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Are we ready? Should we do this? The debate on expanding medical assistance in dying

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals face a choice early in 2024. They can allow a sunset clause to take effect so that eligibility for medical assistance in dying expands to adults whose only reason for seeking it is a mental disorder. Or they can do what they did in 2023 and postpone it further, even indefinitely.Justice Minister Arif Virani says the government is weighing its options as the March deadline looms. The first step, he says, will be to see what members of Parliament and senators recommend after committee hearings that probed the issue this past fall. To find answers, The Canadian Press spoke with many of the medical and legal experts who participated in that process.Here are five questions that strike at the heart of the debate. Is Canada ready?Assessors and providers of medical assistance in dying, as well as medical regulators, say they are ready for eligibility to be widened.“Our hope is that government will not be influenced by the concern that the regulators will ...

Toronto among top Canadians cities in EIU livability index

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

Despite the high cost of living and ongoing housing crisis, Toronto is ranked among the top cities in Canada when it comes to the latest global liveability index.The Economic Intelligence Unit put Vancouver at number five globally, ahead of Calgary, which is seventh, and Toronto, which is ninth.At the top of the index sits Vienna.The EIU says its “Liveability Index has risen significantly in the 2023 survey, reaching a 15-year high as the world moves on from the [COVID-19] pandemic,” and as health care and education “improve in many cities in Asia and the Middle East and Africa.”It explains a “shift back towards normality” post-pandemic, as well as ” incremental improvements in livability made by many developing countries” have been the biggest drivers in the past year. However, the EIU notes stability has slipped since 2022, “amid several instances of civil unrest around the world.”But a slip in stability wasn’t the ...

NBA approves sale of Dallas Mavericks to Las Vegas Sands casino company

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — The NBA on Wednesday approved the sale of controlling interest of the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban to the families that run the Las Vegas Sands casino company.The deal was approved just shy of a month since the families of Miriam Adelson and Sivan and Patrick Dumont announced their intention to buy the club. The purchase is in the valuation range of $3.5 billion.Patrick Dumont, Adelson’s son-in-law and president and chief operating officer of the Las Vegas Sands company, will serve as Mavericks governor. Adelson is the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.Cuban is expected to maintain control of basketball operations, and there’s no indication the club will leave Dallas.Cuban has said he wanted to partner with Las Vegas Sands with a long-range plan of building an arena in downtown Dallas that would also include a hotel and casino.Gambling isn’t legal in Texas, and efforts to legalize it face steep odds. Still, Miriam Adelson has made no secret of her...

Argument over Christmas gifts turns deadly as 14-year-old kills his older sister, deputies say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

LARGO, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman holding her 11-month-old son in a baby carrier was fatally shot by her 14-year-old brother while trying to defuse an argument over Christmas gifts he was having with a 15-year-old brother who also was armed, authorities said.The 15-year-old brother then shot his 14-year-old brother, though not fatally, for killing their sister on Sunday in Largo, Florida, which is located in the Tampa metro area, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.The argument over gifts started while the three siblings were Christmas shopping with their mother and the sister’s two sons, ages 6 and 11 months. It continued when they went to their grandmother’s house where the sister, 23, told the younger brother to stop arguing with his older brother since it was Christmas Eve. The younger brother then told his sister he was going to shoot her and her infant, and then he shot her in the chest, the sheriff’s office said.The older broth...

Man awaiting trial for quadruple homicide in Maine withdraws insanity plea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A man charged with killing his parents and two of their friends days after being released from prison in Maine no longer intends to use an insanity defense.Through his lawyer, Joseph Eaton withdrew a plea of “not criminally responsible” because of mental illness but maintained a plea of not guilty in a court filing earlier this month in Sagadahoc County.His attorney didn’t elaborate on the decision in the Dec. 8 document but noted that it means a forensic report on criminal responsibility will remain impounded. The attorney’s office was closed Wednesday and he didn’t return an email.Law enforcement officials say Eaton confessed to the killings at a property in rural Bowdoin and to wounding three people while shooting at vehicles on busy Interstate 295 in Yarmouth. Killed in the shootings were Eaton’s parents, Cynthia Eaton, 62, and David Eaton, 66, along with their longtime friends, Bowdoin homeowners Robert Eger, 72, and Patti Eger, 62, offi...

CPD seeks assistance in locating missing female last seen on city's North Side

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

CHICAGO — Chicago police are seeking assistance in locating a missing female who was last seen the day after Christmas in the Portage Park neighborhood on the city's North Side.Police say Andrea Rubio Dones, 31, was last seen in the 4800 block of W. Grace St. on Dec. 26 at 1 p.m. Rubio Dones is 5-foot-2, 220 pounds, with a light complexion, black hair and brown eyes.Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts is urged to contact CPD Area Five SVU Detectives at 312-746-6554.

Gary infant shaken to death; parents accused of deliberately not calling 911

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

GARY, Ind. — Two parents face several charges after their 1-month-old daughter died due to shaken baby syndrome in Gary.Gerard Coger, 21, and Janaya Hobson, 19, both of the 500 block of Madison Street in Gary, are accused of not calling 911 to avoid questioning and walking to the hospital after their 1-month-old daughter, Royal, was sleeping for long periods of time, according to documents.Royal died on Dec. 18 at Comer Children's Hospital in Chicago and an investigation was opened after doctors concluded the infant died as a result of shaken baby syndrome.Coger initially denied shaking Royal during an interview with police and claimed he accidently dropped her on Dec. 4, according to documents. Doctors later disputed that claim following an autopsy.In an interview with police, Coger stated that Royal was crying a lot between Dec. 11 and 12. He allegedly shook her on Dec. 12 while asking her why she was crying, documents state.Royal was sleeping around 20 hours per day during this t...

Tom Smothers, one half of Smothers Brothers comedy duo, dies at 86

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – Comedian, musician and television personality Tom Smothers, who starred in “The Smothers Brothers Show” and “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” alongside his brother Dick Smothers, died on Tuesday at the age of 86.Dick, 85, announced his brother’s passing in a news release issued by the National Comedy Center in New York, which houses some of the brothers’ memorabilia.“Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner,” Dick wrote, in part. “I am forever grateful to have spent a lifetime together with him, on and off stage, for over 60 years.” ‘Big Bang Theory’ actress is cancer-free after surgery Tom Smothers passed at home in Sonoma County, California, with family at his side, Dick said. Smothers had previously been battling stage 2 lung cancer, he told CBS News in 2022.Smothers is survived by his children Bo and Riley Rose Smothers. His son Tom had passed previously, according to the news releas...

Minister escorted from North Carolina movie theater after trying to use his own chair

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — A North Carolina minister was escorted from a movie theater after a reported seating dispute.On Tuesday, Bishop William J. Barber II — the minister of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in Goldsboro, a social activist, and the former chair of the North Carolina NAACP — visited the AMC Fire Tower 12 theater in Greenville with his 90-year-old mother to see "The Color Purple."Barber explained to Nexstar's WNCT that he isn't able to sit in chairs that require him to be close to the floor due to a bad hip."I have a disability myself. I have serious Ankylosing," Barber said Tuesday. Ankylosing spondylitis is a type of arthritis that can cause some spinal bones to fuse over time, according to the Mayo Clinic.In addition to using two canes to walk, Barber carries a chair with him that's easier for him to use. He told WNCT he had never been anywhere that did not allow him to use his own chair."So whether I'm on Broadway, the White House, the State House...

Marc Champion: The UK and Armenia know the dangers of Israel’s Gaza war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:07:00 GMT

As Israel comes under growing international pressure to change its tactics and agree to a cease-fire in Gaza, its leaders have made clear they aren’t interested. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said the shift would hand a victory to terrorism, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “proud” to have blocked the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seen by allies as the prerequisite for any sustainable peace.Two examples from recent history — from Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan — warn that these could be catastrophic miscalculations for the state of Israel.Northern Ireland and the trigger of disproportionate responseBen Wallace, the UK’s secretary of state for defense until August, made the Irish comparison in an article published this month in the Daily Telegraph, a solidly pro-Israel UK newspaper. The Troubles, as more than three decades of sectarian bloodshed over Northern Ireland’s status are known, escalated dramatica...