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Alleged rental scammer assaulted victim who asked for money back: police

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

Toronto police have charged a man accused of not only defrauding numerous people out of rental apartment deposits, but beating up one of the hopeful renters when they asked for their money back. Police say the alleged rental scam took place between January and May 2023. Investigators say the suspect posted a room for rent on Facebook Marketplace located at 1818 Weston Road.The man allegedly posed as the owner of the unit, using the name “Diamond Dallas Taylor.”When potential renters showed up to view the apartment, the suspect would request $800 deposits to secure the unit. But once they forked over their deposits, police say the man would cease all contact and refuse requests for refunds. “When one of the potential tenants confronted the man for not returning the ‘deposit’ the man threatened and assaulted the potential tenant,” police said in a release Wednesday. On Tuesday, May 23, police arrested Hindy Taylor, 47, of Toronto. He’s charged...

What makes a storm a typhoon? What’s a super typhoon?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

A powerful typhoon churned over the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam and lashed the island with wind and rain. Typhoon Mawar is the strongest to hit the U.S. territory of roughly 150,000 people since 2002. The typhoon briefly made landfall Wednesday night as a Category 4 storm at Andersen Air Force Base on the northern tip of the island. A few commonly used weather terms and their definitions, which rely on material from the National Weather Service:atmospheric river — Long and wide plumes of moisture that form over an ocean and flow through the sky over land.blizzard — Wind speeds of 35 mph (56 kph) or more and considerable falling and/or blowing of snow with visibility of less than one-quarter mile (0.40 kilometer) for three or more hours. cyclone — A storm with strong winds rotating about a moving center of low atmospheric pressure. The word sometimes is used in the United States to mean tornado and in the Indian Ocean area to mean hurricane.derecho — A widespread and usually fast-...

A’s, Nevada leaders reach tentative ballpark agreement

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced Wednesday a tentative agreement with the Oakland Athletics and legislative leaders for a stadium funding plan after weeks of negotiations over how much the state will contribute to a $1.5 billion Las Vegas ballpark, according to a joint statement.The tentative agreement indicates a funding bill will be introduced in the Nevada Legislature in the coming days, giving lawmakers less than two weeks to consider it before the session ends. The threat of a special legislative session looms if lawmakers can’t agree on the terms by June 5. The financing isn’t a sure thing either. The announcement is on the heels of the Oakland Athletics’ agreement to use land on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip where the Tropicana Las Vegas casino resort sits — a pivot from an earlier agreement for a stadium nearby that came with a $500 million price tag that many lawmakers signaled was too high.The statement Wednesday didn&#...

Green Bay-area legislators ask finance committee for $2m to support NFL draft

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Two lawmakers have asked the Wisconsin Legislature’s budget-writing committee to give tourism officials $2 million to help stage the 2025 NFL draft in Green Bay.The league announced Monday that the draft will take place in and around Lambeau Field, home to the Green Bay Packers. Sen. Rob Cowles of Green Bay and Rep. David Steffen of Howard, a Green Bay suburb, submitted a motion to the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee that same day seeking a $2 million grant for Experience Greater Green Bay, a group that promotes tourism in the Green Bay area. Cowles and Steffen are both Republicans. The lawmakers told the committee in a written summary that the three-day draft has become a massive event and could draw 240,000 people to Wisconsin, generating an estimated $20 million for Green Bay and $94 million for the state. The lawmakers pulled those estimates from a letter the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce sent to the finance committee. “While the event is l...

Real Madrid players and fans honor Vinícius Júnior after Brazilian was racially abused

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

MADRID (AP) — With Vinícius Júnior watching from the stands, Rodrygo scored the winning goal and raised his fist in solidarity with his Real Madrid and Brazil teammate.It was one of the many tributes to Vinícius in Madrid’s first game since the latest case of racial abuse against the player, who considered leaving the field Sunday after being insulted by Valencia fans.“All the support for Vini was beautiful,” said Rodrygo, whose late goal gave Madrid a 2-1 win over Rayo Vallecano in the Spanish league on Wednesday. “What happened to him can happen to many players. We know that it has happened a lot of times in soccer. But we are happy because we see that the world is uniting to fight this.”The show of support came a day after Spanish police arrested seven people on suspicion of hate crime and after Valencia was fined and ordered to partially close its stadium for five games.Vinícius was not on the field because of a minor injury, but his Real Madrid teammates all came out wear...

Typhoon Mawar lashes Guam, US island territory known as ‘Where America’s Day Begins’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

The powerful Typhoon Mawar that lashed Guam on Thursday has interrupted travel and tropical island life for residents and U.S. military members in one of the nation’s most remote territories.The island in the Pacific Ocean is known for a cheerful greeting drawn from the Indigenous Chamorro language: “Hafa Adai,” which generally means “Hello.” Visitors learn that Guam is “Where America’s Day Begins,” as it is hours ahead of Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. mainland, and the jet-lagged traveler will certainly notice the humidity.They’ll also see seagulls and sunsets, but probably no songbirds. Non-native brown tree snakes, introduced after World War II, decimated the native jungle bird population on the largest of the tropical Mariana Islands.People born on Guam are U.S. citizens with a huge time difference from those on the mainland. The sun rises 14 hours earlier for the 170,500 people who live on Guam than in New York City. Wednesday afternoon in Washington, D.C., was ...

Postal workers’ union settles defamation lawsuit with B’nai Brith

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

OTTAWA — The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says it has agreed to settle its lawsuit against Jewish activist group B’nai Brith Canada.The lawsuit stems from news releases in 2018 by B’nai Brith saying CUPW was aligned with a pro-terrorism union, calling their leadership “radical” and accusing them of being aligned with a “path of violence and extremism.” CUPW co-operates with similar organizations in other countries, including with one that speaks for Palestinian postal workers, and has also supported an international boycott of Israeli products on the grounds that Israel mistreats Palestinians in the occupied territories. The union sued B’nai Brith for malicious defamation, and the organization sought to block the lawsuit but was unsuccessful. The union says in a press release Wednesday that it will receive an undisclosed amount from B’nai Brith, that the organization will remove the two articles in question from its website, and th...

U.S. will not default, but Republicans won’t be to blame if it does, McCarthy says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

WASHINGTON — The United States won’t go into default on its debt, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted Wednesday — but the highest-ranking Republican on Capitol Hill also said it won’t be his fault if it does.The double-barrelled message from the Speaker of the House of Representatives, whose caucus is locked in a spending standoff with the White House, came amid the ongoing, ominous countdown to the so-called “X-date.” That’s when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the U.S. government will run out of the money it needs to pay all of its bills without Congress agreeing to raise the debt ceiling — a day which could come as soon as June 1. “I don’t think there’ll be a default, and I don’t see how you would blame Republicans,” McCarthy told a news conference on Capitol Hill. Democrats, he said, have done nothing to prevent the standoff, even since February when McCarthy first indicated he wanted to see spending cuts before...

GOP-led Oklahoma Legislature agrees on largest-ever budget with little input from governor

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Republican leaders in Oklahoma, who control every lever of political power in the state, unveiled their largest-ever budget proposal this week, the result of bruising negotiations that left the GOP governor fuming and even some Democrats happy with what it included. The $13 billion state budget, a nearly 20% increase over last year’s final spending plan, did not include one of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s top priorities of cutting the state’s income or grocery sales tax. House and Senate leaders also apparently blindsided the governor by voting to extend tobacco compacts with several Oklahoma-based Native American tribes that Stitt was hoping to renegotiate to get a better deal for the state.Stitt’s office didn’t immediately comment Wednesday on the spending plan that easily passed the House and is expected to clear the Senate on Thursday. But during a press availability last week, Stitt said he was continuing to urge the Legislature to cut t...

Shell agrees to pay $10 million for air pollution at massive new Pennsylvania petrochemical plant

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:24 GMT

Shell has agreed to pay $10 million to resolve allegations that it polluted the air around its massive new petrochemical refinery in western Pennsylvania, the administration of Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Wednesday.Shell acknowledged that the plant, located along the Ohio River about 30 miles (48 kilometers) outside of Pittsburgh, violated air emissions limits, officials said. The multibillion-dollar facility opened in November, only to be shut down months later after the company said it identified a problem with a system that’s designed to burn off unwanted gases. Shell said it has made repairs and planned to restart the plant on Wednesday.Under an agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Shell Chemicals Appalachia LLC — a subsidiary of British oil and gas giant Shell plc — will pay a civil penalty of about $5 million, a portion of which will go toward environmental projects in Beaver County. The company will funnel a total of $6.2 million to th...