News of the World

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Deceased Pennsylvania State Rep. Re-Elected in Landslide

A state lawmaker in Pennsylvania has been re-elected to another term in office on Nov. 8 despite already passing away last month.

State Rep. Tony DeLuca, a Democrat, died at age 85 on Oct. 9 due to lymphoma. The timing of his death was too late for election officials to change the ballots.

DeLuca had served as a representative in the Pennsylvania state legislature for 39 years. He received more than 85 percent of the vote in the 32nd District in Allegheny County. This accounted for nearly 14,000 votes on Election Day, and more than 7,000 votes via mail.

DeLuca had served on the House Insurance Committee and the Democratic Policy Committee.
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DeLuca’s posthumous victory has triggered a special election to take place later.
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DeLuca was preceded by his late wife, Constance, who died from breast cancer in 2021. They had been married for 66 years.

The late state representative is survived by four children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

How could people pick somebody that can't even represent them!?

Australian Prime Minister Open to Dialogue With Chinese Leaders

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that he would be open to a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the next nine days as leaders from around the world gather for a range of international summits in Asia, including the B20, G20, APEC, ASEAN-Australia, and East Asia Summit.

Speaking at a press conference in Canberra on Nov. 9, the prime minister said that he had always believed that dialogue between the countries was a good thing.
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However, the Prime Minister said his trip was not on the program and nothing had been finalised.

“It will be an extensive nine days and a very busy nine days,” Albanese said. “We’re still finalising the program.”
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The shadow minister for Countering Foreign Interference, Liberal Senator James Paterson was supportive of a meeting.
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However, he refused to be drawn on whether the prime minister should address the recent allegations Beijing had been looking to recruit ex-defence force personnel to train the People’s Liberation Army.

The comments from the prime minister come as Defence Minister Richard Marles announced a joint task force between the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to counter foreign interference.

CISA Director Says No Evidence of Compromised Voting Systems in 2022 Midterms

“We have seen no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was any way compromised in any race in the country,” Easterly said in a statement on Wednesday.

She also said that election officials in the days after the election are carrying out a “rigorous” process to finalize and certify the results, which include actions such as tabulating votes, reviewing procedures, and testing and auditing equipment.

It seems like the former president disagrees with the CISA director.

“Same thing is happening with Voter Fraud as happened in 2020???,” the former president asked on Truth Social on Tuesday, while voting was still underway and polls had yet to close.

In another post, he wrote: “Maricopa County in Arizona looks like a complete Voter Integrity DISASTER. Likewise Detroit (of course!), Pennsylvania, and other places. Not being covered by the Fake News Media!”

Trump also asked people in Arizona to make sure they cast their vote. “People of Arizona: Don’t get out of line until you cast your vote. They are trying to steal the election with bad Machines and DELAY. Don’t let it happen!”

Trump said of Detroit: “The Absentee Ballot situation in Detroit is REALLY BAD. People are showing up to Vote only to be told, ‘Sorry, you have already voted.’ This is happening in large numbers, elsewhere as well. Protest, Protest, Protest!”

Virginia Schools Struggling to Retain Qualified Workforce
More Teachers Leaving Than Joining

An analysis of statewide teacher workforce data showed that more teachers were leaving their jobs while fewer teachers are becoming licensed for the first time, the Nov. 7 report states (pdf). In 2021–22, the number of teachers leaving the profession was 12 percent higher than the pre-pandemic yearly average, while the number of newly licensed teachers was lower by 15 percent.

There were 800 vacant teaching posts across the state before the COVID-19 pandemic, a figure that increased substantially to 2,800 posts in October 2021, the report said, representing 3 percent of all teaching positions. As of August 2022, there were 3,300 vacant teaching posts in 111 school divisions.
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Divisions were also concerned about the falling quality of applications during the pandemic, with 98 percent citing an “inadequate applicant pool for open positions” as one of their toughest challenges to meeting staffing needs.

Rather than fully licensed teachers, school divisions were relying more on provisionally licensed teachers. The number of provisionally licensed teachers rose by 24 percent during 2021–22 when compared to the pre-pandemic average.

Among school divisions, 52 percent reported not being optimistic about employing a suitable classroom teacher workforce for the 2022-23 school year. To complicate matters, 15 percent of teachers in the state admitted that they are “likely to leave” or “definitely leaving” their jobs by the end of this period.
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During a press event on Oct. 24, Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin admitted that the state’s students were the “hardest hit” in terms of learning loss.

Latin American Countries Release Thousands of Criminals from Prison

The area has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with detention numbers averaging 163 percent of prison capacity as of 2020.

However, the leaders of five nations within striking distance of the U.S. border are taking a new approach to the problem.

Lawmakers in Mexico, Ecuador, and Nicaragua are offering early release to thousands of criminals with “minor offenses” or who are awaiting trial.

In Cuba and Venezuela, lawbreakers and regime offenders are not only being released, many are exiled.
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Illegal immigrant arrests at the U.S. southern frontier surpassed 2 million for the 2022 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30. This shattered the previous year’s tally of 1.7 million arrests.
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Excess lawbreakers on the loose in the United States have generated upticks in both minor and violent crimes, according to Tsukerman. She says the same formula will produce comparable results in countries throughout the Americas, but with a key difference.

“The likely consequence will be an increased flow in the number of criminals to the [U.S.] borders,” she said, adding, “Including successful border crossings.”
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In Mexico, the bottlenecked legal system was enough to free 2,685 residents in September. The order came into force after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s 2021 order, which granted amnesty to those waiting for their trials or whose legal rights had been violated.

Within that pool of criminals, 2,032 prisoners weren’t categorized in designations such as women, elderly, afflicted with chronic disease, foreigners, or indigenous. They were solely identified as having “met the legal requirements for early release.”
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In February, Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso announced the pardon of 5,000 prisoners to ease the dangerous overcrowding in the country’s penitentiaries. Tensions between rival gangs in packed jail cells exploded in 2021, culminating in riots that claimed the lives of 350 detainees.
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Nicaragua’s government followed suit in April 2022. Vice President Rosario Murillo ordered the release of 1,000 petty criminals from the country’s jails.

Murillo said the offenders would be sent home to “serve their sentences under the family cohabitation regime.”

The Central American nation has a history of releasing criminals early to serve the remainder of their sentences under house arrest. Between 2014 and 2021, the Sandinista regime granted early release to 33,690 prisoners.