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California’s nonpartisan legislative analyst says state faces record $68 billion budget deficit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is facing a $68 billion budget deficit, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said Thursday.Most of the deficit comes from lower than expected tax revenues this year, the office said.California delayed its tax filing deadline to November this year because a series of damaging storms. That forced Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to come up with a spending plan without knowing how much money the state would have.The Legislative Analyst’s Office says revenues for the 2022-23 budget year ended up $26 billion below previous estimates. The office says the state could cut spending on education and take money from the state’s savings account to help balance the budget.The state’s budget topped $300 billion last year.The projected $68 billion deficit is a record in terms of a dollar figure. But the state has seen deficits that represent a larger share of the budget in the past.It’s the second year in a row tax collections in the nation’s most populous ...

HIV diagnoses hit 10-year high in Montreal, cases more than double between 2021-22

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

MONTREAL — Public health officials say they recorded in 2022 the highest number of new HIV diagnoses in 10 years in the city of Montreal and its on-island suburbs.Data shared last week shows the number of new reported HIV cases more than doubled between 2021 and 2022, to 310 from 141.Montreal public health says the increase is possibly due, in part, to a catch-up in testing after the pandemic, when the number of HIV diagnoses fell.The agency says the rise could also be tied to an increase in immigrants to the city from countries where the virus is endemic.The number of new reported cases in that population jumped 394 per cent — to 158 from 32 — between 2021 and 2022.Montreal public health says the city of Montreal and its on-island suburbs accounted for 74 per cent of Quebec’s HIV diagnoses in 2022, up from a usual proportion of around 60 per cent.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2023.The Canadian Press

CBC head Catherine Tait summoned to committee over job cuts, executive bonuses

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

MPs are calling CBC head Catherine Tait to testify about her announcement the public broadcaster would cut 10 per cent of its workforce while not ruling out bonuses for executives.The House of Commons Heritage Committee unanimously agreed today to have the president of the public broadcaster address the cuts and potential bonuses. The committee summoned Tait to appear at its first meeting in the new year following the holiday recess, but a date has yet to be set. Members also agreed to report to the House that given the job cuts it would be inappropriate of the CBC to grant bonuses to executive members. Because the public broadcaster is independent, members of Parliament cannot decide how CBC and its French-language service spend their money. CBC and Radio-Canada said Monday they plan to cut 600 jobs and not fill 200 vacancies over the next year as the public broadcaster grapples with a $125-million shortfall. A spokesperson for Tait didn’t immediately...

Spain complained that agents linked to US embassy had allegedly bribed Spanish agents for secrets

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Defense Minister Margarita Robles said Thursday that the Spanish government recently filed a complaint to the United States after discovering that Spanish intelligence agents had allegedly leaked secret information to the U.S.“Complaints from Spain were conveyed at the time,” said Robles, but she insisted that the case did not “affect the fundamental core of the relations between two countries that are allies and friends.”Earlier this week, Robles confirmed that a Madrid judge had opened an investigation into agents of Spain’s National Intelligence Center for an alleged leak of secret information to the United States.She said the intelligence center itself had filed a complaint with a provincial court in Madrid.Robles declined Thursday to provide any further information saying the case was under judicial gag order.She was speaking after Spain’s leading newspaper El País reported that the U.S. ambassador to Spain was summoned earlier this year for a ...

Trump appeals judge’s ruling rejecting his claim of immunity in federal election subversion case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is appealing a ruling that found he is not immune from criminal prosecution over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to court papers filed Thursday.Lawyers for the 2024 Republican presidential primary frontrunner filed a notice of appeal indicating that they will challenge U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision rejecting Trump’s bid to derail the case headed to trial in Washington, D.C., in March.Trump’s lawyers have asserted that he cannot face criminal charges because the actions spelled out in the indictment fell within his duties as president. But Chutkan said that nothing in the Constitution nor American history justifies cloaking former presidents with immunity from prosecution for actions they took while in office. “Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens...

Ontario considering enhanced road test for drivers over 80: AG report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

Ontario is considering introducing an enhanced road test for drivers over 80 years old, and is looking at how to better deter stunt driving.That’s according to the auditor general’s annual report published this week, which reveals some rules the Ministry of Transportation is reviewing.Ontario drivers have to renew their licence every two years after they turn 80, and that renewal process involves attending a senior driver education session at which their vision is tested and they have to draw a clock, which measures cognitive abilities.The auditor’s report says the ministry did research in 2020 that showed more than a third of drivers over 80 who passed the clock-drawing test could not pass a road test.The report says the research recommended an enhanced road test for drivers over 80, and the auditor says the ministry is considering introducing that in 2026.As well, the auditor found that people who received licence suspensions for dangerous driving have a fatal co...

Amanda Todd’s mom urges more jail time for tormentor, as Dutch court mulls sentence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

WASHINGTON — The mother of B.C. teenager Amanda Todd, who was bullied into suicide by a Dutch national, says she’ll be “so angry” if a court in Amsterdam doesn’t give him significant extra jail time on the basis of his Canadian conviction last year.Judges at the Amsterdam District Court said earlier today they would rule in two weeks on the conversion of the 13-year sentence for Aydin Coban, who was convicted of the extortion and harassment of Amanda.Mother Carol Todd, who’s in Washington, D.C., to speak to a group campaigning against child exploitation, says the Dutch process is part of a “never-ending story,” a remark echoing a message held up by Amanda in a YouTube video describing her ordeal before she died in 2012.She says the timing of the latest hearing, a week after Amanda’s birthday, has been difficult, but she will continue to raise awareness of online predators driven by “a mother’s love and a mother’s pass...

Ivy League presidents reckon with swift backlash to remarks on campus antisemitism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing heavy criticism, the University of Pennsylvania’s president walked back some of her remarks given earlier this week at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism, saying she should have gone further to condemn hate against Jewish students. Penn President Liz Magill was grilled during a five-hour hearing Tuesday, along with Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth, on how their institutions had responded to instances of antisemitism on campuses. Their carefully worded responses faced swift backlash from Republican and some Democratic lawmakers as well as the White House. Much of the blowback centered on a heated line of questioning from Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who repeatedly asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each university’s code of conduct. Magill said that whether hate speech crossed the line into violating Penn’s policies depended on context. “If the speech turns into conduct,...

Allies of Russian opposition leader Navalny post billboards asking citizens to vote against Putin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Opposition activists in Russia came up with a way to get around Kremlin censorship while urging citizens to vote against President Vladimir Putin in an election next year: billboards disguised as a New Year’s greeting.The Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny paid for billboards in Moscow, St Petersburg and other Russian cities which said “Russia” and “Happy New Year.” But a website address and QR code printed on the signs led to a site titled “Russia without Putin.”There, voters were encouraged to oppose the longtime Russian leader on March 17, the day that Russian lawmakers set Thursday for the presidential election. The website says the election is important for Putin as a referendum on whether Russians approve of his war in Ukraine, rather than a real contest for the presidency. “We understand that free and fair elections in Russia, like in any civilized European country, unfortunately do not exist,” Ivan Zhdanov, t...

Georgia lawmakers send redrawn congressional map keeping 9-5 Republican edge to judge for approval

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:33 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — For Georgia Democrats who didn’t get what they want out of a special legislative session to redraw voting districts, their retort Thursday was simple: “We’ll see you in court.”State lawmakers on Thursday completed a special session with the House voting 98-71 to give final passage to a congressional map that preserves a 9-5 edge for Republicans in Georgia’s congressional delegation to Washington, while creating a court-ordered Black-majority district on the west side of metro Atlanta and sharply transforming a congressional district now represented by Democrat Lucy McBath“This plan adds the required district; it complies with Judge Jones’ order,” said House Redistricting and Reapportionment Committee Chairman Rob Leverett, a Republican from Elberton. “It fulfills our obligation as a General Assembly with respect to congressional districts.”It joins a state House and state Senate map that also would safeguard GOP control of Georgia’s General Assembly. All three distric...