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Massachusetts lawmakers considering using convention centers as overflow sites for migrants, homeless families

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

Massachusetts state lawmakers are considering using convention centers like the Hynes in downtown Boston as an overflow site for homeless and migrant families waiting for emergency shelter, the top House Democrat said Wednesday.Emergency shelters in the state are expected to reach the Healey administration’s self-imposed capacity of 7,500 families this week, and House lawmakers have proposed shuttling $50 million to the creation of an overflow site for families who are placed on a state-run waitlist.House Speaker Ronald Mariano said officials have discussed “a lot of different options” when asked if the Hynes Convention Center or other similar locations have been floated as potential locations.“All those things could be in play. All of those we suggested,” he told reporters at the State House. “We talked about a lot of different options. There are plenty in the state and it’s up to (the Healey administration) as to how many we need. Do we need one? If we have Hynes, will that ...

The third GOP debate will focus on Israel and foreign policy but also on who could beat Donald Trump

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and JILL COLVIN (Associated Press)MIAMI (AP) — Foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war are expected to be prominent in Wednesday’s third Republican primary debate, as a narrowing field of candidates seeks to cut into Donald Trump’s lead without being able to challenge the former president in person.Trump will again skip the debate in Miami, instead holding a rally in a nearby suburb. He says he won’t participate due to his large lead in national and early state polls.With voting set to start in leadoff Iowa in January, no one has thus far been able to shake Trump’s dominance of the Republican primary. Many of the candidates have gone after each other hoping to break out as a viable alternative to the former president, emphasizing their differences on foreign policy but also ripping Trump for his criticisms of the Israeli prime minister and claims that a group attacking Israel was “very smart.”Republican strategist David ...

These San Diego-area cities among fastest-growing wealthy suburbs in US: study

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- While some people are choosing to leave California due to the high cost of living and steep housing prices, residents in two San Diego-area cities seem to be multiplying.According to a recent study by moveBuddah, a moving and storage service provider, California dominated their top 25 list of fastest-growing wealthy suburbs in the country. While determining the fastest-growing U.S. suburbs, researchers at moveBuddah crunched the U.S. Census Bureau’s numbers for population change across 805 non-principal cities within a metropolitan area. Can you believe it? These five San Diego zip codes are among priciest for homebuyers Researchers calculated the most significant population gains over five years using 2017 and 2022 population estimates, and then ranked cities according to their growth rate.Chula Vista was ranked 18th and Santee was ranked 23rd out of the top 25 fastest-growing wealthy suburbs, based on this study.Chula Vista had a Zillow median housing value in Sept...

Maine looks to pay funeral costs for families of mass shooting victims

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s government is going to cover the cost of funerals for families who lost loved ones in the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history, the office of Gov. Janet Mills said Wednesday.An Army reservist opened fire inside a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, the second largest city in the state, on Oct. 25. The shootings killed 18 people, wounded 13 and sent the city into a lockdown until the man’s body was discovered two days later. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot.Funerals for victims of the shootings began late last week. The administration “is working to ensure that the families of victims do not have to bear any financial costs for the funerals of their loved ones,” said Ben Goodman, a spokesperson for the Democratic governor.The state is getting the money from a victim’s compensation program run through the attorney general’s office, and supplementing it with money from the governor’s contingent account, Go...

Quebec mayor, 23, resigns mid-mandate because of burnout from managing forest fires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

CHAPAIS, Que. — One of Quebec’s youngest mayors says she is stepping down because she is suffering burnout from last summer’s historic wildfire season.Isabelle Lessard was acclaimed in 2021 as mayor of Chapais, Que., a town of just over 1,500 people, located 400 kilometres northwest of Quebec City.Lessard says her resignation is effective Nov. 17, about halfway through her mandate.The 23-year-old had been off the job since mid-September, after shepherding Chapais through one of the worst forest fire seasons on record.In an interview with The Canadian Press, Lessard says she feels unable to complete her term and is at risk of developing post-traumatic stress syndrome.Lessard says that before going on leave, she was sleeping poorly and felt constantly stressed.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2023.The Canadian Press

Democrats see abortion wins as a springboard for 2024 as GOP struggles to find a winning message

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters threw their support behind abortion rights in Ohio, Virginia and elsewhere as Democrats look to springboard off those wins by using the issue to drive turnout and shape next year’s races for the White House, Congress and other elections.Ohio offered the clearest snapshot on Tuesday of the issue’s salience more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion. Voters in the increasingly Republican-leaning state resoundingly approved an amendment to the state constitution to protect access to abortion services.Democrats also harnessed the issue in Virginia, riding it to retake control of the Legislature, and in Kentucky, giving Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear a second term after he made abortion rights central to his campaign in the deeply Republican state.Election night was an energizing moment for Democrats hoping abortion rights will pull voters to the polls in the 2024 presidential election. The campaigning and results for the a...

Caravan of 3,000 migrants blocks highway in southern Mexico

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — About 3,000 migrants from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti on Wednesday blocked traffic on one of Mexico’s main southern highways to demand transit or exit visas to reach the U.S. border.The caravan of migrants set out on foot from the city of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, on Oct. 30, walking north toward the U.S.The contingent, including many women and children, later stopped walking at Huixtla, another town in the southern state of Chiapas, where they tried to get temporary travel documents to cross Mexico.On Wednesday, the migrants blocked highway inspection booths just outside Huixtla.Activist Irineo Mújica, one of the organizers of the march, said the blockade would continue, because migrants are afraid of criminals, smugglers and extortionists who could prey on them if they continue walking. Many migrants would also prefer to take buses, but are often prevented from doing so if they don’t have papers.“We know we are causing dis...

AI transformative for finance but not ready for prime time: RBC’s McKay

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

RBC chief executive Dave McKay says artificial intelligence is already showing its potential in transforming the financial sector even if it’s not quite “ready for prime time.”Speaking at a University of Waterloo tech conference in Toronto, McKay says AI still has too many errors and “hallucinations” or nonsense answers, to rely on it in banking services.The bank however does seen huge potential in everything from writing code to helping sales staff navigate complex financial products.He says banks will have to train algorithms in-house to control the data and to make sure the systems are trustworthy and accurate.McKay says AI is already proving its potential with systems such as Aiden, the bank’s AI-powered trading platform, that has outperformed human traders by 30 per cent.He said that like climate change, AI is creating fear and anxiety as it begins to transform society and people don’t feel in control, but that it’s a matter of en...

Judging from the level of complaints, air travel is getting worse

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

Air travel is getting worse, judging from the number of consumer complaints.Consumer complaints about airlines nearly doubled in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year and kept soaring in April and May, the U.S. Transportation Department said Wednesday.Those are the latest figures from the government. The Transportation Department said information about complaints has been delayed because there are so many of them to process.The department said it received 24,965 complaints about airline service in the first three months of the year, up 88% from the first quarter of 2022. Consumers filed another 6,712 complaints in April, up 32% from a year earlier, and 6,465 in May, an increase of 49%.The Transportation Department said that disability-related complaints, such as delaying or damaging wheelchairs, are also up from last year. There were 636 such complaints in the first quarter, nearly double the 380 filed during the same period of 2022. The agency ...

BoC on standby to raise rates further, summary reveals hawkish tone to deliberations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:14:50 GMT

OTTAWA — Further interest rate hikes from the Bank of Canada are very much still on the table as its governing council remains split on whether rates may need to rise further. The central bank today released its summary of deliberations detailing the discussions governing council members had in the lead-up to its Oct. 25 rate decision.The summary says some members believed it’s more likely than not that interest rates will need to go higher to get inflation back to target levels. But other members thought its key rate is now high enough to bring inflation down, so long as the central bank maintains it at that level for long enough. While the Bank of Canada ultimately decided to exert patience by holding its key rate steady at five per cent, members of the governing council agreed to revisit whether rates need to rise further. The central bank remains concerned that inflation is not falling fast enough, despite the economy responding to higher interest rates.This report by The ...