Prosecutor to drop charges against some who protested giant Hawaii telescope FILE – In this April 2, 2015, file photo, Department of Land and Natural Resources officers arrest a protester on the road to Thirty Meter Telescope building site on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hilo, Hawaii. Hawaii County top prosecutor Mitch Roth said Friday, May 29, 2015 that he will dismiss charges against about 10 of the 31 protesters who were arrested while blocking construction of a giant telescope on Mauna Kea. The remaining people arrested last month were charged with obstruction of government operations. (AP Photo/Hawaii Tribune-Herald, Hollyn Johnson, File) HONOLULU, Hawaii – Hawaii County’s top prosecutor said Friday he will dismiss charges against about 10 of the 31 protesters who were arrested while blocking construction of a giant telescope on a mountain held sacred by Native Hawaiians.The Thirty Meter Telescope planned near the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island would be one of the world’s largest telescopes.People are protesting the $1.4 billion project for a range of reasons, including wanting to protect sacred land from desecration, curb development and gain control over local resources.Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth told The Associated Press he will drop the cases against those charged with trespassing, though his office might decide to re-file them later. The remaining people arrested last month were charged with obstruction of government operations.Roth declined to say why he’s moving to dismiss some of the counts but noted they warrant further investigation.“We don’t charge cases unless we can prove them beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.He added his office will continue to review police reports and video taken at the site.Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the Big Island leaders behind the effort to stop the telescope, said she’s happy to hear some of the cases will be dismissed. “Fundamentally and morally, how can it be trespassing in our house of worship and prayer?” she said.Kuuipo Freitas said being arrested for trespassing affected her “emotionally, spiritually, culturally.”“Honestly, I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t intend on getting arrested that day,” she said. “It really didn’t make sense to be arrested on our own aina (land).”It’s unclear if Freitas is among those whose trespassing charge will be dropped. Her attorney, Dexter Kaiama, who also represents eight others, declined to comment on specifics until a judge has signed off on the dismissals.Kaiama said he has no reason to believe a judge won’t approve the motions for dismissal that have been filed. The next court date in the case is scheduled for June 18.Construction on the project has been halted since last month amid protests and arrests of opponents blocking crews from accessing the site.Gov. David Ige previously said it’s up to the non-profit company behind the telescope to determine when work will start again. “And we will support and enforce their right to do so,” he has said.A company spokeswoman said officials don’t know yet when construction will resume. She declined to comment on the charges being dismissed.Pisciotta said protesters will remain on the mountain, despite the possibility of more arrests.Freitas plans to be among them. “We’re not letting them through,” she said of the construction workers.Earlier this week, Ige said the project has the right to move forward. But he promised major changes in stewardship of Mauna Kea, listing 10 actions he would like to see from the University of Hawaii, which leases the land. They include beginning to decommission some of the 13 telescopes already on the mountain.The governor also urged the university to significantly limit non-cultural access to Mauna Kea, and to legally commit that this is the last area of the mountain where a telescope will be considered.___Follow Jennifer Sinco Kelleher at http://www.twitter.com/JenHapa . by Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, The Associated Press Posted May 29, 2015 12:22 pm MDT Last Updated May 29, 2015 at 10:10 pm MDT AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to TwitterTwitterShare to FacebookFacebookShare to RedditRedditShare to 電子郵件Email read more
by Tom Ross, Alex Cliche Posted Mar 24, 2016 6:20 am MDT New Home Depot bringing 150 jobs to the city AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to TwitterTwitterShare to FacebookFacebookShare to RedditRedditShare to 電子郵件Email A stock and flow campus for the Home Depot is now open for business \in Calgary.Two buildings make up this massive campus, a 425,000 square-foot rapid distribution centre, and a 640,000 square-foot stocking distribution centre.The facilities will supply products to stores across Canada, and it’s also created about 150 jobs in the city.As part of their initiative to end youth homelessness in Canada, the Home Depot also presented a $5,000 donation to the Boys and Girls Club of Calgary upon opening the stock and flow campus.This is the second such campus in Canada, last November one was opened in Ontario to service Home Depot stores in central and eastern Canada. read more
CoverGirl is featuring a woman wearing a hijab in its advertising for the first time in the makeup line’s history.Beauty blogger Nura Afia is featured wearing the traditional Muslim head covering in an ad campaign for a new line of mascara that also includes singer Katy Perry and actress Sofia Vergara.Afia says in a statement released by CoverGirl that she never thought she would see Muslim women represented on this scale after “growing up and being insecure about wearing the hijab.”CoverGirl says the television and digital ad campaign is the only one in which it currently plans to feature Afia.Afia has more than 215,000 subscribers to a YouTube channel on which she gives beauty and makeup tips. For 1st time, CoverGirl ads feature woman wearing a hijab by The Associated Press Posted Nov 7, 2016 10:52 am MDT Last Updated Nov 7, 2016 at 12:00 pm MDT AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to TwitterTwitterShare to FacebookFacebookShare to RedditRedditShare to 電子郵件Email In this undated photo provided by CoverGirl, beauty blogger Nura Afia poses for a photo. CoverGirl is featuring a woman wearing a hijab in its advertising for the first time in the makeup line’s history. (Lacey Terrell/CoverGirl via AP) read more
by Michael Liedtke, The Associated Press Posted Jan 4, 2017 5:34 pm MDT Last Updated Jan 4, 2017 at 8:00 pm MDT AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to TwitterTwitterShare to FacebookFacebookShare to RedditRedditShare to 電子郵件Email Lawsuit seeks to ban Google from US government contracts SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Labor Department is trying to bar Google from doing business with the federal government unless the internet company turns over confidential information about thousands of its employees.The potential banishment is being sought in a Labor Department lawsuit filed Wednesday with the Office of Administrative Law Judges.The complaint alleges that Google has repeatedly refused to provide the Labor Department with employee compensation records and other information as part of an audit designed to ensure the company isn’t discriminating against workers based on gender or race.The review of how Google pays the thousands of workers at its Mountain View, California, headquarters is allowed under decades-old laws regulating U.S. government contractors.Google has struck a series of deals with various federal government agencies during the past decade, including a digital advertising agreement cited by the Labor Department that has generated more than $600,000 for the company since June 2014, according to the complaint. That amount is a pittance for Google, whose revenue has surpassed $130 billion during the same span.If Google doesn’t comply with all its demands, the Labor Department wants a legal order that would void all of the company’s current federal government contracts and block future deals.In a statement, Google said it has provided hundreds of thousands of records in an attempt to comply with the Labor Department’s requests, but has rebuffed some of the agency’s demands as “overbroad” and an invasion of employee privacy.Like most other big technology companies, Google for the past few years has been posting breakdowns of its workforce that show most of its computer programmers and other high-paid employees in technical jobs are white and Asian men. The disclosures have become a source of embarrassment for Google and its technology industry peers, who have repeatedly acknowledged they need to do more to hire women, blacks and Hispanics.“We’re very committed to our affirmative action obligations, and to improving the diversity of our workforce, and have been very vocal about the importance of these issues,” Google reiterated in its response to the Labor Department’s lawsuit.But Google, which is part of Alphabet Inc., and other tech companies so far have only been disclosing the types of jobs held by the two genders and different races without providing specifics about the salaries in different employment categories. It is well known, though, that programmers and engineers who write the coding for technology products and services are among the highest paid workers besides the companies’ executives.The Labor Department maintains that Google agreed to submit to a higher level of scrutiny when it decided to do business with federal agencies funded by taxpayers.“Like other federal contractors, Google has a legal obligation to provide relevant information requested in the course of a routine compliance evaluation,” said Thomas Dowd, acting director of the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. read more
OTTAWA – Canadian officials are praising a U.S. decision to drop a contentious border tax proposal, suggesting its death signals an open-mindedness in the Trump administration on open borders and free trade.Canada is pleased to see the decision, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday, noting on Twitter that both economies prosper together.From the moment the border adjustment tax was floated early this year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Freeland and other Canadians vocalized concerns to key U.S. officials, added Freeland’s spokesperson Adam Austen.“We are very pleased with today’s announcement in favour of open trade and open borders,” he said.A border adjustment tax system had been contemplated in order to pay for lower U.S. tax rates overall without blowing a hole in the American budget.U.S. officials said Thursday they’re “confident” such a system is no longer needed to reduce broader tax rates.The remarks came in a joint statement from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, White House economics aide Gary Cohn, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady.“While we have debated the pro-growth benefits of border adjustability, we appreciate that there are many unknowns associated with it and have decided to set this policy aside in order to advance tax reform,” it said.Canadian government insiders seemed deeply relieved to see discussion about the border adjustment tax come to an end, suggesting the tax threatened to be more harmful to Canada’s trade with the United States than NAFTA renegotiations or protectionist measures on steel or in other areas.The federal government lobbied hard against it, and insiders say Thursday’s decision to ditch the border adjustment tax vindicates their efforts.Since Trump’s inauguration in January, a swath of Canadian officials including cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries have made 175 visits to the U.S. to meet with senior U.S. officials, Austen said Thursday, noting about 300 individual contacts have been engaged — including U.S. cabinet members, members of Congress and governors.“These figures will continue to grow as Canadian senior officials embark on additional outreach to the United States in the coming weeks,” he said.The first round of NAFTA talks starts Aug. 16 in Washington.During a March visit to Washington, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said he found a lot of opposition to the idea of a border tax because it would not be in the interests of Canada and the United States in the energy market.Critics of the idea warned it would have provoked a trade war, international sanctions and hiked the cost of American imports.—With files from The Associated PressFollow @kkirkup on Twitter Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland delivers a speech in the House of Commons on Canada’s Foreign Policy in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 6, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Canada pleased by U.S. decision to scrap border tax proposal: Freeland by Kristy Kirkup, The Canadian Press Posted Jul 27, 2017 2:30 pm MDT Last Updated Jul 27, 2017 at 3:47 pm MDT AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to TwitterTwitterShare to FacebookFacebookShare to RedditRedditShare to 電子郵件Email read more