Datasets:
Recag
/
C4_21

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
Community
text
stringlengths
9
93k
In May this year, Premier Scott Moe defended the province's minimum wage, which was the lowest in the country at the time. The Oct. 1 change makes the provincial minimum wage the second-lowest in the country, higher only than the $11 wage in Nova Scotia.
"This is the formula we've had for a number of years now. It's still working for the people of the province and we'll continue with it," the premier said at the time.
Opposition NDP leader Ryan Meili expressed concern about the possibility that someone could work full-time and still live in poverty.
The lower minimum wage could also lead some workers to leave Saskatchewan and find work in other provinces, he added.
At the Sawmill Prime Rib and Steakhouse in Lloydminster, Sask., general manager Tori Atkinson says costs are already rising in her industry, leading to new menus that include a six per cent price increase .
Atkinson has no immediate plans to raise wages to match those in Alberta, adding that workers already make more than the minimum wage through tips.
Instead, she hopes providing a good working environment will discourage her employees from seeking work on the Alberta side.
"If my whole team tries to bail and go across the border, then I'll have to rethink things," she said.
"It always falls back on the consumer, same as the carbon tax … it's not really creating any more wealth, it's creating problems all around."
The Saskatchewan government said Monday's minimum-wage increase is the tenth increase since 2007, when the minimum wage was $7.95.
It said there are approximately 49,500 minimum wage and low-wage earners in the province, including 57 per cent who work part-time.
Our mission is to advance the health of animals, people and the environment.
To carry out this mission, we focus on students of our professional Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program, Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine program, graduate clinical residency program and graduate academic MS and PhD programs.
The School of Veterinary Medicine serves the people of California by providing educational, research, clinical service, and public service programs of the highest quality to advance the health and care of animals, the health of the environment, and public health, and to contribute to the economy.
Inside the progressive movement to unseat the three-term Republican.
WEXFORD, PENNSYLVANIA — In the days following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, western Pennsylvania resident Linda Bishop was scouring Facebook to find progressives, like herself, who felt lost and were eager to take action.
“I didn’t know what to do after the election. So I just started going to all kinds of [progressive] meetings … I just was trying to find a home,” said Bishop.
Bishop recalled attending a meeting organized by a group of progressives from Franklin Park, a borough in northern Allegheny County. She was impressed with the speakers, which included former Democratic congressional candidate Ray Linsenmayer.
“As soon as that meeting hit, that was when I knew. That was my tribe,” she told ThinkProgress during an interview at a Wexford coffee shop. She was joined by four other members of Progress PA, an organization they all founded in February 2017, with more than 800 followers on Facebook. Bishop, Stacey Vernallis, Alison Duncan, Barry Rush, and Mary Anne Van Develde have focused much of their efforts since then on driving progressive change in Pennsylvania’s new 17th congressional district.
That means unseating Republican incumbent Keith Rothfus, a pro-Trump conservative who opposes abortion and gay marriage, supported the president’s Muslim ban, and voted in favor of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which would have repealed and replaced Obamacare and left millions of people uninsured.
Rothfus is running unopposed in Tuesday’s primaries. And so is Rep. Conor Lamb (D), who in March won the special election to replace Rep. Tim Murphy (R) in the old 18th district, an area that voted for Trump by 20 points in 2016. Thanks to recent court-ordered redistricting, Lamb will face off against Rothfus in Pennsylvania’s newly redrawn 17th district come November. And, political strategists say, Rothfus’ chances aren’t good.
The three-term congressman has served comfortably in the former safely Republican 12th district, which stretched across six counties to the north, northwest, east, and southeast of Pittsburgh. There, Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 21 points in 2016. The newly redrawn 17th district, which is made up of parts of Beaver and Allegheny counties, including the suburbs west and north of Pittsburgh, however, voted for Trump by only 2.5 points.
Rothfus must be feeling the heat, said Erin McClelland, who ran unsuccessfully against Rothfus in 2014 and 2016, and recently dropped her current bid for Congress to make way for Lamb. She said, following Lamb’s win in March, Rothfus has been reaching out to labor groups.
Lamb, a young former Marine and federal prosecutor, ran an impressive campaign in the former 18th district. He has also defied the national party — he doesn’t support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker and he doesn’t want a ban on assault weapons. Lamb is also personally anti-abortion, but he has promised voters that he would not cast a vote for a 20-week abortion ban.
The members of Progress PA are optimistic that Lamb will beat Rothfus. But the road in getting to this point was long. Vernallis said she’s been frustrated with what she perceives as unpreparedness and a lack of guidance from the Allegheny County Democratic Committee.
After the election, as small progressive factions began cropping up throughout western Pennsylvania, she decided to ask the committee for a meeting.
The void in leadership is what fueled Vernallis into action. She began meeting with various progressive groups and, eventually, co-founded Progress PA, which has served as the “motherboard,” offering all the local groups with curated content, weekly newsletters, and calls to action.
McClelland, who currently serves as a labor consultant for the Allegheny County Labor Council, echoed the sentiment that the Democratic party needs strong messaging and leadership in order to win.
“In Pennsylvania, obviously we have been struggling in the Democratic party and that’s because of a failure of a real message. ‘We’re not quite as bad as Donald Trump’ isn’t a real message,” she said, adding that the reason Lamb was able to win in the old 18th district is because the party ran a “purely economic message” centered around labor and health care.
Progress PA members have also touted similar issue-based rallying strategies.
“It lets people know they’re not alone,” Duncan offered, suggesting that there are more progressives in western Pennsylvania than Republicans want people to believe.
The perception is changing, however, said Barry Rush. Indeed, redistricting provided a unique opportunity to finally elect a progressive representative.
“When we were redistricted, I looked at the map and I said ‘oh, this is a Trump +2 district … This is the year, if there’s ever a year, we could get some progressives into the party. This is the year and this is the district,” he said.
But the disappointment isn’t distracting him from the broader goal: turning western Pennsylvania blue.
“I told him [Lamb] when I first met him, ‘we’re gonna keep pushing you to be bluer, dude,’” Rush said.
Israel’s Cabinet convened its weekly meeting atop the Golan Heights on Sunday so that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could pointedly inform the world that, in light of the current situation in the region, there is no chance Israel will ever return the strategic plateau to Syrian control.
“The time has come for the world to recognize our sovereignty here,” said Netanyahu.
The statement comes amid mounting assessments that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad will survive the ongoing civil war and maintain power in Damascus, largely thanks to the assistance of Iran and Russia.
For nearly 20 years the Golan Heights was used as a platform to launch attacks on the Galilee region, before being captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
Israel officially annexed the Golan in 1981, but came under heavy American pressure in the 1990s to relinquish control as a first step toward making peace with Syria and the broader Arab world.
Had Israel succumbed to that pressure, its northern towns and cities would today be under tremendous and sustained threat from groups like ISIS and the various Al Qaeda-affiliated gangs fighting in Syria.
With three days off in an eight-day span starting Monday -- following a stretch of 30 games in 31 days - the Athletics decided to option fifth starter Dan Straily out to Triple-A Sacramento.
Straily said that he understands the decision, which will keep the other starters in the rotation from working on as many as seven days rest in the next week.
"I get it," he said. "I'm going to make sure I keep myself on track and if they need me as a fifth starter, I'll be ready."
Striker Callum Wilson scored a stunning goal which helped Bournemouth come from behind in a 2-1 victory at West Ham United on Saturday and stretched their fine Premier League start to two wins in as many games.
West Ham, in contrast, slipped to the bottom of the table after a second successive defeat following a 4-0 drubbing by Liverpool in the opening round, piling early pressure on their new manager Manuel Pellegrini.
The Hammers looked set to claim their first win of the season after Marko Arnautovic drilled in a 33rd-minute penalty, awarded by referee Stuart Wilson after the linesman confirmed that Nathan Ake tripped Javier Hernandez.
But the tide turned in the second half after Austria striker Arnautovic wasted an excellent chance to double West Ham’s lead on the stroke of halftime, as keeper Asmir Begovic did well to save his fizzing low shot.
Wilson, who also missed a sitter in the opening half with the score 0-0, produced a breathtaking equaliser on the hour.
The striker powered his way past four defenders after picking the ball up at the halfway line and threaded it through the legs of West Ham keeper Lukasz Fabianski.
West Ham were reeling and defender Steve Cook completed Bournemouth’s comeback six minutes later, stooping to head a close-range header into the roof of the net off the ground after Ryan Fraser floated in a free kick from the right.
Wilson, who scored a hat-trick in Bournemouth’s 4-3 defeat of West Ham in August 2015 which was his team’s first-ever Premier League win, was delighted.
“We made hard work of it, being 1-0 down is never easy away from home and we showed great character,” he told the BBC.
“Nice for little old Bournemouth. Now it is about being consistent, we have another tough game next week,” he added referring to the home tie with Everton and also gave his account of the wonder-goal.
West Ham face an uphill task in the next round when they visit city rivals Arsenal and if their early form is anything to go by, the Hammers are in for a tough season.
There's a lot of reasons to love St. Vincent: her awesome hair, her awesome music, her awesome cover of Nirvana's "Lithium" at 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
And, wow, look! We've got a preview of number three right down yonder.
Annie Clark took the stage at the induction ceremony to help usher Nirvana into the Hall of Fame with help from a passel of amazing women: Lorde, Kim Gordon and Joan Jett included.
Clark called the experience "a dream come true" when she spoke with MTV News about the experience.
Who would have thought we'd share the same dream, Annie?
The 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony special debuts May 31 at 8 p.m. ET on HBO.
The Forward’s February 18 feature “Profiles of Our Fallen” looked at 37 American Jewish service members who lost their lives during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The feature generated an outpouring of responses from our readers. Here is a sampling.
The Forward has performed a noble service by calling these men’s and women’s supreme sacrifices to our attention.
May the Lord bless and keep all those who serve. Whatever their religion, all those who died made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Freedom is not free, and no matter your opinion on the war, know that they died while serving to protect us all. My brother, Michael Tarlavsky, was one of those heroes.
If your synagogue does not yet offer a prayer for those who serve during Shabbat services, please urge its leaders to do so. May their souls “shine like the brightness of the firmament” and may their memories be an inspiration and a blessing.
I am not Jewish, nor do I support these wars. But I am an American who feels that everyone who makes the choice to join the military needs our support.
I took the time to read each word written about these very special people, with tears flowing. It saddens me greatly that several of those listed lived close to my home, yet I heard nothing of their deaths. If someone is willing to give their life for our country, the least the media can do is honor them and their loved ones by reporting on their life and death. We as citizens should know who they are by their names.
The media feels it is more important to report on the lives of those in Hollywood, as if they are the heroes. Thank you Forward for doing what should be done as the front page, lead story of all American newspapers, daily.
As a recently retired first sergeant in the U.S. Army, I truly appreciate the efforts of my fallen brothers and sisters — Jewish and all others — and of the Forward for this article. Many Americans do not value the efforts of the military in trying to spread democracy to war-torn countries. I saw firsthand coalition forces teaching Iraqis skills that will last them generations: skills to improve their living conditions and educational, religious and political opportunities. These are things that are rarely covered by anyone in any form of media.
If you support the troops, then you should support our jobs in wartime and peacetime. If you don’t support the troops, feel free to grab an M-4 or an M-16 and stand in front of our troops facing the enemy that hates us and our way of life.
Thanks again for the article, and I pray that it never needs to be updated!
As a Modern Orthodox Jew, I was both terribly embarrassed and deeply saddened by this feature. While there was one young man in our shul who served in Iraq and, happily, survived his tour to return home, marry and start a family, myself and many fellow congregants have allowed ourselves to be both unaware and insufficiently concerned about the young Jews who have served this wonderful country and all too often, as you’ve pointed out, not returned from their missions.
Thank you for your long and very personal article. The loss of these children is not just confined to their families but shared by all of us. We should all mourn for them yet keep them alive in our prayers.
Thanks for taking the time and effort to publish these poignant remembrances of these warriors, their life stories and the pain of their families. I am a disabled Vietnam vet.
In our synagogue, every Shabbat since the beginning of the wars, we have included the names of all the service members who have fallen during the previous week in our Kaddish list, which also includes weekly remembrance of the 6 million murdered in the Holocaust.
I am Jewish and served in Vietnam in 1967. I could write a book about my experiences, anti-Semitism and all. The sad truth is that many in the Jewish community avoided military service for different reasons. In retrospect I should have done the same. I ache for the people mentioned in this article, and by the luck of the draw I am alive to write this.
While serving as a lay leader in a small Canadian Jewish community, I spoke at our annual November 11 Remembrance Day service. I began by solemnly reading the names and ages of the 14 Jewish men from our community who perished in the Second World War.
I was told later that many in attendance were shaken to hear out loud how young our soldiers were when they died — barely older than the boys from BBYO who formed the honor guard.
I spoke about how not only was their loss mourned over 65 years ago but also to this day as they were not with us to help in the growth of our community — our synagogues, our schools, our support for Israel. We have missed their children and grandchildren who should have been running through the hallways of our Hebrew school and celebrating simchas in our shuls.
Reading the memorials to each of the Jewish Americans who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan reminded me how precious life is and how not only their survivors but also future generations will suffer.
It is important to remember those in our communal family who sacrificed their lives for tikkun olam.
The highest Jewish value is life. It is extremely sad to read these articles about young women and men who fell in the service of their country. I am a veteran of Vietnam (where I served in the American army) and Lebanon (where I served in the Israeli army). I hope that future generations will learn war no more.
As the first active-duty chaplain in the Canadian Forces since World War II, I highly commend the Forward for this timely article.
I believe that these kedoshim, holy ones, who have paid the ultimate price for protecting our freedoms, deserve our unreserved respect, admiration and gratitude. May their souls be bound up with God almighty.
I was fascinated by the variety of backgrounds represented through these profiles. I spent three years in Iraq as a civilian. Early on, I realized that while Afghanistan might be considered a “righteous” war, after providing sanctuary to Bin Laden, Iraq was a terrible mistake, unnecessary and a debacle. The waste of lives was avoidable.
But this is not meant to be a soapbox for my own views on the war. I attended services on my base, whenever possible, and was proud and impressed with the Jewish servicemen and women I met there who chose to serve their country.
Thank you for bringing those Jewish service people who lost their lives into focus as individuals, not just as another statistic. May they rest in peace.
Thank you for this. These men and women, the beautiful and diverse faces of our Jewish community, inspire me. Their deaths are our loss. May their memories be a blessing for us and for America.
Those who question why there is an involvement in Afghanistan against the Taliban will one day — let’s look at 2031 — say that it was necessary to be there. The Australian Defence Force is also there. We lost Private Greg Sher on January 4, 2009 in Oruzgan Province. Other Jewish men and women of the Australian Defence Force are there, deployed in operational areas and on U.N. peacekeeping duties.
Let us say prayers for the souls of the fallen service people and for the safety of those on active duty.
I commend the Forward for “Profiles of Our Fallen.” It is important to support and honor the troops even if we dissent from the policies of our government.
V8 superstar Craig Lowndes took Mitch Hutchins for a driving lesson in Yamanto on Thursday morning.
Motor Sports "I don't think he has had a busier weekend than this one. The lines for him were absolutely huge."
Motorcycle sales may not help the power-sports vehicle maker shake a broader industry slowdown.
There isn't a bat icon on the hood of the three-wheeled Slingshot, but Polaris Industries is still hoping for it to power sales higher. Image source: George Shahda via Flickr.
Polaris Industries (NYSE: PII) might be riding a little bit higher after analysts said rival Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) was losing market share and was likely to post a big drop in motorcycle sales this quarter, presumably with Polaris' Indian Motorcycle nameplate picking up the lion's share of those lost sales.
But with motorcycles still only accounting for less than 15% of total revenues, there may be a few other things investors ought to keep their eye on when the powersports vehicle maker posts its first-quarter earnings on Thursday, April 21.
The off-road vehicle market has suffered broad weakness as macroeconomic headwinds, currency fluctuations, and competitive pressures take a toll. Last time out it specifically pointed to the collapse in oil prices hitting oil-rich states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana as the reason sales of ORVs dropped 20% in North America. Moreover, OPEC nations also just recently failed to reach an agreement on limiting production, and oil's price tumbled again. With high inventories and storage at full capacity, we may be in a period of persistently low prices for oil.
That's good for consumers, but not necessarily good for off-road vehicle manufacturers selling into markets depressed by the situation. Polaris noted in its fourth-quarter conference call that ORV retail sales in oil-producing states were down about 10% for the full year while the rest of the North American market was up mid-single digits. Considering the sales hit it took last quarter, that means the vehicle maker's business is highly skewed toward those few states, so not even oil's 50% rebound since its February lows is likely to change that situation much.
That suggests Polaris may have to take inventory reductions at dealers as it did last quarter. It has a mid-single-digit inventory target for them, and the weak market caused it to withhold a large amount of its otherwise highly profitable RZRs and Rangers from dealerships, the first time in six years it had to do so. Consumers may have been out buying cars in record quantities, but that hasn't translated into big-ticket purchases in the ORV market, and Polaris said there was no indication the situation was going to improve in the power-sports industry throughout 2016.