Stanley Yakubu, a veteran journalist and former Kaduna State Correspondent of The PUNCH newspaper, has died.
According to family members, Yakubu passed away peacefully in his sleep on Monday in Kaduna.
Yakubu’s daughter, Sandra, confirmed the news, saying her father had been unwell for some time.
His health issues began after the loss of his wife over a decade ago, which reportedly left him devastated.
He subsequently suffered a stroke that worsened over time, ultimately leading to his passing.
Colleagues and friends of the late journalist paid tribute to his remarkable career and legacy.
Ibrahim Modibbo, a friend, described Yakubu’s passing as a significant loss to the journalism fraternity.
“On a sad note, we have lost one of our own,” Modibbo said, recalling their time as young journalists in the 1990s.
Another friend and colleague shared fond memories of Yakubu’s time as a journalist, highlighting his dedication to the profession.
“We were wild and free; we stung like bees. Most of all, we stuck together like a band of brothers,” the friend said, reminiscing about their experiences covering news in Gongola/Adamawa States.
Yakubu’s friend also spoke about his personal life, noting that he had married a woman from Kaltungo and had a daughter who survives him.
“Stanley lost his wife more than a decade ago. It devastated him. He then had a stroke. It became worse. And today he gave up,” the friend added, praying for Yakubu’s gentle soul and expressing condolences to his family.
THE WHISTLER reports that tributes poured in for Yakubu, celebrating his life, work, and legacy as a respected journalist.
Ex-Kaduna Punch Correspondent Dies After Long Battle With Stroke is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse was stolen at a Washington, D.C. restaurant Sunday night, according to department officials.
The department in an email said Noem had money in her purse to buy gifts for her children and grandchildren and to pay for Easter dinner and other activities.
The department in an email didn’t specify what was stolen, but CNN — which was first to report the story — said the thief took about $3,000 in cash, as well as Noem’s keys, driver’s license, passport, checks, makeup bag, medication and Homeland Security badge. The department said Noem had cash in her purse to pay for gifts, dinner and other activities for her family on Easter.
The Homeland Security Secretary is protected by U.S. Secret Service agents. The Secret Service referred questions about the incident to Homeland Security headquarters.
Advocates warn that legislation to slash funding for Advanced Placement could make educational disparities worse for already underrepresented Black students. (Photo Credit: Goodboy Picture Company / gettyimages)
by Quintessa Williams
What happens in Florida rarely stays in Florida when it comes to education policy. Now, as the state’s lawmakers advance legislation that would slash state funding for college-level high school courses by half, education advocates are sounding the alarm that the move could deepen educational and racial inequities nationwide.
In early April, the Florida House introduced a bill, House Bill 5101, that would reduce state support for Advanced Placement courses, International Baccalaureate programs, dual enrollment, and career and technical education by up to 50%.
Black students already have less access to AP, the most academically rigorous classes, essential for admission to the nation’s most selective colleges and universities. If students can score a three or higher on an AP course’s corresponding exam, they are, depending on the school, eligible to receive college credit. It’s no wonder, then, that advocates say the AP program has helped level the college admissions playing field.
If the bill passes, cash-strapped school districts across the state—especially those serving low-income and predominantly Black communities—could be forced to reduce or eliminate AP and other advanced coursework altogether. The legislation would also eliminate funding for teacher bonuses, testing fees, and instructional materials that schools depend on to offer these programs.
“It’s truly another stab at public education,” says Yasmina White, a parent leader and education advocate in Jacksonville, Florida. “It’s being set up to dismantle public schools. And it’s heartbreaking.”
And White worries that this legislation to effectively defund AP could signal a national trend. “Once Florida does it, others will follow,” White says, noting that Texas has already cited Florida as a model. “We’re already seeing how these talking points travel.”
Cutting Already Unequal Access
For decades, AP classes have provided access to college course credit, scholarships, and vital academic prep for students who often don’t have access to resources like private tutoring or legacy admissions.
Florida’s House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Democrat from Tampa, recently spoke up against the cuts, pointing out that AP classes were instrumental to her “personal dream of attending Harvard University” coming true. Her Florida high school “paid for our AP classes, and coming from a family of six that was on a salary of a teacher and my dad who worked at Publix, I don’t know that we could have afforded those.”
Once at Harvard, the academic rigor of her high school AP courses enabled Driskell to place out of introductory classes at Harvard, “even though she came from a public school in little humble Polk County.”
That’s an AP class success story worth celebrating, but it’s out of reach for most Black students. Although Black students make up 15% of the K–12 population, College Board data from 2024 shows that only 11% participated in AP courses, compared to 19% of white students and 50% of Asian American students.
White has also seen firsthand how AP classes and other advanced coursework programs have prepared Black students for college.
“I’ve seen so many friends, colleagues, and family members take AP classes, be in IB programs, and do dual enrollment — and it made a difference,” she says. “But when you cut these programs, you cut access.
A visualized bar graph showing disparities between high school enrollment and representation in AP and dual enrollment programs by race and ethnicity, according to the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection 2021-22. The chart highlights underrepresentation among Black students in advanced coursework and dual enrollment.
This isn’t the first time AP courses have come under attack in Florida. In 2023, under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the Florida Department of Education rejected the AP African American Studies course, saying it was “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” Other conservative-led states soon followed suit, leading College Board, which administers the Advanced Placement program, to revise the curriculum.
In an email to Word In Black, College Board said it is “closely monitoring” what’s happening in Florida. It acknowledged “districts are concerned about the potential impact” of Florida’s legislation. However, they also pointed out that, over the years, educators and districts across the state have worked closely with them to ensure access to AP.
Ultimately, College Board said it remains “committed to working with schools and districts to ensure continued access to AP opportunities.”
What’s Next?
Nevertheless, some districts have started planning course reductions, while others are urging families to contact state legislators and local school board members before it’s too late.
“Start local and ask questions,” White says. “Don’t stay in that mindset that things will never change — because thinking that way ensures they won’t.”
White also encourages people not to be discouraged: “Stay engaged. Stay involved. Keep accessing these programs and telling your story,” she says. “We are living through our own civil rights movement. The people before us had far less and still fought. We can too.”
The Supreme Court’s ruling in J.G.G. v. Donald J. Trump was not an unqualified triumph for the Trump administration’s deportations of foreign gang members, but it was a definite rebuke not just to Judge Boasberg, but to the entire D.C. Circuit Court shadow government.
The ACLU filed J.G.G. v. Trump in defense of five Venezuelan inmates in New York and Texas. All of the men claimed that they were not gang members and there was no indication that any of them were being deported, denying them any actual standing for coming before the court.
Especially before Judge James Boasberg who is thousands of miles away in Washington D.C.
Despite the lack of standing and the case being filed in the wrong venue, Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court, not only blocked the deportation of all gang members back to Venezuela, but ordered that planes currently over international airspace that were carrying gang members turn around and bring them back to the United States.
Boasberg fumed that the planes were not turned around on his mere word and threatened the Justice Department with repercussions for not recognizing his power over not only the entire country, but also the entire planet.
But why was a judge from the D.C. Circuit Court on a case involving inmates in Texas?
The answer is that leftist organizations and the judges of the D.C. Circuit Court were using one weird trick to seize power over the entire country (if not always the planet) and transform themselves into a shadow government able to block any Trump administration move.
The Supreme Court’s ruling vacating Boasberg’s order stated that, “the detainees are confined in Texas, so venue is improper in the District of Columbia” and directed that the appropriate “venue lies in the district of confinement”. So how did a D.C. judge ever get involved at all?
In Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurrence he noted that the “only question is where that judicial review should occur. That venue question turns on whether these transfer claims belong in habeas corpus proceedings or instead may be brought under the Administrative Procedure Act.” The Supreme Court’s ruling even noted that “initially the detainees sought relief in habeas among other causes of action, but they dismissed their habeas claims” and stated that “their claims fall within the ‘core’ of the writ of habeas corpus and thus must be brought in habeas.”
Kavanaugh then laid out a brief history of detainees, including those terrorists at Gitmo, bringing claims under habeas corpus rather than, strangely, under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Administrative Procedure Act had been created in response to the rise of a vast unaccountable government bureaucracy under FDR. The APA was supposed to stop the administrative state from turning into exactly the kind of self-governing machine it grew into which FDR had described as threatening to “develop a fourth branch of government for which there is no sanction in the Constitution.” It was not meant to block presidents from executing their policies or subject every one of those policies to the review of the D.C. Circuit Court.
The D.C. Circuit Court however has enabled every leftist ‘resistance’ group to go ‘judge shopping’ and file APA complaints to block anything and everything President Trump does.
And so the ACLU appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court, wielding the Administrative Procedure Act, to challenge the question of whether President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act (which predated the APA by 148 years) applied and what could be defined as wartime. The ACLU was asking Boasberg to block President Trump’s use of presidential powers based on an act meant to check bureaucratic overreach. And Judge Boasberg went ahead and tried to seize control of U.S. forces abroad from President Trump in the name of an act meant to regulate agencies.
The Supreme Court’s response to this unconstitutional abomination was milder than it deserved.
What gave the ACLU and Boasberg the idea that they could get away with it? The ACLU had previously sued the Trump administration for removing materials falsely describing the existence of a ‘transgender’ society as a violation of the “Administrative Procedure Act” by “removing articles without a reasoned basis” as if that were a matter subject to the APA.
In another case, ‘Judge’ Ana Reyes, a Uruguayan activist lawyer appointed by Biden as the first gay ‘Latinx’ judge in the D.C. Circuit Court, blocked the removal of mentally ill individuals who hallucinate the idea that they are members of some other sex than their biological one, by claiming that it’ss “soaked in animus and dripping with pretext, Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit” and argued, despite the mountain of evidence, that the Department of Defense had “not provided a legitimate reason for banning all transgender troops” and therefore violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
Reyes had confused the Administrative Procedure Act with her own personal opinion and rather than ruling on the legality of a policy based on actual laws, abused the APA to seize power over the Pentagon to promote her own favored social and sexual worldviews in the APA’s name.
But the Supreme Court has begun shooting down some APA abuses.
In its response to a Biden judge in Massachusetts blocking the Trump administration from ending education grants that violate its ban on DEI, the court noted that Judge Myong Joun and the court “lacked jurisdiction to order the payment of money under the APA” and that monetary cases involving the government are supposed to go to the Court of Federal Claims.
The APA has become a favored weapon of choice whether the issue at hand is financial, foreign policy, deporting illegal aliens or even publishing materials about the existence of transgenderism on government websites. During the first term of the administration, leftist groups had taken to boasting of having entire “teams of APA litigators and experts”.
And with a 93% loss rate for the Trump administration in APA cases, the judicial coup was a sound strategy. All a leftist judge had to do was declare that the Trump administration’s actions were “poorly reasoned” or lacked “sufficient rationale” and would override the president’s orders.
The APA enabled a massive shift of power from the executive branch to district courts, and to the D.C. Circuit Court which had seized virtually unlimited power from both the president and local courts and judges in the process creating an unelected shadow government.
But the D.C. judicial shadow government overreached itself. And Boasberg’s attempt to seize presidential powers has created a constitutional moment of crisis that may unwind the coup.
***
Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center’s Front Page Magazine.
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SOURCE
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Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 after suffering a stroke that led to a coma and “irreversible” heart failure, according to his death certificate released by the Vatican.
His passing comes nearly a month after being discharged from a five-week hospital stay where he was treated for pneumonia.
The Vatican made the announcement Monday, accompanied by the release of the Pope’s final testament, in which he detailed his final wishes regarding his burial.
In the handwritten document, Pope Francis expressed a deep and lifelong devotion to the Virgin Mary and requested to be buried at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome. His wish is a departure from tradition, as many of his predecessors are buried at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
“As I sense the approaching twilight of my earthly life, and with firm hope in eternal life, I wish to set out my final wishes solely regarding the place of my burial,” the Pope wrote.
He noted that Saint Mary Major had long held personal significance, as it was his custom to pray there at the beginning and end of every apostolic journey.
His wish is for a simple tomb, without ornamentation, bearing only the Latin inscription “Franciscus”. The tomb is to be placed in the side aisle between the Pauline Chapel and the Sforza Chapel, as outlined in a plan attached to his testament.
The Pope also noted that the cost of the burial would be covered by a benefactor and that arrangements had already been made with Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, Commissioner of the Liberian Basilica.
He concluded his testament with a message of peace, saying, “The suffering that has marked the final part of my life, I offer to the Lord for peace in the world and fraternity among peoples.”
Pope Francis served as the 266th pontiff and was the first Jesuit and Latin American pope.
JUST IN: Vatican Reveals Pope’s Last Wishes, Cause Of Death is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
More than a dozen whiskey-filled oak barrels sit on racks inside Ironton Distillery’s production facility in Denver. Most of it won’t be ready to drink for a while — it needs to age for two years — but when it is, this whiskey will be bottled and labeled as “American single malt.”
Colorado distillers are raising a toast to this new standard of identity for domestic whiskey, one that formally defines what ingredients can be used and how American single malt should be made. Instituted in December by the federal alcohol regulators, the designation joins vaunted labels like bourbon, rye and Irish Whiskey. This is the first time since 1968 that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has added a new one.
While U.S. distilleries have been making single malt spirits for a long time, local whiskey producers believe the designation will allow them to better compete with powerhouses like Scotland and Japan. They are also confident that Colorado can take the lead in popularizing American single malt, thanks to the state’s strong beer heritage, which has cultivated a generation of distillers familiar with using its base ingredient, one that is frequently grown here as well.
“Colorado was and is at the forefront of craft beer in the country. We have a lot of people like me, who were brewers, who understand malt and who started distilling and making malt whiskey,” said Craig Engelhorn, co-founder and master distiller at Spirit Hound Distillers in Lyons. “Just like we were pioneers in the ’90s with craft beer, we’re pioneers now with malt whiskey.”
A bottle of Ironton Distillery’s Colorado Straight Single Malt Whiskey at Ironton Distillery in Denver on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Creating a category
The TTB defines American single malt whiskey as a beverage made from 100% malted barley that is mashed, distilled and matured in the U.S.
It must be aged in oak barrels that are a maximum of 700 liters (185 gallons) and bottled at least 40% alcohol by volume. While the spirit is required to be distilled entirely at one distillery, the definition leaves room for companies to either make it in-house or source it from another producer.
The parameters were largely informed by whiskey producers, who spent the nine years lobbying regulators. The movement started in 2016, when Steve Hawley, then working at Seattle’s Westland Distillery, convened with eight other spirit makers at a Binny’s Beverage Depot in Chicago. The group’s objective: To find consensus about what makes American single malt whiskeys distinct.
The meeting took roughly one hour and catalyzed the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission, which took the lead advocating for the code update on behalf of U.S. producers. (The spelling of “whiskey” differs across organizations. (The TTB uses “whisky” in its American single malt definition, but for clarity, The Denver Post will spell the word as “whiskey” in this story.)
Hawley, who serves as president of the commission, submitted a formal petition to regulators shortly after that initial meeting. As the rulemaking process inched forward over the years, the organization worked to “spread the gospel” of American single malt whiskey, rallying distillers, maltsters and liquor stores around its cause. Today, it boasts 113 members.
What galvanized so many producers, Hawley said, was an opportunity to level the playing field between American-made spirits and the world’s most coveted Scotch and Japanese single malts.
“America has been known for bourbon for such a long time, but it’s not the only kind of whiskey that’s being made here,” Hawley said. American single malt “stands toe to toe with Scotch whiskey, Japanese whiskey and whiskey being made all over the world.
“I think what you’ll find with American single malt whiskey is, in a broad sense, a very intentional approach to be distinct — to have our own voice in the world of single malt,” he added, “not just be a copy of Scotch or to replicate what other people are doing.”
Head distiller Laura Walters works at Ironton Distillery in Denver on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Colorado’s role
Malted barley is the primary ingredient used to make beer and the majority of whiskeys, and many local distillers transitioned to the spirits industry after cutting their chops at breweries.
That means local drinkers have access to some of the best single malt whiskeys in the country, said Spirit Hound’s Englehorn, who helped develop the original recipe for Dale’s Pale Ale in the early 2000s while he was a brewer at Oskar Blues.
Spirit Hound sells six different single malts, including one called Colorado Honey, which is finished in barrels used to store local honey. It was awarded the title of American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year at the 2024 London Spirits Competition.
It’s not only the technique that sets Colorado single malt whiskey apart, however. Many craft distillers use locally grown barley, which gives their spirits a sense of place and showcases the Rocky Mountain terroir, said Justin Aden, head blender at Stranahan’s in Denver.
Stranahan’s has been making exclusively single malt whiskey since it was founded in 2004. Every spirit starts with the same base recipe: A 100% malted two-row barley mash that’s fermented off the grain husks, distilled and then aged for at least four years in new American white oak barrels. After that, Aden gets to have some fun concocting various flavors by finishing the spirits in different casks – like those previously used for sherry or rum – and by blending different ages together for complexity.
But what makes Stranhan’s whiskey distinct is the Colorado grains, most of which are grown on the Front Range, Aden said. He expects distilleries in other states to use their own barley in single malt whiskeys as well, in order to highlight local agricultural communities. (That’s why the growth of American single malt whiskey is a potential boon for farmers, Engelhorn said.)
“There’s a whole bunch of varietals of barley that grow in different regions of the country better than others,” Aden said. “That’s a really fun thing for whiskey geeks to discover.”
To commemorate the new federal designation, Stranahan’s will soon debut a new blend called Founder’s Release. The 12-year-old whiskey is one of its oldest and highest-proof expressions, clocking in at 60% alcohol by volume. It’s expected to be available for sale in late spring for $199.99.
Distillery dog Ludo, a golden retriever, lies in the sunshine next to oak barrels with aging whiskey at Ironton Distillery in Denver on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Flavor and creativity
What most excites Ironton head distiller Laura Walters is the opportunity for creativity and innovation. The single malt definition mandates that distillers use 100% malted barley, but it doesn’t specify what kind or how it is roasted, which creates room for experimentation.
For example, her flagship American Straight Malt Whiskey features 60% specialty malts roasted to various levels, drawing out different sugars and flavors. But a recipe Walters developed for Colorado State University athletics featured a different ratio of base malts and specialty malts, which created an entirely new flavor profile.
The freedom to design a mash bill like this, plus the ability to leverage barrels and even elevation, means there’s an almost endless well of flavor combinations to play with. “Everybody talks about terroir in wine, but it’s definitely a thing with whiskey, too,” she said. “Even in our state alone, a barrel that is aged at Denver’s level is going to be totally different than a barrel in Aspen.”
Or even in the Boulder County town of Louisville, where Ironton Distillery is moving its production at some point in the next few years.
So, how will American single malt sell? Hawley said he hopes to see new sections at liquor stores denoting the style to help customers more easily identify it. But one of the best ways to try the local tipples remains bellying up where they’re made.
“Go out there, try new single malts, support local distilleries,” Walters said. “It’s an exciting time.”
An ideologically driven, little-known Supreme Court case could bring back pricey copays and gut essential health coverage. (Credit: Joe Ravi/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0)
by Joseph Williams
A group of public health experts warned on Thursday that a Supreme Court case set for arguments next week could lead to the end of a central, highly popular component of the Affordable Care Act — one that has improved a range of health outcomes for Black Americans.
The case hasn’t received widespread notice, but Braidwood Management v. Becerra has the potential to cause millions of Americans to avoid ACA-mandated free screening and services for preventable diseases, like diabetes or colon cancer. If that happens, the experts said, things will almost certainly get worse in Black communities.
And Black women — who disproportionately rely on free prevention services — could be at particularly high risk.
“Expect to see more heart disease, more lung cancer, more kidney disease in communities of color,” Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said after a joint press briefing Thursday. If low-income patients are forced to hand over a copay for cancer screening, he says, “people will receive less care, later in the course of their disease, at a higher cost and a higher death rate.”
In turn, “the Black-white death gap, the Hispanic-white death gap will increase in those communities,” he says.
Ideology Jeopardizes Public Health Progress
At issue is a very narrow provision in the ACA that allows the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent entity convened by the federal government, to determine which preventive services private insurance policies must cover without cost-sharing. Braidwood, a private management company run by conservative Christians, objects to a task force recommendation that birth control, the HPV vaccination and devices and PrEP — a drug which prevents transmission of HIV — should be considered preventive treatments.
In court filings, Braidwood contends that requirements to include those provisions “encourage homosexual behavior, intravenous drug use, and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman,” in violation of their religious beliefs. They want the court to rule that the task force’s role in determining preventive care is unconstitutional, a ruling that would effectively hollow out that part of the Affordable Care Act.
In the press call, Benjamin, along with Kathy Hempstead, a senior policy officer with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Dorianne Mason, director of health equity for the National Women’s Law Center, laid out what’s at stake in the case. All three agreed that people are less likely to pay for services they now get for free — even if those services are potentially life-saving. (Disclosure: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supports Word In Black’s health journalism.)
“We know that since the preventive services requirement has occurred, millions more women have received preventive care,” Mason says. “That means cancer screenings are leading to early stage interventions, higher depression screenings have led to improvement of mental health symptoms. We know that contraception has also decreased unwanted pregnancies.”
For insurers, early screenings and preventive care have reduced the costs they would have incurred down the road, says Mason: “It’s been a win-win, including $26 billion in annual savings from identifying cancer early and $19 billion saved annually from contraception.”
Preventive Care Is an Equity and Justice Issue
Still, “It’s important to note that access to preventive care is also a gender and racial justice issue and key to achieving health equity,” she says. “Data show that there have been larger increases in preventive services uptake among women of color compared to white women since the Affordable Care Act’s passage, and racial and ethnic health disparities have narrowed.”
That includes a narrowing of the black-white gap among women in rates of heart disease, coronary disease, and utilization of mammograms to detect signs of breast cancer, Mason says.
Benjamin pointed out that, if free preventive care disappears, low-income communities will be affected the most.
“If you don’t have the 20 bucks to put down as a copayment, you’re less likely to get checked for lung cancer or colorectal cancer,” he says. The healthcare system, he says, will revert from one in which prevention is key to one that depends on treating diseases that are already here. Insurers will increase costs and revert to requiring copays [for currently free treatment], and consumers will seek less care.”
The problem, Benjamin says, is ideology is getting in the way of sound public health policy.
“It’s a shame they want to take away this service from millions of Americans,” he says, “based on this small number of people based on religious or ideological grounds.”
As America and the world deal with the phenomenon of Trump 2.0, with the Left slinging the ACLU at the court system and educated liberal ladies demanding HANDS OFF! and Standing up for Free Speech, and the rest of us wondering if our Democratic friends are really serious about flying to El Salvador on the taxpayers’ dime to advocate for helpless innocent Central American gang members. Of course, maybe traveling to the country named after The Savior during Holy Week is a brilliant and sophisticated pitch for the votes of Christians.
The rest of us are wondering if this is really the start of the promised Golden Age or just the descent into another recession.
The only thing we know for sure is the maxim of popular philosopher Dorothy Gale that we are not in Kansas anymore. Remember when the young Barack Obama was assuring us that the future was full of Hope and Change? Truth is, Mr. President, that Change is very seldom Hopeful. Usually it is terrifying, and it is especially terrifying if you have lived all your life in the liberal bubble and the only thing you know is that the liberal way is the only way.
I suspect that the most terrified Americans right now are educated women. As a profound sexist I believe that women are more inclined to believe the ideology they were taught in their education, and so are most likely to regard the election of Donald Trump as “inconceivable,” because it goes against everything they were taught in K thru grad school. It was they that put out the #WeBelieve signs after the election of Trump 1.0. And now they are out protesting the Trump agenda displaying the protest signs du jour. Of course, there is the dollar-and-cents aspect of this. Educated women are the most likely to suffer from the end of DEI and NGO grants from sea to shining sea.
I’ll bet that the Lawfare Industrial Complex is going crazy too. That’s why it is mobilizing Democratic federal judges into a World War I style Big Push to roll back the Trump agenda. The problem is, I think, that they might push Chief Justice John Roberts into a corner and force him — eventually! — to take a stand for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Eventually, I prophesy, he will find a case that makes the current domination and the hegemony of Democrat-nominated federal district judges seem unjust and absurd to everyone except educated white women with DEI jobs. But that day is not yet.
Also terrifying to our liberal friends is the Trump Art-of-the-Deal culture. If you have been raised up through the curated hierarchical system of modern education, and then gone on to a lifetime career in academe or administrative government, you live in a very safe and very predictable world. The crazy world of Trump with his deals and bankruptcies, of Musk with his impossible startups, is utterly foreign and frightening. The very idea of upsetting the safe world of administration is unthinkable.
And now Trump is coming for Harvard. I learned about the culture of the university from Bryan Magee, the British TV philosophy popularizer. In Confessions of a Philosopher he advised the innocent that universities are not “student–centered.” Not at all. The academics are researchers and administrators, with numerous projects and vast budgets and mind-numbing hierarchies. The last thing on the list is teaching students. Imagine if Trump starts to make universities follow the law, pitching the comfortable academic insiders into his world of risk and turmoil!
We don’t know what is ahead of us in the U.S. We don’t know if Trump’s tariffs will work; we don’t know if he can beat the nationwide injunction culture in the judiciary or whether the system will get the better of him. We don’t know if he will get the better of the liberal activist/protest culture or if they will end up flooding the streets with a genuine “armed insurrection.”
The fact is that we are not in Kansas anymore.
Although fairy tales like The Wizard of Oz are often stigmatized as old wive’s tales, experts are starting to agree that there is something in there that is basic to the human experience, or at least the “lived experience” of women down the ages. One curious aspect of fairy tales is the preponderance of wicked witches and evil stepmothers. Oz has four witches, two wicked and two good. It is easy to see how this witch narrative applies to real life. In the U.S. today, it is obvious that the Wicked Witch of the West is Nancy Pelosi, and the Wicked Witch of the East is Hillary Clinton. The Good Witch of the South, now and forever, is Glinda. I nominate J.K. Rowling, from Scotland, defending women from men in the women’s bathroom, as the Good Witch of the North.
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Christopher Chantrill@chrischantrill blogs at The Commoner Manifestoand runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get hisAmerican Manifesto and hisRoad to the Middle Class.
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Stakeholders in Kaduna State, including government officials, policymakers, and health experts, have converged to explore strategies to address workforce challenges in Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs).
The stakeholders’ meeting, held in Kaduna, aimed to advocate for increased primary healthcare service delivery and improved health outcomes in the state.
The Director of Programmes, Nigerian Health Watch, Dr Kemisola Agbaoye, said, “We are looking at two critical things, sustainable financing and improved workforce capacities,” Agbaoye said.
According to Agbaoye, Kaduna State has made significant progress in allocating 15 per cent or more of its budget to the health sector over the last three to four years.
However, she noted that there are still challenges in ensuring that these funds are released and adequately utilised to improve healthcare delivery at the primary level.
“The deliberations have been encouraging, and there have been very clear calls to action, some of which are the need for cash planning, the need to ensure that resources are prioritised, and the need to leverage digital and data for budget performance tracking and implementation,” Agbaoye said.
The Permanent Secretary, Planning and Budget Commission, Kaduna State, Bashir Mohammed, emphasised the government’s commitment to providing timely goods and services to its citizens.
He described the health sector as one of the most important services that the government should look at, noting that the Kaduna State government has been trying to maintain the 15 per cent allocation of its budget to the health sector.
“We have identified some gaps and advised on prioritisation, cash planning, and budget performance tracking to improve health service delivery in the state.
“Moving forward, it is hoped that welfare for health workers will be improved. Sometimes it is not just about salaries but about allowances and other welfare things that make the retention of health personnel in the state key and very important,” Mohammed said.
The Commissioner of Health, Hajiya Umma Ahmed, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Aishatu Sadiq, disclosed that the state faces recurrent healthcare burdens and service delivery challenges to its 10.6 million citizens. She noted that the state currently recorded a multidimensional poverty index of 88 per cent, with a higher value of 89 per cent for females.
“Even though the state government has taken deliberate steps in managing the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to channel resources directly to PHC facilities, sustainability is not guaranteed by funding alone but requires transparent disbursement and tracking mechanisms, community participation in budget planning and monitoring, and a commitment to result-oriented spending,” she said.
To address these challenges, the state is exploring models such as state-level health trust funds, performance-based financing pilots, and the integration of community-based health insurance schemes to improve equity and reduce out-of-pocket expenditure, especially for the poor and vulnerable.
The state has also developed a human resource for health policy, generated a cost implementation plan, and obtained executive approval to commence recruitment processes.
According to Ahmed, this will enable the state to recruit midwives and CHIPS agents for underserved wards, reposition the Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA) to improve training, supervision, and workforce planning, and strengthen collaboration with partners to deliver continuous professional development.
Our correspondent reports that the policy will also explore incentives, including rural hardship allowances and career progression schemes, to retain talent where it is needed most and mitigate the state’s brain drain challenges.
The stakeholders’ meeting is a significant step towards addressing the workforce challenges in Kaduna State’s primary healthcare sector.
With the state’s commitment to improving healthcare delivery and the exploration of innovative models to address these challenges, there is hope for improved health outcomes for the citizens of Kaduna State.
Kaduna To Revamp Primary Health Care Centers is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
ATLANTA (AP) — Allergy season can be miserable for tens of millions of Americans when trees, grass, and other pollens cause runny noses, itchy eyes, coughing and sneezing.
Where you live, what you’re allergic to and your lifestyle can make a big difference when it comes to the severity of your allergies. Experts say climate change is leading to longer and more intense allergy seasons, but also point out that treatments for seasonal allergies have become more effective over the last decade.
Here are some tips from experts to keep allergy symptoms at bay — maybe even enough to allow you to enjoy the outdoors.
Where are pollen levels the worst this year?
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America issues an annual ranking of the most challenging cities to live in if you have allergies, based on over-the-counter medicine use, pollen counts and the number of available allergy specialists.
This year, the top five cities are: Wichita, Kansas; New Orleans; Oklahoma City; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Memphis.
Which pollens cause allergies?
There are three main types of pollen. Earlier in the spring, tree pollen is the main culprit. After that grasses pollinate, followed by weeds in the late summer and early fall.
FILE – The branches of an oak tree are stained with a green tint from pollen at a park in Richardson, Texas, Thursday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
Some of the most common tree pollens that cause allergies include birch, cedar, cottonwood, maple, elm, oak and walnut, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Grasses that cause symptoms include Bermuda, Johnson, rye and Kentucky bluegrass.
How do I track pollen levels?
Pollen trackers can help you decide when to go outside. The American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology tracks levels through a network of counting stations across the U.S. Counts are available at its website and via email.
Limit your exposure to pollens
The best and first step to controlling allergies is avoiding exposure. Keep the windows in your car and your home closed, even when it’s nice outside.
If you go outside, wearing long sleeves can keep pollen off your skin to help ward off allergic reactions, said Dr. James Baker, an allergist at the University of Michigan. It also provides some sun protection, he added.
When you get home, change your clothes and shower daily to ensure all the pollen is off of you — including your hair. If you can’t wash your hair every day, try covering it when you go outside with a hat or scarf. Don’t get in the bed with your outside clothes on, because the pollen will follow.
It’s also useful to rinse your eyes and nose with saline to remove any pollen, experts said. And the same masks that got us through the pandemic can protect you from allergies — though they won’t help with eye symptoms.
How to relieve allergy symptoms
Over-the-counter nasal sprays are among the most effective treatments for seasonal allergies, experts said.
But the vast majority of patients use them incorrectly, irritating parts of the nose, said Dr. Kathleen Mays, an allergist at Augusta University in Georgia. She suggested angling the nozzle outward toward your ear rather than sticking it straight up your nose.
Over-the-counter allergy pills like Claritin, Allegra and Zyrtec are helpful, but may not be as effective as quickly since they’re taken by mouth, experts said.
Experts also said that if your allergy symptoms are impacting your quality of life, like causing you to lose sleep or a lack focus at work or school, it might be time to consider an allergist appointment for immunotherapies.
Some remedies for allergy relief that have been circulating on social media or suggested by celebrities — like incorporating local honey into your diet to expose yourself to pollen — have been debunked.
Dr. Shayam Joshi, an allergist at Oregon Health and Science University, said that’s because the flowers that bees pollinate typically don’t contain the airborne pollen that causes allergy symptoms.
Is allergy season changing?
With climate change, winters are milder and growing seasons are longer, meaning there’s more opportunity for pollen to stay in the air, resulting in longer and more severe allergy seasons.
In many areas across the country, pollen counts have broken decades of records. In late March, the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Center measured a pollen count of over 14,000 grains per cubic meter, which is considered extremely high.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
