Latest news with #Strangio
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Local tourism leaders plan for 'unpredictable' summer season
With the official start of the 2025 tourism season just weeks away, local industry leaders and city officials are keeping a wary eye on what the summer season will hold for the Cataract City. A Wednesday afternoon summit with Mayor Robert Restaino, Destination Niagara USA President & CEO John Percy and members of the Niagara Falls Hotel and Motel Association seemed to yield equal measures of concern and confidence. 'We've seen some reduction in (local) cross-border traffic,' Restaino said. 'We met to make sure our (local tourism) industry is nimble enough to react to it.' But the mayor cautioned that local governments 'have very little ability to impact' tourism. The industry has been hit by headwinds created by dramatic changes in the United States' policies on immigration, travel and tariffs. In particular, a trade war and suggestions by President Donald Trump that the U.S. should simply annex Canada as a 51st state have plunged the relationship between the two neighbors into a deep freeze. Mass deportations and other aggressive law enforcement actions against immigrants have also led many nations to issue advisories cautioning against travel to the U.S. Frank Strangio, whose family operates multiple hotel properties in the Falls, said his sites have seen lower occupancy rates in the run-up to the Memorial Day kick-off of the tourist season. He said booking projections suggest those occupancy declines could continue into the summer, fueled by an absence of both Canadian and international travelers. 'We're seeing a downturn in international (travelers),' Strangio said. 'I don't know if maybe they don't feel welcome here. But that is the wrong message. Come and stay. That's what makes America great. We want to see people from all over the world.' Restaino told the association members that city officials are 'exploring doing something with the occupancy tax. The 6% surcharge on what travelers pay for hotel and motel rooms is used to fund tourism-related expenses, including the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's trolley service and the Discover Niagara Shuttle. The mayor said he hoped a 'holiday' on the occupancy tax collections might make room rates more affordable. 'We're not looking at a permanent reduction,' Restaino said. 'We're trying to protect the trolley and the shuttle (both services receive 1% of the occupancy tax revenues).' Strangio said he believes that with the uncertainty of the upcoming tourist season, the region's tourism promotion efforts shouldn't be put at risk. He advocated for continued support for local marketing efforts. 'We need to keep spending on marketing,' Strangio said. 'When we spend less, we make less.' Percy, a long-time tourism industry leader, agreed with Strangio and said Destination Niagara USA is looking to remain aggressive in its advertising and promotions. He said his agency was 'paying attention and has its finger on the pulse' of the decline in Canadian and international travel to the Falls. But he also said Niagara USA was ready to 'pivot' its message to a 'domestic audience of travelers' who live from 3 to 5 hours from the Falls. 'We've always fared well (in tough economies) and we feel we will again this time,' Percy said. 'We don't pull back. We forge ahead.'
ABC News
01-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Why Gen Z and millennial voters could deliver unexpected election results
They're disillusioned, resentful and many suspect the system is rigged against them. For the first time, Gen Z and millennial voters outnumber baby boomers at the federal election — and most of them aren't reaching the same milestones as their parents. More than 7 million Australians Political analysts say their grievances could deliver unexpected results in marginal seats. A widening wealth gap Paul Strangio, emeritus professor in politics at Monash University, said generational inequality could be driving "unpredictable" voting patterns among Gen Zs and millennials. "They're not reaching the sort of milestones that previous generations did, such as home ownership, marrying [and] having children," Dr Strangio said. "Those things used to predispose people to becoming more conservative in their outlook." Stay updated: Catch the latest interviews and in-depth coverage on Australia's birth rate recently Photo shows A woman holds a black dog overlooking the beach. To understand why 30-somethings feel like they're struggling financially, the ABC analysed five factors — housing, healthcare, debt, tax, and income. UNSW economics professor Richard Holden said while many young voters earn higher incomes today than their parents did at their age, it was now much harder to build wealth through property ownership. "I'm not sure there's rising intergenerational income inequality, but there's a good case to worry about wealth inequality," he said. "And I'd say that aspect is getting worse." Many young Australians say they can't compete with older buyers at auctions. ( ABC News: Michael Coggan ) Tim Harcourt, an economist at the University of Technology Sydney, agreed the wealth disparity between generations was becoming increasingly acute. "It's really starting to bite now as the Baby Boomers retire into their defined benefits superannuation schemes and extra properties," he said. "I think housing is a red button issue … and that's where the youth reaction will be really important." Young voters 'a ticking time bomb' Dr Strangio said voters typically became more conservative as they grew older, but now they're skewing further to the left and feeling increasingly dissatisfied with the major parties. "Young voters are a ticking time bomb," he said. "They're facing real wage declines, high costs for education, difficulty in getting into the housing market and yet so far I think they've been quiet tolerant." Photo shows A smiling, dark-haired young woman in flared jeans stands in bare feet on a house veranda. Young people in some of Australia's most expensive regional towns are disappointed with both major parties, as experts warn their policies are likely to push house prices up even further. But he warned their patience wouldn't last forever. "When we look overseas to places like Trump's America, young men are being attracted to aggressive, populist policies because of inequalities," he said. "I think it's a warning that we do need to address those things with some urgency because we don't want to see those sorts of trends." Professor Harcourt said while the youth vote typically skewed to the left in inner-city electorates, voting patterns would be harder to predict among tradies or factory workers in rural areas. "It's quite unpredictable in the outer suburbs where there's housing stress and population stress, where there is a view that the infrastructure is not keeping up with the population growth," he said. Read more about the federal election: Want even more? Here's where you can find all our 2025 Climate change remains a concern Aside from housing affordability and the cost of living, a new YouGov poll suggests young voters remain deeply concerned about the impacts of climate change. Earlier this year, Australians' social media accounts lit up with videos of A kayaker navigating floodwaters in Lockyer Valley in south-east Queensland. ( Supplied: Michelle Badke ) According to the YouGov poll, four-in-five young voters said climate change would influence their vote in the federal election. The poll of 1,622 adult Australian voters, commissioned by Solutions for Climate Australia, found 79 per cent of Gen Zs and 73 per cent of millennials said climate change was an important part of their decision-making at the polling booth. About 67 per cent of undecided voters also said climate change was important in determining their vote. Australian Youth Climate Coalition national director Grace Vegesana said the issue wasn't going away. Grace Vegesana says young people will continue to prioritise climate action. ( Supplied: Grace Vegesana ) "I think the parties who ignore young people will pay the price at the ballot box," she said. "Young people under 40 do deeply care about the climate crisis and if they're not seeing solutions … they will vote accordingly." She said many young voters reported feeling left behind this election. "We are going to see a shift away from the major parties as people realise [we] want to see ambition, and not just be handed baseline policies that continue business as usual," she said. Loading Having trouble seeing this form? Try
Boston Globe
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
New doc follows Newton native Chase Strangio, the first openly trans person to orally argue a case before the Supreme Court
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Strangio attended Sundance to promote 'Heightened Scrutiny,' a new documentary directed by Sam Feder ('Disclosure') that follows Strangio during the months leading up to his Advertisement The case, which challenged Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors, was historic: It marked the first time an openly transgender person had made oral arguments before the Supreme Court. The court is expected to provide a decision Feder got the idea to make the film early last year, when he noticed a wave of articles in mainstream media outlets — particularly left-leaning ones — debating gender-affirming care. This surge of media coverage, the film notes, seemed fixated on framing transition care as potentially harmful to adolescents by focusing on the possibility of health risks or regrets. 'The first entry into the film was really looking at the coverage and how the coverage is connected to the criminalization of trans bodies,' Feder, who is also trans, said during the same interview at Sundance. 'We're losing our allies, because mainstream media is telling them that you can debate our lives — that we're an idea, not an identity.' Strangio added, 'The heightened scrutiny of our lives, our bodies, and our health care is the problem. It is not untrue that medical care for trans people carries risks. It's just that all medical care carries risks.' Advertisement From left: Chase Strangio, Sam Feder, and Ash Hoyle attend the "Heightened Scrutiny" premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Ray Theatre on Jan. 27 in Park City, Utah. Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty The film, which also includes testimonies from journalists and luminaries like Gina Chua, Laverne Cox, and Jelani Cobb, drives its point home by considering a 2018 health report issue of The Atlantic. The cover story was ' These analytical segments accompany observational sequences trailing Strangio both in professional settings and simply going about his daily life. We see him attend advocacy events, practice his oral arguments, and take in the presidential debate alongside friends, including the Strangio lived in Boston while attending law school at Northeastern University. 'Even before I went to law school, I definitely, politically and intellectually, thought of law in the United States as a system of violence,' he said. 'I think of the work as: The law is always imposing violence upon us. How do we push it away from us in order to do the more liberatory work?' In one scene, Strangio attends a meeting to oppose anti-trans attacks at the school board level in New York City, where both Strangio and Feder currently reside. 'Sam started coming to the meetings as a person' rather than as a filmmaker, Strangio said. 'We're trying to bring people just to bear witness, so people are more attuned to the idea that there is no such thing as a safe jurisdiction in the United States from the encroachment of far-right policies.' Advertisement During the meeting, viewers meet a spunky 12-year-old transgender student named Mila. The film shows her speaking up at the assembly and later taking the podium outside the Supreme Court during Strangio's oral arguments. Feder also depicts Mila in more personal moments, like during a family dinner where Mila's mother grows emotional while vocalizing her unwavering support for her daughter. Feder noted that it was important to him to incorporate Mila's story in the film. 'No movement is created by one person. Chase has done incredible work that no one else has done, but this is about a community,' he said, adding that while much of the coverage of transition care has focused on kids and adolescents, they have rarely been afforded a voice of their own in the struggle. 'People are busy. They don't have time to do their own research,' the filmmaker added. 'They will run with a good line that they read in a newspaper article. I see part of my job as creating a space for context, so you're walking out with a larger picture.' Natalia Winkelman is a film critic based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Follow her @nataliawinke. Natalia Winkelman can be reached at
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Heightened Scrutiny' Review: A Transgender Attorney Heads to the Supreme Court in an Emotional and Informative Doc
The visual approach in 'Heightened Scrutiny' — Sam Feder's documentary following a transgender lawyer prepping for a U.S. Supreme Court case — seems familiar at the outset. Its straightforward approach to locked-off sit-down interviews, interspersed with graphics and other B-roll footage, is hardly novel. However, an immense amount of care and detail goes into its construction, deepening its use of traditional form and packing a powerful punch. 'Heightened Scrutiny' follows ACLU attorney Chase Strangio, as he prepares to become the first transgender person to make arguments before the Supreme Court. However, this superlative — while it's certainly compared to other civil rights landmarks — is but a fleeting detail in the face of how vital the case in question might be. United States v. Skrmetti is, at the time of the film's Sundance premiere, still ongoing, and is set to determine whether Tennessee banning hormone therapy and puberty blockers for transgender youth violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. More from Variety Marlee Matlin Says Hollywood Hasn't Changed Since 'CODA,' but That Won't Stop Her From Creating Her Own Projects: 'I'm Still Knocking on Doors' 'Wedding Banquet' Trailer: Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone Plan a Sham Wedding in Remake of Ang Lee's Queer Rom-Com Classic Why Isaac Mizrahi Both Cringes and Feels 'Weirdly Empowered' by the Re-Release of 'Unzipped' for Its 30th Anniversary at Sundance For those unaware of the particulars, Strangio makes persuasive arguments to the camera. But 'Heightened Scrutiny' isn't just concerned with specific legalese. Feder seems aware that what determines such a ruling is much larger than constitutional language, and he therefore takes aim at the media building blocks of anti-transgender prejudice — the way Feder's previous work, 'Disclosure,' examined trans films in Hollywood — and the way news stories inform lawmaking. The film, in this way, takes on an occasionally essayistic form, as it holds major news organizations like The New York Times and The Atlantic accountable in jaw-dropping, thorough detail. Its arguments are as academic as they are emotional. Strangio is joined by a number of trans activists — including famous faces like Elliot Page, and an outspoken 12-year-old named Mila — in not only expounding upon daily prejudices and hypocrisies of anti-trans alarmism, but also daily mundanities. In capturing Mila's family dinners, and in following Strangio home, watching him pick out outfits, and fawn over his cat, the movie's key persuasion becomes the everyday relatability of its subjects. What separates 'Heightened Scrutiny' from similarly straightforward works is that it takes its time. Despite its slim 89-minute runtime, it feels entirely rigorous in its unraveling of personal and practical information. You could throw a penny blindfolded and have it land on a documentary that employs fleeting expert testimonials; where Feder's movie stands apart is that none of its interviewees are mere talking heads — whether lawyers, journalists, parents of trans children, or celebrities like Peppermint and Laverne Cox. No single subject is used merely to add color. Rather, they become full-fledged, fully-formed characters in and of themselves, whose inner lives are the focus as much as their expertise. Furthermore, the film never separates these facets of their experience; their emotional connection to the case is paramount. As if in stern rebuke to the 'just asking questions' crowd, who reduce people's real lives to intellectual exercises, 'Heightened Scrutiny' interweaves thought and feeling simultaneously. Strangio may be the movie's anchor, but as much as he builds legal arguments, his sense of camaraderie with the film's other trans subjects widens the scope of what's at stake for trans lives, and for America as a whole, in the years to come. Beyond all the legal and even medical specifics resides a sense of communal understanding, and — at the risk of sounding mawkish — a deep and abiding love for one's fellow human beings, which Feder taps into with aplomb. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
