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

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:09 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 10:48:09 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 10:48:09 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 10:48:09 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 10:48:09 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 10:48:09 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...

MAP: These contaminated Superfund sites surround Chicago

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:09 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – More than 1,300 sites around the country are suspected of being so contaminated, hazardous or polluted – or are at risk of becoming so polluted – that they have been deemed a national cleanup priority. Chicago is home to a couple, and surrounded by a dozen more. The Environmental Protection Agency identifies these as places that pose a risk to people's health because they have been contaminated by hazardous waste. Since 1980, the agency has taken charge of cleaning up those sites under a law with the nickname "Superfund." (Its full name is The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA.) Superfund sites in the Chicago area include poorly managed waste management, abandoned pesticide factories, and left-behind radioactive waste. Map shows which areas of the US will be underwater in 2050 As of July, the EPA lists 45 contaminated places in Illinois on the National Priorities List. "It is a list of the worst hazardous waste ...

Biden dog Commander bit multiple Secret Service officers: report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:09 GMT

(The Hill) -- Commander, the Bidens’ German Shepherd, has reportedly been involved in several aggressive incidents that injured Secret Service officers — with emails obtained by a conservative legal activist group describing encounters similar to those that got another Biden dog booted from the White House.The emails released Tuesday by Judicial Watch, which it said followed a Freedom of Information Act request lawsuit, detail 10 alleged attacks by Biden’s nearly 2-year-old dog, from October 2022 through last January.Commander was involved in a biting incident last November, according to the emails, which left an officer with injuries on both the upper right arm and the thigh. The officer “had to use a steel cart to [shield]” themself “from another attack.” The officer, the email says, was “in a considerable amount of pain.” White House briefing room gets a makeover: ‘Smells like a new car in here’ Other communication includes an officer warning that the dog had been “exhib...

Damar Hamlin sends support to LeBron's family after Bronny James' cardiac arrest

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:09 GMT

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Damar Hamlin extended his support to the family of LeBron James after the NBA superstar's son, Bronny James, went into cardiac arrest during a University of Southern California basketball practice Tuesday."Prayers to Bronny & The James family as well," Hamlin tweeted. "Here for you guys just like you have been for me my entire process." Buffalo Bills fans learn CPR at Highmark Stadium Bronny was hospitalized after the cardiac arrest and is now in stable condition after leaving the intensive care unit, according to a family spokesperson. The spokesman said medical staff treated the 18-year-old James on site and he was then transported to the hospital.“We ask for respect and privacy for the James family and we will update media when there is more information,” the James family spokesman said. "LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the USC medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the...

'It’s unbearable': Naked man caught on camera roaming LA apartment building

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:09 GMT

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) - A man has been terrorizing residents of an east Hollywood apartment building and creeping around the complex naked, the tenants say. Fearful residents in the complex say the man keeps breaking in, walking around naked and disturbing their peace. “He’s been trying to break into apartments,” said 27-year-old resident Vanessa Salguero. “He was walking around naked one night, just full-on naked. I wasn’t able to sleep the last week or so. I developed really bad insomnia, really bad anxiety, and I know everyone else has been feeling the same thing.” The man was also caught on home surveillance camera carrying a large knife on one occasion and carrying a large knife and a mask in a separate incident. Residents say the unwelcomed visits started after another woman was taken into psychiatric hold after terrorizing those same tenants and threatening to blow up the building. Since then, new unwanted visitors, including the man, have come looking for her.&nb...