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Steidler: Give Postal Workers Tasers — for Their Safety and Ours

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

America’s rising, out-of-control crime wave claims a growing number of Postal Service workers as victims of robberies, beatings and even murder. It is time to fight back and arm at least some of them with tasers. Federal law should also be changed to allow trained postal workers to carry guns.In bold and vicious ways, postal carriers are being attacked for the keys to blue mailboxes and for mail itself, which has large amounts of ATM cards, financial assets, and personal information that can be used for identity theft.On February 27, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) alerted financial institutions on the nationwide surge in check fraud schemes involving the mail.“Criminals have been increasingly targeting the U.S. Mail and United States Postal Service mail carriers since the COVID-19 pandemic to commit check fraud,” said FinCEN. “Criminals typically steal personal checks, business checks, tax refund checks, and checks related to government assis...

Lauder family pledges $200M to its Alzheimer’s research work

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

NEW YORK — The sons of cosmetics giant Estée Lauder, along with her four grandchildren, pledged $200 million Tuesday to the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, a nonprofit the family founded to support research into finding a cure for the disease.Leonard and Ronald Lauder founded the organization in 1998 in honor of their mother, who had Alzheimer’s as did other members of her family, said Mark Roithmayr, the CEO of ADDF.“They have collectively made this family gift to see through the work of the next 10 to 15 years to finish off what Estée started,” said Roithmayr.Starting with a $100 million gift from their mother, the Lauder sons chose to invest in early research of potential treatments using what they called “venture philanthropy,” meaning any returns on their investments were put toward future research. The family also pledges to cover the organization’s expenses so all outside donations go entirely to funding research, Roithmayr said.The ADDF will receive the pledged $200 m...

Quebec shipyard formally added to federal shipbuilding plan after lobbying, delays

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

Ottawa and Quebec shipyard Chantier Davie finally have a deal, after years of lobbying followed by years of delays.The federal government is formally adding Davie to its multi-billion-dollar ship procurement plan, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday morning during an event at the shipyard in Lévis, Que.Negotiations will now begin around the construction of seven much-needed new icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard, Trudeau said.“We’re announcing that our government has reached an agreement with Chantier Davie for the shipyard to become the third strategic partner under the national shipbuilding strategy,” Trudeau said.“This means that we’re officially starting negotiations for contracts that include the construction of six icebreakers and one polar icebreaker for the Canadian Coast Guard.”Tuesday’s deal is the result of a heavy lobbying effort by the shipyard and Quebec government after Davie was originally excluded from the ...

Credit Suisse investors slam failures as chairman apologizes

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

ZURICH (AP) — Credit Suisse shareholders on Tuesday upbraided the Swiss bank’s leaders for years of mismanagement, scandal and obfuscation that sent its stock price into the gutter, while executives apologized and insisted that the only way forward for the once-venerable lender was a government-engineered takeover by rival UBS. A largely polite — if at times boisterous, emotional, angry and even humorous — mood pervaded at the first in-person shareholder meeting in four years and likely the last in the bank’s 167-year history: Credit Suisse is set to be swallowed by its crosstown competitor in the coming months in a deal that was forced through without a shareholder vote. Despite speech after speech airing concerns ranging from Switzerland’s role in global finance to environmental impact to wiped-out pension savings, shareholders narrowly approved a compensation plan for last year that will pay out millions to executives and board members. Investors also reelected board ...

Student aid startup founder arrested on fraud charges

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The founder of Frank, a student loan assistance startup company that J.P. Morgan Chase acquired for $175 million two years ago, has been arrested on charges that she duped the financial giant by dramatically inflating the number of customers her company had, authorities said Tuesday.Charlie Javice, 31, of Miami Beach, Florida, was arrested Monday night in New Jersey on conspiracy, wire and bank fraud charges.A charging document in Manhattan federal court said she claimed her company had over four million users when it had fewer than 300,000 customers.Authorities said Javice, who appeared on the Forbes 2019 “30 Under 30” list, would have earned $45 million from the fraud.A message seeking comment was sent to an attorney for Javice, who was expected to make an initial appearance in court later in the day.In a release, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Javice “engaged in a brazen scheme” to defraud the acquiring financial company by fabricating data to support li...

Philippines warns of possible waves after offshore quake

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A strong offshore earthquake jolted eastern Philippine provinces on Tuesday night and seismologists warned villagers to stay away from the coast because it could generate waves of less than a meter (3 feet) in height.There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the earthquake, which the U.S. Geological Survey said measured magnitude 6.2 and was located at a depth of 15 kilometers (9 miles). The Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it was centered 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Gigmoto town on the island province of Catanduanes.The Philippines lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where many of the world’s earthquakes occur. It is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.A magnitude 7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people in the northern Philippines in 1990.The Associated Press

S&P/TSX composite down in late-morning trading, U.S. stock markets also lower

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index was in the red in late-morning trading, as losses in the base metals sector helped lead the market lower, while U.S. stock markets also moved down.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 28.43 points at 20,249.85.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 187.66 points at 33,413.49. The S&P 500 index was down 22.68 points at 4,101.83, while the Nasdaq composite was down 61.34 points at 12,128.11.The Canadian dollar traded for 74.33 cents US compared with 74.42 cents US on Monday.The May crude contract was down three cents at US$80.39 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was down less than a penny at US$2.09 per mmBTU.The June gold contract was up US$36.40 at US$2,036.80 an ounce and the May copper contract was down six cents at US$3.98 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Anti-war officer from Putin’s elite security team defects

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

LONDON (AP) — On October 14, a Russian engineer named Gleb Karakulov boarded a flight from Kazakhstan to Turkey with his wife and daughter. He switched off his phone to shut out the crescendo of urgent, enraged messages, said goodbye to his life in Russia and tried to calm his fast-beating heart.But this was no ordinary Russian defector. Karakulov was an officer in President Vladimir Putin’s secretive elite personal security service — one of the few Russians to flee and go public who have rank, as well as knowledge of intimate details of Putin’s life and potentially classified information.Karakulov, who was responsible for secure communications, said moral opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and his fear of dying there drove him to speak out, despite the risks to himself and his family. “Our president has become a war criminal,” he said. “It’s time to end this war and stop being silent.”Karakulov’s account generally conforms with others that paint the Russian president as a o...

Driver faces 1st-degree murder charges in Quebec pedestrian deaths

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

The Quebec man charged after a pickup truck crashed into pedestrians last month is now facing three counts of first-degree murder.According to charges filed Tuesday in Amqui, Que., Steeve Gagnon also faces nine counts of attempted murder stemming from the March 13 incident.Police allege the accused drove down a main street in Amqui, hitting several groups of pedestrians in what investigators have described as an intentional act.Three people were killed: Gerald Charest, 65, and Jean Lafreniere, 73, and Simon-Guillaume Bourget, 41.More coming.

Federal spending on staff grew rapidly during pandemic: parliamentary budget officer

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:34:28 GMT

OTTAWA — The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government’s spending on employees saw record growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. A newly published report says federal spending on personnel increased by almost 31 per cent between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 fiscal years. Spending on salaries, pensions and other employee compensation rose from $46.3 billion to $60.7 billion over that time period. The report says the public service expanded by the equivalent of 31,227 full-time employees between April 2020 and March 2022, with the government spending an average of 6.6 per cent more on each full-time worker.The Parliamentary Budget Office says the increase in salaries was the largest contributor to the rise in total compensation, but spending on pensions, overtime and bonuses also grew at a faster rate.The PBO says expenditure could rise further, with 26 out of 28 bargaining groups currently negotiating collective agreements.This report by The Canadian Press was first pub...