Latest news with #anti-DOGE
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gas prices dip below $3 a gallon at some Erie stations. What's the average price in May?
Gas prices in the Erie region have dipped in May, and at least two stations are now below $3 per gallon for regular unleaded. Back in March, the average cost per gallon was $3.45 according to GasBuddy's survey of 100 gas stations in Erie. This price was 7 cents lower than February and 32.4 cents lower than 2024. On May 15, GasBuddy identified the lowest price at the pump at $2.99 a gallon with two stations in Erie. The most expensive price was listed at $3.69 a gallon in Lake City. The average price for gas around Erie County is $3.19 a gallon. Here is more on what to expect from gas prices this month. Taking trash out: New litter boom to help clean water near Erie Water Works storm outfall On May 15, the Speed Check at 1719 Parade St. and the Shell station at 2176 W. 32nd St., according to are selling regular unleaded gas at $2.99 a gallon. The Speed Check at 2267 Buffalo Road also was advertising gas at $2.99 on May 15, although GasBuddy did not have that figure listed. GasBuddy identified stations in Erie County above the $3 mark but lower than the average price of $3.19 a gallon. Those stations include: Circle K at 830 US-19N in Waterford: $3.09 a gallon. Sam's Club at 7200 Peach St.: $3.14 a gallon. GasBuddy has identified the following 11 stations at the average price at $3.19 a gallon: Pilot at 8035 Perry Highway GetGo at 6001 Knowledge Parkway GetGo at 6400 Peach St. GetGo at 4307 Buffalo Road Citgo at 347 E. 12th St. Citgo at 5866 Station Road Citgo at 430 High St. in Waterford Shell Station at 605 Parade St. Shell Station at 13850 PA-8 in Wattsburg BP at 4050 Depot Road Kwik Fill at 717 High St in Waterford More: Why is there an anti-DOGE billboard ad in Erie? Experts weigh in The AAA Travel website lists the average retail price of gas across the U.S. at $3.19 per gallon. The average price across Pennsylvania is $3.28, which is higher than Erie County's $3.19 average price listed by In ranking the states by lowest to highest prices, Pennsylvania ranks at No. 41. The top five states with the highest prices are: California at $4.92 a gallon Hawaii at $4.49 a gallon Washington at $4.33 a gallon Nevada at $3.96 a gallon Oregon at $3.95 a gallon AAA states that the top five states with the cheapest average gas prices include: Mississippi at $2.66 a gallon Tennessee at $2.71 a gallon Louisiana at $2.73 a gallon Alabama at $2.76 a gallon Texas at $2.80 a gallon Contact Nicholas Sorensen at Nsorensen@ This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Cheapest gas prices around Erie County, PA
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
Climate vandals spray paint NYC Tesla dealership in Earth Day protest, clean it off when police arrive
Climate change vandals spray-painted a Tesla car dealership in Manhattan on Tuesday to protest Elon Musk's work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but as police arrived, the activists could be seen cleaning off some of the vulgar writing. The showroom is the latest Tesla location to be targeted by anti-Musk and anti-DOGE protesters since the billionaire CEO of the company began leading the cost-cutting agency. The incident also coincides with Earth Day, an annual event aimed at protecting the environment. Video shows two maskless men scrawling "F—k DOGE" and "We do not consent" on the store's windows with fluorescent red and green spray paint. Karoline Leavitt Condemns 'Dangerous' Attacks On Tesla: 'Domestic Terrorism' Several DOGE signs were also coated onto several windows with red lines crossing through each of them – similar to a "no" or "prohibited" symbol. The showroom is located in Manhattan's Meat Packing District, between Washington Street and W 13th Street, and people could be seen inside at the time. The group appeared to belong to the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, which has been known to overtake public spaces, cause disruptions and deface public buildings. The group claims to use non-violent civil disobedience to protest against political inaction over what they believe is man-made climate change. Read On The Fox News App The two climate vandals were arrested when police arrived on the scene. The younger man was wearing a pink t-shirt with the words "Climate Change = Mass Murder" inscribed on the back of his top. Asked why he was being arrested, the man said: "Because people do not consent to unelected fascists and this is Earth Day." The group's New York City chapter boasted about the defacing of the building on X. Extinction Rebellion also took credit for spray-painting Wall Street's iconic Raging Bull on Tuesday. Walz Staffer Accused Of Vandalizing Teslas Might Not Face Charges: Report Dozens of reported attacks on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations have taken place this year. The incidents range from minor vandalism, such as keying or graffiti, to more extreme cases like arson and drive-by shootings allegedly targeting Tesla vehicles. Several federal lawsuits pertaining to these Tesla attacks have been filed. Attorney General Pamela Bondi has said the Department of Justice is treating such incidents as "domestic terrorism." Some of the more serious attacks on Tesla in the U.S. include a March 18 incident in Las Vegas when police said 36-year-old Paul Hyon Kim used a Molotov cocktail to torch several Teslas at a local dealership. Four Tesla Cybertrucks were set on fire in a Seattle Tesla lot last month, while two Tesla Cybertrucks caught fire at a local dealership in Kansas article source: Climate vandals spray paint NYC Tesla dealership in Earth Day protest, clean it off when police arrive
Fox News
22-04-2025
- Automotive
- Fox News
Climate vandals spray paint NYC Tesla dealership in Earth Day protest, clean it off when police arrive
Climate change vandals spray-painted a Tesla car dealership in Manhattan on Tuesday to protest Elon Musk's work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but as police arrived, the activists could be seen cleaning off some of the vulgar writing. The showroom is the latest Tesla location to be targeted by anti-Musk and anti-DOGE protesters since the billionaire CEO of the company began leading the cost-cutting agency. The incident also coincides with Earth Day, an annual event aimed at protecting the environment. Video shows two maskless men scrawling "F—k DOGE" and "We do not consent" on the store's windows with fluorescent red and green spray paint. Several DOGE signs were also coated onto several windows with red lines crossing through each of them – similar to a "no" or "prohibited" symbol. The showroom is located in Manhattan's Meat Packing District, between Washington Street and W 13th Street, and people could be seen inside at the time. The group appeared to belong to the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, which has been known to overtake public spaces, cause disruptions and deface public buildings. The group claims to use non-violent civil disobedience to protest against political inaction over what they believe is man-made climate change. The two climate vandals were arrested when police arrived on the scene. The younger man was wearing a pink t-shirt with the words "Climate Change = Mass Murder" inscribed on the back of his top. Asked why he was being arrested, the man said: "Because people do not consent to unelected fascists and this is Earth Day." The group's New York City chapter boasted about the defacing of the building on X. Extinction Rebellion also took credit for spray-painting Wall Street's iconic Raging Bull on Tuesday. Dozens of reported attacks on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations have taken place this year. The incidents range from minor vandalism, such as keying or graffiti, to more extreme cases like arson and drive-by shootings allegedly targeting Tesla vehicles. Several federal lawsuits pertaining to these Tesla attacks have been filed. Attorney General Pamela Bondi has said the Department of Justice is treating such incidents as "domestic terrorism." Some of the more serious attacks on Tesla in the U.S. include a March 18 incident in Las Vegas when police said 36-year-old Paul Hyon Kim used a Molotov cocktail to torch several Teslas at a local dealership. Four Tesla Cybertrucks were set on fire in a Seattle Tesla lot last month, while two Tesla Cybertrucks caught fire at a local dealership in Kansas City.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DC Statehood is Going Nowhere. Is It Time to Think About Joining Maryland?
To protect the District of Columbia, it might be necessary to eliminate the District of Columbia — and merge it into the neighboring state of Maryland. It's an idea that many people think makes eminent practical sense in the name of running the city. Yet it's only in the air right now because of dramatic political reversals in the age of Donald Trump. Exactly four years ago this week, the House of Representatives passed a bill to make D.C. America's 51st state, bringing the nation's capital tantalizingly close to a civil rights-era dream. Today, by contrast, the city is reduced to begging Congress for permission to spend its own money to balance the books. Mayor Muriel Bowser this week announced plans for drastic budget cuts. It was just the latest humiliation. Since January, Trump has mused about a takeover and Hill Republicans have sought to end democratically elected local government altogether. Desperate to preserve some shred of home rule for their 700,000 citizens, D.C.'s leadership has placated the GOP on everything from ripping up a Black Lives Matter street mural to investigating anti-DOGE graffiti as a hate crime. The fear is epic: When the president posted a bizarre AI video depicting a Trumpified Gaza, one city source told me, colleagues worried they'd be next. In this environment, no one is talking seriously about statehood. Or, at least, they're not talking about 51st statehood. But the alarm over democracy and self-government has spurred a taboo-breaking and weirdly refreshing conversation about returning the 68-square-mile federal city to the 7th state: Maryland, which ceded the land to the fledgling United States back in 1790. Retrocession, as the idea is called, would be a 21st-century version of something that happened in the 1840s, when the rest of the original District of Columbia rejoined Virginia. Today, those 30-odd square miles are known as Arlington and Alexandria. And their fully enfranchised residents never have to worry about culture warriors from Georgia or Utah screwing around with their traffic rules, abortion rights or school budgets. For years, rejoining Maryland has been taboo among local die-hards. According to dogma dating back to the Civil Rights Movement, statehood is the one true way to rectify the mistreatment of a historically disenfranchised city — and snag a couple of Senate votes, too. But the current sense of crisis is such that one of the House's foremost Democratic D.C. supporters recently shocked the local establishment by pronouncing himself retrocession-friendly. 'I saw Mayor Bowser and I said if you guys want to think about coming back to Maryland for this period, you will definitely be safer in the Free State than you will be under the brutal thumb of MAGA colonialism,' Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a D.C. native and longtime statehood proponent, told me last month. Coming from a progressive icon, it was a jarring departure. How big a departure? Up to now, the people who championed retrocession were usually Republicans trying to slow the march to statehood. Hardline conservatives like former Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert embraced the idea. South Dakota Republican Dusty Johnson sponsored a retrocession bill in 2021, which not coincidentally was when the Democratic-led House OK'd statehood. Johnson's bill was given short shrift by Democrats, who derided it as evidence of how close they were to actually making D.C. a state. Raskin said Bowser 'took [his suggestion] under advisement,' and said it's up to locals to decide their strategy. The mayor's office told me this week that she still thinks D.C. should become its own state. That keeps her in line with the overwhelming majority of District officials. The Trump-era atmosphere of capitulation doesn't yet include openly compromising on the eternal dream. 'I strongly oppose this approach,' D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said in a statement. 'Unlike retrocession, D.C. statehood has strong support. Retrocession has no constituency in Maryland or in D.C.' That's too bad. Like Norton's preferred solution, retrocession would end the cycle of paralyzing budget impasses by ejecting attention-seeking national pols from hometown decision-making. But the idea might also be better than statehood when it comes to the day-to-day interests of those same residents once the feds are out of the picture. It's about services, not symbolism: Would you rather live in a place that has to create a real university system or judiciary based on a population only a bit larger than tiny Vermont or Wyoming — or join a decently sized state that does that stuff pretty well already? Don't take it from me. Take it from one D.C. local who's been quixotically banging the Maryland drum for ages: David Krucoff, a third-generation Washingtonian and onetime doomed GOP candidate for a city council seat. Krucoff, who calls himself a 'centrist political reformer' and blasts his own party's meddling with local affairs, says the lack of support for a Maryland merger is a function of Democratic pathologies. At the national level, he thinks the party is obsessed with using D.C. as a vehicle to add a pair of Senate seats. And locally, he says, activists have been so focused on the symbolic prize that they shun a much more achievable alternative. 'The orthodoxy in the Democratic Party is about going for what they consider the great, as opposed to what many perceive as the good, and in the process getting nothing,' he said. Not that Krucoff thinks merging with the state next door is just a second-best option. 'It's the only way we get economies of scale' that would save city taxpayers from having to stand up a prison system or fully replicate state functions. 'D.C. has about 90 agencies within its government, and most of them do functions that states do, as opposed to what cities do,' he said. 'Cities and counties mainly work on schools and public safety. So if we had to do less things that states do, we'd save some money. And of course Maryland would benefit from D.C. taxpayers, who are very well off, contributing to the Maryland economy.' According to 2022 data from the D.C. Policy Center, per capita revenue in the District is about $30,000 a head, while local and state revenue in Maryland comes to just over $14,000 a head. Those numbers would change a bit if the capital stopped being federal territory, and Washington will always have much higher spending needs. But they still make the city a pretty attractive acquisition for a neighboring state. To hear Krucoff tell it, a Vatican-like federal district would continue to exist after the merger, pared down to just the unpopulated monumental core around the National Mall. The rest of the city would follow the path 'Virginia D.C.' took nearly 180 years ago: First, Congress would pass enabling legislation. Then, District voters would OK it in a referendum. Finally, the state government would formally accept the new territory. Just like that, he says, D.C. would become Douglass County, Maryland — named for the Maryland-born abolitionist who became one of Washington's most revered residents. No one in this new county would have to worry again about federal budget mishaps interrupting local garbage collection. There are, of course, a few obstacles, even beyond the old establishment that has spent a generation imagining D.C. as the first urban state. For one, there's Congress. Republican enthusiasm for getting D.C. off the federal books tends to wane as the danger of statehood recedes. Tellingly, none of the old enthusiasts for retrocession have introduced measures to do so this year, with a GOP trifecta in place. For another, there's Maryland. State Republicans, who have a hard enough time carrying the deep-blue state, see adding a heavily Democratic city as a non-starter. But the idea also isn't very popular with Maryland Democrats. Baltimore-area pols, already concerned about the balance between their region and the Washington suburbs, worry that adding D.C. would further erode their power base. Just about any ambitious elected official who imagines becoming a governor or a speaker or a senator doesn't want to import a new source of competitors. There's a reason political mergers — between countries, counties or even villages — are so rare. Everyone with power has something to lose. In the case of D.C., that would include large chunks of the District bureaucracy, who'd understandably worry that their state-level jobs would become redundant. And it might even include me. I think what Raskin and Krucoff say makes a lot of sense. But as a D.C. native, I still cringe when I imagine myself driving around with Maryland tags. It's an irrational and stupid impulse — and just the sort of personal emotion that causes political movements to rise and fall. 'Maybe we can get a special carve-out,' Krucoff said. 'We can get a tag that says 'Douglass County' or something.' The initials would still be D.C.
Politico
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Politico
DC Statehood is Going Nowhere. Is It Time to Think About Joining Maryland?
To protect the District of Columbia, it might be necessary to eliminate the District of Columbia — and merge it into the neighboring state of Maryland. It's an idea that many people think makes eminent practical sense in the name of running the city. Yet it's only in the air right now because of dramatic political reversals in the age of Donald Trump. Exactly four years ago this week, the House of Representatives passed a bill to make D.C. America's 51st state, bringing the nation's capital tantalizingly close to a civil rights-era dream. Today, by contrast, the city is reduced to begging Congress for permission to spend its own money to balance the books. Mayor Muriel Bowser this week announced plans for drastic budget cuts . It was just the latest humiliation. Since January, Trump has mused about a takeover and Hill Republicans have sought to end democratically elected local government altogether . Desperate to preserve some shred of home rule for their 700,000 citizens, D.C.'s leadership has placated the GOP on everything from ripping up a Black Lives Matter street mural to investigating anti-DOGE graffiti as a hate crime . The fear is epic: When the president posted a bizarre AI video depicting a Trumpified Gaza , one city source told me, colleagues worried they'd be next. In this environment, no one is talking seriously about statehood. Or, at least, they're not talking about 51st statehood. But the alarm over democracy and self-government has spurred a taboo-breaking and weirdly refreshing conversation about returning the 68-square-mile federal city to the 7th state: Maryland, which ceded the land to the fledgling United States back in 1790. Retrocession, as the idea is called, would be a 21st-century version of something that happened in the 1840s, when the rest of the original District of Columbia rejoined Virginia. Today, those 30-odd square miles are known as Arlington and Alexandria. And their fully enfranchised residents never have to worry about culture warriors from Georgia or Utah screwing around with their traffic rules , abortion rights or school budgets . For years, rejoining Maryland has been taboo among local die-hards. According to dogma dating back to the Civil Rights Movement, statehood is the one true way to rectify the mistreatment of a historically disenfranchised city — and snag a couple of Senate votes, too. But the current sense of crisis is such that one of the House's foremost Democratic D.C. supporters recently shocked the local establishment by pronouncing himself retrocession-friendly. 'I saw Mayor Bowser and I said if you guys want to think about coming back to Maryland for this period, you will definitely be safer in the Free State than you will be under the brutal thumb of MAGA colonialism,' Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a D.C. native and longtime statehood proponent, told me last month. Coming from a progressive icon, it was a jarring departure. How big a departure? Up to now, the people who championed retrocession were usually Republicans trying to slow the march to statehood. Hardline conservatives like former Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert embraced the idea. South Dakota Republican Dusty Johnson sponsored a retrocession bill in 2021, which not coincidentally was when the Democratic-led House OK'd statehood. Johnson's bill was given short shrift by Democrats, who derided it as evidence of how close they were to actually making D.C. a state. Raskin said Bowser 'took [his suggestion] under advisement,' and said it's up to locals to decide their strategy. The mayor's office told me this week that she still thinks D.C. should become its own state. That keeps her in line with the overwhelming majority of District officials. The Trump-era atmosphere of capitulation doesn't yet include openly compromising on the eternal dream. 'I strongly oppose this approach,' D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said in a statement. 'Unlike retrocession, D.C. statehood has strong support. Retrocession has no constituency in Maryland or in D.C.' That's too bad. Like Norton's preferred solution, retrocession would end the cycle of paralyzing budget impasses by ejecting attention-seeking national pols from hometown decision-making. But the idea might also be better than statehood when it comes to the day-to-day interests of those same residents once the feds are out of the picture. It's about services, not symbolism: Would you rather live in a place that has to create a real university system or judiciary based on a population only a bit larger than tiny Vermont or Wyoming — or join a decently sized state that does that stuff pretty well already? Don't take it from me. Take it from one D.C. local who's been quixotically banging the Maryland drum for ages: David Krucoff, a third-generation Washingtonian and onetime doomed GOP candidate for a city council seat. Krucoff, who calls himself a 'centrist political reformer' and blasts his own party's meddling with local affairs, says the lack of support for a Maryland merger is a function of Democratic pathologies. At the national level, he thinks the party is obsessed with using D.C. as a vehicle to add a pair of Senate seats. And locally, he says, activists have been so focused on the symbolic prize that they shun a much more achievable alternative. 'The orthodoxy in the Democratic Party is about going for what they consider the great, as opposed to what many perceive as the good, and in the process getting nothing,' he said. Not that Krucoff thinks merging with the state next door is just a second-best option. 'It's the only way we get economies of scale' that would save city taxpayers from having to stand up a prison system or fully replicate state functions. 'D.C. has about 90 agencies within its government, and most of them do functions that states do, as opposed to what cities do,' he said. 'Cities and counties mainly work on schools and public safety. So if we had to do less things that states do, we'd save some money. And of course Maryland would benefit from D.C. taxpayers, who are very well off, contributing to the Maryland economy.' According to 2022 data from the D.C. Policy Center, per capita revenue in the District is about $30,000 a head, while local and state revenue in Maryland comes to just over $14,000 a head. Those numbers would change a bit if the capital stopped being federal territory, and Washington will always have much higher spending needs. But they still make the city a pretty attractive acquisition for a neighboring state. To hear Krucoff tell it, a Vatican-like federal district would continue to exist after the merger, pared down to just the unpopulated monumental core around the National Mall. The rest of the city would follow the path 'Virginia D.C.' took nearly 180 years ago: First, Congress would pass enabling legislation. Then, District voters would OK it in a referendum. Finally, the state government would formally accept the new territory. Just like that, he says, D.C. would become Douglass County, Maryland — named for the Maryland-born abolitionist who became one of Washington's most revered residents. No one in this new county would have to worry again about federal budget mishaps interrupting local garbage collection. There are, of course, a few obstacles, even beyond the old establishment that has spent a generation imagining D.C. as the first urban state. For one, there's Congress. Republican enthusiasm for getting D.C. off the federal books tends to wane as the danger of statehood recedes. Tellingly, none of the old enthusiasts for retrocession have introduced measures to do so this year, with a GOP trifecta in place. For another, there's Maryland. State Republicans, who have a hard enough time carrying the deep-blue state, see adding a heavily Democratic city as a non-starter. But the idea also isn't very popular with Maryland Democrats. Baltimore-area pols, already concerned about the balance between their region and the Washington suburbs, worry that adding D.C. would further erode their power base. Just about any ambitious elected official who imagines becoming a governor or a speaker or a senator doesn't want to import a new source of competitors. There's a reason political mergers — between countries, counties or even villages — are so rare. Everyone with power has something to lose. In the case of D.C., that would include large chunks of the District bureaucracy, who'd understandably worry that their state-level jobs would become redundant. And it might even include me. I think what Raskin and Krucoff say makes a lot of sense. But as a D.C. native, I still cringe when I imagine myself driving around with Maryland tags. It's an irrational and stupid impulse — and just the sort of personal emotion that causes political movements to rise and fall. 'Maybe we can get a special carve-out,' Krucoff said. 'We can get a tag that says 'Douglass County' or something.' The initials would still be D.C.
