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Via Rail ramps up service, returning it to pre-pandemic levels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

MONTREAL — Via Rail is increasing service in Ontario, returning the passenger railway to levels not seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic.The Crown corporation says it is reintroducing two round trips between Toronto and Ottawa and one round trip between London and Toronto, starting in late October.The ramp-up comes three-and-a-half years after the pandemic brought some operations to a screeching halt, when Via Rail suspended its cross-Canada routes and temporarily laid off more than 1,000 workers.Chief executive Mario Péloquin says the railway aims to strike a balance between meeting passengers’ travel needs and deploying its limited resources.Last quarter, operating losses before government funding hit $120 million, and the organization has not turned a full-year profit since 2017.Greg Gormick, who heads On Track Consulting, says the expanded service announced Thursday will resemble Via’s timetable prior to COVID-19, enabled by crew training and new train deliveries from S...

Trapped US explorer thanks authorities for saving his life in emotional video from Turkish cave

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — In his first emotional video deep down a Turkish cave, a trapped U.S. explorer has thanked authorities for saving his life. “I was very close to the edge,” said Mark Dickey in the video dated Sept. 6 that was made available to The Associated Press by Turkish authorities on Thursday. Rescue experts from across Europe have converged on the cave in southern Turkey to save Dickey who became trapped around 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) below the surface after suffering stomach bleeding. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.ISTANBUL (AP) — Rescue experts from across Europe converged on a cave in Turkey on Thursday, launching an operation to save an American researcher who became trapped around 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) below the surface after suffering gastrointestinal bleeding.Experienced caver Mark Dickey, 40, suddenly became ill during an expedition in the Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains, the European Association of Cave Re...

Mexican Supreme Court’s abortion decision expands access to millions, stands in contrast to US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The decision by Mexico’s Supreme Court to invalidate all federal criminal penalties for abortion opened access for millions of people in the sprawling public health system a year after the court’s U.S. counterpart went in the opposite direction.Under Mexico’s legal system, however, the ruling did not invalidate all criminal penalties for abortion, which remained on the books Thursday in 20 of Mexico’s 32 states.Those differences help explain why Wednesday’s ruling, while a dramatic change in this predominantly Catholic nation, was not Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing women’s access to abortion. The ruling does mean that government health providers will not need to worry about federal penalties for abortion, because the court ruled that they were an unconstitutional violation of women’s human rights.Millions of Mexican women receive health-care services from the national government, granting the ruling...

Slave descendants on Georgia island face losing protections that helped them keep their land

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Descendants of enslaved people who populate a tiny island community are once again fighting local officials who have proposed eliminating protections that for decades helped shield the Gullah-Geechee residents from high taxes and pressure to sell their land to developers.Residents of Hogg Hummock say they were stunned last month when McIntosh County commissioners unveiled a proposal to cast aside zoning ordinances that limit homes to modest sizes in the enclave of 30 to 50 Black residents on Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia.The rules were enacted in 1994 for the sole purpose of protecting one of the South’s few remaining communities of people known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia, whose ancestors worked island slave plantations. Their isolation from the mainland meant they retained much of their African roots and traditions.Residents say losing zoning protections would drive out Hogg Hummock residents by attracting wealthy transplants eager to build...

Parking enforcement officer’s vehicle T-boned in downtown crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

A parking enforcement officer suffered minor injuries in a crash with another vehicle in downtown Toronto on Thursday afternoon.Police say the officer was inside their car when it was T-boned by another vehicle.The officer was taken to hospital.Police say the circumstances surrounding the crash aren’t yet clear.Roads in the area were briefly closed but have since reopened.A parking enforcement vehicle was involved in a crash with another vehicle in downtown Toronto on Sept. 7, 2023. CITYNEWS/Hugues Cormier 

Federal prediction says parts of Canada could see wildfires through winter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

OTTAWA — The latest federal government forecast says Canada’s already unprecedented 2023 wildfire season could continue late into the fall or winter.Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says there is potential for increased wildland fire activity from eastern Alberta through to central Ontario at least until the end of this month, while fires in B.C. and the Northwest Territories will continue to smoulder. Although fall brings cooler nights and fewer lightning storms, a government statement says ongoing warm and dry weather could contribute to new fire starts, and mean some existing large fires could remain active for months.Wilkinson also announced $65 million in federal funding for wildfire equipment and other supports for British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Yukon and Northwest Territories.He says B.C. and the Northwest Territories have signed deals to receive their full allotments under Ottawa’s wildfire and equipment fund, amount...

Probe of Florida building collapse that killed 98 to be completed by June 2025, US investigators say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

The probe into the 2021 collapse of a beachfront condominium building that killed 98 people in South Florida should be completed by the fourth anniversary of the disaster, federal officials said Thursday.The investigation led by the National Institute of Standards & Technology is looking into two dozen different scenarios that could explain why the 12-story Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida, abruptly failed early in the morning of June 24, 2021, they said. Surfside is a suburb north of Miami.“We’re still not prepared to close the door on any of them yet,” said Glenn Bell, associate team lead of the Champlain Towers probe. “We are still testing, testing, testing.”Bell told a meeting of NIST’s National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee on Thursday that most of the intensive work on such things as concrete core samples, corrosion in reinforcing bars and evidence of subpar construction in the 40-year-old building will be done by next spring, ...

Maui beckons tourists, and their dollars, to stave off economic disaster after wildfires

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

KAHULUI, Hawaii (AP) — Richie Olsten has been in Maui’s helicopter tour business for a half century, so long he’s developed a barometer for the tourism-dependent economy: rental cars parked at the island’s airport. There are so many since wildfires killed 115 people in the historic town of Lahaina that Olsten is worried about a full-blown economic catastrophe. Restaurants and tour companies are laying off workers and unemployment is surging. State tourism officials, after initially urging travelers to stay away, are now asking them to come back, avoid the burn zone and help Maui recover by spending their money. Airlines have started offering steep discounts, while some resorts have slashed room rates by 20% or are offering a fifth night free.“I know what a terrible disaster that was. But now we’re in crisis mode,” Olsten said. “If we can’t keep the people that have jobs employed, how are they going to help family members and friends that lost everything...

2 restaurants robbed within minutes of each other on North Side

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

CHICAGO -- Two restaurants were robbed within minutes of each other in the city's Lincoln Square neighborhood Wednesday night.Chicago police have not established a connection between two robberies that occurred around the corner from each other on the North Side. Police responded to a robbery at The Green Post pub near the 4700 block of North Rockwell Avenue around 11:45 p.m. A 33-year-old man told officers he was closing the bar when an unidentified man entered and demanded money from the register. The employee complied and the offender took off on foot. A weapon was not recovered and there were no reported injuries. There is currently no one in custody. What is CPD’s response time? Experts can’t say with certainty Just minutes earlier, another robbery took place at a sushi restaurant, Kimberli Sushi, near the 2500 block of West Lawrence Avenue around 11:22 p.m. A woman relayed to officers that an offender entered the restaurant and demanded money from the register. She complied...

'Shoot this place up': Fired Menards employee accused of threatening to kill manager

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:58 GMT

PORTAGE, Ind. — A Menards employee who was fired in Northwest Indiana is accused of threatening to kill a manager while being escorted out of the building.On Saturday just after 12:45 p.m., Portage police responded to the Menards, located in the 6200 block of Route 6, on the report of threats being made.Following a preliminary investigation, police believe Nicholas Pruitt, 27, of Gary, was escorted out of Menards by the store's security guard after he was terminated.The security guard told police Pruitt said, "I'm gonna come back and shoot this place up straight fire" while in the parking lot.He also allegedly said, "I'm gonna shoot (name of manager) point blank, I got warrants — I don't care." ‘Want this for my parents’: Reward increased in 1979 murders of Niles West students as families want answers Pruitt was charged with intimidation. According to court documents, he was also served with a warrant for allegedly driving on a suspended license in July.