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El Niño winter has started. Here's what conditions are predicted for San Diego

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Winter has arrived in San Diego, and with it has come an El Niño climate pattern during the season for the first time in years.Forecasters with the Climate Prediction Center (CPC), a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are predicting with 100% certainty that El Niño will last through early winter and 90% chance that it will continue to spring.For other parts of the country, the climate pattern is expected to be a stark change from the last three winters that have been dominated by La Niña, which typically brings a dry winter in the southern half of the U.S. and colder, wetter conditions in the north.But, San Diego may not seen much of that shift anytime soon.Since the beginning of the water year on Oct. 1, five of the region's six climate reporting sites have recorded a below-normal level of precipitation — most seeing under an inch accumulated between the two months.That trend is likely to continue through the end of the month, accordi...

Brookfield significantly under-reporting emissions: advocacy group report

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

TORONTO — Advocacy groups say Brookfield Corp. is substantially under-reporting its carbon emissions, even as the firm’s head of transition investing Mark Carney emphasizes the importance of increased disclosuresThe report by the group Investors for Paris Compliance, citing data from Private Equity Climate Risks, says the investments of Canada’s largest private equity investor emit over 13 times more than what Brookfield discloses in its most recent sustainability report.The discrepancies come in part because Brookfield doesn’t count the emissions linked to Oaktree Capital Management, in which it acquired a majority stake in 2019.The report says Oaktree’s holdings, especially in oil and gas, make up about half of the unreported emissions, while Brookfield also doesn’t report some emissions related to companies that it doesn’t have a controlling stake in, or that is emitted by end users.Brookfield says the report cites emissions data that are based...

Montreal mayor ‘out of danger’ after health scare during press conference

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is said to be out of danger after she suddenly took ill during a press conference today.Video from CTV News shows Plante trailing off in the middle of answering a question, before saying she didn’t feel well and slowly sinking to the ground.The mayor was seen seated on the ground surrounded by her staff, who called for medical attention.An update on Plante’s account on X — formerly Twitter — says the mayor experienced a “malaise,” or discomfort, but is out of danger. The message said Plante is receiving the medical care she needs and appreciates everyone’s concern.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among those who responded to Plante’s message on X to wish her a speedy recovery.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2023.Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

Wisconsin governor signs off on $500 million plan to fund repairs and upgrades at Brewers stadium

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — After months of backroom wrangling, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill Tuesday that spends half-a-billion dollars in taxpayer money over the next three decades to help the Milwaukee Brewers repair their baseball stadium.The governor signed the bipartisan package at American Family Field, calling the legislation a compromise agreement between the team and the public.“All in all, this plan ensures the Milwaukee Brewers will continue to call this city home for nearly 30 more years,” Evers said before signing the legislation on a stage set up at home plate.The Brewers say the 22-year-old stadium needs extensive renovation. The stadium’s glass outfield doors, seats and concourses need replacing, the stadium’s luxury suites and video scoreboard need upgrades and the stadium’s signature retractable roof, fire suppression systems, parking lots, elevators and escalators need work, according to the team.Brewers officials warned lawmakers the team might leave ...

Beware of debt relief scams that offer ‘pie-in-the-sky promises’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

TORONTO — For anyone facing spiralling debt and a falling credit rating, a debt relief consultant’s picture-perfect solution could bring a glimmer of hope. But experts say if their promises seem too good to be true, they probably are.“Anyone who makes a promise that they can eliminate your debt or boost your credit score is making pie-in-the-sky promises because it’s just not a possibility to do it,” said Brandon Smith, a licensed insolvency trustee with Ira Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc. in Vaughan, Ont.Smith, who has been in the business for almost two decades, said some debt relief consultants are misleading financially strained consumers with rosy pitches about debt relief programs and charging them for services they aren’t not qualified to carry out. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB), a federal agency which administers the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, issued a consumer alert last month for debt relief scams targeting indebte...

Midwest mystery: Iowa man still missing, 2 weeks after semi holding baby pigs was found on highway

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — David Schultz’s semi-truck was found two weeks ago on a rural highway in northwest Iowa, its trailer still filled with baby pigs he was transporting. Schultz’s wallet and phone were inside, and his jacket was on the side of the road.But Schultz was nowhere to be found, and his Nov. 21 disappearance outside Sac City remains a mystery.His wife said something must have gone wrong, calling the 53-year-old father of two a dependable man with a strong work ethic.“This is not something David would do,” Sarah Schultz told the Sioux City Journal. “He would never leave. His family is his life.”Hundreds of people have volunteered to search for Schultz, but after scouring 100,000 acres near the highway, the effort was paused as searchers considered their next steps. Leaders of the search were convinced they would have found Schultz if he had wandered off because of a medical emergency or some other problem.Iowa’s Division of Criminal Investigation is assisting the Sac Co...

Coroner’s inquest watches video of inmate who says he witnessed struggle

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

An inmate at an Ontario jail told provincial police he saw correctional officers beating Soleiman Faqiri “as hard as they could” after getting him inside his cell, a coroner’s inquest into the mentally ill man’s death heard Tuesday.The inquest watched a video recording of John Thibeault’s interview with Ontario Provincial Police on Aug. 14, 2019. Thibeault was being held at the Central East Correctional Centre in the cell across from Faqiri’s and told police he witnessed part of the events leading up to the man’s death on Dec. 15, 2016.In the interview, Thibeault told the investigator the door to Faqiri’s cell was open and he had a clear view through a window in the door of his own cell.He recalled that Faqiri was taken to the door by a group of correctional officers, and said one of them whispered something in Faqiri’s ear that made the man not want to go inside. Thibeault said one of the officers pepper sprayed Faqiri in the fa...

Poland’s former President Lech Walesa, 80, hospitalized with COVID-19

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Lech Walesa, Poland’s 80-year-old former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been hospitalized with a bad case of COVID-19, an aide said Tuesday. A post on Walesa’s Facebook shows him on a hospital bed with an oxygen mask on, with a caption that says “I have been hit by Covid.” The aide, Marek Kaczmar, told Polish media that Walesa is seriously ill, but under good care in a hospital in Gdansk, the Baltic port city where he lives. It’s Walesa’s second bout of COVID. Starting in 1980, Walesa spearheaded Poland’s pro-democracy Solidarity movement that nine years later led to the peaceful ouster of communism from Poland and inspired other countries to shed Moscow’s domination. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1990-95 he served as democratic Poland’s first popularly elected president. The Associated Press

Families of 3 Black victims in fatal Florida Dollar General shooting plead for end to gun violence

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Lawyers and family members of three Black people who were fatally shot during a racially motivated attack at a north Florida Dollar General on Tuesday blamed the national chain for not providing security to protect customers and employees.They are suing the store’s landlord, operator and security contractor for negligence, noting that lax security led to the deaths of Angela Carr, 52, Jerrald Gallion, 29, and A.J. Laguerre, 19, in August. On Tuesday morning, a team of lawyers — including civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, as well as Michael Haggard and Adam Finkel — stood alongside family members of the three people killed that day, pleading for the gun violence to stop.“These families have lost everything. And they are here so that this never happens again,” Crump said. “We have a gigantic gun violence problem in the United States of America, and these families right here have had enough.”The gunman, 21-year-old Ryan Palmeter, had attempted to ent...

Sault Ste. Marie police officer facing sexual assault charges: SIU

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

A northern Ontario police officer is facing sexual assault charges after an investigation into alleged incidents that took place last year. Ontario’s police watchdog says an investigation found sufficient evidence to charge a Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., police officer with two counts of sexual assault in relation to two women.The Special Investigations Unit says the alleged incidents took place in December 2022.It says the officer is required to appear in court in Sault Ste. Marie on Jan. 8.The SIU says it will not provide more information about the case because the matter is before the courts.The SIU is an independent agency that investigates the conduct of police officers that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault or the discharge of a firearm at a person.