Latest news with #Welch
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Historic mansion designed by El Paso's first woman architect hits market for $1.29M
An architectural treasure dating back nearly a century is for sale in Central El Paso. The 5100-square-foot mansion, located at 3009 Silver Avenue in the Castle/Manhattan Heights neighborhood, is on the market for $1.29 million. The historic four-bedroom, six-bathroom home dates back to 1927, according to its listing. The architecture of the property is distinctive — the charming home was designed by Mabel Welch, El Paso's first woman architect, who is credited with introducing many of the Spanish-Mediterranean style homes in Manhattan Heights and across El Paso. It is estimated that Welch built more than 1,500 homes in the Borderland, according to the El Paso County Historical Society. Inside the home are Welch's signature archways, hardwood floors, and multiple fireplaces. The backyard features rose gardens, a lap pool, and a large wall for privacy. Here's a closer look at the home: Natassia Paloma may be reached at npaloma@ @NatassiaPaloma on Twitter; natassia_paloma on Instagram, and Natassia Paloma Thompson on Facebook. More: Padel, a fast-rising rackets sport, set to make debut in West El Paso in $3.7M complex This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Central El Paso mansion with rose gardens, lap pool listed at $1.29M
Hamilton Spectator
18 hours ago
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Nipissing First Nation leads rally against Ontario's Bill 5
About 70 people gathered before MPP Vic Fedeli's office on North Bay's Main Street today to protest the province's proposed Bill 5. Nipissing First Nation (NFN) organized the event. Bill 5, the Unleashing Our Economy Act, is designed to fast-track economic development and holds many amendments to the Environmental Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. NFN is concerned that this expedited process will reduce opportunities for consultation between the province and First Nations. 'Bill 5 is new legislation that could harm our land, weaken environmental protections, and ignore our Treaty rights. It was created without proper consultation with Indigenous peoples. This is not right and we must speak out,' NFN explained in a release. The demonstration was part of a larger day of protest, as many First Nations throughout the province took part. See: Ontario PCs to limit debate on controversial Bill 5, among other legislation NFN's Chief, Cathy Stevens, attended a rally against the Bill at Queen's Park, so she could not attend the local protest. In a statement, Chief Stevens said, 'The changes proposed in Bill 5 threaten not only our rights but our identity.' The chief continued, 'The land holds the stories of our ancestors, reaching back over 13,000 years. This Bill does not protect Ontario. It protects profit. If Ontario truly values its past and its future, it must remove these exemptions and work with First Nations to protect what cannot be replaced.' Vic Fedeli, the Minister of Economic Development, was not at his North Bay office this morning. However, in an email to BayToday, Fedeli emphasized the importance of Bill 5 to keep Ontario competitive. He wrote, 'Now more than ever, it is important for Ontario to remain competitive in the global race to attract and maintain job-creating investments. If projects are going to take ten years to get shovels in the ground, Ontario will lose out on billions of dollars of new investment to other jurisdictions.' Fedeli continued, 'The proposed legislation is about unlocking Ontario's true economic potential, not overriding Indigenous rights, environmental safeguards, or existing labour laws.' See: Ford government's plan for 'Indigenous-led' zones under Bill 5 'too late,' leaders say Cameron Welch, the Director of Lands, Natural Resources, and Economic Development for NFN, is concerned that unlocking that economic potential will come at great cost to the environment, and relations between the province and First Nations. Welch said, given the current climate with tariff threats from the US, 'I'm concerned the provincial government is using some of that uncertainty and people's anxiousness to really gut important safeguards in provincial legislation.' 'I wonder if they are using this [economic] uncertainty, and these difficult times to advance their own interests, at the expense of not only the environment but also the Treaty relationship,' Welch added. For Welch, the danger of Bill 5 is that it creates special economic zones, 'And within these zones, as we understand it, the safeguards in terms of calling for environmental review, and all of those pieces that go along with project approval, will be essentially removed.' If those zones are created, 'At what stage during that process does the consultation and accommodation of Indigenous rights come in? We're concerned that this might strike at the very basis of the Treaty arrangement, where you have one side of the Treaty unilaterally declaring we're going to go ahead with this project.' Yvette Bellefeuille, an NFN councillor, agreed with Welch that the province is taking advantage of an opportunity. 'They are overreaching. They're not including consultations with First Nations in the development of this Bill, and it impacts them. A lot of the lands the Ontario Government is trying to grab is First Nation land.' David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - Trump 2.0 is the final victory of the John Birch Society
In 1958, a group of prominent business leaders founded the John Birch Society. Led by Robert Welch, inheritor of a vast candy fortune, these titans of wealth believed a vast communist conspiracy had penetrated the U.S. government. In 'The Blue Book of the John Birch Society,' Welch presented an apocalyptic vision where politics was no longer a staid battle between the two political parties but a conflict 'between light and darkness; between freedom and slavery; between the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of the anti-Christ for the souls and bodies of men.' Welch claimed these non-Christians sought to replace Christianity with a 'pragmatic opportunism' governed by 'hedonistic aims.' He dubbed his followers 'God's Angry Men.' What energized the Birchers was their belief that the U.S. government was engaged in a plot to strip Americans of their individual rights and impose a collectivist regime on an unsuspecting public. To them, the evidence was conclusive: the 'gradual surrender of American sovereignty to various international organizations,' of which the United Nations is the outstanding example; the centralization of power in Washington, D.C., which resulted in the 'practical elimination of our state lines'; the 'steady advance of federal aid to and control over our educational system, leading to complete federalization of our public education;' liberal news media through which 'gullible Americans more readily swallow as true' that communism is a 'glorious system;' using the term 'civil rights' to ignite the 'flames of disorder;' and the fluoridation of public drinking water as a means of instituting socialized medicine and imposing vaccine mandates to control the population. To accomplish his aims, Welch sought to recruit 'a million men' who would impose an American-style version of authoritarianism: 'The John Birch Society will operate under completely authoritative control at all levels. … We mean business every step of the way.' The John Birch Society quickly grew to a membership of 30,000 with a staff of 240 employees and more than 400 bookstores across the U.S. with an annual income of $1.3 million. Robert Welch attracted support from the middle class and the well-to-do. As Barry Goldwater noted, 'Every other person in Phoenix is a member of the John Birch Society. I'm not talking about commie-hunted apple pickers or cactus drunks. I'm talking about the highest cast of men of affairs.' What made the John Birch Society popular was its appeal to conspiracists who saw the government as the enemy. Welch even went so far as to call Dwight D. Eisenhower a 'dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy,' a charge that infuriated Eisenhower. Conservatives eventually came to despise the John Birch Society. William F. Buckley wondered how its members could tolerate 'such paranoid and unpatriotic drivel.' Yet today, Robert Welch's dream of taking over the Republican Party and imposing an authoritarian-style regime has come to pass. Writing in The Bulwark in 2022, Robert Tracinski declared: 'The Birchers are back. And they're winning.' Tracinski noted the signs of conquest were everywhere: a belief in 'the machinations of a secret cabal that controls everything from the intelligence agencies to the schools,' the 'rapid spread of crackpot theories to otherwise normal and respectable people,' the disarming of conservative critics as 'weak-kneed appeasers handing over the country to its enemies' and an 'uneasy balancing act of conservatives in the media and in politics who don't want to denounce the crackpots for fear of angering their party's base.' Trump's second term has brought about the final victory of the John Birch Society. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy has incorrectly denounced vaccinations as causing the rise of autism in children, while claiming the measles vaccine has not been 'safely tested.' He has virtually dismantled the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been charged with demolishing that agency through the questionable use of a presidential executive order to fulfill Trump's promise to return education to the states 'where it belongs.' The Birchers would be delighted with the virtual elimination of USAID and Trump's pause on all foreign aid, including suspending George W. Bush's President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief that has delivered medication to 25 million people in 54 countries. The United Nations has become a place where Trump cast-offs like Michael Waltz are sent into exile. Trump has installed Kash Patel as FBI director and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, where both are firing those they believe belong to the 'deep state.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio is dismantling of the National Security Council staff, which one White House official gleefully described as the 'gutting' of the 'deep state.' We are also witnessing the targeting of bureaucrats such as Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, whom Trump deems as 'egregious leakers and disseminators of falsehoods.' Finally, we are seeing fluoride bans in public drinking water in Utah and Florida, with other states poised to follow suit. No wonder one Bircher exclaimed, 'God has delivered Donald J. Trump to save the United States of America.' John F. Kennedy once described members of the John Birch Society as those on the fringes 'who have sought to escape their own responsibility by finding a simple solution, an appealing slogan, or a convenient scapegoat.' Trump's reelection has given Welch and the John Birch Society something they desired but never really thought imaginable: victory. John Kenneth White is a professor emeritus at the Catholic University of America. His latest book is titled 'Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
a day ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump 2.0 is the final victory of the John Birch Society
In 1958, a group of prominent business leaders founded the John Birch Society. Led by Robert Welch, inheritor of a vast candy fortune, these titans of wealth believed a vast communist conspiracy had penetrated the U.S. government. In 'The Blue Book of the John Birch Society,' Welch presented an apocalyptic vision where politics was no longer a staid battle between the two political parties but a conflict 'between light and darkness; between freedom and slavery; between the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of the anti-Christ for the souls and bodies of men.' Welch claimed these non-Christians sought to replace Christianity with a 'pragmatic opportunism' governed by 'hedonistic aims.' He dubbed his followers 'God's Angry Men.' What energized the Birchers was their belief that the U.S. government was engaged in a plot to strip Americans of their individual rights and impose a collectivist regime on an unsuspecting public. To them, the evidence was conclusive: To accomplish his aims, Welch sought to recruit 'a million men' who would impose an American-style version of authoritarianism: 'The John Birch Society will operate under completely authoritative control at all levels. … We mean business every step of the way.' The John Birch Society quickly grew to a membership of 30,000 with a staff of 240 employees and more than 400 bookstores across the U.S. with an annual income of $1.3 million. Robert Welch attracted support from the middle class and the well-to-do. As Barry Goldwater noted, 'Every other person in Phoenix is a member of the John Birch Society. I'm not talking about commie-hunted apple pickers or cactus drunks. I'm talking about the highest cast of men of affairs.' What made the John Birch Society popular was its appeal to conspiracists who saw the government as the enemy. Welch even went so far as to call Dwight D. Eisenhower a 'dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy,' a charge that infuriated Eisenhower. Conservatives eventually came to despise the John Birch Society. William F. Buckley wondered how its members could tolerate 'such paranoid and unpatriotic drivel.' Yet today, Robert Welch's dream of taking over the Republican Party and imposing an authoritarian-style regime has come to pass. Writing in The Bulwark in 2022, Robert Tracinski declared: 'The Birchers are back. And they're winning.' Tracinski noted the signs of conquest were everywhere: a belief in 'the machinations of a secret cabal that controls everything from the intelligence agencies to the schools,' the 'rapid spread of crackpot theories to otherwise normal and respectable people,' the disarming of conservative critics as 'weak-kneed appeasers handing over the country to its enemies' and an 'uneasy balancing act of conservatives in the media and in politics who don't want to denounce the crackpots for fear of angering their party's base.' Trump's second term has brought about the final victory of the John Birch Society. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy has incorrectly denounced vaccinations as causing the rise of autism in children, while claiming the measles vaccine has not been 'safely tested.' He has virtually dismantled the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been charged with demolishing that agency through the questionable use of a presidential executive order to fulfill Trump's promise to return education to the states 'where it belongs.' The Birchers would be delighted with the virtual elimination of USAID and Trump's pause on all foreign aid, including suspending George W. Bush's President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief that has delivered medication to 25 million people in 54 countries. The United Nations has become a place where Trump cast-offs like Michael Waltz are sent into exile. Trump has installed Kash Patel as FBI director and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, where both are firing those they believe belong to the 'deep state.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio is dismantling of the National Security Council staff, which one White House official gleefully described as the 'gutting' of the 'deep state.' We are also witnessing the targeting of bureaucrats such as Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, whom Trump deems as 'egregious leakers and disseminators of falsehoods.' Finally, we are seeing fluoride bans in public drinking water in Utah and Florida, with other states poised to follow suit. No wonder one Bircher exclaimed, 'God has delivered Donald J. Trump to save the United States of America.' John F. Kennedy once described members of the John Birch Society as those on the fringes 'who have sought to escape their own responsibility by finding a simple solution, an appealing slogan, or a convenient scapegoat.' Trump's reelection has given Welch and the John Birch Society something they desired but never really thought imaginable: victory. John Kenneth White is a professor emeritus at the Catholic University of America. His latest book is titled 'Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Illinois lawmakers pass $55B budget with new taxes, no transit or Bears stadium funding
The Brief State lawmakers passed a $55 billion budget just before the midnight deadline over the weekend. The budget includes new or increased taxes on sports betting and tobacco products. Lawmakers did not pass plans to address a fiscal cliff facing the state's public transit system or funding for a new Bears stadium. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - State lawmakers passed the budget for the next fiscal year, meeting their midnight deadline. Leaders worked late into the evening with just minutes to spare last night to pass the $55 billion budget that now goes to Gov. JB Pritzker's desk. What they're saying The governor said in posts on X, the social media site, that he will sign it. "I'm grateful to Speaker Welch, President Harmon, the budget teams, and all the legislators and stakeholders who collaborated to shape and pass this legislation. I look forward to signing my seventh balanced budget in a row and continuing to build a stronger Illinois," Pritzker wrote. The budget includes just over $1 billion in new taxes and revenue changes, Capitol News Illinois reported. Republican lawmakers in the minority blasted the Democratic majority for the increase in taxes. "Speaker Welch said the quiet part out loud: tax and spend Democrats are thriving in Illinois…at the expense of Illinois families," said House Minority Leader Tony McCombie in a statement. "Rather than pursuing meaningful structural reforms to secure our state's future, Democrats chose to prioritize politician pay raises, steal from the rainy-day fund, and funnel money into their own pork projects." By the numbers The new taxes include: A 25-cent tax per wager for sports betting licensees' first 20,000 wagers and 50 cents per wager after that Increase in tobacco products from 36% to 45% Subjecting businesses that move profits to other countries to the state's corporate income tax Republican lawmakers and business entities like the Illinois Chamber of Commerce were critical of the new taxes. "This breaks the commitment to avoid new taxes and sends the wrong message to employers across the state," the Chamber said in a statement. Lawmakers also decided to cut a controversial program to provide health insurance for more than 30,000 noncitizens between the ages of 42 and 64, which would save about $330 million. A $110 million program for seniors will remain in place. The proposal to cut the program had come under fire from Latino lawmakers and activist groups, as well as progressive groups. The new budget will also not add $43 million to a property tax relief program. The $307 million in mandated additional K-12 education funding was approved. The final budget plan was passed without some key issues addressed, including added funding to prevent a fiscal cliff facing the region's public transit agencies and funding for a new Bears stadium. The transit funding was an especially big issue as the Regional Transit Authority faces a $770 million shortfall in 2026 and warned of possible significant service cuts as pandemic funding ran dry. Transit officials and union groups were pushing for lawmakers to approve more funding to avoid such a cliff. The Labor Alliance for Public Transportation said in a statement: "Last night's failure to pass a comprehensive transportation bill to avert a fiscal cliff jeopardizes Illinois transit systems with expected cuts, massive lay-offs, and service disruptions for the Chicago Transit Authority, Pace, and Metra. As the General Assembly adjourns with neither reform or revenue, transit riders and workers alike are left concerned about the future of our communities."
