“Since 2019, a secularism law in Quebec has barred some public sector workers, like judges, police officers and teachers, from wearing religious attire at work. Now, the country’s highest court is preparing to consider its future. Lisa Robicheau describes her life as ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place’. The 41-year-old single mother of two, who wears a hijab, works in Montreal’s English-language school system as a contract support worker for students with disabilities – a job she loves and where she is exempt from the current law. But Robicheau can’t help feeling anxious about her future and whether she will be able to continue working in a public school while being visibly Muslim in Quebec. The uncertainty has led her to enroll back in university, hoping to find a different job—or even leave the province.” (03/22/26)
“Much hay has been made of voting laws in Tennessee and across the country lately. You’ve probably heard about the SAVE Act at the federal level, and maybe some proposed laws at the state level too. The Banner wrote about some of the proposals at the state-level yesterday, but focusing so narrowly on ‘disparate impact’ type bills, they missed the Big Kahuna. There’s a proposal moving through the General Assembly right now that could change how local elections work in Nashville. The bill, sponsored by Scott Cepicky in the House and Joey Hensley in the Senate, would move the date of city elections to line up with the August primary or November general election. In other words, the off-cycle August 2027 Metro elections would get pushed to November 2028, landing on the same ballot as the presidential race every four years.” (03/20/26)
“A large-scale animal rescue operation for hundreds of dogs and cats took place on Friday in Lake Hughes, roughly 60 miles north of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control served a search warrant at a property on 266th Street West in Lake Hughes, following reports of a violation of animal welfare laws. The operation involved over 70 people, and officials initially estimated that over 700 animals were located on the property in need of rescue, according to an Instagram post by DACC Friday. The post said the operation could be the largest of its kind to have taken place in the U.S., but in an update, that number was revised down to about 250 dogs and 66 cats.\” (03/21/26)
“There is ‘no assessment to substantiate’ Israel’s claim that Iran has long-range missiles capable of reaching London, a UK cabinet minister has said. Housing Secretary Steve Reed told the BBC there was ‘no specific assessment that the Iranians are targeting the UK – or even could if they wanted to,’ after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that Tehran had weapons that could reach up to 4,000km (2,485 miles). It comes after it emerged Iran targeted the joint US-UK military base on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, around 3,800km from Iran. Reed refused to say how close the missiles came to the British overseas territory, saying he could not share ‘operational details.'” (03/22/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Toby Miller & Joan Pedro-Caranana
“Seemingly endless recitations throughout history of what constitutes virtuous citizenship emphasize military life. A specifically masculine heritage of violence in the service of the nation oversees and delimits democracy and authority—a privileged area of social welfare in contrast to health, education, the environment, or poverty. Much classical and modern political theory assumes and even endorses domestic violence, bellicose masculinity, and the notion that ‘real’ politics is generated, discussed, and concluded between men. The idea that male virtue is tied to violence, whether in defense of faith, family, or the border, is immensely strong. From individual duels to national campaigns, the ‘right’ way to engage in violence has given rise to ideas of nobility. Masculine worth is supposedly incarnate in bloodshed and authoritarian leadership, embodied in the military as a righteous national embodiment of power, spirit, religiosity, and victory.” (03/21/26)
“For the second time this year, NASA moved its moon rocket from the hangar out toward the pad Friday in hopes of launching four astronauts on a lunar fly-around next month. If the latest repairs work and everything else goes NASA’s way, the Space Launch System could blast off as early as April 1 from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The Artemis II crew went into quarantine this week in Houston. The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began the slow 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) trek in the middle of the night, transported atop a massive crawler used since the 1960s Apollo era. The trip was held up for several hours by high wind but completed by midday, 11 hours after it began. The three Americans and one Canadian will zip around the moon in their capsule and then come straight home without stopping.” (03/22/26)
“Just when you thought that the hare-brained schemes of the Democrats who run our beleaguered big cities couldn’t get goofier, Chicago has passed a new doozy. The Windy City is raising hotel taxes to, get this, increase tourism. Ordinance 2026-0022544 will raise the tax on hotel rooms within that district to 19% from the rate of 17.5%, with the proceeds going to an organization called Choose Chicago, which will use the cash for tourism marketing campaigns. The top target on Choose Chicago’s wish list of events is the 2028 Democratic National Convention, and now, everyone who books a room in Second City gets to chip in a bit on the effort. It’s quite a thing: Only a leftist Democrat could possibly think that making it more expensive to visit Chicago will increase tourism. Maybe they should throw in a complimentary mugging to sweeten the deal.” (03/21/26)
“Sudan’s army has denied it carried out a deadly attack on a major hospital on Friday night in a city in the west of the country held by its rivals, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said 64 people – including 13 children, two nurses and a doctor – had died in the strike on el-Daein Teaching Hospital and 89 others had been wounded. ‘Enough blood has been spilled,’ Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X, urging the warring parties to end the conflict, which started nearly three years ago. The RSF said an army drone had hit the hospital in el-Daein, the capital of East Darfur state, on the day Muslims were marking the festival of Eid. (03/22/26)
“A California sheriff running for governor has seized more than half a million ballots cast in a November special election from county election officials, saying he’s investigating a ballot count discrepancy. County elections officials have disputed the claims by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, called Bianco’s move unprecedented and says it is designed to sow distrust in elections. Bianco held a news conference Friday saying his office had launched the investigation after receiving a complaint from a local citizens group about the ballot count from a November 2025 special election on redistricting. In the special election, voters approved a measure to redraw congressional district lines to favor Democrats in the upcoming midterm election. The measure passed in the county by a margin of more than 80,000 votes.” (03/22/26)
“Since the inauguration of Donald Trump for a second presidential term, a student loan borrower has fallen into default every nine seconds. A federal appeals court wants to accelerate that process. Last week, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit (which includes two Trump appointees and one appointed by George W. Bush) nullified the Biden administration’s income-driven repayment (IDR) program, versions of which have been in place under presidents of both parties for over three decades. The specific Biden-era version, known as Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE), which nearly seven million borrowers have opted into, was authorized through 2028 by Congress and President Trump in the fiscal mega-bill passed just last year. Yet without any hearing on the merits, the Eighth Circuit unilaterally tossed out the program.” (03/20/26)
