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LULAC denounces Texas 'Death Star' bill, calls it 'potential death sentence' for workers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) raised the alarm Tuesday over Texas HB 2127, a new law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, saying that it is "tantamount to a potential death sentence for Latino and Texas workers."The law takes regulatory power away from municipalities, preventing towns and cities from creating or enforcing ordinances and rules relating to specific sections of state law. One such now-unenforceable rule is a City of Austin ordinance that mandates water breaks for construction workers every four hours.In the civil rights group's Tuesday press release, LULAC National President Domingo Garcia called Abbott and supporters of the new bill "heartless politicians who turned Texas into a plantation/patron 1900s system once again.""They will be stained with the same degree of criminal intent if workers die of heat strokes," Garcia said, "To deny water breaks to a construction worker toiling in the 100-degree-plus heat is shameful and criminal. Whi...

Lethbridge College wants to hear from southern Albertans

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

By Heather CameronSunny South NewsLocal Journalism Initiative ReporterLethbridge College is seeking input from others through a ‘Road to Ready’ Survey.“We’re making sure that we ask anyone who wants to provide an opinion about what they think of the college and where we should be and where we should be going and what’s our mission and vision gets to,” Dr. Samantha Lenci, Provost and Vice President Academic of Lethbridge College, said. “It’s really to deepen our understanding, our mission, our vision, our values, and to help us understand what our institutional priorities are.”The survey, Lenci says, was last done six years ago. This current survey, Lenci says, is being done because the current president of the college, Dr. Brad Donaldson, has an open style and thought that there have been a lot of changes in higher education within the province of Alberta after COVID, enough changes that he thought it was a good time to look at what the college does and why they do it.“The whole com...

Coaldale Pickleball Club hosts junior tournament

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

Southern Alberta NewspapersOrganizers of the Junior Pickleball Tournament in Coaldale have deemed the event a smashing success.The tournament took place on June 9 and featured competitors ages 10 to 18 years old. Originally, the event was scheduled to take place at the outdoor pickelball courts at Eastview Park in Coaldale, but due to inclement weather, had to be moved indoors. Accommodating the last minute request, the Coaldale Mennoite Church was able to offer up their gymnasium for the tournament to go ahead. The event saw over forty junior pickleball players in attendance, including international students attending Kate Andrews High School hailing from Chile, Spain, and France.Local competitors from Coaldale, Lethbridge, Warner, Wrentham, and Aetna showed up embodying the spirit of friendly competition and organizers of the event praised the, “great sportsmanship”  exhibited by all  participants throughout the day. The round robin tournament format ensured each team was able top...

Taber’s library board respond to drag queen protest

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

By Ian CroftSunny South NewsLocal Journalism Initiative ReporterWith the Taber Public Library witnessing a protest earlier this month due to their Drag Queen Story Time event as part of Taber Pride, Tamara Miyanaga, member of the Taber Public Library Board, took a moment to share the board’s opinion on the protest.“On behalf of the library board we felt the protest was respectful, and we appreciated the support we received from the Taber Police Service,” said Miyanaga. “There was no negative altercations, and Taber Equality Alliance and those who protested were able to use the library in a peaceful and respectful manner.”When asked about if there was a preferred method of people showing there discontent with the Drag Queen Story Time event, Miyanaga said, “No. I think the protest allowed people to express their concerns and their own values without causing interference for people who were attending the library or the Taber Equality Alliance.”Finally to end things, Miyanaga quoted a ...

Community Newspapers recognized in province-wide competition

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

By Erika MathieuSunny South NewsThe Sunny South News and The Taber Times have been named as finalists in the Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association’s (AWNA) annual Better Newspaper Competition (BNC) Award for General Excellence.The annual competition honours and recognizes excellence in Alberta Weekly newspaper publishing across a number of awards categories including general excellence, and individual achievements in editorial, advertising, and photography.Awards for the BNC’s General Excellence includes four categories which are based on the size of the community and the publication’s circulation with categories for circulation under 1,100, 1,100-4,999, 5,000-9,999 and upwards of 10,500. In each of these groups, awards are then presented for General Excellence, Best Front Page, Best Editorial Page and Best Sports Page.The Coaldale Sunny South News and The Taber Times have been named as two of the five finalists in Alberta for their 2022 submissions. Submissions for the 2022 BNC Gene...

Lethbridge County council meeting briefs

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

By Erika MathieuSunny South NewsThe following are selected briefs from the June 15 council meeting.New CAOCouncil welcomed the County’s new CAO for the first public meeting in council chambers. Council and administration welcomed Cole Beck who officially started with the County last week.Beck said, “this is my fourth day day with Lethbridge County (…) and I am amazed with all of the high-functioning amazing people Lethbridge County has. I have had an opportunity to tour all of the great work that public works is doing and I am just really looking forward to working with each of you and the County as a whole and continuing the great work that has been done in the past.”Department reports—Community Services disposal of land Hilary Janzen, supervisor of planning presented a report pertaining to the disposal of a parcel of County-owned land in the River Brink Subdivision.Janzen noted, “this particular parcel in question is located within the River Brink estates subdivision. When t...

Resident advocates for noise bylaw reform

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

Dear Editor:Every power plant that I worked for the past 25 years I had to protect my ears from machinery noises in the background – boilers, turbines, feedwater pumps, diesel generators, Cummins standby power, and many more equipment in the plant. Before one can work in the power plants, they must follow rules and regulations. Wear ear plugs and earmuffs when making rounds every hour taking readings of the various equipment in operation. I also had to wear a hard hat and safety shoes. While spending many hours on shift one can hear the high-pitched noises and know when something goes wrong.Horst and I worked 12-hour shifts for six months without days off. One day he said that we change shifts so he asked that I work 18 hours to switch from his day shift to my night shift so that he can take over the 12-hour night shift. The Eldorado Mining Company broke the labor laws, not intentionally, but due to shortage of power engineers that left them no choice.We live in a neighbourhoo...

DC rezoning proposed for Malloy lands

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

By Nikki JamiesonSunny South NewsA rezoning amendment is being sought for land left unused after construction related to the Malloy Drain project.During their regular June 12 meeting, Coaldale town council reviewed a Land Use bylaw amendment.LUB Rezoning Amendment 874-P-06-23 concerns a portion of land, located at SE9-09-20-W4, that was initially purchased by the town in order to construct the south portion of Phase 2(a) of the Malloy Drain stormwater holding project. As part of the sale of the portion of land, the town had agreed to sell back the unused portions of the land to their former owner, Jon Van Hierden, once the project was completed.The town received subdivision approval necessary to resell these lands to Van Hierden. One condition for the subdivision was that the lands in question were to be reincorporated back into the adjacent piece to the west, rather than creating a stand-alone title, as the creation of a new acreage space would not be in line with the expected urba...

Picture Butte hears quarterly update on crime stats from RCMP

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

By Erika MathieuSunny South NewsStaff Sergeant (S/Sgt) for the Coaldale-Picture Butte RCMP detachments, Mike Numan, presented a quarterly update to council as part of the June 10 Picture Butte Council meeting.The update focused on statistics from January – March 2023. Numan reported, “we are part of (a) crime reduction initiative in southern Alberta. We meet once a month with our partners Lethbridge police, Blood Tribe police, Taber police and other surrounding detachments, probation and correctional centre (staff). We always seem to deal with the same 10 per cent for 80-90 per cent of the problems we encounter.” Numan said the Coaldale-Picture Butte detachment is utilizing these partnerships to try to combat this crime and said the meetings are a productive channel for sharing and generating strategies on a monthly basis.The province is changing the way that they are handling victim services and implementing a regional model rather than localized processes within each police ...

Final phase of streetlight project approved

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:33:39 GMT

By Nikki JamiesonSunny South NewsThe final phase of a street light improvement project in Coaldale has received approval to go forward.During their regular June 12 meeting, Coaldale town council received an update on a streetlight improvement project.The origins of the project date back to 2018, when town administration reached out to residents and Fortis on the issue, and council initially proceeded with upgrade in an area roughly one-fourth the size of the town, or 27 lights, for $298,000.The matter was brought back in 2019, when further options were made available through Fortis involving installing overhead lines rather than burying them, a change which resulted in significant savings for the project and allowing for the opportunity for further light installations across town. Following council approval, between summer 2019 and spring 2023, a total of 140 lights at a cost of $249,291 were added to the town.An additional 140 streetlights were added to four areas throughout town f...