By Marian Wang in ProPublica. The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and more than a dozen of her constituents in Tucson this weekend has sparked criticism of Arizona’s lax gun control laws and renewed calls from some to tighten those restrictions. Six individuals were confirmed dead. Here’s our attempt to briefly break down a few […]

America is at war with itself. And anyone who watches Fox News or listens to US radio talk shows should not be surprised that another gunman has taken aim at his own government, his own elected officials or his fellow citizens.   Being in the midst of what is going on, the American people have […]

  The past year has been an eventful one. In January the Haiti earthquake hit. My staff and I worked for days with Foreign Affairs, a School District and Mt. Sentinel School of South Slocan to safely locate, press for transportation assistance, and rescue a class of high school students caught in Haiti. In February, […]

Provincial Liberal leadership candidate George Abbott will be in Castlegar Thursday to "meet with party members and local residents about my campaign to become the next Leader of the BC Liberal Party and the next Premier of B.C. " In an interview Wednesday, Abbott said he's no stranger to the Kootenays, and this stop is no ...

What kind of year in politics is 2011 going to be? Very likely another year (or at least ten months) of gridlock at the federal level, with no sign of any so-called game changer on the horizon.   A spring election is looking less likely as the Conservatives try to make a deal with the […]

 A year ago I wrote a column reflecting on the activities of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA), the Canadian branch of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism. The latter is an international pro-Zionist group whose sole task is to redefine anti-Semitism to mean virtually any criticism of Israel. It developed at the behest of […]

One of the hallmarks of a democratic state is its commitment to free, public and political expression. Indeed, no society can call itself truly democratic if it does not guarantee its citizens the inalienable rights to gather, communicate their opinion and demonstrate their support for or against any political position they wish. If these assertions […]

PART I:  The past year has been an eventful one.   In January the Haiti earthquake hit. My staff and I worked for days with Foreign Affairs, a School District and Mt. Sentinel School of South Slocan to safely locate, press for transportation assistance, and rescue a class of high school students caught in Haiti.   […]

Christy Clark’s suggestion that the next BC Liberal leader will need to get a “mandate” from BC voters through an early election shows she doesn’t understand our parliamentary system. And former attorney general and author of the fixed election date legislation Geoff Plant’s statement that the legislation did not anticipate the current situation is absurd. […]

Tempers ran a little higher than usual at the regular meeting of Castlegar city council Monday night, after Mayor Lawrence Chernoff presented - for the second time in as many weeks - a utility hike recommended by city director of financial services Andre Buss. The staff report outlining the rationale behind an increase of...