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A PANACEA: is what Red Deer’s Riverlands is not.

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Definition of panacea. : a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all.
The Riverlands is often being touted as the cure-all for our city’s ills. It will bring businesses to Red Deer. It will stem the exodus of our residents, reversing the decline in population. It will put Red Deer on the map. It will bring people downtown.
23 acres will save Red Deer from it’s current decline, it may help, but only if seen as a portion of the solution.
Concentrating on one area of Red Deer is detrimental to other areas in Red Deer. Pulling businesses from the north side to downtown will only hurt the north side businesses that cannot move downtown, like Parkland Mall. It punishes the residents who live on the north side because they will have to travel further to do business.
The city will say that the Riverlands will allow residents to live, work and recreate in their neighbourhoods. But that is not important, if you live north of the river.
The North is not some enemy, some disease that needs to be fought or contained. Why not allow one third of our city to live, work and recreate in their neighbourhood? You also determined that there should be an indoor ice rink for every 15,000 people. Apparently that also does not apply, north of the river. They have 1 for every 30,000 residents while the south side has 1 for every 10,000 residents.
The city will not plan for a high school or another swimming pool north of the river even though they expect the population will hit 55,000 residents. What family will plan on moving to the north side if they see that they will have to commute across the city for every necessity of life, like going to high school?
The Riverlands, will be a nice extra, but it is not a nice necessity, and that is where the city is failing. The money that went into re-aligning the traffic, could have paid for a high school for the north side communities. Investing in sports tourism, incorporating areas like Hazlett Lake. Building a competitive aquatic centre might attract more tourism dollars than a 20 million dollar footbridge for Riverlands residents.
The problem is that the city has blinders on when it comes to the downtown. A restaurant owner moved out of downtown, because he felt that he was out of the small group that controlled the decision making for downtown. He moved to the outer suburbia, or enemy territory.
He, like myself may be dismissed as cantankerous old men, ignored by the media and decision makers. But if one was to take all the symptoms, the trends, and events together and try to establish a commonality, then we might agree and find a way to reverse this decline.
Businesses leaving, 975 residents moved out of Red Deer, 777 residents moved out of the north side of the river, increasing unemployment, 10% vacancies, increasing crime, and bad air, will not end because the Riverlands is being developed.
There is no panacea, perhaps it is time to reconsider other options, too. Let us start listening, seriously, to a larger group. Find out why Blackfalds grew by 700 residents while Red Deer shrank by 975? Why is Gasoline Alley becoming a powerhouse while our downtown needs subsidization?
In 1970s, Parkland Mall made Red Deer a shopping destination for Central Alberta, 40% of the population lived north of the river, then we abandoned the north. The last school was built in 1985, the last indoor ice rink and pool was built in the 1980s, now they are neglected still 3 decades later. Only 30% live north of the river, today.
Could this have contributed to the decline of Red Deer? Possibly but no one wants to talk about it. Perhaps it is time we did? Maybe, being nice, ignoring the problems and putting all our eggs in the downtown basket, is not part of the solution but is part of the problem?
Forget the idea of a panacea, and start a real discussion, and the real solutions might see some daylight. Time to take the blinders off. Thank you.

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Daily Caller

All Epstein Files Are In, Attorney General Reveals What Will Go Public Starting Thursday

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

If something’s redacted, you will know the line, and you will know why it’s redacted, the victim’s name, identifying information of a victim.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday evening on Fox News that the thousands of withheld files on deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein are now in the hands of the FBI, adding certain redactions will be made, with an explanation provided for each one.

The Department of Justice released the first phase of “The Epstein Files” — an over 100-page document — on Thursday, but it failed to contain a majority of new information, sparking controversy online. On “Hannity,” Fox’s Sean Hannity addressed the controversy, asking Bondi for her response. She said she had been informed fewer than 24 hours before the release that “there were way more documents that they were supposed to turn over.”

“You’re looking at these documents going, ‘These aren’t all the Epstein files.’ There were flight logs, there were names, victims’ names, and we’re going, ‘Where’s the rest of the stuff?’ That’s what the FBI had turned over to us,” Bondi said. “So a source said, ‘Whoa, all this evidence is sitting in the Southern District of New York.’ So based on that, I gave them the deadline, Friday at 8, a truckload of evidence arrived.”

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“It’s now in the possession of the FBI. Kash is going to get me, and himself really, a detailed report as to why all these documents and evidence had been withheld,” Bondi added. “We’re going to go through it, go through it as fast as we can, but go through it very cautiously to protect all the victims of Epstein, because there are a lot of victims.”

Before the release of “Phase One,” Bondi told Fox News last Wednesday that the DOJ would be releasing “some” of the files by Thursday, hoping the public would see “a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information.” However, the DOJ and Trump administration faced pushback online after conservative influencers obtained a binder labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.” Some of those influencers were seen smiling and holding it up outside the West Wing.

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Hannity pressed Bondi about additional potential redactions in the files.

“National security, some grand jury information, which is always going to be confidential, but we’ll see. Let’s look through them as fast as we can. Get it out to the American people, because the American people have a right to know,” Bondi said. “Not only on that, but on Kennedy, on Martin Luther King, on all of these cases that the Biden administration has just sat on for all these years.”

“It’s really — it’s not sad. It’s infuriating that these people thought that they could sit on this information, but they can’t,” Bondi said. “And when we redact things, Sean, what we’re going to do is not just pull pages out like they used to do. If something’s redacted, you will know the line, and you will know why it’s redacted, the victim’s name, identifying information of a victim.”

Epstein was arrested and charged in 2019 with sex trafficking, only later to be found dead in his New York Metropolitan Correctional Center cell a month after his arrest. Since his death, Republicans, including Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, have called for the full, unredacted records of Epstein to be released to the public, which includes his infamous flight log.

After the release of phase one, Bondi requested that the FBI deliver the remaining documents to the DOJ by Friday at 8 a.m., tasking newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel with investigating “why the request for all documents was not followed.”

“We believe in transparency, and America has the right to know. The Biden administration sat on these documents. No one did anything with them. Why were they sitting in the Southern District of New York? I want a full report on that,” Bondi said.

“Sadly, these people don’t believe in transparency, but I think more, unfortunately, I think a lot of them don’t believe in honesty,” Bondi added. “It’s a new day. It’s a new administration, and everything’s going to come out to the public. The public has a right to know. Americans have a right to know.”

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Daily Caller

US Pauses Military Aid To Ukraine

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

The U.S. Defense Department confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday evening that military aid to Ukraine has been halted.

All current military aid to Ukraine is paused until President Donald Trump can determine a good-faith commitment to peace from Ukrainian leaders, according to Bloomberg. The pause, which includes weapons either in transit or in Poland, comes just days after Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy got into a heated discussion while meeting in the Oval Office on Friday to finalize the U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal.

During the gathering, Zelenskyy publicly criticized the U.S. for not attempting to halt Russia. Trump quickly responded, stating that Ukraine was not in a position to call out the U.S., given the billions in aid already provided to the country, and he warned Zelenskyy that he was “gambling” with World War III.

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Following the gathering, Trump later posted on Truth Social that Zelenskyy was not ready for “peace” with the White House telling Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese that “nothing will be signed.”

While Trump has advocated for peace between Russia and Ukraine since his campaign, Zelenskyy has appeared to flip-flop on ending the war. In a statement Sunday evening, following the Oval Office argument, Zelenskyy said an “agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet,” according to the Associated Press.

In response to Zelenskyy, Trump posted on Truth Social Monday, calling out the Ukrainian president. He wrote that it was not only “the worst statement” that could’ve been made, but that America “will not put up with it for much longer.”

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S.,” Trump wrote.

While Democrats have criticized Trump and Vice President JD Vance over their meeting with Zelenskyy, Republicans have called out the Ukrainian president’s behavior. Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a historically staunch defender of Ukraine, said Zelenskyy “obliterated” the U.S. efforts to bring peace.

In reaction to the aid pause, retired U.S. Army officer Daniel Davis told Fox host Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle” that he hopes the halt will change Zelenskyy’s “disposition” as the U.S. seeks to bring peace between the two countries.

“I certainly hope it changes its disposition,” Davis said. “Instead of recognizing reality, Zelenskyy, unfortunately aided by the Biden administration, and then all of Europe continued to ignore the reality and just go year after year fighting this war that could never have been won.”

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“His people have been killed in huge numbers since. Now that you have Trump coming in, who’s unequivocally saying this war is coming to an end and he doesn’t want to,” Davis added. “So now then, that really, in my view, just sealed the deal for Trump because Trump’s trying to get the war over with, and this guy seems to want to fight it. If he does, then he can try to do it on his own.”

Before all aid was paused, the Trump administration also halted financing for new weapons sales to Ukraine, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The financial pause comes after American taxpayers have contributed over $130 billion to aid the country since former President Joe Biden involved the U.S. in February 2022. Notably, Zelenskyy told the Associated Press on Feb. 1 that he had received only about $75 billion of the $177 billion the United States had approved for Ukraine.

On Friday, Zelenskyy told Fox News host Bret Baier that he was still open to signing the U.S. mineral deal and thanked U.S. leaders on X following the Oval Office meeting.

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