Craig McCormick

Let's talk about the morality of the negative economic impact of Tim Houston's attack on Nova Scotia - Halifax Examiner There is a negative economic impact of cutting all the arts and social programs. It is real, and it is enormous, but Houston doesn't value it enough to even measure the loss of them.

Let's talk about the morality of the negative economic impact of Tim Houston's attack on Nova Scotia www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file...

Let's talk about the cost of collisions. A fender bender isn’t minor. A crash with injuries isn’t rare. A fatal collision costs society ~$8 million. In Canada, road crashes cost ~$36 billion every year, about $99 million every day. Safer street design isn’t expensive, crashes are #VisionZero 1/2

HRM will hire a project manager dedicated to road safety with this funding. Before road safety was just something PW fit in between working on road projects. So while this year won’t be a huge change, some RRFBs, some intersection design, it does set things up for more in future years.

Halifax spending $960k to expedite road safety projects ‘We are hurting and maiming and killing more people on our roads than we should be,’ says Dartmouth councillor

"“I want to stop killing people on our streets and so I would rather do a more thoughtful plan than accelerate something we don’t have the capacity to do at the moment” - Cleary.
Our vague outline plan with an unambitious goal needs a VZ overhaul

www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/...

How Toronto reduced car traffic and tripled bike ridership on a key bike boulevard - NACTO Shaw Street was busy with bikes, but it wasn’t working for everyone. There were too many motor vehicles using the street for riding to be comfortable for people who weren’t confident biking, including...

“Shaw Street was busy with bikes, but it wasn’t working for everyone. There were too many motor vehicles using the street for riding to be comfortable…But in 2020, the City of Toronto undertook a project that decreased vehicle volumes by up to 60% and tripled the # of people biking in some places…”

Here's another Hall of Fame sign from last year's MARCH 7th National Day of Action in Washington Square Park, New York City. What's your sign going to say this year?
Visit standupforscience.net/march7 to find your local SATURDAY, MARCH 7th NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION RALLY!

Premier filibustered when tasked with answering energy questions, say opposition | CBC News The premier and opposition leaders battled for time on the floor of the legislature Thursday on a topic that’s become a political lightning rod: energy.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

You are finishing your PhD and looking to continue in science?

The Martin lab @biology-unige.bsky.social has an open postdoctoral position in cell biology to study cell-cell fusion. For more information, please consult mocel.unige.ch/research-gro....

Thanks for reposting!

Predicting the protein interaction landscape of a free-living bacterium with pooled-AlphaFold3 - Molecular Systems Biology Accurate prediction of protein complex structures by AlphaFold3 and similar programs has been used to predict the presence of protein–protein interactions (PPIs), but this technique has never been app...

Predicting the protein interaction landscape of a free-living bacterium with pooled-AlphaFold3

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Province House roundup: Cuts to nursing home staff; Premier links NDP to arts protest - Halifax Examiner “This is a difficult time right now, but I don't think people should lose sight of the fact that they can rely on the government to do what it can do, and probably a little more than it can do,” premi...

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Government breaks stable sources of revenue, claims unforeseeable tough economic situation, and presents austerity budget. Tired old ideas.
Province House roundup: Cuts to nursing home staff; Premier links NDP to arts protest www.halifaxexaminer.ca/province-hou...

Austerity is code for erasure: What one disabled educator, researcher and Nova Scotian thinks of the budget - Halifax Examiner If you care about disabled people, any people, your fellow Nova Scotians, then we need to talk seriously about collective action. About coordinated labour disruption. About a general strike.

Austerity is code for erasure: What one disabled educator, researcher and Nova Scotian thinks of the budget www.halifaxexaminer.ca/commentary/a...

CBASS is a cyclic nucleotide-based antiviral system in bacteria that is related to cGAS-STING signaling in animals. One of the big questions is how CBASS is activated during phage infection? We made some progress on this during my final year in the Kranzusch lab.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Halifax is about to be destroyed because we have to pay for weekend parking downtown, since that’s what happened to every other city where people pay for parking. It’s just like that time letting dogs on patios caused all those horrible tragedies.

Houston unbalanced the books with unwise tax and toll rollbacks, then used massive deficit to rationalize slashing crucial programs and public services - Halifax Examiner As it cuts crucial programs, the premier's budget still contains some generous funding for billionaires, corporations and extractive industries, and seems to be ignoring revenue streams from valuing a...

Houston unbalanced the books with unwise tax and toll rollbacks, then used massive deficit to rationalize slashing crucial programs and public services www.halifaxexaminer.ca/commentary/h...

...I guess he's done "listening to Nova Scotians".

Farewell to a Nova Scotia that will no longer tolerate cuts to programs that enrich us all - Halifax Examiner Nova Scotians hit the streets to defend what really matters.

Farewell to a Nova Scotia that will no longer tolerate cuts to programs that enrich us all www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file...

And this year we have to cut our capital spending plans by $1-2 billion because we can't borrow any more money. Our credit cards are maxxed out.

Right now council wants to buy 10 busses and we do not have the debt to buy them. And it's only like... $10-20 million.

/9

Council has been explicit in their desire to make the city this fiscally vulnerable. Rec centres that were mostly sustainable with user fees had the user fees removed and put on the general tax rate. Rec centres used to be a $700k line item (attachment 1)

/7

The high cost of low taxes Councillors need to put our money where their mouth is.

And council just keeps making the same bad decisions year over year because no one wants to be the one to tell their constituents that they need to start paying their fair share. They've been subsidized for so long the fair share is now fucking huge. Which of course it is, that's what scams are.

/6

Fiscal peril looms as HRM passes capital budget Council’s desired 4% tax increase isn't enough to sustain the city.

This has led to over a decade of council deferring maintenance, deferring spending and doing debt spending, all to keep taxes low for suburban and rural councillors, so they didn't have to do the political suicide thing of making their districts pay their fair share of the tax burden

/5

HRM’s Fiscal Power Rankings West Bedford's rank may surprise you

Which leads to a situation where the minority of council represents districts who generate massive revenue surpluses, and the majority of council represents districts who are subsidized by downtown's revenues. This sets council up to (usually) vote to loot downtown to keep taxes low

/4

The suburbs are a Ponzi scheme Examining the roots of Halifax Regional Municipality’s upcoming budget crisis.

On top of that, the city's underlying financial model is not sustainable. In theory the city provides services to residents and recoups the costs for those services through taxes. But in reality large parts of the city cost more money to service than they bring in, in taxes

/3

The Savage austerity trap: Halifax’s decade of decline Why doesn’t council value Haligonians?

First, council has been keeping taxes low and below inflation for, now, 14 years. Which in practical terms Halifax has had 14 years in which we have not spent enough money to keep up with basic city needs.

/2

Tax the people (developers) who fund this god awful Mayor & Premier. Tax them all the way back to Bermuda.

Shout out to Boston

N.S. premier says no changes planned for budget cuts | CBC News Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says he’s not changing course. A week after his government tabled a budget with $300 million in cuts that sparked multiple protests around the province, including two t...

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

This is an A+ sign.

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#PostdocRecruiting:
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utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UTstaff/job/...

Informal inquiries are encouraged, and see more lab info here: zunlongke-lab.org

Halifax councillors say the math ain't mathing in Andy Fillmore's office budget - Halifax Examiner "I don't appreciate it being presented as if this is what council asked for because it wasn't," Coun. Sam Austin said.

Halifax councillors say the math ain't mathing in Andy Fillmore's office budget www.halifaxexaminer.ca/government/c...

‘Anxious and angry:’ Advocates share impact of budget cut to N.S. caregiver benefit - Halifax Examiner “When caregivers struggle or burn out, the impact ripples outward, increasing pressure on home care, hospitals, and long-term care."

‘Anxious and angry:’ Advocates share impact of budget cut to N.S. caregiver benefit www.halifaxexaminer.ca/province-hou...