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Air Canada CEO apologizes for accessibility barriers, rolls out new measures

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

MONTREAL — Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau is apologizing for the airline’s accessibility shortfalls and rolling out new measures to improve the travel experience for hundreds of thousands of passengers living with a disability.Rousseau says the carrier is speeding up a three-year accessibility plan after recent reports of passenger mistreatment, including an incident where a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off of an airplane due to a lack of assistance.The measures range from establishing a customer accessibility director to consistently boarding passengers who request lift assistance first.Air Canada also aims to implement annual, recurrent training in accessibility — such as how to use a lift — for its 10,000-odd airport employees and include mobility aids in an app that can track baggage.David Lepofsky, visiting research professor of disability rights at Western University’s law faculty, says that as a blind person he dreads flying in Canad...

Labour minister tables replacement-worker legislation promised in Liberal-NDP deal

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

OTTAWA — Replacement workers would be banned during strikes and lockouts at federally regulated workplaces under new legislation introduced in the House of Commons today.Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan says the bill will bar employers from hiring someone to do the work of anyone who is on strike or lockout, and will apply to multiple work sites including federal Crown corporations, airports, ports and the federal public service.There are exceptions if not replacing workers would constitute a threat to health and safety, or could cause serious property or environmental damage.The bill fulfils a promise the Liberals made in the 2021 election to ban the use of replacement workers if an employer locks its employees out. But it goes a step further to extend the ban to strikes, too, a major component of the Liberals’ supply-and-confidence deal with the NDP. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says that without his party and decades of pressure from unions, this bill would not have happene...

Heather McDonald finds creative and financial freedom with popular ‘Juicy Scoop’ podcast

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

When “Chelsea Lately” aired its final episode on E! in 2014, Heather McDonald, a staff writer and regular panelist on the show, needed a new gig. As a stand-up comedian, her performance schedule wasn’t as consistent as a full-time job — then she heard about a fellow comic who launched a podcast to get his name out there and sell more tickets.“I was like, ‘If a podcast can help do that, I’m going to do that,’” McDonald says. She launched “ Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald ” in 2015. Now, nearly 800 episodes later with more than 200 million downloads, it regularly ranks among the top comedy podcasts on Apple’s charts.Twice a week, McDonald releases a free episode sharing the latest celebrity gossip and pop culture headlines, TV recaps, and anecdotes. She bounces topics off guests and interviews people with juicy stories. McDonald strives to avoid anything truly divisive — like politics. But despite her best efforts, she found herself in the middle of a debate about the co...

Japanese Americans were jailed in a desert. Survivors worry a wind farm will overshadow the past.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

JEROME, Idaho (AP) — Behind the barbed wire, the little boy pressed his ink-covered index finger onto the mint-green exit card. And a photograph was snapped of his frightened face.Paul Tomita was four. It was July 4, 1943. Independence Day at Minidoka, a camp in the vast Idaho desert, where over 13,000 Japanese American men, women and children were incarcerated during World War II as security risks because of their ancestry. The wallet-sized paper meant the scared boy in the photo could leave after 11 months living in a cramped barracks with his father, mother, two sisters and grandmother.Eight decades later, he returned with West Coast pilgrims who think the life-changing atrocity should be remembered. But now another government decision looms as a new threat — a wind project the pilgrims worry will destroy the experience they want to preserve.If approved by the Bureau of Land Management, the Lava Ridge Wind Farm would put up 400 turbines on 118 square miles (306 square kilometers)...

Wisconsin Assembly to vote on early ballot processing bill

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin elections officials would be able to process absentee ballots the day before an election under a bill scheduled for a vote Thursday in the Republican-controlled state Assembly.The Republican-backed measure is intended to ease the workload of local clerks and their staff, who run elections and try to ensure that ballot-counting doesn’t stretch late into election night.Under the bill, elections workers would not be allowed to count ballots until after polls close on election day, but they could work ahead to check ballot envelopes for necessary information, verify voter eligibility and take ballots out of envelopes to prepare them for tallying.Currently, Wisconsin elections workers cannot process absentee ballots until polls open at 7 a.m. on election day. This has led to long processing times for larger cities such as Madison and Milwaukee, sometimes causing swings in initial tallies when large batches of election results are reported late at nigh...

High court to hear appeal of B.C. law slapping health care costs on opioid companies

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear an appeal from four pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors or retailers trying to halt a proposed class-action lawsuit by the British Columbia government.Sanis Health, Sandoz Canada and McKeeson Canada, plus pharmacy retailer Shoppers Drug Mart, want the high court to examine two B.C. court decisions that confirmed the province’s right to pass legislation recovering opioid-related health care costs from companies making or handling opioid drugs.B.C. enacted the Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act in 2018, and Section 11 allows the province to file a class-action lawsuit against opioid providers itself or on behalf of the federal government or any province or territory that paid to treat patients who took the drugs.Since then, Sanis, Sandoz, McKeeson and Shoppers Drug Mart have lost cases in the B.C. Supreme Court and B.C. Court of Appeal as they argued Section 11 overstepped provincial authority and viol...

High rates, regulations have some rethinking short-term rental ownership: experts

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

Higher interest rates combined with stricter regulations have some Canadians beginning to second-guess the wisdom of investing in a short-term rental property.Deana Steele says she has never seen as many condo and vacation homes for sale as there are in Kelowna, B.C. right now.The founder of Keys to Kelowna Properties Inc., a luxury vacation rental management agency, said the lake-front city’sreal estate market is currently “saturated” by properties zoned for short-term rental use. Some of the sellers are people who bought not that long ago and arealready trying to get out.“We had all these first-timers flood the market — they were late adopters,” said Steele.“They thought they were going to make a mint because they saw what was happening in the gold rush. And now they’re realizing, ‘Oh, big mistake.'”The “gold rush” Steele is referring to is the investor stampede to short-term rentals that Kelowna and many other Cana...

Ed Burke trial delayed for a week due to attorney with COVID-19

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

CHICAGO — The federal trial of Ed Burke has been delayed for a week due to an attorney testing positive for COVID-19.Potential jurors have been sent home as a result and two other attorneys are also not feeling well. “Stay healthy. Make sure you drink your orange juice and get your sleep because we have work to do,” the judge told the prosecutors and defense attorneys.They will reconvene on Thursday, Nov. 16.Wednesday was the third straight day potential jurors are faced questions in the 25th floor court room of Judge Virginia Kendall.The group is trying to whittle a pool of more than 50 potential jurors down to 12 and four alternates.Burke is on trial with two co-defendants: his longtime aide Peter Andrews and developer Charles Cui. Previous: Ed Burke jury selection continues Burke himself faces 14 counts of racketeering, bribery  and extortion.  Prosecutors say he abused his public office for private gain, but withholding permits unless business owners used his private...

Jason Benetti is leaving the White Sox television booth

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

CHICAGO - The White Sox will be looking for a new play-by-play announcer for their television broadcasts starting in 2024. That's because Jason Benetti is going to be taking that role with one of the White Sox rivals in the American League Central division.Here is the White Sox statement after television play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti joined the Tigers today as their TV play-by-play announcer..@WGNNews pic.twitter.com/w4jr6bVH8s— Larry Hawley (@HawleySports) November 9, 2023The Homewood native is leaving the club to join the Detroit Tigers, where he will be the television play-by-play voice for that team's broadcast. This comes after an eight-year run with the White Sox where he called games for WGN-TV and NBC Sports Chicago from 2016-2023 while also continuing his national play-by-play duties with ESPN, NBC, and Fox.“I’m incredibly proud to join this historic and ascending Tigers franchise,” said Benetti in a statement released by the Tigers. “From every single person I...

Student at Nashville's Belmont University dies after being hit in head by stray bullet

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:40 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – A student at Belmont University in Nashville has died after being shot in the head while walking through one of the city's parks earlier this week, according to authorities.The Metro Nashville Police Department said the student, identified as 18-year-old Jillian Ludwig from New Jersey, was hit by a bullet while she was walking on the track in Edgehill Community Memorial Gardens Park.Officers were first called to the park just after 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday to respond to a report of a person lying on the track. Upon arrival, officers found the 18-year-old suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities said Ludwig was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where she was in "extremely critical condition" through Wednesday.Authorities said Thursday that Ludwig had died overnight.Jillian Ludwig, 18, was struck in the head by a stray bullet in a Nashville park on Tuesday afternoon. (Nashville Metro Police Department)In a statement issued before h...