By JAKE COYLE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Martin Scorsese is a producing a documentary made with Pope Francis that will chronicle the late pontiff’s work with cinema in the global educational movement he founded before his death.

“Aldeas — A New Story” will feature conversations between Pope Francis and Scorsese, including what the filmmakers say are the Pope’s final in-depth on-camera interviews for a film. The documentary will detail the work of Scholas Occurrentes, a nonprofit, international organization founded by the Pope in 2013 to promote the “Culture of Encounter” among youth.

This image released by Vatican Media shows Martin Scorsese, left, and Pope Francis. “Aldeas–A New Story” is a new feature-length documentary and global cultural project developed by Scholas Occurrentes, the global educational movement founded by Pope Francis, in collaboration with Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese. (Vatican Media via AP)

Part of that organization’s work has included filmmaking under the Aldeas initiative. The documentary will show young people in Indonesia, Italy and the Gambia participating in Aldeas and making short films. Aldeas Scholas Film and Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions, which announced the documentary Wednesday, said the film is “a testament to the enduring belief that creativity is not only a means of expression but a path to hope and transformation.”

Before his death, Pope Francis called Aldeas “an extremely poetic and very constructive project because it goes to the roots of what human life is, human sociability, human conflicts … the essence of a life’s journey.”

No release date was announced for the film.

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“Now, more than ever, we need to talk to each other, listen to one another cross-culturally,” Scorsese said in a statement. “One of the best ways to accomplish this is by sharing the stories of who we are, reflected from our personal lives and experiences. It helps us understand and value how each of us sees the world. It was important to Pope Francis for people across the globe to exchange ideas with respect while also preserving their cultural identity, and cinema is the best medium to do that.”

Scorsese met numerous times with Pope Francis over the years, and their conversations sometimes informed work undertaken by the 82-year-old filmmaker of “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Silence.” After meeting with Pope Francis in 2023, Scorsese announced that he would made another film centered on Jesus, though that project — an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s “A Life of Jesus” — hasn’t yet gone into production. Last fall, Scorsese produced an eight-part docudrama series for Fox Nation called “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints.”

Francis died on April 21 and a conclave to elect a new pope is scheduled to begin on May 7.

The senior senator from Wisconsin, Republican Ron Johnson, is posing fresh questions about the deadliest attack on the United States in history, feeding into paranoid and dangerous conspiracy theories. Johnson asks as though they’re open questions: “What actually happened on 9/11? What do we know? What is being covered up?”

In an interview we’re loath to amplify, Johnson asserts that an investigation of World Trade Center Building 7 was “corrupt” and suggested its collapse was the result of a “controlled demolition.” He expresses the desire to hold Senate hearings on the topic.

We get that it’s high time in our history for conspiracy theorists to peddle nonsense, like Health Secretary Bobby Kennedy does, but as people who had friends and colleagues perish on that day, and following on editorials in this space that won a Pulitzer Prize for championing the very real health crisis faced by first responders who worked The Pile in the days and weeks after the attacks, we take this particular set of lies a bit personally.

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are probably the most extensively studied events in the history of this nation. A joint congressional inquiry held 22 hearings, reviewing a half-million pages of documents, interviewing 300 individuals — and producing an 800-page report.

An independent commission to investigate the attacks held 19 days of public hearings, reviewed 2.5 million pages of documents, interviewed more than 1,200 people in 10 different countries and produced a 567-page document.

Many other hearings by congressional Judiciary, Armed Services and Homeland Security committees went into great depth about precisely what happened and how to close vulnerabilities.

What happened, which Johnson can learn if he cares to read one of those reports or one of the dozens of books written by credible independent journalists, or visit the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan, is: 19 Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked airplanes and turned them into weapons against the twin towers and the Pentagon. They intended to train another plane at the U.S. Capitol, but that one was brought down by courageous passengers in a field in Pennsylvania. All told, the attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, the vast majority of whom were in New York City.

And the toll of those killed in the panic and chaos of that dark day has now likely been surpassed by the toll of firefighters, construction workers, cops and others who engaged in rescue and recovery efforts amid the smoldering wreckage, even as thousands more continue to struggle with lung diseases, cancers and other terminal conditions.

It is salt in the wounds of those actually harmed by 9/11 that a man like Johnson, who can find the time and energy for corrosive conspiracy-mongering, is nowhere to be found as Sens. Chuck Schumer, Kristen Gillibrand and a broad coalition of House members seek to secure full federal funding for the World Trade Center Health Program for these heroes.

In other contexts, Johnson has said, “When I think of Sept. 11th I think of firefighters, first responders, police walking up the stairs into danger to save others. In these tragedies we always seem to see and witness the absolute best of humanity and the American character.” In his latest words and actions, we see and witness the absolute worst of both.

— The New York Daily News

Although one Minnesota highway is getting an increased speed limit starting Thursday, those with a lead foot beware: it’s only an extra five miles per hour.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is increasing the speed limit on a stretch of Minnesota 62 by five miles per hour following an engineering and traffic investigation, according to a notice from the city of Mendota Heights.

The increase, which affects Minnesota 62 from the junction with Minnesota 55 to the junction with Interstate 494, was authorized by the Commissioner of Transportation and starts when new speed limit signs are installed May 1.

The traffic study took into account factors like location, type of access points, crash history, traffic volume, sight distances and road types.

Nearly 19 miles long, Minnesota 62 runs east and west through Hennepin and Dakota County cities including Eden Prairie, Edina, Richfield, Minneapolis, Mendota Heights and Inver Grove Heights.

The increased speed limit coincides with extra law enforcement taking to the streets from May 1 to Sept. 2 to curb speeding and other dangerous driving during the summer travel season.

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While lawmakers are still hammering out the details, the latest state budget is likely to include $50 million to create the long-sought Housing Access Voucher Program, which would help people experiencing or at risk of homelessness afford rent.

Tenant organizers with the Housing Justice for All Coalition rallying at the Capitol building in 2024. The Housing Access Voucher Program has been a priority for advocates for the last several years. (Chris Janaro/City Limits)

A state budget deal is near, and it’s expected to include money to kickstart a long-sought rental voucher program—though with less funding than supporters hoped for.

More than three weeks after their budget deadline, state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday announced they’d reached an agreement on New York’s next spending plan.

And while details are still being hammered out, it’s likely to include $50 million to establish the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP), a rental subsidy for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, City & State first reported.

Modeled off the federal Section 8 housing voucher, both tenant and landlord groups have embraced the HAVP proposal as a means to address rising homelessness amid a statewide housing shortage.

“If we get this done, it’ll be a very big victory for tenants and for anyone who cares about the stability of our housing stock, for property owners who want to do the right thing and house people who might otherwise struggle to pay their rent, for communities where they know that people are losing their homes,” said State Sen. Brian Kavanagh, who co-sponsored a bill to create HAVP each legislative session for the last five years.

Gov. Hochul had long resisted the proposal, and previously cited concerns about costs, something she reiterated in an exchange with reporters earlier this week.

“This is something that we’re looking to initiate for the first time here, moderating the cost and keeping an eye on the program because this has potential to escalate a great deal,” Hochul said. “But it’s something I thought was important, the leaders of the Legislature thought was important.”

The $50 million price tag currently on the table is far less than the $250 million a year that the State Senate and Assembly called for in their own budget proposals.

“It really should have been more. [But] I’m glad we have our foot in the door to establish a program. So that’s exciting after years of advocacy,” Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, the bill’s other sponsor, told City Limits.

“It does need to be funded at a much higher rate, so we’re going to keep fighting for that,” she added. “When all the federal cuts come down to Section 8 and all sorts of other housing help, you know we will need HAVP more than ever.”

Kavanagh said $50 million could “get a pretty substantial program going,” and provide roughly 4,000 households with vouchers for a year.

“How the numbers play out is something we’re still working out,” he said. “But again, what has happened this week is—this is the first time in the five years we’ve been having this conversation that a governor has publicly said that she supports spending money on this purpose, and I think that is a big step forward.”

The Legislature still has to print and vote on the final budget bills, and things are in flux. Lawmakers are negotiating how much capital money to allocate for housing construction and preservation, maintenance at NYCHA and Mitchell-Lama developments, and for programs to support tenants and homeowners, according to Kavanagh, who chairs the Senate’s Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development.

“Those conversations are still happening,” he said Wednesday.

“It is a difficult time with what’s going on at the federal level, within the economy,” he added, “but this budget stands to be very good budget from the perspective of housing, if we get HAVP done, if we get these capital programs properly funded.”

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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