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It’s Day 20 with no House speaker, and lower-level names seek Trump’s support and race for the gavel

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

By LISA MASCARO (AP Congressional Correspondent)WASHINGTON (AP) — On Day 20 without a House speaker, Republicans found themselves starting over on Monday — bumbling ahead with few ideas about who will lead, what they are fighting over and when they will get Congress working again.Nine lower-level Republican lawmakers are now running to be speaker, leader of the House and second in line to the presidency — none with any clear shot for the gavel. Many of them are appealing to Donald Trump for support, but he is having little positive to say.“There’s only one person who can do it all the way: Jesus Christ,” he declared.Senior-most among the hopefuls is Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the former campaign chief who is now the GOP whip. The gruff former hockey coach is disliked by Trump, but the two had a polite call over the weekend.Trump speaking in Concord, N.H., on Monday, downplayed, even derided, Emmer, the third-ranking House Republican, presenting ...

Toronto health asking for $5.1 million to fight upcoming virus season

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

Toronto’s Board of Health is asking the city for an additional $5.1 million to add to their budget in order to prepare for the fall and winter virus season as COVID-19, RSV and flu cases are already popping up.Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, said the extra annual funding would be used for Infection Prevention and Control hubs that help prevent and mitigate the impacts of outbreaks, particularly in long-term care and retirement homes, shelters and group homes.“[The hubs] are absolutely crucial to the response particularly within congregate settings congregate living settings like long-term care homes, where people live together and where you have people who are at higher risk and how those hubs work,” said Dr. de Villa. She said they are expecting the extraordinary COVID-19 funding provided by the province for the last few years to wrap up despite the city still facing challenges.“This is the kind of thing that we anticipate is going to be need...

Ontario proposes to change consumer protections, double fines for businesses

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

Ontario plans to give people a new way to exit timeshare agreements, make it easier to get out of a gym membership, and prohibit businesses from making false claims about prize offers, under new legislation.Public and Business Service Delivery Minister Todd McCarthy introduced a new consumer protection bill Monday, saying the laws haven’t been comprehensively updated since 2005, and in that time practices have changed a lot, including the use of apps and increasing online shopping.McCarthy says most people know someone who has dealt with an unscrupulous business in the home renovations, appliance installation, and timeshare industries, and the rules need to be simpler, clearer and “reflective of a dynamic and increasingly digital-first marketplace.”The legislation would allow owners to exit a timeshare contract after 25 years, if they want — no mandatory exit right currently exists — and would also set new rules for long-term leases for heating, ventila...

Movie Review: ‘Persian Version’ finds laughter, tears in Iranian American tale of resilient women

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

Let nobody say writer-director Maryam Keshavarz doesn’t know how to start a movie.The first time we see Leila, her alter ego in the autobiographical, warm-hearted, personal, funny but also somewhat chaotic “The Persian Version,” she’s walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. Headed to a Halloween party, she’s carrying a surfboard and wearing what she calls a “burkini” — a sexy bikini, but paired with a niqab, the face-covering garment worn by some Muslim women.It’s surely not an accident that Leila is crossing a bridge, because her film (and Halloween costume) is about bridging two identities — her Iranian heritage, and her American life. Leila (an engaging Layla Mohammadi) is a New York born-and-raised aspiring screenwriter (she wants to be an Iranian Martin Scorsese) who, we learn, has never been fully comfortable in either world. American kids would call her names at school; Iranians saw her as too Americanized.There are other bridges to be crossed here, too. The most important ...

EPA proposes banning cancer-causing chemical used in automotive care and other products

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

WOBURN, Mass. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed banning the cancer-causing chemical trichloroethylene, which can be found in consumer products including automobile brake cleaners, furniture care and arts and crafts spray coating. The move would end a nearly four decade battle to ban the chemical known as TCE, which can cause sudden death or kidney cancer if a person is exposed to high levels of it, and other neurological harm even at lower exposure over a long period.EPA’s recent risk-evaluation studies found that as much as 250 million pounds of TCE are still produced in the United States annually. One of the first places the chemical raised concern was in Massachusetts, where it was linked to contaminated drinking water in the city of Woburn. Two locations there were ultimately designated as massive Superfund sites. Monday’s news conference was held at one of them, a location which now serves as a transportation center.“For far too long, TCE ...

Man wounds himself after Georgia officers seek to question him about 4 jail escapees, sheriff says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

MACON, Ga. (AP) — A man shot and wounded himself Monday when officers sought to question him about four escapees from a Georgia jail, authorities said.Bibb County Sheriff David Davis told reporters deputies got a tip about a man who might have information about the escapes.“Let me make that clear– he is not one of our escapees,” Davis told reporters. “But he is a person that we feel has knowledge of where they might be, that has knowledge of the escape, and who has some connection to at least one or two of the people we’re looking for.”The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force went to a Macon apartment, but when officers knocked on the door, someone shot through the door from inside, Davis said. When a SWAT team arrived, they found the man wounded, apparently having shot himself, the sheriff said.Davis said no officers fired their guns. He did not say anything about how seriously wounded the man was.Officers took a second person at the apartment into custody for questi...

Former NSA worker pleads guilty to trying to sell US secrets Russia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

DENVER (AP) — A former National Security Agency employee from Colorado pleaded guilty Monday to trying to sell classified information to Russia. Federal prosecutors agreed to not ask for more than about 22 years in prison for Jareh Sebastian Dalke when he is sentenced in April, but the judge will ultimately decide the punishment.Dalke, a 31-year-old Army veteran from Colorado Springs, had faced a possible life sentence for giving the information to an undercover FBI agent who prosecutors say Dalke believed was a Russian agent.Dalke pleaded guilty during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore. He only spoke in answer to questions from Moore about whether he understood the terms of the deal. He acknowledged that he has been taking medications for mental illness while being held in custody for about a year. Dalke was arrested on Sept. 28, 2022, after authorities say he arrived at Denver’s downtown train station with a laptop and used a secure connection set up by investigat...

Pentagon rushes defenses, advisers to Middle East as Israel’s ground assault in Gaza looms

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has sent military advisers, including a Marine Corps general versed in urban warfare, to Israel to aid in its war planning and is speeding multiple sophisticated air defense systems to the Middle East days ahead of an anticipated ground assault into Gaza. One of the officers leading the assistance is Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Glynn, who previously helped lead special operations forces against the Islamic State and served in Fallujah, Iraq, during some of the most heated urban combat there, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss Glynn’s role and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Glynn will also be advising on how to mitigate civilian casualties in urban warfare, the official said. Israel is preparing a large-scale ground operation in an environment in which Hamas militants have had years to prepare tunnel networks and set traps throughout northern Gaza’s dense urban blocks. Glynn and the other military officers who are...

North Dakota lawmakers begin special session to fix budget invalidated by Supreme Court

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature began a special session Monday to redo a key budget bill the state Supreme Court voided last month, leaving a giant hole in government operations.Lawmakers quickly began hearings on 14 bills for restoring the provisions of the major budget bill voided by the high court, which invalidated the bill as unconstitutional because it violated a single-subject requirement for bills. The bill has traditionally been used as a catch-all or cleanup bill, passed at the end of the biennial session.Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, who is running for president,urged the Legislature to take up other items using higher-than-forecasted excess state tax revenue. Those include $91 million for expanding a previous income tax cut, $50 million for infrastructure projects and $20 million to expand a tourism attraction grant program the governor said has drawn great interest.Burgum told reporters that his proposals “are just adding appropriat...

Mary Lou Retton is home after stay in ICU, daughter says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:33 GMT

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — Former Olympic gymnast and West Virginia native Mary Lou Retton is back home after a several-week stay in intensive care with a rare form of pneumonia.On Monday, one of her daughters, McKenna Kelley, announced on Instagram that Retton is in "recovery mode."Retton, 55, had been in the ICU at a Texas hospital since early October. Her family said she couldn't breathe on her own when she was initially hospitalized."We still have a long road of recovery ahead of us, but baby steps," Kelley said in the post. Retton has had several ups and downs with her recovery during her stay in the ICU, according to updates from her daughters, but this is the first major change that her family has announced. Baby born at NFL stadium during Sunday’s game A crowdfund to help "America's sweetheart" with her medical bills has raised more than $450,000 as of Oct. 23, with more than 8,000 donors."We are overwhelmed with the love and support from everyone. Grateful doesn't scrape...