Open Newswire

(The Center Square) - After months of build-up, the Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force released its final report on Thursday, urging the region to impose taxes to fund “modern, integrated justice facilities” and a “network of community-based facilities,” two years after residents rejected a countywide jail tax. The 14 recommendations come as several local jurisdictions consider councilmanic tax hikes and other proposals to place on the August and November ballots. The report will likely inform another tax measure that Spokane County leaders must decide by August whether to put on the ballot this fall. The privately led group called on elected leaders to create a coordinated public safety and behavioral health system under a cross-sector accountability and implementation body; data-reporting dashboards; crisis response, workforce, diversion, pretrial and high-utilizer programs; and to invest in "appropriately sized" justice facilities and community-based behavioral health infrastructure, among other measures.​ One central question remains unanswered: how much will the recommendations cost local taxpayers?​ “The failed 2023 ballot measure to fund a new jail and services in Spokane County was not a verdict against change. It was a signal that the community needed a more honest, more complete, and more genuinely community-built roadmap,” the task force argued in the 71-page report released Thursday. The 2023 failed jail measure would’ve cost taxpayers 2 cents on every $10 spent at the register for 30 years, generating an estimated $1.7 billion. That revenue would’ve funded the construction of two new justice facilities to replace the aging and understaffed downtown jail and Geiger Correctional Center. About 63% of voters rejected the countywide tax after critics argued that the plan didn’t do enough to address priorities like behavioral health, since the jails were only estimated to cost about $540 million.​ Some regional officials and supporters of the measure placed some of the blame at the time on Mayor Lisa Brown for not endorsing it during her 2023 mayoral campaign. While Brown has publicly signaled support for the task force’s recommendations, she sent a letter to the group last week urging caution. “The city generally supports each of the Task Force’s recommendations,” she wrote in the letter before urging the prioritization of existing means rather than immediately pursuing more correctional spaces.​ During a press conference on Thursday, Brown joined task force members and reiterated her support. “My administration wholeheartedly supports all the recommendations that the Safe and Healthy Task Force has put forward,” Brown said Thursday, before going on to say that not all can happen at once.​ “I happen to think that if we could snap our fingers here today and make them all happen at once, we could all be snapping — because we can't, we will have to prioritize, and we will have to phase how to get this work done,” Brown continued. “That's not a personal agenda, that's responsible governance.” Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels also addressed the media and said there wasn’t a single thing in the report that he didn’t recognize as a gap in Spokane County’s justice and behavioral health systems. Nowels said the challenge moving forward is implementing the report, given limited financial resources. “It is up to us as elected officials to prove to you, the citizens and the taxpayers, that we are going to expend our limited and valuable taxpayer funds on things that are ultimately going to help get better outcomes,” he said, referencing a revolving door that taxpayers are subsidizing with a divided system.

PLUS: Reservation Debate Redux. The post Who’ll bankroll Bankhead? appeared first on Montana Free Press.

The Humane Society of North Texas pups — from tiny to massive — can be the right fit for any lifestyle.

A New Mexico judge on Thursday rejected a lawsuit alleging that state leaders circumvented the public rulemaking process when implementing the new universal childcare program late last year.

Espetáculo une teatro, , música, humor, poesia e formação cultural baseado na vida e obra de Ariano Suassuna Fonte

(The Center Square) – A new U.S.-Eastern Mediterranean energy “3+1 partnership” has launched among the U.S., Greece, Cyprus and Israel to establish energy security, peace and stability in the region. The partnership is an outworking of an initiative launched under the first Trump administration when Congress passed the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act of 2019. It authorized the Department of State to enter into cooperative energy agreements with Greece, Cypress and Israel, and the Department of Energy to establish a joint U.S.-Eastern Mediterranean Energy Center in the United States. The center will advance cooperation in energy innovation technology, water science, and technology transfer. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced that center would be housed at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston: the Eastern Mediterranean Energy Center (EMEC). He also signed a Declaration of Intent with the Greece Minister of Environment and Energy Stavros Papastavrou, Cyprus Minister of Energy, Commerce, and Industry Michael Damianos, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Dr. Yechiel Leiter, and Rice University President Reginald DesRoches. U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle was also in attendance. The agreement advances President Donald Trump's commitment to strengthening U.S. partnerships with allies in the region where geopolitical turmoil is impacting global energy markets. Under the second Trump administration, as Russia-Ukraine and U.S.-Israel-Iran conflicts continue, the partnership is seen as a way for the U.S. to expand energy development, innovation and investment. The goal of the partnership is to promote energy security, strengthen critical infrastructure, support emerging technologies, and advance long-term economic growth throughout the Eastern Mediterranean region to meet global energy demands, officials said. Focuses will be on natural gas development, U.S. LNG infrastructure, energy transportation networks, grid reliability, critical infrastructure resilience, as well as facilitating scientific and technical exchanges, research partnerships, workforce development initiatives, and engagement with industry stakeholders. “The energy industry is by far the most important industry in the world, because the energy industry is what enables every other industry in the world,” Wright said to a full auditorium at Rice University. “The Eastern Mediterranean region is the birthplace of Western civilization, and an emerging energy powerhouse. The Eastern Mediterranean is an increasingly important region for global energy development, and this agreement strengthens cooperation among key allies while advancing our shared goals of energy abundance, economic prosperity, and regional stability.” He also said the partnership was important “to use commerce to suppress conflict. That is the way to bring nations together when there is geopolitical tensions between countries.” While others may look at geopolitical conflict as a zero-sum game with winners and losers, he said, with “commerce it's entirely different. By building energy distribution and infrastructure, you bring countries and people together.” The leaders of Greece, Cyprus and Israel “want to develop energy to bring better opportunities to their people … to their neighbors … and suppress and surpass conflict,” he said. “These are generational investments. They're transforming the energy future of their nations” and the region, he said. The partnership of 3+1 “is just the start. To stitch a region together in commerce, not conflict.” Greece Minister Papastavrou said the countries were “joining forces in order to deepen our strategic cooperation and strengthen our regional connectivity.” The new EMEC at Rice will “provide the permanent framework for advancing regional stability, energy security and economic cooperation [by bringing] together scientific knowledge, academic excellence, technological innovation and energy expertise at one of the leading academic institutions in the world,” he said. EMEC’s launch also “sends an unambiguous message which needs to be heard loud and clear: energy must never be weaponized. Unilateral actions and threats, implicit or explicit, that undermine regional stability, have no place in our shared future,” he emphasized. “Over the past years, our countries have worked together to transform the region defined not by division but by partnership,” he said. “Through the 3 + 1 framework, we have demonstrated that trusted partners with a common strategic vision can deliver tangible results, advanced research interests, and contribute to a more secure, prosperous, and affordable energy future.” The partnership is “evolving into a catalyst for the next generation of strategic energy and connectivity projects across our region” that will strengthen Europeans’ energy security and positively benefit the broader region, including India and the Middle East, he said. As conflict continues with Russia and Iran, he reiterated that “energy should be a source of stability and prosperity, not a tool of intimidation.”

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.No ski passes, soccer club fees, or museum memberships.These are just a few of the new rules governing state-funded homeschool enrichment the Colorado Department of Education unveiled this week. Prompted by law changes in late May, the rules aim to close loopholes that in recent years allowed a controversial public education co-op in Monument to authorize a flood of new homeschool enrichment programs. The group’s enrichment programs cost the state tens of millions of dollars and drew intense scrutiny from lawmakers who raised alarms about funding abuses and lack of transparency. The State Board of Education will draft additional rules for homeschool enrichment programs over the next several months.This summer marks the start of a new stricter era for state-funded programs serving homeschool students. The goal is to ensure that enrichment programs operate under the wings of local school districts or charter schools, not faraway authorizers, and that offerings mirror what’s available to public school students. In other words, not horseback riding, sports camps, or martial arts classes.Colorado lawmakers seek to limit group fueling growth in publicly funded homeschool enrichmentIn addition, private schools can no longer designate a portion of their school day or week as homeschool enrichment time and get state funding for the students who attend. Michelle Berge, first assistant attorney general in the K-12 education unit, said during a State Board of Education meeting Thursday that such practices essentially meant public funding was subsidizing private schools or giving private school families tuition breaks.To root out that practice, the state will now bar private school programs and homeschool enrichment programs that serve the same students from being co-located at the same site.While all state-funded homeschool enrichment programs must adhere to the new parameters in Colorado law, some programs will have to take an additional step this summer: applying for approval from the state or their local district. This could affect potentially dozens of the more than 50 enrichment programs authorized by the Monument-based co-op Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES. That’s because such groups are now barred from operating schools and programs outside their member school districts.ERBOCES, whose only member district is District 49, operated homeschool enrichment programs all over the state during the 2025-26 school year. The exact number is unclear because co-op officials have refused to release a full list and the state hasn’t tracked it.Out-of-boundary homeschool enrichment programs that existed last school year can apply to the state or their local district for approval starting June 15. State officials say they’ll make a decision within 30 days of receiving applications. School districts will have to use the same application materials the state requires, but the timeline for decisions isn’t clear, since many local school boards meet less frequently over the summer.Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Joe Flores and his service dog, Kiki, are volunteers in the Starting Lineup team for the World Cup and will be working at VIP guest services.

Since 2022, Benefis Health System in Great Falls has sought to bring a specialty heart procedure to the vast region it serves in central Montana. The endeavor introduced a new option for patients, but it was also a competitive move to align the hospital's services with similar programs in Missoula and Billings. The post What we learned investigating one hospital’s heart program appeared first on Montana Free Press.

Gustavo Menon afirma que peruanos precisam decidir sobre dois projetos completamente antagônicos Fonte

There's a reason cortisol keeps coming up in conversations about perimenopause and menopause. The post What is cortisol? Your questions, answered. appeared first on Public Good News.

Pukul tiga dini hari, ketika sebagian besar orang masih terlelap, para nelayan kepiting bakau di Panimbang, Kabupaten Pandeglang, Banten, sudah bersiap menyusuri kawasan mangrove. Waktu keberangkatan mereka bukan ditentukan oleh jam kerja, melainkan oleh pasang surut air laut. Sebab, kemunculan kepiting bakau sangat bergantung pada siklus alam tersebut. Bagi para pencari kepiting, pekerjaan ini adalah […] The post Tak Ada Kepiting Bakau Tanpa Hutan Mangrove appeared first on Mongabay.co.id.

Aunque el modelo español se define como neutral y cooperativo con las confesiones religiosas, la intensidad institucional, mediática y simbólica del acontecimiento pone de relieve las tensiones entre el principio de neutralidad del Estado y la persistencia de ciertos privilegios históricos.

Brenda Flanagan argues that the alternative proposal offered stronger protections for journalistic independence and statewide coverage.

Despite the Trump administration’s relentless effort to remove the American public from our right and duty to protect our public lands, the nation continues to speak out against the unspoiled Arctic National Wildlife Refuge being carved up and auctioned off for oil and gas lease sales — the latest of which happened on June 5.   […]

جلسه شورای امنیت سازمان ملل متحد درباره بحران خاورمیانه

Standing in front of a 20-foot tall, inflatable IUD across the street from the state Capitol, Democratic lawmakers lambasted Republicans for blocking efforts to ensure Arizonans have a right to contraception.  In 2023, on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court eliminating the constitutional right to abortion — a decision that prompted Justice Thomas […]

The countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have made an important commitment to environmental justice for the 680 million people who call this region home. Now comes the hard part: putting it into practice. Last October, ASEAN member states — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and […]

The city of La Mesa honors hometown hero, Bill Walton, with a street designation near Helix High School where Walton honed his basketball skills.

Orange County residents want to halt the use of herbicides in local flood channels, but the majority of the Board of Supervisors believes it’s more complicated than that.