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Quebec public sector unions call for one-day strike to be held Nov. 6

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec’s common front of public sector unions is gearing up for a one-day strike on Nov. 6.Certain hospitals and regional health boards have begun receiving strike notices for that day, one of those institutions confirmed today.The unions did not confirm or deny the date, but they received a strike mandate from members on Oct. 17.The mandate has the support of 95 per cent of members and calls for one-day walkouts before an indefinite strike begins.The common front is made up of four main unions representing some 420,000 members in the health, education and social services sectors.Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel is set to table a new contract offer on Sunday in Quebec City, attempting to advance negotiations that have been going on for months.The unions are seeking a three-year contract with annual increases tied to the inflation rate — two percentage points above inflation in the first year, three points higher in the second and four points higher in the third....

Colorado judge chides company that tried to pay $23,500 settlement in coins weighing 3 tons

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado judge chided a welding company that tried to pay off a $23,500 settlement with a subcontractor by sending the money in loose coins that weighed 3 tons (2.7 metric tonnes). Judge Joseph Findley ruled Monday that JMF Enterprises “acted maliciously and in bad faith” by delivering a custom made metal box containing the coins that was too heavy to be carried in the freight elevator at the offices for Fired Up Fabrications’ lawyers, let alone the forklift required to carry it, according to court filings. Findley ordered JMF to pay by a more conventional method like a check. He also said JMF would now have write a larger one — to pay an extra estimated $8,092 to cover legal fees for the ensuing dispute over whether it had the right to pay in coins.One of the subcontractor’s lawyers, Danielle Beem, told Denver’s KCNC-TV, which first reported the judge’s order, that the coin payment was a “symbolic middle finger.”Lawyers for JMF said the settlement ...

Survey finds that US abortions rose slightly overall after new restrictions started in some states

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

The total number of abortions provided in the U.S. rose slightly in the 12 months after states began implementing bans on them throughout pregnancy, a new survey finds.The report out this week from the Society of Family Planning, which advocates for abortion access, shows the number fell to nearly zero in states with the strictest bans — but rose elsewhere, especially in states close to those with the bans. The monthly averages overall from July 2022 through June 2023 were about 200 higher than in May and June 2022.The changes reflect major shifts after the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 handed down its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had made abortion legal nationally. Since last year, most Republican-controlled states have enacted restrictions, while most Democrat-controlled states have extended protections for those from out of state seeking abortion.“The Dobbs decision turned abortion access in this countr...

Music Review: Prince & the New Power Generation’s ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ remastered reissue is a gem

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

The amount of music left behind by groundbreaking funkmaster Prince is, thankfully, good and voluminous. To that end, a newly remastered reissue box set, “Diamonds and Pearls Super Deluxe Edition,” offers his 13th studio album from 1991 with his backing band, The New Power Generation, once again. Out Friday, there are 47 previously unreleased tracks for Prince fans from his vaunted vault, and over two hours of live performance footage.Sure, the lush Dolby Atmos mix of the title track “Diamonds and Pearls” is there, with its gorgeous musical swells and Prince’s soulful voice. So are a handful of other versions of the track, including a longer version and audio from live tour performances. “Cream” is back with its salacious delivery. But better still is “Cream (N.P.G. Mix),” a version with an extra layer of stuttered percussion and a deep, melodic synth.The unreleased tracks range from middling reworks of “Daddy Pop” and “Gett Off,” to the torchy “I Pledge Allegiance to Your Love,” a ...

Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski and husband Todd Kapostasy welcome baby via surrogate

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski and her husband, Todd Kapostasy, announced Wednesday that they have welcomed a daughter through a surrogate after several years of infertility.Lipinski said on the “Today” show, which is part of the NBC family where she now serves as a figure skating analyst, that the couple named the baby Georgie Winter. Lipinski was in the delivery room when the baby was born. Lipinski and Kapostasy announced they were expecting their first child earlier this month on the 1998 Olympic gold medalist’s podcast, “Tara Lipinski: Unexpecting.”The 41-year-old Lipinski told “Today” that the baby “arrived into our arms by the most beautiful surrogate.”Lipinski and Kapostasy, a TV producer and filmmaker, have spoken openly about their difficulty in having a baby. She wrote on Instagram in August that she’d had four miscarriages, multiple failed in vitro fertilization transfers and endometriosis that resulted in two major surgeries.“Infer...

Judge reinstates murder charge against Philadelphia police officer in fatal shooting of motorist

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A judge on Wednesday reinstated all charges, including a murder count, against a former police officer who shot and killed a driver through a rolled-up car window — a confrontation police initially described as the officer shooting the driver after he lunged at him with a knife outside the car.Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom ruled after a hearing that the facts of the case should be established at a trial.Former officer Mark Dial was charged with murder, manslaughter, official oppression and four other counts in the Aug. 14 shooting death of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry during a traffic stop. Defense lawyers argued the officer could have feared for his life because he thought Irizarry had a gun, and a municipal court judge dismissed the case last month for lack of evidence.Prosecutors quickly appealed, asking for the charges to be reinstated. Irizarry’s family has said Dial took an innocent life and should spend the rest of his life behind bars.Dial, who bo...

Man charged with failing to yield in Oshawa crash that killed 20-year-old e-scooter rider

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

The driver of a pick-up truck is facing a failing to yield charge following a collision in Oshawa that killed a young woman riding an electric scooter earlier this year.Emergency crews were called to the area of Harmony and Taunton roads on the afternoon of May 17, 2023 for reports of a crash between a pickup truck and an electric scooter.Durham Regional Police say a black 2018 GMC Sierra truck was exiting a gas station near the intersection when it struck an e-scooter that was riding on the sidewalk.The 20-year-old woman who was riding the scooter was rushed to hospital with injuries where she was pronounced dead. The driver of the pickup remained at the scene and was not injured.The scooter the woman was riding is part of Oshawa’s ride-sharing e-scooter pilot program that was launched in April. At the time, police said the incident was the first crash they were called to involving the scooters since the program began.On Tuesday, police charged the driver of the pickup with failing...

Movie Review: Teen dreams and adult nightmares in Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

Dreamily gazing at the album covers of Elvis Presley was not, statistically speaking, a rare habit among American teen girls in the late 1950s and early ’60s.But for Priscilla Beaulieu, teenage fantasy became a strange and surreal reality. Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” starring Cailee Spaeny, captures all the dreaminess, the absurdity and, finally, the nightmare of falling in love with Elvis. Priscilla was just 14 years-old — a 9th grader — when she first met him. It was 1959. She was living in West Germany, where her Air Force officer stepfather was stationed. The swoony early scenes of Coppola’s film find a solitary Priscilla sipping soda in a Navy base diner while Frankie Avalon’s “Venus” (“Venus, make her fair / A lovely girl with sunlight in her hair”) plays around her, as covered by the band Phoenix.A man approaches and asks if she likes Elvis. Of course she does. Would she like to meet him? Um, what? After some negotiations with her parents, Priscilla is sitting there on the s...

Deal that ensured Black representation on Louisiana’s highest court upheld by federal appeals panel

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 1992 federal court agreement that led to a Black justice being elected to Louisiana’s once all-white Supreme Court will remain in effect under a ruling Wednesday from a divided federal appeals court panel.The 2-1 ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a lower court ruling. It’s a defeat for state Attorney General Jeff Landry, now Louisiana’s governor-elect.Landry and state Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill, a fellow Republican who is in a runoff election campaign to succeed him as attorney general, had argued that the 1992 agreement is no longer needed and should be dissolved.Attorneys for the original plaintiffs in the voting rights case and the U.S. Justice Department said the state presented no evidence to show it would not revert to old patterns that denied Black voters representation on the state’s highest court.U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan last year refused to dissolve the agreement, referred to as a consent judgment or...

Montreal to ban most natural gas heating, cooking in new buildings

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:09 GMT

Montreal will ban gas-powered systems in new construction starting next fall, with some notable exceptions.The new regulation, adopted by the city’s executive committee this morning, will apply to new, small buildings — up to three storeys and 600 square metres in area — as of Oct. 1, 2024, and larger buildings starting six months later.Examples of soon-to-be prohibited systems include residential gas-powered stoves, indoor gas fireplaces, hot water heaters and furnaces that emit greenhouse gases and barbecues and pool or spa heaters that draw from gas lines.The city says exceptions include emergency generators, commercial stoves in restaurants, gas-powered barbecues with removable tanks and temporary heating devices used during construction work.Industrial buildings are also exempt, as are combustion heaters in larger buildings that draw only from renewable sources of gas.Montreal says the measure will help it reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, noting building...