Le Journal

The recycling fees that California imposed on glass and plastic containers is supposed to be recouped by the consumer when he goes to the recycling center to return the containers. The problem is, all of the recycling centers that used to be within reasonable driving distance of my home have been closed. Now those containers just get tossed into the trash and the recycling fees are never cashed in, just as the Democrats planned. The recycling deposit is just another tax for the Democrats to collect and waste.

By STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN, Associated Press VIENNA (AP) — In the wake of spiraling tensions between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s violent crackdown on protests, analysts warn that the internal upheaval affecting the Iranian theocracy could carry nuclear proliferation risks. While in recent days President Donald Trump seemed to have backed away from a military strike on Iran, he called Saturday for an end to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s nearly 40-year reign in Iran. Trump’s comments came in response to Khamenei branding Trump a “criminal” for supporting protesters in Iran, and blamed demonstrators for causing thousands of deaths. Meanwhile, a U.S. aircraft carrier, which days earlier had been in the South China Sea, passed Singapore overnight to enter the Strait of Malacca — putting it on a route that could bring it to the Middle East. With those dangers, analysts warn Iran’s nuclear material could be at risk as well. Nuclear material could fall into the wrong hands David Albright, a former nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq and founder of the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said that in a scenario of internal chaos in Iran, the government could “lose the ability to protect its nuclear assets.” He said that Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile “would be the most worrisome,” adding that there is a possibility that someone could steal some of this material. There are historical precedents for such a scenario. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, highly enriched uranium and plutonium suitable for building nuclear bombs went missing due to eroded security and weakened protection of these assets. So far, Iran has maintained control of its sites, even after the U.S. bombed them in the 12-day war in June that Israel launched against the Islamic Republic. Iran maintains a stockpile of 972 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog. The agency said in a report last November that it has not been able to verify the status and location of this highly enriched uranium stockpile since the war in June. The agency said in November that therefore it had lost “continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of nuclear material in Iran” at facilities affected by the war. A diplomat close to the IAEA confirmed Monday that the agency had still not received any information from Iran on the status or whereabouts of the highly enriched uranium stockpile. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity in line with diplomatic protocol. Albright said that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium would fit in around 18 to 20 cylinders that are designed for transport, weighing around 55 pounds each. “Two people can easily carry it,” he said of each container. Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said that there is a risk that the stockpile “could be diverted either to a covert program or stolen by a faction of the government or the military that wanted to retain the option of weaponization.” She said that this risk increases as the Iranian government feels threatened or gets destabilized. Some of the nuclear material could get smuggled out of Iran or sold to non-state actors in the event of internal chaos or potential government collapse, Davenport said. “The risk is real but it is difficult to assess, given the unknowns regarding the status of the materials and the whereabouts,” she stressed. Related Articles Chile fights wildfires that killed 19 and left 1,500 homeless What to know about the train crash in Spain Fashion designer Valentino dies at home in Rome, aged 93 Prince Harry says Daily Mail scoops made him ‘paranoid beyond belief’ Inequality and unease are rising as elite Davos event opens with pro-business Trump set…

By JAMES ELLINGWORTH From being treated like “cattle” as a young girl to sleeping in her car off a Polish highway, Allison Reed has taken a long, hard road to follow her Olympic ice dance dream. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Reed has traveled the world just for a chance to compete. After representing Georgia and Israel, Reed is back at the Olympics for the first time since 2010, skating for Lithuania with a partner who’s taken her to the next level. With Saulius Ambrulevičius — Saul for short — who’ll be at his first Olympics in Milan Cortina in February, Reed brings dramatic flair to programs themed around pop and electronic hits from the 1990s. That 16-year gap between Olympics is an eternity in the world of figure skating, and Reed often competes against skaters who were toddlers when she made her Olympic debut aged 15 in Vancouver. On the way, she’s experienced personal tragedy, the “out-of-body experience” of a breakthrough medal, and a sport which doesn’t always live up to its glamorous image and reputation for inclusivity. Unequal relationships Ice dancers are meant to move as one, gliding through routines in perfect synchronicity. Off the ice, teams can be far from equal. MONTREAL, CANADA – MARCH 22: Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania compete in the Ice Dance Rhythm Dance during the ISU World Figure Skating Championships at the Bell Centre on March 22, 2024 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) Far more girls aspire to ice dance careers than boys and male dancers are expected to be tall athletes capable of lifting their female partners with ease. Reed recalls attending tryouts as a young skater with four boys taking their pick of 25 girls at a rink. “These four boys would just go about choosing whatever girl that they wanted to skate with and they would go and skate with them, they’d say thank you, then they’d pick another girl,” she told The Associated Press. “I remember standing there feeling like, ‘What is this? Like, this feels like almost like cattle.’” Reed grew up in a skating-mad Japanese-American family with brother Chris and sister Cathy. She woke up at 4 a.m. as her “absolute super mom” ferried them all to practice before school. Her brother and sister skated together for Japan but Reed’s seach for a male partner led her to Otar Japaridze of the ex-Soviet nation of Georgia. The pair placed 22nd at the 2010 Olympics. She didn’t manage to contend for major medals with him or with Vasili Rogov for Israel. The ‘nomads’ on ice After her partnership with Rogov ended in 2015, Reed recalls “floating for about two years, almost aimlessly” as she coached and considered college. Her brother’s recovery from repeated injuries inspired her to return. “It just filled me with this feeling of dread, like ‘I am going to regret it if I don’t at least try one more time and see what happens.’ And it’s the best decision I’ve ever made,” she said. Ambrulevičius trained with Reed for a while after an injury to his then-partner. When that partnership later broke up, he asked Reed to join him over a coffee. She says it’s been a team of equals. “We lived out of a car. We were nomads for a while,” she said, recalling that on trips back from a training rink in the German Alps to Lithuania, a distance of over 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), “we’d sleep at a rest stop in Poland somewhere and continue on our drive back. We road-tripped around Europe and slept in our car more times that I’d like to remember.” STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – MARCH 26: Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania perform in Ice Dance Rhythm Dance during day three of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships at Ericsson Globe on March 26, 2021 in Stockholm, Sweden. Sporting stadiums around Sweden remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Linnea Rheborg/Getty Images)…

Planning on playing a casual game of catch with your child on the sidewalk outside your home or on a quiet cul-de-sac? You might want to reconsider if you’re in Los Angeles, because you’d technically be committing a crime. A little-known and rarely enforced provision in the Los Angeles Municipal Code prohibits ball games on most streets or sidewalks. Violators face a fine of up to $1,000, a jail term of up to six months, or both. But that may change soon. Staff members for Bob Blumenfield, a Los Angeles City Council member, stumbled on the provision last year. It seemed “uncommonly silly,” said Jake Flynn, a spokesperson for Blumenfield, even compared with the pantheon of other quirky municipal laws in Los Angeles. (One example: Horse-drawn carriages are prohibited in one part of the city between 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. every day.) So Blumenfield put forward a motion to begin the process of repealing the law. It was approved by the council in a 14-0 vote, without discussion, last Tuesday. Section 56.16, the law set to be repealed, states: “No person shall play ball or any game of sport with a ball or football or throw, cast, shoot or discharge any stone, pellet, bullet, arrow or any other missile, in, over, across, along or upon any street or sidewalk or in any public park, except on those portions of said park set apart for such purposes.” The language of the law, with its mentions of discharging stones and pellets, speaks to its era, Flynn said. “It brings up a ‘Leave It to Beaver’-esque quality” that invokes the imagery of an idyllic, old-fashioned Southern California suburbia, he said, referencing the family sitcom that aired in the 1950s and ’60s. It was unclear exactly when and why the law came into effect, Flynn said, but the earliest reference to it Blumenfield’s team was able to find — “after talking to way too many people” — was in 1945. That was around when the population of Los Angeles was expanding rapidly. Many new communities were being built in areas that had traditionally been farms or rural land, and the number of cars on the roads was on the rise. Lawmakers needed to create new rules to keep both drivers and pedestrians safe, Flynn said. How often the law was enforced is also unclear. Flynn said he was aware of only one or two instances. Still, a repeal would end the slim possibility of enforcement in the future, which would be “a brazen injustice,” he said. The next step in the repeal process is for the Los Angeles City Attorney to draft an ordinance to that effect, which would go back to the council for a second vote. Flynn said that he was not expecting any opposition. “Our hope is that in the near future, our council members will be leading a great, legal game of catch out on the sidewalks of Los Angeles,” he said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Understandably, very few citizens of California follow closely the state budget process which, for the 2026-27 fiscal year, just kicked off with the release of the Governor’s proposal. Of course, part of that may be due to the complexity of public finance issues, but the reality is that since 2010 with the passage of Proposition 25, the state has no discernable annual spending plan. Technically, the timing of passing a budget hasn’t changed. It’s merely that the deadlines in the constitution are ignored. This column has previously reported on how all phases of the budget dance are fake insofar as they are subject to substantial amendments throughout the year. This happens through so-called “trailer bills” and “junior budget bills,” rendering what was for decades a rational process for fiscal planning into a never-ending convoluted outflow of taxpayer cash. The real corruption in the budget process – percolating for several years prior – was constitutionalized in 2010 with the passage of Proposition 25, laughingly labeled the “On-Time Budget Act of 2010.” Its real purpose was to repeal the two-thirds vote requirement for the state budget. Voters were promised three things. First, annual budgets would be passed on time; second, the budget process would be fully transparent; and third, legislators would forfeit their pay if the budget was late. As we now know, all three of these representations were lies. While the “budget bill” is constitutionally mandated to be enacted by June 15, what the politicians actually pass on that date is a temporary placeholder budget. And it only passes so that legislators can get their pay checks. The damage Prop. 25 inflicted is hard to overstate. Just last year, a major overhaul in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was passed as a trailer bill, bypassing many of the normal procedures for enacting legislation. Granted, CEQA reform was needed, but the far-reaching proposal should have been enacted under regular order with more debate and transparency. The fact that there is no longer a single budget bill, and that money is appropriated 365 days a year, has removed all seriousness in dealing with California’s precarious financial position. Just a month ago, California’s Legislative Analyst (in a desperate display of wishful thinking) recommended that elected leadership deal with the budget challenges now rather than waiting until we have a full-blown crisis, such as a recession. “While important components of the state economy are sluggish, revenues are not falling, nor are conditions as bad as they would be in an outright recession,” the LAO explained. “This makes solving the budget problem with ongoing solutions all the more important. Continuing to use temporary tools – like budgetary borrowing – would only defer the problem and, ultimately, leave the state ill-equipped to respond to a recession or downturn in the stock market.” But hopes for rationality were dispelled on January 9th with the release of Newsom’s latest budget proposal. While the LAO is traditionally diplomatic and measured in reporting on the initial plan in January, this year, the criticism was particularly harsh. Related Articles Laws protecting endangered plants are now endangering lives and property Jon Coupal: Why even bother with a state budget? Susan Shelley: The Supreme Court could make election night great again Is the middle class ‘shrinking’ or ‘struggling’? The difference is important. California politicians wrongly fixate on education spending instead of results Here are the problems laid out by the LAO. First, Newsom is overly optimistic that the stock market will stay strong. The Legislative Analyst warns that several reliable indicators show the market may be overheated and at risk of a downturn. Because the state relies heavily on high earners and capital gains, revenues drop sharply when markets fall rather than decline slowly. Second, LAO reports that the budget doesn’t begin to address the…