Mathews: California needs to censure the whole idea of censure

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

Mathews: California needs to censure the whole idea of censure Let’s censure the whole idea of censure.Because it’s consuming the precious time and money of California’s local governments.Censure is the name often given to resolutions, which have little punitive force, that city council or school board members issue against colleagues they don’t like. Why this censure surge? It’s a national fad — censure resolutions are popular in Washington and other state capitals after the censure earlier this year of Burbank Rep. Adam Schiff for the unforgivable crime of impeaching an insurrectionist president.But my own travel around the state suggests more fundamental reasons for the trend.First, after the isolation of the pandemic, our elected officials, like the rest of us, are struggling to relate to one another in person. Second, our monstrously myopic society has a quasi-religious obsession with policing expression and tone — even as it tolerates ceaseless violence.Finally, the censure surge reflects our growing ignorance of democracy. To a stunning ...

Brooks: Epic quests and a theory of Elon Musk’s maniacal drive

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

Brooks: Epic quests and a theory of Elon Musk’s maniacal drive In his biography of Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow writes that Hamilton “always had to fight the residual sadness of the driven man.” That sentence has stayed with me because I’ve also noticed that there can be something sad about extremely ambitious people — like they’re striving furiously to fill a hole that was carved into them by traumatic experiences during childhood, and they have never quite succeeded.Some historians and psychologists have marveled at how many of the most significant figures in history lost a parent at an early age, either to death or abandonment — from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. These are what one psychologist termed “eminent orphans.”It’s easy to put Elon Musk into that category. He had a miserable childhood in South Africa marked by verbal and physical abuse from a father who repeatedly told him he was worthless, according to Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Musk. He had no friends and lived in a world in wh...

Dear Abby: My husband ruins every vacation. Can I leave him home?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

Dear Abby: My husband ruins every vacation. Can I leave him home? DEAR ABBY: I love to travel, yet I loathe traveling with my husband.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: Why do they think I should give up my barstool for them? Advice | Dear Abby: I shouldn’t have to compete with my son’s clingy girlfriends Advice | Dear Abby: Everyone heard him call his co-worker baby, and I was humiliated Advice | Dear Abby: He never wants to see me again, but we may be thrown together Advice | Dear Abby: How can I break my wife of her rude obsession? He gets anxious and extremely mean on the days leading up to the trip and especially while en route. I do all the planning and pay for everything, and I regard his behavior as not only ungrateful and rude, but unnecessary.Is it wrong for me to not want him to come on the next big trip I plan?Also, while we travel, all he wants to do is sleep, eat and drink. I’m all about taking in the local culture and making sure to no...

Tropical Storm Ophelia rolls through DC region over the weekend

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

Tropical Storm Ophelia rolls through DC region over the weekend Beach-goers brave the weather and walk along the sand at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, as Tropical Storm Ophelia approaches in Virginia Beach, Va. The storm was gaining strength as it churned toward the North Carolina coast on Friday, promising a weekend of heavy rain and windy conditions throughout the mid-Atlantic. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)(AP/Kendall Warner) Beach-goers brave the weather and walk along the sand at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, as Tropical Storm Ophelia approaches in Virginia Beach, Va. The storm was gaining strength as it churned toward the North Carolina coast on Friday, promising a weekend of heavy rain and windy conditions throughout the mid-Atlantic. (Kendall Warner/The...

La tormenta tropical Ophelia toca tierra en Carolina del Norte

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

La tormenta tropical Ophelia toca tierra en Carolina del Norte (CNN) — La tormenta tropical Ophelia tocó tierra este sábado por la mañana en Carolina del Norte, cerca de Emerald Isle, según una actualización del Centro Nacional de Huracanes (NHC, por sus siglas en inglés).La tormenta tocó tierra alrededor de las 6:15 a.m. hora de Miami, con vientos máximos sostenidos de 112 km/hOphelia ya estaba llevando fuertes vientos, lluvias e inundaciones en las costas de Carolina del Norte y Virginia más temprano, donde las comunidades están sufriendo cortes de electricidad.Se espera que la tormenta genere fuertes lluvias en una amplia franja del Atlántico medio, incluyendo Maryland, Delaware, Nueva Jersey y Nueva York, a partir del sábado por la mañana y durante todo el fin de semana.Alrededor de 52.000 hogares y empresas de Carolina del Norte y Virginia se habían quedado sin electricidad a primera hora del sábado, según el sitio de seguimiento PowerOutage.us.Algunos lugares en el este de Carolina del Norte y el sureste de Virginia podría ver entre...

12.000 atletas y un megaestadio con forma de loto: los Juegos Asiáticos llegan a China

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

12.000 atletas y un megaestadio con forma de loto: los Juegos Asiáticos llegan a China (CNN) — El líder chino Xi Jinping declarará el sábado inaugurados los Juegos Asiáticos en un megaestadio con forma de loto situado en Hangzhou.El estadio, apodado “el Gran Loto” por la forma de su techo, consta de 28 estructuras grandes y 27 más pequeñas en forma de pétalo. El estadio tiene capacidad para 80.000 personas, según su operador.Participarán más de 12.000 atletas de los 45 miembros del Consejo Olímpico Asiático, lo que los convierte en los mayores Juegos Asiáticos de la historia, según informó el sábado la agencia estatal china de noticias Xinhua.A la ceremonia inaugural han llegado dignatarios de todo el mundo, como el rey de Camboya, Norodom Sihamoni, el presidente de Siria, Bashar al-Assad, el dirigente de Hong Kong, John Lee Ka-chiu, y el primer ministro de Corea del Sur, Han Duck-soo.A la ceremonia asistirán unas 50.000 personas, mientras que más de 1.200 voluntarios estarán en el lugar para ayudar, informó Xinhua.El campeón mundial de natación Qin ...

Ludvig Åberg dealing with lofty expectations as Europe’s widely admired Ryder Cup rookie

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

Ludvig Åberg dealing with lofty expectations as Europe’s widely admired Ryder Cup rookie Tomas Setterhill realized pretty quickly there was something different about Ludvig Åberg.As a coach and head pro at Eslöv Golf Club in southern Sweden, Setterhill had seen plenty of talented young golfers come and go but one thing struck him as he took Åberg under his wing from the age of 9.“He didn’t get down on himself,” Setterhill recalled. “You see many juniors who, when they make a bogey or double bogey, they get angry. But Ludvig just kept playing.”That composure remained with Åberg through high school in Sweden, through college in the United States as he rose to the No. 1 amateur ranking and it’s still there now, while he’s winning titles in his first few months as a pro and as the world’s most talked-about young golfer.Now comes the real test of that temperament: Amid the tension and raucous atmosphere of a Ryder Cup, a stage he has reached quicker than any player in history.Look through the years and golf’s biggest team event can bring the fire out of even the ...

Pope Francis says migrant surge not emergency but long-term reality

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

Pope Francis says migrant surge not emergency but long-term reality Pope Francis on Saturday urged EU leaders to treat migrants humanely and challenged the characterization of the recent surge in arrivals across the Mediterranean Sea as an emergency, calling it a long-term reality instead. “Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome, for life,” the pope said in a speech in the French city of Marseille, the Associated Press reported.“As for the emergency, the phenomenon of migration is not so much a short-term urgency, always good for fueling alarmist propaganda, but a reality of our times, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and that must be governed with wise foresight, including a European response capable of coping with the objective difficulties,” the pontiff said.The comments made by the leader of the Catholic Church come after a boom in arrivals in Lampedusa, the small Italian island between the coasts of Sicily and Tunisia, which is a frequent landing destination for migrants making th...

Tropical Storm Ophelia creates rainy, breezy weekend

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

Tropical Storm Ophelia creates rainy, breezy weekend Welcome to the start of astronomical fall! Today you’ll want the pumpkin spice latte in one hand and umbrella in the other. We’ll have periods of rain this weekend with breezy, cooler conditions. Rain moves out Monday morning, and the rest of the first week of fall looks nice!Here’s the latest track of Tropical Storm Ophelia. Here’s what radar could look like later today…Join us this morning on 7News for more on the rain and wind timing.

Olympic bobsled medalist files lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by chiropractor employed by USA Bobsled

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:12:50 GMT

Olympic bobsled medalist files lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by chiropractor employed by USA Bobsled (CNN) — Aja Evans, an Olympic bobsled athlete who won bronze at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games, has filed a lawsuit alleging she was sexually abused by a chiropractor who was working with the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.Chiropractor Jonathan Wilhelm, as well as the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation and Wilhelm’s personal practice in Montana, Pro Chiropractic, are named defendants in the suit, which was filed Wednesday in a New York state court.According to the filing, Evans alleges Wilhelm repeatedly sexually harassed and sexually assaulted her under the guise of athletic medical care while she was a member of the USA Bobsled team, starting in 2012.“This lawsuit is not only to spare other athletes from the predatory behavior of Mr. Wilhelm, who continues to practice sports medicine, but also to hold USA Bobsled and the USOPC accountable for their role in enabling my abuser and neglecting the wellbeing of their a...