Just hours before Donald Trump's planned rally in Iowa, the former president has announced he will "delay or cancel" the event due to a tornado watch in the local area.
"Tornado watch in Iowa," Trump wrote on Truth Social, his own social network launched after he was banned from most other platforms. "For safety of our great Patriots, we have been asked to delay or cancel todays[sic] sold out Rally."
Trump claims that he is "ready to go," but advises his supporters to "seek shelter or safe haven!"
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"I am near the Palm Beach Airport, ready to go, but we are on hold because of the very bad weather in Iowa," he wrote Saturday. "Please Seek Shelter or Safe Haven!"
In a follow-up post on Truth Social, Trump said, "Unfortunately, due to the Tornado Warnings in Des Moines, we are forced to cancel today's outdoor Rally at the Lauridsen Amphitheater.
"Stay tuned, we will reschedule soon," he added. "Be safe out there!" He included a screen grab purporting to show details of a tornado watch update.
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) was once thought to be the man that would oppose Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) from the right. On Tuesday, however, he announced he was resigning from office.
Republicans currently have 222 members in power in the House, and this resignation will reduce that to 221. It means Speaker Kevin McCarthy will need to be even more cautious as he looks for the numbers to pass bills.
According to The Salt Lake City Tribune, Stewart is leaving office due to a serious medical issue that his wife is facing. He hasn't elaborated on the details.
Evie Stewart was featured in a 2013 profile on the Congressman, who had just been elected for the first time. When asked about her husband's absence from home, she explained it was part of their belief system.
"Whenever we sacrifice for our God or our country, whether it's in the military or public service or sacrificing for our family, it binds our hearts to them, and then we love our God and our family and our country more," she said.
The Tribune explained that Gov. Spencer Cox (R) has seven days by law to set the dates for the primary and general election for the seat. It isn't expected to be a competitive district for Democrats, but the longer the absence, the greater the pressure on McCarthy.
"Under state law, those dates will be the same as this year’s municipal primary and general elections unless the Legislature appropriates money to hold an election on a different date," said the Tribune.
Those municipal elections fall on Aug. 15 and Nov. 7, respectively.
Stewart was a 2020 election truther, going so far as to suggest that Democrats somehow cheated in the Georgia runoff election.
High school pranksters in Maryland posted a fake real estate listing for their school that revealed troublesome conditions at the facility, Patch reports.
In a since-deleted Zillow post, the students listed Meade High School for $42,069, which it sardonically advertised as a “nice half working jail.”
The listing was originally posted May 23 and was active as of Thursday but had been removed by Tuesday morning, the report said.
“This nice half working jail is on sale for a steal!!!” a screenshot of the listing posted by The Baltimore Banner shows.
The post highlights a “nice spacious kitchen and dining room, with a private basketball court” but warns that “All 15 bathrooms come with sewage issues!!”
“The school also comes with dangerous unfinished sections that could cost you your life!!
“Your neighbors are rodents and insects that will make you squeal!!! (In fear). You have 100 parking spots to park all your nice cars, and a private multi-use turf field!
Anne Arundel County Public Schools spokesperson Bob Mosier appeared to have a sense of humor about the prank.
"This is incredibly creative advertising, but we are stunned that the listers so vastly underestimated the value of this prime real estate with amazing amenities," Mosier told Patch.
"Potential buyers surely will be flocking to snap this deal up, right? This won’t be on the market for long."
Patch’s Jacob Baumgart writes that “This is the second time in recent years that (Anne Arundel County Public Schools) students tried to sell their school as a senior prank.
“Broadneck High students hung a for sale sign outside their school in spring 2020. The sign advertised the building with 100+ rooms that had been vacant for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Read the full article here.Officials and climate experts in Nova Scotia, Canada on Tuesday pointed to numerous climate-related factors that have contributed to the wildfires that are raging in the province this week, forcing the evacuation of more than 16,000 people and destroying roughly 200 homes and other structures.
The Tantallon fire in the Halifax area and the Barrington Lake fire in the southwestern county of Shelburne have burned through a combined 25,000 acres in the Maritime province, which, as one firefighter told the Canadian newspaper SaltWire, has historically been far less likely to experience such blazes than landlocked western provinces.
"This the worst fire I've ever been on," volunteer firefighter Capt. Brett Tetanish toldSaltWire. "I've been on other large fires in Nova Scotia, Porters Lake, we lost structures there, but you don't see fires like this in Nova Scotia. You see these in Alberta."
Tetanish described a "surreal" scene as he drove toward the Tantallon fire on Sunday evening.
"We're driving on Hammonds Plains Road with fire on both sides of the road, structures on fire, cars abandoned and burnt in the middle of the road," he toldSaltWire.
Other witnesses, including a filmmaker, posted videos on social media of "apocalyptic scenes" showing fires destroying homes and huge plumes of smoke rendering highways nearly invisible to drivers.
"I almost died," said the filmmaker. "The fire is spreading, it's very serious. We couldn't see anything."
Halfway through 2023, Nova Scotia has already experienced more wildfires than it did in all of 2022, according to the National Observer.
Karen McKendry, a wilderness outreach coordinator at the Ecology Action Center in Nova Scotia's capital, Halifax, told the Observer the province has experienced hotter dryer weather than normal this spring, making it easier for fires to spread.
"People haven't always, on a national scale, been thinking about Nova Scotia and wildfires," McKendry said. "What dominates the consciousness, rightly so in Canada, is what's happening out West. But with a warming climate and some drier seasons, this is going to become more common in Nova Scotia. So more fires, more widespread fires, more destructive fires from a human perspective as well."
The province's Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (DNRR) also warned last Friday that the wildfires were taking hold in the region less than a year after Hurricane Fiona downed what Premier Tim Houston called a "significant" number of trees across Nova Scotia.
"Fires in areas where Hurricane Fiona downed trees have the potential to move faster and burn more intensely, making them potentially more difficult to contain and control," said the DNRR. "At this time, needles, twigs, leaves, etc., support fire ignition and spread. With high winds, the spread can be rapid and intense."
Scientists last year linked warming oceans, fueled by the continued extraction of fossil fuels and emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gases, to Fiona's destruction in Eastern Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Monday that the situation in Nova Scotia is "incredibly serious," prompting Saman Tabasinejad, acting executive director of Progress Toronto, to point to Trudeau's support for fossil fuel projects like the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
"This would be a great time to end fossil fuel subsidies and invest in a Green New Deal!" Tabasinejad said on Twitter.
More than 200 crews have been sent by government agencies from across the province, and Nova Scotia officials said Tuesday that both the Tantallon and Barrington Lake fires were still "out of control" two days after they began and were "rapidly moving."
Halifax Fire and the DNRR are investigating the cause of the fires.
McKendry pointed out that a number of anti-conservation activities may be linked to increased wildfires.
Roads being built "deep into our forests" have allowed more people opportunities to accidentally set fires, while the government has been "emptying our urban areas of wetlands," making it easier for blazes to spread widely.
"Do not delude yourself into thinking this is a one-off," journalist John Vaillant toldSaltWire on Monday. "The world is more flammable than it has ever been."
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