RG Richardson

Smith’s idealization of Republican policy in the United States

Since her return to provincial politics, elected representatives, opposition leaders, academics and activists have shared their concerns regarding the bills put forward by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party. Legislation such as the Alberta Sovereignty Act and the Provincial Priorities Act have garnered strong opposition, with critics highlighting threats to the constitutional division of powers and rule of law, academic freedom and Indigenous sovereignty. Proposed changes to the Alberta Human Rights Act and anti-trans legislation have sparked additional concerns. Many of these measures were left out of the UCP’s 2023 election platform, raising questions as to their origins. While much has been made about her borrowing pages from the Quebec playbook, Smith’s idealization of Republican policy in the United States may provide additional clues as to the source of the UCP’s policies.

Mark Zuckerberg dines with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Relations appear to have improved markedly from Trump's threat earlier this year to throw the Meta boss in jail.

Harper appointed to AMICO board chair

Province appoints former PM Harper as AIMCo board chair, names three other members

The Alberta government has appointed former prime minister Stephen Harper to become the new chair of AIMCo, less than two weeks after ousting the fund’s board of directors and its chief executive.

Confirming widespread speculation, the province announced Wednesday that Harper, the former federal Conservative party leader who served as Canada’s prime minister from 2006 to 2015, will become board chair of the provincial Crown corporation.

Oligarchs buy the news

1890, Ohio Senator John Sherman introduced and saw passed into law the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

which provided not just fines but jail sentences against people like Rockefeller who were committed to destroying competition and owning entire markets. The law was flawed with a few loopholes and ambiguities, so it was amended in 1914 with the Clayton Anti-Trust Act.

Alberta Patients’ Lives at Risk Due to Vendetta, Claims Doctor

An internationally recognized Edmonton cancer surgeon is alleging he now has 10 times more patients on his surgical wait-list than his colleagues after his operating room hours were slashed in retaliation for a whistleblower complaint he filed against an Alberta Health Services executive.

The lawsuit alleges the surgeon’s patients are being harmed, to the point of being at “increased risk of death,” by delays in consultation, diagnosis and surgery.

He further alleges the AHS executive distributed two anonymous complaints against him, despite knowing they were false and defamatory.

These allegations are contained in a lawsuit recently filed by Dr. Hadi Seikaly, a head and neck cancer surgeon, against Dr. Daniel O’Connell. Seikaly is suing O’Connell personally and has not included AHS in the lawsuit.

Fossil Fuel Interests Are Working to Kill Solar in One Ohio County. The Hometown Newspaper Is Helping.

Fossil Fuel Interests Are Working to Kill Solar in One Ohio County. The Hometown Newspaper Is Helping.by Miranda Green, Floodlight, Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, and Priyanjana Bengani, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and photography by Sarahbeth Maney, ProPublica ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. This story was co-published with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action. Word tends to spread fast in rural Knox County, Ohio. But misinformation has spread faster. The first article in the Mount Vernon News last fall about a planned solar farm simply noted that residents were “expressing their concern.” But soon the county’s only newspaper was packed with stories about solar energy that almost uniformly criticized the project and quoted its opponents.

Ottawa—International students enrich our communities

News release

January 22, 2024—Ottawa—International students enrich our communities and are a critical part of Canada’s social, cultural and economic fabric. In recent years, the integrity of the international student system has been threatened. Some institutions have significantly increased their intakes to drive revenues, and more students have been arriving in Canada without the proper supports they need to succeed. Rapid increases in the number of international students arriving in Canada also puts pressure on housing, health care and other services. As we work to better protect international students from bad actors and support sustainable population growth in Canada, the government is moving forward with measures to stabilize the number of international students in Canada.

The Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced today that the Government of Canada will set an intake cap on international student permit applications to stabilize new growth for a period of two years. For 2024, the cap is expected to result in approximately 360,000 approved study permits, a decrease of 35% from 2023. In the spirit of fairness, individual provincial and territorial caps have been established, weighted by population, which will result in much more significant decreases in provinces where the international student population has seen the most unsustainable growth. Study permit renewals will not be impacted. Those pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees, and elementary and secondary education are not included in the cap. Current study permit holders will not be affected.

IRCC will allocate a portion of the cap to each province and territory, who will then distribute the allocation among their designated learning institutions. To implement the cap, as of January 22, 2024, every study permit application submitted to IRCC will also require an attestation letter from a province or territory. Provinces and territories are expected to establish a process for issuing attestation letters to students by no later than March 31, 2024.

These temporary measures will be in place for two years, and the number of new study permit applications that will be accepted in 2025 will be re-assessed at the end of this year. During this period, the Government of Canada will continue to work with provinces and territories, designated learning institutions and national education stakeholders on developing a sustainable path forward for international students, including finalizing a recognized institution framework, determining long-term sustainable levels of international students and ensuring post-secondary institutions are able to provide adequate levels of student housing.

In order to better align the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program, we are changing the eligibility criteria:

Starting September 1, 2024, international students who begin a study program that is part of a curriculum licensing arrangement will no longer be eligible for a postgraduation work permit upon graduation. Under curriculum licensing agreements, students physically attend a private college that has been licensed to deliver the curriculum of an associated public college. These programs have seen significant growth in attracting international students in recent years, though they have less oversight than public colleges and they act as a loophole with regards to post-graduation work permit eligibility.
Graduates of master’s degree programs will soon be eligible to apply for a 3-year work permit. Under current criteria, the length of a postgraduation work permit is based solely on the length of an individual’s study program, hindering master’s graduates by limiting the amount of time they have to gain work experience and potentially transition to permanent residence.

In the weeks ahead, open work permits will only be available to spouses of international students in master’s and doctoral programs. The spouses of international students in other levels of study, including undergraduate and college programs, will no longer be eligible.

The important measures announced today complement other recently announced reforms to the International Student Program. Taken together, they aim to ensure genuine students receive the support they require and have the resources they need for an enriching study experience in Canada, while at the same time stabilizing the overall number of students arriving and alleviating pressures on housing, health care and other services in Canada.

Quotes

“International students are vital to Canada and enrich our communities. As such, we have an obligation to ensure that they have access to the resources they need for an enriching academic experience. In Canada, today, this isn’t always the case. Today, we are announcing additional measures to protect a system that has become so lucrative that it has opened a path for its abuse. Enough is enough. Through the decisive measures announced today, we are striking the right balance for Canada and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system while setting students up for the success they hope for.”
– The Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Jack Smith to end Trump cases and resign, report says; Musk and Ramaswamy roles cause conflict of interest concerns - live

Mehdi Hasan

“If Kamala wins, only death and destruction await because she is the candidate of endless wars,” declaimed Donald Trump at a rally in Michigan, on the Friday before the election. “I am the candidate of peace.” In a typically ridiculous rhetorical flourish, Trump added: “I am peace.”

Nevertheless, despite the ridiculousness, the president-elect in recent weeks succeeded in connecting with plenty of of anti-war voters tired of the United States’ “forever wars”. He went to Dearborn, the “capital” of Arab America, attacked Kamala Harris for campaigning with the pro-war Cheneys, and came away with an endorsement from a local imam who called him the “peace” candidate.

In fact, I have lost count of the number of leftists who have told me in recent months: “Trump didn’t start any new wars.” Sorry, what? Trump spent his four years in the White House escalating every single conflict that he inherited from Barack Obama. Many have forgotten that Trump bombed the Assad government in Syria twice; dropped the “mother of all bombs” on Afghanistan; illegally assassinated Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on Iraqi soil; armed Saudi Arabia’s genocide in Yemen; and made John Bolton his national security adviser. Few are even aware that Trump launched more drone strikes in his first two years in office than Obama, dubbed “the drone president”, did across eight years in office.

But this time, we were told, it would be different. This time Trump meant it. No more war! No more neocons! Some took heart from Trump’s very public rejection of arch-hawks Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley. Others signal-boosted efforts by RFK Jr, Don Jr and Tucker Carlson to block neoconservative figures from joining the new Trump-Vance administration. “I’m on it,” bragged Trump’s eldest failson. Trump is surrounding himself with hawks so you can be assured that his will be a very hawkish administration. Again

It was all for naught. “I am peace”? Really? Consider who Trump now plans to nominate as his secretary of state: Marco Rubio. The Florida senator was once an outspoken critic of the president-elect, calling him a “con man”, “the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency”, and questioning the size of his manhood. Fast forward almost a decade and Rubio has happily bent the knee to Trump in order to become fourth in line for the presidency and to take charge of US diplomacy.

Freedom Convoy Pat King guilty on five counts

OTTAWA -

Pat King, one of the most prominent figures of the 2022 "Freedom Convoy" in Ottawa, has been found guilty on five counts including mischief and disobeying a court order.

A judge in an Ottawa courtroom Friday said the Crown proved beyond a reasonable doubt that King was guilty on one count each of mischief, counselling others to commit mischief and counselling others to obstruct police. He was also found guilty of two counts of disobeying a court order.

CRTC has granted Google a five-year exemption

OTTAWA — The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has granted Google a five-year exemption

from the Online News Act, ordering it to release the $100 million it now owes to Canadian news outlets within 60 days. Google agreed last year to pay Canadian news publishers $100 million a year, indexed to inflation, in order to be exempt from the law, which compels tech companies to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay for content reposted on their platforms.

BREAKING: Matt Gaetz SUDDENLY WITHDRAWS as AG Pick

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says “astronomical” immigration can harm Quebec’s birthrate?

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon recently stated that “astronomical” immigration can harm Quebec’s birthrate. According to him, housing and accessibility of services, particularly daycare spaces, are determining factors affecting the decision to have children. “The two are related,” he said. Leaving aside the tenuous connection between “mass” immigration and the housing crisis, which experts say is misleading or largely exaggerated, do these factors really affect birthrates? In 2023, Quebec recorded one of the lowest fertility rates in its history. From 1.48 children per woman in 2022, the rate dropped to 1.38, staying just above the historic low of 1.36 in 1987. Can this drop be linked to recent events when it’s part of a general downward trend observed for decades? Low-fertility woes are not unique to Quebec. Canada registered a dramatic drop in fertility rates starting in 1960 when the contraceptive pill came along. Another major drop followed in 1969 when contraception and abortion were decriminalized. The downward trend has continued ever since, as women have more control over their family planning and financial prospects. While economic challenges could delay or prevent some from having children, considerations to have children or not (and how many) go way beyond financial factors. Since low birthrates have far-reaching economic and social consequences for a country — including economic stagnation or decline — there’s nothing inherently alarming about societies with declining birthrates and an aging population favouring pro-natalist policies. Read More

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tapped to work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as new DOGE subcommittee chair

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has been tapped to lead a new House subcommittee that will work with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Greene and House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., have met with Ramaswamy and his team and are “already working together,” a source familiar with the matter told CNBC on Thursday.

Comer aims to establish the subpanel early next year, the source said.

Greene’s group will be dubbed the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, allowing it to share the DOGE acronym with the outside-of-government entity commissioned by President-elect Donald Trump.

The congressional version, first reported earlier Thursday morning by Fox News, shares similar goals as the one led by the two billionaires. It aims to investigate government waste, and seek out ways to reorganize federal agencies and cut red tape, the source said.

Caught in Texas’ Medicaid and Food Stamp Application Backlog? Know Someone Who Is? Help Us Report.

Caught in Texas’ Medicaid and Food Stamp Application Backlog? Know Someone Who Is? Help Us Report.by Miranda Green, Floodlight, Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, and Priyanjana Bengani, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and photography by Sarahbeth Maney, ProPublica ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. This story was co-published with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action. Word tends to spread fast in rural Knox County, Ohio. But misinformation has spread faster. The first article in the Mount Vernon News last fall about a planned solar farm simply noted that residents were “expressing their concern.” But soon the county’s only newspaper was packed with stories about solar energy that almost uniformly criticized the project and quoted its opponents.

Data Scientist's Shocking Call for Election Recount Raises Scary Questio...

Will Trump satisfy his voters?

Image by Pexels from Pixabay Share — Will Trump satisfy his voters? How quickly will he fail them? If Trump follows through with his promises for radical tariffs and mass deportations, while both may be emotionally satisfying for his voters, both will also take a big bite out of the economy, probably provoking a recession. That will be a real test of his and Rupert Murdoch’s ability to gaslight Americans. The majority of his voters believe that the country is ravaged with crime (our violent crime numbers are the lowest in decades), in the midst of a recession (we have the best economy since the 1960s), and our border is daily overwhelmed (crossings are at a multi-decade low). So his and Murdoch’s power to make people believe things that aren’t true is considerable (remember that roughly a half-million Americans died unnecessarily because they believed Trump and Murdoch on Covid and masks). But, still, there are limits to people’s credulity, particularly when it comes to losing their jobs to a recession. This point when he’s screwed things up and doesn’t have a solution will be a crucial moment; it’s the time he’d most likely try to go full fascist authoritarian to shut down truth-tellers and his political opposition. As Duke University political scientist Herbert Kitschelt told The New York Times’ Thomas Edsall: “The hour of political authoritarianism arrives, when the new wagers to create economic affluence among the less well-off and to resurrect the old kinship relations of industrial society turn sour and generate disenchantment among Trump’s own following. Trump then may well want to make sure that his disenchanted supporters — as well as those who always opposed Trumpism — will not get another chance to express their opinions.” If Kitschelt is right and Trump turns on his own base, it’ll be a critical moment in American history. Frankly, I’m more inclined to believe he’ll do what Reagan did when the economy was in the tank and he was being criticized for not responding to the Beirut Marine barracks bombing: he invaded Grenada. Starting a “little war” is a time-tested technique, first used by Margaret Thatcher, then Reagan, then both Bushs to divert the public’s attention from domestic crises. If he chooses his war stupidly, he could trigger WWIII. Keep an eye on this.

Bishop’s fights for future under Quebec’s proposed cap

“An unpredictable system” Bishop’s fights for future under Quebec’s proposed cap on international students By William Crooks Local Journalism Initiative In the wake of Quebec’s Bill 74, which proposes limits on international student enrollments, Bishop’s University finds itself grappling with uncertain prospects for student recruitment and financial sustainability. In a Nov. 8 interview, Bishop’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor Sébastien Lebel-Grenier shared his concerns over the potential impact of these restrictions on his institution, particularly in light of recent enrollment and funding challenges that have already hit the university hard. The timing of Bill 74, which would give the Quebec government discretionary power to cap international student numbers, is especially problematic, says Lebel-Grenier, given that Bishop’s has seen a sharp 27.7 per cent drop in its international student population this year. This decline contributes to a projected $1.6 million deficit, one that could grow as the cap on international students jeopardizes the university’s enrollment-driven revenue. “We’re already in a difficult position,” he said, emphasizing the need for careful financial management to protect the student experience, which remains Bishop’s highest priority despite these fiscal strains. The financial hit comes from two primary sources: decreased recruitment numbers and a new funding formula. The sudden changes have left Bishop’s and other Quebec universities scrambling to adapt. “What we’re seeing now is a situation where we’re investing a lot more effort to recruit students, yet our results are weaker,” said Lebel-Grenier. The financial gap, which government funds are not expected to fill, could mean further tough decisions ahead. While Lebel-Grenier refrained from specifying potential budget cuts, he acknowledged that reducing expenditures may be unavoidable as Bishop’s seeks to stabilize its finances. During a recent presentation to Quebec’s National Assembly, Lebel-Grenier highlighted that Bishop’s, one of Quebec’s smallest universities with 417 international students, relies on these students to enrich both its campus environment and the broader Lennoxville community. The institution, committed to a liberal arts model, sees international diversity as core to its mission. Lebel-Grenier argued that limiting this diversity threatens the very foundation of Bishop’s educational philosophy. The liberal education Bishop’s offers depends on varied student backgrounds, which enrich academic discussion and peer-to-peer learning.

Earth’s Land and Trees Absorbed Almost No Net Carbon in 2023

Earth’s Land and Trees Absorbed Almost No Net Carbon in 2023Earth’s land-based carbon sinks — forests, wetlands, grasslands and soil — are essential for absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide, regulating the planet’s temperature and mitigating climate change. A preliminary report shows that last year — the hottest ever recorded — almost no net carbon was absorbed by land. This means the world’s terrestrial carbon sinks temporarily collapsed, reported The Guardian. “We’re seeing cracks in the resilience of the Earth’s systems. We’re seeing massive cracks on land – terrestrial ecosystems are losing their carbon store and carbon uptake capacity, but the oceans are also showing signs of instability,” said Johan Rockström, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research director, at a New York Climate Week event last month, as The Guardian reported. “Nature has so far balanced our abuse. This is coming to an end.”

Trump to break the economy?

by Tom Hartmann Donald Trump is preparing to crash the American economy. He intends to do it by tearing up vital parts of our American government. He may even hire Elon Musk to pull it off. And from his point of view, this is not going to be a bad thing. The farther the economy crashes, the greater the buying opportunity for billionaires. It all has to do with something called the administrative state. While it’s not sexy or even particularly interesting to the average American voter, having a strong administrative state is essential to a high-functioning economy. A strong administrative state is the only thing that protects entrepreneurs and small businesses from being squashed like bugs by monopolistic behemoths, and small businesses are our nation’s main growth engine. For example, over 70 percent of all new jobs created since 2019 were created by small businesses, producing almost 13 million new jobs over the past 25 years. Small business creation is up 50 percent over Trump’s years because the Biden administration has been enforcing the rule of law, including taking on the giant tech monopolies. Small businesses now account for over 43 percent of all American economic activity. A strong administrative state is also the only thing that can protect the environment from those who’d destroy it for their own profits. It’s the only thing that can protect consumers from defective or even deadly products and food or drug contamination. It our only defense against predatory banks, airlines, and insurance companies, among others. A strong administrative state that follows and enforces the rule of law — as opposed to the kind of grift-driven kleptocracies typical of strongman governments — is essential, in other words, to a functioning national economy. Here in America, we see this best in the contrast between lightly bureaucratic and largely unregulated Red states and more bureaucratic and regulated (and taxed) Blue states and counties. While Red and Blue states are represented in Congress about 50/50, as the Brookings Institution found a few years ago: “Biden’s winning base in 509 counties encompasses fully 71% of America’s economic activity, while Trump’s losing base of 2,547 counties represents just 29% of the economy.” But now the administrative state is in the crosshairs of the incoming Trump administration, and their planned assault on it will almost certainly cause a loss of economic vitality, probably even leading to a major recession (every Republican president since Nixon has had a major recession after tinkering with tax and regulatory policies; none of the Democratic presidents have created one since Carter, and his started under Nixon). We also see this at the level of the nation-state. As Professor Timothy Snyder notes: “Now consider the Russian and Hungarian economies. Russia sits on hugely valuable natural resources, and yet is a poor country. The profits from its oil and gas are in the hands of a few oligarchs. “Hungary sits in the middle of the European Union, the most successful trade project of all time. And yet Hungarians are poorer than their neighbors, in part because the Orbán regime corruptly channels EU resources to friendly oligarchs. “The lesson is clear. Democracy is a method of checking corrupt rulers. When there is no functioning democracy, corruption is unchecked. And democracy is an element of a more fundamental guarantor of prosperity, the rule of law. In Hungary and Russia, the rule of law has been bent and broken, to the benefit of the few, and to the detriment of the many. Ending the rule of law is the Trump-Vance platform.” Gutting the administrative state is the first and imperative aspect of ending or weakening the rule of law. Because, as Steve Bannon famously told America, the main goal of the Trump administration is “the ‘deconstruction’ of the administrative state.” He added: “Every business leader we’ve had in is saying not just taxes, but it is also the regulation. I think the consistent …[thing] is the deconstruction. The way the progressive left runs is, if they can’t get it passed, they’re just going to put in some sort of regulation in an agency. That’s all going to be deconstructed and I think that that’s why this regulatory thing is so important.” We saw this movie before, during the last Trump administration. He put a coal lobbyist in charge of EPA, an oil lobbyist at Interior, a Telcom lobbyist and lawyer at FCC, a professional union-busting lawyer in charge of the Labor Department, an advocate for replacing public schools with religious ones in charge of the Education Department, etc., etc. But that was more mere corruption than a wholesale destruction of administrative agencies. Since the Chevron deference decision by the Supreme Court this past year, though, it’s now possible that Trump could actually destroy the American administrative state. Even when Chevron was still intact eight years ago, the result of Trump’s corruption in his previous administration, just like with Reagan’s and Bush’s deregulatory campaigns, was a massive recession that started before Covid came along. Trump will fire Lena Kahn at the Federal Trade Commission, blowing up the antitrust efforts of the Biden administration; the fat cat billionaires already are eagerly anticipating running amok (which is why they threw billions at Trump’s campaign). The result, predictably, will be another Republican economic disaster for America’s working class. Interestingly, our country’s most famous investor also seems to be thinking along these same lines. Warren Buffett has recently sold over $325 billion in stock and is simply sitting on that huge pile of cash. Why? Probably the Oracle of Omaha can see the same thing I’m pointing out here: Trump is preparing to turn the economy over to Musk and his billionaire buddies and the result will be a disaster. A disaster, by the way, that will be very useful to Buffett and other billionaires; recessions and depressions are when America’s largest fortunes are typically made or expanded because they represent great buying opportunities to those with cash, while at the same time the small companies being squeezed are willing to sell for a song. So get ready; we’re in for a bumpy few years as America descends into a strongman-run oligarchy while the Supreme Court and Trump’s toadies rip apart the protections of the administrative state we’ve so carefully constructed in the years since the Civil War and the Republican Great Depression. It may well be a disaster for your 401(k), and millions will lose their jobs in a recession. If Musk cuts $2 trillion from the federal budget, as promised, it will almost certainly impact Social Security and take a huge bite out of programs for veterans, children, and the disabled. It would probably also have to end all subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, and end hundreds of billions in federal aid to infrastructure construction programs. Get ready now, to the extent that you can. Forewarned is forearmed.

Albertans need to follow the American style of MAGA?

Why is our government deciding that Albertans need to follow the American style of MAGA

right-wing election politics? They’re deciding that we are no longer going to have electronic voting machines but instead spend millions of tax dollars counting the ballots by hand, which delays the results and leaves the election officials open to many recounts due to human error.

Missouri anti-abortion PAC gets $1 million boost from group tied to Leonard Leo

Anna Spoerre October 30, 2024·3 min read A handful of people opposed to Amendment 3 protested outside the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, following a ruling to keep the abortion amendment on the Nov. 5 ballot (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent). A group associated with conservative activist Leonard Leo donated $1 million on Tuesday to a campaign opposing Missouri’s abortion-rights amendment. The Concord Fund, an advocacy organization funded by groups connected to Leo, stepped into the fight over Amendment 3 with a $1 million check to a PAC called Vote No on 3, according to filings with the Missouri Ethics Commission. The Concord Fund’s previous spending in Missouri was focused on boosting Will Scharf’s unsuccessful GOP primary campaign for attorney general, where it donated $5 million to PACs supporting Scharf. Need to get in touch? Have a news tip? CONTACT US Leo, a lawyer and activist who is a longtime leader at the conservative Federalist Society, also has ties to U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley. He’s been involved in one way or another with almost every high-profile conservative judicial appointment in recent decades. Amendment 3 would legalize abortion up until the point of fetal viability. Abortion is illegal in Missouri, with exceptions only for medical emergencies. Vote No on 3 is among a handful of political action committees hoping to defeat the amendment, including Missouri Stands with Women and the Missouri Right to Life. The donation from the Concord Fund is the single largest contribution made yet to a PAC opposing the amendment. It also came a week before a General Election that’s already seen huge early voter turnout. Cassidy Anderson, campaign manager for Vote No on 3, said the late-in-the-race donation was motivated in part by positive internal polling showing “Missourians really don’t want this.” A September Emerson College poll found 58% of those surveyed support Amendment 3, with 30% opposed. An August SLU/YouGov Poll found that 52% supported the amendment and 34% opposed. “Public polling in Missouri has consistently shown what we know to be true — there is overwhelming support among Missourians for ending the state’s abortion ban and protecting reproductive freedom,” Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the campaign behind Amendment 3, said in a statement in response to Anderson. Abortion a key flashpoint in Missouri Senate race between Josh Hawley, Lucas Kunce Despite a recent influx of cash, including $250,000 from a PAC called Conservative Leadership for Missouri, the anti-abortion campaign remains markedly outraised and outspent. As of Wednesday, Missourians for Constitution had raised more than $31 million, including several seven-figure donations from liberal groups including the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Fairness Project and Open Source Action Fund, all based out of Washington D.C. Anderson, with Vote No on 3, said the donation will help the PAC launch “one last big education push” through TV and digital ads in the days leading up to the election, adding that the seven-figure check sends a message of hope to Missourians opposing abortion “who have been waiting to see the donor class jump in big time to help.” As of Monday, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom spent more than $10 million on TV ad buys, including $2.6 million for ads that will air in the final days of the campaign. Groups opposing Amendment 3 have spent about $700,000 on radio and TV ads, with No on 3 accounting for about $340,000 of that with TV ad purchases in the St. Louis market over the last four days. No new TV ad purchases were reported for Vote No on 3 as of Wednesday afternoon. Rudi Keller of The Independent staff contributed to this report.