Latest news with #Blier
Montreal Gazette
3 days ago
- Health
- Montreal Gazette
New COVID strain found in Montreal wastewater: health ministry
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 has mutated into two new variants that are circulating across Asia, Europe and North America, and Quebec's public health authority warns one of the strains was detected in Montreal wastewater data. The variant found in Quebec, XFG, has also been detected in wastewater in other parts of Canada, the United States, and Europe. Another new strain, NB.1.8.1, is associated with a rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations in China, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore, according to Marie-Pierre Blier, a spokesperson from the health ministry. Although XFG has made its way to Quebec, public health authorities assure there is no need to panic. Blier wrote in an email that it hasn't markedly impacted public health, adding that the ministry continues to monitor the situation closely. The World Health Organization (WHO) is monitoring SARS-CoV-2 levels through public wastewater data, saying infection levels were not rising in North America and Europe as of May 11, 2025. It rates the overall public health risk of COVID-19 as low. Despite the increase in cases and hospitalizations in Asia, Blier suggested there is no evidence that the new strains are more serious or have caused more deaths than other circulating variants. She added that the current COVID-19 vaccines seem to be effective in protecting against severe forms of the disease. Blier wrote the current situation is very similar to the same time last year, when the new variant KP.2 was circulating. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the health ministry recommends staying home if you have a fever, wearing a mask if you have a cough or sore throat, and avoiding contact with immunocompromised or elderly people until symptoms disappear. This story was originally published May 29, 2025 at 4:51 PM.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Maine Democrats send baseline budget without Republican support to Gov. Mills
Mar. 20—AUGUSTA — Democrats on Thursday used their majorities in the House and Senate to enact a baseline two-year state budget without Republican support. The $11.3 billion two-year budget will be sent to Gov. Janet Mills, who can sign, veto or allow the bill to become law without her signature. After sending the budget to Mills, lawmakers voted to carry over all pending bills and business into a special session. The move suggests that lawmakers planned to formally adjourn sometime late Thursday night or early Friday. Democratic lawmakers argued that passing a baseline budget and avoiding the risk of partisan gridlock would ensure state funds are available July 1 and provide certainty to municipal and school officials as they draft their budgets for the next fiscal year. It does not include any of the tax increases or cuts proposed by Mills, they said. But Republicans accused the majority party of cutting them out of the process, effectively silencing the voices of their constituents. They also criticized the budget bill as not being balanced because it does not include more than $100 million in anticipated MaineCare cost increases in fiscal 2027. Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, said municipal officials need to have faith that lawmakers will fully fund public education, municipal revenue sharing and other programs, especially given the uncertainty created by the new Trump administration, whose policies on tariffs and moves to eliminate swaths of the federal workforce are stoking fears of a recession. "These are unstable and uncertain times, but this bill provides some stability to our communities and to our constituents," said Gattine, who co-chairs the budget-writing committee. Rep. Mark Blier, R-Buxton, blasted Democrats for not giving Republicans a chance to pass a bipartisan two-year budget, noting that House Republicans supported the emergency supplemental budget after winning a concession on General Assistance. Blier, who serves on the budget committee, said they were only given a few hours to read through the 400-page budget bill before voting Thursday, and accused Democrats of supporting a budget that spends more money than it has in revenues. He predicted Democrats would return with another budget change package that increases taxes to make up the difference. "The money's got to come from someplace," Blier said, his voice rising. "And we're going to find it either through taxing the population and they're already overtaxed. ... We are not the only people suffering from inflation. The people of Maine are suffering from inflation and what do we do? We're taxing them more." The budget was enacted in the House, 76-66, before it was sent to the Senate, which voted to narrowly to enact the budget in a 18-17 vote. Sens. Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, and Stacey Brenner, D-Gorham, joined Republicans in opposition. The move to pass a majority budget comes after a partisan impasse over the smaller, supplemental budget to close a shortfall in the current fiscal year. That impasse raised fears of a possible state government shutdown in July if lawmakers fail to reach a bipartisan compromise on a new two-budget plan in the coming weeks. A budget passed later in the session would need the support of both parties to qualify as an emergency bill and take effect in time for the start of the next fiscal year July 1. A budget passed without two-thirds support in both chambers would mean funding doesn't become available until 90 days after adjournment. That means Democrats had until the end of the month to pass a continuing services, or baseline, budget. They would then adjourn and come back in a special session to finish their work, a maneuver they've used in the prior two budgets. The budget advanced by Democrats Thursday also includes the $121 million supplemental budget, which is needed to balance the current budget through June 30. Most of that spending — $118 million — is being used to cover a deficit in the state's Medicaid program, known as MaineCare, and $2 million is devoted to protect Maine's forests from spruce budworms. Democrats say their baseline budget for the next two years is intended to "keep the lights on," while lawmakers work toward a bipartisan Part II budget, which would contain new spending and other policy changes. They say the budget doesn't include any of the tax increases originally proposed by Mills to preserve existing programs, including free community college, free school lunches, 55% funding for public education and maintaining 5% of revenue sharing. 2027 MAINECARE INCREASES NOT INCLUDED According to the state budget office, the budget includes $11.32 billion in spending and leaves $129 million in revenue for a "Part II" budget. But the spending plan does not include over $100 million in anticipated MaineCare cost increases for fiscal 2027, including reimbursements for health care providers. The Department of Administrative and Financial Services "understands the additional funding needed for FY27 would be addressed in a future appropriations bill," department spokesperson Sharon Huntley said. Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, accused Democrats of making a power grab and leaving several programs unfunded in 2027. "Don't say everything is fine and this is satisfactory to the average person who is out there. It's not," Stewart said. "We're leaving a lot of work on the table here. We're leaving a lot of programs on the table here, making people think they're safe and they're not." Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, said the budget includes $1.3 billion each year for MaineCare, and that lawmakers will take up funding shortfalls and major policy proposals in the Part II budget, which could include changes to the baseline budget advanced by Democrats. "We will grapple with reductions in federal funding, flattening state revenues and health care costs," said Rotundo, who co-chairs the budget committee. "We will carefully consider how to meet these challenges and it is my hope we will do so in a way that makes our constituents proud and allays any concerns that our budget is out of control due to runaway spending." The Democrats announced that they would pass a majority budget last week after Senate Republicans blocked passage of the supplemental budget despite Democratic concessions to place limits on using General Assistance for housing, add cost-of-living increases for direct care workers, and launch a third-party audit of the MaineCare program to look for waste, fraud and abuse, among other things. Failure to pass an emergency supplemental budget with Republican support has put health care providers, particularly in rural areas, in a tough spot financially, according to officials. The state has already begun curtailing payments to MaineCare providers until the budget is passed and takes effect. GA LIMITS NOT INCLUDED General Assistance limits are not included in the budget being taken up by House Democrats, but it does include the 1.95% COLA for direct care workers. Senate Republicans also wanted to institute work requirements and freeze enrollment for able-bodied MaineCare recipients, but Democrats opposed those proposals, citing a lack of public hearings. Senate Republicans blocked the supplemental budget even though it was endorsed unanimously by the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, which is made up of eight Democrats and five Republicans. But Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, wasn't at the meeting and later raised an objection, which led to widespread Republican opposition. House Republicans offered 17 floor amendments, seeking to place restrictions on who receives free community college tuition, requiring state workers to pay into the new paid family and medical leave program, defunding abortion services through MaineCare, blocking funding for offshore wind, limiting General Assistance to U.S. citizens and limiting housing assistance to three months in a two year period. Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, offered 10 amendments, including efforts to eliminate the state income tax, the paid family and medical leave program and state renewable energy goals, among others. Libby, however, has been unable to speak or vote on the House floor after being censured for a social media post about a transgender high school athlete. Libby was able to announce her amendments, but not speak to them. Under House rules, Libby could regain that ability by apologizing, but she has refused to do so. All of the amendments were defeated by Democrats in party-line votes. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Maine Democrats advance baseline budget without Republican input
Mar. 20—AUGUSTA — Democrats on Thursday moved to use their majorities in the House and Senate to push through a continuing services budget without Republican support. Democratic lawmakers argued that passing an $11.3 billion two-year budget and avoiding possible partisan gridlock would ensure state funds are available July 1 and provide certainty to municipal and school officials as they draft their budgets for the next fiscal year. It does not include any of the tax increases or cuts proposed by Gov. Janet Mills, they said. But Republicans accused the majority party of cutting them out of the process, effectively silencing the voices of their constituents. They also criticized the budget bill as not being balanced because it does not include more than $100 million in anticipated MaineCare costs in fiscal 2027. Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, said municipal officials need to have faith that lawmakers will fully fund public education, municipal revenue sharing and other programs, especially given the uncertainty created by the new Trump administration, whose policies on tariffs and moves to eliminate swaths of the federal workforce are stoking fears of a recession. "These are unstable and uncertain times, but this bill provides some stability to our communities and to our constituents," said Gattine, who co-chairs the budget-writing committee. Rep. Mark Blier, R-Standish, blasted Democrats for not giving Republicans a chance to pass a bipartisan two-year budget, noting that House Republicans supported the emergency supplemental budget after winning a concession on General Assistance. Blier, who serves on the budget committee, said they were only given a few hours to read through the 400-page budget bill before voting Thursday, and accused Democrats of supporting a budget that spends more money than it has in revenues. He predicted Democrats would return with another budget change package that increases taxes to make up the difference. "The money's got to come from someplace," Blier said, with his voice rising. "And we're going to find it either through taxing the population and they're already overtaxed. ... We are not the only people suffering from inflation. The people of Maine are suffering from inflation and what do we do? We're taxing them more." The budget passed in a preliminary vote, 74-67. Additional votes in each chamber are needed before being sent to Mills. The move to pass a majority budget comes after a partisan impasse over the smaller, supplemental budget to balance the budget in the current fiscal year. That impasse raised fears of a possible state government shutdown in July if lawmakers fail to reach a bipartisan compromise on a new two-budget plan in the coming weeks. A budget passed later in the session would need the support of both parties to qualify as an emergency bill and take effect in time for the start of the next fiscal year July 1. A budget passed without two-thirds support in both chambers would mean funding doesn't become available until 90 days after adjournment. That means Democrats have until the end of the month to pass the baseline budget, adjourn and then come back in a special session to finish their work, a maneuver they've used in the prior two budgets. The budget being advanced by Democrats also includes the $121 million supplemental budget, which is needed to close out the current budget ending June 30. Most of that spending — $118 million — is being used to close a deficit in the state's Medicaid program, known as MaineCare, and $2 million is devoted to protect Maine's forests from spruce budworms. Democrats say their baseline budget for the next two years is intended to "keep the lights on," while lawmakers work toward a bipartisan Part II budget, which would contain new spending and other policy changes. They say the budget doesn't include any of the tax increases originally proposed by Mills to preserve existing programs, including free community college, free school lunches, providing 55% funding for public education and maintaining 5% of revenue sharing. According to the state budget office, the budget includes $11.32 billion in spending and leaves $129 million in revenue for a "Part II" budget. But the spending plan does not include over $100 million in anticipated MaineCare costs for fiscal 2027, including reimbursements for health care providers. The Department of Administrative and Financial Services "understands the additional funding needed for FY27 would be addressed in a future appropriations bill," department spokesperson Sharon Huntley said. The Democrats announced that they would pass a majority budget last week after Senate Republicans blocked passage of the supplemental budget despite Democratic concessions to place limits on using General Assistance for housing, add cost-of-living increases for direct care workers, and launch a third-party audit of the MaineCare program to look for waste, fraud and abuse, among other things. Failure to pass an emergency supplemental budget with Republican support has put health care providers, particularly in rural areas, in a tough spot financially, according to officials. The state has already begun curtailing payments to MaineCare providers until the budget is passed and takes effect. General Assistance limits are not included in the budget being taken up by House Democrats, but it does include the 1.95% COLA for direct care workers. Senate Republicans also wanted to institute work requirements and freeze enrollment for able-bodied MaineCare recipients, but Democrats opposed those proposals, citing a lack of public hearings. Senate Republicans blocked the supplemental budget even though it was endorsed unanimously by the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, which is made up of eight Democrats and five Republicans. But Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, wasn't at the meeting and later raised an objection, which led to widespread Republican opposition. House Republicans offered 17 floor amendments, seeking to place restrictions on who receives free community college tuition, requiring state workers to pay into the new paid family and medical leave program, defunding abortion services through MaineCare, blocking funding for offshore wind, limiting General Assistance to U.S. citizens and limiting housing assistance to three months in a two year period. Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, offered 10 amendments, including efforts to eliminate the state income tax, the paid family and medical leave program and state renewable energy goals, among others. Libby, however, has been unable to speak or vote on the House floor after being censured for a social media post about a transgender high school athlete. Libby was able to announce her amendments, but not speak to them. Under House rules, Libby could regain that ability by apologizing, but she has refused to do so. All of the amendments were defeated by Democrats in party-line votes. This story will be updated. Copy the Story Link
The Guardian
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Bertrand Blier obituary
Bertrand Blier, who has died aged 85, had the appearance of a placid, pipe-smoking academic and the disruptive spirit of an imp. 'My films are an aggression against people, against logic, against good sense,' the director said. He saw his role as 'attacking society: hard, repeatedly and below the belt'. His pictures, tinged with Buñuelian mischief and often starring Gérard Depardieu, tended to begin with an outré idea which he then pursued doggedly to its conclusion. His masterpiece was Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978), which won that year's Oscar for best foreign language film. It starts with a man (Depardieu) offering his doleful wife to a stranger in a restaurant in a bid to lift her spirits. She eventually finds fulfilment in the arms of a 13-year-old boy. 'I put my characters in a certain situation without truly understanding why,' Blier explained. 'I write the first scene and the rest is an attempt to understand why I wrote it and what it's all about. I must have in my head the same madness that I express in them, but since I'm an intellectual I transport it through my writing and images – which is why I'm not in prison yet.' In Tenue de Soirée (1986), a burglar (Depardieu) becomes obsessed with a mousey, unassuming married man whose wife effectively agrees to pimp him out. The two men finally take to the streets as cross-dressing sex workers. Depardieu was back in Trop Belle Pour Toi! (1989) as the manager of a car dealership who cheats on his glamorous wife with his dowdy secretary. The picture won the Grand Prix at Cannes. 'These films with Blier are of the utmost importance to me,' the actor said. Blier, who described Depardieu as his 'half-brother' and later defended him publicly in 2023 against accusations of sexual harassment and assault, said: 'When I write a film that isn't for him, he tends to sulk.' They made nine movies together, beginning in 1974 with Les Valseuses (the title is a slang term for 'testicles'). This scandalous road-trip comedy, also known as Going Places, followed two young louts scything their way through women and property with equal disregard for both. Widely considered misogynistic, the film had an incendiary effect, kickstarting the careers of Depardieu, Isabelle Huppert and Blier himself, whose two previous features had made scant impact. Le Figaro called for it to be banned. 'There was something in Les Valseuses to offend everyone,' said the director Chris Petit. 'It was a pre-punk movie – morally and philosophically far more successfully so than the later ones, like [Jean Jacques-Beineix's] Diva, which drew a wider public.' The actor-director John Turturro remade it in 2019 as The Jesus Rolls. When Turturro sought permission to make the main characters middle-aged, Blier told him: 'OK, as long as they're stupid.' Depardieu was loyal to the last, starring in some of Blier's less popular later films, including Les Acteurs (2000), in which he and performers including Jean-Paul Belmondo and Michel Piccoli played exaggerated, vain or ill-tempered versions of themselves, and Heavy Duty (2019), a meta-comedy about two men whose lives have been scripted in advance. He was also in Blier's last great film, Merci La Vie (1991), which began as an attempt to reproduce Les Valseuses for a new generation. This time, the outlaws were female and played by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Blier's then-partner Anouk Grinberg. The movie switched between colour and monochrome, while the plot involved time travel and equated fascism with Aids. A planned appearance by Bob Dylan failed to materialise when the producers became bogged down in negotiations with the singer's lawyers. Blier intended Merci La Vie to show cinema being 'taken by the throat and given a shaking'. Depardieu, who played a doctor exploiting the spread of Aids, called it 'a punch in the stomach of society'. The director was born in Paris, to Gisèle (nee Brunet), a former pianist, and Bernard Blier, an actor who was in the middle of shooting Marcel Carné's Le Jour se Lève when his son was born. He described himself as a sensitive child, often cowed by his father's volatility; it was said that Bernard had once punched a fellow cinemagoer who was jeering at a screening of Jean Renoir's La Règle du Jeu. The family home was filled with actors. 'All the French postwar theatre and cinema stars I met as a child were extremely entertaining,' Blier recalled. 'They laughed a lot, went to each other's houses and stayed up all night drinking. There were the days of Pierre Brasseur, Louis Jouvet, Jean Gabin. Huge, huge talents … There was a kind of collective conviviality which does not really exist any more.' He decided to become a film-maker after meeting his father's friend Henri-Georges Clouzot, director of Les Diaboliques and The Wages of Fear, at the age of 16. After working as an assistant director, Blier made his directing debut in 1963 with Hitler, Connais Pas (Hitler, Never Heard of Him), a documentary portrait of modern French teenagers. He followed this with Si J'Étais un Espion (1966), a thriller starring his father as an innocent doctor caught up in espionage. Blier also cast his father in the twisted noir comedy Buffet Froid (1979), which starred Depardieu. And there is a discreetly magical moment at the end of Les Acteurs, during which Blier, appearing as himself, is shown shooting a scene that is then ruined when a mobile phone starts ringing. 'It's for you,' someone says, handing it to the director. Speaking into the device, Blier says: 'Hello Papa'. In fact, his father had died a decade earlier. The scene suggests that cinema can bestow immortality. After the relative failure of his first two films, Blier wrote the novel on which Les Valseuses would later be based. The director went for shock value again in Calmos (AKA Femmes Fatales, 1976), in which a gynaecologist joins an army to fight women. The film ends with him seeking sanctuary in a giant vagina. Outrageous material could be offset by a surprisingly sober or even gentle approach. This was the case in Beau-Père (1981), in which an adolescent girl asks her stepfather to be her first lover. La Femme de Mon Pote (My Best Friend's Girl, 1983) featured Huppert in a ménage-à-trois comedy set in a Swiss ski resort. Alain Delon and Nathalie Baye starred in Notre Histoire (1984), which, with its stories nestling, Russian-doll-like, within other stories, found Blier at his most Buñuelian. Mon Homme (1996), about a sex worker who becomes obsessed with an unhoused, penniless stranger whom she encourages to become her pimp, was greeted with puzzlement, weariness and more accusations of misogyny. Reflecting on the final line ('Women, forgive me'), Blier told the Guardian: 'All men should apologise to women for what they have done to them.' In 2022, he published the autobiographical novel Fragile des Bronches, which fictionalised scenes from his life. Blier despised cliche and aestheticism, and sought instead 'to raise the level of debate with the public. And to make films which are original, even if they might be difficult. I often finish writing and think: 'That's it. I've done it now. That's the end of my career. This will clear the cinemas.' And sometimes I've been right.' The frisson between his inner and outer selves lasted his entire career. 'I look like – I am – an entirely respectable citizen. But I have never stopped thinking of the other life that I could have had, on the road, smashing things up.' He is survived by his third wife, Farida Rahouadj, who starred in Heavy Duty, and their daughter, Leïla, as well as by two other children, Béatrice and Léonard, from earlier relationships. Bertrand Blier, film director, born 14 March 1939; died 20 January 2025
