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Maine calls to restore 19th century tribal obligations to the constitution. Voters must now decide

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Voters in Maine will be the ones to decide whether to restore long removed language about the state’s obligations to Native American tribes to printed versions of its constitution.The Maine Legislature gave its final approval on Tuesday to a proposal to restore the language that requires Maine to honor treaties the state inherited from Massachusetts when it became its own state more than two centuries ago. The language has always applied, but was removed from printed versions of the constitution in 1876.Statewide voters would have to approve of the change to the constitution for it to take place. The date of the referendum has not yet been set.The restoration of the language to the printed constitution would improve transparency and illuminate Maine’s debts to Native American tribes, said Democratic House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross. The language is not in the official online version of the Maine Constitution either, though it can be read elsewhere,...

Stock market today: Wall Street rises ahead of Big Tech profit reports

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are ticking higher Tuesday as Wall Street waits to hear from some of its most influential companies, and whether their huge rally this year was justified.The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in afternoon trading, near its highest level in more than 15 months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 59 points, or 0.2%, at 34,470, as of 12:38 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.General Electric was helping to lead the market as earnings reporting season picks up momentum. GE rallied 5.9% after it reported stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. It also raised its forecasts for full-year revenue and profits.Another industrial giant, 3M, rose 5% after the maker of Scotch-Brite and Post-It raised its forecast for profits for the full year thanks in part to cost cutting efforts. Home builder PulteGroup climbed 5.8% after reporting stronger profit for the spring than expected. On the losing side of Wall Street were airline stocks, le...

Gynecologist who sexually abused dozens of patients is sentenced to 20 years in prison

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A gynecologist who sexually abused dozens of vulnerable and trusting patients for over two decades at prestigious New York hospitals cried before he was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison by a federal judge who called his crimes shocking and unprecedented.The sentence for Robert Hadden, 64, came nearly a month after he heard nine victims describe how the doctor abused them during gynecology treatments from the late 1980s until 2012 at prominent hospitals, including Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.Given his chance to speak Tuesday, Hadden stood with his hands folded before him to say that there was “much I’d like to say” but that he had been advised by his lawyers to keep his statement brief.“I’m very sorry for all the pain that I have caused,” a sobbing Hadden said through his tears before dropping his head down as he sat again. He then took off his glasses and wiped tears from his eyes. In statements over ...

Mattel renews licensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

Toy maker Mattel is renewing its licensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products.Mattel will continue as a Warner Bros.’ toy licensee for categories including preschool, plush, dolls, vehicles, games, and novelty toys. It will develop and market products for more than 50 Warner Bros. Discovery brands and franchises including DC Universe, DC Super Friends, “Batwheels,” Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and Ted Lasso.Specific terms weren’t disclosed. “Mattel is incredibly proud of our two-decade long partnership with Warner Bros. to create products for fans featuring their favorite Warner Bros. characters and storylines,” Nick Karamanos, Mattel’s senior vice president of entertainment partnerships, said in a statement on Tuesday.Warner Bros. “Barbie” movie, inspired by the Mattel doll, claimed the top spot at the box office this past weekend with a massive $155 million in ticket sales from North American theaters from 4,243 locations, surpassing “The Super...

East Palestine church hosts chemical exposure study in wake of train disaster

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (RNS) — More than five months after a train carrying noxious chemicals derailed down the street from the hydraulic equipment supply store where he works, Tim Cumberlidge is still trying to find out exactly what he was exposed to.“It’s not been a good ordeal all around. You can’t get a straight answer,” said Cumberlidge, warehouse manager at Brushville Supply and Hardware. The cleanup workers in neon vests, visible from the store, are still blocking the street, a constant reminder of the accident and a significant hindrance, he said, for customers and business.Cumberlidge’s house was affected too, when authorities burned off the Norfolk Southern train’s toxic cargo a week later. “Since they’ve done the controlled burn, and that smoke came right over where I live, I’ve had problems with my lungs. And my wife ended up in the hospital for two weeks because she’s got COPD,” said Cumberlidge, using the acronym for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.It would be help...

Toronto’s downtown office vacancy rate inched up in the second quarter: Avison Young

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

Toronto’s downtown office vacancy rate hit 12 per cent in the second quarter, up from 11.6 per cent in the first quarter to continue an upward trend, according to Avison Young. That rate is far higher than the 2.1 per cent the market was at in the first quarter of 2020, the real estate advisory firm said, before the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in vacancies. Along with about 9.9 million square feet of vacant office space, available sublet space is up about 67 per cent from last year to 4.5 million square feet to bring the total availability in the core to 17.5 per cent, said Avison Young in its latest report on office vacancies in Toronto. The greater Toronto office market had a vacancy rate of 13.6 per cent, while adding in available sublet space, which was up 42 per cent from last year, brings total availability to 18.1 per cent.“Workplace strategies continue to evolve, and even companies that have not downsized may now require less space than traditional assumptio...

Far-right activist Ammon Bundy loses defamation case and faces millions of dollars in fines

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A far-right activist who led the takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon now must pay millions of dollars in damages after a hospital in Idaho won a defamation lawsuit against them. The lawsuit by St. Luke’s Regional Health accused Ammon Bundy and his associate Diego Rodriguez of making defamatory statements against the hospital and its employees after Rodriguez’s infant grandson was temporarily removed from his family and taken to St. Luke’s amid concerns for his health. Police said at the time that medical personnel determined the child was malnourished and had lost weight. The hospital claimed Bundy and Rodriguez orchestrated a smear campaign against it.Late Monday, a jury at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise agreed, awarding the hospital damages exceeding $50 million, the hospital announced. “The jury’s decision imposes accountability for the ongoing campaign of intimidation, harassment and disinformation these defendants have conducted,” St. LukeR...

Takeaways from AP’s report on financial hurdles in state crime victim compensation programs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

Thousands of crime victims each year are confronted with the difficult financial reality of state compensation programs that are billed as safety nets to offset costs like funerals, medical care, relocation and other needs. Many programs require victims to pay for those expenses first and exhaust all means of payment before they reimburse costs, often at rates that don’t fully cover expenses. The programs also struggle under often unstable funding mechanisms that leave their budgets vulnerable to shortages and the changing priorities of lawmakers, especially those that rely on court fees and fines as their main source or only source of funding.Pamela White turned to Louisiana’s victim compensation board for help when her son, Dararius Evans, was killed in a shooting a few days after Christmas in 2019. She was met with administrative hurdles, a denial that blamed her son for his own death, a lengthy appeal — all while paying up front through a personal loan that gathered intere...

Lawmakers press for more scrutiny over China’s ‘malign influence’ at development bank

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers intent on reducing China ‘s influence on the U.S. economy are pushing the Treasury Department to help curb the outsized role of Beijing at the Inter-American Development Bank, which supports economic and social development in Latin America and Caribbean.The bipartisan group of lawmakers say Beijing is using the bank as a tool to expand its influence in the region. And they want the U.S., the biggest voice at the bank, to do more to rein in the awarding of projects to Chinese firms and to block Chinese attempts to acquire more shares at the bank.Rep. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of a new House select committee focused on China, is the lead sponsor of of the legislation, which is being introduced Tuesday, seeking to understand and reduce Beijing’s power at the bank. The Inter-American Development Bank Transparency Act would require the Treasury to issue a report every two years on the scope and scale of Chinese influence and involveme...

President Biden designates national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:10:15 GMT

When President Joe Biden signs a proclamation on Tuesday establishing a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, it will mark the fulfillment of a promise Till’s relatives made after his death 68 years ago.The Black teenager from Chicago, whose abduction, torture and killing in Mississippi in 1955 helped propel the civil rights movement, will be seen as more than just a cause of that movement, said Till’s cousin the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr.“We are resolute that it now becomes an American story and not just a civil rights story,” Parker told The Associated Press, ahead of a planned proclamation signing ceremony at the White House.With the stroke of Biden’s pen, the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, located across three sites in two states, will be federally protected places. But Till’s family members, along with a national organization seeking to preserve Black cultural heritage sites, say their work protecting the Till legacy c...