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New report from Scarborough food bank paints unsettling picture of food insecurity

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

Food has become so unaffordable in this city that even some employed people are no longer able to buy groceries, according to a new report released by the Feed Scarborough food bank.It’s one of many food banks across the city where demand has skyrocketed. Feed Scarborough, which has five different locations, has seen a 112 per cent increase in visits since last year.The report released by the food bank is digging into why so many Torontonians are struggling.About 28 per cent of the clients are currently employed and almost 65 per cent are students.“Think about it, you’re working 40 hours a week, but you still can’t afford food which is a basic human right,” said Suman Roy, founder of Feed Scarborough.More than half of those employed reported low income as their reason for accessing a food bank.“That says that we have precarious employment [and] that says housing and other expenses are so high that food is somewhere where they compromise.”The...

US Rep. Dan Bishop announces a run for North Carolina attorney general

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

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop, a vocal member of the Freedom Caucus that’s become a foil to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, announced on Thursday that he would run for state attorney general next year rather than seek to remain in Congress.The Republican lawyer revealed his decision in a radio interview in his hometown of Charlotte. Bishop joined Congress in 2019 by narrowly winning a special election, after raising his profile in state politics as a chief sponsor of the controversial 2016 “bathroom bill.” A former county commissioner and state legislator, Bishop said he misses practicing law more regularly, and sees the post as a way to counter an encroaching federal government and to buttress law enforcement during a time of increasing violence.“Over the course of many months we’ve decided this is the right thing for me to do, to come back to North Carolina,” Bishop told WBT radio, referencing his wife. “I think there’s an opportunity to use the inf...

Police seek to identify youths who pelted Mississauga home with objects, smashing window

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

Peel Regional Police are trying to track down the culprits behind a recent attack on a home that shattered a window and left the homeowners rattled.On Thursday police released home surveillance of the incident that occurred on July 25 at around 4:00 a.m.The video shows several youths on bicycles and a scooter congregated in front of a home in the Lorne Park area.Leaving their bikes on the road and sidewalk, they run up to the home and begin pelting it with objects.“Security footage captures the individuals throwing objects at the house, causing the front window to break and alarming the home owners,” police explained in a release.The youths then flee the area.Police have not released any specific descriptions of the offenders.

Judge sets next hearing in Trump 2020 election case for Aug. 28. Follow live updates

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

Follow along for live updates as Donald Trump appears in federal court Thursday after being indicted by the Justice Department for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. It’s the third criminal case brought against the former president as he seeks to reclaim the White House. WHAT TO KNOW— Here’s a breakdown of the sprawling election indictment— Trump lawyer hints at a First Amendment defense in the Jan. 6 case— Republicans are remaining silent about the latest charges against Trump— The judge assigned to Trump’s case is a tough punisher of Capitol rioters— Here’s where the various cases involving Trump standNEXT HEARING SETThe next hearing in Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy case has been set for Aug. 28, just days after the first debate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary debate.The hearing set for later this month will be the first one in front of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will oversee the case brought by special counsel J...

Some federal parties resisted foreign interference probe looking beyond China: Singh

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

OTTAWA — New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party has faced resistance to including countries other than China in the terms of reference for a public inquiry on foreign interference.House leaders from the main federal parties have been meeting over the summer in an attempt to set the terms and timeline for an inquiry and to appoint a potential leader.The talks follow media reports earlier this year about allegations China tried to interfere in the last two federal elections, although parties agree it did not affect the outcome of the elections.The negotiations also come on the heels of a cautionary warning from former special rapporteur David Johnston, who said the Liberal government had “serious shortcomings” in how it dealt with the flow of intelligence regarding bad foreign actors. The NDP wants a thorough public inquiry to include a look at the actions of additional countries such as Russia, India and Iran. “We have been pushing to say that a public inq...

Former Ontario summer camp director accused of grooming, sexual assault in lawsuits

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

A private summer camp in Ontario and its former director are facing two lawsuits alleging sexual abuse dating back to the 1990s. The lawsuits allege David Latimer, who until recently was a longtime director of Kilcoo Camp in Minden, Ont., sexually assaulted a camp attendee in the early 1990s and a young camp employee in the late 2000s.The suits from the attendee and former staffer both accuse Latimer, 61, of grooming, manipulating and sexually assaulting the plaintiffs, while the camp is accused of failing to protect them. “Latimer was in a special position of power, authority, and trust,” both lawsuits say. The plaintiffs, the suits claim, were “dependent on and uniquely vulnerable to Latimer.”The allegations have not been proven in court. Latimer’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Kilcoo Camp said that upon learning of the civil lawsuits filed last week, it immediately appointed a new director and Latimer is no longer involve...

Top Alaska officials facing ethics complaints could get state representation under proposed rules

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

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Department of Law is proposing rules that would allow the state to represent a governor, lieutenant governor or attorney general in complaints against them alleging ethics violations.Under the proposal, the department could provide legal representation for a governor or lieutenant governor if the attorney general deemed representation to be in the public interest. For complaints against an attorney general, the governor “may certify” that representation by the department is in the public interest, the proposal states.Currently, a governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general must hire outside attorneys to represent them in such matters, the department said. Under the proposed rules, those officeholders could decline representation by the department and hire their own attorneys if they wished.The department said it has no role in investigating ethics complaints against a governor, lieutenant governor or attorney general and that representing them...

Texas A&M reaches $1 million settlement with Black journalism professor

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

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M University reached a $1 million settlement Thursday with a Black journalism professor after botched attempts to hire her unraveled after pushback over her past work promoting diversity.The nation’s largest public school agreed to pay Kathleen McElroy $1 million, and apologized to her while admitting “mistakes were made during the hiring process.”Texas A&M had initially welcomed McElroy, a Texas A&M graduate, with great fanfare to revive the school’s journalism department in June. She is a former New York Times editor and had overseen the journalism school at the more liberal University of Texas at Austin.But McElroy said soon after her hiring, which including a public signing ceremony, that she learned of emerging internal pushback from unidentified individuals over her past work to improve diversity and inclusion in newsrooms.McElroy told the Texas Tribune the initial offer of a tenure-track position was first reduced to a five-year ...

SNC-Lavalin plans to start snapping up companies as soon as next year: CEO

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

MONTREAL — Less than five years after it embarked on a program of streamlining, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. aims to blaze a “methodical” trail of mergers and acquisitions starting as early as 2024, its CEO says.“When we reach the point, which we would expect during the course of next year, where we can look at M&A and actually carry out transactions, we’ll take a very methodical approach to this and start with token acquisitions that build our capability,” chief executive Ian Edwards told analysts on a conference call Thursday.“Then we will continue and be at the cadence of our peers in M&A moving beyond ’24. So yeah, very much in the plan, but we’re not quite there yet.”As recently as 2017, SNC boasted a headcount topping 52,000 versus about 35,000 now, after the company sold off the last of its flagging oil and gas businesses in 2021 and veered away from fixed-price construction projects to become a pure-play engineering fir...

At least 17 dead after bus tumbles down steep hillside in Mexico

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

MEXICO CITY (AP) — At least 17 passengers were killed when a bus left the highway and tumbled down a steep hillside in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit early Thursday, Mexican authorities said.The state public safety agency said that rescuers were still working to remove people from the bus and that the death toll was preliminary. Twenty-two passengers were injured, it said in a statement posted to its Facebook page.The accident occurred near Tepic, the state capital.Local media outlets reported that the bus was travelling from Mexico City to the border city of Tijuana.The Associated Press