Latest news with #Headland
Perth Now
10-05-2025
- Health
- Perth Now
Healing art: medical scans get a cultural makeover
Having to travel hundreds of kilometres for medical care is a common occurrence in many of Australia's regional and remote regions. But in the WA gold-mining town of Kalgoorlie, an Indigenous co-owned medical imaging business is on a mission to bring world-class scans to the community in a culturally safe way. That's where local Wongai and Mirning artist Carol Thompson comes in, armed with her painting supplies and a desire to alleviate some of the anxiety around having a medical procedure that her community might have. The result is a newly-installed CT scanner adorned with her work, which features the local bush banana vines and her interpretation of cells, symbolising healing, growth and culture. Hand-painting the artwork onto the huge piece of medical equipment was no easy feat, but Thompson hopes the artwork contributes to a sense of safety and ease at the clinic. "It could be a daunting thing - getting the scans done - if (the artwork) can help them make them feel more relaxed, then my job is done,'" she said. A sense of cultural safety is important to the co-directors of Spartan First Imaging, Des Headland and Peter Tually, whose story of being in business together started with a conversation at an AFL match. After speaking about his business and ambition to work more closely with the local Indigenous community, Mr Tually, a nuclear medicine practitioner, was introduced to Mr Headland, a former AFL player and chief executive of Spartan First. "Before I could say let me think about it, we'd set up what we believe is the world's first private Indigenous medical-imaging business," Mr Tually said. Mr Headland said he liked to dream big about the impact it could have. "It feels like just yesterday we sat down with Pete and created the business, it's been over 12 months in the works and we're finally here," he said. "Good things come when you wait and we've definitely waited for this to get this state-of-the-art CT scanner in town." The scanner will provide services not previously possible in the region, like imaging of coronary arteries, which means locals won't have to make the 600-kilometre trip to Perth and will help reduce time to diagnosis. The machine also runs on a battery with sustainability in mind, but one of its most important features for the co-directors remains Thompson's artwork. "For many of our patients, especially those from Indigenous backgrounds, clinical environments can feel cold and unfamiliar and have historically been associated with illness rather than healing," Mr Headland said. "We have incorporated contemporary Aboriginal artwork painted directly onto the scanner – we've created a space that feels safe, welcoming and grounded in culture."
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
S&P/TSX composite rises Tuesday, U.S. stock markets also higher
TORONTO — Canada's main stock index rose Tuesday, helped by gains in base metal stocks, while U.S. markets were also higher, holding onto the gains from Monday's rally as the next deadline for U.S. tariffs looms in just over a week. Investors are waiting for clarity and details on what's coming April 2, as the scope and nature of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump keeps shifting, said Kevin Headland, chief investment strategist at Manulife Investment Management. "We even got some more news over the weekend and coming into this week that perhaps there's going to be more targeted April 2 tariffs, still room for negotiations, so there's still a lot of uncertainty there," said Headland. That's why the market has been "bouncing around," he said. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 35.40 points at 25,339.51. All the uncertainty has had markets zigzagging on a daily basis in recent weeks, with the major indexes recovering some of what they lost in the initial reaction to tariffs being enacted. But after the 'yo-yo effect' of the past few weeks amid a steady stream of tariff announcements, threats and rumours, markets appear to be in a 'wait and see period,' said Headland. The latest report on U.S. consumer confidence came in weaker than expected, especially for the short term, showing how the uncertainty over tariffs is affecting Americans. 'There's been a material shift in sentiment,' said Headland, after starting 2025 with strong economic data coming off the worst of the inflation fight. 'I feel like the pendulum has swung completely to the opposite side ... and I think that's feeding through to some of the market performance here.' Recent economic data in the U.S. has been coming in on the weaker side, noted Headland. Canada started the year on a weaker note, and stands to take a hit to economic growth from tariffs even as they threaten to pull inflation higher. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 4.18 points at 42,587.50. The S&P 500 index was up 9.08 points at 5,776.65, while the Nasdaq composite was up 83.26 points at 18,271.86. The Canadian dollar traded for 69.95 cents US compared with 69.84 cents US on Monday. The May crude oil contract was down 11 cents US at US$69 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was down eight cents US at US$3.88 per mmBTU. The April gold contract was up US$10.30 at US$3,025.90 an ounce and the May copper contract was up 12 cents US at US$5.21 a pound. — With files from The Associated Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 25, 2025. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) The Canadian Press
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
District 12, 29 lawmakers update constituents on bills
Mar. 24—JAMESTOWN — District 12 and 29 lawmakers answered several questions about bills that they are working on in the North Dakota Legislature, including property taxes, keeping explicit sexual material out away from areas accessible to minors in libraries, education bills, helping rural communities and a bill related to energy conversion and transmission facility, siting among other issues. District 12 and 29 lawmakers answered questions about the legislative session on Saturday, March 22, at a meet-and-greet event hosted by the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce at the Gladstone Inn & Suites. Rep. Don Vigesaa, R-Cooperstown, did not attend the event. Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier, said the House Finance and Taxation Committee has seen almost 60 bills in regard to property tax. "I think the Senate has settled in pretty much on House Bill 1176, a bill that in some ways I and the House Tax Committee completely rewrote from its original design," said Headland, who chairs the House Finance and Taxation Committee. "The original design had the intent of taking every primary residence to zero. We took that out. We don't know that we believe in that." HB 1176 would expand the primary residence tax credit from $500 to $1,450 beginning in tax year 2025, Forum News Service reported. "I've also heard that there's a move to possibly take the $1,450 down to $1,250," Headland said. "I don't know that I agree that we need to do that either. What I do agree with that I've heard that they're thinking about is putting some type of percentage into the equations so no one's primary residence goes to zero today. If we want to take properties to zero in the future, and future legislators have the funding ability to do it, that's a decision they should make." HB 1176 would also expand eligibility for the Homestead Tax Credit program, which is available to homeowners over 65 years old, Forum News Service reported. The income thresholds for eligibility would be expanded from $40,000 to $50,000 to be eligible for the full credit and from $70,000 to $80,000 to be eligible for half the credit. It also expands the maximum available renter's refund from $400 to $600. The bill also proposes a 3% cap on property tax levy increases from taxing districts. "We put in some provisions to help the political subdivisions deal with the restrictions caps," Headland said. "Some of them stayed in the bill. One of them, the opt-out provision where we allowed a county to opt out or a city to opt out of the cap altogether, was stripped out of the bill in House Appropriations, which I didn't really think was appropriate because the policy committee, which I chair, had put it in." Sen. Terry Wanzek, R-Jamestown, said he would support some of the amendments to HB 1176. "I think it's not probably prudent to take one class of property down to zero," he said. "In some cases, that's the way it's designed right now would go to zero and there is an amendment that would say that's limited to 75%. You could end up getting a full $1,450 tax credit on your primary home. ... Targeting primary homes does make sense. "Most of us have a home and a primary home and are paying taxes on it, and it would single out, in my view, more of North Dakota citizens," he said. " ... Some property if we provide a huge property tax decrease, it's going to out-of-state people and it's leaving our state. That's of some concern." Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, said Senate Bill 2307 is about keeping explicit sexual material away from areas accessible to minors. "It's about safety of children,"he said. He said it's illegal to allow children to have explicit sexual material. "Some of you probably know that sexually explicit information is being used by groomers and sexual abusers, and it's not a positive thing for children to have sexually explicit information, have access to it, particularly at a young age," he said. SB 2307 would require public libraries and school districts to develop a policy and review process by Jan. 1 for library collections to ensure explicit sexual material is not in an area accessible to minors. The bill also requires safety policies and technology protection measures for digital or online database resources offered by a school district, state agency or public library to students in grades K-12. If a provider of digital or online library resources fails to comply with having safety policies and technology protection measures, the school district, state agency or public library shall withhold any further payments to the provider pending verification of compliance, the bill says. The bill also creates an obscenity review procedure where any person may request a local state's attorney's opinion to review if material in a library or school district has explicit sexual material. The state's attorney would need to issue an opinion on the alleged violation within 60 days to the interested person, provider of digital or online library database resources, school district, state agency or public library under review. If it is determined that a public library, state agency or school district is in violation, funding may be withheld if correction action to comply with the law isn't taken within 10 days. The state's attorney may prosecute for failure to comply with the law. Satrom said some librarians didn't comply with a previous bill that was passed during the legislative session in 2023. Rep. Mitch Ostlie, R-Jamestown, said any concerns with library materials should be handled locally. "If you have a concern with something in the library, you should go to the librarian," he said. "If you don't like the answer you get there, there is a library board. If you don't like the answer there, they're under control of either city council or county commission. So those are important steps in the process to deal with a lot of issues but sometimes we jump a few levels of governing bodies and go right to the Legislature and we're supposed to fix some of this stuff." He said local law enforcement and the state's attorney's office brings charges forward to individuals who are breaking the law. "We're overstepping a whole lot of levels there," Ostlie said. Wanzek said the Legislature is working on a couple of bills to address economic development in rural North Dakota. "It's to try to help those small rural communities that mean a lot to the rural people and some fashion," he said. Wanzek said he sponsored Senate Bill 2097 with Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, and Rep. Mike Brandenburg, R-Edgeley, to create a rural community endowment fund and a committee for the fund. The bill would appropriate $5 million to the rural community endowment fund from the general fund in the state treasury. "It started out wanting $50 million," Wanzek said, referring to the original bill that included $50 million for the community endowment fund. He said the endowment fund could provide consistent and sustainable funding for small rural communities in the future. "We're trying to get it passed and get it in there, and even if it isn't accessible right away," he said. "If our ancestors, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, if we'd have done that, we'd have that endowment fund now." Headland said the Legislature is taking it seriously to put funds aside for infrastructure. "What we're really talking about is what's holding back economic development in rural areas is lack of infrastructure," he said. "I think we're going to have historic levels of funding for county roads, township roads, transmission, electric transmission, natural gas transmission pipelines." Sen. Cole Conley, R-Jamestown, said economic development is one of the most important things legislators work on. "That is the fuel that drives the economy," he said. Ostlie said a bill in the North Dakota Legislature could provide up to $100,000 for improvements at the Stutsman County Fairgrounds. HB 1591 — sponsored by Ostlie, Satrom, Wanzek and Conley — would create a one-to-one matching grant program and appropriate $3 million to the agriculture commissioner to provide grants to county agriculture fair associations for the planning, design and construction of infrastructure projects from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2027. No more than $100,000 could be awarded to a county agriculture fair association. "It's well needed across the state," Ostlie said. Satrom said agriculture development and diversification is a big deal. He said all local lawmakers sponsored a bill for value-added agriculture. Wanzek said bills in the Legislature are being pitted as public versus private schools. "I see this as empowering parents and empowering students to have a choice where in some situations they're limited in their ability to make that choice," he said. Headland agreed. "It's more of empowering parents to make the decisions that would they feel would be best for their children and the state being able to help with that," he said. "It doesn't take any money away from public (schools)." Wanzek said Senate Bill 2400 is an education savings account. Senate Bill 2400 would provide a $1,000 education savings account payment — it previously was $500 — to an eligible student if that student's household has an annual income less than or equal to 300% of the most recently revised poverty income guidelines. Headland said there is a misunderstanding of what House Bill 1258 does. "It doesn't take away local decision making unless that decision is deemed unreasonable," he said. House Bill 1258 would give the state Public Service Commission the authority to override rules set by local governments that conflict with a state approval for an electric transmission project, The Bismarck Tribune reported. The bill would apply to all power line siting cases, including the JETx project — a $440 million transmission line project that connects the Otter Tail Power Co. substation north of Jamestown along North Dakota Highway 20 to the Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. substation near Ellendale. The project was requested by the regional power grid operator Midcontinent Independent System Operators (MISO) and is promoted as a way to improve regional power grid reliability. MISO manages the power grid for a 15-state area and parts of the province of Manitoba. The Stutsman County Commission rejected a proposed zoning ordinance for gas and liquid transmission lines. The proposed zoning ordinance would have required a setback distance of 2,600 feet between any occupied dwelling and a new high voltage power line or large pipeline. The current standard is set at 500 feet by the North Dakota Public Service Commission. The proposed zoning ordinance change originated at the Stutsman County Planning and Zoning Commission, which unanimously approved in July changing the setback distance to 2,600 feet. The current Stutsman County zoning ordinance does not address setbacks for electrical transmission lines or pipelines. "You can't allow a small political subdivision to just zone something else because they don't want it," Headland said. He said all customers of Otter Tail and MDU pay for the cost of transmission line projects. "They need to be least tried to be kept as reasonably priced as we can," he said. "If you ended up with just nothing but a zigzag across the state, you're not going to have the ability to proceed forward with those projects." Headland said the last resort is eminent domain. Eminent domain means the government would have the power to take private property for public use even if the owner doesn't want to sell. The property owner would still be compensated. "In most cases, there are ways to work around it," Headland said. Headland said some landowners are unwilling to take a phone call from Otter Tail or MDU. "My suggestion to any property owner who has not yet talked to Otter Tail in this case with this particular line ... at least take their phone call, sit down with them," he said. "If you can't come to some kind of amenable agreement ... that's a decision you and the company will make. Let's just hope that we can find a route for this very, very critical piece of electric transmission infrastructure that we need."
BBC News
05-03-2025
- General
- BBC News
Roman cemetery found at Peterborough roadworks site 'unique'
Archaeologists who excavated a Roman cemetery say it is "unique" due to the range of different types of burial and grave goods, including bracelets buried with young dig team has been showing the BBC some of the jewellery discovered at the site at Wansford, near Peterborough, where the A47 is being personal treasures of those buried have been provisionally dated to the late Roman Britain period (3rd-4th Centuries), and include a solid stone coffin containing a corpse set in Archaeology's Jessica Lowther said further investigation of the artefacts would help "answer questions about those that lived here". One of the significant finds is jewellery found in the grave of the child, who was believed to have been about five years old, giving a possible indication of their wealth and high team said it was still unclear what community the cemetery served, as no evidence of other settlement buildings had been found in the immediate Machin, senior specialist at Headland, said the team had been studying the finds at their base at Silsoe in Bedfordshire."It's a collection of bracelets all found with the same child. What it tells us is what people thought about them and what they thought was appropriate to go into the grave," she said."It's a little picture of the community and how they were burying their people."The collection in the child's grave is similar to another grave and suggests a connection." Ms Machin said they could use DNA to establish links."Looking at skeletons we will be able to find out if they are related and what relationships there might be with the rest of the population," she said. The solid stone coffin, or sarchophagus, weighed the same as a small caravan, and featured in the latest series of the BBC's Digging for Britain programme. It was made of Ancaster stone, so the team said it might have been transported 30 miles south from the Lincolnshire village that gives its name to that type of stone, indicating the high status of the person buried in it. Ms Lowther said its lid was made using Barnack stone, which is local to the Peterborough area, therefore it was possible the original lid may have been broken and this was a replacement."This is how we tell stories about people that lived everyday lives. We don't [always] have history books written about us, but archaeology can tell us those stories," she said. She added that the different burial practices in such a small area made the cemetery "unique". These included:the solid stone coffin containing the gypsuma cist burial - using separate slabs of stone forming a coffincremationsgoods placed at both the heads or feet of the skeletondecapitated skeletonsiron nails, suggesting wooden coffins, since decomposed Chris Griffin, National Highways programme lead for the A47 project, said the finds would add to the tapestry of knowledge about the area, including the discovery of a small section of Roman road nearby, which the stone coffin may have been transported on."It's fascinating that we found a Roman road while we were building a road. Isn't that just great? "We didn't know that the road was there but the find shows us how important the A1 and A47 has been, going back to Roman times."Ms Lowther said: "Transporting the gypsum coffin at all would have been a major feat with lifting and manoeuvring, but then to add 30 miles of journey is quite a lot."Pulling the cart on a Roman road, which would have acted a little bit like a cobbled street, would not have been the smoothest." Ms Machin said it was "early stages" in piecing together information about how long the site was in use for burials, its place in the surrounding landscape and the stories of the individuals laid to rest there."What we have got now are all clues. Now we have a huge list of questions and we're moving on to the next stage to see how many answers we can get," she of the items are currently available for the public to see, and Headland said it was too early in the process for any decisions to be made about putting things on reports of all the archaeology found will be uploaded to Peterborough's Historic Environment Record, the team said. Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Major property tax bill clears committee with flexibility on caps
Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier, presents an amendment to a property tax bill on Feb. 6, 2025. (Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor) A nearly $500 million property tax overhaul championed by the governor cleared its first hurdle Thursday in the North Dakota House. House Bill 1176 is based on a plan proposed by Gov. Kelly Armstrong earlier this year to roughly triple a property tax credit for homeowners. The bill would cap annual property tax increases for local governments at 3% each year. The program would be funded in part with earnings from the state's Legacy Fund. The House Finance and Taxation Committee voted 12-2 Thursday evening to forward the bill to the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Ty Dressler, R-Richardton, and Rep. Dennis Nehring, R-Williston, were the only no votes. The bill, as amended Thursday by the committee, is estimated to cost the state about $473 million for the 2025-27 budget cycle, according to committee chair Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier. The primary residence tax credit was introduced in 2023 as a property tax discount for most North Dakota homeowners. As originally written, the bill would have increased the state's primary residence tax credit from $500 to $1,550 for the first year. Thursday's amendment slightly lowered that figure to $1,450. The bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, received pushback from some cities and counties about the 3% cap. Under the proposal, local governments would be able to 'bank' unused property tax increases for up to five years. Thursday's changes suggested by Headland provide more flexibility to cities and governments with respect to the property tax caps, as well — including allowing them to seek permission from voters to opt out of the caps for 10 years at a time. The amendment also eliminates income taxes for single filers who make up to roughly $54,000 a year, expanding on income tax cuts lawmakers made two years ago. For married taxpayers, that level would increase to nearly $90,000. North Dakota governor unveils bold property tax plan in first State of the State address Reps. Zac Ista, D-Grand Forks, and Austin Foss, D-Fargo, voted against Headland's amendment. During discussion on the amendment, Ista indicated opposition to the income tax cuts. Some agriculture groups had advocated for property tax cuts for farmers and ranchers. The amended bill does not address that, but the committee is considering other proposals as well, Headland said. If the bill is approved by the House Appropriations Committee, then it will go to the full House chamber for a vote. The House Finance and Taxation Committee will consider additional property tax proposals on Monday, Headland said. Armstrong said earlier this year he wants to eliminate property taxes for most homeowners within the next 10 years. His goal is for the program to become self-sustaining by using Legacy Fund earnings, eventually eliminating reliance on the state's general fund. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
