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Ticker: Healey files interim budget; Charitable giving declines in US 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

While lawmakers continue to hash out a compromise budget for the new fiscal year that begins July 1, Gov. Maura Healey bought them some extra time Tuesday with the filing of an interim budget that would keep state operations going through July.The $6.66 billion budget would authorize spending on “necessary services” through July 31 or until a complete fiscal 2024 state budget is signed by the governor. The bill would also allow Treasurer Deb Goldberg to advance local aid payments to cities, towns, regional school districts and independent agricultural or technical schools that demonstrate “an emergency cash shortfall.”Asked about the interim budget Wednesday, Healey said filing it “was the prudent thing to do” and also said she is hopeful that lawmakers will send her a completed budget soon.Charitable giving declines in USCharitable giving in the United States declined in 2022 — only the fourth time in four decades that donations did not inc...

LeBlanc says plans for new infrastructure funding program on track for the fall

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

WHISTLER, B.C. — Federal Infrastructure Minister Dominic LeBlanc says details on the “next generation” of funding programs are on track to be announced in the fall.Canada’s premiers have pushed for more information on what will replace the $33-billion Investing in Canada Infrastructure program, which ended in March, amid increasing pressures caused by inflation and supply chain issues.LeBlanc’s comments come following a meeting with provincial and territorial infrastructure ministers in Whistler, B.C., which multiple provincial officials said was productive.Both sides are promising future investment focused on climate resiliency, increasing the housing stock, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and growing the economy.In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week, Canada’s premiers said unprecedented inflationary pressures and cost increases on existing projects are creating fiscal burdens in communities.LeBlanc says Ottawa has been working with...

MPs to break for the summer amid negotiations on inquiry into interference

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

OTTAWA — The Liberals appeared to be on the verge of calling a public inquiry into foreign interference on Wednesday, while all parties agreed the House of Commons would break for the summer at the end of the night.Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc is leading what the government called ongoing and productive discussions with the Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Québécois about how to move forward on the foreign interference quagmire that has clouded the government and this parliamentary sitting for months.Shortly after 8 p.m. on Wednesday, government House leader Mark Holland told the House of Commons all parties had agreed that MPs would wind up the spring sitting at the end of the night and return Sept. 18.Earlier Wednesday, he told reporters that he expected news on the question of an inquiry “very, very soon, given the productive nature of those conversations.”The public inquiry was on the negotiating table as the government sought to get priority bills p...

Siksika Nation artist to design Canada-Afghanistan war monument

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

A Siksika Nation Indigenous artist has been chosen to design a national monument for Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.Adrian Stimson and his team have been working on the project for years, and he says the concept of individuality is integral to the memorial’s purpose.“A lot of monuments don’t have the names of all the soldiers involved, and this one does. It was the importance of remembering them in this particular conflict,” he told CityNews.“If anybody goes to a monument, that sort of special moment of seeing their loved one’s name is something that really resonated with me.”The medicine-wheel-inspired monument will feature the names of all 158 Canadian military members lost in the conflict.Adam Stimson speaks while he looks at a model of a monument his home on Siksika Nation on June 21, 2023. The Ottawa-based monument is for Canadian military members that were lost in Afghanistan, and will feature the names of 158 members. (Tate Laycraft, CityN...

Hollywood writers at rally say they’ll win as strike reaches 50 days

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fifty days into a strike with no end in sight, about 1,000 Hollywood writers and their supporters marched and rallied in Los Angeles for a new contract with studios that includes payment guarantees and job security.Speakers at the Writers Guild of America’s WGA Strong March and Rally for a Fair Contract on Wednesday emphasized the broad support for their cause shown by other Hollywood unions — including actors in their own contract negotiations — and labor at large. “We’re all in it together, we’re all fighting the same fight, for a sustainable job in the face of corporate greed,” Adam Conover, a writer and a member of the guild’s board and its negotiating committee, told a crowd at the end of the march at the La Brea Tar Pits. “We are going to win because they need us. Writers are the ones who stare at a blank page. We are the ones who invent the characters, tell the stories and write the jokes that their audiences love. They’d have nothing without us.”Talk...

Georgia officials lay out obstacles to updating election system before 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia election officials said Wednesday that they would need six to nine months to install new software and hardware to update the state’s voting system to protect against security flaws, pushing back against calls to update the system before the 2024 election cycle.“It’s really not an upgrade,” state Deputy Elections Director Michael Barnes said of the work needed on 30,000 voting machines. “This really would require us to fully rebuild the system.”Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said the state must wait until 2025, but critics continue to pile on, with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and the state Republican Party joining the chorus in recent days. They say waiting until after next year’s presidential election would leave the voting equipment open to attack.A group called the Coalition for Good Governance has been suing to throw out the state’s electronic ballot marking system. The coalition and the Morgan County Democratic Committee asked the State Elections ...

CFD: 4 injured after driver crashes into light pole in West Lawn

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

CHICAGO — Four people were injured after a driver crashed into a light pole Wednesday evening in West Lawn, according to the Chicago Fire Department.The crash was reported around 7:30 p.m. near West 69th Street and South Pulaski Road. 4 pedestrians in hospital after hit-and-run near Guaranteed Rate Field; man in custody According to the fire department, two people were critically injured and taken to local hospitals.Two other people, one in fair condition and one in good condition, were also injured and taken to hospitals, the fire department said. Additional details haven't been released.

Transgender man says Walgreens employee denied him hormone replacement meds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

(KRON) -- A Northern California transgender man took to Reddit to speak out about a local Walgreens pharmacist refusing to give him his prescribed medication, all because it "went against his religion." Roscoe Rike, 30, of Oakland, says he has been going to the Walgreens pharmacy on Telegraph Avenue for nearly a decade. He's been picking up his HRT, or hormone-replacement therapy, at the same location for the past three years, always without issue. Judge rules Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors violates US Constitution Rike says this time was different. A pharmacist that Rike had never seen at the location before asked what exactly the medication was for, which seemed unusual."I told him I was pretty sure that it wasn't any of his business," Rike said. At this point, the pharmacist then told Rike that he would not be able to fill the prescription "due to his religious beliefs," Rike said. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)That's when Rike thought he'd...

Search underway for missing Montclare woman

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Police Department is asking for the public's help in locating a missing 33-year-old woman with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.Brittney Romano, 33, was last seen on the 2400 block of North Ocanto Avenue in Chicago's Montclare neighborhood on Saturday, June 10. Search underway for missing Irving Park teen Romano is described as 5-foot-7, weighing 130 pounds, with blonde hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black leather coat, blue jeans, and black shoes.Romano reportedly has a tattoo on her right shoulder and a cardinal tattoo on her left ribs. She also has been diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia.Anyone with information regarding Brittney Romano's whereabouts are asked to contact the Chicago Police Department at 312-746-6554.

Severe storms moving through producing minor wind damage, frequent lightning

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:10 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Strong to severe thunderstorms are moving into the area, capable of producing damaging wind gusts and dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning.Fredericksburg reported a 59 mph wind gust from the storms, while small tree limbs were reported broken by gusty winds in Hye and Twin Sisters (Blanco Co.), and in parts of Austin.A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for all of the Austin Metro, parts of the Hill Country and all of our Eastern Counties until 11 p.m. for the potential of additional storms.Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 11 p.m.1-2" of rain is possible in the heavier storms as they bring brief, welcome heat relief tonight. BLOG: If June is this hot, what comes in July? Before the storms, Austin set an unofficial heat index record Wednesday afternoon on the first day of summer as "feels like" temperatures soared to 117°. A few isolated storms remain in the forecast Thursday and Friday, then even hotter weather is possible this weekend through next week. We m...