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Striking auto workers and Detroit companies appear to make progress in contract talks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Meaningful progress has been made in negotiations between the striking United Auto Workers union and Detroit’s three auto companies, according to a person with direct knowledge of the talks.The person said Wednesday that progress was reported at all three companies, with some offers being exchanged. Another said there was more movement in talks with Jeep maker Stellantis, with less at Ford and General Motors. Neither person wanted to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the bargaining.Union President Shawn Fain will update members Friday on bargaining toward bringing to an end the nearly 3-week-old strikes against the companies. It wasn’t clear exactly what Fain will announce as part of the union’s strategy of targeted strikes against the companies, with automakers perceived as making progress in the talks being spared additional job actions.But the report of progress raises the possibility that the union may decide not to e...

Canadian oil output to hit new heights within two years: Report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

CALGARY — The coming startup of the Trans Mountain pipeline will help boost Canadian oil production to an all-time high within the next two years, according to a new report.The report by Deloitte Canada said the extra capacity created by the currently ongoing pipeline expansion is expected to boost Canadian production by about 375,000 barrels a day over the next two years.That represents an eight per cent increase from the previous production high set in November 2022, and a nearly nine per cent increase from the 4.18 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil that Canada produced in June of this year — the most recent month for which statistics are available through the Canadian Centre for Energy Information.“The increase in volume is notable: it’s greater than the total amount added to Canada’s production levels over the past five years combined,” the report said.The Trans Mountain pipeline is Canada’s only pipeline system transporting oil from Alberta to the West Coas...

Jury sees FTX ads with Tom Brady, Larry David, as fraud case is rolled out against Sam Bankman-Fried

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Splashy advertisements featuring football star Tom Brady and comedian Larry David were among the first evidence seen by jurors Wednesday as prosecutors launched a historic fraud case against cryptocurrency maven Sam Bankman-Fried, depicting him as a villain who portrayed himself as the Robin Hood of the crypto world.Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Rehn said in his opening statement in Manhattan federal court that it was only a year ago that Bankman-Fried seemed to be “on top of the world,” operating the multibillion dollar company he founded, FTX, a seemingly pioneering cryptocurrency trading platform.Rehn said the 31-year-old lived in a $30 million apartment in the Bahamas, jetted around the world on private planes, socialized with celebrities and spent billions of dollars as he flaunted power and made big political donations to gain influence in Washington over cryptocurrency regulation.The prosecutor, though, said that the son of two Stanford law professors was not...

Rare US bison roundup rustles up hundreds to maintain health of the species

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

South Dakota cowboys and cowgirls rounded up a herd of more than 1,500 bison Friday as part of an annual effort to maintain the health of the species, which has rebounded from near-extinction. Visitors from across the world cheered from behind wire fencing as whooping horseback riders chased the thundering, wooly giants across hills and grasslands in Custer State Park. Bison and their calves stopped occasionally to graze on blond grass and roll on the ground, their sharp hooves stirring up dust clouds. “How many times can you get this close to a buffalo herd?” said South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Secretary Kevin Robling, who was among 50 riders herding the animals. “You hear the grunts and the moans and (see) the calves coming and running alongside mamas.”Each year Custer State Park holds one of the nation’s few bison roundups to check the health of the bison and vaccinate calves, park Superintendent Matt Snyder said. As many as 60 million bison, sometimes called buffalo in the U....

Hunter Biden prosecutors move to drop old gun count after plea deal collapse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors who filed firearms charges against Hunter Biden moved Wednesday to formally dismiss a gun count that had been part of a collapsed plea deal.The procedural step removes a charge alleging he broke a law against drug users having guns when he bought a gun in 2018, during a period he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. The president’s son is now facing a three-count indictment focused on the same purchase that includes both gun possession and false statement charges. No new tax counts have yet been filed by special counsel David Weiss, who is overseeing the case. Hunter Biden had been expected to avoid prosecution on the gun charge and plead guilty to misdemeanor tax counts in an agreement with prosecutors. But the deal collapsed after a judge raised questions about it in a July hearing and the new indictment was filed weeks later. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday as the case moves toward a potential trial with the 2024 e...

New York to allow ‘X’ gender option for public assistance applicants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — New Yorkers will soon be able to choose an “X” gender option when applying for food stamps, Medicaid and other public assistance, under a court settlement Wednesday.The agreement settles a 2021 lawsuit against multiple government agencies that claimed the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance’s computer system compels nonbinary people to either lie under oath by declaring themselves as male or female or be denied benefits.Under the settlement, the state’s public assistance and health agencies will make “X” gender markers available on applicable forms by Jan. 1. It will allow the New York City Human Resources Administration to offer “X” gender markers on forms before Jan. 1, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which bought the lawsuit on behalf of several plaintiffs.“This is a major victory for the thousands of nonbinary New Yorkers who will be able to seek public benefits without being forced to lie about their identity or risk ...

Youngkin administration says it’s fixing issue that improperly removed some voters from the rolls

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration said this week, with early voting underway, that it is working to fix an issue that misclassified probation violations as felonies and has led to an unknown number of eligible Virginians being removed from the voter rolls.State election officials are working with Virginia State Police to identify voters whose registration “may have been canceled in error” and begin the process of having those people reinstated, Andrea Gaines, a spokeswoman for the Department of Elections, said in a statement Wednesday. “We are taking great care to identify each person affected and working to reinstate their registration immediately,” said Susan Beals, commissioner of the Department of Elections.Gaines said that as part of the routine process of keeping an up-to-date voter list, the department receives a monthly file from Virginia State Police containing felony convictions. In Virginia, a felony conviction automatically results in the lo...

Kevin McCarthy was an early architect of the Republican majority that became his downfall

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The day before he was ousted, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was doing what he loved — stopping to greet tourists at the Capitol, gushing about the beauty of the place and its history at the center of American democracy.On Wednesday, McCarthy’s House was shuttered, his Republican majority in chaos and unable to legislate for the foreseeable future, with grave ramifications for the U.S. experiment in governing. With no speaker of the House, a constitutional officer second in line to the presidency, the Congress cannot fully function — to pass laws, fund the government and otherwise serve as the branch of government closest to the people — during a time of simmering uncertainty at home and abroad.“A democracy relies on its legislative branch — it’s the most important branch of any democratic government,” said Matthew Green, an expert on Congress at Catholic University. “Without a speaker, you have real risk.”For McCarthy, it’s the end of the arc of hi...

Frustrations mount at City Hall over Johnson's handling of homelessness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

CHICAGO — Homelessness was the top item Wednesday on City Council’s agenda. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is proposing to raise the real estate transfer tax on properties sold for more than $1 million to create dedicated funding to combat homelessness. Long a priority of progressives, the tax would pour roughly $100 million more annually into homelessness programs. Mayor Johnson signs order to establish city’s first chief homelessness officer As the Council took up the matter, other items on Johnson’s agenda were delayed."You’re going to communicate with my community and me anytime you’re looking to put migrants that we don’t know who they are, what they are, how they are," said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward), speaking about the Johnson administration moving asylum seekers into his ward without prior notification. Furious that some are being housed at a police station that is also a sex offender registry, Beale used a procedural maneuver to send Mayor Johnson's priorities to the Ru...

How fire marshals, labor officials inspect safety of Illinois haunted houses

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:47 GMT

LOCKPORT, Ill. — Haunted house attractions are more popular than ever, with increasingly sophisticated pyrotechnics and special effects being commonplace all across today's scare park landscape, but how do state inspectors make sure they are safe before the public ventures in?According to inspectors with the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) and Chicagoland fire marshals, the bedrock of haunted houses getting the green light for operation is making sure employee training and safety permits are up to snuff.“We do create this world of make-believe," said John LaFlamboy from Hell's Gate Haunted House in Lockport. "It looks like chaos, but the goal is to have an organized and safe facility.”According to LaFlamboy, state safety guidelines require haunted house operators to know everything from where to place a fire extinguisher and emergency exits, to how to deal with an unruly customer, and how to handle a medical situation — but the process of getting everything in place starts by ta...