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Departing North Carolina Auditor Beth Wood pleads guilty to misusing state vehicle, gets probation

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — On her last day on the job, North Carolina State Auditor Beth Wood pleaded guilty Friday to two misdemeanors for misusing a state-issued vehicle for personal activities.Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway sentenced Wood to 12 months of unsupervised probation on the counts, news outlets reported. Wake District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said that Wood had paid $1,064 in restitution as part of a plea agreement.The sentencing and her resignation appear to complete a year in which Wood’s driving ultimately led to her departure as auditor, an office she first won in 2008. Wood announced her resignation last month, two days after a grand jury indicted her on the charges.The counts said that in 2021 and 2022, Wood used an assigned state-owned vehicle for “hair appointments and dental appointments out of town, traveling to shopping centers and spa locations where she was not engaged in business in her official capacity.”Wood, a Democrat, said last month that she...

Guidelines around a new tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel is issued by Treasury Department

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

Long-awaited guidance around tax credits for aviation fuel that reduces emissions of greenhouse gases compared with conventional fuel was issued Friday by the Treasury Department.Environmentalists said they were concerned that the guidelines could pave the way for credits for fuel made from corn, sugar cane and other crops, which they consider unsustainable sources.Producers of sustainable aviation fuel will be eligible for tax credits ranging from $1.25 to $1.75 per gallon.Congress approved the credits as part of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included provisions designed to boost cleaner energy. The credits are designed to increase the supply and reduce the cost of sustainable fuel, which is far higher than regular jet fuel.On a key issue, the Treasury Department accepted a model for measuring the emissions-reduction of fuels that is being developed by the Energy Department and is supported by the ethanol industry.However, Treasury said the Biden admi...

The $10 billion charity no one has heard of

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

A donor-advised fund devoted to supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has leapt from being a relatively minor charity to one with an asset size comparable to behemoths like the Andrew W. Mellon and David and Lucile Packard foundations.The SDG Impact Fund, based in Cartersville, Georgia, grew from $238 million in assets in 2020 to $10 billion in 2021. That eye-popping growth, which seems to have been fueled by the meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies and digital art assets, has prompted some questions from philanthropy and tax experts.The less stringent legal reporting requirements for DAFs compared with private foundations make it hard to understand SDG Impact Fund’s massive growth. It’s impossible to know where donations came from because donor-advised funds are not required to identify donors. Nor is it clear how the DAF put its donations to charitable use or whether donors to the fund are receiving any benefits. SDG Impact’s leaders did not respond to repeated ...

S&P/TSX composite down more than 100 points in late-morning trading

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index was down more than 100 points in late-morning trading, led lower by losses in telecommunications and energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 115.76 points at 20,663.04.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 3.07 points at 37,245.28. The S&P 500 index was up 1.64 points at 4,721.19, while the Nasdaq composite was up 61.77 points at 14,823.33.The Canadian dollar traded for 74.81 cents US compared with 74.52 cents US on Thursday.The February crude oil contract was down 43 cents at US$71.48 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up nine cents at US$2.48 per mmBTU.The February gold contract was up US$3.60 at US$2,048.50 an ounce and the March copper contract was down less than a penny at US$3.89 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)The Canadian Press

Speaker Greg Fergus apologizes in House of Commons again for partisan video

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

The Speaker of the House of Commons has once again apologized for filming a video played at a partisan event, after a parliamentary committee called on him to show more contrition.  Speaker Greg Fergus says he made a “serious mistake” in recording a video in tribute to the outgoing interim leader of the Ontario Liberals.He was wearing his ceremonial robes in the video, which was shot in his Parliament Hill office and played at the provincial party’s recent leadership convention.The procedure and House affairs committee said in a report released Thursday that there should be clearer guidelines for future Speakers about the impartiality of their role.The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois MPs on the committee called for Fergus to resign, but Liberals and New Democrats, who held the majority, instead endorsed a call for him to apologize again and reimburse Parliament for resources used to film the video.Fergus says his office is putting in place a “more rigorous&#...

You pay a contractor. They don’t finish the work. Now what?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

Earlier this week we introduced you to Angela Costabile who lives in Oakville. She and her husband hired a contractor and paid him a hefty deposit only to be left with an unfinished kitchen and even more costs than they had budgeted.After doing some work, they say their contractor stopped showing up and failed to provide materials they paid for.“We are left with finding a new contractor because our original guy won’t return our phone calls,” Costabile said. “He just ghosted us.”The couple has been patient. They hired the contractor last June, paying him two deposits amounting to nearly $55,000. Their newly renovated kitchen was supposed to be up and running this fall.It’s now mid December and their kitchen is unusable.“Unfortunately this is a fairly common problem.,” said Justin Sherwood with the Building Industry and Land Development association — a not-for-profit organization representing home builders and professional renovation industries.“At best, what happened to this co...

Albania returns 20 stolen icons to neighboring North Macedonia

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania on Friday returned 20 icons to neighboring North Macedonia that were stolen a decade ago, Albania’s Culture Ministry said. The return marked the final stretch on a long, 10-year road with “much inter-institutional and international cooperation,” said Albania’s Culture Minister Elva Margariti. It also showed Albania’s commitment to “the fight against trafficking of the cultural inheritance objects,” she said.A handover ceremony was held at the National Historic Museum in the Albanian capital of Tirana. No further details were provided about the icons. In 2013, Albanian authorities in Tirana seized more than 1,000 stolen religious and secular pieces of art dating from the 15th to the mid-20th century and arrested two men suspected of planning to sell them abroad. The icons, frescoes and other pieces were taken from churches and cultural centers in southeastern Albania and in the neighboring North Macedonia, a police statement had said. ...

Doping law leads to two more indictments, this time against coaches who used to be elite sprinters

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a pair of former elite sprinters as part of a widening case alleging a conspiracy to supply banned performance-enhancing drugs for athletes in advance of the Tokyo Olympics.An indictment unsealed Thursday in the Southern District of New York charges O’Neil Wright and Dewayne Barrett with working to provide sprinters from Nigeria, Switzerland and Britain with drugs to get them ready for the Tokyo Games.The indictment says Wright and Barrett worked with Eric Lira, who has already pleaded guilty under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, which was passed in 2020 to target wide-ranging doping schemes across the globe.One of the athletes Lira worked with was Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist who has been banned for 11 years for taking human-growth hormone and the blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO) and also for failing to cooperate with the investigation.EPO and HgH were among the drugs Barrett and Wright we...

‘I didn’t change my number’: Macron still open to dialogue with Putin if it helps to bring peace

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday he would still consider talking with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin if it helps creating a sustainable peace between Ukraine and Russia.Macron and Putin enjoyed a good working relationship before Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. In weeks preceding the start of hostilities, Macron’s diplomatic efforts failed to stop the war but he then kept open a line of communication with the Russian president for months.Their diplomatic and personal links deteriorated badly as the war dragged on. Earlier this year, Macron weighed the possibility of stripping Putin of France’s highest medal of honor.Putin was asked Thursday during his year-end news conference by a journalist from the French channel TF1 about his views on France and Macron. Putin said: “At some point the French president stopped the relationship with us. We didn’t do it, I didn’t. He did. If there’s interest, we’re ready. If not, we’l...

Bell, Telus now offering equal wireless access to Rogers on TTC as key deadline looms

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:36:46 GMT

TORONTO — Telus Corp. and Bell Canada customers now have wireless service in all TTC subway stations and additional tunnel areas after Rogers Communications Inc. expanded access for its own customers nearly a month ago.The move comes ahead of next Wednesday’s deadline for Canada’s four major wireless carriers to reach commercial agreements for subway service over the long term.Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne had ordered Rogers to grant its rivals access to its cellular network in Toronto’s subway earlier this fall while the companies continued to negotiate behind the scenes.Rogers, Telus and Bell have been at loggerheads over the best technical approach, and financial terms, for the coverage since Rogers acquired the subway system’s cellular network from BAI Canada in April and pledged to build it out.In September, Champagne handed down a decision that gave the carriers one month to reach a commercial agreement over wireless access on the TTC, o...