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what was important to the aztecs Micah Parsons Issues 'I Told You So!' Announcement in WashingtonHARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania conceded his reelection bid to Republican David McCormick on Thursday, as a statewide recount showed no signs of closing the gap and his campaign suffered repeated blows in court in its effort to get potentially favorable ballots counted. Casey’s concession comes more than two weeks after Election Day, as a grindingly slow ballot-counting process became a spectacle of hours-long election board meetings, social media outrage, lawsuits and accusations that some county officials were openly flouting the law. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Reports: Yankees sign LHP Max Fried to 8-year, $218M deal

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island lawyer is stepping up to the plate for former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in his defamation case with two election workers from Georgia. Joseph M. Cammarata of Cammarata & De Meyer P.C ., according to the New York Times , is the newest force on Giuliani’s legal team.

Democrat Bob Casey concedes to Republican David McCormick in Pennsylvania Senate contestWASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill rallied around Pete Hegseth , Trump’s Pentagon pick, on Thursday even as new details surfaced about allegations that he had sexually assaulted a woman in 2017. The GOP embrace of Hegseth came as another controversial Trump nominee, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration for attorney general. Gaetz said it was clear he had become a “distraction" amid pressure on the House to release an ethics report about allegations of his own sexual misconduct. An attorney for two women has said that his clients told House Ethics Committee investigators that Gaetz paid them for sex on multiple occasions beginning in 2017, when Gaetz was a Florida congressman. Fresh questions over the two nominees' pasts, and their treatment of women, arose with Republicans under pressure from Trump and his allies to quickly confirm his Cabinet. At the same time, his transition has so far balked at the vetting and background checks that have traditionally been required. While few Republican senators have publicly criticized any of Trump's nominees, it became clear after Gaetz's withdrawal that many had been harboring private concerns about him. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who served with Gaetz in the House, said it was a “positive move.” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker said it was a “positive development.” Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Gaetz “put country first and I am pleased with his decision.” After meeting with Hegseth, though, Republicans rallied around him. “I think he’s going to be in pretty good shape,” said Wicker, who is expected to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee in the next Congress. Republican senators' careful words, and their early reluctance to publicly question Trump's picks, illustrated not only their fear of retribution from the incoming president but also some of their hopes that the confirmation process can proceed normally, with proper vetting and background checks that could potentially disqualify problematic nominees earlier. Gaetz withdrew after meeting with senators on Wednesday. Sen. Thom Tillis said Gaetz was “in a pressure cooker” when he decided to withdraw, but suggested that it would have little bearing on Trump’s other nominees. “Transactions — one at a time,” he said. As the Hegseth nomination proceeds, Republicans also appear to be betting that they won't face much backlash for publicly setting aside the allegations of sexual misconduct — especially after Trump won election after being found liable for sexual abuse last year. Hegseth held a round of private meetings alongside incoming Vice President JD Vance on Thursday in an attempt to shore up support and told reporters afterward: “The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it.” A 22-page police report report made public late Wednesday offered the first detailed account of the allegations against him. A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel staffer, another woman at the event and Hegseth. Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Palatore, said the incident was “fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false.” Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 as part of a confidential settlement to head off the threat of what he described as a baseless lawsuit, Palatore has said. Wicker played down the allegations against Hegseth, a former Fox News host, saying that “since no charges were brought from the authorities, we only have press reports.” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said after his meeting with Hegseth that he "shared with him the fact that I was saddened by the attacks that are coming his way.” Hagerty dismissed the allegations as “a he-said, she-said thing” and called it a “shame” that they were being raised at all. The senator said attention should instead be focused on the Defense Department that Hegseth would head. It's one of the most complex parts of the federal government with more than 3 million employees, including military service members and civilians. Sexual assault has been a persistent problem in the military, though Pentagon officials have been cautiously optimistic they are seeing a decline in reported sexual assaults among active-duty service members and the military academies. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who will be the No. 2 Republican in the Senate next year, said after his meeting with Hegseth that the nominee is a strong candidate who “pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power – not the current administration’s woke political agenda.” Senate Republicans are under pressure to hold hearings once they take office in January and confirm nominees as soon as Trump is inaugurated, despite questions about whether Trump’s choices will be properly screened or if some, like Hegseth, have enough experience for the job. Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, who will be the top Democrat on the panel next year, said the reports on Hegseth “emphasized the need for a thorough investigation by the FBI on the background of all the nominees.” It takes a simple majority to approve Cabinet nominations, meaning that if Democrats all opposed a nominee, four Republican senators would also have to defect for any Trump choice to be defeated. Trump has made clear he’s willing to put maximum pressure on Senate Republicans to give him the nominees he wants – even suggesting at one point that they allow him to just appoint his nominees with no Senate votes. But senators insist, for now, that they are not giving up their constitutional power to have a say. “The president has the right to make the nominations that he sees fit, but the Senate also has a responsibility for advice and consent,” said Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota. In the case of Gaetz, he said, “I think there was advice offered rather than consent.” Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

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It was a little hard to hear him over the sound of “In the Mood,” but Mark Nelson had an explanation of why a big crowd is drawn to Concord every two months to dance to music that’s nearly a century old. “I think people are looking for a low-pressure way to meet people,” said Nelson, a student at NHTI, during a Swing Dance Night show by the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra at the BNH Stage on Nov. 16. Nelson became a fan of the music by accident – “I just happened to go to a swing dance in Boston and liked it” – and was drawn to the energy and openness of the community, where anybody can ask anybody else to dance with no judgment. “I don’t drink so I don’t go to bars much. This is a way to get out and interact with people.” There was certainly a lot of interaction on the BNH Stage dance floor that night. There was swing dancing, both East Coast and West Coast, and foxtrot and Charleston and Lindy hop and the occasional waltz, plus simple steps from many folks who received their first dance lesson right before the band started playing. The floor was never empty and often packed. “We get at least 100 people for every show, sometimes 150 people,” said Salvatore Prizio, executive director of the Capitol Center for the Arts, which owns BNH Stage. BNH Stage is the little sibling of the nearby Capitol Center. It opened in 2019 in the former Concord Theater movie house and has made good use of the ability to easily switch from theater-style seating to a wide-open floor watched over by a seated balcony, which lets it hold events from silent discos to Taylor Swift dance nights. “The open floor is a net benefit – it was always part of the plan,” said Prizio. “At the CCA, it’s about trying to engage as many different communities as we can possibly serve. We’re always open to ideas.” Swing is the general term for dancing styles that became popular during the Big Band era from the late 1920s through World War II. They were a creation of the African-American community in big cities before being adopted by the nation at large. Taking advantage of music from full bands featuring up to two dozen players, swing involves dances for couples that emphasize rhythmic athleticism in a spontaneous but not free-form style that uses a number of set moves as the urge arises. Article continues after... Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess Swing dancing largely disappeared after rock ‘n’ roll took over but saw a resurgence in the late 1990s. The rebirth was fueled in the U.S. by a 1998 commercial for Gap clothing stores which highlighted frenetic Lindy hopping and in Europe by a youthful rediscovery of the Harlem Renaissance, which raised dance pioneers like Frankie Manning and Norma Miller from obscurity to international fame. Starting in the 2000s New Hampshire developed a small but eager swing dance community with regular dances playing to live bands, an offshoot of the bigger scene around Boston. Virtually all opened with a free group lesson to get people started, a reflection of the swing community’s tradition of openness, with newcomers and experienced dancers mingling together. Then the pandemic hit. “COVID lockdowns set everything back. At UNH, for example, their swing dance club dissolved,” said Mike Pelletier of Manchester, who runs the Facebook group Swing Dancing in Southern NH. Before that, college groups had been a major incubator of the swing revival. Like much of the arts scene, swing dancing to live music has yet to fully recover from the pandemic but big bands have begun returning to places like Rockingham Ballroom and the American Legion Sweeney Post in Manchester. The Swing Dance Nights dances at BNH Stage, scheduled eight times a year with the next one in January, are part of this. Pelletier and his wife, Joanne, got into swing dancing after he returned from his second deployment with the New Hampshire National Guard in 2011. “We said it’s time to learn how to dance; time to have some fun.” Finding dances is a bit of a hassle, though. “Over the course of years, we found that there are dance opportunities in New Hampshire but there was no real method of learning where they were or who was doing what,” he said. Hence the Facebook page. Being on Facebook isn’t the sexiest way to get the word out but it fits with New Hampshire’s aging demographic. This leads to a key point about swing: The appeal crosses generations. Dances always feature folks of retirement age, who may remember their parents playing Big Band records, but people under 30 are usually well represented and in Boston will make up the majority of the couples on the floor. “You hear people say ‘I’m a metalhead but I like this music. I was born at the wrong time!’” said Clayton “Skip” Poole, who leads the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra. Poole, 65, of Bow, is a financial advisor who has worked with big bands for 48 years; his first gig included singer/pianist Mel Torme. He is also music director for the Capital Jazz Orchestra, a fully professional big band that plays shows all over the country and will have a Holiday Pops show on Dec. 8. The N.H. Jazz Orchestra is somewhat different. “I was asked to put together a group to feature more community players – including advanced high school students, semi-pros – to meet on a weekly basis,” he said. Poole said he was interested because it’s a “chance to perform music that isn’t heard all that often anymore on a very high level.” He uses his own collection of some 8,000 charts – music for all the instruments in the band for a set arrangement – some dating back to original arrangements from the 1920s. “We can take this music and bring it back to life.” “Most of the music we play is danceable. It’s different when you perform for dancers – Latin material, waltzes, whatever you play for dancing and not just for listening,” Poole said. “It’s much more exciting to have people there, dancing, to look out on the floor and see a sea of bobbing heads. ... Even the most professional musicians who say they play for money – no, they play for the sound of applause. “We’re fortunate to be at BNH, it’s sort of our home away from home, reaching out to swing dancers in the area.” The NH Jazz Orchestra has five reed instruments such as saxophone and clarinet, four trombones and a tuba, five trumpets and four rhythm players including keyboard and guitar, and usually includes a vocalist. Poole is adamant that it avoids the “gazebo circuit” of playing free concerts outdoors to keep up the quality. “We only play if people buy a ticket,” he said. Despite the popularity of events like Swing Dance Night, there’s a problem, Pelletier said. “We have over 1,000 members on (the Facebook) page but what we’ve noticed is that many people want to dance ... but they don’t actually go,” he said. “I think it’s because they’re intimidated. “This generation, people stopped partner dancing and they don’t know how, or they’re embarrassed to try in public. To go to a dance where people actually talk to each other, ask each other to dance, actually touch each other – that’s uncomfortable.” Blame technology, blame the pandemic, blame generational change – whatever the reason this isn’t just a swing dance problem. Digital life, exacerbated by the imposed isolation of the COVID years, seems to be cutting into people’s connection with each other, which cuts into their willingness to attend public events. All sorts of music venues have seen crowds shrink in the past two years, even when there’s no dance floor, and one reason cited by a major survey was that people didn’t have a friend to go with. Whether swing dancing’s openness and lack of judgment can overcome that reluctance is uncertain. But it will be entertaining to find out. “The music is great, isn’t it?” said Pelletier.

After missing out on Juan Soto, the New York Yankees made their first splash of the offseason. The Yankees and left-handed starting pitcher Max Fried have agreed to an eight-year, $218 million contract, several reports said Tuesday. The contract includes the most guaranteed money for a left-handed pitcher in baseball history, ESPN reported. A two-time All-Star, Fried will join right-handed ace Gerrit Cole to form a one-two punch at the front of the Yankees' rotation. Fried, 30, spent his first eight MLB seasons with the Atlanta Braves and went 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA across 29 starts last season. He had 166 strikeouts and a career-high 57 walks over 174 1/3 innings. He also pitched a major league-high two complete games (one shutout). Fried was an All-Star in 2022 and 2024, and he received votes for the National League Cy Young Award in 2020 (placing fifth) and 2022 (second). In 168 career games (151 starts), Fried has gone 73-36 with a 3.07 ERA and 863 strikeouts against 246 walks in 884 1/3 innings. He has tossed six complete games, including four shutouts. --Field Level MediaSIPPING a glass of chilled fizz this Christmas morning, I will not only feel full of festive cheer, but also a little bit smug. That’s because this is the 17th time I’ve successfully managed to cut my mother-in-law, Rene, out of our celebrations. While other women will be run ragged, pandering and panicking, I’ll be blissfully relaxed at home, with my husband Brian, 52, our two sons, my parents and my sister Anneliese, 53. I’ll do nothing more strenuous than peel some vegetables, munch chocolate and unwrap presents, free of festive tension. This is the exact opposite of what the day would be like if Rene was on the scene. And it’s the reason why, during 18 years of marriage , my family has spent Christmas Day with her only once. READ MORE IN FABULOUS That was eight years ago and I am still suffering from a mild form of “seasonal PTSD ”. The barbed remarks started early in the day. “Do you often eat chocolate for breakfast?” she scoffed. The slurs didn’t end until we went to bed, when she commented: “That Christmas pudding wasn’t the best”. At the end of the day, close to tears, I swore I would never put myself through the ordeal again. Most read in Fabulous And now, at 51, I certainly won’t be swayed. I know I’m not alone, either. Mumsnet is filled with posts from women my age who are dreading having to deal with the mother-in-law this Christmas. Unsurprisingly, to me, a US study found that both men and women have more conflict with the mother-in-law than with their own mums. I don’t feel an ounce of guilt that my mother-in-law doesn’t get to see her grandchildren on the big day. She’ll see them at some point over the festive period, when we’ll go and stay for a couple of days. During that time, I’ll insist on taking long walks to get rid of those Christmas excesses — when in fact it’s to dodge seeing her. And she will spend Christmas itself with my husband’s brother, his lovely wife Chrissy and their daughters — so it isn’t as though she’ll be alone. I remember the very first Christmas in 1997 after Brian and I started dating . We didn’t spend it together because we had only been seeing each other for six months. But I was horrified when he rang me on Christmas Day to say Rene had prepared roast beef and not a traditional turkey . It’s the one time of year that I’m a stickler for convention and this seemed very wrong. Christmas is all about family and I wish I could see my grandsons I immediately knew that I didn’t want to spend a single Christmas with his family. They don’t really do presents either — most years, they would all give each other Lottery scratch cards — and while I’m not materialistic, I spend hours trawling the shops for the perfect gift for my loved ones. My mother-in-law has only ever bought me one present — a pot of anti-wrinkle cream. This year, I’m bracing myself for hair dye, because she recently asked why I have more grey hairs than Chrissy, her other daughter-in-law, despite being ten years younger. So you can understand why I feel a twinge of terror at the thought of spending Christmas with Rene at the helm. I’ve been with Brian, who works in marketing, for 26 years and festivities aside, my mother-in-law and I are yet to see eye-to-eye on anything. “Highlights” of her behaviour include asking if she could wear black to our wedding and then telling me she didn’t gain a daughter, but lost a son. She has a photo album titled My Family and while my husband and sons, who are 18 and 14, feature, I’m nowhere to be seen. She has even carefully selected wedding photos where I’m missing. For me, Christmas is a special time, not an occasion I want ruined. And Rene has a unique ability to make me feel the size of a gnat. On Christmas morning, we open stockings at my parents’ house in Dorset and have a lovely smoked salmon breakfast, and lots of chocolate, before slowly opening presents. Late afternoon, we’ll have turkey and all the trimmings — including my mother’s bread sauce, best in the world — at my sister’s house. This is followed by quizzes and party games. Brian is lovely about me wanting to be at my parents’. He gets on brilliantly with his in-laws. But eight years ago, Rene, who is a widow, was set to be alone at Christmas. Brian’s brother was away and even I acknowledged that we should go to her house, six hours from ours in London . I even prepared the meal, but the level of interference was off the scale, with petty remarks about timings and how rapidly the water was boiling for the Brussels. Her lips pursed at the taste of the chicken — “too dry” — and stayed that way up until she had eaten her last scrap of Christmas pudding with brandy butter. She made snide comments about what I’d gifted my boys, then aged ten and six. Their noisiness brought nothing but sighs. I felt like I couldn’t do anything right, most of my efforts were followed by a “Chrissy wouldn’t do it like that”. I told Brian never again. It doesn’t cause rows — he loves my family . Despite everything, my boys love Granny. She’s wonderful with them and I make sure they see plenty of her. But I worry about karma. I tried hard to do things in a way Mel would appreciate, but it’s never enough If the boys marry, they could assume their partners get to choose where to spend Christmas, as that’s their normal. I suspect it will be with their wives’ mums and it will serve me right. But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy my mother-in-law-free Christmas Day. And I wish all the luck in the world to the women who aren’t as lucky as I am. Rene, 81, says: “Christmas is all about family and I wish I could see my grandsons. The one Christmas I did spend with them was magical. “Mel doesn’t think I thought it was special, but it was. READ MORE SUN STORIES “I tried hard to do things in a way Mel would appreciate, but it’s never enough. “And the only reason I bought her anti-wrinkle cream is because I saw it in her bathroom, so thought she’d like it.”

Penn State rolls past Maryland, clinches berth in Big Ten title gameSegall Bryant & Hamill LLC Grows Position in Boise Cascade (NYSE:BCC)More than 5.59 lakh job aspirants are slated to appear in an examination for 4,002 vacancies of police constables in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Saturday. The test is scheduled to commence across the Union Territory from Sunday. A group of youngsters, meanwhile, staged a demonstration here, reiterating their demand for age relaxation and rescheduling of the examination. "A total of 5,59,135 candidates are scheduled to appear in the exams for 4,002 posts of constables (home department) to be held on December 1, December 8 and December 22," Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Recruitment Board (SSRB) Chairperson Indu Kanwal Chib said at a meeting here. The meeting of the civil administration and police department was convened by Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo to take stock of the preparations made by the deputy commissioners to conduct the exams. Chib said the exams for the posts of constable (executive/armed/SDRF) are going to be held on December 1 at 856 centres across 20 districts, for which 2,62,863 candidates are set to appear, with the maximum number of 54,296 candidates appearing from Jammu district. 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View Program Web Development Advanced C++ Mastery: OOPs and Template Techniques By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Similarly, for the posts of constable (telecommunications), the SSRB chairperson said 1,67,609 candidates are going to appear in the exams to be held on December 8 and 1,28,663 are scheduled to appear in the test for constable (photographer) exams on December 22. The meeting was informed that for the first time, male and female gazetted officers have been deployed at each centre as "frisking supervisors", besides ensuring videography of the exams to ensure transparency, an official spokesperson said. The chief secretary impressed upon the officers to make adequate arrangements in terms of deployment of staff, including observers, supervisors, invigilators and other personnel, for a smooth conduct of the examinations. He urged the deputy commissioners to visit as many exam centres as possible, besides forming teams under senior officers in the district administration to examine all the centres set up in their districts. The chief secretary sensitised them to ensure that no untoward incident of copying or malpractice occurs anywhere and that enough security personnel are deployed at each centre in the district, the spokesperson said. He enquired with them about the arrangements made for the delivery of both sensitive and non-sensitive exam material to the centres. The chief secretary also enjoined upon them to personally monitor the whole process till the OMR sheets are sent back to the SSRB by the police department, the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, a group of youngsters, who could not apply for the constable posts due to being over-age, staged a demonstration here and raised slogans against the administration for not providing them a level-playing field. "We had also dreamt of joining the police and serving the nation but were denied the opportunity by the administration, which failed to hold the examination for years. We have given our representation to the lieutenant governor, political parties and officers seeking age relaxations but all our pleas were ignored," youth leader and social activist Mehran Anjum Mir said. The protesters reiterated their demand for age relaxation for the posts of constable and sub-inspector, and demanded rescheduling of the constable examination to allow them to compete as well. The SSRB has issued a notification for the recruitment of 669 sub-inspectors in the Jammu and Kashmir Police department. According to the official schedule, the application process for recruitment will begin on December 3 and conclude on January 2, 2025.The rift within the BC Conservative party has deepened over the resignation of a Vancouver police board member. Elenore Sturko, who represents Surrey-Cloverdale, publicly defied Leader John Rustad's request that she meet with Comfort Sakoma-Fadugba, the VPD board vice chair who resigned over controversial comments about diversity and inclusion in classrooms. "I stand by my position, and I won't be meeting with her," Sturko told reporters on Tuesday shortly before a B.C. Conservative caucus meeting in Victoria. Sturko says she had "no trepidation" going into the caucus meeting with the 13 MLAs who condemned her in a leaked letter but acknowledged it might be "feisty." Sturko told CBC News last month that Sakoma-Fadugba's comments were offensive and that she was right to resign. That put her at odds with some B.C. Conservatives, who said Sakoma-Fadugba raised valid issues about protecting Christian values, and she was a victim of cancel culture. In screenshots shared to Reddit, one of Sakoma-Fadugba's posts discusses how "mass immigration" and "a growing aversion to assimilation" are "transforming Canada into a place where a shared identity is disappearing." Another post questions Diwali celebrations at schools, saying the "push for secular education isn't about religion — it's about erasing Christian values from the lives of our children." Group of B.C. Conservative MLAs turn on fellow caucus member for backing police board member's resignation Vancouver Police Board vice-chair resigns following social media comments A third references "gender transitions" while criticizing a "woke culture that pits children against their parents." Thirteen Tory MLAs signed a letter condemning Sturko's comments and pressing Rustad to ask her to apologize." It is our view that the statements caused undue harm to Ms. Sakoma and called into question our commitment to the core values shared by Conservatives," they wrote. As they walked into their party's caucus meeting, all 13 MLAs refused to comment on why they signed the letter. Rustad had been silent about the issue until Monday night when he posted on social media that he had shared a meal with Sakoma-Fadugba in her home and invited Sturko to meet with her as well. On The Coast 10:14 Cracks appearing in B.C. Conservative Party B.C. Conservative Party board president Aisha Estey talks about 13 B.C. Conservative MLAs turning on fellow B.C. Conservative MLA Elenore Sturko in a leaked letter to party leader John Rustad. "I want to make it crystal clear where I personally stand — I support Comfort Sakoma, and I don't believe she should have been asked to quit the VPD police board," Rustad wrote. He said he understands "the critical importance of freedom of speech, particularly for MLAs." However, he said Sturko should "meet with Comfort Sakoma before drawing further judgment. "Comfort is a wonderful person with so much to offer, and I hope she continues to advocate for the Conservative movement in British Columbia and in Canada." CBC News asked Rustad Tuesday if Sturko publicly defied him by responding that she would not meet with Sakoma-Fadugba. "I expected that she would," he said. "They have the right to be able to say things, they have a right to bring forward issues." Rustad denied there's a rift in the party, saying differences of opinion are welcome. B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad speaks to reporters after forming Opposition on Oct. 29, 2024. (Mike McArthur/CBC) Sturko said she was disappointed to learn about Rustad's position on social media but insists she stands behind him as party leader. "I came to Victoria and joined this party to work side by side with John. I intend to do that," Sturko said. "I think that what people don't necessarily realize is that caucuses do have disagreements." Former B.C. United spokesperson Andrew Reeve told CBC News he expected divisions within the big tent B.C. Conservative Party which formed as a result of several high-profile defections among B.C. United MLAs, including Sturko. However, Reeve said he didn't expect those rifts to happen just weeks after the Conservatives became the Official Opposition and for them to be exposed so publicly. B.C. Conservative leader names shadow cabinet, takes shots at NDP Rustad has said he will allow his MLAs to have free votes on issues and vote according to their conscience, but Reeve says that could expose further divisions between social conservatives and more progressive centrists in the party. The letter's signatories are: Tara Armstrong, Rosalyn Bird, Dallas Brodie, Brent Chapman, Reann Gasper, Sharon Hartwell, Anna Kindy, Jordan Kealy, Kristina Loewen, Macklin McCall, Heather Maahs, Korky Neufeld and Ward Stamer.

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