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After concerns, Ottawa pauses work on $2-million contract for help on unmarked graves

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government has paused and plans to reworka $2-million contract with an international group hired to provide advice on identifying and locating the unmarked graves of children who attended residential schools. A spokesman for Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree says Ottawa has “heard the concerns raised by Indigenous partners” about the contract with the International Commission on Missing Persons. “We are working to determine a path forward,” said a written statement from Matthieu Perrotin. Ottawa signed a technical agreement with the Netherlands-based commission in February, in which it is slated to work with Indigenous communities.First Nations across Western Canada and parts of Ontario have used ground-penetrating radar technology to try locating possible graves at former residential schools.The searches began in earnest after Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation announced in May 2021 that the technology had helped t...

Sands casino family say they’ll buy majority of Mavs from Cuban. AP source says valuation is $3.5B

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has entered into an agreement to sell a majority stake in the NBA franchise to the family that runs the Las Vegas Sands casino company, it was announced Wednesday. The deal could be completed in the coming weeks.The agreement would be in the valuation range of $3.5 billion, according to a person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because that detail was not being made public. Cuban would retain control of basketball operations in the deal.The company controlled by Miriam Adelson, widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, announced earlier Tuesday it was selling $2 billion of her shares to buy an unspecified professional sports team. It revealed Wednesday that the team was the Mavericks.“The families are targeting a closing of the transaction by year-end, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and approval of the NBA Board of Governors,” said the statement released by the Adelson and Dumont families.Patric...

Hearing in Minnesota will determine if man imprisoned for murder was wrongfully convicted

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man serving life in prison for a deadly 2004 flower shop robbery has gone before a judge reexamining his conviction and delivered a simple message: “I’m innocent 100 percent.”Marvin Haynes, 35, has spent nearly two decades behind bars for the shooting death of 55-year-old Randy Sherer, who was killed inside his family business in Minneapolis when Haynes was a teenager. Working with the Great North Innocence Project, the inmate successfully lobbied to plead his case before a Hennepin County district judge.Judge William Koch held two days of hearings on the conviction and said Tuesday he would continue the case until Dec. 20, when the final witness is scheduled to testify.In initial police interviews with Haynes, detectives falsely asserted that they’d found fingerprints, DNA and surveillance footage linking him to the crime. He testified Tuesday that those claims were impossible, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.Dressed in an orange jail jump...

Proposed NewRange copper-nickel mine in Minnesota suffers fresh setback on top of years of delays

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The proposed NewRange Copper Nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota suffered a fresh setback this week when an administrative law judge recommended that state regulators should not reissue a crucial permit for the long-delayed project.Administrative Law Judge James LaFave said in a ruling late Tuesday that the design for the mine’s waste basin won’t adequately prevent water pollution. So, he said, the Department of Natural Resources should not reissue the main “permit to mine” for the project.The next step is up to the DNR, which can accept or reject the judge’s recommendations or impose new conditions for reissuing the permit.The proposed $1 billion mine has been delayed by a string of court rulings and administrative actions since regulators issued the original permit to mine and other necessary permits in 2018 and 2019. The Minnesota Supreme Court in 2021 ordered the DNR to gather more evidence on whether the mine’s waste basin would keep pollution c...

Coal-producing West Virginia is converting an entire school system to solar power

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — An entire county school system in coal-producing West Virginia is going solar, representing what a developer and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s office touted on Wednesday as the biggest-ever single demonstration of sun-powered renewable electricity in Appalachian public schools.The agreement between Wayne County Schools and West Virginian solar installer and developer Solar Holler builds on historic investments in coal communities made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democratic Sen. Manchin had a major role in shaping through his role as Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair. Manchin, who announced this month that he wouldn’t run for reelection in the deep-red state, citing an increasingly polarized political system, was quick Wednesday to tout U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2022 landmark climate, health and tax law, which placed special emphasis on creating new clean energy jobs.“Let’s be clear — this investment in Wayne ...

Residents in St. Croix sue government over water contaminated with lead and copper

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A group of residents have sued a public utility company in the U.S. Virgin Islands after authorities there reported finding high levels of lead and copper in the tap water on St. Croix. The report caused panic and forced tens of thousands to rely on bottled water.The class-action lawsuit, which is expected to be served in the coming days, accuses the U.S. territory’s Water and Power Authority and Seven Seas Water Corporation of improper monitoring and failing to provide safe water, among other things.Andrew Smith, the public utility’s CEO, condemned the lawsuit on Wednesday. He said the agency acted swiftly and transparently after the test results became available and that officials are still working to improve water quality in St. Croix.“We … are disappointed that amidst these challenging circumstances, there are those who seek monetary gain by exploiting the evolving situation impacting the people of St. Croix,” he said in a statement.Seven Seas Water ...

5 in custody as police search for suspected firearm at Hamilton high school

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

Five people are in custody following a security incident at a Hamilton high school on Wednesday morning.Staff and students at Bernie Custis Secondary School on King Street East were placed into lockdown around 11:30 a.m. after police said they were conducting a “comprehensive search” of the school for a bag containing a suspected firearm.Just before 2 p.m. the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board said the lockdown had been lifted and students had been dismissed for the day.“Families will receive another communication later today with an update before tomorrow’s school day,” the board said in an online update.Police have not confirmed if they have recovered the item they were looking for, saying only that they are no longer searching for any additional suspects at this time.

Paris angers critics with plans to restrict Olympic Games traffic but says residents shouldn’t flee

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Stay, enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime show.That was the message from organizers of the Paris Olympics on Wednesday as they sought to reassure the French capital’s residents that security measures and traffic restrictions won’t make their lives nightmarish during the July 26-Aug. 11 event and the Paralympic Games that follow.But critics, including some in the Senate, were displeased by plans to require motorists to apply online for a QR code to access traffic-restricted zones of Paris during the Games. Senators complained that lawmakers had not been consulted. Nathalie Goulet, a senator from Normandy, likened the proposal to ID papers that France’s Nazi occupiers imposed in World War II.The Senate announced that Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez would appear before senators on Thursday and be asked to explain the security measures around the event.Nuñez, speaking to journalists, defended the planned QR code as legal and justified. He insisted that traffic r...

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway says Haslams offered bribes to inflate Pilot truck stops earnings

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway says the billionaire Haslam family tried to bribe at least 15 executives at the Pilot truck stop chain with millions of dollars to get them to inflate the company’s profits this year because that would force Berkshire to pay more for the Haslams’ remaining 20% stake in the company. The Berkshire claim in a counter lawsuit filed this week comes after the Haslam family — which includes Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam — accused Berkshire of trying to understate Pilot’s earnings this year by changing its accounting practices.A hearing on Berkshire’s counter lawsuit is planned for Thursday. The Haslams’ lawyers and a representative for the family didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.Berkshire said in a court filing that it only became aware this month of the Haslams’ attempts to bribe executives who used to work for the family at the company Jim Hasla...

Businesses where George Floyd was killed sue Minneapolis, saying police are not protecting the area

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:48:24 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Several stores at the location where George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police in 2020 have sued the city, accusing it of neglecting the area and hurting business.The lawsuit, filed in mid-November in state court, also names Mayor Jacob Frey and other officials and accuses the city of not properly policing the area since Floyd’s death. It also accuses the city of blocking the intersection that is now known as George Floyd Square with concrete barriers for more than a year after Floyd’s death, keeping customers from entering.The combination has turned the area into a hub for violent crime, the lawsuit says.“The mayor, the city, the city council, and the Minneapolis Police Department collectively agreed to severely limit police response in the barricaded area surrounding plaintiffs’ businesses,” with police responding to only the most serious calls and otherwise actively avoiding the area, according to the lawsuit.“Criminals know the area lacks police prot...