GEORGE TOWN - The slow-moving muddy Sungai Muda that defines Penang s northern boundary with Kedah belie the growing spat between the two northern states in water-stressed Malaysia.
Kedah s rambunctious Chief Minister, Mr Muhammad Sanusi Mohd Nor, has promised to build enough blockades on the Kedah side of the river that will deprive Penang of its main source of raw water unless it pays annual compensation for drawing water from Sungei Muda. I can ask the villagers to put sandbags to dam the river at Pinang Tunggal… We will redirect Sungai Muda to somewhere else. Where will you (Penang) get your water from then? Mr Muhammad Sanusi warned recently in a worsening public spat between the two states, referring to a key intersection of the river between them.
Task Force Members:
MAUREEN AUNG-THWIN is director of the Burma Project/Southeast Asia Initiative of the Open Society Institute, which is part of the Soros Foundations Network. She currently serves on the advisory boards of Human Rights Watch/Asia and the Burma Studies Foundation, which oversees the Center for Burma Studies at Northern Illinois University.
JANET BENSHOOF is a human rights lawyer and the recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Award. She is also the president emerita and founder of an international human rights organization, the Center for Reproductive Rights (formerly the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy). Currently she is teaching and working internationally on legal projects involving political equality, gender, security, and democracy issues.
Credit capitol.tn.gov
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Tennessee’s Republican-dominant Senate have advanced legislation that would require school districts to alert parents of any instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The bill also allows parents or guardians to opt their students out of such instruction.
Backers of the bill argued Monday that the measure strengthens parental rights, but critics counter it could further alienate students already marginalized.
After clearing the Senate, the bill must now pass the GOP-controlled House.
Gov. Bill Lee has not weighed publicly whether he supports the measure.
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Jacob DeGeal
McLean County and City of Bloomington election officials said Monday they have received more than 42,457 ballots through early voting and vote by mail. That is about 37.7% of the roughly 112,600 registered voters in the county, even before polls open Tuesday morning. Just 10 days ago, the votes cast figure was closer to 20%.
Both election jurisdictions have data showing strong vote-by-mail returns.
The McLean County Clerk’s office website showed 10,912 vote-by-mail ballots have been received to date, out of 15,841 applications for a mail-in ballot. A total of 11,300 residents of the county have voted early.
Bloomington Election Commission Executive Director Tim Mitchell said 10,245 city voters returned mail-in ballots as of Friday, out of 15,693 sent out.
Odessa Kelly and Rep. Jim Cooper
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Tennessee community organizer Odessa Kelly has announced that she will challenge U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper in the 2022 Democratic primary.
Kelly is backed by Justice Democrats, a progressive group that helped launch Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign in 2018.
Kelly is the co-founder and executive director of Stand Up Nashville, a coalition made up of community organizers and labor unions.
If she won, Kelly would become the first openly gay, Black woman in Congress.
Cooper, a white lawmaker with a reputation as a moderate Democrat, has held his Nashville-area House seat since 2003. Before that, he spent time serving in the House from 1983 to 1995.