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Biden is set to mark the anniversary of his signing of a major climate, health and tax law

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is ramping up its efforts to illustrate the real-world impact of President Joe Biden’s signature climate, health care and tax law by showing how various Americans say they’ve benefited from his economic policies on the anniversary of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.At a White House event Wednesday afternoon to celebrate a year since he signed the bill, Biden will stand alongside people — from union workers to small business owners to consumers — who the White House says have been aided by the law. That sweeping package, along with the bipartisan infrastructure law and a massive bill that bolsters production of semiconductor chips, make up the core of what the White House has branded “Bidenomics.” It’s aggressively promoting the concept as Biden seeks to improve his standing with voters amid his re-election campaign.Before the East Room event, the administration is rolling out a new online tool on invest.gov that relays stories from...

Pembroke Pines Police searching for escaped prisoner

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

Authorities are searching for a 32-year-old man who escaped from custody at South Florida State Hospital around midnight. Jeremiah Garza is a white male, and stands at 5’9″ with shoulder-length dark hair and was seen wearing a red and black striped shirt, camouflage pants and a brown coat.https://twitter.com/PPinesPD/status/1691813388836299144?s=20According to Pembroke Pines Police, Garza is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and residents should not approach him. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is urged to call 911 or 954-431-2200.

Australian surfers ‘stoked to be alive’ as they heap praise on Indonesia rescuers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

(CNN) — Four Australian surfers who were saved after 38 hours at sea have spoken publicly for the first time after their miraculous rescue, thanking those involved in the operation, as the search continues for one more person still missing.Australians Steph Weisse, Will Teagle, Jordan Short and Elliot Foote, and two unnamed Indonesian nationals were found floating on their surfboards on Tuesday morning. They had gone missing Sunday off the Sumatran coast in western Indonesia, after their boat was struck by a storm.According to their families, the four Australians were on a surf trip in Indonesia to celebrate Foote’s 30th birthday. One Indonesian among the group remains missing.“We’re really happy to be back on land now, dry, hydrated, fed, back with our friends,” said Foote in a video supplied to CNN by a spokesperson for the families. The video shows all four Australians sitting outdoors surrounded by greenery, some still just wearing their swimwear.Teagle chimed in, saying he was ...

Column: How can the White Sox get back on track? Follow the Cubs’ game plan and clean house for 2024.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

The Chicago Cubs and White Sox have traded places since the finale of the 2021 City Series, when the Sox pummeled Kyle Hendricks in a 13-1 win at Guaranteed Rate Field for a three-game sweep.The ’21 Cubs, coming off their vaunted sell-off, went into that game on the South Side with a 6-20 record in August and the third-worst record in baseball since the All-Star break, ahead of only the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers. The Sox were 19 games over .500 with a 10-game lead in the American League Central.The future looked exceedingly bright for the Sox, while the Cubs were entering the rebuild that president Jed Hoyer wouldn’t call a rebuild.As Hendricks took the mound again Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, the Cubs were back in the hunt for a playoff spot for the first time in three years, while the Sox had the fourth-worst record in the game and were 14 1/2 games out of first, playing out the string after a mini sell-off of their own.Times flies whether you’re hav...

City Councilor Kendra Lara gets October date for a motion to dismiss hearing for June crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara was due in court this morning in connection to a June crash that left her son injured and a home in Jamaica Plain damaged.A lawyer for Lara entered a not guilty plea on her behalf to traffic charges stemming from the crash at a hearing in July after a police report said she was speeding down Centre Street, crashed into a house, and endangered her son by not putting him in a car seat.The hearing only set the next court date for a defense motion to dismiss scheduled for Oct. 20 at 9 a.m.Lara previously said she was committed to seeing the legal process through.“I have faith and trust in the court process and I will continue to go through it as is required of me,” Lara said after her arraignment. “My commitment right now and my focus is continuing to represent my constituents in District Six and making sure that I’m representing them in the best way that I can.”Lara is scheduled for a pretrial hearing in West Roxbury Municipal Court, according to the c...

Tropical storm causes heat warnings and high surf in San Diego

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A tropical storm off the coast of Baja California is causing a strange weather pattern blowing through the county. National Weather Service experts are warning of a heatwave posing fire threats, followed by possible flooding in the foothills. “The door is open, and what I mean by that is the weather pattern is set up,” said Alex Tardy with the National Weather Service. Results: District 4 Supervisor special election A regional heat wave covering the northwest is also threatening the power system with a possible flex alert, but San Diego is not expected to suffer like northern California and Oregon. “Ongoing warm temperatures, fire weather threat but then it rains and the rain could be widespread. And yes, we are concerned with flooding, and we could see that as early as this weekend or next week,” said Tardy. Cal Fire crews are now on standby to handle whatever is to come. “We try to jump on these fires are quickly as we can. We send the full ground resources and ful...

Testimony starts in trial of 2 white Mississippi men in shooting at Black FedEx driver

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — Witnesses began testifying Wednesday in the trial of two white men in Mississippi who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home.Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Charles Case, are charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle driven by D’Monterrio Gibson in January 2022. Gibson, who was 24 at the time, was not injured. But the chase and gunfire led to complaints on social media of racism in Brookhaven, about an hour’s drive south of the state capital, Jackson. District Attorney Dee Bates told the majority-white jury in his opening statement Tuesday that Gibson made deliveries for FedEx on Jan. 24, 2022, while driving a rental van with the Hertz logo on three sides. Gibson dropped off a package at a home on a dead-end road, Bates said. Gregory Case then used a pickup truck to try to block the van from leaving, and Brandon Case came outside with a gun, the...

Dozens of Senegalese migrants are dead or missing after their boat is rescued with 38 survivors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A boat believed to have departed Senegal with more than 100 migrants in early July has been rescued with 38 survivors and several dead on board near the Atlantic island nation of Cabo Verde, authorities and migrant advocates said.Senegal’s foreign affairs ministry said the boat was rescued Tuesday by the coast guard in Cabo Verde, an island nation about 620 kilometers (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa. Authorities did not confirm how many migrants died, or what caused the trip to fail.The Spanish migration advocacy group Walking Borders said the vessel was a large fishing boat, called a pirogue, which had left Senegal on July 10 with more than 100 migrants on board.Families in Fass Boye, a seaside town 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital Dakar, had reached out to Walking Borders on July 20 after ten days without hearing from loved ones on the boat, group founder Helena Maleno Garzón said.Cheikh Awa Boye, president of the local fishermen’s asso...

Ontario college faculty get salary boost after Bill 124 struck down

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

College faculty members represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union will be receiving an additional 6.5 per cent in salary increases over three years.They are the latest group of public sector workers to see their pay boosted due to an Ontario court finding a provincial wage restraint law known as Bill 124 unconstitutional.The Progressive Conservative government’s 2019 law capped salary increases for broader public sector workers’ next set of contracts at one per cent a year for three years.The government appealed after the court declared the law unconstitutional last year, but in the meantime many workers have been awarded additional wages due to “reopener” clauses in their contracts that were triggered when the law was struck down.RELATED: Ontario hospital nurses awarded additional pay after Bill 124 struck downThe 16,000 full-time and partial-load college faculty represented by OPSEU will now be receiving wage increases of three per cent in e...

Social worker charged with multiple counts of sexual assault in Durham

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:48 GMT

A 41-year-old male social worker is facing sexual assault and sexual exploitation charges in Durham Region.Durham police’s special victim’s unit arrested the male after a youth reported that their social worker had been inappropriately touching them.Between June and July of this year, the suspect would allegedly pick up the victim in his personal car for their sessions, and on various occasions, the suspect touched the victim inappropriately. The suspect is a social worker for the Durham District School Board and Durham Alternative Secondary School.Shahzad Khan, 41, of Kleinburg, was charged with three counts of sexual assault and three counts of sexual exploitation.He was released on an undertaking.