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Smoke and haze from Canadian wildfires leave Detroit with some of the worst US air quality

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit area woke up Wednesday to some of the worst air quality in the United States as smoke from Canada’s wildfires settled over most of the Great Lakes region and unhealthy haze spread southward, as far as Missouri and Kentucky.The Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow.gov site showed Detroit in the “hazardous” range and warned that “everyone should stay indoors and reduce activity levels.”Drifting smoke from the wildfires has lowered curtains of haze on broad swaths of the United States, pushing into southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and moving into parts of West Virginia. The AirNow.gov site listed air quality Wednesday in Cleveland, Ohio, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, Penn., as “very unhealthy.” A wider circle of unhealthy air spread into St. Louis, Mo., and Louisville, Ky. “Another round is going through western New York, western Pennsylvania later today,” National Weather Service meteorologist Byran Jackson said Wednesday. “And then th...

A Helsinki deputy mayor is under fire after being caught red-handed spray-painting graffiti

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — The deputy mayor of Finland’s capital is facing possible legal action, and calls for him to pay compensation for damages and to resign, after he was caught red-handed spray-painting graffiti in a railway tunnel last weekend.The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency told public broadcaster YLE on Wednesday that cleaning up graffiti illegally painted by Paavo Arhinmäki, one of the four deputy mayors of Helsinki, cost the city around 3,500 euros ($3,830).Arhinmäki, 46, and a friend were caught by guards in a rail tunnel in eastern Helsinki on Friday just after they had completed graffiti, which Finnish street art experts said looked partly inspired by works seen in New York City in the 1970s.Finland’s largest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, published a photo of the large-scale graffiti in a tweet.In a Facebook posting on Sunday, Arhinmäki, who is known as a strong supporter of street art and as a creator of graffiti in his youth, apologized for his “stupid fooling aroun...

Lawyer tied to rapes by DNA left on drinking glass is accused of 5 more attacks

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

A New Jersey lawyer recently charged with sexually assaulting four women in Boston 15 years ago — attacks he was linked to by DNA he left on a drinking glass — has been indicted on suspicion of five additional attacks during the same time period.Matthew Nilo, 35, was indicted Tuesday on seven charges stemming from five attacks on four women in Boston’s North End, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden. The attacks happened between January 2007 and July 2008 while the victims were walking alone in the dark, either at night or early in the morning, Hayden said. One woman was attacked twice, 11 days apart, he said in a news release.“This case demonstrates that no attack will go uninvestigated, no suspect will go unpursued, and no amount of time will insulate a criminal from a crime,” he said.Nilo’s attorney, Joseph Cataldo, did not respond to a phone message Wednesday.Nilo, of Weehawken, New Jersey, was arrested in late May and pleaded not guilty this mo...

Arizona’s Oak Flat is sacred land to some Native Americans, but it’s endangered by a plan for a mine

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

OAK FLAT, Ariz. (AP) — Azee Romero climbed barefoot on the wrinkled trunk of the massive Emory oak tree at the center of the Oak Flat Campground.The 5-year-old in his black dinosaur t-shirt with hair tied under a backwards baseball cap scaled higher and higher until he found the perfect seat. There, cradled by the sturdy trunk, the boy flashed a gap-toothed smile and rested comfortably as if he’d just climbed onto the lap of a grandparent.In fact, that centuries-old oak tree and the ground below it – the sacred, ancestral flats that stretch for miles east of Phoenix — are like kin to Azee’s family. “My little guy, his umbilical cord is buried here,” said Azee’s mother, Lian Bighorse. She said the connection to Oak Flat is physical as well as spiritual. The family is Chiricahua Apache and Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Bildagoteel, is a consecrated place used for prayer and ritual by them and many other Native Americans in the region. Elders say the land was blessed by Usen, their Creat...

Airline delays and cancellations are bad. Ahead of the holiday weekend, they’re getting worse

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

Travelers are getting hit with delays at U.S. airports again early Wednesday, an ominous sign heading into the long July 4 holiday weekend, which is shaping up as the biggest test yet for airlines that are struggling to keep up with surging numbers of passengers.As of early morning, nearly 1,300 flights have been delayed in the U.S., according to FlightAware. Cancellations neared 700 flights. Cancellations and delays were most severe along the East Coast early and were growing worse rapidly. Disruptions are expected to spread West. The delays are being compounded by thunderstorms that raked the Northeast on Tuesday. At various times, the Federal Aviation Administration held up flights bound for LaGuardia Airport in New York and Reagan Washington National and Baltimore-Washington airports near the nation’s capital.About 6,500 flights were delayed and about 1,900 canceled on the East Coast Tuesday. United Airlines, with a major hub in Newark, New Jersey, canceled about 500 flights or ...

Pakistani security forces say they killed an Islamic State commander in a raid on a militant hideout

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces Wednesday killed an Islamic State group commander and two other militants during a raid on a militant hideout near the border with Afghanistan, the military said.The raid was conducted in Bajur, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, the military said.It said IS commander Shafi Ullah was one of three insurgents killed. He was wanted by the Pakistani government, which alleges he was involved in attacks on security forces and had killed innocent civilians.Security forces also seized weapons and ammunition from the hideout and were carrying out a clearance operation of the area, the military said. Pakistan’s military has carried out massive operations in recent years in the tribal belt along the Afghan border, which served as a safe haven for local and foreign militants for decades. However, militants still carry out attacks in the region. The Associated Press

Dental care to cost $3B less than budgeted unless provinces drop coverage PBO says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

OTTAWA — The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates the promised federal dental insurance plan will cost nearly $3 billion less than the government budgeted, assuming provincial governments don’t drop their coverage. The Liberals promised a stand-alone dental insurance plan for low- and middle- income Canadians who don’t have private insurance as part of its supply and confidence deal with the NDP last year.The program is expected to launch before the end of 2023, starting with qualifying people under the age of 18, people with disabilities and seniors. The Liberals initially set aside $5.3 billion over five years to launch the program, but increased that amount to $13 billion in the last federal budget.The Parliamentary Budget Officer’s latest costing note suggests the cost will be closer to $10.1 billion thanks in part to existing dental coverage, copayments and cost-recovery efforts.However the note warns that if provinces drop their coverage and refer people to...

USA Today resumes its bestseller list for books after monthslong hiatus

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — USA Today’s weekly list of bestselling books, a publishing fixture that had been on hiatus since December, returned Wednesday. “We couldn’t be more thrilled because this content is important to our vast audience and uniquely supports the communities we serve,” Kristin Roberts, Gannett Media’s chief content officer, said in a statement.Gannett had not run the list since Mary Cadden, the longtime compiler, was among hundreds laid off late last year. According to Erik Bursch, senior vice president for product and engineering, the logging of sales figures — entered manually by Cadden — has been automated. The list otherwise will be managed by the paper’s books editor, Barbara VanDenburgh.The publishing industry has long valued the USA Today rankings as a comprehensive, data-focused way of measuring the consumer market. The list, which began in 1993 and includes the top 150 books, is “based exclusively on sales analysis from U.S. booksellers including bo...

Space Disco Cowboy? Couples ditch traditional wedding dress codes in favor of out-there themes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — “Space Disco Cowboy.” “Yacht Shabbat.” “Burning Man Formal”? More couples are tossing tradition when it comes to what wedding guests should wear, to some befuddlement among invitees.Maggie Long, 34, recently attended the nuptials of a close friend in a low-key Denver lounge. The suggested dress? “Dive Bar Semiformal.”“I love a theme,” said Long, who lives in New York. “It’s fun that people aren’t taking weddings so seriously, but I had no idea what that meant.” After exchanging thoughts for months with the officiant, who is also a friend, Long took her outfit idea — a strappy-back, low-cut ultra-mini purple dress with a high side slit — to the bride. The bride deemed it a bit too “Kardashian cosplay.” Long finally settled on a longer gold lamé dress by Norma Kamali, and a great time was had.“There were a lot of vintage jumpsuits. One of our friends went full 1960s with go-go boots and a bouffant. A lot of sequins were happening,” Long sa...

Man who tried to have his child-porn victim killed is headed to prison

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:19 GMT

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison after exchanging sexually explicit videos and images with a 13-year-old New York girl and later paying $20,000 in bitcoin to have her killed, eventually calling it off.John Michael Musbach, 34, of Haddonfield, received his 78-month prison term Tuesday during a court hearing in Camden, according to federal prosecutors. He will also have to serve three years of supervised release after prison.Musbach pleaded guilty in February to using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire plot.He began communicating online with the girl in 2015 and eventually began using those chats to request and receive sexually explicit videos and photographs of the girl, and send her similar videos and images of himself. The girl’s parents discovered the nature of the chats and notified law enforcement in New York state, where they lived.Musbach was arrested on child pornography charges...