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Low unemployment could boost trend of union organizing in retail, service: experts

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

With Canada’s unemployment rate holding near record lows, experts say an increased interest in unions among retail and service workers that began during the COVID-19 pandemic will continue — even as workers face an uphill battle against large, powerful employers. The pandemic was a catalyst for many frontline workers, who union organizers say were spurred to fight for better pay and working conditions in sectors where unionization is uncommon. “When we look at the overall landscape of how things have evolved in the retail and service sector over the last few years, it’s been an extremely challenging time for workers,” said Kim Novak, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1518, where a Sephora store unionized last year. Since 2020, there have been union drives at major retailers including Starbucks, Cineplex, Indigo, Sephora and PetSmart. Just this Friday, workers at an Edmonton Starbucks voted to unionize with the United Steelworkers Union, joining peers ...

Man faces over 60 charges for GTA carjackings that ended with stolen Purolator truck

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

A man faces over 60 charges concerning several carjackings across the GTA that resulted in a police officer suffering serious injuries and the province’s police watchdog invoking their mandate.Durham Regional Police were first called to the Consumers Drive and Garden Street area in Whitby around 11:30 p.m. on Monday, where they located a stolen vehicle that was involved in a carjacking in Brampton.Investigators said responding officers attempted to block the vehicle in, and as they approached, the suspect rammed two police cruisers.The suspect vehicle pinned one of the officers exiting their vehicle before fleeing. That officer suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Police later located the stolen car abandoned in Whitby.On Tuesday around 12:50 a.m., Durham Regional Police were called to the Lowder Place and Bellwood Drive area in Whitby for reports of a carjacking. It’s alleged that the male suspect approached a couple returning to their residence, brandish...

Court rejects governor’s move to dismiss public records suit

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Gov. Kim Reynolds that seeks to require her office to respond to public record requests.The court in a unanimous decision rejected Reynolds’ argument that her office wasn’t obligated to respond in a timely matter to record requests and that she could avoid the state’s open records law by simply ignoring the requests. The Supreme Court ordered that the case be returned to the district court where it would be decided on its merits.“The governor’s office wanted a rule that it and its agencies can ignore public records requests without any consequences,” said Thomas Story, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which represented three media organizations. “Instead, the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that nobody is above the law.”In a statement, Reynolds blamed any delays on a busy staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic and said her office now is responding to re...

Profits at big US banks show few signs of industry distress

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s largest banks appear to be weathering the current turmoil in their industry just fine.Despite a pair of historical failures last month that put the nation’s banking industry into crisis mode, the nation’s biggest banks posted strong profits last quarter, helped by higher interest rates and a U.S. economy that keeps growing and adding jobs even as the Federal Reserve attempts to curb inflation. JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted a 52% jump in its first-quarter profits. The bank saw deposits grow noticeably, as businesses and customers flocked to the banking titan after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank last month. Wells Fargo said that it earned $5 billion, or $1.23 per share, in the three months ended March 31, beating analyst projections by 10 cents a share. Revenue also topped Wall Street’s forecast.Meanwhile Citigroup also beat analysts’ estimates on revenue, although its bottom line was impacted by one-t...

Peyton List becomes a leader thanks to ‘School Spirits’

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

Peyton List’s character on the Paramount+ series “School Spirits” is a ghost, so she spent a lot of times in scenes watching and listening to those around her and also being ignored.This is far from your typical ghost story. List plays Maddie, a teen who recently died but can’t recall how and remains stuck at her high school.She’s surrounded by classmates going about their day, but they can’t see or hear her. Also strange, she’s with a bunch of other dead teens, with varying death dates, some even decades prior.All episodes of “School Spirits” are streaming.Although List was playing invisible on camera, she was front and center on this job. The “Cobra Kai” actor also served as a producer, and for the first time, List was No. 1 on the call sheet.“I found that I’m actually the kind of personality that loves to be like No. 10 on the call sheet in real life. I think it’s fun to just kind of come in, be like a protagonist and then leave, you know? In the mid...

Leak suspect yearned to join military but then regretted it

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

DIGHTON, Mass. (AP) — The Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking highly classified documents had set his sights on joining the military from an early age. But more recently he had expressed disillusionment about having enlisted.Jack Teixeira, 21, was charged Friday in U.S. District Court in Boston with unauthorized removal and retention of classified and national defense information — a breach that has caused an international uproar and exposed explicit U.S. assessments on the war in Ukraine and other closely held secrets. A magistrate judge ordered Teixeira held until a detention hearing next week.Teixeira grew up in Dighton, a rural community south of Boston that is dotted with single-family homes interspersed with small farms. His mother’s home sits down a long driveway in heavy woods. A florist, she sometimes puts out a flower cart by the side of the road, selling bouquets on the honor system. Two of his classmates told The Boston Globe that Teixeira rever...

City: Schwarzenegger repaired utility trench, not a pothole

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The “giant pothole” that Arnold Schwarzenegger said he recently filled on a street in his Los Angeles neighborhood was actually a trench that had been dug for utility work, according to the city.Southern California Gas Co. had covered the trench with temporary asphalt that was to be replaced with a permanent surface, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works said in a statement.“We have notified the Gas Company of the issue and the need for them to maintain the site pavement until their permanent paving is constructed,” the statement said.After months of heavy rains that have turned roads into tire-popping swiss cheese for many commuters, Schwarzenegger struck a chord when he released a video of himself and a crew filling a depression on a street with packaged asphalt patch. “Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it,” he wrote on Twitter. “...

Putin signs bill allowing electronic conscription notices

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Putin has signed a bill allowing authorities to issue electronic notices to draftees and reservists amid the fighting in Ukraine. The bill signed into law by Putin was published Friday on the official register of government documents.Russia’s military service rules previously required the in-person delivery of notices to conscripts and reservists who are called up for duty. Under the new law, the notices issued by local military conscription offices will continue to be sent by mail but they would be considered valid from the moment they are put on a state portal for electronic services.In the past, many Russians avoided the draft by staying away from their address of record. The new law closes that loophole in an apparent effort to create a tool for quickly beefing up the military ahead of a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks.Recipients who fail to show up for service would be prohibited from leaving Russia, would have t...

There’s a reason every hit worship song sounds the same

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

(RNS) — On Easter Sunday, the worship band at Bethel Community Church in Redding, California, opened the service with “This Is Amazing Grace,” a 2012 hit that has remained one of the most popular worship songs of the past decade. Chances are thousands of other churches around the country also sang that song — or one very similar to it.A new study found that Bethel and a handful of other megachurches have cornered the market on worship music in recent years, churning out hit after hit and dominating the worship charts.___This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story. ___The study looked at 38 songs that made the Top 25 lists for CCLI and PraiseCharts — which track what songs are played in churches — and found that almost all had originated from one of four megachurches.All the songs in the study — which ranged from “Our God” and “God Is A...

Russian forces bear down on Ukrainian defenders in Bakhmut

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:01:48 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The battle for Bakhmut is heating up again, analysts and Russian officials said Friday, as Ukrainian defenders of the devastated city resisted a coordinated three-pronged attack by the Kremlin’s forces and efforts to stop supplies from reaching them.“Russia has re-energized its assault” on Bakhmut, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said of recent developments in the eastern Ukraine city, which for eight and a half months has been the stage for the war ’s longest and bloodiest fight.“The Ukrainian defense still holds the western districts of the town but has been subjected to particularly intense Russian artillery fire over the previous 48 hours,” the ministry’s assessment said.Until recently, a notorious private Russian military contractor, the Wagner Group, spearheaded the campaign to take Bakhmut, making slow, grinding progress at the cost of thousands of lives on both sides. Now, regular Russian units have joined the thrust.Military analysts have said that s...