New pro-European coalition approved in Romania amid period of political turmoilNone
With a combined 42 years on the Hobart School Board, Terry Butler and Karen Robbins cast their final votes Dec. 19. Both members retired after presiding over a sea of physical and academic changes from the construction of two new schools to the pioneering of an AI platform. “All in all, it’s been a great ride,” said Butler, who joined the board in 2000 when Indiana had its last Democratic governor, Frank O’Bannon, who died in office in 2003. Retiring Hobart School Board member Karen Robbins removes her nameplate after her final board meeting Dec. 19. (Carole Carlson/Post-Tribune) Superintendent Peggy Buffington said Robbins was her room mom when she began her teaching career at Foreman Elementary, which has since been replaced by Joan Martin Elementary. “You always made the right choice — for students. It didn’t matter if it was controversial. You never faltered,” Buffington told Butler and Robbins during their final board meeting. Their final votes were cast in favor of the renewal of a $22.5 million operating referendum. It will appear on the May ballot, if approved by the state. Butler said his journey to running for school board began about 25 years ago when he attended a community meeting about whether students should wear school uniforms. Butler, the former director of transportation at the School City of Hammond, didn’t like the idea and made his views known. Someone approached him and suggested he run for school board and Butler was elected. He became a board member in 2000. Robbins, an accountant, had served in many volunteer roles including serving on a school improvement committee to PTA officer. “My kids had graduated, I had time and I thought ‘why not’,” she said. “It seemed like the next step.” Nearly 18 years ago, Robbins was selected to fill a vacancy when a school board member resigned. When Butler first joined the board, he said there were rumblings of the need for a new high school but money was scarce. He said the district’s guidance counselors still filled out schedules by hand and the system needed to be computerized. To shore up support for a new high school, Butler said elementary schools were updated so the focus could shift to a new school. Meanwhile, the state reformed its property tax assessment method to a fair market assessment. The changes and community support paved the way for a bond issue to build the new high school. Jack Leach, who retired in 2008, served as Hobart’s superintendent when Butler and Robbins joined the board. With Butler as president, the board elevated Buffington from assistant superintendent to succeed Leach. “She was so far ahead of the other candidates, her abilities were so much better...” said Butler who praised Buffington’s technology vision and savvy. By 2006, work had begun on the construction of the new $63 million high school on 10th Street. The school board included a swimming pool in its original plan for a new high school, but the state cut the pool out of the final plan in 2006. Butler is still bitter over the move he blamed on GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels. “They said we had to cut $5 million so we lost the pool. That’s when the community came together, they were upset,” said Butler. The new school opened in 2009 sans pool, but a 2017 successful $41.2 million capital projects referendum provided about $18 million for the construction of a 50-meter pool and natatorium on the high school’s southwest side. Veterans Elementary was also constructed at the site of the former razed Mundell Elementary on Wisconsin Street. Buffington pointed the board toward its technology course, Robbins said. “We used to get these large paper packets,” she said of the school board’s information folders, then we sat in a session on the electronic school board and we did it.” Audience members can watch board members vote by pressing a computer key and their vote is flashed on a screen in the meeting room. Both Butler and Robbins harbor skepticism at state policy changes during their tenures on the board that shifted state money to charter and private voucher-funded schools. “The whole problem is taking money from public schools and giving it to private schools,” said Butler. “It upsets me that my tax dollars are going to these schools, there’s no accountability,” Robbins said of private schools funded by parents with state vouchers. “We need to reverse the tide and get people to vote for people who value education,” she said of the General Assembly. Robbins said she gained motivation to retire from the board after watching new board member Brad Keehn Jr. faithfully attend meetings and contribute to discussions. He’ll join the board next month along with newcomer David Kostbade. “When you see someone like Brad in the audience, it’s good. “It’s time for the younger generation to take it,” Robbins said. Butler and Robbins acknowledged they navigated a few controversies during their combined time on the board and boasted of accomplishments like one of the first all-day kindergarten programs, early learning and early college programs, and the embrace of technology. Buffington said the closing of Ridge View stirred up concern among west side residents who later came to appreciate the new Veterans Elementary their children attended. “It’s a beacon on the west side,” she said. “Those children love their school.” She also cited the popularity of the new aquatic center that’s drawn swimmers from Illinois for competitions. “I hope you walk away and know you were a major factor in this,” Buffington told Butler and Robbins. Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
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Syria’s Christian community has never received political support from the West, particularly Europe, according to Agnes Mariam de la Croix, the mother superior at the Monastery of Saint James the Mutilated in Syria. The abbess made the remarks while talking to RT on Tuesday in light of the recent incident involving the burning of a Christmas tree in the Syrian Orthodox city of Hama by a group of Islamist fighters. The incident has stirred anger among local residents, with hundreds of demonstrators having taken to the streets in the Christian neighborhoods of Damascus on Monday amid fears of further crackdowns on Syria’s religious minorities. Videos circulating online showed hooded figures setting fire to the tree at a traffic circle in the Christian-majority town of Al-Suqalabiyah near the city of Hama in central Syria. Reacting to the events, de la Croix pointed out that after seizing power the jihadist groups, particularly the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS), have promised to take care of minorities and even paid unexpected visits to spiritual leaders in Aleppo, Hama, and Damascus. Nevertheless, the community has been “targeted by different ways of discrimination and misunderstanding of our Christian symbols, especially in this holy realm on Christmas Eve,” she said. Asked about reports of European assistance to Syria’s Christian community, de la Croix replied, “we don’t rely on protection from the West, I regret to say it.” She noted that Europe has never genuinely assisted Christians in Syria. On the contrary, she said, there was always a feeling it was “even forbidden for us to talk about the prosecution of Christians.” She said European politicians “were not very happy” when she talked about the issue. HTS jihadists launched a surprise offensive in the northern Syrian provinces of Idlib and Aleppo late last month. After the city of Aleppo fell within days, the group advanced south on Damascus, capturing the towns of Suqaylabiyah, Hama, and Homs along the way before they were joined by US-armed Free Syrian Army (FSA) militants for a final push on the capital. Former Syrian President Bashar Assad left for Russia, where he has been granted asylum. Under Assad, Christians and other religious minorities were allowed to openly practice their faith. HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa has vowed to lead Syria into an era of change, promising an inclusive vision where all religious and ethnic groups are represented. However, with HTS in charge, many now reportedly fear persecutions. “We feel insecure, at least,” de la Croix said, noting it is not only about Christians, but there had been aggression against other minorities too. Burning a Christmas tree means “burning our principles, faith, joy, and fist of Christmas,” according to de la Croix, who described it as “an insult” against the community. The abbess raised hope for improvement of the “terrible uncertainty” situation for the Syrian ethnic and religious minorities in the future.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court is set to hear on Monday, December 15 a plea filed by BJP legislators seeking direction to the Delhi government to forward 12 Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports to the Lt Governor (L-G). As per the cause list published on the website of the Delhi HC, a bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula will resume to hear the matter on December 16. In an earlier hearing held last week, the Delhi government told the Justice Narula-led bench that Chief Minister Atishi had forwarded CAG reports to the office of L-G. After the counsel appearing for L-G said that Raj Bhavan had received some of the reports late on Wednesday, the Delhi HC decided to post the matter for hearing on December 16. In its affidavit, the Finance Department said that the reports under reference were not pending before it but were with the office of Chief Minister Atishi, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Minister. Earlier on October 29, the Delhi High Court agreed to examine the matter and issued notice to the Delhi government, the office of the Legislative Assembly Speaker, the L-G, CAG, and the Accountant General (Audit), Delhi. The petition claimed that CAG reports relating to pollution and rules and regulations related to alcohol were not placed before the L-G by the Finance Ministry and remain pending with Chief Minister Atishi, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Minister. “Despite the Lt. Governor’s repeated requests and constitutional obligation, these reports were not sent to the Lt. Governor and consequently could not be tabled in the Delhi Legislative Assembly,” said the plea filed by BJP MLAs Vijender Gupta, Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Bajpai, and Jitender Mahajan. It added that the opposition leaders tried their best to table the CAG reports when the Vidhan Sabha session was held on September 26-27 after a long gap, but ‘no action was taken for such tabling of the reports.’. The petition said that this deliberate suppression of vital information not only violates democratic principles but also prevents proper scrutiny of government action and expenditures, raising serious questions about the government’s financial propriety, transparency, and accountability. It further said that the delay was not merely a procedural oversight but a serious violation of constitutional obligations when the CAG had been forwarding the audit reports for laying before the Delhi Assembly. It said that the CAG is a “constitutional watchdog” created with the objective of providing independent and credible assurance to the public, the legislature, and the executive that the public funds are being collected and used effectively and efficiently.
President-elect Donald Trump's repeated support for TikTok has sparked speculation about potential solutions to prevent the app's impending ban in the United States, though the path forward remains unclear. "We got to keep this sucker around for a little while," Trump told supporters on Sunday, just days after meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in Florida. Trump, who credits the wildly popular platform with delivering him a large young user base, opposes banning TikTok partly because he believes it would primarily benefit Meta, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company behind Instagram and Facebook. The situation is complex, according to University of Richmond School of Law professor Carl Tobias, given the various potential solutions and Trump's unpredictable nature. Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation, signed by President Joe Biden in April, that would block TikTok from US app stores and web hosting services unless Beijing-based ByteDance sells its stake by January 19. US officials and lawmakers grew wary of the potential for the Chinese government to influence ByteDance or access the data of TikTok's American users. Even with Trump's decisive election victory and incoming Republican-led Congress, acquiescing to the president-elect's desire and preventing the ban faces significant hurdles. The law enjoyed rare bipartisan support in a divided Washington, making its outright repeal through a vote in Congress politically unlikely even with Trump's influence over Republicans. The Supreme Court may offer the clearest path forward. TikTok has appealed to the nation's highest court, arguing the law violates First Amendment rights to free speech. The court, which is dominated by Trump-aligned conservatives, will hear the case on January 10, just nine days before the ban takes effect. This follows a lower appeals court's unanimous decision to uphold the law in December. Another possibility, according to Tobias, is that a Trump-led Department of Justice could determine ByteDance has addressed the law's national security concerns. However, such a move would likely be seen as caving to China by Congress and others. The final option is ByteDance selling to a non-Chinese buyer, though the company has consistently refused this possibility. With 170 million monthly active users, acquiring TikTok's US operations would require substantial resources. As president, Trump could extend the ban deadline by 90 days to facilitate a transaction. Few potential buyers have emerged, with major tech companies likely deterred by antitrust concerns. Former Trump Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, who runs a private equity fund backed by Japan's SoftBank Group and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, has expressed interest. During a recent event with Trump, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son pledged to invest $100 billion in the US economy, though specific investments weren't detailed. Other contenders include US real estate billionaire Frank McCourt, who aims to make social media safer through his Project Liberty organization. Elon Musk, given his proximity to Trump and ownership of X, could also have a role to play, as he has expressed plans to transform the text-focused platform into something more like TikTok. A senior Republican lawmaker recently suggested Trump might orchestrate a "deal of the century" satisfying both US concerns and ByteDance's interests. The chairman of the US House committee on China, John Moolenaar, told Fox News Digital that once ByteDance accepts it must comply with US law, the situation could progress rapidly. Any agreement would need Beijing's approval, with US-China relations expected to remain tense during Trump's upcoming term. This isn't the first attempt to resolve TikTok's US status. In 2020, Trump also threatened a ban unless ByteDance sold its US operations. While Oracle and Walmart reached a preliminary agreement with ByteDance for ownership stakes, legal challenges and the transition to the Biden administration prevented the deal's completion. arp/mlmThe Kansas City Chiefs (9-1) and the Carolina Panthers (3-7) square off on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium. Tune in to TV to watch this game live. Watch live NFL games, NFL Network, other live sports and more on Fubo. What is Fubo? Fubo is a streaming service that gives you access to your favorite live sports and shows on demand. Start your risk free trial today and watch seven hours of commercial-free football from every NFL game every Sunday. Catch NFL action all season long on Fubo. Watch Thursday Night Football exclusively on Prime Video. Rep your favorite NFL players with officially licensed gear. Head to Fanatics to find jerseys, shirts, hats, and much more. Get tickets for any NFL game this season at StubHub.
Planning to buy a real tree this year? Here are 6 Christmas tree sellers in Colorado SpringsHeavy travel day starts with brief grounding of all American Airlines flightsOur writers and editors independently determine what we cover and recommend. When you buy through our links, E! may earn a commission. Learn more . Uh-oh, did Christmas Day and Hanukkah sneak up on you? The holiday season is moving at lightning speed, right? Whether you totally forgot a gift or you're scrambling to get one for an unexpected Christmas Eve guest, don’t panic. Gift cards are a total lifesaver, and honestly, they're one of the most thoughtful presents you can give. In fact, I think a gift certificate is the perfect gift. Why? Because you’re giving the gift of choice—letting the recipient pick exactly what they want, when they want it. Plus, a digital gift card is quick, easy, and always appreciated. So, if you’re in a last-minute bind, I’ve got you covered with some E! 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Gift cards are the ultimate solution for last-minute gift-giving, offering unmatched convenience and flexibility. Whether it's a digital or personalized option, gift cards allow you to send a thoughtful gift in an instant, making them a go-to choice for busy shoppers. Digital gift cards provide the advantage of quick delivery, while personalized cards add that extra touch to make the gift feel more meaningful. As technology continues to shape the gift card industry, we can expect even more customization options and seamless delivery methods in the future. With trends like instant gift solutions and increasingly personalized designs, gift cards are evolving to meet the needs of modern shoppers, ensuring they remain a staple in the world of gift-giving. Still shopping? You'll love these last-minute gifts that don't look last-minute . The E! Insider Shop editors and writers search the internet to find the best products out there. We interview expert sources, comb through customer reviews, and use our own personal experiences to make shopping easier for our readers. As an editorial team, we independently create content and determine coverage based on research, reporting and what we think our readers would like to read about. The goal of our content is to provide a service and inform readers who are on the hunt for the latest products to help make their life better. Items are sold by retailer, not E!. Pricing and availability are accurate as of publish time.
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The move could usher in an end to a protracted political crisis in the European Union country following the annulment of a presidential election by a top court. Parliament approved the new administration in a 240-143 vote in Romania’s 466-seat legislature. The new coalition is made up of the leftist Social Democratic Party (PSD) the centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL), the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party and national minorities. It caps a month-long period of turmoil in which far-right nationalists made significant gains in a parliamentary election on December 1 a week after a first-round presidential race saw the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu emerge as the front-runner. “It will not be an easy mandate for the future government,” Mr Ciolacu, whose PSD party topped the polls in the parliamentary election, said in a statement. “We are aware that we are in the midst of a deep political crisis,” he said. “It is also a crisis of trust, and this coalition aims to regain the trust of citizens, the trust of the people.” Romania’s 16 ministerial positions will be shared among the parties, which will hold a slim majority in the legislature. It is widely seen as a tactical partnership to shut out far-right nationalists whose voices found fertile ground amid high living costs and a sluggish economy. Mr Ciolacu, who came third in the first-round presidential ballot despite polls indicating he would win the most votes, has served as prime minister since June 2023. After parliament’s approval, President Klaus Iohannis swore in the new government and warned the new Cabinet that it is entering a “difficult new period” in which “for many Romanians, there are major concerns”. Romania was plunged into turmoil after Mr Georgescu’s surprise success in the presidential race, after allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference emerged. Days before the December 8 run-off, the Constitutional Court made the unprecedented move to annul the presidential race. “We go through complicated times, but I think we all learned from mistakes of the past,” Mr Ciolacu said. “I hope that together with my colleagues in the coalition, we’ll find the best solutions to get past the challenges we have in front of us.” Mr Ciolacu said that the new government would aim to quickly organise the rerun of the presidential election in which the new coalition has agreed to put forward an agreed common pro-European candidate. Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said that the new government made up of the same political parties will likely embrace “soft populist” rhetoric such as economic patriotism, anti-austerity, and a peace solution in neighbouring Ukraine to counter the rise of far-right populism. “This will be a way to answer the concerns of many Romanians who voted for populists... but will not solve the fundamental problem of trust,” he said. “The only decisive factor now will be who and how convincing the pro-European candidates will be against this popular revolt.” George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, which came second in the parliamentary election, said that all politicians from his party on Monday would vote against the Ciolacu government. In 2021, the PSD and the PNL also formed an unlikely but increasingly strained coalition together with UDMR, which exited the Cabinet last year after a power-sharing dispute.None
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