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1,145 people remain evacuated as crews dig containment line around Arizona brush fire

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Crews have successfully dug a containment line around a brush fire in northern Scottsdale that has burned 3.9 square miles (10 square kilometers) and threatened about 100 homes, authorities said Wednesday.Fire officials said 1,145 people will remain evacuated from their homes until it’s determined that the containment line will hold up in expected windy conditions.Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management spokesperson Tiffany Davila said the cause of the fire is under investigation.The blaze, called the Diamond Fire, broke out around 5:15 p.m. Tuesday and quickly grew — fueled by grass and brush.“We had very successful overnight. We have a line around the entire fire and people are starting to do mop-up,” Davila said at a news conference. “But we may still see flare-ups.”Davila said the fire is considered “zero percent contained” until the containment line holds “and will in the wind.” “People might not see smoke right now, but that doesn’t me...

Man convicted of driving into fundraiser crowd, then killing mother gets 2 life terms

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man convicted of driving into a fundraiser crowd in Pennsylvania last summer, killing one and injuring 19 others, then going home and bludgeoning his mother to death has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.President Judge Gary Norton told Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes, 25, in Columbia County Court on Tuesday that his crimes “were the result of pure evil” as he sentenced him to two life terms in the two deaths. He also imposed an additional 123 to 380 years on 19 counts of attempted homicide.Authorities said Sura Reyes told investigators that he was driving in Berwick after arguing with his mother Aug. 13 and was “tired of fighting with his mother, including about money, and wanted to be done with it.” At the same time, about 75 people had gathered in a blocked-off parking lot outside the Intoxicology Department bar for a fundraiser to benefit victims of a blaze in Nescopeck more than a week earlier that had killed seven adults and thre...

Trudeau announces child-care infrastructure funding to build more spaces

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced $625 million of funding to help provinces and territories build child-care infrastructure. Trudeau says the money will be rolled out over four years and will help providers renovate, retrofit and build new not-for-profit and public child-care facilities. The announcement follows through on the child-care infrastructure fund promised by the Liberal government in the 2022 budget.It’s meant to complement the national child-care program, which aims to deliver child care for $10 a day, on average, by 2026. Parents have already seen fees reduced by an average of at least 50 per cent across the country. Advocates and experts have raised concerns about a lack of spaces to accommodate the growing demand for subsidized child care. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 28, 2023. The Canadian Press

A jury found Trump responsible for sexual abuse. Now he’s suing his accuser for saying she was raped

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is trying to turn the tables on the advice columnist who won a $5 million jury award against him in a sexual abuse lawsuit, saying in a countersuit that she owes him money and a retraction for continuing to insist she was raped even after a jury declined to agree.Lawyers for the Republican presidential candidate filed papers late Tuesday saying E. Jean Carroll should pay Trump unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and retract her damaging statements.The countersuit comes a month after Carroll’s lawyers filed a rewritten defamation lawsuit seeking at least $10 million more from Trump over comments he made after the jury verdict in May.The jury concluded after a two-week trial that Trump sexually abused Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in spring 1996. It also found that he defamed her in comments he made denying the attack last October.But the jury rejected Carroll’s claim, first made in a 2019 memoir,...

Dental care to cost $3B less than budgeted unless provinces drop coverage, PBO says

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

OTTAWA — The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates the promised federal dental insurance plan will cost $2.9 billion less than the government budgeted, assuming provincial governments don’t drop their coverage. The Liberals promised a stand-alone dental insurance plan for low- and middle-income Canadians who don’t have private insurance as part of its supply and confidence deal with the NDP last year.The program is expected to launch before the end of the year, starting with qualifying people under the age of 18, people with disabilities and seniors. The Liberals initially set aside $5.3 billion over five years to launch the program, but increased that amount to $13 billion in the last federal budget based on internal estimates about the true cost of the program.The Parliamentary Budget Officer’s latest costing note suggests the cost will be closer to $10.1 billion, in part due to existing dental coverage and co-payments from beneficiaries.However, the note warns ...

B.C. port union issues 72-hour strike notice affecting 7,400 workers

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

VANCOUVER — The union representing port workers in British Columbia says it has issued 72-hour strike notice and its members are ready to walk off the job on Saturday.The strike notice affects about 7,400 terminal cargo loaders and 49 of the province’s waterfront employers in more than 30 B.C. ports.Negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada and the BC Maritime Employers Association started in February in an attempt to reach an agreement before their contract expired at the end of March. Both sides have been in a cooling-off period but that ended on June 21. Union members voted 99.24 per cent in favour of strike action earlier this month. The union said in a statement Wednesday that contracting out, port automation and cost of living are key issues in the dispute.“Longshore workers kept this province and the country running during the pandemic, and when Canadians were told to shelter in place, our people went to work,’ the statement...

Railroad says Superfund town’s health clinic submitted false medical claims

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A major U.S. railroad found liable for spreading hazardous asbestos that killed hundreds of people in a Montana town is trying to convince a federal jury that a local clinic submitted hundreds of asbestos claims for people who weren’t sick, earning them lifetime government benefits and bilking taxpayer funds.The case focuses on the Center For Asbestos Related Disease in Libby, Montana, and the health clinic’s high-profile doctor, Brad Black, who has been at the forefront of efforts to help residents of the town, which came to national prominence when it was declared a deadly Superfund site in 2000.Since 2003, Black and the CARD clinic have certified more than 3,400 people, primarily from the Libby area, with asbestos-related diseases.BNSF Railway — controlled by billionaire Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate — has alleged during a trial taking place in Missoula that more than half the certifications were based on false medical submissions fr...

Cambodian leader Hun Sen, a huge Facebook fan, says he is jumping ship to Telegram

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a devoted and very active user of Facebook — on which he has posted everything from photos of his grandchildren to threats against his political enemies — said Wednesday that he will no longer upload to the platform and will instead depend on the Telegram app to get his message across.Telegram is a popular messaging app that also has a blogging tool called “channels.” In Russia and some of the neighboring countries, it is actively used both by government officials and opposition activists for communicating with mass audiences. Telegram played an important role in coordinating unprecedented anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020, and currently serves as a major source of news about Russia’s war in Ukraine.The 70-year-old year Hun Sen is listed as having 14 million Facebook followers, though critics have suggested a large number are merely “ghost” accounts purchased in bulk from so-called “click farms,” an assertion th...

WATCH LIVE: Biden delivers 'Bidenomics' remarks in Chicago

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will visit Chicago Wednesday to deliver a speech on what the White House has called "Bidenomics."Biden is due to arrive in Chicago around 10 a.m. and will deliver his address at The Old Post Office in downtown around noon. The speech is to begin a new effort to actively convince a worried public that the U.S. economy is not heading for recession but actually thriving because of his leadership. For him, there's a happy confluence of the coming 2024 reelection campaign and a favorable turn in recent economic data, leading the White House to believe that public messaging about “Bidenomics” will help to rally Democratic voters going into next year.But polling has consistently shown the economy to be a weak spot for Biden's reelection hopes. Just 33% approve of his leadership on the issue, according to a May survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs.Biden is eager to take full political ownership of the U....

A major NHL Draft Day arrives for the Blackhawks, Connor Bedard

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:13:00 GMT

NASHVILLE — After nearly a year-and-a-half of wondering if they'd get the chance to select one of the best prospects in years, a franchise-changing moment is ahead for the Blackhawks on Wednesday.That's when the team, holding the No. 1 overall selection in the NHL Draft, will likely select heralded center Connor Bedard just after 6 p.m. in Nashville, making him the centerpiece of the team's rebuild. Perhaps for decorum, Davidson's not revealing exactly who he'll take with that top selection, but it's fairly obvious for anyone following hockey who the first person the Blackhawks will take in the 2023 NHL Draft will be."Great player, great person," said Davidson on Tuesday when asked about Bedard when, once again, deciding not to say for sure that he's taking him. "I think everyone's seen how he's handled himself in the leadup to this draft. Obviously, a lot of attention, and thought he's shown a maturity beyond his years." "He's 17 years old, but you'd never known it based on how he'...