6!'y[Fkd-e|Ł}C&yGN.uA,Á^@EڧӉχ3I<e}Jژ *Ѷe tml pPdנrv9 | 75_VXn ޥ#D[=to|Va}}g::}}PIBRJAC P%j١! JR(KP+idY7M HǮ\.f 6U.+dݼnPװVefV ǝÜA=Sarah McBride says transgender bathroom bans at Capitol are 'attempt to misdirect' from big issues
— The Frederick County Planning Commission voted unanimously Wednesday night to table a proposed rezoning of approximately 101 acres next to Middletown Elementary School from Light Industrial (M1) to Technology-Manufacturing Park (TM), as concerns bought up by members at a recent work session had not been adequately addressed by the developer. "We want to have businesses flourish in Frederick County," Planning Commission Chairman Tim Stowe told developer Scott Plein following the vote, "but we've got to do it right." No specific use has been designated for the Middletown LLC property, but at the panel's Nov. 20 work session, commissioners and the developer clashed over issues such as proposed proffers for transportation improvements, viewshed concerns in the rural area which is near Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park and prohibiting uses allowed in TM zoning that could negatively impact Middletown Elementary School. Following the work session, the developer made changes to the proffer statement, but it wasn't enough to sway the Planning Commission. Greenway Engineering Vice President Christopher Mohn, representing the developer, said the proffered amount for two new traffic signals at the nearby intersection of Interstate 81 and Reliance Road had been increased from $200,000 to $280,000 to represent 14% of the up to $2 million it would cost to build the new signals. The 14% was an estimate from a traffic study done by the developer representing the total percent of peak hour trips from the development that would impact the interchange. That figure and study were criticized by commissioners during the work session and again Wednesday night. "You show where you've increased the wait times on the northbound lanes after the development by 900%, now how can you say that that's only 18-19% impact?" commission member Roger Thomas asked. Commission member Mollie Brannon calculated the total percentage increase for wait times and queuing on the southbound and northbound lanes and came up with an increase of more than 60% for both. "How does 16% of traffic cause that much queuing and wait time, are they trains?" Brannon questioned. Proposed uses of the property were another factor. Even though the developer eliminated manufacturing and storage of live munitions as possible uses, numerous others in TM zoning were mentioned as inappropriate next to an elementary school. Thomas brought up slaughterhouses and battery manufacturing as examples. While Mohn didn't really budge on the traffic impact analysis, he did indicate the uses could be revised. "I think there's no question we could take a look at that and be more selective and potentially remove some of those [uses]... because there are some risks clearly that are associated with that, and arguably not appropriate near an elementary school," Mohn said. While only six commission members expressed concerns regarding the rezoning application, community members made themselves heard during a public hearing on the matter. Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park Site Manager Karen Beck-Herzog criticized the developer's viewshed analysis, as she said development of the property could hurt the experience for park visitors a few miles away. "The applicant provided a very basic and limited viewshed analysis," she said. Jack Owens, a park ranger for the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, mentioned that the acres eyed for rezoning are designated as core battlefield land in the Cedar Creek area, where the Battle of Cedar Creek was fought during the Civil War. "Rezoning this land without a comprehensive ordinance and codes in place for technology-related infrastructure could lead to irreversible damage to historic landscapes," he said. The tabling isn't the end for the rezoning, as it must go before the Frederick County Board of Supervisors within 90 days of Wednesday's meeting. This means that it has to go back before the Planning Commission by its Feb. 19 meeting at the latest in order to go before the board in time.ICC’s decision may worsen war in Gaza and Lebanon, analysts warnFTSE 100 rises despite retailers’ Boxing Day woes and US sell-off
got booed at the MCG. Sound at this ground seems to bubble up, like in the old cartoons where witches prepare their potions, the pot frothing away with each new ingredient until one of them makes the whole thing explode. The happened between overs. It wasn't caught live, like Mohammed Siraj's send-off to Travis Head. That noise was full throated and organic and it was dwarfed on Friday when Kohli nicked off for 36 off 86. The crowd knew what had happened. They didn't need help from replays on the big screen or nudges on social media. The displeasure was instant and it rolled down like thunder. "BOOOOOOOOOO!" India had gone from 153 for 2 to 154 for 4. Seven balls earlier, Kohli had been involved in a mix-up and India lost their top-scorer of both the innings and the series. Yashasvi Jaiswal looks up to Kohli. At training, he steps off from facing the bowler to gather his inputs. Here he barely looked at him. They were three feet apart, both stuck at the bowler's end, and he barely looked at him. To be fair, though, the single wasn't on. Pat Cummins was too close at mid-on. There was incredulity in Australia's celebrations, and ferocity in everything they did afterwards. Those last five overs to stumps were pure theatre. Mitchell Starc came back into the attack. The slip cordon sprouted extra people. The idea that a ball could ever be left alone seemed increasingly obtuse. And half-an-hour's play began to stretch to eternity. Eighty-five thousand people added to the occasion as they synced their hands coming together to the bowler's feet pounding the turf. Kohli had been able to stay in his bubble for the entire time he was in the middle until right this very moment. Right this very moment, it popped. "He was really disciplined today," Steven Smith said at the press conference. "He was leaving nicely, making the bowlers come to him a bit more, and scoring well through the leg side and when we went short. So yeah, I thought we were in for a bit of a masterclass there. But fortunately, Barrel [Boland] got one to sort of straighten, probably off the line on that fifth, sixth stump. And it probably was one of the only ones he played at." Two years ago, here. A sizeable portion of the 172,389 that have come through the gates on days one and two of the Boxing Day Test have felt very differently. The put a big red ball on his nose and bumped subtlety off a cliff. "Clown Kohli" said the headline. feels less petty now. Kohli was name-checked by the head of the local organising committee for LA 2028 to explain how cricket got into the Olympics. He is the third-most followed sportsperson on Instagram after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. More to the point, Australia have seen him as their kind of player. Gifted. Positive. Never-give-up. The respect he used to get here wasn't grudging. It was genuine and it's eroded because he hasn't been making runs; far too busy making errors of judgment. There was one at Melbourne airport when he rounded on Australian media for disrespecting his privacy. Another at the 'G when he disrespected an Australian cricketer's privacy by making a beeline straight for him. Kohli was in the middle of turning all of that around. For 35 off 83 balls he was pristine. For the last 1 off 3 he was something else. Shaken. Resigned. Done. He didn't even look back once he edged the ball. His hands just dropped. He just knew. India needed him in the middle when their best batter of the tour, KL Rahul, was dismissed last ball before tea. There were still seven minutes on the clock for the resumption when he and Jaiswal walked out to the dugout. There has always been an eagerness about this batting. It is supposed to translate as wanting to be out there. But it was coming off wanting it too much. The run-out in the dying stages of the second day's play against New Zealand in Mumbai. Taking guard way in front of his crease in Perth. Chasing after that one cover drive that was supposed to get him into rhythm. On a Melbourne pitch that wanted to patch things up with the batters after putting them through the wringer for the last two or three years, all Kohli had to do was trust himself; trust his training to come through. And it did. The first thing he did once he made it to the crease was practice this leave. People sometimes do the front-foot push just to get a feel of the hands going through to the line of the ball. He'd done enough of that. When Kohli got off the mark, Cummins looked down at his hands curiously, as if to figure out just how he could bowl on the pads of one of history's greatest flickers of the ball. He was responding to length a lot better in this innings, actually shifting his weight back when he had to instead of always lunging forward. Even with his leaves. There were a couple that were wide of off stump but he still shifted his weight back, in response to the shorter length, and pulled his bat up. Then there was another against Cummins that was pitched up and on that fifth stump line. He covered his stumps, pressed forward, and then left. The impact point with the ball on the cover drive that brought him his first boundary was right under his eyes. Reaching for the ball has been his forever problem. He wasn't doing that here. He could only stomach shouldering arms to 34 deliveries across his five previous innings in this Test series. He did it 21 times here, in just two hours at the crease, and it looked so easy. He looked so good. Then came the run-out. Kohli looks for those rapid singles too. He managed one early in his innings, but that time he'd cushioned his shot and the man at short cover meant to prevent the rotation of strike became redundant. Later in his innings, he nudged one off his toes to the left of midwicket, who try as he might, couldn't get there, and the right of mid-on. "Been stealing doubles since 2012," he had said during one of his more dour centuries in the West Indies last year, pointing to the act of how he gets going simply by running between the wickets. The glamour shots look good on the reels but singles and twos are the essence of his batting. The fact that it led to his wicket two months ago and his partner's wicket now - both resulting in the team's implosion mere minutes before stumps - must be difficult to digest. Kohli got booed out of the MCG. But it almost seemed like he couldn't hear them. He had looked so good.
Lobbyist Nancy Kimme, a Republican with connections in the administration of then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, called a longtime confidant of Democratic House Speaker Michael Michael Madigan to talk it through. Kimme told Michael McClain that Sandoval was putting the brick on the plan to transfer the land, which was owned by the Illinois Department of Transportation, by amending an existing real estate bill, and it may be because of the blood with Solis. “I believe that Sandoval is just mad at Solis,” Kimme said on the April 2018 call played in Madigan’s corruption trial Thursday. “Kinda makes sense what’s happening,” McClain responded. “Sandoval’s a small man.” The call was one of nearly a dozen played for jurors during Kimme’s testimony so far that have painted a detailed picture of the political mechanizations, power plays, and bruised egos that unfolded in 2018 over the tiny 2 1/2-acre parking lot along Wentworth Avenue that a group of deep-pocketed Chinatown developers wanted to turn into a hotel. Prosecutors allege Madigan agreed to help Solis, whose 25th Ward included the land, with the transfer in return for an introduction to the developers so he could pitch his private real estate firm to do their property tax appeals. But Madigan knew Rauner, his arch political enemy, would never let the land transfer go through if he knew the speaker’s fingerprints were on it. So Madigan enlisted the help of his friend, retired lobbyist McClain, who in turn went to Kimme to try and seal the deal. That’s when the problems with Sandoval, a Democrat who headed the powerful Senate Transportation Committee, reared their head. In call after call, Kimme and McClain commiserated over Sandoval’s boorishness, and also lamented the behavior of his colleague, state Sen. Tony Munoz, who at the time was vying to be the next Senate president. In one call played for the jury, Kimme told McClain, "I don’t know why (Sandoval) goes out of his way to piss off the speaker... That’s short-sighted. Madigan could take him out pretty easily.” McClain responded that all Madigan has to do is put up a Latino in Cicero to beat him. A few days later, Kimme and McClain talked about ways to get Sandoval and Munoz to “settle down.” Munoz, Kimme said seemed to be consumed with becoming the Senate president and was “not gonna want to piss off Marty,” “I’m sure that’s why he got involved (in blocking the Chinatown deal) in the first place ... Sandoval’s so crazy,” Kimme said. “I don’t believe there is any way for Solis to make peace now,” McClain responded. He said Sandoval “had a rally or something several months ago where Sandoval announced that Alex Acevedo is the next alderman.” Kimme said after a long pause, said, “We’re in the middle of some kind of range war.” On the stand, Kimme was asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz what she meant by that statement. “That they were all shootin’ at each other for different reasons,” Kimme testified. You mean for political reasons? Schwartz asked. “Yes.” McClain said suppose they got the Chinese Chamber of Commerce involved to show Munoz “there is a political consequence.” Kimme said Munoz probably wouldn’t care. “He knows that Marty is a bad enemy to have because he reacts so much.” At the end of the call, Kimme asked, Who is close to Sandoval? “Victor Reyes,” McClain said, the longtime Democratic political consultant and fundraiser. “Who is Reyes close to?” McClain paused for several seconds. “Well...Victor Reyes is close to Victor Reyes,” he said, “But um I got him you know a lot of business over the years.” A few weeks later, Kimme again asked McClain how they could solve the Sandoval issue, maybe “try and get Victor (Reyes) to go after Sandoval and quiet him down?” “I think I ought to call somebody and let ’em know that Sandoval is blowing it up,” McClain responded. “So why don’t you give me a day or two?” Kimme later told McClain that she’d found out Munoz was angry about a city-owned property on Damen Avenue that he’d wanted Solis to sign off on for development, but the alderman was dragging his feet. So she negotiated a plan with Munoz to put both properties in the same bill. “I think that’s a good deal,” McClain said. “That’s why you’re the master.” In May 2018, with the session deadline looming, Kimme reached out to Democratic state Rep. Theresa Mah to make her a sponsor of the land transfer. But the deal was later tabled due to pressure from the community that caused other political heavyweights to oppose it, including then-Secretary of State Jesse White, according to evidence the jury has heard. Sandoval later pleaded guilty to an arrange of bribery schemes unrelated to the Chinatown parcel and was cooperating with investigators when he died of COVID-19 in December 2020. Kimme’s testimony will continue after a lunch break. Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House and the head of the state Democratic Party, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise. He is charged alongside his longtime confidant McClain, 77, a former ComEd contract lobbyist from downstate Quincy. Both men have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. Prosecutors could rest their case in chief as early as next week. Before the jury took their seats Thursday, prosecutors said they want to call former state Rep. Eddie Acevedo as a witness next week. But Acevedo’s attorney signaled that she would try to keep him off the stand on grounds that he is not competent to testify, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu. In addition, Bhachu said, Acevedo has invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, meaning prosecutors must jump through administrative hoops in order to compel him to the stand. Acevedo, a Chicago Democrat, pleaded guilty in 2021 to a relatively minor tax charge stemming from the federal probe into ComEd’s lobbying practices. He was sentenced to six months in prison. Before his sentencing, his attorneys filed a memo from his doctor on the public docket saying he had “mild cognitive impairment,” gout, hypertension, high cholesterol and depression and anxiety. Acevedo has not testified in any of the Madigan-related trials so far. One of the conspiracy counts against Madigan and McClain alleges that AT&T Illinois boss Paul La Schiazza agreed to pay $22,500 to Acevedo for a do-nothing consulting job in exchange for Madigan’s help passing a bill to end mandated landline service. Acevedo also allegedly was hired by ComEd as a favor to Madigan, one of many people whom prosecutors say were given jobs as part of a bribery scheme. Jurors last month saw a memorable email in which then-ComEd executive Fidel Marquez seemingly lost his cool after Acevedo asked for a job for a friend. “Geez...he has a son and a nephew at ComEd. He’s got a contract at ComEd. Has he no limit?” Marquez emailed McClain. McClain responded using his frequent euphemism for Madigan, saying that Marquez’s rant “sounded like our Friend.” Also Thursday, jurors heard a series of phone calls meant to emphasize Madigan’s influence over state board appointments. “Think about Carrie to go to the Illinois Commerce Commission,” then-state Rep. Michael J. Zalewski told McClain in a November 2018 call, referring to his wife. “Pritzker gets two picks in January and the pay is the same, so it wouldn’t get us a story for bumping her pay, he could say she gets the same amount of money,” Zalewski said. Madigan ended up successfully recommending that Pritzker put Carrie Zalewski on the commission. Madigan and McClain are accused of getting ComEd to hire Michael J. Zalewski’s father, former 23rd Ward Ald. Michael Zalewski, as a no-work subcontractor, in order to sway Madigan’s support for utility-friendly legislation. Jurors also heard Madigan tell McClain about a meeting he had with Pritzker in December 2018. Madigan’s former chief of staff testified Wednesday that at that meeting, Madigan suggested Pritzker could reconstitute boards and commissions and appoint all new members. “You can wipe out the board too ... So I put that idea in his head,” Madigan told McClain on the recording jurors heard Thursday. Madigan’s sway over board seats is crucial to prosecutors’ allegations that he was planning to recommend Solis to a lucrative position on a board. Solis has testified he was not actually interested in a seat, but the FBI directed him to ask about it. Jurors last week saw undercover video from an August 2018 meeting in which Solis asked Madigan about a board seat appointment, and emphasized all the business he could bring in for Madigan’s firm. Moments later, Madigan asked Solis to put in a good word with the nonprofit Resurrection Project on behalf of his son Andrew, who worked at an insurance broker. The CEO and co-founder of the Resurrection Project, Raul Raymundo, testified Thursday that Solis had reached out to him in 2018 and asked him to consider meeting with Andrew Madigan. Raymundo subsequently connected Andrew Madigan with the Resurrection Project’s chief financial officer, who ultimately decided to start working with Andrew Madigan’s firm.Trump asks Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban so he can weigh in after he takes office
Boy’s death at haunted hayride ruled accidental by coronerDonald Trump said Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has asked to visit him at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. or signup to continue reading Part way through a Truth Social post on Friday morning, Trump referred to his Mar-a-Lago home, saying "Bill Gates asked to come, tonight. We miss you and x! New Year's Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT." Trump provided no further details. Emails and calls to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asking about a potential Gates visit to Mar-a-Lago were not immediately answered. Gates has been critical of Trump in the past, particularly over his first administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Gates publicly congratulated Trump on his November 5 election victory and expressed hope they could work together. Some of the biggest tech sector companies in the US have pledged donations to Trump's inaugural fund as they seek more favourable relations with the Republican president-elect before he takes office on January 20. In November, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Meta has donated $US1 million ($A1.6 million) to Trump's inaugural fund, a company spokesperson told Reuters on December 12. Other tech companies that are donating $US1 million ($A1.6 million) to Trump's inaugural fund include Amazon and Uber Technologies . DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. TWICE WEEKLY Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. WEEKLY Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. TWICE WEEKLY Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. AS IT HAPPENS Be the first to know when news breaks. DAILY Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! DAILY Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily! Advertisement Advertisement
Ram Gopal Varma Visits Mohanlal, Prithviraj On The Location Of Empuraan