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Veto of Kansas bill on trans athletes sets up override fight

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas bill banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly for the third year in a row Friday, setting up a hotly contested fight in the Republican-controlled Legislature to override her.Kelly’s action was expected because of her two previous vetoes. Kansas Republicans made Kelly’s vetoes a major issue in multiple television attack ads when she ran for reelection last year, winning narrowly. The governor said in her veto message that the bill would harm students’ mental health and hurt the state’s efforts to recruit businesses. Kelly also said lawmakers should leave the issue to the state association set up decades ago to run student activities in middle and high schools.“Let’s be clear what this bill is all about — politics,” Kelly wrote. “It won’t increase any test scores. It won’t help any kids read or write. It won’t help any teachers prepare our kids for the re...

Trudeau strikes out at Tories for questioning personal ties with special rapporteur

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau accused his Conservative rival of trying to score political points at the expense of Canadian democracy on Friday by questioning his personal relationship with former governor general David Johnston.The attack came during an event in Guelph, Ont., two days after Trudeau tapped Johnston as special rapporteur responsible for investigating claims of Chinese meddling in the last two federal elections.While the focus of the event was the launch of a $4-billion affordable-housing fund, the prime minister found himself delivering a full-throated defence of Johnston’s appointment in the face of opposition attacks.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has accused Trudeau and Johnston of being too close, noting the prime minister has previously called them family friends. Johnston is also involved in the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.Asked by reporters about their relationship, Trudeau defended the former governor general, who was appointed to the viceregal ro...

Ottawa requests joint ‘working group’ on oilsands contamination with Alberta

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has further spelled out what he wants to see in a new body that would oversee monitoring and communications around pollution problems in the oilsands. In a letter dated March 16 to his Alberta counterpart Sonya Savage, Guilbeault said the new federal-provincial-Indigenous group would look at a wide variety of issues stemming from releases of tailings pond water from Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine. Although Savage has agreed to a new joint body, Guilbeault’s proposal seems to go farther than what she suggests.“I am proposing the establishment of a joint federal-provincial-Indigenous working group, with participation from the oil companies, to give transparency to all parties involved by meeting on a regular basis to discuss remediation and containment plans, as well as notifications for ongoing incidents of spill or seepage,” Guilbeault wrote in the letter.“A communication protocol should be established,” h...

S&P/TSX down Friday as markets continue to grapple with bank collapses

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index closed down over 150 points Friday, with U.S. indexes also posting losses, as the globe continued to grapple with a crisis of confidence in the financial system triggered by two U.S. bank failures. “This crisis was a bit of a sucker-punch to the market,” said Pierre-Benoît Gauthier, assistant vice-president of investment strategy at IG Wealth Management.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 151.29 points at 19,387.72, and closed out the week down almost two per cent as oil prices tanked. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 384.57 points, or 1.2 per cent, at 31,861.98.The S&P 500 index was down 43.64 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 3,916.64, while the Nasdaq composite was down 86.76 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 11,630.51.Investors flocked to gold, a historical safe haven, noted Gauthier, and gold prices rose steadily amid the chaos, nearing US$2,000 on Friday. Meanwhile, investors with a diversified portfolio were shored ...

Stocks fall to cap chaotic week driven by fears about banks

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A whipsaw week for Wall Street closed with drops for stocks Friday as worries worsened about the banking industry and fears rose that it could drag the economy into a recession. The S&P 500 sank 1.1%, cutting into its gain for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 384 points, or 1.2%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.7%. Markets around the world churned this past week as worries rose following the second- and third-largest U.S. bank failures in history. Just a day earlier, markets rallied in relief after two banks in investors’ crosshairs bolstered their cash holdings. But on Friday, some of the hope washed out, and the pair went back to falling. In Switzerland, Credit Suisse shares dropped 8%. On Wall Street, shares of First Republic Bank sank nearly 33% to bring their plunge for the week to 71.8%. The two banks have different sets of issues challenging them, but the overriding fear is that the banking system may be cracking under the weight of ...

Mother: Irvo Otieno was ‘brilliant and creative and bright’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

Irvo Otieno had realized his passion: making hip-hop. He could write a song in less than five minutes. And he was streaming his music under the moniker “Young Vo,” while working toward starting his own record label. “He had found his thing — you know that feeling when you find your thing?” his mother Caroline Ouko told reporters Thursday. “He would go in his room and shut the door. And he had it — he was brilliant and creative and bright.” But, the mother added, “All I’m left with is his voice.” Ouko remembered her son’s life at an hourlong news conference that focused primarily on his death March 6 at a state mental hospital in Virginia.Ouko had just viewed video of Otieno’s final minutes as he was being admitted to Central State Hospital south of Richmond, during which she and her attorneys say sheriff’s deputies smothered him, pressing him down until his body was “clearly lifeless.” His arms and legs were bound, they said, but he posed no threat to the dep...

Citizenship oath at the click of a mouse would cheapen tradition: Tory critic

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

OTTAWA — The Conservative immigration critic says a proposal to allow people to become a Canadian citizen with the click of a mouse “cheapens” an otherwise special moment for newcomers. “Citizenship by click is not citizenship,” said Calgary MP Tom Kmiec. “They’re really cheapening citizenship purely for political motivation, to reduce their backlogs.”The federal government is seeking feedback on a plan to let people take the Oath of Citizenship online, rather than attend an officiated ceremony. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser first floated the idea in January 2022 as a way to speed up processing times, which would have someone “self-administer a digital oath by signed attestation, and celebrate their citizenship at a later date.”Yet the proposal published in the Canada Gazette late last month would instead allow someone to skip the ceremony entirely.Fraser did not specify why the proposal had changed, nor who came up with the i...

African land snails found in luggage at Michigan airport

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) — Six giant African land snails have been found in the luggage of a traveler who flew to Michigan from the west African country of Ghana.The mollusks, which can carry diseases that affect humans, were discovered and seized March 9 during an agriculture inspection at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday.The man transporting the snails is a resident of Ghana and said they were to be eaten. He was released without further actions.“It is not uncommon for travelers to bring food items from their native countries, which underscores the importance of the inspection process upon arrival to U.S. ports of entry,” Customs and Border Protection spokesman Steven Bansbach said. “This allows CBP officers and agriculture specialists the opportunity to determine whether these goods are permissible or not, while mitigating the potential for public health or environmental issues.”Giant African land snails are prohibited in Michigan...

Haiti PM turns to military for help in fighting gangs

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Prime Minister Ariel Henry signaled Friday that he wants to mobilize Haiti’s military to help the National Police fight the country’s increasingly powerful gangs.Henry said during an appearance at the Armed Forces headquarters that he intends to mobilize all of the country’s security forces in the fight against gang violence. His comments come as Haiti and some U.N. officials continue to press the international community to deploy foreign armed troops to help quell the widespread violenceJean Robenson Servilius, who works in the press office for Haiti’s Defense Ministry, confirmed to The Associated Press that officials are working on plans to activate the military. He said the Armed Forces currently have some 2,000 soldiers and that more are being recruited, adding that they’ve been trained by experts in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia.Robenson said he could not provide further details.Haiti’s military was disbanded in 1995 after it participated in multip...

Crash fugitive returned to Michigan, held on $1m bail

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:55 GMT

A woman accused of fleeing to Thailand after killing a Michigan State University student in a hit-and-run crash has been returned to Michigan and is being held on $1 million bail, authorities said Friday.I nvestigators believe Tubtim “Sue” Howson struck 22-year-old Benjamin Kable as he was walking on an Oakland County road before dawn on Jan 1. Kable was home for the holidays.Howson, 57, is a dual U.S. and Taiwanese citizen and left Michigan for Bangkok on Jan. 3. Authorities in Thailand took her into custody there. She was returned to the U.S. in February and held in San Francisco. The Oakland County Sheriff’s office said in a statement Friday that Howson was returned to Michigan on Wednesday. She was arraigned Friday in Oakland County on a charge of failing to stop at the scene of an accident and ordered held on $1 million bond. If she posts bond she would have to surrender her passport and driver’s license and would not be permitted to leave her home except for court appearances....