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Mississippi farms pay overdue wages for favoring immigrants over local Black workers, agency says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Forty-four farms in Mississippi exploited local Black workers by paying higher wages to immigrants who were in the United States on temporary work visas, the U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday.The department announced it completed investigations that it began last year in the rural flatlands of the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest areas of the U.S.The 44 farms include catfish growers and operations that raise crops such as rice, soybeans and corn. They have paid $505,540 in back wages for 161 workers, plus $341,838 in civil penalties, the department said.“The outcome of these investigations confirms that employers in the Mississippi Delta denied a large number of marginalized farmworkers their lawful wages, and in some cases, violated the rights of U.S. workers by giving temporary guest workers preferential treatment,” said Audrey Hall, district director of the Wage and Hour Division in Jackson, Mississippi.The Labor Department announced its findings six...

Mets owner Steve Cohen considering trade deadline selloff, but Showalter, Eppler safe through season

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Mets owner Steven Cohen threatened his underperforming team with the prospect of a trade deadline selloff unless New York gets back into contention for a playoff berth, while promising job security through the season’s end to manager Buck Showalter and general manager Billy Eppler.“All is not lost yet, but it’s getting late,” Cohen said during a news conference Wednesday with the Mets in fourth place in the NL East. “I’m preparing my management team for all possibilities. If we don’t get better, we have decisions to make at the trade deadline, and that’s not my preferred end result but I’m preparing all contingencies. “And we’ll see where it goes. It’s on the players, right?” Cohen continued. “They’re veterans. They’ve been there before. These are players who have done it, and we’ll see if they can get their act together and string together some wins. I can’t pitch and I can’t hit. Th...

The number of Kansas residents officially changing genders quadrupled this year ahead of a new law

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Four times as many Kansans changed their gender on birth certificates and driver’s licenses this year ahead of a new state law that prevents residents from identifying themselves differently than the sex assigned them at birth.The legislation is part of a raft of measures lawmakers across the U.S. have passed to roll back transgender rights. It has provisions meant to restrict transgender people’s use of restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities and applies to a person’s identity listed on state documents.The Kansas law takes effect Saturday, but it’s not yet clear how it will play out in the daily lives of transgender people. The new legislation conflicts with a 2019 federal court order directing the state to allow transgender people to change their birth certificates.Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who vetoed the law but was overridden by the Republican-controlled Legislature, hasn’t said whether she will have state agencies continue to allow change...

Rapper Quando Rondo bonds out of jail after arrest on drug, gang charges in Georgia

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Rapper Quando Rondo has bonded out of jail after he was indicted on drug and gang charges in his hometown of Savannah.Court records show a judge granted a $100,000 bond for the 24-year-old rapper, whose given name is Tyquian Terrel Bowman. He was released Monday, according to the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.A grand jury indicted him along with 18 others on June 14. The indictment charged Bowman with four counts, including being a manager of an illegal street gang known as “Rollin’ 60s.” Other charges allege Bowman conspired with others to distribute marijuana and to buy pills of the opioid hydrocodone. His lawyer Jonah Pine said he is “extraordinarily grateful” that the rapper has been released on bond and declined to comment further.The rapper’s singles “I Remember” and “ABG” led to a deal with Atlantic Records, which released his debut album, “QPac,” in 2020. His follow-up album, “Recovery,” came out in March.The Associated Press

Montana Superfund town’s health clinic accused of submitting false asbestos claims

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A major U.S. railroad found liable for spreading hazardous asbestos that killed hundreds of people in a Montana town tried to convince a federal jury during closing arguments Wednesday that a local clinic submitted more than 1,000 asbestos claims for people who weren’t sick, earning them government benefits and bilking taxpayer funds.The case focuses on the Center For Asbestos Related Disease in Libby, Montana, and the health clinic’s high-profile doctor, Brad Black, who has been at the forefront of efforts to help residents of the town, which came to national prominence when it was declared a deadly Superfund site in 2000.Since 2003, Black and the CARD clinic have certified more than 3,400 people, primarily from the Libby area, with asbestos-related diseases, according to court documents.BNSF Railway — controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate — alleged during a trial in Missoula that more than half the certifications we...

World entering ‘period of uncertainty’ as AI makes advances: Hinton

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

TORONTO — The so-called ‘godfather of artificial intelligence’ said the world is entering a period of huge uncertainty as the technology he pioneered gets even smarter, more ubiquitous and in need of people working to counter its risks.“We have to take seriously the possibility that they get to be smarter than us, which seems quite likely, and they have goals of their own, which seems quite likely,” Geoffrey Hinton said at the Collision tech conference in Toronto on Wednesday.“They may well develop the goal of taking control, and if they do that we’re in trouble.”Hinton, who won the A.M. Turing Award, known as the Nobel Prize of computing, in 2018 with Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun, has been ringing alarm bells about AI for months as it has been adopted by more companies in the wake of ChatGPT’s creation.The generative AI chatbot capable of humanlike conversations and tasks was developed by San Francisco-based OpenAI and joins an AI rac...

How to keep your pets safe from wildfire smoke

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

As wildfire smoke makes an expected but unwelcome comeback to Toronto, it’s important to take precautions not only for ourselves but for our furry friends as well.Smoke can pose serious health risks to pets, just as it does to humans, and the Toronto Humane Society (THS) is providing some guidelines on how to keep them safe.“The first really important thing is just to stay informed,” says Greg Ratelle from THS. “[Make sure we’re] following Environment Canada, making sure we understand when air quality is the worst and then making sound decisions for our little ones,” he says.Pets need the same protection as humans, so staying indoors as much as possible, closing doors and windows and using air purifiers will be beneficial for them as well. But while animals like cats, rabbits and hamsters may fare well without outdoor activities, dogs must be walked.Ratelle offers the following tips to keep them safe if you must go outside:Reduce exposure by taking shor...

Presumed human remains recovered from Titan wreckage, Coast Guard says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

(NEXSTAR) - Potential human remains have been found in the recovered wreckage of the Titan submersible, which returned to land Wednesday, according to authorities. A formal analysis of the "presumed human remains" will be conducted by U.S. medical professionals, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release. Five people were killed when the submersible imploded earlier this month: Ocean Gate CEO and pilot Stockton Rush; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.Debris from the vessel was found on the Atlantic Ocean's floor last Thursday, roughly 1,600 feet from the Titanic and about 12,500 feet underwater. How long had the Titan journeyed before its ‘catastrophic implosion’? The submersible, belonging to OceanGate, Inc., suffered a “catastrophic implosion” less than two hours after it began its underwater journey to the Titanic's wreckage, authorities determined...

UPS Teamsters say nationwide strike is 'imminent' if Friday deadline not met

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

The Teamsters working for shipping giant UPS said a strike is “imminent” after walking away from the bargaining table. The UPS Teamsters said in a statement late Wednesday it gave UPS a one-week notice Tuesday to “act responsibly and exchange a stronger economic proposal” to more than 340,000 employees of the shipping company. The Teamsters demanded that UPS delivers its “last, best and final offer” to the union by Friday. “The largest single-employer strike in American history now appears inevitable,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “Executives at UPS, some of whom get tens of millions of dollars a year, do not care about the hundreds of thousands of American workers who make this company run,” he said.A UPS truck makes deliveries May 10 in Northbrook, Ill. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)Earlier this month, UPS agreed to “equip all newly purchased U.S. small package delivery vehicles with air conditioning” in 2024.The company also promised to...

Iowa woman who lost home in tornado wins $2 million lottery prize

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:27:30 GMT

CLIVE, Iowa (WHO) - An Ottumwa woman who lost her home in a 2001 tornado has won the Iowa Lottery's $2 million Powerball prize. Tammy Gordy, 56, and her husband Steve lived in Agency in 2001 when the community was damaged by a tornado. The Gordys lost their home in that storm. Tammy told the Iowa Lottery that she plans to use her winnings to finish building their new home. Can you increase your odds of winning Powerball? "We were in the process of building a home and it kind of got put on hold for a few years, so now this is going to speed it up," she said. "And it's going to go into better details. I'm talking a walk-in closet and a Jacuzzi tub!"Tammy purchased her ticket at the Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh in the 1000 block of North Quincy Ave. in Ottumwa. Her ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball in Saturday's drawing. Tammy added the Power Play, which multiplied her winnings to $2 million. "I fell to my chair," she said, recounting the moment she realized ...