 is based on the idea that withdrawing 4% annually from your retirement savings should last you about 30 years. While it’s not an exact science by any means — health care costs and lifestyle changes can skew the numbers, for example — the Rule of 25 can be a good starting point to figure out how much you need to save. Fidelity Investments, a behemoth in the retirement planning space, offers savings guidelines to help you determine if you’re on track . —By age 30: Save 1x your annual salary —By age 40: Save 3x your annual salary —By age 50: Save 6x your annual salary —By age 60: Save 8x your annual salary —By age 67: Save 10x your annual salary For example, if you earn $60,000 annually, you should aim for $600,000 in savings by age 67. But like the Rule of 25, Fidelity’s guidelines offer a 10,000-foot look at retirement goals, and they’re not customized to your situation. Maybe you earned a low salary in your 20s, but you’re working hard in your 30s to make up for it. Use these estimates as a benchmark — but don’t get discouraged if you’re lagging behind. Now it’s time to zoom in a little. To get a clearer snapshot of your progress, use an online retirement calculator. These tools factor in your age, current savings, income and lifestyle goals to estimate whether you’re on track. You’ll get a more refined estimate without crunching the numbers yourself. Bankrate’s retirement calculator even lets you input different rates of return on your investments and accounts for estimated annual salary increases. Having a general savings goal is nice, but to avoid falling short in retirement, you’ll need more than a ballpark figure. Experts recommend creating a retirement budget to get an up-close-and-personal look at how much you’ll really need once you leave the workforce. First, estimate how much you’ll spend per month in retirement. While some costs will increase, like health care, others will likely decrease, like dining out and commuting. “Estimating expenses can be challenging for some people, so as a starting point, I often use your net take-home pay,” says Jeff DeLarme, a certified financial planner and president of DeLarme Wealth Management. For example, if you receive a direct deposit of $2,500 every two weeks from work, use $5,000 as your estimated monthly spending in retirement. “Assuming this was enough to pay the bills while working, we can use $5,000 a month as a starting budget to plan for,” says DeLarme. Next, map out your sources of income in retirement. Social Security is the largest income stream for most retirees, but don’t neglect other inflows, such as: —Workplace retirement accounts, like 401(k)s —Personal retirement accounts, like a traditional or Roth IRA —Pensions —Annuities —Selling your home or business —Rental income —Inheritance “If there’s a gap between your expected expenses and income, you’ll have a good idea of how much you need to save,” says Mike Hunsberger, a certified financial planner and owner of Next Mission Financial Planning. From there, you can adjust your savings and investment strategy accordingly. For something as important (and complex) as retirement planning, it pays to speak with a professional. Financial advisers can analyze your savings, investments and retirement goals to create a personalized plan. Advisers use special planning software that account for more variables than an online calculator, giving you a much more precise, granular look at your financial life in retirement. Many financial advisers can also help you optimize your tax strategy, which can potentially save you thousands of dollars over time. Make sure the adviser you hire is a fiduciary , meaning they’re legally obligated to prioritize your interests over their own. A fiduciary won’t push investments to earn a commission or recommend products that aren’t aligned with your needs. A certified financial planner is one of the most well-recognized designations for fiduciaries. You can use Bankrate’s adviser matching tool to find a certified financial planner in your area in minutes. Maybe you did the math and realized you’re not quite where you need to be. Don’t panic if you’re behind schedule. Here are five strategies experts recommend to help you catch up on your retirement savings . Cutting expenses now frees up more cash to invest in your retirement accounts. Evaluate your budget and identify areas where you can cut costs, like dining out, streaming subscriptions or shopping. Don’t rule out bigger lifestyle changes either, especially if retirement is rapidly approaching. Housing is the biggest monthly expense for most people. Getting creative here can help amplify the amount you can sock away, says Joseph Boughan, a certified financial planner and managing member at Parkmount Financial Partners. It can also reduce your expenses in retirement, so you may not need to save as much as before. “Downsizing can be a great way to cut expenses,” says Boughan. “This can even free up cash if you don’t end up needing all that money for a new home.” Moving somewhere with lower property taxes or income taxes can also help bring your retirement plan back in line. And if you’re a renter, making tough short-term decisions, like taking on a roommate or moving to a lower cost-of-living area, can free up hundreds of dollars a month for your retirement. “Everyone’s plan is unique, so exploring all the options is important,” Boughan says. Joe Conroy, a certified financial planner and owner of Harford Retirement Planners, recommends taking a “retirement test drive” as you near your target date. “Start to live on what income you think you can afford in retirement and stash all the extra income into savings and investments,” says Conroy. “If you can make it through each month, you’re ready for retirement. If you run short, then adjust your plan accordingly.” Working a little longer can be a game-changer for your retirement nest egg. Not only does it give you more time to save, it also gives your investments room to grow. “Working longer or even just part time for a few years early in retirement is one of the best ways to reduce the amount of money you need to save,” says Hunsberger. Postponing retirement can also boost your Social Security benefits . “You can claim as early as 62, but your benefits will be reduced significantly,” says Hunsberger. Meanwhile, each year you delay claiming Social Security benefits beyond your full retirement age , your monthly check will increase by 8%, though this benefit maxes out at age 70. So waiting can really pay off. It may seem obvious, but if you’re behind on retirement savings, you’ll need to boost your contributions as much as possible. Here are a few ways to make saving for retirement easier: —Increase your contribution rate: Allocate a larger portion of your paycheck to a workplace retirement plan. Even bumping up your contributions by 1% or 2% can make a huge difference down the road. —Take advantage of your employer match: Don’t leave free money on the table. Many employers will chip in between 3 and 5% depending on your plan, so make sure you’re contributing enough to take advantage of the benefit. —Use “unexpected” money to catch up: If you get a raise or bonus at work, funnel part of it directly into your 401(k). And if you get a refund at tax time, siphon some of it off to beef up your IRA. If you’ve been investing in low-risk, low-return investments, you may not be keeping up with inflation, let alone growing your nest egg. Reallocating part of your portfolio to stocks or low-cost growth exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is one way to get your money working harder. Higher-risk investments like stocks carry more volatility but also offer higher potential returns. Work with a financial adviser or use a robo-adviser to strike the right balance between growth and your personal risk tolerance. Contribution limits for 401(k) plans and IRAs are higher for people over 50. For 2025, employees aged 50 and up who participate in most 401(k) plans or the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan can save up to $31,000 annually, including a $7,500 catch-up contribution . But thanks to SECURE 2.0 , a sweeping retirement law, a new higher catch-up contribution limit of $11,250 applies for employees ages 60 to 63. So, if you’re in this age group, you can squirrel away a whopping $34,750 a year during the final stretch of your career. Of course, you’ll need a big salary (think six figures) in order to take full advantage of such massive contribution limits. But if you can afford it, these catch-up allowances can put your plan back on track, especially if you struggled to save much early in your career. There’s no GPS to gauge your progress on the road to retirement. If you’ve veered off course or aren’t sure where to start, begin by getting a quick estimate of how much you’ll need before mapping out a retirement budget. And if you’re behind, don’t panic — adjusting your spending, boosting your contributions and speaking with a financial adviser can help you catch up. ©2024 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.None
The West is mulling its response after the NATO-operated Ukrainian missile strikes into Russia’s western heartland has escalated the Eastern European war to a new, more dangerous level with Russia’s launch of its latest hypersonic ballistic missile on a key Ukrainian city. Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah Shia militia is hailing the vague ‘ceasefire’ hurriedly negotiated by Washington with the Lebanese Government as Israel’s acknowledgment of “defeat”. The ‘ceasefire’ deal agreed on by the Lebanese Government and Israel allows invading Israeli forces 60 days to withdraw from Lebanon and requires Hezbollah, the Israeli Defences Forces’ (IDF) primary target, to refrain from “operations” against the IDF during this period. But the agreement is full of un-addressed aspects of this new war launched by Israel into Lebanon after its major offensive in 2006. Observers in Lebanon and in the region are pointing out that the two-months ‘withdrawal’ window allowed for the IDF enables it to further dispossess the entire Lebanese population inhabiting the strip of Lebanese territory bordering northern Israel. Israel tried the same after the 2006 invasion. The Israeli–Lebanese conflict peaked during the Lebanese Civil War of the 1970s. This was largely provoked by covert Western and Israeli interferences in Lebanese politics in support of the Lebanese-Arab Christian community (about 45% of its population) to offset the slightly larger Lebanese Muslim population. That population includes the Druze and Assyrian minority religious communities alongside the dominant Shia and Sunni communities. As noted in these columns previously, Israeli is surrounded by over two million displaced Palestinians lodged in camps in the neighbouring Arab states for decades (since the 1948 forcible creation of the Zionist Jewish state). In response to refugee Palestinian militia attacks from Lebanon, Israel invaded the country in 1978 and again in 1982. It occupied a large strip of Southern Lebanon until 2000, while fighting the parallel Lebanese Shia paramilitaries born out of the Palestinian displacement with the founding of the Israeli State. Resistance Israel launched two cross-border offensive operations into Southern Lebanon during the 1990s: Operation Accountability in 1993 and Operation Grapes of Wrath in 1996. But the unrelenting Lebanese militia resistance – essentially urban guerilla warfare – led to the embarrassing failure to eliminate this resistance. After Israel’s partial withdrawal from South Lebanon, Hezbollah and other militia continued attacks to dislodged the IDF from the remaining occupied Lebanese territory, which was arbitrarily held as a ‘buffer’ to distance the Arab populations from Israel proper. Israel used these attacks as the excuse to attempt to ‘pacify’ the many hostile Palestinian and Lebanese militia based in Lebanon. A new period of Israel-Lebanon conflict began in late 2023 along with the massive onslaught by the IDF besieging the Gaza Strip enclave surrounded by Israel. While the Hamas counter attack against the IDF siege lines was itself of a minor scale (relative to its enemy), it then triggered a cascade of military and political actions. The months long, unceasing, IDF offensive against the Gazan population has spurred anti-Israeli militias across West Asia to begin counter attacks in support of the weak Palestinian militias resisting the West-armed IDF’s genocidal might. Ukraine In Eastern Europe, NATO planners are flummoxed by Moscow’s bold response to the ‘crossing of the red line’ by Ukraine when Kyiv launched last week a series of medium calibre missiles actually operated by American and British personnel. Kyiv, unable to push back a slow, bloody, Russian advance all across Ukraine’s Eastern war front, has been pleading with the West to allow its medium range missile batteries be used to offset Moscow’s pressure on the ground. Western officials insisted that NATO personnel remained in control of these missile batteries in order to ensure the secrecy of the weapons systems, because Ukraine is not a NATO member and could not ensure that technology secrecy. As analysts said subsequently, Russia was obliged to counter this clear escalation of the war with the role of Western personnel in battle, indeed, in direct assault on Russian territory. And President Vladimir Putin himself announced Russia’s counter-escalation by acknowledging the use of a previously un-announced new heavy missile. In response to the NATO operated missile barrage, Moscow fired its new intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) hitherto unused in combat at a target close to Kyiv. The Russian President later publicly confirmed that Russia had “tested” an ‘Oreshnik’ hypersonic ballistic missile in an assault on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The target was a large industrial complex. Russia launched just one missile. But it is a hypersonic missile almost too fast to be detected and countered and, more importantly, it is an IRBM, just below the ICBM threshold of intercontinental warfare. A clear counter-escalation. Already, when NATO installed these cruise missile systems in Ukraine earlier this year, Moscow acted swiftly to adapt its nuclear doctrine – with much fanfare, to reassure its own troops and the general population. The new doctrine provides for alerting, arming and launch protocols that speeds up Russian defensive responses, including the anticipation of a nuclear strike. Arsenal Putin signed off on Russia’s new nuclear doctrine days after the UK and US authorised Kyiv to use the cruise missiles to attack Russia. Under the amendments, Russia has generally lowered the threshold for using its nuclear arsenal. Analysts say that Russia and its ally, neighbouring Belarus, can now consider a nuclear response if they are “conventionally attacked by a nonnuclear state, such as Ukraine, that is aided by a nuclear power”. NATO countries supporting Ukraine, the US and UK included, possess nuclear weapons or host nuclear missile batteries installed by nuclear-armed NATO allies. Russia’s new protocols had been drawn up by September, according news agencies. Analysts now argue that its formal authorisation during the recent missile exchange between Russia and Ukraine has raised the stakes in eastern Europe’s war. So now the West is confronted with a counter-escalation to which it cannot easily respond without endangering its own populations and territories. It looks like a hot festive season in the West (despite heavy snows) this December.Two weeks after she beat a transgender candidate to return to the Utah Legislature, the Republican state lawmaker behind the majority of the state’s anti-transgender laws is advocating for policies that strip additional rights from trans people. Rep. Kera Birkeland, of Morgan, posted to X on Thursday that transgender women, specifically, should not be able to amend their birth certificates or IDs to reflect their gender. “Men should not be allowed in women’s bathrooms,” Birkeland wrote. “However, achieving this goal requires more than just signing or passing a bill that articulates this stance. We need to address the underlying issue of allowing men to change their birth certificates and driver’s licenses to reflect a female identity.” Birkeland continued, “Until we achieve that, our primary action is to run message bills, that are almost unenforceable. If a man can obtain a driver’s license identifying him as a woman, secure a birth certificate identifying him as a woman, and undergo surgical procedures to alter his appearance to look similar to women, it becomes nearly impossible for the government to distinguish between him and Representative Mace. That presents a significant challenge in enforcement.” Birkeland’s post was written in support of U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-North Carolina, who responded to the first transgender woman being elected to Congress by pushing for her and other transgender women not to be allowed in women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol. I completely agree with @RepNancyMace that men should not be allowed in women’s bathrooms. However, achieving this goal requires more than just signing or passing a bill that articulates this stance. We need to address the underlying issue of allowing men to change their birth... The post comes one day after Transgender Day of Remembrance — an annual occasion memorializing transgender people lost to violence or suicide due to attacks on their identity. The Utah Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that transgender Utahns have “a common-law right to change facets of their personal legal status, including their sex designation.” “My life was going forward day by day sometimes is not easy,” said Angie Rice, a transgender woman and one of the plaintiffs in the case, at the time. “But (this decision)... gives young people and everybody who has been suffering in silence, or victimized, it gives them a chance to believe in hope and have the courage to now live their truth.” Since she was first appointed to the House in 2020, Birkeland has led a push to bar transgender girls from high school sports. Since the Legislature passed a law she sponsored to do so in 2022, and overrode the governor’s veto , the ban has been partially blocked by a lawsuit. Meanwhile, a commission weighs the cases of young transgender athletes who want to participate in sports. This year, Birkeland successfully proposed a bill that creates legal definitions “female” and “male” to categorize Utahns by the reproductive organs of their birth, and prohibits transgender Utahns from using locker rooms or bathrooms that align with their gender in government-owned buildings. Republican lawmakers repeatedly employed misinformation about transgender Utahns while working to rally support for the bill, an investigation by The Salt Lake Tribune found . Utah, which has passed restrictions on transgender people for three consecutive years, also prohibits transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming health care . Birkeland did not respond to questions about whether she would introduce bills to enact such policy shifts in the 2025 legislative session, but told KUER earlier this month that she isn’t planning on proposing legislation impacting the transgender community. A spokesperson for the Utah House of Representatives did not respond to questions as to GOP leadership’s feelings on such policies, or whether other members of their caucus would draft bills including them. On Monday, legislative leadership and Gov. Spencer Cox urged Utah State University to join a lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference over its transgender participation policy — weeks after players on the school’s volleyball team opted to forfeit a game against another team that allegedly includes a transgender athlete. The school filed a motion to join soon after. “Female athletes deserve the right to a safe playing field, fair competition and equal opportunities,” the officials said in a statement. “By intervening, Utah will send a clear message that these rights are non-negotiable.” Utah House Democrats responded with a statement of their own, writing, “Transgender athletes have participated in sports for years without facing the intense scrutiny they endure today. Targeting them harms their mental health, further isolates an already vulnerable population, and goes against the inclusive values we should all uphold. This is not the Utah way.” Birkeland’s post also follows an anti-transgender political action committee that appears to be violating campaign finance laws and aimed to influence the outcome of a state legislative race in a district bordering hers. Despite establishing a website, deploying mailers and sending texts attacking Democrats throughout the state for opposing restrictions on transgender Utahns, including the only Democrat outside of Salt Lake County , the out-of-state Preserving Utah Values PAC reports that it has raised and spent $0 during the 2024 election cycle. The United Nations recognizes transgender people’s ability to change official documents, including birth certificates, as a human right. “Failing to provide access to legal gender recognition hinders access to rights and services (e.g. education, employment, bathrooms) and puts trans people at risk of violence (e.g. when presenting documents that don’t match their appearance),” reads the website for the supranational organization’s high commissioner for human rights. “Trans people are at particular risk of violence in detention settings when their gender identity is not respected.” According to the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification , hate crimes against LGBTQ+ Utahns more than doubled from 2022 to 2023. This year, law enforcement agencies have reported 15 incidents.
It’s that time of year for the Dahls, the close-knit Christian family at the center of ’s bleak and biting new play . Christmas is their favorite holiday, an occasion for the four adult children (plus their spouses) to convene at the elder Dahls’ house and imbibe on batch Manhattans, gorge on dense confectionaries, stow away extra figgy pudding and sing carols exalting their Lord and savior Jesus Christ. No matter that a handful of the Dahls are having a crisis of faith, that one might be losing their memory, that another is in active recovery from drug addiction and a third might be buckling under the weight of their mental health issues. The Dahls, in service of their own self-image, prefer to lie and deny. Produced by Second Stage and now at The Helen Hayes theater in New York, (directed by Headland’s longtime collaborator Trip Cullman) observes the Dahls as they celebrate a Christmas threatened by buried secrets and unacknowledged truths. The production completes the Seven Deadly Plays by Headland ( , ), which she began writing in 2006 with the IAMA Theater Company in Los Angeles. The writing is sharp in considering the shape pride takes within a deeply devoted family, filled with cutting observations about religious hubris and finely timed jokes about what this sin, considered the first and most deadly, breeds. The star-studded cast, which includes Broadway debuts by and , deliver committed performances that demonstrate a sincere relationship to the material. is here, too, as is Rebecca Henderson from and star Roberta Colindrez, all in fine form. But the narrative itself can be a mixed bag, an ambitious text with some moments of true profundity and others still reaching for meaning. opens with one of the Dahls’ preferred activities: singing carols. Like the family at the center of Joshua Oppenheimer’s delightfully strange apocalyptic musical , the Dahls find a more honest register when singing. The carols, a mix of familiar Christian holiday tunes deftly supervised by Jacinth Greywoode, becomes a portal through which we can better see their desires for mutual understanding. Bill (David Rasche), the patriarch, plays the “The Cherry-Tree Carol” at the piano and is soon joined by his wife Ginny (an excellent Marie Winningham). The children follow. While Evie (Rebecca Henderson), the eldest Dahl daughter, belts with her mother, her wife Pippa (Roberta Colindrez) stays silent. Mark (Zachary Quinto), the eldest Dahl son, and his wife Rachel ( ’s Molly Bernard) participate too. As does James, Diana’s husband (Christopher Lowell). But it’s Diana (Shailene Woodley), the youngest Dahl daughter who is pregnant with her second child, who steals the show with her melodic voice. When the song ends, so too does the congeniality. The Dahls devolve into a grumbling mass, lodging bitter complaints about the youngest son Johnny (Christopher Sears, in top form) who, as usual, is late. Ginny doesn’t want to start dinner without him, which forces the other siblings and their spouses to stave off hunger with more cookies and wine. As the group waits for Johnny, threads of various secrets reveal themselves; like Branden Jacobs-Jenkins in Headland explores how secrets warp reality and keep families in distressing prisons of their own making. also recalls Stephen Karam’s play and later film , which recasts a family holiday gathering (this one Thanksgiving) as a psychological thriller. All of these works explore reunions as a fraught encounter between past wounds, present realities and future desires. But Headland’s play distinguishes itself from the others by investigating these confrontations alongside pride: How does this sin, defined by blinding self-absorption and lack of humility, distort the Dahls’ love? The answer is more searching than certain. , which feels like the more impressionistic , confidently builds schematic portraits of the Dahls. It’s not concerned with establishing an obvious narrative thread. Revelations are found within interactions between characters who end up in small configurations — pairs or trios — to whisper about what’s really going on. All of the drama in this skillfully paced 100-minute play takes place in Ginny and Bill’s Connecticut farmhouse. The cozy scenic design by John Lee Beatty — a chimney lined with colorful stockings, rustic themed furniture and wood paneled walls — and lighting design by Heather Gilbert gently steer us through the moods of Christmas Eve. Surrounded by reminders of childhood, the Dahls feud about the present in a futile attempt to preserve a future together. Rachel wants her family to acknowledge the cruel homophobia directed at her and her wife Pippa. The two recently got married in a wedding barely attended by the Dahls, and plan to start a family. Mark, whose lapse of faith drew him to the law, is struggling in his marriage (Evie is rightly unhappy) and career (he recently clerked for Justice Roberts but isn’t sure what’s next). Both worry about their father, who’s exhibiting signs of dementia, and Diana, whose mental health issues have been routinely ignored by their parents. Her husband James also seems on edge, so we know there are secrets there, too. With so many characters on stage, Headland must tend to an array of themes: homophobia, religious doubt, aging parents, mental health and even drug addiction. It’s no small feat that each character is distinctly drawn and that audiences can keep up with the rhythm and speed of the rapid, overlapping dialogue. Still, Headland handles some threads with more finesse than others. Those shortchanged include Johnny and Loren (Barbie Ferreira), a friend from his recovery program. Sears does an excellent job with his role, capturing Johnny’s frenetic desperation to remain afloat in the clan’s fetid storm, but this critic, at least, wanted more for this character. Ferreira struggles a bit more to find the depth in her role; her character comes off as merely a cipher, a stand-in for an audience similarly positioned as outsiders. The other supporting characters in the Dahl show could have benefited from more shading as well. Colindrez flexes her comedic chops and makes the most of her time on stage but Pippa, like Bernard’s Rachel, remains a relatively opaque figure. is at its best when focused on Ginny, Mark, Evie and Diana, who represent different forms of pride. Through them, the playwright, who was raised in a similarly devoted home, wrestles with charged questions about faith and hubris. Ginny catastrophizes any comments about her mothering, insisting that her love is absolution. Winningham’s micro-expressions — especially her whimpering lips at any hint of criticism — are painful in their accuracy. Mark and Evie share similar issues, in that both have intellectually turned away from religion but can’t complete the emotional severance. Diana, whose religious psychosis worsens throughout the play, is one of the more tragic characters, and Woodley is pitch perfect in a role that requires balancing the comedy with these darker undertones. Headland’s efforts with these characters can be messy at times, but for this critic, who grew up in similar Christian conditions, the results are undoubtedly electrifying. With scary precision, the playwright captures the delusion that roots itself in families who use faith to control. She shows how an aversion to doubt and rejection of questions that might threaten sanctity narrows a family’s field of vision, making it harder to see the tragedy unfolding around them. 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