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Army quickly plans new ads after Jonathan Majors’ arrest

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army is working to quickly pull together some new recruiting ads to air during the NCAA’s Final Four basketball games this weekend, after being forced to yank commercials that featured actor Jonathan Majors, in the wake of his arrest last Saturday.Army leaders had been excited to feature Majors in the ads, as a key part of their new campaign aimed at reviving the service’s struggling recruiting numbers — which fell far short of their enlistment goal last year. They believed the ads would capitalize on Majors’ popularity coming off his recently released “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” movies — hoping it would help them reach the youth audience.Last weekend, however, they pulled the ads off the air when Majors was arrested in New York on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment. New York City police said the actor was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. But a lawyer for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, has said...

Carlson, Hannity among potential witnesses at Fox News trial

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Bret Baier are among the stars who both Fox News and the voting machine company suing it for defamation have signaled could testify if the case heads to trial next month.They are among the names submitted this week as potential witnesses by Fox and Dominion Voting Systems, although it doesn’t guarantee that they will appear in court. It still isn’t certain there will be a trial. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis is expected to make a summary judgment ruling in favor of either side or to go forward with a trial.Dominion has accused Fox of airing false allegations that the company was engaged in voter fraud during the 2020 election even though many at the network doubted the claims were true. Fox says it was lawfully reporting on newsworthy developments.Carlson, Hannity and Baier all worried privately after the election that Fox’s early declaration that Democrat Joe Biden had won the key state of Arizona had dam...

Family of girl, 5, whose fingertip was partially amputated in incident suing Hamilton school board

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) is being sued after a bullying incident reportedly caused a severe injury to the finger of a five-year-old girl, with the youth’s family accusing the board of doing nothing to stop it.In a press conference Tuesday, the girl’s mother, Sjanita-Marie Harrison, said her daughter had to have part of her fingertip amputated following an incident in a school washroom in November of 2022.Harrison alleges a student at Prince of Wales Elementary slammed the door on then-four-year-old Autymn-Rose’s hand, crushing one of her fingers. She also claims her daughter was put in an ambulance and was not accompanied by school personnel.“She had [also] hit her head and was in obvious distress, both physically and emotionally and mentally. Throughout this entire process of my child being in this condition. I was left in the dark,” Harrison claimed.The lawsuit alleges the board did not act in a reasonable manner to prevent...

Flair customers say they’re owed more after plane seizures, flight cancellations

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

MONTREAL — Flair Airlines said this week that it has reimbursed almost all 1,900 passengers whose flights were cancelled after the seizure of four of the carrier’s planes earlier this month, but some customers say they are owed more money — while others say no refunds have come through at all.Bailiffs repossessed Boeing 737 jets on which the discount carrier had overdue payments at airports in Toronto, Edmonton and Waterloo, Ont., in the early morning hours of March 11.The seizures meant multiple flights that day had to be cancelled, sending customers scrambling to rebook on other airlines, or to give up entirely.Carrie Kennedy was at the gate with two friends for a Toronto-Halifax flight — all three had booked time off work for a March break getaway — when the cancellation was announced.“It was supposed to be her first plane ride,” the Barrie, Ont., resident said of her friend’s six-year-old daughter. “She was bawling her eyes out. ‘Why can’...

Budget 2023 gives boost to dental care, green economy while searching for savings

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 2023 federal budget promises “transformative investments” in Canada’s green economy as the country tries to maintain its place in the global clean tech revolution and realign its supply chains toward allies who won’t use energy as a political weapon.“Together these two great shifts represent the most significant opportunity for Canadian workers in the lifetime of anyone here today,” Freeland said Tuesday in the House of Commons.She is also using the budget to provide another top-up of the GST rebate, styled this time as a grocery rebate, to low-income Canadians who are feeling the pinch of inflation and keep making good on pledges in the confidence-and-supply agreement with the New Democrats.There are also some measures reacting to political fires that have been burning around the Liberals in recent weeks and months, including some money to combat foreign interference, and to make airport securit...

Revived N. Carolina sports wagering bill wins big House vote

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Sports gambling in North Carolina soared over a major hurdle on Tuesday as the House voted for legislation to permit, regulate and tax wagering activities less than a year after the chamber scuttled a similar effort.The winning 66-45 vote for pro-gambling forces signals the legislature could be willing to offer residents in the nation’s ninth-largest state the chance to bet on professional, college and Olympic-type athletics by computer, mobile app or in person by early next year. One more House vote is needed Wednesday before the legislation can move to the Senate, which voted for sports betting in 2021. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper supports sports wagering legislation, as does Republican Senate leader Phil Berger. Last June, a different version of the House amended a wagering proposal and ultimately defeated a Senate bill in a razor-thin vote. A coalition of Christian conservatives and liberal Democrats turned back the measure on grounds of protecting fami...

Debt ceiling impasse: McCarthy presses Biden to negotiate

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Tuesday he’s increasingly concerned about President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to negotiate on lifting the nation’s borrowing authority, saying in a letter to the president that the White House position could “hold dire ramifications for the entire nation.”Rather than open direct talks on the debt ceiling, which the Democrats agree must be raised, Biden and his party’s lawmakers are challenging Republicans to publicly present their own budget proposals — something McCarthy has so far declined to do.For now, the Treasury Department has resorted to “extraordinary measures” to avoid default on the nation’s $31.4 trillion borrowing authority. But those measures will run out — and put the U.S. at risk of being unable to pay all of its bills — possibly as early as June.The White House has emphasized that Biden is not willing to entertain proposed cuts in programs simply in exchange for lifting the ...

Brazil hits 700,000 virus deaths, 2nd highest in the world

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s government on Tuesday reported the 700,000th death from COVID-19 in the South American nation, which has the second most victims of the virus after the United States.Brazilian health experts say most people dying of COVID-19 in recent days are either unvaccinated or suffer from other debilitating diseases. “The vaccine currently available in every health care unit in Brazil could have changed the lives of families who lost beloved ones in the pandemic,” said the country’s Health MinistryHealth Minister Nisia Trindade criticized former President Jair Bolsonaro for his handling of the pandemic. Bolsonaro, who became ill with COVID, later declined to take the coronavirus vaccine and flouted health restrictions.“We have to look at the past, but at the same time we have to say the health ministry cannot make the mistake of not coordinating, not taking care, not treating (the disease). We need to be united so new tragedies do not happen,” Trinda...

NCIS, rescue canines join search in Waukegan for missing Navy sailor

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — The Naval Criminal Investigative Service on Monday continued their search in Waukegan for missing Navy sailor Seamus Gray, with rescue canines focusing on an area near Government Pier. Despite divers from the Waukegan and Gurnee fire departments searching the area, the whereabouts of Gray were not discovered. The news is the latest development in the disappearance of the 21-year-old, who has not been seen or heard from since March 18. As the search continues, the military service member's mother, Kerry Gray, has since returned to Florida after traveling to Illinois. In a March 26 Facebook post, Gray said it appears her son was in a tragic accident. While she described the days since her son has gone missing as "grueling, nauseating, heartbreaking and quite honestly soul-crushing," in an earlier Facebook post, she thanked the Waukegan first responders for their efforts. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Police in Waukegan searching for missing 21-year-old Navy sailor"I'm holding on...

Illinois considers letting non-citizens become police officers

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

There's a push to crack down on banking executives responsible for the collapse of their financial institutions.Iowa could ban the state's public universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. And Illinois lawmakers consider a proposal to let people who aren't United States citizens become police officers.We'll talk about that this morning with Scott County Democratic Party Chair Kay Pence and former Iowa State Rep. David Millage, a Republican.We start in Illinois with House Bill 37-51. This proposal would allow people who aren't U. S. citizens to become police officers in the state. They do have to be in the country with legal authorization to work.Applicants have to meet all other requirements for the job, just not citizenship. That would make DACA recipients eligible.We know police departments across the country are having problems recruiting officers."I think it's a good idea," Pence said. "They've been having trouble finding and retaining police o...