Kalistan

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Kalistani News in Brief: Count Martin Collins dies in Sulari at 84;
Mankiewicz found guilty of car bombing charges; National Census completed
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
March 5, 5692


Count Martin Collins, father of Her Highness Princess Regent Nicolette Ananto-Collins in Sulari last year

Count Martin Collins dies in Sulari at 84
Her former husband of Her Highness, Princess of the Empire Mary Ananto-DeLaurentis, father of Her Highness the Princess Regent Nicolette Ananto-Collins and former Emperor Fredrick IV Ananto and paternal grandfather of Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto has died of heart failure. He was 84 years old. Collins, originally from Sulari, began his career as a journalist in Kaliburg covering ducal politics in Kalistan proper. He was introduced the Princess Mary at a party where he was covering a society event and the two quickly connected, resulting in their marriage in 5641. He received the title of Count of Sulari County upon his marriage.

The couple had two children but spent much of their time apart, and both ended up developing relationships with other people before privately divorcing. The couple ended up splitting amicably in 5659 after just about 18 years of marriage. Collins returned to his home in Sulari, and eventually married Lady Kelly Douglas of Sulari in 5665, while Princess Mary began her lifelong relationship with Lady Victoria Jensen. While in Sulari, while not administering the County government of Sulari County, Collins returned to writing, and published two books in the sci-fi genre. He also returned to sailing and was often seen in Sulari Bay.

As the title of Count is not a hereditary, it returns to the Duke of Suldanor. Countess Kelly Douglas will be allowed to retain her courtesy title for the remainder of her life, and continues to receive her pension as member of the peerage. The funeral for Count Collins will be held in Sulari this week, and will be attended by Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto, who will take leave from the NSP, Her Highness, the Princess Regent and Her Highness the Princess of the Empire. Services will be held at the Sulari Brethrenist Meetinghouse.

Mankiewicz found guilty of car bombing charges
Karl "Manny" Mankiewicz has been found guilty of four counts of homicide and criminal assault. All charges are class 3a under the Justice Reform Act and each carry with them a term on Kings' Rock in the Ananto Strait, the most serious being the 2nd degree murder Miguel Buckingham. "Buckingham can expect to spend a significant portion of the rest of his life on Kings' Rock, where he will be expected to contribute to the colony," said Sulari prosecutor Marcia Young, who was part of the prosecution team that won the case. "Mankiewicz' lack of remorse during his trial will likely weigh heavily in the determination of his sentence, which still has to be set."

Makiewicz' legal team said they intend to file an appeal of the decision. "The findings in the case were completely unsupported. There were no direct witnesses, and my client maintained his innocence the entire time. He is a veteran and served this Empire, so why would he attempt to kill the Justice Minister. The State was obviously out to get someone, they happened to target my client." The lead counsel for Mankiewicz says they intend to file the appeal by the end of the week.

Police Captain Alberto Zarate said, "We got the right guy. We brought in unimpeachable evidence, unimpeachable witnesses, and an unimpeachable theory of the case, and in the end the Jury was unanimous. Mr. Mankiewicz was found guilty and so he is guilty, and he can file all the appeals he wants, but it will not reverse that fact." Zarate is hoping that Mankiewicz will start giving up names of associates in the hopes of receiving a lighter penalty, and said the State would be willing to consider a lighter sentence overall if Mankiewicz provides information on those who he was working with and more importantly for.

National Census completed
The Kalistani National Census, which has been quietly underway for the last year has finally been released. The National Population has decreased from 99 million to just under 93.9 million. "The old numbers we have been working with were old estimates that relied on a set of assumptions that were entirely out of our control," said Census Director Mark Hengstrom, of Her Imperial Majesty's Ministry of the Interior, who oversaw the count. "This time we actually conducted the survey on the free city and county level, with county officials fanning out across their jurisdictions to take a formal count based on property records. We also compared our information against Imperial tax records as a check, and actually corrected down a bit to take care of overcounts. We think these numbers are accurate with about a 99.95% confidence."

Hengstrom said that the new numbers gives the Empire a better understanding about where Duchies and Cities stand in relation to one another. "Suldanor is, as we anticipated, the most populated duchy in the Empire, with 33.2 million, followed by Vrassa with 19.8 million, Ananto with 18.2 million, Odufaray with 13.2 million, and Nevaras with 9.3 million." Hengstrom also talked about cities: "Sulari itself has almost as many people as Odufaray and more than Nevaras: There are 11.6 million who call Sulari Metro home. Kaliburg/Port Davon comes in second with 6.8 million, and Port Swedes comes in third with 3.7 million."

More interestingly, from the point of view from the National Government is the urbanization statistics. "We had previously been under the impression that 70 percent of the Empire's population lived in the free Cities, which meant that the majority of the population lived under democratic local governments. But our census shows us that this number is way off. We have an urbanization rate of only 61.94% and only about half that number, or just under 30%, lives within Free City jurisdiction, which means a couple things. The Land Reform laws to encourage Kalistanis to settle rural areas was successful, but also, this may lead to more pressure to extend the popular local government acts and popular housing, education and medicine reforms to larger towns outside the free cities."

Some other interesting statistics confirmed what many knew, especially on the low end: "Neveras has long been thought to be the least populated Duchy and sure enough, it has less than 1/3rd the population that Suldanor has. Green County in Ananto is the least populated County in the nation, followed by Lhasa County Nevaras, Funk County Vrassa and Eveari County in Ananto. 40% of Ananto's population lives in Kaliburg/Port Davon." Hengstrom said the numbers are fascinating when drilling down on population trends and certainly have policy implications that the National Government and Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress Carolina II Ananto will be working with for years.

@TheRepublic