Sunday, August 2, 2015

In the past few days in Italy, several municipalities have started asking religious schools to pay taxes for property and local services, despite the resistance of the Catholic Church.

The request of the municipalities results from the sentence of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation on July 8, recognising as legitimate the request of the Municipality of Livorno asking religious schools to pay property taxes.

Requests have come from the Municipality of Bogliasco, next to Genova, and from the deputies of Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) of the regional counsel of Lombardy. The first case is of the mayor Luca Pastorino that in last years received several refusals of his requests for payment because of the religious nursery school and retirement home. In the second case, the M5S party asks to the regional government to assure the local administrations of the region regularly apply the sentence of the Supreme Court.

The case on which the Court has ruled was of the religious schools Santo Spirito and Immacolata in Livorno, Tuscany, to pay over 422,000 euros in arrears for the period from 2004 to 2009. The request was advanced by the Municipality of Livorno in 2010.

The city reasoned, “because the users of the private schools pay a frequency fee, this kind of activity is considered as a commercial one” ^{((it))Italian language: ?poiché gli utenti della scuola paritaria pagano un corrispettivo per la frequenza, tale attività è di carattere commerciale}.

In 2014 the Italian municipal tax discipline has changed from the ICI system to the IMU system by the Monti government. A mean cost per student criterion is used to tax only the schools that receive a fee higher than the mean cost per student fixed by the State. The new law is not retroactive, so the taxes requested in arrears from 2006 to 2009 are under the ICI system.

Minister of Education Stefania Giannini said a “more general reflection” ^{((it))Italian language: ?riflessione più generale} is needed. Claudio De Vincenti, undersecretary to the prime minister, said “a discussion table will be opened with the non-profit associations, religious association included” ^{((it))Italian language: ?apriremo quindi un tavolo di confronto con le organizzazioni non profit, comprese quelle religiose}.

Undersecretary for Education Mr. Toccafondi says “many schools will increase their fees or they will quit. Then the State will have to find new resources to build new structures and manage them” ^{((it))Italian language: ?Molti istituti aumenteranno le rette o chiuderanno. Così lo Stato dovrà trovare nuove risorse per costruire nuove strutture e gestirle}.

Also the president of the Lombardy region, Roberto Maroni, has reacted by proposing some regional counter-measures to finance private schools.

The secretary general of CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference), Nunzio Galantino, has called the sentence “dangerous” ^{((it))Italian language: ?pericolosa} and “ideological” ^{((it))Italian language: ?”ideologica}: “We face a dangerous sentence. Who takes the decisions, do it with less ideology. Because I have the clear sensation that with this way of thinking, they wait the praise of some ideologized supporters. Indeed, they don’t understand what kind of good service private schools held” ^{((it))Italian language: ?Siamo davanti a una sentenza pericolosa. Chi prende decisioni, lo faccia con meno ideologia. Perché ho la netta sensazione che con questo modo di pensare, si aspetti l’applauso di qualche parte ideologizzata. Il fatto è che non ci si sta rendendo conto del servizio che svolgono le scuole pubbliche paritarie}.

Italian secularist associations are concerned the Government will modify the law in order to maintain an exception for religious schools. The secularist magazine MicroMega describe the court’s judgement as historic.

The Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (UAAR) has launched a petition which now has more than 11,000 signatures, asking the government to respect and execute the sentence of the Supreme Court. It is also encouraging citizens to ask for application of the law in their local municipalities.

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

A new, refurbished cafeteria at the Romanian Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest has opened for the use of parliamentarians. The new cafeteria, which has mahogany furniture and leather draped armchairs, was officially opened yesterday, and is situated at the entrance to the Senate headquarters in the Palace of the Parliament.

Members of Parliament said they were not satisfied with the former cafeteria in the Palace, saying that it didn’t have proper tables and chairs to sit on. Many parliamentarians expressed their satisfaction at the opening of the refurbished dining venue, saying that they can now drink a cup of coffee “in a civilised manner” before sessions.

Bucharest’s Palace of the Parliament (Palatul Parlamentului in Romanian) is the largest building in Europe and the third largest building in the world, with an area of approximately 350,000 m². It contains both houses of the Romanian Parliament (the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate), as well as the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC). It is also frequently used as a function centre.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

A tentative contract agreement has been struck, five days after New York City was ground to a halt in a transit strike. The executive board of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA) had been negotiating under a media blackout, but terms of the agreement have started to come to light: A 3% increase in salary the first year, 4% increase the second year, and a 3.5% increase in their third year. There will be no changes in the employees’ pension plan and the retirement age remains at 55 in exchange for employees contribution of 1.5% of their paycheck.

The new contract still must be approved by the state-run authority’s board, whose next regular meeting is on January 25, 2006. There is no word yet if a special meeting will be called.

The Union’s workers will vote by mail, a process which may take weeks to complete.

Union members probably will ratify the contract because it would be “near suicidal” to strike again, says Gary Chaison, professor of labour relations at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Thirty-four thousand Transport Workers Union members walked off the job on December 20, when negotiations broke down over disagreements concerning pensions, health benefits, and pay. The strike, which lasted three days, affected an estimated 7 million commuters daily.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Bruce Haines is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Bramalea-Gore-Malton riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Wednesday at 2:30pm Chicago local time, a goat’s head was delivered for Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts at his office in Wrigley Field. The head was dropped off at Gate K by the unidentified male driver of a van, reportedly not by a member of the United States Postal Service.

The Chicago Police were notified of the incident, and are investigating. The driver of the truck was recorded on surveillance video.

In 1945, when the Cubs last competed in Major League Baseball’s World Series, Chicago restaurant owner Billy Sianis was ejected from Wrigley Field during the World Series after trying to bring a goat into the stadium. Following the incident, Sianis is alleged to have cursed the team, vowing they would never win the championship again. The incident has become part of Chicago Cubs’ fan lore.

The day of the incident, the Chicago Cubs game versus the Milwuakee Brewers was postponed due to weather. The Cubs organization is also in negotiations with the city of Chicago over possible renovations to Wrigley Field.

Monday, October 1, 2012

The Iranian Fars News Agency (FNA) yesterday apologised over an article it reproduced Friday, originally written by US satirical news website The Onion on Monday September 24. The parodic article reported “a Gallup poll” suggesting “the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans” would vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, instead of US President Barack Obama. The Onion article also said “77 percent of rural Caucasian voters” would prefer to drink beer with Ahmadinejad or attend a baseball game with him as opposed to Obama.

The FNA’s English service Editor-in-chief said the article had been “extracted” from The Onion and that FNA gives “our formal apologies for that mistake”, as well as pointing out the article was “taken down from our outlook in less two hours”.

However, the editor-in-chief also said “we do believe that if a free opinion poll is conducted in the US, a majority of Americans would prefer anyone outside the US political system to President Barack Obama and American statesmen”. He stressed that this belief does not constitute justification for the error.

In The Onion’s article, fictional West Virginia resident Dale Swiderski says about Ahmadinejad: “I like him better”. ‘Swiderski’ is also quoted by the Chicago, Illinois website as saying the Iranian President “takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.”

In Iran, homosexuality is a criminal offence which can carry a penalty of incarceration or capital punishment. Just over five years ago, when he participated in a debate at Columbia University in New York, New York, Ahmadinejad said: “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country”.

The FNA’s error made international headlines, including in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, and Australia. Will Tracy, editor of The Onion, said their website “freely shares content with Fars and commends the journalists at Iran’s Finest News Source on their superb reportage”, a humourous reference to The Onion’s slogan, ‘America’s Finest News Source’.

On the original web page on The Onion’s website, the satirical news organisation added a reference to “our Iranian subsidiary organization”, providing a link to a screenshot of the FNA’s page.

On the article page, in which The Onion was not attributed as a source, the FNA copied The Onion’s article verbatim and in its entirety, save for part of a sentence saying Ahmadinejad was “a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed”.

This is not the first time The Onion has caused the mistaken belief of their material being factual. In a November 2007 interview with Wikinews, The Onion’s Editorial Manager Chet Clem recounted an incident in which the Beijing Evening News reproduced a story from The Onion created in 2002, copied entirely verbatim, headlined “Congress threatens to leave DC unless new capitol is built”. When the error was highlighted to the Chinese newspaper, Clem said “their response was not to print a correction, but just to say that some newspapers in America make money by printing lies.” In a separate incident, Christians forwarded a story on the Internet from The Onion saying children were converting to Satanism as a result of reading the Harry Potter book series.

The FNA statement released yesterday went on to say “[a]ctive and well-known media occasionally make mistakes, and no media is an exception to this rule”, before going to provide a list of errors made by such publications as The New York Times and Beijing Evening News, as well as television broadcasters like the BBC, ITV, and CNN.

The bottom of the FNA’s statement introduces a list of notable BBC errors reported by The Daily Telegraph on December 6, 2010. While the FNA referenced The Daily Telegraph and the order of the mistakes was changed from the original article, the wording was reproduced verbatim, excluding one omitted sentence under the subheading ‘Nicky Campbell and hunting mark II’ which reads: “Campbell, who is also the presenter of the BBC’s flagship programme for Holy Week, apologised profusely for the mistake.”

According to BBC News Online, the FNA is associated with the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, an Iranian military branch.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Robert ‘Bob’ Edmonds, who sued the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), died Monday in hospital at age 83 of cancer.

“He’ll be remembered as the guy who just wouldn’t go away,” said Ontario Ombudsman André Marin speaking of the loss. “I was the speakerphone and he was the speaker – I merely amplified what he had to say. He deserves the credit for the entire thing.”

Edmonds of Coboconk, Ontario first came to fight the OLG in 2001 when he was “robbed” of his lottery winning of CAN$250,000 by a store clerk. He asked the store clerk’s wife Phyllis LaPlante to check the tickets and she said he did not win but won a free ticket (when someone wins a lottery prize in Canada a small sound goes off in the store). Days after, the couple who owned the store were in the local newspaper saying they had won the jackpot of $250,000. When he contacted the OLG they denied the allegations, and when the couple were arrested for fraud they refused to return his winnings. He sued the LaPlantes for the winnings and settled for $150,000.

In 2002, Edmonds sued the corporation and signed a confidentiality agreement on behalf of the OLG after a judge asked them to rightfully give him the money he won. They gave him $200,000 three years later. Last Friday they gave him $50,000 dollars more, for a total of $250,000.

In October 2006, CBC’s The Fifth Estate showed that more retailers from 1999 to 2006 were winning instead of the customers. After the broadcast OLG’s former CEO called him and personally apologised and the company started to create more security measures for customers.

Following the allegations, 1,000,000 scratch tickets were recalled and on March 23, 2007 CEO Duncan Brown announced he resigned his position. Days later Ontario Ombudsman André Marin sparked up an investingation into the OLG however it is still ongoing.

Edmonds leaves his wife, daughter, and two sons.