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That blaring noise you heard? It was a test of the federal government’s emergency alert system

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — “THIS IS A TEST”: If you have a cellphone or were watching television Wednesday, you should have seen that message flash across your screen as the federal government tested its emergency alert system used to tell people about emergencies.The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System sends out messages via the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts. The Emergency Alert System is a national public warning system that’s designed to allow the president to speak to the American people within 10 minutes during a national emergency via specific outlets such as radio and television. And Wireless Emergency Alerts are short messages — 360 characters or less — that go to mobile phones to alert their owner to important information.While these types of alerts are frequently used in targeted areas to alert people in the area to thing like tornadoes, Wednesday’s test was done across the country.The test started at 2:20 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesd...

Brett Favre will testify under oath in Mississippi welfare scandal civil case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre will answer questions under oath about the misspending of federal welfare money in Mississippi, where public money intended to help some of the nation’s poorest people was used to fund pet projects he and other well-connected people supported. A notice of deposition filed Monday in Hinds County Circuit Court by attorneys for Mississippi’s Department of Human Services shows Favre will give sworn testimony on Oct. 26 at a hotel in Hattiesburg. The Pro Football Hall of Famer is among more than three dozen defendants in a lawsuit the current Human Services director filed to recover some of the welfare money. Favre has denied wrongdoing, sued the state auditor who investigated the misspending for defamation and said he paid back misspent welfare funds. Mississippi has ranked among the poorest states in the U.S. for decades, but only a fraction of its federal welfare money has been going toward direct aid to families. Instead...

6 injured in multi-vehicle crash in Scarborough

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

Six people have been injured, one seriously, following a multi-vehicle crash in Scarborough on Wednesday afternoon.Toronto police responded to the area of Ellesmere and Markham roads just after 2 p.m. for reports of a three-vehicle crash.Paramedics say they transported one person to hospital with serious injuries.The other five people were being assessed at the scene.Police say the vehicles involved in the crash remained at the scene.Motorists can expect traffic delays in the area as police investigate.Multi-vehicle collision at the intersection of Ellesmere & Markham Rd. Emergency crews on scene, expect delays. #CityStreets pic.twitter.com/WvwUltmE23— CityNews Toronto Traffic & Weather (@citynews680) October 4, 2023

Ontario investigates fee-for-access nurse practitioner walk-in clinics

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones says the government is investigating a walk-in clinic in Ottawa that is reportedly charging patients $400 a year for access.Several local media reports say the South Keys Health Center is set to soon open, with the membership fee on top of billings for individual services from the clinic’s nurse practitioners.CityNews has learned of a similar nurse practitioner’s clinic in Toronto offering packages for $1,200 a year that provide “unrushed appointments” that start on time and “on-site lab testing.”While it would be illegal to charge such a fee for access to doctors or other services covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, nurse practitioners don’t fall under the same banner.“If it is happening, then the practice will be shut down,” said Jones. “If there is a situation where OHIP-funded services are being charged, patients have an opportunity to report those.”The clinic directo...

Vancouver housing market more balanced after spring and summer slowdown: board

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

VANCOUVER — The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says a jump in new listings is helping to bring some balance back to the region’s housing market.The board says September sales totalled 1,926, a 13.2 per cent increase from the 1,701 sales recorded the same month last year. But the total was 26.3 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average of 2,614 and marked a 16.1 per cent drop from 2,296 sales in August.The figures include multifamily and land sales, which the board says typically account for less than one to two per cent of those totals.There were 5,446 new listings last month, a 28.4 per cent increase from a year earlier, as new listings were 5.2 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average.The composite benchmark home price in September for Metro Vancouver was $1,203,300, a 4.4 per cent increase from September 2022 and a 0.4 per cent decrease from August 2023.Andrew Lis, the board’s director of economics and data analytics, says the upward shift in new listings...

What to do with 1.1 million bullets seized from Iran? US ships them to Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia has long turned to Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine. Now Ukrainian forces will be using bullets seized from Iran against Russia troops.A U.S. Navy ship seized the 1.1 million rounds off of a vessel that was being used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to arm Houthi rebels in Yemen’s civil war in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution. . Those 7.62 mm rounds have now been transferred to Ukraine, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday. The much-needed ammunition has been sent at a time when continued U.S. financial support for Kyiv’s fight to defend itself remains in question. The 7.62 mm ammunition is the standard round for Soviet-era Kalashnikov assault rifles and their many derivatives. Ukraine, as a former Soviet republic, still relies on the Kalashnikov for many of its units.The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet and its allies have intercepted numerous ships believed to be transporting weapons and ammunition from Iran to Yemen in su...

Turkey warns of more strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria after bombing in Ankara

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister warned Wednesday that Kurdish militants behind a suicide bombing in the Turkish capital earlier this week would face continued retaliatory airstrikes on positions belonging to the militant group in Syria and Iraq.The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack outside the Interior Ministry in Ankara in which one attacker blew himself up and another would-be bomber was killed in a shootout with police. Two police were wounded in the attack.Turkish warplanes already have conducted two airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant sites in northern Iraq following the attack, which came as parliament prepared to reopen after a long summer recess. Meanwhile, dozens of people suspected of links to the PKK have been detained in a series of raids across Turkey.Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference that Turkish intelligence officials have established that the two assailants arrived from Syri...

US appeals court hears arguments over 2010 hush-money settlement of Ronaldo rape case in Vegas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A United States appeals court didn’t immediately issue a ruling after listening to arguments on Wednesday from lawyers trying to revive a woman’s bid to force international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions more than the $375,000 in hush money he paid her after she accused him of raping her in Las Vegas in 2009. An attorney for the woman is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the dismissal of the case in June 2022 and reopen the civil lawsuit she first filed in Nevada in 2018.The appeal argues the federal court judge in Nevada erred in repeatedly rejecting the woman’s attempts to unseal and include as evidence the confidentiality agreement she signed in 2010 in accepting payments from Ronaldo.Judge Johnnie Rawlinson declared the three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appellate court in recess and said they would consider the appeal as submitted following about 45 minutes of oral arguments Wednesday from lawyers for Ronald...

Tearful mourners pay their respects to Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco’s City Hall

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Mourners bearing bouquets and cards paid their respects Wednesday to the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco City Hall, where she launched her groundbreaking political career and spent a decade as the city’s first female mayor.Musicians played the violin and other string instruments as a steady line of people snaked into the City Hall rotunda, where her casket was on display behind velvet ropes. People brought flowers that were later whisked away by staff, stood for a few seconds in contemplation or squeezed back tears before moving on to a side room to sign condolence books.Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also of San Francisco, was among the officials in attendance. Feinstein died Thursday at her Washington, D.C., home after a series of illnesses.Jose Romero Cooper, 61, and 73-year-old Mark Cooper were among the first to say goodbye, waiting in line before doors were open to the public. The married couple said they had followed Feinst...

Biden suggests he has path around Congress to get more aid to Ukraine, says he plans major speech

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a likely roadblock from House Republicans on aid for Ukraine, President Joe Biden said Wednesday he’s planning to give a major speech on the issue and suggested there may be “another means” to provide support for Kyiv if Congress continues to balk.“I’m going to be announcing very shortly a major speech I’m going to make on this issue and why it’s critically important for the United States and our allies that we keep our commitment” to Ukraine, Biden told reporters after giving unrelated remarks at the White House.White House officials declined to say when Biden planned to give his speech. The president did not elaborate on the alternate method he was looking at to get additional military aid to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. “There is another means by which we may be able to find funding, but I’m not going to get into that right now,” he said.Aid for Ukraine has been a source of tension and uncertainty as several Republicans in the House have ...