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Puerto Rico declares state of emergency on coastal erosion

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s governor declared a state of emergency on Tuesday to fight worsening coastal erosion across the U.S. territory that officials blame on climate change.The government is setting aside $105 million in federal funds to implement nearly two dozen measures to offset the ongoing loss of land and minimize its effects. The measures include relocating homes, creating artificial reefs, planting mangrove trees and adding sand to beaches.“This is an ambitious agenda,” Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said at a press conference.Puerto Rico has nearly 700 miles (1,200 kilometers) of coastline, and two-thirds of the island’s 3.2 million resident live along coastal areas. Of that population, more than 20% live in areas at high risk for flooding.A study by the University of Puerto Rico found that more than 60 miles (99 kilometers) of shoreline have migrated inland in previous years. Much of the erosion is blamed on storms including Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm th...

Alaska illustrator faces charge for anti-trans threat

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A court hearing is set for Tuesday for an Alaska children’s book illustrator charged with terroristic threatening after authorities said he posted transphobic notes in public places around the capital city that referenced shooting children.Mitchell Thomas Watley, 47, is scheduled for a late-afternoon preliminary hearing. The state’s online court records system does not yet show an attorney who can speak on his behalf.Watley is accused of leaving business card-size notes in places like a grocery store and state office building with an image of an assault rifle, the colors of the transgender flag and the text “Feeling Cute Might Shoot Some Children,” according to the complaint filed in the case. He was arrested on April 2, after several notes were found at a Costco store and officers reviewed security footage that showed a man, later identified as Watley, leaving a note in the store, the complaint alleged.The first notes were found on March 31, ...

Hydro-Québec says restoring power to last customers hit by ice storm ‘complex’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec’s power utility said Tuesday it was working to fix the most complicated damage after last week’s devastating ice storm but couldn’t put a timetable on when everyone would have power back.On Tuesday morning, about 16,000 customers were off the grid, and by early afternoon the number had dropped below 12,000, though there were some fluctuations. About half of those still in the dark were in Montreal.Hydro-Québec spokesman Francis Labbé said the remaining work is particularly complex. The common issue is that power lines have been damaged by mature trees, and branches need to be cleared before crews can conduct repairs, he said.Much of the damage is in private backyards, and sometimes the extent of the damage isn’t always apparent even after the repair, which is why the numbers are in flux. The total number of incidents causing outages dropped from 500 earlier Tuesday to less than 300 by the afternoon.“There’s a complexity to all th...

Suit: Chocolate maker ignored natural gas alert before blast

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

A Pennsylvania candy-maker ignored warnings of a natural gas leak at its chocolate factory and bears responsibility for a subsequent explosion that killed seven workers and injured several others, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.The family of Judith “Judy” Lopez-Moran, a 55-year-old mother of three, filed what their lawyers called the first wrongful-death suit against R.M. Palmer Co. after the March 24 blast in West Reading.Workers smelled natural gas that day and notified Palmer, but the 75-year-old, family-owned company “did nothing,” the lawsuit said.“The gas leak at the factory and the horrific explosion it caused was foreseeable, predictable, and preventable,” the suit said. “Tragically, Judith Lopez-Moran’s death and suffering were preventable.”The lawsuit, filed in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, also names gas utility UGI, which declined comment. A message was sent to Palmer seeking comment.Authorities are still investigating the cause of the explosion, which levele...

N.B. tourism approaching pre-pandemic levels as rental car industry still struggling

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

FREDERICTON — Tourism in New Brunswick last year approached pre-pandemic levels, but the province’s rental car industry struggled, a new study by Statistics Canada says.The study released Tuesday said tourism activity in the province “turned around rapidly” but was still 20 per cent lower than in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.“Despite a rebound in the number of visitors to New Brunswick, several macroeconomic factors impacted the pace and the extent of the recovery for tourism service providers, including the passenger car rental industry.”While inflation led to significant price increases for hotel rooms and restaurants, the study said some of the steepest increases in the province in the past two years were in the rental car industry.“Nationally, prices for rental of passenger vehicles have risen by nearly 50 per cent since 2019,” it noted. “The cost pressures associated with the maintenance and repair of existing vehicles and t...

Law will end time limit on Maryland child sex abuse lawsuits

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gov. Wes Moore signed legislation on Tuesday to end Maryland’s statute of limitations for when civil lawsuits for child sexual abuse can be filed against institutions.The bill signing comes less than a week after the state’s attorney general released a report that documented the scope of abuse spanning 80 years and accused church leaders of decades of coverups.Under current law, people in Maryland who say they were sexually abused as children can’t sue after they reach the age of 38. “There is no statute of limitations on the hurt that endures for decades after someone is assaulted,” Moore, a Democrat, said. “There is no statute of limitations on the trauma that harms so many still to this day, and this law reflects that exact truth.” The Maryland General Assembly passed the bill last week, hours after Attorney General Anthony Brown released a long-awaited report of nearly 500 pages with details about more than 150 Catholic priests and o...

Wall Street drifts through muted day ahead of inflation data

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street drifted through a muted day of trading Tuesday, with stocks and bonds making modest moves ahead of reports later in the week with the potential to move markets.The S&P 500 had its smallest one-day move in more than a year, slipping 0.17 points, or less than 0.1%, to 4,108.94. Most of the stocks in the index rose, as did the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which gained 98.27, or 0.3%, to 33,684.79. The Nasdaq composite slipped 52.48, or 0.4%, to 12,031.88. The biggest immediate question for Wall Street has been whether the Federal Reserve will keep hiking interest rates in its attempt to get high inflation under control. It’s already raised rates at a furious pace over the last year, enough to slow some areas of the economy and for strains to appear in the banking system. That’s why markets are gearing up for Wednesday’s report on inflation. Economists expect it to show inflation slowed to 5.2% in March from 6% in February. That would mean continued prog...

S&P/TSX composite gains on energy and base metal stocks, U.S. markets mixed

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

TORONTO — Strength in energy and base metal stocks helped Canada’s main stock index gain more than 100 points Tuesday, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 146.03 points at 20,421.85.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 98.27 points at 33,684.79. The S&P 500 index was down 0.17 points at 4,108.94, while the Nasdaq composite was down 52.48 points at 12,031.88.The Canadian dollar traded for 74.17 cents US compared with 73.93 cents US on Monday.The May crude contract was up US$1.79 at US$81.53 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was up a penny at US$2.19 per mmBTU.The June gold contract was up US$15.20 at US$2,019.00 an ounce and the May copper contract was up four cents at US$4.02 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Mexican tourist killed in Mexican resort of Tulum

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican tourist has been shot to death in the Caribbean coast resort of Tulum in a dramatic robbery at a U.S. chain coffee shop, prosecutors and police said Tuesday. The tourist apparently refused to hand over an expensive watch he was wearing, and was shot by the robbers. Video of the killing posted on social media Tuesday showed men with motorcycle helmets burst into the coffee shop at gunpoint Monday. Another man in the video, reportedly the victim’s bodyguard, then took out a pistol and opened fire on the robber, who fled. The bodyguard chased the robber toward the street and kept firing at him through the store’s door.Police in the coastal state of Quintana Roo said one of the thieves fled was wounded and later arrested at a local hospital.State Prosecutor Oscar Montes de Oca said the bodyguard had been released because he had a weapons permit, and may have been acting in self defense.It was the latest chapter of continuing violence on Mexico’s ...

Louisville attack shows challenge of curbing violent videos

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:23 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Social media companies are once again in the spotlight after a bank employee in Louisville, Kentucky, killed five people in a mass shooting and livestreamed the attack on Instagram.Tech companies have gotten better in recent years at cooperating to tamp down the spread of mass shooting videos on mainstream platforms. But there’s still no easy way to stop shooters from broadcasting their grisly crimes without shutting down livestreaming services altogether.Here’s what we know so far about what happened in Louisville:HOW DID META RESPOND?Instagram parent company Meta, which also owns Facebook, said in a statement that it quickly removed the livestream of the Louisville shooting on Monday morning.But Meta did not immediately respond to questions Tuesday about how long it took to take down the livestream — or how many people watched it before it was removed.Instagram allows users to anonymously report livestreams. Once a report has been submitted, the company...