More than 900 people died in Jonestown. Guyana wants to turn it into a tourist attraction
- By cigaretteman
- Off Topic
- 2 Replies
Guyana is revisiting a dark history nearly half a century after U.S. Rev. Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers died in the rural interior of the South American country.
It was the largest suicide-murder in recent history, and a government-backed tour operator wants to open the former commune now shrouded by lush vegetation to visitors, a proposal that is reopening old wounds, with critics saying it would disrespect victims and dig up a sordid past.
Jordan Vilchez, who grew up in California and was moved into the Peoples Temple commune at age 14, said in a phone interview from the U.S. that she has mixed feelings about the tour.
Jordan Vilchez, who grew up in California and was moved into the Peoples Temple Guyana commune at age 14, is shown in Richmond, Calif., on Nov. 5, 2018. She said recently that Guyana has every right to profit from any plans related to Jonestown, "… but I just feel like any situation where people were manipulated into their deaths should be treated with respect."
Jeff Chiu, Associated Press
She was in Guyana's capital the day Jones ordered hundreds of his followers to drink a poisoned grape-flavored drink that was given to children first. Her two sisters and two nephews were among the victims.
"I just missed dying by one day," she said.
Vilchez, 67, said Guyana has every right to profit from any plans related to Jonestown.
"Then on the other hand, I just feel like any situation where people were manipulated into their deaths should be treated with respect," she said.
Vilchez said she hopes the tour operator would provide context and explain why so many people went to Guyana trusting they would find a better life.
The tour would ferry visitors to the far-flung village of Port Kaituma nestled in the lush jungles of northern Guyana. It's a trip possible only by boat, helicopter or plane; rivers instead of roads connect Guyana's interior. Once there, it's another 6 miles via a rough and overgrown dirt trail to the abandoned commune and former agricultural settlement.
The Peoples Temple compound is shown in November 1978 after the bodies of the Rev. Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers were removed.
Associated Press
Neville Bissember, a law professor at the University of Guyana, questioned the proposed tour, calling it a "ghoulish and bizarre" idea in a recently published letter.
"What part of Guyana's nature and culture is represented in a place where death by mass suicide and other atrocities and human rights violations were perpetuated against a submissive group of American citizens, which had nothing to do with Guyana nor Guyanese?" he wrote.
Despite ongoing criticism, the tour has strong support from the government's Tourism Authority and Guyana's Tourism and Hospitality Association.
Tourism Minister Oneidge Walrond said the government is backing the effort at Jonestown but is aware "of some level of push back" from certain sectors of society.
U.S. military personnel place bodies in coffins at the airport in Georgetown, Guyana, after collecting the remains of more than 900 members of the People's Temple who committed suicide in Jonestown, Guyana on Nov. 18, 1978.
Associated Press
She said the government already helped clear the area "to ensure a better product can be marketed," adding that the tour might need Cabinet approval.
"It certainly has my support," she said. "It is possible. After all, we have seen what Rwanda has done with that awful tragedy, as an example."
Rose Sewcharran, director of Wonderlust Adventures, the private tour operator who plans to take visitors to Jonestown, said she was buoyed by the support.
"We think it is about time," she said. "This happens all over the world. We have multiple examples of dark, morbid tourism around the world, including Auschwitz and the Holocaust museum."
nonpareilonline.com
It was the largest suicide-murder in recent history, and a government-backed tour operator wants to open the former commune now shrouded by lush vegetation to visitors, a proposal that is reopening old wounds, with critics saying it would disrespect victims and dig up a sordid past.
Jordan Vilchez, who grew up in California and was moved into the Peoples Temple commune at age 14, said in a phone interview from the U.S. that she has mixed feelings about the tour.
Jordan Vilchez, who grew up in California and was moved into the Peoples Temple Guyana commune at age 14, is shown in Richmond, Calif., on Nov. 5, 2018. She said recently that Guyana has every right to profit from any plans related to Jonestown, "… but I just feel like any situation where people were manipulated into their deaths should be treated with respect."
Jeff Chiu, Associated Press
She was in Guyana's capital the day Jones ordered hundreds of his followers to drink a poisoned grape-flavored drink that was given to children first. Her two sisters and two nephews were among the victims.
"I just missed dying by one day," she said.
Vilchez, 67, said Guyana has every right to profit from any plans related to Jonestown.
"Then on the other hand, I just feel like any situation where people were manipulated into their deaths should be treated with respect," she said.
Vilchez said she hopes the tour operator would provide context and explain why so many people went to Guyana trusting they would find a better life.
The tour would ferry visitors to the far-flung village of Port Kaituma nestled in the lush jungles of northern Guyana. It's a trip possible only by boat, helicopter or plane; rivers instead of roads connect Guyana's interior. Once there, it's another 6 miles via a rough and overgrown dirt trail to the abandoned commune and former agricultural settlement.
The Peoples Temple compound is shown in November 1978 after the bodies of the Rev. Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers were removed.
Associated Press
Neville Bissember, a law professor at the University of Guyana, questioned the proposed tour, calling it a "ghoulish and bizarre" idea in a recently published letter.
"What part of Guyana's nature and culture is represented in a place where death by mass suicide and other atrocities and human rights violations were perpetuated against a submissive group of American citizens, which had nothing to do with Guyana nor Guyanese?" he wrote.
Despite ongoing criticism, the tour has strong support from the government's Tourism Authority and Guyana's Tourism and Hospitality Association.
Tourism Minister Oneidge Walrond said the government is backing the effort at Jonestown but is aware "of some level of push back" from certain sectors of society.
U.S. military personnel place bodies in coffins at the airport in Georgetown, Guyana, after collecting the remains of more than 900 members of the People's Temple who committed suicide in Jonestown, Guyana on Nov. 18, 1978.
Associated Press
She said the government already helped clear the area "to ensure a better product can be marketed," adding that the tour might need Cabinet approval.
"It certainly has my support," she said. "It is possible. After all, we have seen what Rwanda has done with that awful tragedy, as an example."
Rose Sewcharran, director of Wonderlust Adventures, the private tour operator who plans to take visitors to Jonestown, said she was buoyed by the support.
"We think it is about time," she said. "This happens all over the world. We have multiple examples of dark, morbid tourism around the world, including Auschwitz and the Holocaust museum."
More than 900 people died in Jonestown. Guyana wants to turn it into a tourist attraction
Guyana is revisiting a dark history nearly half a century after Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers died in the rural interior of the South American country.
3 Eastern Iowa fishermen drown in Mississippi River
- By cigaretteman
- Off Topic
- 13 Replies
Three Eastern Iowans drowned Sunday when strong water currents pulled their fishing boat on the Mississippi River too close to a dam and capsized it, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The department identified the three Monday as Mitchell Thomson, 30, of Stanwood; Nicholas Thomson, 40, of Tipton; and Kirk Stout Sr., 61, of Marion.
They had been fishing in a restricted area close to a lock and dam near Jackson County’s Bellevue about 11 a.m. when witnesses saw their 20-feet-long, flat-bottom boat fill with water and overturn.
Some attempted to rescue the men, who were not wearing life jackets.
"Several of them raced up there, but what can you do without putting yourself in some serious danger?" asked Lucas Dever, an Iowa DNR conservation officer who responded to the incident.
The witnesses were able to pull one person from the water who had floated away from the dam, Dever said. Emergency responders retrieved the other two after they floated downstream.
Two of the men were determined to have died in the water. Another was taken by ambulance to a Dubuque hospital, where he died.
ADVERTISING
The Mississippi River has a series of more than two dozen dams that create a staircase of water. At each dam site, there is a lock that acts as an elevator for boat traffic, raising the vessels up a step when traveling north or down a step when going south.
There are safety signs and lights that warn smaller fishing boats from getting too close, and those areas are off-limits for fishing, Dever said.
"Anytime being around the dams, it's important to have your life jackets on and to stay out of the restricted areas, because of the heavy, dangerous currents," he said.
www.thegazette.com
The department identified the three Monday as Mitchell Thomson, 30, of Stanwood; Nicholas Thomson, 40, of Tipton; and Kirk Stout Sr., 61, of Marion.
They had been fishing in a restricted area close to a lock and dam near Jackson County’s Bellevue about 11 a.m. when witnesses saw their 20-feet-long, flat-bottom boat fill with water and overturn.
Some attempted to rescue the men, who were not wearing life jackets.
"Several of them raced up there, but what can you do without putting yourself in some serious danger?" asked Lucas Dever, an Iowa DNR conservation officer who responded to the incident.
The witnesses were able to pull one person from the water who had floated away from the dam, Dever said. Emergency responders retrieved the other two after they floated downstream.
Two of the men were determined to have died in the water. Another was taken by ambulance to a Dubuque hospital, where he died.
ADVERTISING
The Mississippi River has a series of more than two dozen dams that create a staircase of water. At each dam site, there is a lock that acts as an elevator for boat traffic, raising the vessels up a step when traveling north or down a step when going south.
There are safety signs and lights that warn smaller fishing boats from getting too close, and those areas are off-limits for fishing, Dever said.
"Anytime being around the dams, it's important to have your life jackets on and to stay out of the restricted areas, because of the heavy, dangerous currents," he said.
3 Eastern Iowa fishermen drown in Mississippi River
They were residents of Marion, Stanwood and Tipton and were fishing Sunday too close to a dam near Bellevue.
www.thegazette.com
Marine veteran to be charged by Manhattan DA in Jordan Neely subway chokehold death
- Off Topic
- 117 Replies
Marine veteran to be charged by Manhattan DA in Jordan Neely subway chokehold death
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is charging Marine veteran Daniel Penny with manslaughter in the second degree in the NYC subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely.
Potential Remaining 2025 Recruiting Class Targets
- By Eliot Clough
- The Press Box
- 0 Replies
On Wednesday, Tyler Barnes shared that Iowa "may or may not" add one or two more players to their 2025 recruiting class.
We break down which positions and which prospects the Hawkeyes will likely target before the class is wrapped up.
STORY:
iowa.rivals.com
We break down which positions and which prospects the Hawkeyes will likely target before the class is wrapped up.
STORY:
Potential Remaining 2025 Recruiting Class Targets
Iowa "may or may not" add more recruits to their 2025 class. Breaking down what positions and prospects they'd target.
Elon Musk warns Republicans against standing in Trump’s way — or his
- By cigaretteman
- Off Topic
- 9 Replies
POS:
A week after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, Elon Musk said his political action committee would “play a significant role in primaries.”
The following week, the billionaire responded to a report that he might fund challengers to GOP House members who don’t support Trump’s nominees. “How else? There is no other way,” Musk wrote on X, which he rebranded after purchasing Twitter and moving to boost conservative voices, including his own.
And during his recent visit to Capitol Hill, Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy delivered a warning to Republicans who don’t go along with their plans to slash spending as part of Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency.
“Elon and Vivek talked about having a naughty list and a nice list for members of Congress and senators and how we vote and how we’re spending the American people’s money,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
Trump’s second term comes with the specter of the world’s richest man serving as his political enforcer. Within Trump’s team, there is a feeling that Musk not only supports Trump’s agenda and Cabinet appointments, but is intent on seeing them through to the point of pressuring Republicans who may be less devout.
One Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal political dynamics, noted Musk had come to enjoy his role on the campaign and that he clearly had the resources to stay involved.
The adviser and others noted that Musk’s role is still taking shape. And Musk, once a supporter of President Barack Obama before moving to the right in recent years, is famously mercurial.
“I think he was really important for this election. Purchasing Twitter, truly making it a free speech platform, I think, was integral to this election, to the win that Donald Trump had,” said departing Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law. “But I don’t know that ultimately he wants to be in politics. I think he considers himself to be someone on the outside.”
During the presidential campaign, Musk contributed roughly $200 million to America PAC, a super PAC aimed at reaching Trump voters online and in person in the seven most competitive states, which Trump swept. He also invested $20 million in a group called RBG PAC, which ran ads arguing Trump would not sign a national abortion ban even as the former president nominated three of the justices who overturned a federally guaranteed right to the procedure.
Musk’s donation to RBG PAC — a name that invokes the initials of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of abortion rights — wasn’t revealed until post-election campaign filings were made public Thursday.
Musk has said he hopes to keep America PAC funded and operating. Beyond that, he has used his X megaphone to suggest he is at least open to challenging less exuberant Trump supporters in Congress.
Another key Trump campaign ally has been more aggressive online. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, whose group Turning Point Action also worked to turn out voters for Trump, named Republican senators he wants to target.
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“This is not a joke, everybody. The funding is already being put together. Donors are calling like crazy. Primaries are going to be launched,” Kirk said on his podcast, singling out Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Jim Risch of Idaho, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Thom Tillis of North Carolina as potential targets. All four Republican senators’ seats are up in 2026.
For now, Musk has been enjoying the glow of his latest conquest, joining Trump for high-level meetings and galas at the soon-to-be president’s Mar-a-Lago resort home in Palm Beach, Florida. The incoming administration is seeded with Musk allies, including venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks serving as the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar” and Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Musk’s SpaceX, named to lead NASA.
Musk could help reinforce Trump’s agenda immediately, some GOP strategists said, by using America PAC to pressure key Republicans. Likewise, Musk could begin targeting moderate Democrats in pivotal states and districts this spring, urging them to break with their party on key issues, Republican strategist Chris Pack said.
“Instead of using his influence to twist GOP arms when you have majorities in both houses, he could start going after Democrats who vote against Trump’s agenda in states where the election was a referendum for Trump,” said Pack, former communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Otherwise, if you pressure Republicans with a primary, you can end up with a Republican who can’t win, and then a Democrat in that seat.”
www.chicagotribune.com
A week after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, Elon Musk said his political action committee would “play a significant role in primaries.”
The following week, the billionaire responded to a report that he might fund challengers to GOP House members who don’t support Trump’s nominees. “How else? There is no other way,” Musk wrote on X, which he rebranded after purchasing Twitter and moving to boost conservative voices, including his own.
And during his recent visit to Capitol Hill, Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy delivered a warning to Republicans who don’t go along with their plans to slash spending as part of Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency.
“Elon and Vivek talked about having a naughty list and a nice list for members of Congress and senators and how we vote and how we’re spending the American people’s money,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
Trump’s second term comes with the specter of the world’s richest man serving as his political enforcer. Within Trump’s team, there is a feeling that Musk not only supports Trump’s agenda and Cabinet appointments, but is intent on seeing them through to the point of pressuring Republicans who may be less devout.
One Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal political dynamics, noted Musk had come to enjoy his role on the campaign and that he clearly had the resources to stay involved.
The adviser and others noted that Musk’s role is still taking shape. And Musk, once a supporter of President Barack Obama before moving to the right in recent years, is famously mercurial.
“I think he was really important for this election. Purchasing Twitter, truly making it a free speech platform, I think, was integral to this election, to the win that Donald Trump had,” said departing Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law. “But I don’t know that ultimately he wants to be in politics. I think he considers himself to be someone on the outside.”
During the presidential campaign, Musk contributed roughly $200 million to America PAC, a super PAC aimed at reaching Trump voters online and in person in the seven most competitive states, which Trump swept. He also invested $20 million in a group called RBG PAC, which ran ads arguing Trump would not sign a national abortion ban even as the former president nominated three of the justices who overturned a federally guaranteed right to the procedure.
Musk’s donation to RBG PAC — a name that invokes the initials of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of abortion rights — wasn’t revealed until post-election campaign filings were made public Thursday.
Musk has said he hopes to keep America PAC funded and operating. Beyond that, he has used his X megaphone to suggest he is at least open to challenging less exuberant Trump supporters in Congress.
Another key Trump campaign ally has been more aggressive online. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, whose group Turning Point Action also worked to turn out voters for Trump, named Republican senators he wants to target.
Sign up for the Spin: Your essential take on local politics.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and to receive emails from Chicago Tribune.
“This is not a joke, everybody. The funding is already being put together. Donors are calling like crazy. Primaries are going to be launched,” Kirk said on his podcast, singling out Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Jim Risch of Idaho, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Thom Tillis of North Carolina as potential targets. All four Republican senators’ seats are up in 2026.
For now, Musk has been enjoying the glow of his latest conquest, joining Trump for high-level meetings and galas at the soon-to-be president’s Mar-a-Lago resort home in Palm Beach, Florida. The incoming administration is seeded with Musk allies, including venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks serving as the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar” and Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Musk’s SpaceX, named to lead NASA.
Musk could help reinforce Trump’s agenda immediately, some GOP strategists said, by using America PAC to pressure key Republicans. Likewise, Musk could begin targeting moderate Democrats in pivotal states and districts this spring, urging them to break with their party on key issues, Republican strategist Chris Pack said.
“Instead of using his influence to twist GOP arms when you have majorities in both houses, he could start going after Democrats who vote against Trump’s agenda in states where the election was a referendum for Trump,” said Pack, former communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Otherwise, if you pressure Republicans with a primary, you can end up with a Republican who can’t win, and then a Democrat in that seat.”
Elon Musk warns Republicans against standing in Trump’s way — or his
A week after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, Elon Musk said his political action committee would “play a significant role in primaries.”
www.chicagotribune.com
