Politics

Next May, the United Kingdom will host the 67th Eurovision Song Contest. If three members of Belfast City Council get their way, it will be hosted in Belfast.
Seamas de Faoite (SDLP), Anthony Flynn (Green) and Micky Murray (Alliance) are spearheading a campaign to bring the Contest to Belfast, with a proposal to enter the bidding process being considered by the Council and support being offered by political representatives across the city. As well as an active twitter account, the campaign has secured the endorsement of five of Ireland’s six Eurovision-winning artists, as well as setting out how Belfast meets the strict criteria for a host city set out by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Despite never entering in our own right, hosting the contest would be reflective of a deeper history of local involvement in Eurovision history.
Only eleven countries have won more than twice, but, of Northern Ireland’s participants, Derry’s Dana (1970) and Belfast’s Linda Martin (1992) both took home the trophy. We can take credit for one of the United Kingdom’s five victories, too, with the melody to Sandie Shaw’s “Puppet on a String” (1968) being written by another Derryman in the form of Phil Coulter. Coulter wrote Cliff Richard’s “Congratulations” the following year, which placed second, something Martin also achieved in 1984 with the Johnny Logan-penned “Terminal 3”.

Grace Leung
By Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager
The City of Newport Beach places a high priority on transparency in all of our services to the community, including Newport Beach Police Department activities. Thanks to web and digital technology advancements in recent years, timely alerts and detailed information such as police response, calls for service and crime statistics are more accessible to the public than ever before.
For breaking news and alerts on criminal activity, significant traffic impacts, missing persons, or emergencies, you can subscribe to the Police Department’s Nixle alerts here: https://local.nixle.com/newport-beach-police-department. Or even more simply, text your zip code to 888777 to opt-in.
You can configure your Nixle account as desired to receive text messages, emails, and voice mails to cell phones and landlines. For less frequent, major Newport Beach and countywide emergency alerts, you can also subscribe to the AlertOC mass notification system here: https://member.everbridge.net/453003085613900/login.

Four days before Independence Day, the Supreme Court fired its own shot at the modern tyranny that has dismantled the Constitution and runs our lives to a degree King George III could never have imagined and that the Founding Fathers would never have tolerated.
The shot fired at the administrative state was almost missed in the fury over the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling. While the amateur liberals who live on ActBlue, wield blue checkmarks on Twitter and inhabit blue states raved over the fall of Roe v. Wade, the professionals of Washington D.C. were much more worried about another Supreme Court decision.
“Supreme Court climate case might end regulation,” E&E News, a Politico green energy site, warned. That may be excessively pessimistic for big government proponents or optimistic for conservatives, but there’s no question that big government has suffered a serious shock.
West Virginia v. EPA wasn’t just a victory for the coal miners of Appalachia, it sent shudders through the vast infrastructure of the D.C. administrative state. Dobbs v. Jackson was a cultural blow to a post-everything feminism that discarded women, but retained abortion, that felt like an earthquake, but changed surprisingly little, while West Virginia v. EPA is the real revolution.

Celebrate Pet Parenthood
April 24: This one’s for us!

It occurs every year on the last Sunday in April, and even though it involves millions of people, it doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. It’s National Pet Parents Day, which honors the unbreakable bond between pets and their human parents. So, consider this my greeting card to you: Happy Pet Parents Day!
Which are you, a pet parent or a pet owner? I tend to think of Howard and me as pet parents. We own things, but we nurture beings, and this includes our precious cats. We provide them with shelter, health care, food, emotional and intellectual support, and, of course, love, just as any human parent would do for a child. We worry about them when they’re sick and clean up after them when they make a mess. And as with all parenting, our job requires patience, tolerance, and creativity.

Sweet Walter with the diamond on his nose.

About 75 pro-lifers protested Friday near the hotel where Catholic Memorial honored former Boston mayor Marty Walsh, a supporter of legally and publicly funded abortion.
Walsh, the current U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Joe Biden, received the Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice Award, named after the founder of the Irish Christian Brothers, a religious order that administers the grades-7-through-12 Catholic school in West Roxbury.
Walsh was the headliner of the sold-out spring gala for the school, a fund-raiser.
A giant American flag hung over the entrance to the Four Points Sheraton off Route 1 in Norwood, dangling from a ladder extended from a Boston fire engine. A lone bagpiper played outside the hotel.
About two stone’s throws away, protesters held signs while standing on the 7-foot-wide sidewalk between the breakdown lane and the grass, which hotel security warned protesters to stay off of.
Pre-printed signs said “CM honors ABORTION champion,” with a photo of Walsh in the lower right corner. Some held homemade signs.
Several of the protesters spoke with NewBostonPost, which covered the protest on scene.
One of the protesters, Dr. Francis Bane, is the father of a senior at Catholic Memorial.
“I’m here because I’m trying to teach my son the message that Catholic Memorial should be teaching – what are true Catholic values. I’m very disappointed in the school that they would promote a person as upholding Catholic values who promotes what I would consider the true America genocide, abortion,” said Bane, a Newton resident.
A woman holding a sign near the entrance to the hotel’s driveway said she sees a disconnection between what Walsh supports and what the Roman Catholic Church supports.

After a day of severe weather, from high wind gusts to downpours of rains to suspected tornadoes, the Eagle Lake community was the worst-hit in Warren County on Wednesday.
Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace confirmed heavy damage in Eagle Lake and the surrounding area.
“As the storm passed through Warren County, apparently the Eagle Lake community was hardest hit,” Pace said. “Damage to the homes ranged from minor damage with shingles blown off to some with serious structural damage. Some homes had their roofs blown off.”
Pace highlighted the response of  Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer, volunteer firefighters and sheriff’s deputies in the wake of the storm.
“Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer, volunteer firefighters and numerous sheriff’s deputies have been going from house to house to see if anyone was home or if anyone was injured. We had one case where someone was at home and their home received structural damage,” Pace said.
He said there were no injuries.
Elfer estimated 20 to 30 homes in Eagle Lake were damaged, adding those in the area around the Eagle Lake United Methodist Church were heavily hit.
Some, he said, were damaged and others were destroyed.
“No one was hurt. We were lucky there, and it happened during daylight. That helped,” Elfer said.
In a related incident, Pace said a piece of a cotton combine was blown off the machine and onto Eagle Lake Shore Road.
The city of Vicksburg fared much better in the storm by comparison.
Vicksburg Ward 1 Alderman Michael Mayfield, who is over public works, said the city had one tree down at Iowa Boulevard and North Frontage Road that has been cleared.

By Sports Reporter

That’s how many reacted to news that state Rep. Joe Deshotel (D-Beaumont) would not be seeking reelection when his term expires in 2022.

After 23 years in state office, which follows nearly eight years as a Beaumont City Councilman, Deshotel is leaving the 22nd Legislative District.

Deshotel, in his 12th term in office, said he needs more time for himself and those he loves.

“I have met a most wonderful woman with whom I am engaged and love with all my heart,” a statement from Deshotel said. “By the time the next legislative session begins we will be newlyweds starting our life together. I will also have my first grandson by then. I have quite of a bit of life changing blessings to look forward to and on which to focus my energy.”

County Commissioner Michael Sinegal of Jefferson County Precinct 3 said he was happy for Deshotel, who he described as a great servant to Southeast Texas and the entire state.

“My initial thought was shock, but I understand once he said why,” Sinegal said. “I don’t begrudge him. I know it will throw everything into a tailspin with today’s politics.”

According to Sinegal, Deshotel’s best weapon was his approach as a statesman willing to compromise while always standing strong for Democratic values of diversity, inclusion and respect of others.

Sinegal said today’s politics led by radical voices from out of state has divided the people.

“(Deshotel) would compromise when he thought it was the best thing for the state of Texas,” Sinegal said. “He earned that through longevity. Plus, he had the backing of local citizens, Republicans and Democrats.”

NAFCU hosted a Large Credit Union Compliance Roundtable Tuesday, which brought several credit union leaders to talk about the most important issues affecting their institutions and industry. Of note, attendees of the event reviewed NCUA and CFPB exam expectations and challenges, as well as several top compliance issues.
The association has previously hosted several Large Credit Union Summits and will continue to engage with the NCUA and CFPB. Earlier this year, the association launched a new member-only online community – the NAFCU ONES + CFPB Supervision Network – designed to bring credit union leaders together to discuss the CFPB and NCUA examination processes for larger institutions. Through the network, NAFCU staff regularly shares insights into updates related to NCUA and CFPB supervision.
Regarding CFPB supervision, the association also released an issue brief earlier this year to break down the regulatory landscape and enforcement expectations under the bureau’s unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP) provision. The CFPB in March rescinded its policy statement related to the “abusive” prong of UDAAP.
The statement was initially issued in January 2020 following calls by NAFCU to clarify the prong and efforts by the bureau to gather feedback on the issue. NAFCU has consistently highlighted UDAAP as an area where the CFPB could further clarify its expectations for credit unions and the specific factual basis for violations.
 

Fast-rising messaging service Signal is rumored to be experimenting with a privacy crypto token.
Privacy-focused messaging app Signal is reportedly devoting res towards the development of a cryptocurrency payments service for its users.
According to a report by Casey Newton, the founder of the technology newsletter service Platformer, Signal is mulling crypto payment integration on the app.
The report revealed that Signal reportedly ran pilot tests for such a token on the Binance-backed, Stellar-based privacy cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin. Moxie Marlinspike, CEO of Signal, serves as an adviser on the MobileCoin project heightening speculation that the test could be a trial run for subsequent deployment on the messaging app.
The Platformer report also noted that Marlinspike has downplayed these speculations, describing the tests as “design explorations,” adding, “If we did decide we wanted to put payments into Signal, we would try to think really carefully about how we did that. It’s hard to be totally hypothetical.”
However, according to Newton, former Signal employees say the company is actively pursuing the necessary protocols for integrating MobileCoin on the messaging platform. Earlier in January, MobileCoin attempted to clarify its relationship with Signal:

To be clear MobileCoin is very much not Signal. We’re fans of their work but we are not them. Moxie advises us but Signal is a fiercely independent non-profit. We would love for them to use the tech we made but the choice is theirs and theirs alone.
— MobileCoin (@mobilecoin) January 16, 2021