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Hundreds in Puerto Rico protest proposed increase in electricity bills

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hundreds of people including religious leaders, economists, teachers and retirees on Wednesday protested a proposed increase to already high electric bills that a growing number of people in the U.S. territory are struggling to pay.The crowd marched toward the governor’s mansion, where they hoisted Puerto Rican flags up high and held up signs warning that an increase in power bills would lead to an unsustainable rise in the island’s already expensive cost of living.The proposed increase is part of a debt restructuring plan to pull Puerto Rico’s power company out of bankruptcy, an effort that has failed multiple times as bondholders threaten to sue to recuperate their investments. If approved, the current residential rate of 25 cents per kilowatt hour would nearly double over the span of 30 years.A federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy process held a hearing Wednesday on the issue after delaying approval of the proposed debt restructuring pl...

Utah woman accused of killing husband after writing book about grief is sued for over $13 million

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY — A lawsuit against a Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death and now stands accused of his fatal poisoning was filed Tuesday, seeking over $13 million in damages for alleged financial wrongdoing before and after his death.The lawsuit was filed against Kouri Richins in state court by Katie Richins, the sister of Kouri Richins’ late husband Eric Richins. It accuses the woman of taking money from the husband’s bank accounts, diverting money intended to pay his taxes and obtaining a fradulent loan, among other things, before his death in March 2022. Kouri Richins has been charged with murder in her late husband’s death. “Kouri committed the foregoing acts in calculated, systematic fashion and for no reason other than to actualize a horrific endgame — to conceal her ruinous debt, misappropriate assets for the benefit of her personal businesses, orchestrate Eric’s demise, and profit from his pas...

‘Presumed human remains’ found in wreckage of Titan submersible: U.S. Coast Guard

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

The U.S. Coast Guard says it has likely recovered human remains from the wreckage of the Titan submersible and is bringing the evidence back to the United States.The submersible imploded last week, killing all five people on board. The vessel was on a voyage to see the wreck of the Titanic.Debris from the Titan submersible was returned to land Wednesday. The return of the debris to port in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, is a key piece of the investigation into why the submersible imploded.In a statement late Wednesday, the Coast Guard said it had recovered debris and evidence from the sea floor, and that included what it described as presumed human remains.“I am grateful for the coordinated international and interagency support to recover and preserve this vital evidence at extreme offshore distances and depths,” U.S. Coast Guard Chief Capt. Jason Neubauer said in a statement.“The evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdic...

Mississippi farms pay overdue wages for favoring immigrants over local Black workers, agency says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Forty-four farms in Mississippi exploited local Black workers by paying higher wages to immigrants who were in the United States on temporary work visas, the U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday.The department announced it completed investigations that it began last year in the rural flatlands of the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest areas of the U.S.The 44 farms include catfish growers and operations that raise crops such as rice, soybeans and corn. They have paid $505,540 in back wages for 161 workers, plus $341,838 in civil penalties, the department said.“The outcome of these investigations confirms that employers in the Mississippi Delta denied a large number of marginalized farmworkers their lawful wages, and in some cases, violated the rights of U.S. workers by giving temporary guest workers preferential treatment,” said Audrey Hall, district director of the Wage and Hour Division in Jackson, Mississippi.The Labor Department announced its findings six...

Mets owner Steve Cohen considering trade deadline selloff, but Showalter, Eppler safe through season

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Mets owner Steven Cohen threatened his underperforming team with the prospect of a trade deadline selloff unless New York gets back into contention for a playoff berth, while promising job security through the season’s end to manager Buck Showalter and general manager Billy Eppler.“All is not lost yet, but it’s getting late,” Cohen said during a news conference Wednesday with the Mets in fourth place in the NL East. “I’m preparing my management team for all possibilities. If we don’t get better, we have decisions to make at the trade deadline, and that’s not my preferred end result but I’m preparing all contingencies. “And we’ll see where it goes. It’s on the players, right?” Cohen continued. “They’re veterans. They’ve been there before. These are players who have done it, and we’ll see if they can get their act together and string together some wins. I can’t pitch and I can’t hit. Th...

The number of Kansas residents officially changing genders quadrupled this year ahead of a new law

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Four times as many Kansans changed their gender on birth certificates and driver’s licenses this year ahead of a new state law that prevents residents from identifying themselves differently than the sex assigned them at birth.The legislation is part of a raft of measures lawmakers across the U.S. have passed to roll back transgender rights. It has provisions meant to restrict transgender people’s use of restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities and applies to a person’s identity listed on state documents.The Kansas law takes effect Saturday, but it’s not yet clear how it will play out in the daily lives of transgender people. The new legislation conflicts with a 2019 federal court order directing the state to allow transgender people to change their birth certificates.Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who vetoed the law but was overridden by the Republican-controlled Legislature, hasn’t said whether she will have state agencies continue to allow change...

Rapper Quando Rondo bonds out of jail after arrest on drug, gang charges in Georgia

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Rapper Quando Rondo has bonded out of jail after he was indicted on drug and gang charges in his hometown of Savannah.Court records show a judge granted a $100,000 bond for the 24-year-old rapper, whose given name is Tyquian Terrel Bowman. He was released Monday, according to the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.A grand jury indicted him along with 18 others on June 14. The indictment charged Bowman with four counts, including being a manager of an illegal street gang known as “Rollin’ 60s.” Other charges allege Bowman conspired with others to distribute marijuana and to buy pills of the opioid hydrocodone. His lawyer Jonah Pine said he is “extraordinarily grateful” that the rapper has been released on bond and declined to comment further.The rapper’s singles “I Remember” and “ABG” led to a deal with Atlantic Records, which released his debut album, “QPac,” in 2020. His follow-up album, “Recovery,” came out in March.The Associated Press

Montana Superfund town’s health clinic accused of submitting false asbestos claims

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A major U.S. railroad found liable for spreading hazardous asbestos that killed hundreds of people in a Montana town tried to convince a federal jury during closing arguments Wednesday that a local clinic submitted more than 1,000 asbestos claims for people who weren’t sick, earning them government benefits and bilking taxpayer funds.The case focuses on the Center For Asbestos Related Disease in Libby, Montana, and the health clinic’s high-profile doctor, Brad Black, who has been at the forefront of efforts to help residents of the town, which came to national prominence when it was declared a deadly Superfund site in 2000.Since 2003, Black and the CARD clinic have certified more than 3,400 people, primarily from the Libby area, with asbestos-related diseases, according to court documents.BNSF Railway — controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate — alleged during a trial in Missoula that more than half the certifications we...

World entering ‘period of uncertainty’ as AI makes advances: Hinton

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

TORONTO — The so-called ‘godfather of artificial intelligence’ said the world is entering a period of huge uncertainty as the technology he pioneered gets even smarter, more ubiquitous and in need of people working to counter its risks.“We have to take seriously the possibility that they get to be smarter than us, which seems quite likely, and they have goals of their own, which seems quite likely,” Geoffrey Hinton said at the Collision tech conference in Toronto on Wednesday.“They may well develop the goal of taking control, and if they do that we’re in trouble.”Hinton, who won the A.M. Turing Award, known as the Nobel Prize of computing, in 2018 with Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun, has been ringing alarm bells about AI for months as it has been adopted by more companies in the wake of ChatGPT’s creation.The generative AI chatbot capable of humanlike conversations and tasks was developed by San Francisco-based OpenAI and joins an AI rac...

How to keep your pets safe from wildfire smoke

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:06:49 GMT

As wildfire smoke makes an expected but unwelcome comeback to Toronto, it’s important to take precautions not only for ourselves but for our furry friends as well.Smoke can pose serious health risks to pets, just as it does to humans, and the Toronto Humane Society (THS) is providing some guidelines on how to keep them safe.“The first really important thing is just to stay informed,” says Greg Ratelle from THS. “[Make sure we’re] following Environment Canada, making sure we understand when air quality is the worst and then making sound decisions for our little ones,” he says.Pets need the same protection as humans, so staying indoors as much as possible, closing doors and windows and using air purifiers will be beneficial for them as well. But while animals like cats, rabbits and hamsters may fare well without outdoor activities, dogs must be walked.Ratelle offers the following tips to keep them safe if you must go outside:Reduce exposure by taking shor...