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Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the second highest-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, has endorsed Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) in his bid for the upper chamber to fill Sen. Mike Braun’s (R-IN) seat. “Republicans need to take back the Senate so we can get our country back on track, and that work starts in Indiana,” Thune said in a statement. “Jim Banks has a proven track record of delivering conservative results and standing up to Joe Biden and Democrats’ reckless agenda,” the number two Senate Republican added. “Jim served our country honorably in Afghanistan, and I’m grateful he’s raising his hand to serve in the Senate. I’m proud to endorse Jim Banks for Senate, and he has my full support.” Thune’s endorsement comes as the Hoosier State Republican has already been racking up other endorsements and help from Senate GOP leadership. The veteran congressman has already garnered an endorsement from John Barrasso (R-WY), the number three Senate Republican, and reportedly used Senate … [Read more...] about Sen. John Thune Endorses Rep. Jim Banks for Senate

“Boulez is perfect,” a composer friend said to me with a resigned shrug sometime in the late 1970s. My friend, an American, had just returned from a residency at Ircam, the state-of-the-art electronic music center Pierre Boulez had then recently created in Paris. His shrug said as much as his words. The air of perfection that surrounded Boulez, who died in 2016 at 90 , was daunting. There seemed to be nothing at which he didn’t excel: composing his dense, detailed, exquisitely honed music; conducting Wagner at the Bayreuth Festival; leading the New York Philharmonic; making revelatory recordings; founding, in Ircam and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, both a research laboratory and a virtuosic modern orchestra. And teaching, as we find in “Music Lessons,” a new English translation of 16 lectures he gave at the Collège de France between 1976 and 1995. Readers can now take stock of the daunting, demanding Boulezian worldview and, whether they warm to his own works or not, appreciate … [Read more...] about John Adams on Boulez, a Composer Worth Wrestling With

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana grilled Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Wednesday on what level of debt was “unsustainable.” “So, what the president is saying is — these are my words, not his — because of his budget, we’re going to have three heart attacks and a stroke instead of four heart attacks and a stroke,” Kennedy said during a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee, noting that the federal debt was slated to climb by $18 trillion over ten years. (RELATED: Biden HHS Secretary Unable To Say How Many Gov’t Workers Actually Show Up To Work In Federal Buildings) President Joe Biden released a proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 March 9, which included over $5 trillion in new tax increases , including a 20% hike in the capital gains tax rate and a 7.6% increase in the top income tax rate. WATCH: “Well, I would not agree that we’re going to have three heart attacks and a stroke because we have a very large economy, and while … [Read more...] about ‘Answer My Question’: Sen. John Kennedy Grills Biden Treasury Secretary On ‘Unsustainable’ Debt

Matt writes: 15 years ago, I was playing Scattergories with some co-workers. I was close to winning. The category was “hobbies,” and the letter was T. I submitted “typing.” I was shut down, and my arguments were met with laughter. But surely if the letter had been W, “writing” would qualify! Can “typing” be considered a hobby? No. I personally do miss the deep haptic, tickety-tack pleasure of slamming those keys down on the manual typewriter I had (pretentiously) in high school. But the hobby was not “typing.” The hobby was “terrible poetry writing.” If there are any true, pure hobby typists out there, I’m sorry. Feel free to type me some angry letters. But unless they literally read “MDZSJFJFDS!” or whatever, you’re ALL frauds. I’m sorry your co-workers were mean, and yes, T for “hobbies” is a hard pull in Scattergories. But take the L (for the hobby of “letting it go after 15 years”). … [Read more...] about Judge John on Hodgman on What Really Counts as a Hobby

NEW YORK (AP) — Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, setting a record in 2022, according to a new report from the American Library Association being released Thursday. More than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the most since the ALA began keeping data 20 years ago. “I've never seen anything like this,” says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom. “The last two years have been exhausting, frightening, outrage inducing.” Thursday's report not only documents the growing number of challenges, but also their changing nature. A few years ago, complaints usually arose with parents and other community members and referred to an individual book. Now, the requests are often for multiple removals, and organized by national groups such as the conservative Moms for Liberty, which has a mission of “unifying, educating … [Read more...] about Library association reports record book ban attempts in 2022

One of the saddest architectural sights on the blocks near San Francisco’s Civic Center is the backside of 1455 Market Street . The ground floor is coated in speckled beige concrete that looks as if it was patterned by pushing giant egg cartons into wet cement. The walls above are the same concrete, but here the facade shifts to a ribbed corduroy finish that’s not necessarily an improvement. The stubby, 16-story tower atop the five-story base has a certain blunt rigor. The scene along Market Street does its best to be inviting, no easy task within two blocks of misery-filled United Nations Plaza. Overall, though, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to work here — and no surprise that the tech firms that briefly made this a coveted address have packed or are packing their bags. Once again in San Francisco, as in all cities, the underlying power of place is reasserting itself. Or to put it in real estate terms: location, location, location. I visited 1455 Market … [Read more...] about From tech hub to empty husk: How S.F. building shows city’s latest cycle of boom to bust