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Biden and House Democrats hope to make curbing ‘junk fees’ a winning issue in 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats are teaming up with the Biden administration and a progressive advocacy group to turn policy efforts to curb “ junk fees ” into a political rallying cry, betting that a small but potentially potent kitchen table issue will resonate with voters. President Joe Biden promised in this year’s State of the Union address to target unexpected fees tacked on to things like plane and concert tickets, hotel rooms, hospital and cellphone bills and housing transactions. He’s since worked with major businesses to see that pricing is more transparent about all fees. More than a dozen House Democrats around the country plan to hold events organized with help from the Progressive Change Institute to promote the administration’s effort to curb junk fees. Events have already happened in suburban Detroit, Philadelphia, central New Jersey and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Similar efforts are planned in coming weeks in Pittsburgh, New York and Las Ve...

Yes, inflation is down. No, the Inflation Reduction Act doesn’t deserve the credit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even President Joe Biden has some regrets about the name of the Inflation Reduction Act: As the giant law turns 1 on Wednesday, it’s increasingly clear that immediately curbing prices wasn’t the point.While price increases have cooled over the past year — the inflation rate has dropped from 9% to 3.2% — most economists say little to none of the drop came from the law. “I can’t think of any mechanism by which it would have brought down inflation to date,” said Harvard University economist Jason Furman, who added that the law could eventually help to lower electricity bills.Alex Arnon, an economic and budget analyst for the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, offers a similar assessment.“We can say with pretty strong confidence that it was mostly other factors that have brought inflation down,’’ he said. “The IRA has just not been a significant factor.’’That shouldn’t come as a surprise. When the Inflation Reduction A...

Death toll in China mudslide rises to 21, with six people missing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — The death toll from a mudslide triggered by heavy rain on the outskirts of the western Chinese city of Xi’an rose to 21 on Sunday and rescuers were still looking for six missing people, the government said.The mudslide and a flash flood Friday evening also damaged a highway and knocked out power to 900 households, the Xi’an Emergency Management Bureau said on its social media account. It said rescue teams totaling 980 people with dogs were looking for the remaining missing people.Parts of China suffer heavy rains and flooding every summer, but this year has been unusually severe in some areas, while other regions struggle with drought that is damaging crops. The government earlier reported 142 people were killed by flooding and landslides in July.The Associated Press

Montreal urban fish farmers say their Arctic char cuts greenhouse gases and waste

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

MONTREAL — A warehouse basement in an industrial area of Montreal, near the intersection of two highways, feels about as far from a fish habitat as it gets.But walk through the doors of Opercule’s self-described “urban fish farm,” and the unmistakable smell of fish fills the air. After donning rubber boots and lab coats, visitors are greeted with the constant hum of the plant’s filtration system. Inside the dimly lit warehouse basement, thousands of sleek, speckled Arctic char swim in a dozen or so round pools, their fins smoothly breaking the surface or sending up alarmed splashes as they scurry away from people who approach the tanks.The business is the creation of David Dupaul-Chicoine and Nicolas Paquin, who met each other when they were studying aquaculture in college on Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula. What began as an experiment raising fish in Dupaul-Chicoine’s garage has turned into a commercial operation that they expect will soon produce betwe...

Two years into Taliban rule, Afghan women ask Canada for education and accountability

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

Ahead of the second anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Afghan women are asking Canadians to join them in protecting gains in girls’ education and resisting legitimacy for the terrorist group.Meanwhile, Ottawa won’t say when Canadian development groups will be able to launch projects in Afghanistan.“It’s a complete humanitarian and human-rights crisis that’s been going on for two years,” said Murwarid Ziayee, a senior director with Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan.The group is part of a coalition planning to march on Parliament Hill on Sunday afternoon as part of a global effort to have countries help gather evidence of “gender apartheid.” They want to see an eventual International Criminal Court prosecution of the Taliban for crimes against humanity.The hardline fundamentalist group took over Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, after the pullout of U.S. troops from a two-decade military mission that had heavy Canadian invol...

Poilievre’s Conservative party embracing language of mainstream conspiracy theories

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been hitting the summer barbecue circuit with ramped-up rhetoric around debunked claims that the World Economic Forum is attempting to impose its agenda on sovereign governments.It is, some experts suggest, another sign that some conspiracy theories are moving from the fringes of the internet to mainstream thinking, as people’s distrust of government grows.In speeches to Conservative supporters across Canada, Poilievre has promised that none of his ministers will attend the international organization’s conferences, including the annual meeting typically held in Davos, Switzerland.“It’s far past time we rejected the globalist Davos elites and bring home the common sense of the common people,” said a Saturday fundraising email.The Conservative party also recently sent out mailers with a poll asking people to tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who they think the prime minister should stand with: working Can...

Wildfire near Lockhart burns 228 acres, 75% contained

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A grass fire sprang up Friday in Caldwell County, according to the Austin Fire Department, which said crews from Travis County were headed there to help fight it.The fire is near State Highway 130, just south of Lockhart. It's called the Boggy Creek Fire, the Texas A&M Forest Service reported. MAP: More than 2,500 acres have burned in Central Texas wildfires this year The fire was about 228 acres and is 75% contained as of 6 a.m. Sunday, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service."Interior pockets of vegetation continue to burn and put up smoke, but there is currently no threat to containment," Texas A&M Forest Service said.Shortly before 3:30 p.m. Friday, AFD said the fire broke containment lines, and additional resources from Austin and Travis County are en route to assist.Boggy Creek Fire in Caldwell County near State Highway 130 south of Lockhart. (KXAN Photo/Andy Way)Boggy Creek Fire in Caldwell County near State High...

Readers and writers: A beleaguered professor makes a welcome return, plus mystery and sports

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

A comic academic novel and a northern Minnesota mystery by two award-wining writers, plus books about Minnesota sports offer cool reads on these hot days.“The English Experience”: by Julie Schumacher (Doubleday, $27)(Courtesy of the author)Here were the provost’s carefully vetted undergrads, among them a claustrophobe from a juvenile detention center; a student who erroneously believed he was headed for the Caribbean; a pair of unreconciled lovers; a set of undifferentiated twins; and one person who had never been away from her cat before. –– from “The English Experience”Jay Fitger did not want to chaperone Payne University students on Experience: England class abroad. He didn’t like London. When he was there years earlier with his then-wife Janet, he remembers “a sodden cylinder of blood pudding, an evening of poorly timed sex, and rain.” But the provost had asked everyone else on he faculty to lead the group, and they all...

The last time a Winter Carnival queen departed during her reign was 1957 — and she was getting married

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

As a child, Joe Gallagher loved paging through the memory book his mother, Eva Wicker Gallagher, created of her reign as Aurora, Queen of the Snows of the 1957 St. Paul Winter Carnival.“Every day on the front page of your paper, it was Queen Eva,” he recalls.The Jan. 30, 1957 edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press documents the coronation of Eva Wicker as Queen of the Snows for the 1957 St. Paul Winter Carnival. (Pioneer Press files)It was like a fairy tale; better than a fairy tale, actually.“My first time I saw ‘Cinderella,’ I thought that it couldn’t compare to my mom, who was the true Cinderella,” he says.Hers was a Cinderella story: Wicker, then 18, was plucked from her clerical job at the Pioneer Press/Dispatch and, sponsored by the newspaper, entered as a candidate and won the title of Queen of the Snows. Thousands attended her coronation; the publisher sent her a telegram of congratulations; the city celebrated her.“It was unbel...

Safety questions arise as unidentified man drowns at familiar scene

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:19:29 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- This is the same scene where that unidentified man drowned August 13 on Saturday afternoon. As a family mourns the death of a loved one, authorities are investigating whether those newly implemented safety measures were in place at the time of this incident.The call for response came in around 3:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon. Rescue crews report that when they arrived at Rockford Beach, they were informed that a man had been seen floating in the water but then disappeared.Multiple boats and sonar equipment were deployed to search, and they recovered the body about an hour later. He was found eight feet deep in the water near a strong current. Authorities say that this water can be the most dangerous.This incident comes about a month after a 41-year-old individual also drowned after jumping off the bluff. Safety questions arise as unidentified man drowns at familiar scene Safety issues plague the park due to overcrowding as well as reckless behavior, which only adds to t...