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Overdue Spending Deal Reached on Beacon Hill, On Hold For Now

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

Weeks after their talks collapsed, House and Senate Democrats got on the same page Thursday and filed a $3.1 billion compromise spending bill packed with money for the state’s emergency shelter system, public worker raises, and special education.But they could not get the overdue legislation across the finish line in the face of frustrated Republicans, triggering a flurry of finger-pointing between the Democrat supermajority and the minority party that is temporarily wielding the influence Democrats gave to them.Both branches kept their sessions open for most of the day as legislative leaders worked behind closed doors on a compromise fiscal year 2023 closeout budget. Shortly before 6 p.m., House Republicans, who voted against the underlying bills due to shelter policy concerns, tried to use parliamentary maneuvers to call for a formal session where the final package could be debated and receive a roll call vote.Democrats referred the order from House Minority Leader Brad...

Wrong-way driver collision prompts closure of southbound I-5 in North County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- All lanes were blocked on southbound Interstate 5, just north of Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad, around 5 a.m. Friday morning due to a traffic collision, said Caltrans.According to a Sig Alert, the incident was caused by a wrong-way driver suspected of DUI.In an update around 6:15 a.m., Caltrans said the right two lanes reopened for southbound motorists, while the HOV and left two lanes remain closed.No further details are available at this time.This is a developing story. Please checkback for updates.

Israeli survivors of the Oct. 7 music festival attack seek to cope with trauma at a Cyprus retreat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) — Tomer Bassis expected his day to be filled with electronic trance music at the Oct. 7 desert rave party he was attending in southern Israel. Instead, the sounds of bullets whizzing by as he ran to escape the indiscriminate gunfire of Hamas militants became the soundtrack seared into his mind.The 25-year-old Israeli was among some 3,000 other young revelers at the music festival who fled the carnage as the militants from Gaza descended on the field, gunning down young men and women and throwing rocket-propelled grenades into the crowd in an unprecedented rampage. The open-air Tribe of Nova music festival is believed to be the worst civilian massacre in Israeli history, with at least 364 dead. In a single day, Hamas and other Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and took around 240 people captive.Bassis remembers that as he ran, a girl he didn’t know was running next to him. “I looked to the left and she got hit with...

Associated Press correspondent Roland Prinz, who spent decades covering Europe, dies at age 85

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

VIENNA (AP) — Roland Prinz, who was born as armies began marching across central Europe then spent nearly four decades covering the Cold War and the fall of communism for The Associated Press, has died. He was 85.Prinz was a linchpin of the AP’s coverage of the turmoil that accompanied the end of the Cold War, starting with the rise of Solidarity in Poland, stretching through the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic, the fall of the Berlin Wall and finally the breakup of Yugoslavia.He on Nov. 20 in Vienna. Throughout his career, Prinz was a gentlemanly presence in the news service’s Vienna bureau, helping newcomers navigate life in the Austrian capital and guiding coverage with his broad knowledge of central Europe. A team player, he was always anxious to contribute to stories, regardless of whether he got the byline, said former Vienna bureau chief Robert Reid.“Roland was an old school Central European, a gentleman of courtly manners and deep personal warmth behind a dignified, ...

Authorities in Haiti question former rebel leader Guy Philippe after the US repatriated him

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Authorities in Haiti questioned former rebel leader Guy Philippe on Friday at a police station where he remained held a day after the the United States repatriated him to Haiti, his lawyer said. Philippe is a convicted drug trafficker who played a key role in the 2004 rebellion against former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and also was accused of masterminding attacks on police stations and other targets.Philippe has an outstanding warrant stemming from a 2016 fatal attack on a police station in the southern coastal city of Les Cayes, police officials told The Associated Press on Thursday, speaking on condition an anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.Philippe was being held for questioning Friday, but has not been charged and no hearing has been held, his attorney Emmanuel Jeanty told the AP. The attorney said he would be visiting Philippe again on Friday to try to secure his release.The former rebel leader once served as po...

Ukrainian spy agency stages train explosions on a Russian railroad in Siberia, Ukrainian media say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s spy agency staged two successive explosions on a railroad line in Siberia that serves as a key conduit for trade between Russia and China, Ukrainian media reported Friday. The attacks underscored Moscow’s vulnerability amid the war in UkraineUkrainska Pravda and other news outlets claimed the Security Service of Ukraine conducted a special operation to blow up trains loaded with fuel on the Baikal-Amur Mainline, which runs from southeastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean in the Russian Far East. The media cited unidentified sources in Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, a regular practice in claims of previous attacks in Russia. The security service, which is known in Ukrainian as SBU for short, has not confirmed the reports. The first explosion hit a tanker train in the Severonomuisky tunnel in Buryatia early Thursday, causing a fire that took hours to extinguish, Russian news outlets said. The 15.3-kilometer (9.5-mile) tunnel in southern Siberia ...

Here’s a quick glance at unemployment rates for November, by Canadian city

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

OTTAWA — The national unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent in November. Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities. It cautions, however, that the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. Here are the jobless rates last month by city (numbers from the previous month in brackets):_ St. John’s, N.L. 6.7 per cent (6.6)_ Halifax 5.8 per cent (6.2)_ Moncton, N.B. 6.0 per cent (6.3)_ Saint John, N.B. 5.3 per cent (5.8)_ Saguenay, Que. 3.0 per cent (3.3)_ Quebec City 2.7 per cent (2.8)_ Sherbrooke, Que. 4.9 per cent (4.2)_ Trois-Rivières, Que. 4.4 per cent (4.4)_ Montreal 5.7 per cent (5.4)_ Gatineau, Que. 4.2 per cent (4.0)_ Ottawa 4.7 per cent (5.1)_ Kingston, Ont. 5.8 per cent (4.8)_ Belleville, Ont. 4.9 per cent (6.5)_ Peterborough, Ont. 2.3 per cent (1.9)_ Oshawa, Ont. 7.3 per cent (6.9)_ Toronto 6.6 per cent (6.7)_ Hamilton, Ont. 5.3 per cent (5.2)_ St. Catharines-Nia...

Here’s a quick glance at unemployment rates for November, by province

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s national unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent in November. Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets):_ Newfoundland and Labrador 10.0 per cent (10.0)_ Prince Edward Island 8.1 per cent (6.2)_ Nova Scotia 6.8 per cent (6.6)_ New Brunswick 6.4 per cent (6.6)_ Quebec 5.2 per cent (4.9)_ Ontario 6.1 per cent (6.2)_ Manitoba 4.9 per cent (5.2)_ Saskatchewan 5.1 per cent (4.4)_ Alberta 5.9 per cent (5.8)_ British Columbia 5.3 per cent (5.4)This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2023.The Canadian Press

National employment numbers for November from Statistics Canada, at a glance

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

OTTAWA — A quick look at Canada’s November employment (numbers from the previous month in brackets):Unemployment rate: 5.8 per cent (5.7)Employment rate: 61.8 per cent (61.9)Participation rate: 65.6 per cent (65.6)Number unemployed: 1,240,400 (1,229,400)Number working: 20,312,500 (20,287,600)Youth (15-24 years) unemployment rate: 11.6 per cent (11.4)Men (25 plus) unemployment rate: 5.0 per cent (5.0)Women (25 plus) unemployment rate: 4.6 per cent (4.5)This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2023.The Canadian Press

NATO chief tells Turkey’s Erdogan that ‘the time has come’ to let Sweden join the alliance

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:17 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he has told Turkey’s president that “the time has come” to let Sweden become a member of the military alliance.Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO countries that have not yet formally approved Sweden’s accession bid.Stoltenberg told The Associated Press that he urged Turkey to finalize the process as he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.“I met with President Erdogan this morning and I reiterated my message that the time has come to finalize the accession process for Sweden,” he said.Turkey has delayed ratification for more than a year, accusing Sweden of not taking Turkey’s security concerns seriously enough, including its fight against Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers to be security threats.An apparent breakthrough happened at a NATO summit in July when Erdogan said he would submit accession documents to Parli...