DEVELOPING Defence rests without Donald Trump taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial
Donald Trump's lawyers rested their defence Tuesday without the former president taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial.
A wealthy Silicon Valley-backed campaign to build a green city for up to 400,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area has submitted what it says are enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the November election.
The campaign submitted more than 20,000 signatures but would need only about 13,000 valid ones to qualify for the ballot. If verified by Solano County’s elections office, voters will decide in the fall whether to allow urban development on land currently zoned for agriculture. The land-use change would be necessary for the development to be built.
Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader who heads the company behind the campaign, California Forever, said at a news conference Tuesday that he heard from thousands of people who want careers and homes in the county where they grew up but can no longer afford because of high housing costs and a lack of nearby work.
“They are fed up with this malaise that's plagued California for the last 20 years with this culture of saying no to everything that has made it increasingly impossible for working families to reach the California dream,” he said.
The yet-unnamed development would mix homes, green space, a walkable downtown and jobs between Travis U.S. Air Force Base and the Sacramento River Delta city of Rio Vista, Calif. Sramek said he expects to start with 50,000 residents within the next decade, with homes starting at US$400,000. The median sale price of a home in March was closer to US$600,000, according to Redfin.
The controversial project has wealthy and powerful backers, including philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. The campaign declined to disclose how much money they spent to collect the signatures, saying that information would be available eventually.
It also faces strong opposition by some elected officials and other critics who say Sramek’s plan is a speculative money grab that’s light on details.
Sramek outraged locals by quietly purchasing more than US$800 million in farmland since 2018 and even suing farmers who refused to sell. Reps. John Garamendi and Mike Thompson, who oppose the project, were initially alarmed that foreign adversaries or investors might be buying up the land because of its proximity to the air force base.
“What people are really upset about are the tactics being used to obtain the goal at the end. The promise of jobs and affordable housing, that's not a guarantee," said Princess Washington, mayor pro tem of Suisun City. “What we’re looking at is a policy change, and overturning of our stance against sprawl development.”
Sramek unveiled plans for the development in January but had to amend the land-use change ballot initiative twice to address county and air force concerns. The delays haven't slowed the project's timeline.
The proposal includes an initial US$400 million to help residents and air force base families buy homes in the community or for new affordable housing, as well as an initial guarantee of 15,000 local jobs paying a salary of at least US$88,000 a year.
California is desperate for more housing, but critics of the project say it would be more environmentally sound to build within existing cities than to convert designated farmland.
AP journalist Terry Chea contributed to this report from Solano County.
Donald Trump's lawyers rested their defence Tuesday without the former president taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial.
One passenger was killed and 30 injured after a Singapore Airlines SIAL.SI flight from London hit severe turbulence en route on Tuesday, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Bangkok, officials and the airline said.
Anything is possible this week, as far as Canada's weather is concerned, with forecasts ranging from scorching heat in some parts of the country to rain and snow in others.
Canada's annual inflation rate slowed to a three-year low of 2.7 per cent in April, matching expectations, and core measures continued to ease, data showed on Tuesday, likely boosting chances of a June interest rate cut.
Donald Trump's reelection campaign called 'The Apprentice,' a film about the former U.S. president in the 1980s, 'pure fiction' and vowed legal action following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But director Ali Abbasi is offering to privately screen the film for Trump.
Nestle NESN.S will market a new, US$5 line of frozen pizzas and protein-enriched pastas in the United States which it says it designed specifically for people taking drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss.
If you've been to a party lately and haven't seen someone drinking a BORG, you're likely not partying with college students.
As the month-long boycott of Loblaw-owned stores wears on, small independent food retailers and alternative grocery options say they're seeing a boost in traffic and sales.
Prince Harry can't expand his privacy lawsuit against The Sun tabloid publisher to include allegations that Rupert Murdoch and some other executives were part of an effort to conceal and destroy evidence of unlawful information gathering, a London judge ruled Tuesday.
For those who go to their local libraries often, they know there’s much more to their library than just borrowing books. Local libraries in Atlantic Canada are now renting out a broader range of items for people.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.