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Death of Adam Johnson sparks renewed interest in guard mandates for youth hockey

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) — A day after professional hockey player Adam Johnson suffered a fatal cut to his throat during a game in England, Dan Sacco went out and ordered his 10-year-old twins new neck guards.Colton and Harper Sacco play together as squirts — 9- and 10-year-olds — for the youth hockey program in North Branford, Connecticut. They already had neck guards, which are required for youth hockey in the state, but Sacco said he took another look at them after Johnson’s death in October.“They were small,” he said. “So I got new ones that are made not to be sliced through and they’re bigger. It’s scary.”Harper, a center, was not a big fan.“At first I said it was a choking device, because it went up to here,” she said, pointing to her chin. “But I got used to it.”Johnson’s death has renewed a national debate over whether there needs to be uniform standards and mandates for neck guards and other safety equipment when it comes to youth ...

Judge scolds Giuliani for false claims about election workers during defamation trial

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The judge overseeing a Georgia election workers’ defamation case scolded Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday for comments made outside the courthouse in which he insisted his false claims about the women were true. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell warned Giuliani’s lawyer that the remarks his client made to reporters about Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss when leaving the courthouse a day earlier amounted to “defamatory statements about them yet again.”The judge appeared incredulous, asking Giuliani’s lawyer about the contradiction of his opening statements calling Freeman and Moss “good people” but then the former mayor repeating unfounded allegations of voter fraud.“How are we supposed to reconcile that?” she asked the lawyer.Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Sibley, conceded her point and told the judge he discussed the comments with his client, but added: “I can’t control everything he does.” He also argued that the mayor’s a...

Kentucky woman seeking court approval for abortion learned her embryo no longer has cardiac activity

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A pregnant woman in Kentucky who filed a lawsuit demanding the right to an abortion has learned her embryo no longer has cardiac activity, her attorneys said Tuesday.Her attorneys didn’t immediately comment on what effect the development would have on the lawsuit filed last week in a state court in Louisville. The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, was seeking class-action status to include other Kentuckians who are or will become pregnant and want to have an abortion. The suit filed last week said she was about eight weeks pregnant.The attorneys urged other Kentucky women who are pregnant and seeking an abortion to reach out if they are interested in joining the case. The lawsuit says Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban violates the plaintiff’s rights to privacy and self-determination under the state constitution.“Jane Doe sought an abortion in Kentucky, and when she could not get one, she bravely came forward to challenge the state’s abortion ban,”...

Spain seizes 11 tons of cocaine in shipping containers. Most of the drugs found among frozen tuna

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities have confiscated 11 tons of cocaine and arrested 20 people in two different operations against the smuggling of the illegal drugs inside shipping containers, Spain’s National Police said Tuesday.Police said that 7,500 kilograms of cocaine seized by agents in the northwestern city of Vigo were hidden between pieces of frozen tuna. Investigators said that a criminal organization was using a frozen seafood company as a front to bring the drugs from South America to Spain.A separate sting by police in the Mediterranean city of Valencia led to the seizure of 3,400 kilograms of cocaine found in false bottoms of shipping containers in the eastern city’s port.Police didn’t reveal the exact dates of the operation, only indicating that they had been carried out recently. They said both rings were linked to criminal organizations from the Balkans region.The Associated Press

Quebec cold case: Man faces first-degree murder charge in young girl’s 1994 killing

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec provincial police say they’ve arrested a 61-year-old prison inmate in the killing of a young girl in a Montreal suburb nearly three decades ago.Investigators say Réal Courtemanche, detained at La Macaza Institution in Quebec’s Laurentians region, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the 1994 killing of Marie-Chantale Desjardins.Desjardins was just 10 years old when she disappeared on July 16, 1994, after she left a friend’s house at the end of the day in Ste-Thérèse, Que., northwest of Montreal.Her body was found four days later in the neighbouring community of Rosemère in the woods behind a shopping centre.Provincial police say Courtemanche will appear before a judge later today in St-Jérôme, Que., northwest of Montreal.Authorities say the arrest was made possible thanks to innovative methods in forensic biology by the province’s crime lab.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2023.The Canadian Press

Ottawa to launch pre-approved home design catalogue, bring back post-war effort

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government is planning to launch a catalogue of pre-approved home designs to speed up the home-building process for developers.Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced today the federal government will begin a consultation process to develop the catalogue in January.Fraser says this brings back a policy from the post-Second World War era when the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. developed blueprints to speed up the construction of homes.A report released this summer co-authored by housing expert Mike Moffatt came with a set of recommendations for the federal government that included developing such a catalogue.Fraser says the initiative will start with low-rise builds and will then explore a potential catalogue for higher-density construction.The minister says the catalogue should come together sometime next year.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2023. The Canadian Press

Why ditching fast fashion never goes out of style, and can save money in the long run

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

Danielle Cosentino used to give bags of unwanted clothes to her cousin every year. While her cousin loved the free stuff, Cosentino grew tired of buying so much and wearing so little. She had become caught up in acquiring trends through fast fashion retailers only to realize she was locked in a loop of buying cheap clothes, having them degrade quickly, then having to buy more.“I’ve always been told if you haven’t worn it in two years, then it should go,” says Cosentino, a massage therapist and nutritionist. “And I felt like that would be half my closet.” A variety of studies and sources go even further than that, estimating that most of us don’t wear 70 to 80 per cent of our clothes.Averaging out census data over several years, Canadian households spend roughly $300 a month on clothing, according to Statistics Canada. If most of that will be barely worn, our closets are essentially graveyards of disposable income. Cosentino wanted to change. She hired Jaclyn Patterson, a personal ...

German prosecutors indict 27 people in connection with an alleged far-right coup plot

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors said Tuesday they have filed terrorism charges against 27 people, including a self-styled prince and a former far-right lawmaker, in connection with an alleged plot to topple the government that came to light with a slew of arrests a year ago.An indictment against 10 suspects, including the most prominent figures, was filed Dec. 11 at the state court in Frankfurt. Under the German legal system, the court must now decide whether and when the case will go to trial.Nine of those suspects, all German nationals, are accused of belonging to a terrorist organization that was founded in July 2021 with the aim of “doing away by force with the existing state order in Germany,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.Prosecutors said that the accused believed in a “conglomerate of conspiracy myths,” including Reich Citizens and QAnon ideology, and were convinced that Germany is ruled by a so-called “deep state.”Adherents of the Reich Citizens movement reject Ge...

Passengers lodge in military barracks after Amsterdam to Detroit flight is forced to land in Canada

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Passengers aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit spent the night in a military barracks in eastern Canada after the plane was forced to land due to a mechanical issue.The crew diverted the flight Sunday afternoon to Newfoundland and Labrador, WJBK-TV first reported.Passenger Tony Santoro of Troy in suburban Detroit told the television station that passengers were lodged in barracks during the 24-hour delay. “It honestly felt like a hotel,” he said. “It wasn’t too bad. We had soap, water, everything.”Delta flight 135 was diverted to Goose Bay airport “out of an abundance of caution,” the airlines told The Associated Press in a statement Tuesday. “Crew duty times were impacted due to weather and runway conditions at the Goose Bay airport causing the airport to suspend operations. Delta sent additional aircraft to Goose Bay to bring customers to their final destination Monday.”Delta worked with officials in Goose Bay to arrange for food, water and acc...

Man in 30s fatally stabbed in Toronto’s east end

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:18:29 GMT

A man is dead following an apparent stabbing in Toronto’s east end on Tuesday morning.Emergency crews were called to Lockwood Road, near Kingston Road and Queen Street East, around 6:10 a.m.Toronto police officers found a man in his 30s lying on the ground with stab wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.No suspect information has been made available.The homicide unit has taken over the investigation.Anyone with additional information is being asked to contact police.