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Federal government posts $3.1 surplus for first 11 months of 2022-23 fiscal year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government posted a budgetary surplus of $3.1 billion between April 2022 and February 2023. In its monthly fiscal monitor, the Finance Department says the result compared to a deficit of $69.8 billion during the same period during the previous fiscal year. Government revenues were up $36 billion, or 10.1 per cent, amid stronger economic growth and the fading effect of the pandemic.Program expenses excluding net actuarial losses decreased $45.6 billion, or 11.5 per cent, as the federal government wound down COVID-19 supports.Higher inflation and interest rates pushed up public debt charges by $9.1 billion, or 40.7 per cent.Meanwhile, net actuarial losses fell by $0.4 billion, or 4.7 per cent.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April, 28, 2023.The Canadian Press

N. Carolina justices sweep away district, voter ID rulings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In massive victories for Republicans, North Carolina’s state Supreme Court on Friday threw out previous rulings that had declared illegal both redistricting maps for excessive partisanship and a photo voter identification law for being infected with racial bias.The new edition of the court, which became a Republican majority this year following the election of two GOP justices, ruled after taking the unusual step of revisiting opinions made in December by the court’s previous iteration, when Democrats held a 4-3 seat advantage. The court held rehearings in March. The 5-2 decisions likely to mean that a photo ID mandate approved by the GOP-controlled legislature in late 2018 will be enforced for the 2024 elections. Legislators also should have greater latitude in drawing legislative seat boundaries for the next decade that will reinforce their General Assembly majorities and assist them in winning more seats within the state’s congressional delegation. Prev...

Ontario hospital nurses awarded additional pay after Bill 124 struck down

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

Arbitrators have awarded Ontario hospital nurses additional salary increases for the three years that were subject to a wage restraint law, after it was struck down as unconstitutional.The 2019 law, known as Bill 124, capped wage increases for the nurses and other public sector workers at one per cent a year for three years.It was ruled unconstitutional in November and though the government is appealing that, the Ontario Nurses’ Association sought retroactive pay through an arbitrator, since the contracts were subject to be reopened if Bill 124 was repealed or declared invalid.Arbitrators have now awarded the nurses an additional 0.75 per cent wage increase for the year starting April 1, 2020, an additional one per cent for the following year and an additional two per cent for the final year.The nurses’ association says, however, that those amounts still don’t reflect the value of registered nurses, and won’t be enough to address staff shortages in the profes...

US agency raises ‘serious concerns’ about tech visa lottery

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The number of applications for visas used in the technology industry soared for a second straight year, raising “serious concerns” that some are manipulating the system to gain an unfair advantage, authorities said Friday.There were 780,884 applications for H-1B visas in this year’s computer-generated lottery, up 61% from 483,927 last year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a message to “stakeholders.” Last year’s haul was up 57% from 308,613 applications the year before. Each year, up to 85,000 people are selected for H-1B visas, a mainstay for technology giants such as Amazon.com Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. Last year, the government began requiring workers who won the lottery to sign affidavits stating they didn’t try to game the system by working with others to file multiple bids under different company names, even if there was no underlyi...

Downtown section of Queen Street to be closed for years starting next week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

Drivers and transit users will be facing a major detour in downtown Toronto starting next week — and it’s going to last for years.Queen Street will be fully closed to traffic between Bay and Victoria streets starting Monday, May 1, to accommodate work on a new station for the Ontario Line subway.The stretch of Queen is scheduled to remain off limits to vehicles for at least four and-a-half years, until sometime in 2027. Pedestrians will still be able to walk along Queen and north/south vehicle traffic on Yonge Street will be unaffected.The city says the extended closure will help “expedite construction” of the Ontario Line by about a year.“If we did it in a partial closure here, partial closure there, it would take us another year to get this station completed,” says Metrolinx spokesperson James Wattie. “The way we’re doing it now provides a bit more predictability.”Source: MetrolinxThe closure will also mean a major change for t...

Azeri protesters say they’ll end blockage of key road

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

Protesters who have blocked the road leading from Armenia to an ethnic Armenian region within Azerbaijan for four months said Friday that they will end their actions because Azerbaijan has established a checkpoint at the start of the road.The blockage of the so-called Lachin Corridor, which leads from the Armenian border to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, impeded food supplies to the region and aggravated tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which fought a six-week war in 2020.Nagorno-Karabakh, which had substantial autonomy under the Soviet Union, came under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian military in 1994 at the end of years of separatist fighting. Armenian forces also took sizable territory surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh itself.Azerbaijan regained most of the surrounding territory and pieces of Nagorno-Karabakh itself in the 2020 war that killed about 6,800 soldiers. Under a Russia-brokered armistice, transit along the Lachin Corridor was to continue under...

Passenger with 'vampire straw' arrested at Boston airport

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

(NewsNation/NEXSTAR) — A passenger was arrested at Logan International Airport in Boston on Monday after attempting to bring a self-defense device known as a "vampire straw" through security, officials with the Transportation Security Administration said.The item, a drinking straw featuring a sharp pointed tip, is described by an online retailer as an "edged instrument" that can double as a dagger or a "very effective tire deflator.""The straw's strength, length and dagger-like point make it a prohibited item," TSA spokesperson Dan Velez confirmed in an emailed statement to Nexstar.The item was confiscated by Massachusetts State Police, the TSA said. (Transportation Security Administration)The passenger, identified as a 26-year-old male, had also concealed the straw "among titanium chopsticks in his carry-on bag," Velez said. ‘Disruptive’ passenger forces Israel-bound United flight back to Newark after 3 hours TSA officers turned the item over to the Massachusetts State Police, w...

United plane returns to Connecticut airport after cockpit window 'unlatched'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (WWLP) -- A United Airlines plane that departed from Connecticut's Bradley International Airport had to return due to an issue with a window in the cockpit.A passenger on United Airlines Flight 1274 on April 18 told WWLP that she heard a loud noise about 15 minutes into the flight, then the plane dropped down and abruptly took a sharp turn. The plane safely landed back at Bradley Airport and passengers were told, according to the passenger that "the co-pilot's window blew out of the plane." United Airlines CEO warns travelers more disruptions ahead Photos sent to WWLP show the missing window, including one that shows the window covered by a box.(Photo courtesy of United Airlines passenger sent to 22News)(Photo courtesy of United Airlines passenger sent to 22News)United Airlines sent WWLP the following statement:"On Tuesday, April 18, a flight departing Bradley International Airport returned to the airport to address an unlatched cockpit window. The flight...

Smokey Robinson, 83, has steamy new album called 'Gasms'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — When Smokey Robinson started dating his now-wife more than 20 years ago, she didn't want people to know about it.Robinson and Frances Glandney, who married in 2002, were part of a group of longtime pals and she knew they'd start gossiping about her and the legendary singer-songwriter.“When we first started seeing each other, she wanted to keep it on the down-low. She didn’t want anybody to know because we were friends. And then all our friends were going to be talking about us,” Robinson said.Naturally, that became fodder for a song — “I Keep Calling.” Robinson has been holding onto it for years — complete with the lyrics “Simple things like touching in public/Private touches goin’ unseen” — until this month when it appears on his “Gasms” album, his first collection in almost a decade.“Gasms” finds the 83-year-old in a frisky mood, with the Motown icon writing a collection for the bedroom, with yearning across its nine tracks. Just a few titles alone hint at that: “B...

Dean's Reviews: 'Are You There God, It's Me Margaret' and 'Big George Foreman…'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:02:48 GMT

Check out Dean's reviews on the new movies coming to theaters, "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret' and 'Big George Foreman…'Get Dean's reviews and A-List interviews delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for Dean's Downloads weekly newsletter. You'll also get his Dean Cooks recipes too!