In news media, ‘terrorist’ a term used cautiously

What do you call a couple who espouse an extremist, anti-government ideology and kill two policemen and a bystander while draping one of their victims in a flag associated with a political movement After this weekend’s shooting spree perpetrated by just such a couple in Las Vegas, many in the media declined to use one potential label: terrorists. Jerad and Amanda Miller, the young Nevada couple who fatally shot three people before killing themselves, were enamoured of a right-wing, conspiratorial view of federal authority, according to law enforcement officials.

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Jeezus! Kanye West pitched as Chicago mayor

Who can question the leadership qualities of a man who thinks the Kardashians are “the most remarkable people of our time” Nuptials aside, Kanye West is being pitched as a runner for Mayor of Chicago in a campaign by artist and writer Ben Shepard – who claims the lyrics of West makes him the ideal candidate. As the Kimye hysteria continues after last weekend’s wedding in Florence, Shepard is suggesting lunatic egomaniac West, who grew up in the city’s South Side, step up to replace the current mayor, Rahm Emanuel.

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Spells like teen spirit

Childhood taboos, the power of embarrassment and some very unusual words are featured in a musical being staged at Hamilton’s Riverlea Theatre. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is described as an examination of six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves.

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Peppa Pig, the meat in political cuts

OPINION: If Australians are to fix their structural deficit, every citizen must be prepared to suffer hardship: this we all accept. But it is a very sad day indeed when Peppa Pig, a porcine cartoon beloved by every thinking and feeling three-year-old across the country, is thrown on the fiscal bonfire to burn, like a scrap of surplus bacon, as a sacrifice to the god of national prosperity.

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