Kathie McInnes

Cardboard box propped up on a curb along the sidewalk that says FREE PLUMS and TAKE ME!

William Carlos Williams if he was in an open marriage:

Hi @6townsrunner.bsky.social, I think it was some time in the 1990s, but I'm not sure of the exact year.

New Zealand's Mount Taranaki gets same legal rights as a person The aim is to address injustices of colonisation, including confiscating land from local tribes.

A mountain has been granted the same legal rights as a person.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

‘She was so injured, her Daddy couldn’t recognise her’: Victims’ heart-breaking court statements Young girls brutally attacked by knifeman in Southport tell of their trauma and parents speak of their pain

This is one of the most distressing pieces I've ever read. The words of survivors and victims' families. Those poor children. It breaks your heart to think what they went through that day.
telegraph.co.uk/gift/b6f545b...

I was walking down Canal Street and bought this. It’s crazy how quickly they can get merch made these days.

Labour’s plan to torch three decades of education reforms Even before the new bill hits the statute book, underperforming schools ‘are realising they have been handed a get out of jail free card’

Ignore the headline on this. It's actually a more measured piece, which outlines some of the problems with the Govt's approach to schools.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01...

The key figures behind Bridget Phillipson’s education plans Becky Francis, David Blunkett, Kevan Collins, David Bell and the teaching unions have the cabinet minister’s ear, but what might they be saying?

Some of the key people who have the ear of education secretary Bridget Phillipson...
www.thetimes.com/article/a62a...

Council tax hike and street lights dimmed as Stoke-on-Trent hit with £7.5m cuts Stoke-on-Trent City Council will need another £16.8 million of exceptional financial support from government to balance its budget

More council cutbacks in Stoke-on-Trent. But the budget hinges on being given Govt permission to borrow more than £16m.
www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-o...

Danish king changes coat of arms amid row with Trump over Greenland Design shows intent to keep control of Faroe Islands and Greenland – which Trump says he would like the US to buy

The move is seen as a rebuke to Donald Trump, who said 'make Greenland great again'. Who said coats of arms were boring?!
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces resignation Plunging poll ratings and opposition within his own Liberal party spurred leader to quit

More political turmoil. This time in Canada. PM Justin Trudeau announces his resignation.
on.ft.com/4a3EKCf

Interesting article on the Staffordshire prison rated as the best in the country.

Really good piece and pretty fair.

The bus shelter shop is also raising money for everything from defibrillators to victims of earthquakes.

Support the Bus Shelter: Fundraising for Local Causes | Village Charity | Butterton Join us in supporting the Bus Shelter, a village charity dedicated to fundraising for local causes and making a positive impact in our community. Help us make a difference by contributing to our mi...

Love this. Butterton in the Moorlands has a bus shelter shop. It's registered as a charity.
butterton.org.uk/bus-shelter?...

Keele University professors among Staffordshire New Year Honours recipients Elaine Hay is appointed an MBE, while Mark Ormerod becomes an OBE.

Congrats to Mark Ormerod and Elaine Hay from Keele University.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

14 Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire stalwarts in New Year Honours 2025 Congratulations!

More than a dozen people from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent have been recognised in the honours list.
www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-o...

Inspirational ex-head now running five Stoke-on-Trent schools lands OBE Margaret Yates has landed the New Year gong

Congratulations to Margaret Yates on her OBE. A well deserved honour.
www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-o...

It's interesting how memory works. As a kid, another hostage crisis also left an indelible memory. The siege of the Iranian Embassy in London. Just about to start reading this book on it.

Jimmy Carter, Peacemaking President Amid Crises, Is Dead at 100 Rising from Georgia farmland to the White House, he oversaw the historic Camp David peace accords, but his one-term presidency was waylaid by troubles at home and abroad.

Jimmy Carter leaves such a fascinating legacy. From peanut farmer to US President. The hostage crisis in Iran (my earliest political memory - I was at primary school at the time), the Camp David Accords and his Nobel award-winning peacemaking efforts.
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/u...

Stoke heads UK list of biggest annual house price growth, says Halifax Jump of 17.2% in 12 months to September for city, while Huddersfield had largest decline

Stoke-on-Trent has the UK's largest house price growth. Up 17% in a year.
www.theguardian.com/money/2024/d...

Woman's body pulled from Rudyard Lake as police launch investigation The death is currently being treated as 'unexplained'

Really sad news.
www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-o...

The British girl, 5, whose memory lives on Isabella Peatfield, 5, (pictured with her mother Kim), from Derbyshire, died while on holiday with her family in Tangalle, Sri Lanka, after the town was hit by the waters of the 2004 tsunami.

This Boxing Day is the 20th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed 200,000+ lives. Among those who died was five-year-old Isabella Peatfield, from Ilam CE Primary in North Staffordshire. My thoughts are with her family on December 26.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Murder case from 1991 has a new suspect: Dominique Pelicot After the landmark rape trial, an unsolved case of a female estate agent is being looked at anew

Cold case reopened into estate agent's 1991 murder in France. Dominique Pelicot is now a suspect.
www.thetimes.com/article/ebbc...

Children executed and women raped in front of their families as M23 militia unleashes fresh terror on DRC First-hand accounts from victims of unthinkable violence paint a gruesome picture of the brutality sweeping the central African country. How long is the West prepared to look away?

"The war the West is ignoring. Thirty years on from the Rwandan genocide, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is in the grip of unthinkable brutality." Shocking report.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Tesco’s out of chives.

This is the best alternative advent calendar ever. I'm going to use every single one of the words in this thread. It's chibbly out there today.

Do they drive starkers as well? Just don't buy an ex-demonstrator car!

'I walk into a room and people start coughing': Rare condition makes people allergic to sufferers Medinah barely leaves the house - every time she does, people will start coughing and sneezing. Her condition is so rare it's simply known as People Allergic To Me. Sufferers tell Sky News of "unbeara...

"I am the allergen." Fascinating and bizarre.
news.sky.com/story/i-walk...

Ukraine tops the tables for having the most educated politicians. Almost a quarter of members of the Ukrainian parliament have PhDs.
www.economist.com/interactive/...

just totted up all the substacks I pay for and found myself thinking ‘wow wouldn’t it be better if all these writers were in one place and I could just pay a flat fee’ so anyway that’s how today I invented the concept of the ‘newspaper’