The five cyclists were all participating in the Make-A-Wish bicycle tour, a three-day fundraising event and endurance ride that spans most of the state, according to the Ionia County Sheriff’s Office.
The cyclists were traveling southbound when the SUV, which was traveling northbound, crossed the center line, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
Ionia County is roughly 40 miles east of Grand Rapids.
One cyclist was pronounced dead at the scene while another died from injuries at a nearby hospital, the sheriff’s office said. The three surviving cyclists were transported to hospitals with severe injuries, officials added.
The driver of the SUV was arrested on two counts of Operating while Intoxicated Causing Death and taken to the Ionia County Jail, the sheriff’s office added. Authorities did not release the driver’s name pending charges and an arraignment.
The names of the cyclists were also not released. An investigation is ongoing, the sheriff’s office added.
The Make-a-Wish Foundation expressed its condolences towards the cyclists and their loved ones in a statement shared with CNN.
“Our staff and the entire Make-A-Wish family are heartbroken and offer our deepest sympathy for the riders involved, their loved ones, and all members of the WAM community during this difficult time,” the organization said. “We are thankful to the first responders who arrived immediately to save lives. We are supporting our riders, staff, and volunteers with grief counseling and assisting with the law enforcement investigation.”
Nier Automata’s secret church isn’t a secret anymore, and the mysterious Reddit account sadfutago has been unmasked. The past few days of frantic theorycrafting, fact-checking, and data mining were all sparked by just three inventive modders. This small team quietly redefined what Nier Automata mods can be and, less quietly, teased their work with cryptic breadcrumbs that the internet couldn’t resist.
At the end of it all, the people behind sadfutago and these revolutionary mod tools say they’re feeling a touch overwhelmed.
This memorable performance was put on by Woeful_Wolf, DevolasRevenge, and RaiderB of the Nier Modding Discord (opens in new tab). (And it is, sad eats from wowand futago, or twins in Japanese, comes from Devola of Nier’s twins sisters.) I first spoke to Woeful_Wolf on July 28, just hours before the Twitch stream that revealed the truth of the secret church. At the time, the mod team was still hiding their involvement but also actively participating in the Discord, with Woeful_Wolf going so far as to help other Nier modders try and recreate the secret church while remaining incognito. The weight of the hindsight from that conversation threatens to crush me into dust even now, so I simply had to track the team down for the whole story.
Responses edited for clarity and length.
The brilliance of sadfutago
(Image credit: Square Enix)
“I wanted sadfutago to appear innocent so that people wouldn’t assume he’s capable of making a map,” Devolas tells me over Discord. He also had to seem ignorant “so that he can avoid suspicion.” Devolas was responsible for posting, but Wolf and Raider also occasionally helped check and workshop the contents. For example, Wolf, who describes Devolas as “the mastermind behind the character,” once caught an errant mouse cursor in one video that would’ve ruined the claim of sadfutago playing on PS4.
That turned the sentiment in our favor… The new question was: is this a PR stunt?
RaiderB
The allure and persona of the account was also aided by its audience. Nier fans love a good rabbit hole, and sadfutago took on a mind of his own as people swapped traces of the imagined person behind the posts. The prevailing theory was that sadfutago is a French Canadian minor with imperfect English language skills and limited technical understanding – a reasonable profile given the clues, but one that surprised even Devolas.
“I just had a Canadian version of the game, I’m not sure why they thought he was French,” he jokes. “I’m glad it was convincing.”
Sadfutago was even helped by the creators of Nier Automata. Creative director and renowned prankster Yoko Taro answered (opens in new tab) with his usual aloofness when asked if sadfutago had discovered some cut content. Producer Yosuke Saito event joked (opens in new tab) that this seemed like something Taro himself would do. And when I reached out to Square Enix, a representative said: “Unfortunately we won’t be able to provide a comment.” Because they didn’t shut down the wild theories floating around, responses like these ended up accelerating sadfutago’s rise, not to mention hopes that this could all be leading to an official announcement.
“That turned the sentiment in our favor,” Raider says. “Before the question was: real or mod? Then the new question was: is this a PR stunt?”
Oh wow, this is blowing up
(Image credit: Square Enix)
“The tease was imagined as being one to two days, maybe a week, until one of the data miners or someone knowledgeable in general shoots us down saying it doesn’t exist,” Devolas says.
As soon as I’d post as sadfutago, I’d listen to the voice channel. They instantly knew he posted.
DevolasRevenge
Instead, someone knowledgeable excitedly shared (opens in new tab) sadfutago’s early posts and put countless eyes on them: reputable modder Lance McDonald. McDonald rightfully criticized the tone and content of the posts as more evidence emerged, but his early tweets of him poured kerosene on the fire.
“Soon after that it exploded,” Raider says of Lance’s tweet. “The modding server before was a chill place with some occasional conversations over the day. Then suddenly there were multiple people joining the server every minute and the chat was going faster than I could read.”
“I never expected things to get this big,” Wolf explains. “Our first target audience was simply the modding server and maybe a hundred people from Reddit. But this literally went viral overnight. I also thought it was insane that we got any response at all from Saito, Taro, and other Drakengard and Nier icons. ”
“The server would be so full that people would make extra voice channels,” Devolas says. “And as soon as I’d post as sadfutago, I’d listen to the voice channel. They instantly knew he posted.”
(Image credit: Square Enix, Platinum Games)
As the Nier community’s excitement reached critical mass, Devolas started to worry that some people would be let down by the truth. The response was “definitely a bit more than what we were aiming for” and “kind of scary,” he says. “It makes me want to take a break and let things chill out. The reaction is a bit overwhelming.”
“Some people really thought it was a Drakengard teaser,” Devolas continues. “A bit unfortunate, so there are some mad people. Discord is pretty positive about it, and Twitter too, but there are some not so happy people on Twitter as well.”
If he could do it all again, Devolas says he’d make it clearer earlier on that this was about a mod. There were some clues in sadfutago’s final posts – Japanese text stressing that this isn’t an ARG or even official – but just as Twitter’s bound to have some not so happy people, folks on the internet are bound to miss some important details. But overall, the ending went about as well as it could have.
“I love all the positive responses from most people,” Wolf says. “I love secret hunts and I hope ours was good enough and entertaining for all of you!”
This cannot continue
(Image credit: Square Enix)
More often than not, the modded content Devolas posted had literally just been finished. The team was flying by the seat of their pants right up to the climactic reveal stream. Like game developers preparing a trailer for a trade show, the mod team props up the best-looking stuff they had while scrambling in its shadow.
“I used it as an excuse to buy myself more time,” Devolas says of sadfutago, referring to the gap between the account’s June posts and the July videos that truly lit the fuse. “The church wasn’t presentable then – even when I felt the first pics, we didn’t even have the iconic first door.”
“Whenever we posted, that was mostly all we had at that point,” Raider agrees. “That’s why things in the very first screenshots looked different from the final videos.”
“In that quiet month, we were rushing to develop the scripting tools and figuring out all the game logic and how we could create our own,” Wolf adds. “We literally were making everything as we were going along!”
Wolf is a veteran of mod tool design and Devolas worked more on art and modeling while acting as a de facto creative director and managing sadfutago. They were already collaborating on the mod in early 2022, but in terms of assets, the secret church was just some pews and walls as of early March. Wolf delayed the public release of some updated mod tools specifically to follow Devolas’ idea of using them to create an Easter egg for the Nier community – something he “honestly feels slight guilt for” even now. Likewise, Raider says he will usually share updates right away but “this was the exception.”
(Image credit: Square Enix)
Raider didn’t join the team as a key programmer bringing “major discoveries” until April, says Wolf. The mod never grew beyond these three, though Wolf says a few people in the Discord worked out the secret early on and were asked not to spoil it, and Raider notes that “a bunch of people have contributed many other important things to the community.”
Preparing the reveal stream was especially difficult. Devolas intentionally broken character (opens in new tab) after more people worked out that this had to be a mod, and the rush was on for a fitting finale.
I got absolutely, unequivocally juiced
grojdg
“I didn’t want to end it super abruptly, so I quickly made the final scene with 9S in that giant dark room with the hands,” Devolas says. “I made the final live stream as well as the video. It was so late because [Woeful_Wolf] wanted to watch it but he had to sleep. So I told him I’d stream it as soon as he woke up. It had 13,000 people and I’m surprised it went smooth-ish because I kind of did it without testing anything.”
“The whole finale was quite rushed,” Raider admits. “I worked late into the night to make some things work. Then in the morning I was quite surprised by what Devolas did – not in a bad way. I actually didn’t see the final video until it was streamed. The voice chat reactions we were great to hear.”
Members of Nier Modding were among the most surprised viewers. Meowsandstuff and Grojdg, who’d just started working with Wolf to recreate the secret church using normal mod tools, were utterly flabbergasted.
“This is the first time I’ve seen anything this big,” Meowsandstuff says. “Never have I had a mod tug me from both sides thinking it was real then fake and back… it was so well done yet so weird sometimes. A lot of it was probably the absolutely masterful way that the sadfutago character was played.”
“I got absolutely, unequivocally juiced,” Grojdg tells me. “The sheer embarrassment of seeing my name pop up in the thanks at the end is something I’ve never experienced. I’m breaking with jealousy that I wasn’t one of the people behind this. Their talent is giving me so much drive to jump back into Nier modding properly and show them up.”
Become as mods
(Image credit: Square Enix)
With the dust settling, we can finally see this mod for what it is: an unforgettable story, and a massive leap forward for fan-made Nier Automata content. As McDonald pointed out in his viral tweet from him, a critical reason this ruse worked at all is that this kind of mod was considered impossible. But Wolf and Raider – Devolas clarified that he didn’t make any tools or scripts himself – have unlocked a sea of possibilities. Custom battle arenas and boss fights, intense speedrun gauntlets, original quests with cutscenes. Raider himself is already preparing a mod that’s “very big in scale” and separate from the secret church, and it ought to be out soon.
We got the entire community excited and together, if only for a few days … I’d definitely call this a win for me
Woeful_Wolf
Woeful_Wolf, DevolasRevenge, and RaiderB will release all of these mod tools via GitHub and the Nier Modding server in the days ahead. Everything will be open source, so anyone interested will be able to use and modify the tools. Wolf says that existing Nier Automata mods should work fine with the new tools once they’re reimported, and they’ve done “some small backwards compatibility things for any edge cases.”
“Well, the initial goal was to troll the internet,” Raider jokes. “I’d say we accomplished more than that. I’m interested to see what all the new people will bring to the table. That’s a nice side effect of this whole thing. I’m not very good with these kinds of words, I’m just excited to see where things go from here.”
“We got the entire community excited and together, if only for a few days, and we got a few new people interested in modding in general, even if only temporarily,” Wolf adds. “I’d definitely call this a win for me. I have been doing this for so long with so little attention coming to the modding community. Really, this completely blew all sense of scale out of the water!”
To cap off this strange chapter, I asked Devolas if he has a final message to share as sadfutago.
“We love the Nier series, and it’s because we love the Nier and Drakengard series that we went out of our way to make this mod.”
Kate and Ethan are going to Blind Date’s longest date, clocking in at 10 hours.
Ethan, 27, says:
I got there first but I only beat her by about a minute. She was right behind me. We started off at a table and it was really close to the band, so couldn’t really hear each other and then one of the staff brought us around the corner and that was way better. We started off with, “What do you do for work? How do you like it? Is there any foods you don’t like, and foods you do like?
It was nerve-racking at the start. It was the unknown that was the scariest part about it.
But a few minutes into the date, it was fine. She made me feel super comfortable, just with her smile from her, and she would speak and then the conversation would just continue.
Pulled an all-nighter: Ethan. Credit: John Koh/The West Australian
She’s just so easy to get along with. Ella’s personality is very bubbly and she’s a very funny girl.
She works in HR. I think she’s studying to get a promotion or something within that field. She does not like seafood, which is the same as me.
We ordered a lot of food. But we were talking so much, so we didn’t eat it all.
We exchanged Instagrams. And then we exchanged numbers as well. We’re actually still messaging now. I hope we go out again.
We actually stayed out until four o’clock in the morning. We met up with some of her friends of her after The Globe closed.
We went to a couple of bars and it got to about four o’clock and I was, like, ready to die because I went to work at four o’clock that morning as well, so I’d been up for 24 hours straight .
She was like, “Are you OK if we go home now?”. And I was like, “I’m so ready for that”. I’m glad neither of us had worked the next day because I felt rotten.
I got a bit nervous about meeting her friends but she introduced me to all of them. And then she made sure I was very comfortable and she was always involving me in the conversation rather than leaving me alone.
The whole thing was good. No awkward silences. Nothing but laughter. And just good conversation all around.
Verdict: 8.5/10
Kate, 24, says:
We had a lot of fun. It was a really good time.
Straight away, we both kind of bonded over how nervous we were at the start. And then we were just chatting about our interests, our work.
We had some common interests in terms of where we want to travel. We both are keen to go to Japan. I really want to go skiing there one day.
We were sitting at a high table to begin with. It was a little bit noisy. So then the staff asked us if we wanted to move to a different spot.
Almost in tears laughing: Kate. Credit: John Koh/The West Australian
He was so friendly. He was just really easy to get along with and I felt pretty comfortable with him. The conversation flowed really well and was super easy. And I felt like neither of us was sitting there waiting for the other person to say something.
We always had something to talk about. Not that I really struggle with that, personally.
I can’t remember what it was. But there was one thing that we were laughing about and the banter was going back and forth. And I was almost in tears laughing; it was so funny but I actually can’t remember what it was.
After we left The Globe, we ended up meeting my housemate. She was already out in the city. I was messaging her beforehand and I was like, “So if this is shocking, I’m going to message you. And I’m going to come meet you out”.
And then she’s like, “If it’s really good and you like him and he gets on with you, invite him out afterwards”. So I did.
I didn’t know the other people, so it was kind of an extension of date. So I was chatting to Ethan and most of the night anyway. My housemate thought he was lovely. She thought he was really friendly and everything and she was like, “It seemed like you can just have an easy conversation with him.”
Ethan and I have been messaging since the date. Probably we’ll catch up again. Whether it’s more of a friendship, I’m not 100 per cent sure. But we’ll see what happens.
Daniel Ricciardo has missed out on a points finish after being penalized for causing a collision during Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Key points:
Daniel Ricciardo finished 13th in Hungary
Max Verstappen won after starting 10th on the grid
A poor tire strategy cost Ferrari a chance at victory
Max Verstappen climbed from 10th to take another victory and extend his lead in the Drivers’ Championship after Ferrari again threw away another potential victory.
Ricciardo was driving well and comfortably challenging in the top 10 around the Hungaroring in Budapest.
But the Australian’s day came unstuck when his brand new hard tires locked up just a few corners after exiting the pits and led to him running into the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
Stroll was attempting to pass the Australian before the collision, which sent the Aston Martin driver spinning.
Ricciardo was given a five-second penalty which took him out of contention for a top 10 finish.
Ricciardo had provided one of the highlights of the race on lap 24 with a double-overtake of the Alpine drivers Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.
Ricciardo was chasing Alonso down the main straight when Ocon came out of the pits trying to stay ahead in 10th.
The Alpine drivers got in each other’s way, allowing Ricciardo to showcase his skills by passing both of them on consecutive corners.
Ferrari blunder again
Poor tire strategy has cost Charles Leclerc a chance at winning in Budapest.(Pool via Reuters: Attila Kisbenedek)
Ferrari’s hopes of winning either the Drivers’ or Constructors’ Championships in 2022 have taken a massive blow after Max Verstappen took the checkered flag.
Heading into Sunday’s race Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said his team needed a first and second place finish at a track where they were favourites.
But Ferrari’s tire strategy robbed Charles Leclerc of a chance of victory and he finished sixth.
Leclerc was leading at half-distance and was the fastest on track, but was forced to go onto the hard compound tire during his second stop after starting on the mediums.
The hard tire was the worst performing on Sunday, with many drivers including Ricciardo struggling on it.
Max Verstappen has extended his lead in the drivers’ championship.(Reuters: Lisa Leutner)
Meanwhile, Verstappen was able to storm home on the medium tire but had his own drama when he spun on a slippery part of the surface.
“I was hoping I could get close to a podium [finish],” he said.
“We had a really good strategy, we were really reactive, always pitting at the right times.”
Verstappen now holds an 80-point lead over Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship.
Post race Leclerc said he wanted to stay out on his medium tires and pit later for a set of the faster soft compounds.
“We need to speak with the team and understand the thought behind putting on the hard [tyre],” he said.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Sunday defended his “no” vote on a bill to aid military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits against what he called “false accusations” from comedian Jon Stewart.
Toomey, during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper, called the former “Daily Show” host a “pseudo-celebrity” and accused the bill’s Democratic backers of “the oldest trick in Washington.”
“People take a sympathetic group of Americans — and it could be children with an illness, it could be victims of crime, it could be veterans who’ve been exposed to toxic chemicals — craft a bill to address their problems, and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on their own, and dare Republicans to do anything about it,” Toomey said.
The legislation’s supporters, Toomey said, will then “unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo-celebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldn’t be there.”
Toomey insisted that he and his fellow Republicans don’t oppose the bill itself, but are worried instead about Democrats using it to acquire funds for unrelated matters and switch discretionary funding to mandatory.
Stewart has knocked the GOP for holding up the bill’s progress and for misinterpreting the proposal.
“Their constituents are dying,” Stewart said in DC last week.
On Sunday, Stewart blasted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for voting “no” and called claims about the spending language in the bill and the potential to misuse included funds “factually incorrect.”
All Democrats and eight Republicans voted for the bill when it was first introduced last week, but the tally fell five votes short of the amount needed to bypass the filibuster.
Toomey on Sunday emphasized the Republican push for an amendment vote on the bill.
“This is why they do this sort of thing, Jake, because it gets very deep in the weeds and very confusing for people very quickly … We are spending way too much money to use — to hide behind a veterans bill the opportunity to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree is wrong. And we shouldn’t allow it,” the Pennsylvania senator said.
The dark patch in the middle is the so-called “Pillars of Creation”. You can see the comparison with the famous Hubble picture (shot in infra red). The longer pillar is about 4 light years in length. ‘
Saturn
A very rushed shot of Saturn earlier this week. Hopefully I’ll have more opportunity next week if the skies stay clear.
LeMon3
‘For the Italophiles on the list, this was my favorite Alfa, a ’74 Spider 2000’
‘I had that one for 15 years or so, until I rolled it :-(
The missus had a little BMW M series at the time.’
‘M series engine with auto gearbox – an absolute slug around town. Over 80km/h it went harder than the spider…
When I rolled the Spider, I got this Gulia instead’
‘It was a cracker – like brand new in the panels (it spent 1970-2006 in the desert). 3 months later, whacked by a taxi and written off…
I still have this little beauty.’
boomengineering
‘Gavin’s economic indicator, worthless unregistered car dumped. No bumps or scratches, just a bird deposit.’
Geoff McVeigh
Sunrise at North Broulee
Ermington Plumbing
‘I almost hit the 32mm gas pipe to the pool heater with the bar yesterday digging down to make a new drainage connection for an outdoor bbq area.
Reggie Bird has made a surprise X-rated admission after making history by winning Big Brother Australia for a second time earlier this month.
In an interview with daily mail australiathe 48-year-old mother-of-two, who is legally blind, shared how her partner of four years Phillip Jade, 41, is her biggest fan and her sex life “has never been better.”
Big Brother’s Reggie Bird has surprised after sharing an X-rated admission about her FIFO boyfriend in the bedroom. Photo: Seven
Being a FIFO worker means they often have to go weeks at a time without seeing each other, which was especially hard during Covid lockdowns.
“He goes away for work, gosh we didn’t see each other for so long during Covid with him working in Western Australia,” she said. “They couldn’t fly in and fly back so he was stuck, but it’s been great.
RELATED
“I am very happy in the bedroom, I’ve never been happier with that side of things.”
She added that Phillip is an “amazing dad” and loves her children Mia, 15, and Lucas, 12, who has cystic fibrosis.
Reggie also has a degenerative eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which has left her legally blind.
Reggie says her partner of four years Phillip Jade, 41, is her biggest fan and her sex life “has never been better”. Photo: Instagram/Phillipruha01
Australians watched in awe as Reggie battled through every challenge on the show, with the reality star telling Yahoo Lifestyle she was honored to be asked back despite her disability.
“I was so proud of myself, and even for Big Brother… Bringing me back regardless of my eyesight, and it was good to be able to get in there and show people that you can do this. You can do anything,” she says.
The star says she was so thankful to have the chance to play Big Brother again, and wouldn’t hesitate to do another season.
Reggie even said before Big Brother Royalty vs New Blood was announced, she had been campaigning for years to do a Big Brother All Stars.
“Chuck me in the Big Brother UK when it comes on, I’d love to do more TV,” she says, adding that she ‘absolutely loves big brother‘.
Reggie is also open to appearing on any reality shows, and rattles off a list that she’s thought about doing.
“I’d love to do Travel Guidesor goggle boxor MasterChef! I love cooking,” she tells us.
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Liverpool struck first blood against Manchester City ahead of the new Premier League season as Darwin Nunez made an instant impact for Jurgen Klopp’s men to win the Community Shield 3-1.
In a tale of two big summer signings, Nunez came off the bench to win a penalty and score his first goal since an $AUD109 million move from Benfica, while Erling Haaland had a City debut to forget.
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Trent Alexander-Arnold’s blistering strike gave Liverpool a deserved halftime lead in Leicester.
But it was City’s other new forward who hauled Pep Guardiola’s men back into the game after the break as Julian Alvarez equalised.
Tying down Mohamed Salah to a new three-year deal was Liverpool’s other major piece of summer business and the Egyptian was deadly from the penalty spot after Nunez’s header was handled by Ruben Dias.
The Uruguayan then got his own glory moment by stooping to head home in stoppage time before tearing off his shirt in celebration.
Victory saw Liverpool win the traditional season curtain-raiser for the first time since 2006 and lay down an early marker in what is expected to be another battle between the sides for the Premier League title.
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City held off the Reds to win the Premier League for a fourth time in five years by a point in a thrilling finale to last season.
Guardiola’s men had to come from 2-0 down on the final day of the campaign to beat Aston Villa and were again guilty of a slow start.
Salah was the provider for the opening goal as he laid Thiago Alcantara’s cross field pass back to the edge of the box and Alexander-Arnold smashed in off the post with the aid of a slight deflection off Dias.
City had played just two pre-season friendlies to Liverpool’s four and took half an hour to find their feet.
Haaland was denied by Liverpool stand-in goalkeeper Adrian with his first sight of goal.
However, the Norwegian should have opened his City account moments later as he failed to properly connect with Joao Cancelo’s inviting cross.
Nunez was given his chance to shine on the hour mark, but fluffed his first big chance when Ederson prevailed in a one-on-one.
Darwin Nunez got on the scoresheet with Liverpool’s third goal. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
At the other end, City’s new South American striker also got his career in England off to a flying start.
Alvarez’s arrival at the Etihad has gone under the radar in the hype surrounding Haaland.
But the Argentine, who scored six goals in one Copa Libertadores match in May, is also regarded as one of the world’s most exciting young forwards.
Alvarez was quickest to react to the rebound after Adrian saved Phil Foden’s initial effort and the goal stood after a VAR review for offside.
It needed another the intervention of VAR once more for Liverpool to restore their lead seven minutes from time.
Referee Craig Pawson pointed to the spot after seeing a replay of Nunez’s header coming back off the arm of Dias.
Salah was deadly as ever from 12 yards as he drilled into the bottom corner despite Ederson going the right way.
Nunez then ended any doubt over the result when he pounced on Andy Robertson’s header across goal.
But City’s miserable day did not end there as Haaland hit the bar with the goal gaping deep in stoppage time to keep the Norwegian superstar waiting to open his account in English football.
The West Australian government will give all public sector workers a 3 per cent annual pay rise, over two years, and a one-off $2,500 payment, in an attempt to offset rising inflation and cost-of-living pressures.
Key points:
More than 150,000 public sector workers will be offered a pay rise and one-off payment
The changes will cost $634 million over the next four years
UnionsWA says a one-off cash payment is no substitute for real base wage increase
Industrial action had been escalating in recent weeks over the West Australian government’s wages policy, with unions urging the state to lift its 2.75 per cent wage cap to reflect the soaring cost of living.
Public service employees who have already accepted the previous agreement — including teachers, doctors and transit guards — will receive the difference and have the one-off $2,500 payment paid to them in the coming weeks.
The new offer also includes a 0.5 per cent superannuation guarantee increase per year, over two years.
Premier Mark McGowan says the wage increase comes after considerable consultation with public sector unions.(ABC News: James Carmody )
Premier Mark McGowan said the government wanted to recognize workers for their efforts during the pandemic.
“We’re going to change our wages policy and make it more generous for our public sector workforce, who are doing a terrific job, particularly over the COVID period,” Mr McGowan said.
“Our base pay rate is more generous than New South Wales’. It’s more generous than Victoria’s and I think it better reflects the expectations of the workforce.
“And, certainly for this year — for the vast majority of the workforce — it’s significantly above the inflation rate.
“We have significant competition for labour. It’s important we have a very vibrant, very successful economy, that we have a well-rewarded workforce, that we resolve these EBA issues, and we get back to the business of service delivery.”
The changes will apply to more than 150,000 public sector workers, with an expected price-tag of $634 million over the coming four years, bringing the total wages bill to $2.54 billion over that period.
Mr McGowan said that while the state government was doing all it could to alleviate cost-of-living pressures, it was also important to protect the state’s finances.
“Maintaining a good budget is very important to ensure that we have enough money to spend on what is important, and we don’t get ourselves into a difficult position and have the credit rating outcomes that other states and territories have had.”
Industrial action has been escalating in recent weeks over the state’s wages policy. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
The state’s Industrial Relations Minister Bill Johnston said the new wage policy offered the “right balance”.
“This is an important adjustment that reflects the changed circumstances that we’ve had since December last year,” he said.
“We’re responding appropriately. We have to protect the interests of the taxpayers, but we also have to be generous to the workforce.”
Many workers going ‘backwards’
UnionsWA has criticized the announcement, saying one-off cash payments are no substitute for real base wage increases.
However, it welcomed what it called the McGowan government’s recognition that its public sector wages policy did not meet the needs of workers in the state.
Unions WA Secretary Owen Whittle says the government announced the offer without genuine bargaining. (ABC News: Jon Sambell)
UnionsWA secretary Owen Whittle said low-wage public sector workers would benefit most, but others much less so.
“For many public sector workers — police, firefighters, child protection workers, prison officers — they’ve been going backwards for five years and this policy will ensure they continue to go backwards,” Mr Whittle said.
“One-off cash payments are not a substitute for real base wage increases for public sector workers.”
Mr Whittle said the announcement was made without consultation with unions.
“This isn’t genuine bargaining. We’re not in the room bargaining these pay increases. The government is just dropping this on us.”
The Australian Nurses Federation is still considering the wages offer, but indicated lowering workloads was as important as any pay rise.
That union’s Mark Olsen said the new offer was still not as good as that of nurses in most other states.
“It still leaves West Australian nurses and midwives as the second-lowest paid in the country, without any transparent regulation of their workloads,” Mr Olsen said.
The ANF’s Mark Olsen says the offer leaves WA nurses as the second lowest paid in Australia. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
Opposition questions long-term wages plan
Western Australia’s Shadow Treasurer, Steve Thomas, labeled the increase “moderately generous”, but said the government should do more to help those who are not in the public sector.
He renewed calls for government fees and charges to be frozen, at a cost of $160 million, which would benefit every West Australian.
Mr McGowan has previously said the current approach — which increases fees and charges at a rate below inflation and gives households a $400 electricity credit — delivers a better result than a freeze.
Dr Thomas wants to see the government go further in giving all West Australians cost of living relief.(ABC News: Keane Bourke)
Dr Thomas also called for a discussion around the state’s wages policy over the longer-term, particularly as the iron ore price corrects, impacting the state’s bottom line.
“I would have liked to see an overall policy for cost of living. That is: a freeze on fees and charges, for at least the 2022-23 financial year,” he said.
“I would have then liked to see [the Premier] reassess the policy in the longer term and, instead of giving a one-off hit in terms of cash, [take] a genuine look at what the government can afford in terms of wage policy.”
The father of a North Carolina pilot, who died after exiting a plane during a mid-flight emergency, said his family is still trying to reckon with what led to the 23-year-old’s death.
Charles Hew Crooks had spent years working toward his dream of becoming a pilot, his father Hew Crooks told NBC affiliate WRAL of Raleigh.
Now, Crooks said his family is left wondering what led to his son’s death.
Charles Hew Crooks.WRAL
“We can’t process it right now,” Crooks told WRAL. “I don’t know.”
The body of Charles Hew Crooks, who was co-piloting the flight, was found in a Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, backyard on Saturday — one day after the incident.
An unidentified family told WRAL that they were home and heard a loud thud in their backyard on Friday. Although they didn’t see anything at the time, police showed up and later found the pilot’s body in the trees of their backyard.
Charles Hew Crooks was not wearing a parachute and it’s unclear why he exited the plane, said Wake County emergency management spokesperson Darshan Patel on Friday. Officials said they believe he either fell or jumped out of the plane.
Charles Hew Crooks was onboard a twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar with another pilot when it took off on Friday. The pilot onboard with Charles Hew Crooks asked to make an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport after having an issue with landing gear, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The plane touched down around 2:40 pm and the pilot sustained minor injuries,
“I can’t imagine what happened,” Crooks told WRAL. “We’ll figure it out, I suppose.”
As authorities tried to piece together what happened, Crooks remembered his son as an avid aviator.
“He pursued his private pilot license while he was in college. I think he got that when he was a sophomore,” Hew Crooks said. “He said a couple weeks ago, he wouldn’t trade places with anybody in the world. He loved where he was.”
Crooks said his son was certified to fly in any condition and had previously been a flight instructor. He said the loss of his son from him has left an irreparable void in the family.
“We’re a strong family and we’re a very loving family. But this, it leaves a hole,” he said.
Kalhan Rosenblatt is a reporter covering youth and internet culture for NBC News, based in New York.
