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Trudeau to host top EU officials in Newfoundland, amid growing focus on green tech

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to welcome the top two leaders of the European Union to Newfoundland next month.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is to visit St. John’s alongside European Council President Charles Michel in late November.Trudeau’s office noted that the meeting takes place at one of the ports closest to Europe at a time when both sides of the Atlantic are expanding trade in clean technology.The EU and Ottawa hold leaders’ summits every two years as part of an agreement signed in 2017 alongside a major trade deal.The bloc of 27 countries has become an increasingly important partner to Canada in a world of growing political and economic instability.The EU’s ambassador to Canada, Melita Gabric, said last month that she’s hoping the leaders will advance discussions about Canada possibly joining a major research-funding pact called Horizon Europe. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3...

Wife of Grammy winner killed by Nashville police sues city over ‘excessive, unreasonable force’

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The wife of Grammy-winning sound engineer Mark Capps, who was killed by police in January, filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Nashville and police Officer Ashley Coon on Monday. Three police officers, including Coon, said Capps was killed after pointing a handgun at them. But Capps’ family says details from the body camera footage suggest he didn’t aim a weapon. The suit alleges Coon used “excessive, unreasonable force by shooting and killing Capps when he was not posing an active threat of imminent harm.” It also argues the city is to blame for Capps’ death because it allowed the Metro Nashville Police Department to operate with a “culture of fear, violence, and impunity.”The city had no comment on the suit, said Metro Nashville Associate Director of Law-Litigation Allison Bussell.“We have not been served with the Capps lawsuit and have not reviewed or investigated the allegations,” she wrote in an email.The lawsuit seeks a jury trial with damages t...

Connecticut police officer under criminal investigation for using stun gun on suspect 3 times

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

A Connecticut police officer shocked a shoplifting suspect three times with a stun gun, including when the man was on the ground apologizing, according to police body camera video released Monday as officials announced criminal and internal affairs investigations.Naugatuck Officer Nicholas Kehoss is seen on the video pulling the stun gun trigger for about five seconds during each of the three times. Kehoss also yells at the man, tells him to “shut up” and calls him an “idiot” during the arrest on Oct. 14, according to the video.Police said the man, Jarell Day, 33, of Waterbury, was suspected of stealing $200 worth of beer in a robbery at a Naugatuck grocery store and later rammed police cruisers with a car as he fled from officers. Day crashed the car and fled on foot, but Kehoss caught up to him, according to the video.Day was showing his hands when Kehoss ordered him to get on the ground and first fired the stun gun, the video shows. Day falls to the ground and Kehoss orders...

Lawyer wants federal probe of why Mississippi police waited months to tell a mom her son was killed

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A civil rights attorney said Monday he will ask the U.S. Justice Department to investigate why authorities in Mississippi’s capital city waited several months to tell a woman that her son died after being hit by a police SUV driven by an off-duty officer.Bettersten Wade last saw 37-year-old Dexter Wade when he left home March 5, attorney Ben Crump said during a news conference in Jackson. She filed a missing-person report a few days later.Bettersten Wade said it was late August before she learned her son had been killed by a Jackson Police Department vehicle as he crossed Interstate 55 the day she last saw him.Dexter Wade was buried in a pauper’s cemetery near the Hinds County Penal Farm in the Jackson suburb of Raymond before the family was notified of his death, NBC News reported last week.Crump said he and other attorneys will petition a court to have the body exhumed and an autopsy done. He also said Wade will be given a proper funeral.“In our c...

Alberta raises Crown agency’s loan guarantee capacity, cites economic reconciliation

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

EDMONTON — Alberta’s premier has announced the government is expanding the loan guarantee capacity of the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corp.Premier Danielle Smith says Indigenous Peoples have historically been overlooked and underserved within Alberta’s economy, and that her government is looking to change that.The province says it has doubled the Crown corporation’s loan guarantee capacity to $2 billion and will increase it to $3 billion in 2024-25. The Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corp., which launched in 2019, is intended to address long-standing barriers for Indigenous groups by reducing the costs of borrowing and increasing the amounts that can be borrowed for major infrastructure projects.Alberta Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson says the federal Indian Act does not allow First Nations to use their land as collateral and makes it hard for them to borrow money for such projects.Chana Martineau, CEO of the Crown corporation, says that since 2019...

2 teens are arrested in the fatal shooting of a Rocky Mountain College student-athlete

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A freshman football player at Rocky Mountain College was fatally shot over the weekend and police in Billings, Montana have arrested two teenagers, officials said.Chandler Wyatt Stalcup, 18, of Crystal River, Florida, was shot early Saturday. He remained on life support until Monday when his organs were harvested for donation, the Yellowstone County Coroner’s Office told KULR-TV.Police were responding to a report of a gun being discharged during a fight at a house party just before 3 a.m. Saturday when they received a call about the shooting near campus, police Lt. Matt Lennick said. A 16-year-old male suspect was arrested about six hours later and was being held in juvenile detention. Investigators recommended a deliberate homicide charge. A second suspect, a 17-year-old male, was arrested Monday on suspicion of accountability to deliberate homicide and was also being held in juvenile detention, Lennick said.Stalcup had gone to the house party to pick s...

North, NW suburban homeowners hit hardest by new Cook County tax bills

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

CHICAGO -- A Cook County Assessor's Office employee is calling the increase in property taxes for many homeowners a once in a generation event due to a number of factors.Residents living in several North and Northwest suburbs in Cook County are expected to be surprised when they open their property tax bills with an average increase of nearly 16% in the area, the highest increase in 30 years."The vast majority about 80% of tax payers are going to get higher bills this year," the Director Research at Cook County Treasurer's Office Hal Dardick said.The second installment bills for 2023 reflect new valuations from the Cook County Assessor.Across Cook County, taxes rose for 1.3 million homeowners and 94,000 commercial property owners from $909 million to $17.6 billion, a 5.4% higher than last year, but below 8% rate of inflation for 2022.In Chicago, property taxes increased around 3% in 2023, while homeowners in the south suburbs saw an average of 3.9% increase. For property owners nort...

Northwestern proposing new concessions for Evanston in hopes of new stadium

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

EVANSTON -- Northwestern University is coming to the table with Evanston residents Monday to unveil their latest concessions for the new proposed Ryan Field.Northwestern University wants to tear down 97-year-old Ryan Field to replace it with a brand new privately funded $800 million stadium, one at which they also want to host concerts and other events.Some residents have been campaigning for the plug to be pulled on that plan, citing a variety of issues.Northwestern representatives are expected to present concessions worth $100 million over 10 years for the city of Evanston during Monday's meeting.The university want to get the green light on this project, which would require the re-zoning of the area to a commercial entertainment district.The concessions on the table include an annual payment to the city of $3 million into a “good neighbor fund," that would include, $1 million annually to Evanston non-profit organizations and the establishment of a fund worth at least $2 million a...

Highland Park parade shooting suspect will not testify at father's trial

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — The father of the suspect in the Highland Park parade shooting appeared at another court hearing Monday.Lawyers confirmed on Monday that Crimo III will not testify in his father's upcoming reckless conduct trial.Prosecutors allege that Robert Crimo Jr. was criminally reckless at the time that he helped procure a FOID card for his son Robert Crimo III.Prosecutors also allege by helping his son obtain a FOID card, Crimo Jr. was a contributing cause to the bodily harm suffered by the homicide victims in the mass shooting that occurred on July 4, 2022.On Monday, lawyers from both sides argued over the admissibility of text messages and other alleged evidence having to do with Crimo III's mental health.Judge George Strickland, among other pre-trail rulings, left the door open to possible testimony from a prosecution witness. Highland Park City Council to discuss remembrance committee to help develop memorial for mass shooting victims Long before the 2022 Highland ...

City council committee advances plan for migrant camp at vacant South Side lot

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:30:14 GMT

CHICAGO — The city is one step closer to transforming vacant land on the South Side into a migrant shelter. On Monday, a Chicago City Council Committee advanced a plan to purchase a 67,000-square-foot vacant former Jewel and the surrounding 6.5 acres of land near West 115th Street & South Halsted Street. But local residents are organizing against the plan."We are here to stand up, to tell the people enough is truly enough," Kamilya Wilson, a community activist, said.  City announces plan to keep asylum seekers warm as temps drop The city’s all-hands-on-deck approach to migrant care has exacerbated tensions between Black and brown communities. Many African Americans say they’re frustrated the city is spending millions to house migrants in communities that have long suffered from disinvestment. "Are residents are concerned because time after time, there’s been promises made and they haven’t been kept," Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward) said. In a statement to constituents, Mos...