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Pennsylvania is trying to help voters avoid mistakes that would invalidate their mail ballot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania is trying anew to help voters using mail-in ballots in the battleground state avoid mistakes that might get their ballot thrown out in 2024’s presidential election and beyond.In a new directive Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration asked counties to start using a standard set of instructions to explain how to complete mail-in ballots, among other steps.Shapiro’s top election official, Secretary of State Al Schmidt, said some counties already use these methods.The effort comes amid a partisan stalemate in Pennsylvania’s Legislature and court battles over provisions in the state’s four-year-old mail-in voting law that have led counties to throw out tens of thousands of mail-in ballots cast by legal voters. Voters completing a mail-in ballot must put their completed ballot into an inner secrecy envelope, insert that into an outer return envelope, and write their name, date and signature on the back of the outer en...

Texas man who set fire to an Austin synagogue sentenced to 10 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas man who set fire to an Austin synagogue in an antisemitic attack two years ago was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in prison. Franklin Sechriest, 20, had previously pleaded guilty to arson and a hate crime causing damage to religious property on Halloween 2021. He also was ordered to pay $470,000 in restitution to Congregation Beth Israel, and to serve an additional three years of supervised release once he gets out of prison, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. Sechriest, who was a member of the Texas State Guard and a student at Texas State University, had written racist and antisemitic journal entries before setting the fire, federal investigators said. Journal entries included “scout a target” on the day of the attack. Several days later, he wrote, “I set a synagogue on fire.”Security footage showed Sechriest’s Jeep at the synagogue just before the blaze started, investigators said. He was seen carrying a 5-gallon (1...

Construction companies in fined connection with worker’s death at Lambeau Field, Packers stadium

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Federal labor inspectors have levied fines against two construction companies in connection with a worker’s death at Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, earlier this year.Joshua Shaw, a 27-year-old carpenter with Mavid Construction, died in June after he was struck by a dumbwaiter car while working inside one of the football stadium’s video scoreboards, WLUK-TV reported Tuesday. The work was part of a project to replace the stadium’s two video scoreboards and renovate concession stands.WLUK reported that it obtained documents that show the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations against Mavid and the project’s general contractor, Miron Construction on Nov. 15. The citations call for fines of more than $15,000 against Mavid and almost $19,000 against Miron.According to OSHA, the companies’ employees and subcontractors were exposed to “pinch-point hazards” associated ...

‘First of its kind’: Dow invests $9 billion on Alberta net-zero petrochemical project

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

FORT SASKATCHEWAN, Alta. — Dow Chemical has announced plans to invest nearly $9 billion in a net-zero petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton.Dow’s Path2Zero facility is being billed as the world’s first net-zero Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions-integrated ethylene cracker and derivatives site. “This is a first-of-its-kind-in-the-world net zero petrochemicals facility and it will be the very first announced major project in Canada that is getting off the ground thanks to support from our investment tax credit for carbon capture storage and utilization, as well as our investment tax credit for clean hydrogen,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Wednesday in Fort Saskatchewan.The project aims to convert cracker off-gas into hydrogen as a clean fuel to be used in ethylene production. Carbon dioxide is to be captured on-site and then transported to be stored by adjacent partners. The project is expected to increase the U.S. chemical company̵...

Lawsuit alleges negligence in train derailment and chemical fire that forced residents from homes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court alleges negligence by CSX Transportation caused a train derailment and ensuing chemical fire that forced residents of a small Kentucky town out of their homes for more than a day, including most of Thanksgiving.The train derailed on Nov. 22 around 2:30 p.m. that Wednesday near the remote town of Livingston. Residents were advised to evacuate just a day before the Thanksgiving holiday and were only cleared to return to their homes that Thursday after the fire was put out. An investigation by the railroad company found that the derailment occurred after a wheel bearing on a train car failed.Morgan & Morgan filed the lawsuit seeking class-action status on behalf of the town’s affected residents, saying the derailment could have been prevented if CSX had monitored the train’s wheel bearings more closely and had placed trackside detectors that sound an alarm when wheel bearings overheat closer together. “Because of CSX...

Woman found guilty of 1st-degree murder in 2019 Aurora house fire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

A woman from Aurora has been found guilty of first-degree murder and arson in a deadly house fire more than four years ago.At around 2 a.m. on July 27, 2019, York Region firefighters discovered the body of 38-year-old Troy Stephen Oakley inside a house on Edward Street after the building was fully engulfed in flames.He was pronounced dead at the scene, and authorities deemed the death as suspicious.38-year-old Troy Stephen Oakley was found dead inside the home on July 27, 2019. Photo: York Regional Police handout.Melissa Galea, now 41, of Aurora, was arrested and charged that same day with second-degree murder, which was later upgraded to first-degree murder. Galea was convicted of first-degree murder and arson on Nov. 24, 2023. Sentencing is scheduled to take place on Jan. 5, 2024.

Indigenous signage aims to make B.C. legislature more inclusive, accepting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

VICTORIA — The Speaker of British Columbia’s legislature says the unveiling of Indigenous-themed signs outside the building is a necessary step toward opening doors that have been historically closed.Raj Chouhan says the B.C. legislature is the province’s largest symbol of colonialism, but it’s his priority to make the building a more welcoming and inclusive place.He says a ceremony today where engraved Indigenous language signs were permanently attached to the stone sidewalk perimeter of the building represent symbols of progress that would not have been welcome years ago.Hereditary Chief Edward Thomas Sr. says the presence of Indigenous language signs at the legislature, the former site of a village for the Lekwungen-speaking peoples, is a show of respect to the past and an open door to the future.He says he can see more Indigenous people coming to the legislature now that the signs are there to acknowledge their history and contributions.Chouhan says the signs i...

Mississippi GOP challenges election night court order that kept polls open during ballot shortage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — After ballot shortages in Mississippi’s largest county sowed chaos and confusion on the evening of the November statewide election, the state Republican Party has filed a petition challenging a court order that kept polls open longer than usual.The Mississippi GOP filed papers Tuesday asking the state Supreme Court to dissolve a lower court order that kept polls open an extra hour as voters endured long lines and election officials scrambled to print ballots. The petition would not invalidate any ballots or change the election results. It was filed to clarify for future elections that the lower court lacked jurisdiction and that its order violated Mississippi’s election laws, said Spencer Ritchie, an attorney representing the state GOP. In the Nov. 7 general election, up to nine voting precincts in Hinds County ran out of ballots. The county is majority-Black and is a Democratic stronghold. People waited up to two hours to vote as election officials made franti...

Online harms bill: Don’t link boy’s suicide with government actions, Trudeau says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it’s inappropriate to draw a link between government actions and the death of a British Columbia boy who killed himself last month after falling prey to online sextortion.NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh referred to the death of the 12-year-old in Prince George, B.C., during question period today as he asked Trudeau when the Liberal government will table long-promised legislation designed to mitigate online harms. Trudeau first promised to introduce legislation tackling hate speech, terrorist content and sexual abuse material in the 2019 federal election campaign. He made a similar promise in the 2021 contest, specifying that a re-elected Liberal government would table a bill within its first 100 days, but it has yet to do so. Trudeau told MPs today that the government needs to strike the right balance between freedom of expression and addressing the needs of communities subject to “discrimination and marginalization.” The prime ...

Woman suffers critical injuries being pulled from apartment fire in North York

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:56 GMT

A woman has been rushed to a trauma centre with life-threatening injuries after she was pulled from a three-alarm apartment fire in North York.Toronto Fire Services were called to the high-rise building on York Mills Road east of the Don Valley Parkway just before 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. TFS said crews arrived to heavy smoke and fire from the fifth-floor unit, where one occupant was without vital signs. Life-saving measures were performed by first responders.A woman in her 50s was taken to a trauma centre in life-threatening condition.Toronto police said shelter buses have been ordered for displaced residents, and roads are currently blocked on York Mills for emergency vehicles.It’s unclear what caused the fire.My photos/videos pic.twitter.com/Xsso8KJadW— Timmy Martini ???????? (@TimmyMartini) November 29, 2023