Is Enron back? If it's a joke, some former employees aren't laughingEDMONTON — Leaders of the Prairie provinces are urging Canada to act on American concerns over illegal cross-border traffic of people and drugs to stave off the looming threat of 25 per cent tariffs. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Tuesday that Canada must do better to address the concerns of its largest trading partner. Incoming U.S. president Donald Trump promised Monday to impose the tariffs on his first day in office in January. He said he would keep the tariffs in place until Canada and Mexico stop illegal border crossings and prevent drugs such as fentanyl from entering the U.S. Kinew said 25 per cent tariffs would mean a recession for his province and that Canada needs to show the new U.S. administration it's serious about security and tackling the drug crisis. He said it begins with Canada’s pledge to NATO allies to spend two per cent of its gross domestic product on defence by 2032. "First and foremost, (it’s about) hitting that target of two per cent spending on defence,” said Kinew. “That gets us in the game just to be taken seriously as a security partner with the U.S. If we don't do it, it's going to become a trade problem." In a video posted to social media, Alberta's premier said Canada needs to reach its pledged commitment on defence. "If their trade partners are looking to be free riders on American security interests, that's also going to harm the relationship," Smith said, adding, "You also have to take seriously the asylum seekers." Smith added in another post that the incoming Trump administration has "valid concerns related to illegal activities" at the border. The U.S. is Alberta’s largest trading partner, with $188 billion in bilateral trade in 2023. Last year, energy products accounted for more than 80 per cent of that trade, or about $134 billion. Smith said the vast majority of Alberta's energy exports to the U.S. are "delivered through secure and safe pipelines," which "do not in any way contribute to these illegal activities." In Saskatchewan, Moe said he understands Trump’s position on border security. “As Canadians, we can all benefit from additional border security stopping the flow of illegal drugs and migrants across our borders,” he said in a social media post. He said his province plans to use all levers at its disposal to stop the tariffs and will approach the U.S. directly. Moe added the proposed tariffs would hurt Saskatchewan’s export-based economy and drive up prices on both sides of the border. Speaking to CTV early Tuesday, Moe said his government would represent Saskatchewan interests alongside the federal government, fellow premiers "and on our own when necessary." "We have a strong relationship with a number of the administration that President Trump has appointed," Moe said. In 2023, Saskatchewan’s exports to the U.S. amounted to almost $27 billion after hitting a record high of $29 billion in 2022. Its top exports include crude oil, potash and canola. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has convened an emergency meeting for Wednesday with the country's premiers to discuss the tariffs. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2024. — With files from Jeremy Simes in Regina and Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Pressbmy.com88 。

By JILL COLVIN and STEPHEN GROVES WASHINGTON (AP) — After several weeks working mostly behind closed doors, Vice President-elect JD Vance returned to Capitol Hill this week in a new, more visible role: Helping Donald Trump try to get his most contentious Cabinet picks to confirmation in the Senate, where Vance has served for the last two years. Vance arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday with former Rep. Matt Gaetz and spent the morning sitting in on meetings between Trump’s choice for attorney general and key Republicans, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The effort was for naught: Gaetz announced a day later that he was withdrawing his name amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations and the reality that he was unlikely to be confirmed. Thursday morning Vance was back, this time accompanying Pete Hegseth, the “Fox & Friends Weekend” host whom Trump has tapped to be the next secretary of defense. Hegseth also has faced allegations of sexual assault that he denies. Vance is expected to accompany other nominees for meetings in coming weeks as he tries to leverage the two years he has spent in the Senate to help push through Trump’s picks. Vance is taking on an atypical role as Senate guide for Trump nominees The role of introducing nominees around Capitol Hill is an unusual one for a vice president-elect. Usually the job goes to a former senator who has close relationships on the Hill, or a more junior aide. But this time the role fits Vance, said Marc Short, who served as Trump’s first director of legislative affairs as well as chief of staff to Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, who spent more than a decade in Congress and led the former president’s transition ahead of his first term. ”JD probably has a lot of current allies in the Senate and so it makes sense to have him utilized in that capacity,” Short said. Unlike the first Trump transition, which played out before cameras at Trump Tower in New York and at the president-elect’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, this one has largely happened behind closed doors in Palm Beach, Florida. There, a small group of officials and aides meet daily at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to run through possible contenders and interview job candidates. The group includes Elon Musk, the billionaire who has spent so much time at the club that Trump has joked he can’t get rid of him. Vance has been a constant presence, even as he’s kept a lower profile. The Ohio senator has spent much of the last two weeks in Palm Beach, according to people familiar with his plans, playing an active role in the transition, on which he serves as honorary chair. Mar-a-Lago scene is a far cry from Vance’s hardscrabble upbringing Vance has been staying at a cottage on the property of the gilded club, where rooms are adorned with cherubs, oriental rugs and intricate golden inlays. It’s a world away from the famously hardscrabble upbringing that Vance documented in the memoir that made him famous, “Hillbilly Elegy.” His young children have also joined him at Mar-a-Lago, at times. Vance was photographed in shorts and a polo shirt playing with his kids on the seawall of the property with a large palm frond, a U.S. Secret Service robotic security dog in the distance. On the rare days when he is not in Palm Beach, Vance has been joining the sessions remotely via Zoom. Though he has taken a break from TV interviews after months of constant appearances, Vance has been active in the meetings, which began immediately after the election and include interviews and as well as presentations on candidates’ pluses and minuses. Among those interviewed: Contenders to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray , as Vance wrote in a since-deleted social media post. Defending himself from criticism that he’d missed a Senate vote in which one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees was confirmed, Vance wrote that he was meeting at the time “with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI Director.” “I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45,” Vance added on X. “But that’s just me.” Vance is making his voice heard as Trump stocks his Cabinet While Vance did not come in to the transition with a list of people he wanted to see in specific roles, he and his friend, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who is also a member of the transition team, were eager to see former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. find roles in the administration. Trump ended up selecting Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence , a powerful position that sits atop the nation’s spy agencies and acts as the president’s top intelligence adviser. And he chose Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services , a massive agency that oversees everything from drug and food safety to Medicare and Medicaid. Vance was also a big booster of Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who will serve as Trump’s “border czar.” In another sign of Vance’s influence, James Braid, a top aide to the senator, is expected to serve as Trump’s legislative affairs director. Allies say it’s too early to discuss what portfolio Vance might take on in the White House. While he gravitates to issues like trade, immigration and tech policy, Vance sees his role as doing whatever Trump needs. Vance was spotted days after the election giving his son’s Boy Scout troop a tour of the Capitol and was there the day of leadership elections. He returned in earnest this week, first with Gaetz — arguably Trump’s most divisive pick — and then Hegseth, who has was been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, according to an investigative report made public this week. Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing. Vance hosted Hegseth in his Senate office as GOP senators, including those who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee, filtered in to meet with the nominee for defense secretary. While a president’s nominees usually visit individual senators’ offices, meeting them on their own turf, the freshman senator — who is accompanied everywhere by a large Secret Service detail that makes moving around more unwieldy — instead brought Gaetz to a room in the Capitol on Wednesday and Hegseth to his office on Thursday. Senators came to them. Vance made it to votes Wednesday and Thursday, but missed others on Thursday afternoon. Vance will draw on his Senate background going forward Vance is expected to continue to leverage his relationships in the Senate after Trump takes office. But many Republicans there have longer relationships with Trump himself. Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said that Trump was often the first person to call him back when he was trying to reach high-level White House officials during Trump’s first term. “He has the most active Rolodex of just about anybody I’ve ever known,” Cramer said, adding that Vance would make a good addition. “They’ll divide names up by who has the most persuasion here,” Cramer said, but added, “Whoever his liaison is will not work as hard at it as he will.” Cramer was complimentary of the Ohio senator, saying he was “pleasant” and ” interesting” to be around. ′′He doesn’t have the long relationships,” he said. “But we all like people that have done what we’ve done. I mean, that’s sort of a natural kinship, just probably not as personally tied.” Under the Constitution, Vance will also have a role presiding over the Senate and breaking tie votes. But he’s not likely to be needed for that as often as was Kamala Harris, who broke a record number of ties for Democrats as vice president, since Republicans will have a bigger cushion in the chamber next year. Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Toyota ShareLunker program archives are bustling with big bass records dating back nearly four decades. Through mid-December, the popular spawning and genetics research program had taken in 3,856 entries between 8 and 18.18 pounds. It’s an impressive list representing 175 different public reservoirs, several private lakes and an army of anglers who have participated since the program’s inception in 1986. Lawrence Lee of Tolar knows his way around the Toyota ShareLunker mobile entry app way better than most. The electronic app allows anglers to use a Smartphone to enter qualifying fish weighing at least eight pounds or 24 inches in multiple categories over the course of the year. Fish also can be entered online at texassharelunker.com . Lee has entered 69 bass weighing upwards of eight pounds in the program during 2024 alone. His single year total is more than twice the number of fish entered by the program’s No. 2 contributor, Deric Miller of Southlake. Miller has registered 35 entries spanning 2018-23 from three different lakes — Fairfield, Mill Creek and Purtis Creek, according to Natalie Goldstrohm, Toyota ShareLunker program coordinator. Miller’s list is an impressive one, but Lee is on a different level. His resume includes 36 eight pounders, 15 nine pounders, 10 10 pounders, two 11 pounders, one 12 pounder and four heavyweights over 13 pounds. Sixty-eight of Lee’s fish were caught from Lake J.B. Thomas since last January, including a 13.79 Legacy Lunker that ranks as the official lake record. The remaining trio of teeners were Legend Class lunkers caught outside the program’s Jan. 1 - March 31 collection season for spawning fish. Lee’s remarkable track record lands him in pretty tall cotton. Not only has he recorded more ShareLunker entries than anyone. He is also the first angler in the history of the program to enter four fish over 13 pounds during the same calendar year. Mr. Big Fish “Mr Big Fish” might be a befitting title for the 33-year-old angler. Clayton Gladfelter called him an animal. “Some people like fishing and some people love fishing, but Lawrence Lee lives fishing, " Gladfelter chuckled. “He eats, lives and breathes fishing more than any angler I have ever met. I guess that’s why we hit it off so well and became such good friends. He’s got a fish brain, just like me.” Gladfelter is a fishing guide and forward-facing sonar expert from Albuquerque, N.M., who first discovered big bass nirvana at J.B. Thomas during spring 2023. He has since relocated to Abilene to be closer to the remote West Texas fishery 12 miles southwest of Snyder. The 28-year-old angler has steered dozens of clients to their personal bests over the last 18 months. Lee’s Legacy Lunker is among them. Gladfelter said he first met Lee at a bass tournament in 2020. One thing led to another and the two men eventually went fishing together on Lake O.H. Ivie, where Gladfelter was guiding at the time. Lee landed a 12 pounder on the first cast of the morning. “We hit it off right then,” Gladfelter said. “We’ve fished quite a bit since. He’s one of most skilled anglers I have ever had in the boat. He’s a fishing machine.” Lunkers Galore The guide believes Lee’s ShareLunker entry resume represents only a small fraction of the eight pounders he has caught this year. “He’s caught hundreds of them,” Gladfelter said. “We fun fish a lot together and we don’t weigh or submit (to ShareLunker) half of the eight pounders we catch. And we catch a bunch of ‘em.” Lee agreed. He claims he has logged numerous days fishing alone when 20 or more fish over eight pounds hit the deck. Most were caught at J.B. Thomas using forward-facing sonar to single out individual fish amid dense clouds of bait fish, small carp, catfish and crappie. He has also reeled in scads of big ones at other lakes he had rather not name or advertise for fear of attracting boat traffic. “We’re spoiled out there at J.B. Thomas — an 8-9 pounder doesn’t mean much to us anymore,” Lee said. “If it’s not at least a 10 pounder, I usually just throw it back without bothering to weigh it. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I would guess I’ve caught close to 500-600 bass over eight pounds this year.” A Sleepless Angler If it sounds like Lee is obsessed with chasing the big bite, that’s because he is. The angler claims he fishes 2-3 days a week and still holds down a full-time job doing rotating shift work at the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Glen Rose. The job typically demands about 55-70 hours per week. Lee says it is not uncommon for him to pull a 12 hour night shift, drive four hours to the lake and fish well into the night before taking time for a short nap. Then he’ll fish more and head back to work for another 12 hour shift. “I’m addicted,” he said. “I don’t do much sleeping at all. Twice a week I’ll stay up for 24 hours. Instead of wasting time sleeping when I’m off work I just stay up and go fishing. A lot of times I’ll show up at the lake after I’ve been awake for 15-17 hours. That’s pretty much my routine.” It’s a mindset that has paid off with a bounty of big bass. Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by email, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com . Outdoors Briefs Winter rainbow trout stockings underway statewide By Matt Williams Outdoors Writer Texas Parks and Wildlife’s annual winter rainbow trout stocking program is underway statewide. Between now and early March, TPWD will release more than 342,000 hatchery raised rainbow at dozens of community lakes and ponds, state park waters and 18 Neighborhood Fishin’ lakes. The cold water fish are stocked on a put-and-take basis. Anglers are encouraged to keep their daily limit of five trout (no minimum size) on most waters, because the fish are unable to survive the warm weather months. The exceptions are special trout management zones on the Guadalupe River downstream of Canyon Lake. Texas does not require a fishing license for youth under the age of 17, but adults must have a fishing license with a freshwater fishing endorsement. Licenses and endorsement requirements are waived at state park waters. Rainbow are fairly easy to catch using small spinners, worms, manufactured dough baits and corn kernels. Light tackle with a small diameter line and a small hook are advised. Dates and locations of upcoming stockings are listed on TPWD’s website. No-cull crappie at Fork and ‘Pines Crappie fishermen headed to Lake Fork and Lake O’ the Pines between now and February 28 are reminded of a special wintertime “no cull” regulation currently in effect on those two impoundments. From December 1 to February 28, anglers are required to keep every crappie they catch, up to a legal limit of 25 fish, regardless of size. It is illegal to release any crappie on either lake during the three-month period. Both lakes will return to the statewide 25-fish, 10-inch rule on March 1. The special regulation was implemented in 1991 to curtail the perceived waste of fish that die from over-inflated air bladders (called barotrauma) as the result of being pulled quickly out of deep water.

Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Love Island star Sophie Piper has taken to Instagram to address pregnancy rumours with her boyfriend, Joshua Ritchie . Earlier this week, the star, who found love with Josh on the first season of Love Island All Stars took to Instagram to share a number of cute couple pics over the festive season, which she captioned: “Merry Christmas you filthy animals.” In the post, she could be seen having festive fun with Josh wearing a white shirt in front of Christmas lights. In one of the photos, Sophie and Josh could be seen laughing, as fans suspected they saw a ‘bump’ under her shirt, as one commented: “So cute! When is the baby due?” However, another was quick to say: “How can anyone comment ‘when's the baby due’ some people honestly baffle my mind!” It seems the Love Island star saw the comments from fans, as she took to her Instagram story shortly after to post another pic with Josh from the same night. Sharing a post of her leaning on her boyfriend’s shoulder, Sophie penned: "For everyone saying I’m pregnant, I’m not, the wind was blowing up my shirt LOL uncle fester x." Sophie and Josh met last year during the first series of Love Island All-Stars. Originally, Josh starred in season one of the hit show, whilst Sophie took part in the first winter series, which aired in 2020. Sophie spent three weeks in the South African villa during her first stint on the show, while Josh made it to the final in the first season in Mallorca with then-girlfriend Lauren Richardson. The couple then placed third in the 2024 All-Stars series, behind runners-up Callum Jones and Eve Gale and winners Molly Smith and Tom Clare. Since their exit from the show, the couple has been going strong, amassing thousands of fans. A couple of months ago, Sophie’s sister, This Morning presenter Rochelle Humes gushed over their relationship in a chat with Heat . “She’s very happy with him, which I'm very happy about. They're doing well. And she’s really herself with him, I see him loads on FaceTime and she spends quite a lot of time up north,” her famous big sis said. Rochelle then went on to say Sophie was “silly, stupid, playful Sophie with him,” which The Saturdays star said she hadn’t been with others she’d dated in the past. Love Island host Maya Jama will return next month for season two of Love Island All-Stars, which will premiere on January 13 on ITV2.