Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
On Wednesday, the general manager of the Toronto Raptors basketball team took care of some unfinished business.
Bryan Colangelo made a huge trade, to get superstar player Rudy Gay.
It all started back in 2006. At that time, Colangelo held the “number-one overall draft pick.” That meant he could choose any eligible player and add them to his team.
He travelled around the world, looking for the perfect person to add to the Raptors.
Rob Ford has won his appeal and will remain as Toronto’s mayor.
Last November, Ford was removed from office – in other words, told by a judge that he could no longer be mayor.
The judge said Ford broke a “conflict of interest” law after he voted on an issue that he, himself was involved in. The judge said Ford must step down as mayor.
However, Ford appealed the judge’s decision. That means he asked the court to look over the case and reverse the decision.
Three judges from the Ontario Divisional Court did just that. They ruled that Ford never broke the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.
More Canadian students are signing up for French immersion, according to a report by Statistics Canada.
Even though the number of students in Canada is going down, the number of students taking French immersion has gone up by 12 per cent in the last five years. That information is based on the 2011 census.
The trend is particularly strong out west. Over the past 12 years, the number of students in British Columbia and Alberta taking French immersion has risen steadily. The number in Saskatchewan and Ontario are also climbing.
French immersion is when a student whose first language is not French, studies in French.
Want to know what Canada’s prime minister did yesterday?
Just read his Twitter feed.
Harper tweeted a picture of his cat, Stanley, sitting on a chair beside him while the prime minister ate his breakfast.
He tweeted a time-lapsed video of his drive to work; viewers could see the Canadian flag flying on the hood of his car and watch the PM leave his limo with a briefcase full of work.
Ontario’s next premier is Kathleen Wynne.
She won the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Since the Liberals are in power in the province, she will automatically become the premier as well.
Wynne’s closest competitor for the job was Sandra Pupatello.
The Liberals held a “leadership convention” to choose a new leader after Dalton McGuinty stepped down as leader and Ontario premier last October.
The convention was held on the weekend; Wynne was voted in on Saturday.
Liberal party members voted in Toronto, in three votes or “ballots.” Wynne won in the third ballot with 1,150 votes over Pupatello, who had 866 votes.
Keller Laros is a professional scuba instructor who lives in Hawaii.
The shores of Kailua-Kona, on The Big Island of Hawaii, host some of the world’s most diverse and interesting aquatic life.
Laros estimates he has made more than 10,000 dives in his career.
On Jan. 11, he led a group of videographers and divers on a “Manta Ray Night Dive.”
However, the tour would be unlike any other trip he had ever been on before.
At nine years old, Quvenzhane Wallis is the youngest person to ever be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
The Academy Awards (nicknamed “The Oscars”) are given to the best work in movies each year.
Best Actor and Best Actress are perhaps the most prestigious awards an actor can win.
Wallis was just five when she tried out (or “auditioned”) for the role of Hushpuppy in the film Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Was there really anyone left who still believed he didn’t cheat?
If so, even they would have to admit that Lance Armstrong did cheat at cycling.
That’s because he himself recently came clean about it, to celebrity interviewer Oprah Winfrey.
The renowned cyclist won seven Tour de France victories–more than anyone else.
The Tour de France is the sport’s most gruelling and prestigious race.
For years, Armstrong has been accused of cheating by using performance enhancing drugs that aren’t allowed in competitive racing.
He always denied it. Vehemently.
Some of Cirque du Soleil’s performers will soon have their feet on the ground.
That’s because the fantastical circus company is laying off 400 employees.
Cirque employs about 5,000 people around the world, doing more than 100 types of jobs including performing.
Most of the lay-offs will be at the organization’s Montreal headquarters, according to an article in the Globe and Mail.
Cirque du Soleil is a famous Canadian performing troupe. According to Wikipedia, they describe themselves as “a dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment.”
They were founded by two former street performers, Guy Laliberte and Gilles Ste-Croix, about 30 years ago.
When Chris Hadfield was nine years old, he watched Apollo 11 land on the moon and decided he wanted to become an astronaut.
That was in 1969, and about half a billion people around the world watched the same grainy images of the moon landing on TV.
It seems incredible, but with today’s technology and social media websites, people can see and hear what the astronauts are doing on the International Space Station every day.
We can watch videos of them, check out the view of Earth from the space station, and even have casual “conversations” with the astronauts.
