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Ticker: Budget rider shifts increased hydro costs to ratepayers; Job openings fall as economy cools

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

A budget signed by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey this week will allow utilities to raise rates to make up for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs to complete a transmission line to bring Canadian hydropower to the New England electricity grid.The head of Central Maine Power Co.’s corporate parent Avangrid has said the cost of the $1 billion project grew to $1.5 billion as litigation delayed construction and inflation caused prices to creep upward.Legislation included the supplemental budget adopted Monday allows transmission service agreements to be renegotiated and additional costs to be passed along to Massachusetts ratepayers to cover the added costs.Avangrid provided the increased costs to Massachusetts’ electricity distribution companies to adjust the rate in the parties’ transmission services agreements, subject to Department of Public Utilities review and approval, Avangrid spokesperson Leo Rosales said in a statement Tuesday.Avangrid partn...

DeSantis wants to cut 1,000 jobs, but asks for $1 million to sue over Florida State’s football snub

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recommended Florida eliminate more than 1,000 state jobs in a spending proposal released Tuesday that cuts the current budget by more $4.6 billion while maintaining popular sales tax holidays.DeSantis is calling for a $114.4 billion budget. Unlike most years, the presidential candidate announced his budget far from the state Capitol in a news conference held at a charter school on Marco Island in southwest Florida.Instead of detailing what jobs he wants cut, DeSantis spent more time highlighting past achievements and lamenting the decision to exclude the undefeated Florida State University Seminoles from the college football championship playoff.DeSantis said he is asking for $1 million to let FSU sue the College Football Playoff committee even though the championship will be decided months before a budget is approved.“My first-grader, my fifth-grader and my preschooler … they are all ‘noles and they are b...

Lawyer picked to prosecute Army sexual assault is fired over an old email doubting victims’ claims

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The lawyer selected to be the Army’s first top prosecutor of sexual assaults under an overhaul of the military justice system has been fired because of an email he sent 10 years ago appearing to belittle victims’ assault allegations.Brig. Gen. Warren Wells was removed from the job on Friday by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, just hours after she was given the email. Wells was the Army’s new lead special trial counsel for cases involving sexual assault and other top crimes — a job created as part of Congress’ push to revamp a military justice system it believed could be overly deferential to service members accused of sexual misconduct. The office was expected to begin work around the end of the year.In the email, sent to a number of his staff members in June 2013, Wells complained about what he said were false allegations by the alleged victims, pointing to the firing of an Army two-star general in Japan for failing to properly investigate a sex...

Closures to health services amounted to 30,000 hours of lost care: Ontario Health Coalition

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

The Ontario Health Coalition is sounding the alarm over the amount of closures to health care services this year, amounting to the equivalent of 30,000 lost hours of care.According to their report, there were 867 temporary emergency department closures and one permanent, 316 urgent care centre closures, two outpatient laboratory closures, one ICU closure and one labour and delivery unit closure.“These closures are staggering, the numbers are like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition. “They mean, without question, that people’s lives have been put at risk.”The Ontario Health Coalition say these nearly 1,200 closures across the province happened between Jan 1. and Nov 24th. They held a rally outside Queen’s Park on Tuesday to call attention to the loss of vital health care services.“Three years ago, emergency department closures were completely unheard of,”...

Family of man who died after struggle with officer sues tow truck driver they say sat on his head

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — The family of a Georgia church deacon who died after struggling with a police officer following a minor car crash has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a tow truck driver they say arrived during the confrontation and sat on the man’s head and neck.The lawsuit filed Monday says the officer’s body camera video shows the tow truck driver straddling Johnny Hollman Sr. during the tussle Aug. 10, “appearing to sit with his full body weight” on Hollman’s head and neck.Relatives have said Hollman, 62, was driving home from Bible study at his daughter’s house and taking dinner to his wife when he collided with another vehicle while turning across a busy street just west of downtown Atlanta.Atlanta police Officer Kiran Kimbrough responded to the crash and he quickly decided Hollman was to blame. Hollman insisted he had done nothing wrong but Kimbrough ordered him to sign a traffic ticket. The two men began to tussle.Kimbrough’s body camera video released ...

Biden calls reports of Hamas raping Israeli hostages ‘appalling,’ says world can’t look away

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday forcefully denounced the reported rape and sexual violence against Israeli girls and women by Hamas militants following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, calling on the world to condemn such conduct “without equivocation” and “without exception.”Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Boston, Biden noted that in recent weeks, female survivors and witnesses to the attacks have shared “horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty.”“Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them,” Biden said. “It is appalling.”Israel has said it is investigating several cases of sexual assault and rape from the Hamas attack on Israel. Witnesses and medical experts have said that Hamas militants committed a series of rapes and other attacks before killing the victims in the Oct....

Meet the candidates vying to be the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

OTTAWA — The Assembly of First Nations is set to elect a new national chief this week during a three-day special assembly in Ottawa.The contest comes after the dramatic ouster of former national chief RoseAnne Archibald, who was voted out after colleagues accused her of creating a toxic work environment, an allegation she has denied.After candidates plead their case one last time on Tuesday evening at an all-candidates forum, chiefs or their proxies from more than 600 member First Nations will elect the next national chief on Wednesday. Here are the six candidates competing to be the assembly’s chief advocate. Reginald Bellerose: Bellerose, who is the chair of the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority and the Saskatchewan Indian Training Assessment Group, is hoping to secure the top job after an unsuccessful attempt in the last election. He wants to build generational wealth in communities, strengthen nation-to-nation relationships and to close the gap with northern and remote ...

B.C. says 578 foreign-educated nurses registered in 2023, doubling intake

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

VANCOUVER — The number of foreign-educated nurses newly registered in British Columbia this year has more than doubled from last year, as the province makes progress on a $1-billion, multi-year plan to attract more health-care workers.The first yearly update on B.C.’s health human resources strategy says 578 internationally educated nurses became fully registered in the province in 2023.The province says “thousands” more international nurses are working toward getting registered and will be getting the required clinical experience next year.The update says the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives has registered 6,258 new nurses this year, including registered nurses and nurse practitioners, and has seen an increase of more than 14,000 net new nurse registrants since 2017.It says 666 international medical graduates were registered with the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons this year.The government says its focuses next year will include expanding the pool of tr...

Florida man, already facing death for a 1998 murder, now indicted for a 2nd. Detectives fear others

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A convicted murderer already on Florida’s death row for the 1998 slaying of one woman is now charged with a second killing that happened two weeks later, with investigators believing he may be tied to even more deaths. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that former mortician Lucious Boyd, 64, has been indicted for the murder of 41-year-old Eileen Truppner, a mother of two, a former businesswoman and native of Puerto Rico whose body was found along a highway west of Fort Lauderdale in December 1998. He is already facing execution for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 21-year-old nursing student Dawnia Dacosta earlier that month. Sheriff Gregory Tony, Detective Zack Scott and Capt. John Brown said that Truppner’s body had been unidentified until earlier this year when its DNA was matched to her family. DNA testing of evidence left by the killer matched Boyd, they said. “For 20 some years, there had been no justice, no ...

Regulator denies Trans Mountain’s pipeline variance request

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:51 GMT

CALGARY — The Canada Energy Regulator has denied a request by Trans Mountain Corp. for a variance on a section of pipeline in B.C.The Crown corporation had previously warned that if its request for a variance wasn’t granted, it may not be able to complete the Trans Mountain expansion project in time for an anticipated first-quarter 2024 start date.Trans Mountain Corp. had said it had run into construction issues in B.C. that would require it to use a different diameter, wall thickness and coating for a 2,300 metre section of pipeline.At a recent oral hearing, Trans Mountain Corp. said that being denied the variance could add an additional 55 to 60 days to the project’s construction schedule.The Canada Energy Regulator says it will issue its reasons for denying the variance at a later date.Several oil shippers who use the Trans Mountain pipeline had expressed concerns about the possibility of a potential delay in the pipeline’s start date.This report by The Canadian...