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Explore an uninhabited California island for one day or 10

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

You don’t have to travel to the South Pacific to entertain dreams of desert islands. There’s a chain of  uninhabited islands — Santa Cruz, Anacapa, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara and San Miguel — just off the coast of California, all easily reachable for a day’s jaunt, an overnight or more. No shipwrecks or Robinson Crusoe shenanigans required.The five islands of Channel Island National Park are accessible only by boat, with ferries from Ventura Harbor Village available to transport the 100,000 or so guests who visit each year. No hotels — this isn’t Catalina, after all — but each island has campsites where you can pitch your pop-up tent or sleep under the stars. If you’re willing to truly unplug and spend an overnight away from it all, you’ll experience a quiet solitude unlike any other.Start your adventure at the Channel Islands National Park Visitors Center in Ventura Harbor Village, where Island Packers offers island access cruises of one to three hours, depending on which island you...

Passenger charged with hiding camera in cruise ship restroom

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A passenger on a Caribbean cruise has been arrested after a hidden camera with video of dozens of people, including children, was discovered in a public restroom, officials said.Jeremy Froias was arrested last Wednesday in Puerto Rico and charged with video voyeurism and attempted possession of child exploitation material, according to court documents.According to a criminal complaint filed in San Juan federal court, Froias boarded Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas in Miami on April 29 for a seven-day cruise. The ship was set to make land calls at Sint Maarten, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas before returning to Miami this past Saturday.A day after the voyage began while the ship was in international waters, Froias put a hidden Wi-Fi camera in a public restroom on the ship’s top deck between a surfing simulator and a bar, officials said. A day after that, another passenger spotted the camera and alerted the ship’s crew.“The matter was immedia...

Review: In ‘Still,’ Michael J. Fox movingly tells his story

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

I’ve always liked Michael J. Fox and always will. I suspect most people feel the same way. That’s surely partly because, as Marty McFly in “Back to the Future” and Alex P. Keaton in “Family Ties,” Fox was a fixture of so many childhoods. But there’s also a way that Fox remains forever boyish — a charming pipsqueak, a plucky kid with a touch less confidence than he lets on. His sheer geniality and universal appeal has remained indomitable, even in the face of a degenerative brain disorder. “I’m a cockroach,” Fox says in Davis Guggenheim’s glossy, entertaining and often affecting documentary, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.” In Guggenheim’s film, Fox recounts his life, career and arduous battle with Parkinson’s disease, with which he was diagnosed at age 29. The documentary, debuting Friday on Apple TV+, does this through candid on-camera interviews with Fox along with narration read by the actor. And while there’s footage here of ...

SNC-Lavalin stock soars as it looks to U.S. for growth, and M&As — eventually

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

MONTREAL — SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. sees the United States as ripe with growth potential in energy and infrastructure, key areas that helped the company swing to a profit last quarter — and sent its stock skyward.In the three months ended March 31, SNC rode its engineering services and nuclear divisions to net earnings nearly 15 per cent higher than a year earlier. The former segment boosted its backlog 25 per cent to a record $4.8 billion, while nuclear tacked on almost $1 billion more, lengthening its order list by 23 per cent.The fresh figures Tuesday pushed up the company’s share price by $3.90 or 12.2 per cent to close at $35.88 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The jump marked a nearly 47 per cent increase from a year earlier.SNC hopes to seize on its recent successes with further growth via mergers and acquisitions, particularly south of the border — but not immediately — said CEO Ian Edwards.“We continue to achieve record-high backlog in this growing market. Our posit...

Discord forces members to change usernames, discord erupts

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The social app Discord, a favorite of gamers, inadvertently stirred internal strife after announcing last week that it will force its millions of members to pick new usernames. Now the question is whether that the change will escalate into all-out warfare that could include players threatening one another in order to seize control of popular names.The issue may sound trivial compared to real-life concerns such as mass shootings and killer storms. But it’s a big deal for people who rely on the mid-sized social network to recruit fellow gamers, swap virtual weapons and organize strategy in multiplayer games. A Reddit thread on the change drew more than 4,000 comments, the vast majority of them angry or at least unhappy. Discord, which says it has 150 million monthly active users, has no plans to reconsider the new policy, according to a spokesman.WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH DISCORD USERNAMES?Discord users have long been free to choose any name they wanted, even one...

S&P/TSX composite closes flat Tuesday, U.S. markets move lower

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index was flat Tuesday, reversing minor losses from earlier in the day, while U.S. markets moved lower. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.58 points at 20,585.73.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 56.88 points at 33,561.81. The S&P 500 index was down 18.95 points at 4,119.17,while the Nasdaq composite was down 77.37 points at 12,179.55.Markets started the day down as they reacted to new data overnight showing that China’s economic rebound continues to disappoint, said Ian Chong, associate portfolio manager for First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc. Exports grew at a slower pace and imports shrank faster, and analysts said Chinese exports are expected to weaken this year. The new data “raises concerns about how China’s economic recovery post-COVID lockdown may not be as strong or as resilient as hoped,” said Chong.“I think that kind of started the day off on a weak footing.” Oil, which has been sensitive to Chinese econo...

What is Title 42 and how has US used it to curb migration?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — This week marks the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants at the southern border for the last three years. The restrictions are often referred to as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law that allows curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health. The end of Title 42’s use has raised questions about what will happen with migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Biden administration is preparing for an increase in migrants.A look at what Title 42 is and why it matters: HOW DID IT START?In March 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order limiting migration, saying it was necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Schools and businesses were closing their doors and hospitals were filling with patients. President Donald Trump was looking for ways to curtail immigration — his signature political issue.The order authorized Cu...

Perimeter guards absent as 2 men escaped Philadelphia prison

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — There were no corrections officers assigned specifically to watch the housing unit of a Philadelphia prison when two inmates escaped Sunday night, and no armed perimeter guards were on duty as the men broke through the prison’s fence, a correctional officers union official told The Associated Press on Tuesday.Days later, authorities are still searching for the two men — including one who is facing charges in four murders. The men were gone for nearly 19 hours before officials knew they were missing from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center.The city’s prison department is so understaffed that they have not had the armed perimeter guards on duty during that specific nighttime shift for eight or nine months, said David Robinson, president of the public service employees union’s District 33 Council that represents the correctional officers.When the prison is fully staffed, two corrections officers would be assigned to each housing unit. But wit...

Mayor Lightfoot issues emergency declaration over migrant arrivals

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot has issued an emergency declaration in response to the ongoing influx of migrants from Texas.Police sources told WGN News as of Tuesday — there are nearly 500 migrants staying in police station lobbies across the city."All City Department Heads are directed to undertake whatever efforts are feasible pursuant to their powers and duties, and to direct their employees accordingly, to manage thisdeclared emergency," part of the declaration reads.In Section 3, Lightfoot reserves the authority to request the mobilization of the Illinois National Guard by Gov. Pritzker.The local crisis began after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott started to send migrants to Chicago and other cities last year.At the end of April, Mayor Lightfoot wrote a letter to Texas Gov. Abbott, stating in part, “We simply have no more shelters, spaces, or resources to accommodate an increase of individuals at this level.”"We have reached a breaking point in our response to this humanitarian crisis p...

Video shows bat-wielding woman attack women with stroller in Albany Park

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

CHICAGO — Two women were attacked with a bat Tuesday morning in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood in an assault captured on video.While no one is in custody, Chicago police confirm a battery incident occurred in the 4500 block of N. Mozart St. in Chicago's Albany Park just before 11:30 a.m. Concerned citizen intervenes during attempted child luring in Rogers Park Video obtained by WGN News shows a woman swinging what appears to be a metal bat multiple times, striking another woman as she held onto a nearby stroller. When the woman lets go of the stroller, she is attacked again by the offender.According to police, the attacker was driving a white sedan on Mozart. She exited the vehicle, approached the two women and began striking them with the baseball bat. The woman then got into her car and fled the area, police added. Read more: Latest Chicago news headlinesPolice did not say what led to the attack. Both victims refused medical attention.In an update, Chicago police said a sim...