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Editorial: Don’t blame Canada for raiding America’s tech talent

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

America’s prosperity depends on attracting foreign talent. Yet due to a dysfunctional immigration system, millions of workers face insurmountable hurdles to gaining permanent residence. It was always a risk that other governments would take the opportunity to lure skilled workers away from the U.S. Now it’s happening, thanks to a somewhat unlikely rival: Canada.Last month, the Canadian government introduced a new work permit targeting U.S.-based knowledge workers. Foreigners living in the U.S. on H-1B visas — typically professionals with skills in STEM fields — are eligible for a three-year work permit allowing them to work for any employer in Canada. Spouses of visa holders are free to pursue employment — unlike in the U.S., which restricts their ability to work.Canada said it would accept up to 10,000 applications from interested H-1B visa holders in the program’s first year. It got that many in less than 48 hours. The government’s already received requests from Canadian tech comp...

Dear Abby: Grown sons in the dark about parents’ past

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

Dear Abby: My wife and I have been married for 38 years. We were both divorced prior to our marriage. Our marriage is great, and we have demonstrated this to everyone and especially to our boys. We decided early on to not say anything to our children about our prior marriages. The boys are now in their 30s. We raised them with solid values, one school district, long-term home, etc. We have no regrets.We have been updating our living trust and other legal documents and have come across places that name the prior spouses. We are exploring our options in either removing these mentions, having a family meeting to reveal the information, or writing letters for them to read upon our passing. I think our boys can handle whatever we decide, but we are nervous. What are your thoughts and advice? — Nervous Dad in CaliforniaDear Nervous Dad: Your “boys” are no longer children; they are adults in their 30s. They may be less shocked about you and your wife having been married b...

The Pac-12 Conference is facing a dire future following mass exodus of storied programs

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

The Pac-12 dubbed itself the “Conference of Champions” for a history of athletic excellence stretching back more than 100 years.The largest conference out West has dominated Olympic sports, went on an unprecedented run in men's college basketball and has won more national championships than any other league. Pac-12 alumni include some of the greatest names in sports history: Jackie Robinson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tiger Woods and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. A run of defections has now turned the tradition-rich league into a conference of ashes. “To think even remotely five years ago the Pac-12 would be in this position, it’s unthinkable to think that we’re here today,” Washington State football coach Jake Dickert said.College sports has gone through monumental shifts in recent years as schools swapped conferences like trading cards.The demise of the Pac-12 hit like a supernova: a Power Five conference dying in real time.Southern California and UCLA kickstarted co...

PHOTOS: 4 rescued from water near Harbor Bay in Alameda

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

(KRON) -- Four people were rescued from the water near the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal Sunday afternoon, the Alameda Fire Department (AFD) said. One of the victims was suffering from cardiac arrest, officials said. Crews performed CPR and took him to a nearby hospital. His condition is unknown at this time.AFD posted photos of the rescue (below).(Alameda Fire Department)(Alameda Fire Department)(Alameda Fire Department)(Alameda Fire Department)AFD deployed rescue swimmers and found three other male victims in the water. Officials said they were approxiamtely 100 feet to several hundred yards off shore. Those three victims were taken to the hospital where they are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. A total of 29 firefighters, three engines, four ambulances, one truck, one fire boat and one rescue boat were deployed in this rescue. The Alameda Police Department and the United States Coast Guard helped out in the rescue.

Attacks at US medical centers show why health care is one of the nation’s most violent fields

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

Word spread through an Oregon hospital last month that a visitor was causing trouble in the maternity ward, and nurses were warned the man might try to abduct his partner’s newborn.Hours later, the visitor opened fire, killing a security guard and sending patients, nurses and doctors scrambling for cover.The shooting at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Portland was part of a wave of gun violence sweeping through U.S. hospitals and medical centers, which have struggled to adapt to the growing threats. Such attacks have helped make health care one of the nation’s most violent fields. Data shows American health care workers now suffer more nonfatal injuries from workplace violence than workers in any other profession, including law enforcement.“Health care workers don’t even think about that when they decide they want to be a nurse or a doctor. But as far as actual violence goes, statistically, health care is four or five times more dangerous than any other professio...

India’s Modi faces a no-confidence vote over silence on ethnic violence tearing at remote Manipur

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — His social media accounts suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching high-speed trains and rubbing shoulders with foreign leaders as a powerhouse on the global stage and the face of an ascendant India. But that carefully crafted image, followed by millions, sits uncomfortably at odds with his silence on what’s come close to a civil war engulfing India’s northeastern state of Manipur. For three months, the strongman leader has been absent on arguably the worst ethnic violence ever seen in the remote state, where Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is in power. Modi’s role, or lack thereof, has sparked a no-confidence motion against him in Parliament, where his government holds the majority. He will almost certainly defeat the effort this week. But proponents of the motion are betting that just bringing it up will force Modi to address the Manipur crisis from the floor of Parliament.MODI’S SILENCEMore than 150 people have died...

Messi sparkles again on free kick with tying goal, Inter Miami beats FC Dallas 5-4 in shootout

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Lionel Messi scored on another mesmerizing free kick in his third consecutive two-goal game for Inter Miami, a tying tally that led to a 5-4 victory over FC Dallas on penalty kicks in a Leagues Cup elimination game Sunday night.Messi’s goal in the 85th minute was reminiscent of the game-winner in his Inter Miami debut, both on free kicks from just outside the penalty box in the waning moments and sneaking past the goalkeeper into the upper corner of the net.This time, the left-footed superstar, was to the right of the net, and beat FC Dallas’ Maarten Paes to the near post the same way he did from the left side in a 2-1 win over Mexican club Cruz Azul in his Inter Miami debut.The victory in the round of 16 sent Inter Miami into the Leagues Cup quarterfinals against the winner Monday night between Charlotte FC and Houston.Messi’s first goal outside of Florida for his new U.S. club was another left-footed strike outside the penalty area in the six...

Ohio election that revolves around abortion rights fueled by national groups, money

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Supporters of a ballot question in Ohio that would make it harder to change the state constitution and could determine the fate of abortion rights there say a yes vote will provide a “defense against out-of-state meddling.”Opponents argue that a yes vote would give “special interests the winning advantage.”But an analysis of campaign finance data shows that as both sides lambast out-of-state interests, they are largely funded by such donors. Even outside of the official coalitions for and against the measure, money, celebrity and influence from afar are fueling much of the last-ditch campaigning and misinformation about the measure, known as Issue 1, on Tuesday’s ballot.The coalition supporting the measure, called Protect Our Constitution, is funded almost entirely by billionaire Illinois business owner Richard Uihlein, who contributed $4 million of the campaign’s $4.8 million, according to campaign filings. The campaign’s largest Ohio-based d...

Father charged with helping suspect in July 4 shooting obtain gun license to ask judge to toss case

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A father will ask a judge Monday to dismiss his case in which authorities say he helped his son obtain a gun license three years before the younger man fatally shot seven people at a 2022 Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago.Illinois prosecutors charged Robert Crimo Jr. under a unconstitutionally vague law, his lawyers are expected to argue at a hearing in Waukegan, north of Highland Park where the shooting occurred. If Lake County Judge George Strickland allows the case to proceed, Crimo Jr.’s bench trial would start Nov. 6. Crimo Jr. has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of reckless conduct, one for each person killed. Each count carries a maximum three-year prison term. Prosecutors said he helped his son, Robert Crimo III, obtain a gun license even though the then-19-year-old had threatened violence. The four-sentence section of the state law invoked to charge Crimo Jr. says “a person commits reckless conduct when he or she, by any means lawful or unlaw...

Trump’s attack on ‘filth and decay’ in nation’s capital just the latest in his personal feud with DC

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:16 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington has never been a particularly friendly place for Donald Trump. And after pleading not guilty to federal charges that he had tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Trump was quick to show that the feeling was mutual.“It was also very sad driving through Washington, D.C., and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti,” he said on the tarmac of Reagan National Airport in Virginia, just a few miles away. “This is not the place that I left. It’s a very sad thing to see it.”Trump’s comments drew some skepticism due to the fact that he basically was on two blocks of the district’s streets. His route to and from the airport took him past one of the district’s larger shelters for homeless people, but “filth and decay” drew some eye rolls from longtime Washington defenders. “He’s just talking off the top of his head and angry to be back in D.C.,” said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, ...