Cities along the U.S. East Coast have been blanketed by a winter storm that's adding extra trouble to communities already struggling with COVID-19.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials saw signs that the U.S. economy was weakening at their last meeting but still called inflation “unacceptably high’’ before raising their benchmark interest rate by a sizable three-quarters of a point in their drive to slow spiking prices. In minutes from their July 26-27 meeting released Wednesday, the policymakers said they expected the U.S. economy to expand in the second half of 2022. But many of them suggested that growth would weaken as higher rat
The World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has suggested that racism is behind a lack of international attention being paid to the plight of civilians in Ethiopia's war-shattered Tigray region. Calling it the "worst humanitarian crisis in the world", with 6 million people unable to access basic services, Tedros questioned in an emotional appeal why the situation is not getting the same attention as the Ukraine conflict. "Maybe the reason is the colour of the skin of the people," Tedros, who is from Tigray, told a virtual media briefing on Wednesday.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The day after Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters fired all nine members of the state commission that oversees public defense, she said Tuesday that she was appointing four new commissioners and reappointing five commissioners from the previous group. Walters had fired the commission members out of frustration that hundreds of defendants charged with crimes and who cannot afford an attorney have been unable to obtain public defenders to represent them. “This c
A doctor in eastern Ontario charged with first-degree murder in the death of an elderly patient last year is now facing three new first-degree murder charges. Dr. Brian Nadler was arrested Wednesday. All three of the latest alleged victims were under Nadler's care.
The 70-year-old man who police shot in downtown Windsor Monday bought a machete from a pawn shop not far from the incident. That's according to Valentin Petre, who owns the Rabbit Hole pawn shop near the corner of Wyandotte Street and Ouellette Avenue. Petre says he gave investigators video of a man who appears to be Allan Andkilde, the victim in the shooting, buying the item from his store. "He's been here a few times," Petre said. "We talk once in a while, not to the point where we're buddy-bu
WASHINGTON (AP) — Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading reproductive health care provider and abortion rights advocacy organization, plans to spend a record $50 million ahead of November's midterm elections, pouring money into contests where access to abortion will be on the ballot. The effort, which breaks the group's previous $45 million spending record set in 2020, comes months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that created a constitutional right to hav
A plan to kill off an invasive fish, along with all other fish species in New Brunswick's Miramichi Lake, can go ahead — for now. Last week, Court of Queen's Bench Judge Terrence Morrison issued an emergency injunction temporarily barring a group from using rotenone, a pesticide and piscicide, on the lake with the intent of killing off invasive smallmouth bass. That injunction expired at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, and a hearing in Woodstock Court of Queen's Bench that was supposed to include arguments
The drum corps of Simon Fraser University's (SFU) Grade 1 pipe band has been named the best in the world, and the band ranked sixth overall after a remarkable showing at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, last week. "Winning the best drum corps prize is no small feat," drummer Reid Maxwell told On the Coast guest Host Belle Puri on Tuesday. "It was a really humbling, tremendously humbling experience for me." Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band of Northern Ireland took home th
Ontario is seeing far fewer forest fires this year than the 10-year average, and only a fraction of what it experienced last summer, when fires tore through a record amount of land in the province, according to the provincial government. There have been 179 fires so far this year, with 2,416 hectares of land burned, Evan Lizotte, a fire information officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources, said in a recent interview. That's compared with the 10-year average of 669 fires and 174,196 hectare
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin is fighting to keep his seat as a New Mexico county commissioner as he faces possible removal and disqualification from public office for his participation in last year’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Griffin was previously convicted of a misdemeanor for entering Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. He was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served. Three residents of Santa Fe and Los Alamos counties filed a lawsuit seeking
Musk has a history of being unconventional, posting irreverent tweets. Below are some other tweets by Musk - who has more than 103 million followers - which have taken investors, Twitter users, Twitter's board and the rest of his audience by surprise. May 13, 2022: "Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."
Environment Canada is continuing to issue heat warnings for Calgary and much of southern Alberta with daily high temperatures expected to reach 30 C for the rest of the week. Daytime temperatures in some parts of the province are forecast to range from 29 to 34 C. The heat should taper off Monday night and Tuesday before rising again on Wednesday, the agency said on its alerts page. As of 10:20 a.m. Wednesday, the heat warnings covered these areas: Calgary. Okotoks, High River, Claresholm. Drumh
This bison youngster thinks he's a dog! Look at how much fun he's having!
One-quarter of front-line employees surveyed at Canada's border agency in March 2020 said they had directly witnessed a colleague discriminate against a traveller in the previous two years. Of these respondents, 71 per cent suggested the discrimination was based, in full or in part, on the traveller's race, and just over three-quarters of respondents cited the traveller's national or ethnic origin. The figures are drawn from a survey that was conducted as part of an internal Canada Border Servic
Public Health is contact tracing to try to limit the spread of monkeypox in New Brunswick. The province's first confirmed case of the virus, announced last Friday, had not travelled out of New Brunswick, said Dr. Yves Léger, the deputy chief medical officer of health. This "reasonably" means the person got the virus either from a New Brunswick resident or somebody travelling in the province, Léger said in an interview Tuesday on Shift. To limit the spread of the virus, Public Health has been fol
Some business owners along Huron Church Road say the $10,000 they received in compensation for last winter's Ambassador Bridge blockade doesn't come close to covering the losses they incurred. When barriers went up blocking access to Fred Bouzide's market, it kept customers away right before Valentine's Day, when he was trying to sell thousands of dollars worth of roses. He was compensated $10,000 through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario's West Windsor Small Business
QUEBEC — Premier François Legault said Tuesday the government would launch a "massive" vaccination booster campaign to get ahead of the next wave of COVID-19, which he said is expected after students return to class and people start spending more time indoors. All Quebecers over the age of 18 will be eligible to make an appointment for a booster by the end of the month, Legault told reporters in Quebec City alongside Health Minister Christian Dubé and public health director Dr. Luc Boileau. "Fal
P.E.I. issued another blue-green algae bloom advisory on Wednesday, after the microscopic organisms causing the phenomenon were found in Murray River's MacLures Pond. Just a day before, the province announced it had discovered blue-green algae in Black Pond near Souris. That was the first time in two years that such a bloom had been reported in the province. Also known as cyanobacteria, blue-green algae are clusters of microscopic organisms that can produce toxins harmful to humans and animals.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday his government has no plans to pursue its own nuclear deterrent in the face of growing North Korean nuclear threats, as he urged the North to return to dialogue aimed at exchanging denuclearization steps for economic benefits. In a news conference in Seoul, Yoon said South Korea doesn’t desire political change in North Korea that’s brought by force and he called for diplomacy aimed at building sustainable peace between
Demand for housing in the Windsor area is already outstripping supply, and the region will need 30,400 new homes by 2031, according to new research. Getting there would require creating new housing more quickly, according to Mike Moffatt, an economist and senior director of the Ottawa-based think-tank, the Smart Prosperity Institute, which published the report. Moffatt says it about 3,000 homes per year need to be added to the region, more than double the level of construction we've seen over th
