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Future infrastructure funding to require climate change be taken into account

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s new national climate adaptation strategy will tie future federal infrastructure transfers to the provinces to projects that incorporate adaptation efforts starting next year.By 2025, provinces and territories will also have to build climate resilience into recovery efforts to get federal help after a disaster.The strategy was finalized Tuesday, at a time when most Canadians have already directly experienced the changing weather patterns of global warming.“We all recognize Canada is not ready to face the impacts of climate change,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said as he presented the final strategy at a news conference in Vancouver.He said while Canada must do more to slow climate change by cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, it also must accept that we need to adapt our lives to the changes that have already happened. The costs to people and the economy are already steep.In 2021, severe weather caused $2.1 billion in insured damag...

Share of US employees working on-site drops from 84% to 74% in pandemic’s first year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

Workers in the fields of computer science, real estate, finance and insurance experienced the greatest bumps in working from home during the first years of the pandemic, while it barely budged for laborers in occupations like stockers, truck operators and order fillers, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.The share of employees working on-site in computer and mathematical jobs went from 60% in 2019 to 30% in 2021, and it went from 67% to 43% for workers in insurance, finance and real estate jobs, according to figures from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).On the flip side, it went from 97% to 96% for workers in what are called “material moving occupations,” such as laborers, truck drivers and machine operators.Looking at all U.S. jobs, the share of employees working on-site dropped from 84% to 74%, the survey said.Meanwhile, the share of workers in hybrid jobs, that is those spending some days on-site and other days at home, increased f...

Maple Leafs’ Treliving confirms Sheldon Keefe will remain as head coach

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

Speaking to reporters in Nashville ahead of the NHL Draft on Wednesday and Thursday, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager, Brad Treliving, confirmed Sheldon Keefe would return next year to guide the Buds. “Sheldon will be back,” Treliving said. Treliving, of course, has only been the Leafs GM since former GM Kyle Dubas and the organization parted ways in May following Toronto’s second-round loss to the Florida Panthers. Given the guy who hired him — Dubas — is no longer at the helm, to say nothing of the fact Keefe is on a contract that expires at this time next year and has one playoff series win in five attempts with Toronto, there was plenty of speculation that a new executive may want his own guy behind the bench in an attempt to find a winning formula. Not so. Treliving indicated he had really never crossed paths with Keefe before the former took his new job. That changed during an intense period of meetings that took place over a few days. The result of that was Treliving being...

Prosecutors want to dismiss some charges for former Atlanta official in corruption case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal prosecutors plan to ask a judge to dismiss convictions for wire fraud and to resentence a former high-ranking Atlanta city official who is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence stemming from an investigation into corruption at City Hall, according to a court filing.Mitzi Bickers, who served as director of human services under former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and who also worked as a pastor and political operative, was convicted on multiple charges last year. At her sentencing in September, U.S. District Steve Jones said the evidence in the case showed that she was involved in “a deliberate, calculated plan to cheat” Atlanta taxpayers.Bickers has asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse her conviction and send the case back to the lower court for a new trial. In a filing with the appeals court Friday, prosecutors rejected most of Bickers’ arguments, but they did ask that the case be sent back to Jones for dismissal of four wire fraud c...

Billions are being spent to turn the tide on the US West’s wildfires. It won’t be enough

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Using chainsaws, heavy machinery and controlled burns, the Biden administration is trying to turn the tide on worsening wildfires in the U.S. West through a multi-billion dollar cleanup of forests choked with dead trees and undergrowth.Yet one year into what’s envisioned as a decade-long effort, federal land managers are scrambling to catch up after falling behind on several of their priority forests for thinning even as they exceeded goals elsewhere. And they’ve skipped over some highly at-risk communities to work in less threatened areas, according to data obtained by The Associated Press, public records and Congressional testimony.With climate change making the situation increasingly dire, mixed early results from the administration’s initiative underscore the challenge of reversing decades of lax forest management and aggressive fire suppression that allowed many woodlands to become tinderboxes. The ambitious effort comes amid pushback from...

Maine Senate joins House in supporting greater access to abortions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Senate voted to expand abortion access Tuesday following an emotional debate, advancing a proposal that would give the state one of the least restrictive abortion laws in the country.The 21-13 vote lacked the 11th-hour hustle to ensure support that happened before the bill was narrowly approved late last week in the House. Two more votes were needed, one in the House and one in the Senate, to enact the bill.Demonstrators opposed to the bill later sang hymns, held signs and chanted “kill the bill!” in the hallways.Current state law bans abortions after a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks, unless a mother’s life is at risk. The bill would allow abortions any time before birth if deemed medically necessary by a doctor. Supporters said the change was necessary in heartbreakingly rare circumstances when fatal anomalies are discovered later in a pregnancy.“How do we legislate the unimaginable?” said Sen. Jill Dusan, D-Portland. “We ...

Bluegrass musician who helped popularize song ‘Rocky Top’ dies at 91

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

HAZARD, Ky. (AP) — Bluegrass musician Bobby Osborne, who helped popularize the song “Rocky Top,” died early Tuesday, according to a statement from the college where he worked. He was 91.Osborne and his brother Sonny made up “The Osborne Brothers,” and their version of the song “Rocky Top” in 1967 became an official state song of Tennessee, his website said. Osborne was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. A native of Hyden, Kentucky, Osborne taught at the Hazard Community and Technical College’s Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music in Leslie County for several years. In January, he received the Governor’s Awards in the Arts for his dedication to sharing Kentucky’s rich history in the arts around the world.Osborne was still performing and teaching last year when he told WYMT-TV that “as long as I can open my mouth and sing, I ain’t going to quit.”Hazard Community and Technical College President Jennifer Lin...

Surveillance video captures man setting SUV on fire in Richmond Hill arson

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

York Regional Police are searching for a man after home video surveillance footage captured a suspect dousing an SUV with gasoline and setting it on fire.Investigators were called to a home on Estoril Street in the Berwick Crescent and 16th Avenue area in Richmond Hill around 1:15 a.m. on June 10 for reports of a fire.York Regional Police said three women were asleep in the home when one of them heard noises coming from outside. When she opened the garage door, she saw her silver Subaru Crosstrek engulfed in flames in the driveway.Fire crews arrived at the home to extinguish the vehicle car, and no injuries were reported. Video surveillance showed a lone male suspect pouring liquid over the vehicle before setting it alight and running northbound on Estoril Street.The suspect is described as having a medium build and was last seen wearing a hooded jacket or vest with different-coloured long sleeves, dark-coloured pants and white running shoes.York Regional Police no...

US sanctions gold firms connected to Russian Wagner mercenary group

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four firms and one individual connected to the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenaries that led a brief revolt against the Kremlin last week. The sanctions from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted entities in the Central African Republic, the United Arab Emirates and Russia that were connected to the Wagner Group and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.The sanctions are not directly related to last week’s uprising. The U.S. has previously issued sanctions against Prigozhin and the Wagner Group multiple times, including alleging that he tried to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election.Diamville SAU and Midas Ressources SARLU, two mining firms based in the Central African Republic and connected to Prigozhin, were targeted for sanctions, along with Russia-based Limited Liability Company DM, which conducted gold sales, and Dubai-based Industrial Resources General Trading, which provided support to Diamville. The U.S...

Missouri attorney general seeks reversal of former detective’s conviction in Black man’s death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:20:49 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — In an unusual legal move, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is asking a state appeals court to reverse the conviction of a white former Kansas City police detective who shot and killed a Black man three years ago.In a brief filed Monday, Bailey said the evidence presented at a trial in 2021 did not support Eric DeValkenaere’s conviction for second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the death of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb on Dec. 3, 2019. Bailey asked the court to reverse DeValkenaere’s conviction or order a new trial. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, whose office secured DeValkenaere’s conviction, said the motion by the attorney general — the state’s top law enforcement officer — to challenge a conviction was “unprecedented” and an affront to the people of Kansas City. In a news conference on Monday, she accused Bailey, a Republican who was appointed to the attorney general’s office in Ja...