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Ticker: JetBlue dumping American Airlines deal; Christmas Tree Shops expects to liquidate 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

JetBlue says it won’t appeal a judge’s ruling against its partnership with American Airlines, effectively dropping the deal in an effort to salvage its purchase of Spirit Airlines.JetBlue Airways said Wednesday that it wind down the deal with American in New York and Boston in the coming months and “turn even more focus” to its proposed $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit.The U.S. Justice Department sued to block the Spirit sale, saying it would hurt competition by eliminating Spirit, the nation’s biggest discount airline. JetBlue hopes that dropping the deal with American might persuade the government to allow the Spirit purchase to go ahead.A federal judge decided in May that JetBlue and American must end their partnership because it violates U.S. antitrust law. American has said it will appeal the ruling.Christmas Tree Shops expects to liquidateChristmas Tree Shops is poised to liquidate all of its stores roughly two months after the struggling home-good...

Wisconsin’s Democratic governor guts Republican tax cut, increases school funding for 400 years

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed off on a two-year spending plan Wednesday after gutting a Republican tax cut and using his broad veto powers to increase school funding for centuries. Evers angered Republicans with both moves, with some saying the Democratic governor was going back on deals he had made with them.He got creative with his use of the partial veto in this budget, which is the third passed by a Republican Legislature that he’s signed.Evers reduced the GOP income tax cut from $3.5 billion to $175 million, and did away entirely with lower rates for the two highest earning brackets. He also used his partial veto power to increase how much revenue K-12 public schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425.Evers took language that originally applied the $325 increase for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and instead vetoed the “20” and the hyphen to make the end date 2425.Evers, a former state education secretary and teacher, had propose...

Federal government, Stellantis reach deal over battery plant in Windsor

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

Stellantis and LG Energy Solution say their electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor is back on track after they reached a financing deal with the federal government.The two companies stopped construction earlier this year to negotiate for government funding to match what the United States would offer under its new Inflation Reduction Act.More to come

UN records the highest number of ‘grave violations’ against children in conflicts

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Children experienced the highest number of “grave violations” in conflicts verified by the United Nations in 2022, with the conflicts between Israeli and Palestinians and in Congo and Somalia putting the most youngsters in peril, the U.N. children’s agency said Wednesday.UNICEF also expressed particular concern about their plight in Haiti, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ukraine, where Russia has been put on the U.N. blacklist.“Grave violations” include the recruitment and use of children by combatants, killings and injuries, sexual violence, abductions, and attacks on schools and hospitals.Omar Abdi, UNICEF’s deputy executive director, told the U.N. Security Council the more than 27,000 grave violations, up from 24,000 the previous year, are the highest number verified by the U.N. since its monitoring reports began in 2005. The number of conflict situations “of concern” was also the highest — at 26.Since the report, Abdi said, a serious conflict has erupted ...

CP NewsAlert: Feds, Stellantis reach deal over battery plant in Windsor

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

OTTAWA — Stellantis and LG Energy Solution say their electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor is back on track after they reached a financing deal with the federal government.The two companies stopped construction earlier this year to negotiate for government funding to match what the United States would offer under its new Inflation Reduction Act.More coming.The Canadian Press

Province could expropriate Toronto-owned lands at Ontario Place if agreement isn’t reached: report

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

The provincial government will have to expropriate City of Toronto-owned water or lands at Ontario Place if an agreement between the governments is not reached, according to a new report.Ontario quietly released a Draft Environmental Study Report online that identifies 6.4 acres of city property that would need to be transferred to the province in order for them to complete the redevelopment of Ontario Place.“If an agreement to transfer the City of Toronto-owned water or lands … to the Government of Ontario is not reached, expropriation will be required,” read the report.Toronto land that could be expropriated by the provincial government for the Ontario Place re-vamp. Credit: Province of Ontario.Toronto Mayor-elect Olivia Chow has voiced concerns over the project, which includes a new concert stage and a private waterfront park and spa, but it seems she would have little bargaining power to stop it.Premier Doug Ford has also already made it clear he wouldn’t...

Trudeau says Conservatives blocking consensus on foreign interference inquiry

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

SAINT-HYACINTHE, Que. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he hopes he’ll be able to announce a decision about a public inquiry on foreign interference in the coming weeks, but he is accusing the Conservatives of stalling the process. Trudeau told reporters that cross-party agreement is needed on the structure of the inquiry and who is best suited to lead it.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said his party will only co-operate on those details after Trudeau confirms an inquiry will go ahead.Trudeau says negotiations that began in June with the Bloc Québécois and the NDP about a possible inquiry are going well but the Conservatives are blocking the needed consensus.In March, Trudeau delegated former governor general David Johnston to investigate allegations that the Chinese government attempted to interfere in the last two federal elections and to decide whether a public inquiry should be called.Johnston, who recommended against an inquiry, resigned in early June amid al...

Indiana legislator convicted of drunken driving publicly acknowledges he used ‘horrible’ judgment

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

SEYMOUR, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana legislator convicted of drunken driving publicly acknowledged on Wednesday that he used “horrible” judgment.In a Facebook post, Republican state Rep. Jim Lucas of Seymour said he accepts responsibility and is getting professional help. Police arrested Lucas on May 31 after he crashed his pickup truck through an interstate guardrail a few miles north of Seymour and drove away. Officers found the badly damaged truck behind a Seymour carpet store about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from the crash site and discovered Lucas walking nearby.Lucas smelled of alcohol, failed a field sobriety exam and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.097% on a portable breath test device more than an hour after the crash, according to a state trooper’s affidavit. The state’s legal limit to drive is 0.08%.In a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty on June 12 to misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident. He will face no jail time as l...

Mental illness played no role in Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, prosecution expert testifies

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The man who gunned down 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue does not have a psychiatric or neurological disorder, and he was capable of forming the intent to kill, a neurologist testified Wednesday at the killer’s federal death penalty trial.Dr. Ryan Darby, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was called by prosecutors to rebut defense experts who previously testified that Robert Bowers is psychotic and has brain abnormalities.Bowers, 50, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, was convicted last month of killing members of three congregations who had gathered at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. He also wounded two worshippers and five police officers.The penalty phase of Bowers’ trial began June 26 and is expected to last several weeks. Defense lawyers are trying to persuade a jury to spare his life, while federal prosecutors are seeking a death sentence.Last week, defense experts testified that Bowers was “blatantly psychotic,” with a long his...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate agenda highlights tensions with environmental groups

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 11:11:46 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — In the rush to cut California’s pollution and rid the state of fossil fuels, the most intriguing confrontation hasn’t involved business leaders or the oil industry. Instead, it’s simmering tensions between the state’s robust environmental advocacy wing and California’s progressive governor who considers himself one of their own.The modern environmental movement has its roots in California, including the founding of the Sierra Club. Gavin Newsom, who rose from local politics in liberal San Francisco to become governor of the nation’s most populous state, sees himself as a descendant of that progress, proudly carrying the movement’s goals on the world stage.Yet in the early days of Newsom’s second term in office, some of his loudest criticism has come from inside the proverbial house. Newsom and environmental groups mostly agree on the big things, like rules banning the sale of new gas-powered cars and the goal ...