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The Paris Olympics scales back design of a new surf tower in Tahiti after criticism from locals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

LE PECQ, France (AP) — Organizers of next year’s Paris Olympics are scaling back the metal tower they plan to build for judges and television cameras at the picture-perfect surfing venue in Tahiti. They’re bowing to concerns on the French Polynesian island about damage to sea life and its majestic Teahupo’o wave.The tower will still be erected out at sea with aluminum but will be smaller, lighter, hold fewer people and require shallower drilling than originally planned, games organizers announced Friday evening.Critics on the island have voiced fears for coral reefs, fish and other aquatic life when the tower’s foundations are drilled into the seabed and mounted on concrete. Islanders pushed for the Olympics to use a wooden tower on existing foundations that’s long been the set-up for surfing competitions at Teahupo’o. They have collected more than 160,000 signatures with an online petition.Tahitian surfer Matahi Drollet has been among opponents of the metal ...

Police board votes to fire Chicago officer accused of dragging woman by the hair during 2020 unrest

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Police Board voted to fire an officer accused of dragging a Black woman out of a car by her hair during unrest at a mall in 2020.The board voted unanimously Thursday to fire Officer David Laskus, finding he used excessive force and lied to investigators about the incident, the Chicago Tribune reported.Mia Wright was a passenger in a car that arrived at the Brickyard Mall on May 31, 2020, during a weekend of protests and unrest following the death of George Floyd. Floyd was a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.A federal lawsuit that Wright and four relatives filed states that they drove to the mall to go shopping and didn’t realize it was closed due to the unrest. The lawsuit alleged that officers surrounded their car, broke the windows with their batons and pulled Wright out by her hair. Wright said she was left blind in one eye by flying glass caused by officers breaking the windows. Wright was 25 years old...

More complaints about bathroom contractor accused of cheating customers across the GTA

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

A bathroom reglazing company CityNews told you about back in August is facing more criticism from customers and appears to still be in business.“They just painted our tub, took cash and never responded to our calls anymore after we found out the paint peeled off on the second day,” said Lilia Perevalov, who reached out to us after seeing our initial report.Other people have come to CityNews with the same complaints.The company, once called Shiny Bathtubs and Tile Refinishing, is accused of selling services to reglaze bathrooms. When done correctly, it’s a multi-step process where a special reglazing chemical is used on tubs or tiles to make them look new. It’s a cheaper option for many people compared to a complete bathroom overhaul.“But they’re using paint, not the reglazing chemical they’re selling,” said Jesus Fajardo, who first reached out to CityNews about this contractor. He hired the company last summer and paid them $3,000.“What I was left with was a mess,” he said. “Paint w...

B.C. plane wreck ‘verified’ by RCMP is revealed to be fake crash site for training

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

KAMLOOPS — Plane wreckage that made headlines this week when officials announced a hunter had stumbled on what police thought was a decades-old crash site in the B.C. Interior was actually placed there deliberately for training purposes.A notice posted Tuesday on the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System says the RCMP inspected the site north of Kamloops and “verified” the wreckage was at least 20 to 25 years old, and it carried no registration or identifying marks.But Fred Carey, executive director with volunteer air safety group PEP-Air, says their group planted the fuselage there two years ago “at the most,” marking it with tags to let people know it wasn’t a real crash site.The wreck has no motor, wings, doors, seats, or propeller.Carey says the report about the wreckage “made no sense,” and his group, which is part of the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, had contacted RCMP to let them know it isn’t a real crash site.R...

Haitian immigrants sue Indiana over law that limits driver’s license access to certain Ukrainians

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge heard arguments Friday from lawyers for a group of Indiana residents from Haiti who are suing the state over a law that allows immigrants in the U.S. on humanitarian parole to get driver’s licenses, but only if they are from Ukraine. The five plaintiffs say the law passed this year is discriminatory and unconstitutional, and they asked the court to strike down the law’s provision that limits its scope to people from Ukraine.U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt said she will issue a ruling at an unspecified date. The lawsuit was filed in August against the Commissioner of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and the National Immigration Law Center. The law provides an avenue for immigrants on humanitarian parole from Ukraine to obtain driver’s licenses and identification cards. The class-action lawsuit seeks to force the Bureau of Mot...

Nearly two decades on, Scott Pilgrim’s fandom continues to grow

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

Toronto layabout Scott Pilgrim has been 23 for 19 years, but somehow, he still feels fresh. The chronically unemployed bass player is back — this time in the Netflix anime “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off,” which debuts to a larger built-in audience than any of the character’s previous iterations. The fandom has grown over the years as new generations discover the charms of the Canadian graphic novel series turned indie film, which follows the titular slacker — portrayed in the movie by Canada’s own Michael Cera — as he decides to date Ramona Flowers, an American delivery girl whose seven evil exes are determined to thwart him. “Kids all over the world seem to kind of get it in a weird way,” said Bryan Lee O’Malley, who created the 2004book series and co-wrote the show.“I think it’s the specificity. I always go back to Bruce Springsteen, or the Canadian version, Joel Plaskett. It’s the very specific references grounded in something...

Judge rejects plea for Pennsylvania woman charged with killing 2 children found hanging in basement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

READING, Pa. (AP) — A judge on Friday rejected a plea agreement for a Pennsylvania woman charged with killing her two young children, who were found hanging in the basement of their home nearly four years ago.Lisa Snyder, 40, sought to plead no contest but mentally ill to two counts of third-degree murder in the September 2019 deaths of 4-year-old Brinley and 8-year-old Conner. The children were taken off life support and died three days after they were found in the home in Albany Township, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia.Berks County President Judge Theresa Johnson rejected the plea, saying it didn’t serve justice. The case will now head to trial, where Snyder faces charges of first-degree murder, child endangerment and evidence tampering.Snyder, who made the initial 911 call, had told police her son was bullied and had been threatening to take his own life. But authorities were immediately suspicious of her claim of suicide, and said they found no ev...

Alex Murdaugh pleads guilty to financial crimes in state court, adding to prison time

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) — Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty Friday to financial crimes in state court, adding to the prison time facing the longtime lawyer who was convicted of killing his wife and son. Murdaugh agreed to plead guilty to more than a dozen counts, including money laundering, breach of trust and financial fraud, in exchange for a 27-year sentence. The sentence must be approved by Judge Clifton Newman, who set a sentencing hearing for Nov. 28 at which victims or their families will get to speak. Murdaugh is already serving life in prison without parole after he was convicted in March of two counts of murder. His lawyers are seeking a new trial in the murder case, citing allegations that the court clerk tampered with the jury. The clerk has denied the allegations. Murdaugh already admitted his guilt in federal court in September to 22 counts of financial fraud and money laundering. ___Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiativ...

Remains found in remote Arizona desert in 1992 identified as missing teen girl, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Police in Arizona have determined that decomposed remains found in August 1992 in a remote desert area outside Phoenix were those of a missing 15-year-old, Melody Harrison.The Apache Junction Police Department announced Thursday that advancements in DNA testing helped them make the discovery 31 years after Harrison’s disappearance in June 1992.Police said in a news release that the case soon went cold after the remains were found, and for decades the remains were known only as “Apache Junction Jane Doe,” who they believed was between 16 and 18 at the time of her death.The case was later entered into a database maintained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Unidentified Persons System.According to the entry, authorities believed the teenager had been dead between three and five weeks before her remains were found. She was wearing Levi’s denim shorts, a shirt with soccer balls on the front and back and a yellow ring on her lef...

Study finds Alberta underestimates methane emissions by 50 per cent

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

A study from one of Canada’s premiere climate labs says methane emissions from Alberta’s energy industry are underestimated by almost 50 per cent. The study from Carleton University’s Energy and Emissions Research Lab also says oil and gas produced in the province emits significantly more methane for the energy produced than jurisdictions such as British Columbia.Methane is a greenhouse gas considered to be about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after its release.The findings come as the federal government prepares regulations to control the amount of the gas released into the atmosphere.Alberta’s energy regulator used industry figures to determine that methane emissions in the province have nearly halved since 2014. But the study’s lead author, Matt Johnson, says that calculation doesn’t mean much if the baseline figure is wrong. The lab’s findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications Earth ...