Latest news with #JamesMcPherson
Sky News AU
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
‘Culture of grievance': Sky News hosts tear into the Yoorrook Commission's 'incredibly divisive' findings for the Victorian govt
A trio of Sky News hosts have torched the Yoorrook Commission's "incredibly divisive" recommendations which they claim seek to sow a "culture of grievance" rather than heal the nation. The commission found the First Peoples of Victoria have been subjected to genocide and that the state had been illegally occupied. Included in the final report, the Yoorrook Commission made 100 recommendations covering policy areas such as education, criminal justice, housing, and employment. The findings from the four-year inquiry into historical and ongoing injustices experienced by First Peoples recommended the Victorian government hand over a portion of the government's 'land, water and natural resource-related revenues' to First Nations Victorians. The report also recommended the government negotiate with the First People's Assembly to secure the ongoing funding streams needed for the 'nation-to nation' transition. 'All major political parties, whether in government or in opposition, have perpetuated and compounded the trauma, injustice and suffering of First Peoples,' the report states. 'First Peoples have demonstrated that with secure access to their lands, waters and resources, they are better able to provide for the social, economic and cultural needs of their community than government or industry.' The inquiry said it expected the Allen government to 'immediately commence work' on the 'urgent recommendations' in order for them to be achieved within 12-24 months. Sky News host James McPherson hit out at the commission's report on Wednesday night, calling it 'so ambitious even Santa Claus would have thought twice about drafting this list'. 'The report says, and I quote, 'the taking of country and resources was violent as First Peoples were displaced and massacred by European settlers… the legacy of colonisation is still manifest in every aspect of life'. And no, they're not referring to roads, plumbing or electricity,' McPherson said. ' The report recommends that Indigenous Victorians should be exempt from taxes, rates and charges relating to water because, as the report notes, the resources belong to them in the first place. 'So their plan, as I understand it, is to heal the nation by breaking it up into smaller ones. Can't you just feel the reconciliation? 'Reconciliation - that noble sounding term which I always took to mean, you know, coming together but now apparently translates to invoices. Lots and lots of invoices.' McPherson said Premier Jacinta Allen's remarks about the recommendations were 'highly contested', after she said the report's finding were 'incredibly challenging because they tell the truth'. ' I'm not so sure the majority of Victorians will find the Commission's recommendations particularly just. They read less like a plea for justice than like a shopping list drawn up by opportunists holding someone else's credit card,' he said. Labor went to the last election promising to spend $27 million setting up a Makatratta Commission, $5.8 million of which was put aside in their first budget to set up the organisation. The truth-telling commission was one of the three planks of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, with the others being a treaty with Indigenous Australians and the Voice to Parliament, which more than 60 per cent of Australians rejected in 2023. Sky News host James Morrow said the Victorian Labor government was the 'hardest left government' in the whole of Australia and torched the Yoorrook report as 'incredibly divisive' and 'absolutely untenable'. 'It stems out of this whole settler-colonist mentality, which is this whole hard-left doctrine that Australia is essentially an illegitimate nation,' he said. 'It is making demands of the government that are not the demands of citizens trying to come together on an issue. They are almost like they've inverted history.' Sky News host Caroline Marcus said if the Victorian government picked up the recommendations of the commission other states and territories would eventually 'fall into line'. Marcus said the report was not only divisive, but 'dangerous' due to its approach to education, recommending Indigenous children be excluded from attendance requirements at school. 'We already know that attendance levels for Indigenous children fall well below the rest of the population as it is… How is this going to help in closing the gap?' she said. 'The whole thing stinks, and it just sets up further this culture of grievance among Indigenous Australians. We have had enough of that.'
New York Post
31-05-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Biden admin admitted chances of cancer affecting East Palestine residents after Norfolk Southern crash was ‘not zero,' bombshell emails show
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration admitted possible cancer-causing toxins were spread in East Palestine, Ohio, following the Norfolk Southern train derailment in 2023, explosive new emails show, despite the White House insisting residents were safe. 'The occurrence of a cancer-cluster in EP [East Palestine] is not zero,' FEMA recovery leader James McPherson wrote in a March 29, 2024, email to other public health officials — a little more than a year after the crash. 'As you all are aware, the first 48 hours of the fire created a really toxic plume,' he said in the chain of communications, which were first reported by News Nation. 4 'The occurrence of a cancer-cluster in EP [East Palestine] is not zero,' Federal Emergency Management Agency recovery leader James McPherson wrote in a March 29, 2024, email. Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images Just two months earlier, President Biden had excoriated 'multimillion-dollar railroad companies transporting toxic chemicals' for the fiasco — but praised his administration's 'herculean efforts' to resolve the 'vast majority' of East Palestine's problems. The crash spewed harmful chemicals into the air and resulted in 115,000 gallons' worth of carcinogenic vinyl chloride undergoing an open burn — displacing residents and leading to reports of strange illnesses as well as the death of livestock in the weeks following the Feb. 3, 2023, disaster. Michael Regan, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, showed up on Feb. 22 with TV cameras in tow to capture himself drinking from the local water supply, and months later claimed unequivocally that people in East Palestine were 'not in danger.' 4 President Biden excoriated 'multimillion-dollar railroad companies transporting toxic chemicals' for the fiasco — but praised his administration's 'herculean efforts.' AP 'Since the disaster, EPA has collected more than 100 million air monitoring data points and more than 25 thousand samples in and around the community,' Regan said in an Oct. 17, 2023, statement. 'This data collection continues, and ongoing science-based reviews show that residents of East Palestine are not in danger from contaminated drinking water, soil, or air from the derailment.' But a watchdog group that has been investigating the toxic fallout from the train derailment said the Biden administration's approach was 'flawed' from the start — and has now released emails obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests to prove it. 4 Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan showed up on Feb. 22 with TV cameras in tow to capture himself drinking from the local water supply. C-SPAN 'They didn't always test for the right chemicals; they didn't test in the right locations; they didn't have the right detection limits,' Government Accountability Project investigator Lesley Pacey told The Post, saying the Biden admin wasn't 'worrying about public health' but, rather 'public reassurances.' 'They delayed testing for dioxin, and then when they did the testing for dioxin — and also did the testing in people's homes for other chemicals — they used Norfolk Southern contractors, and those contractors used equipment that wasn't correct,' said Pacey, who's been investigating the incident. 'They completely botched this event from the very beginning.' So-called 'ASPECT' planes that monitor air quality weren't deployed due to apparent bad weather until four days after the derailment, she added, when they should have been flown within eight hours of the incident. 4 The federal response also lacked robust monitoring of the water supply and ignored agency policies in order to burn the harmful chemicals, according to Pacey, leaving East Palestine natives 'acutely very, very ill.' Bloomberg via Getty Images The federal response also lacked robust monitoring of the water supply and ignored agency policies in order to burn the harmful chemicals, according to Pacey, allowing East Palestine natives to get 'very, very ill.' The new emails — including batches from FEMA, the EPA, the White House, the National Security Council and the Justice Department, which later settled with Norfolk Southern for $310 million to redress harms to the Ohio community — also show that one year after the chaos admin officials were still discussing the need to develop a 'tripwire to identify cancer clusters.' Biden, who was diagnosed earlier this month with an 'aggressive' form of prostate cancer that has already spread to his bones, often claimed that his late son Beau died from a brain cancer possibly caused by exposure to toxic fumes while serving in Iraq. He also claimed in a 2022 speech that he had cancer due to growing up near oil refineries in Claymont, Delaware, though the White House maintained he was referencing 'non-melanoma skin cancers' that had previously been removed.
Otago Daily Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
SouthCon battles set to take hold
Battle lines will be drawn and armies will muster for next week's war-games. Table-top gaming tournament Southcon returns to the Edgar Centre during King's Birthday weekend for two days of strategy and skirmishes. The event, organised by the Otago Miniature Tacticians Society, will pit gamers against each other for glory. James McPherson has been playing since he was about 9 years old. His "gateway drug" to table-top gaming was Lord of the Rings . "In the early 2000s, the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out and they also released the Lord of the Rings version of the game." Since then he has also enjoyed playing other table-top miniature wargames. It was an enjoyable hobby because it offered many aspects, such as personalising model figures through painting. There was even the option to alter figures instead of using them as designed. "You can build them as they come straight out of the box, or you can do a bit of customisation to them too." The injection-moulded plastic pieces arrive in a sprue, or tray of connected parts, ready to be detached and built into models. "You have got to clip them out and glue it all together." Mr McPherson uses water-based acrylic paint, beginning with a primer coat and then airbrushing for depth. "Once I have got the base colour down, then I get out the actual brush itself and then I paint everything else around it." "I'll start doing highlights to kind of bring up more depth and detail on it." Even though the basic models of miniatures started out all the same, there were many chances for creative choices, such as paint colour. One example is a series of small goblins he painted green rather than the classic red. "They are very dynamic models." Alongside the creative work of building and painting, there is the social side of playing the game. "So it is a hobby with a lot of different layers, which means that you kind of get different types of enjoyment out of it," Mr McPherson said. Society president Kelly Gragg said Southcon drew about 80 to 100 players from around the country. During the event, about 50 gaming boards will showcase battlefields from miniature-wargames such as Warhammer Age of Sigmar , Warhammer The Old World and Lord of the Rings . Each 1m by 1.5m battlemat is set up with varied terrain features, and gamers then decide how to position their armies. Gamers do not know in advance how opponents will deploy, so configuring an army is partly strategy, partly guesswork. Most games are one-on-one and last about two to three hours. Each player had 2000 points to use to configure their army, which could include a range of characters worth different points. "You could have five big giant kind of things, or you could have hundreds of little guys. "So there is a lot of strategy and tactics in how you build your army, in terms of what elements you add to it." Players were provided a scenario and goal for the game, such as taking a hillside or breaking through enemy lines. The roll of the dice dictates whether gamers succeed, determining if a character is wounded or killed. Members of the public are welcome to drop in and watch games in progress, Mr Gragg said. "There is a huge kind of sportsmanship aspect to it as well, being able to win well, but also being able to lose well." Southcon 2025 Edgar Centre Saturday, May 31, 9am-5pm Sunday, June 1, 9am-3pm
