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Bid opens to fire SC comptroller for $3.5B accounting error

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina lawmakers angry over a $3.5 billion accounting blunder by the state’s comptroller general began efforts Thursday to sack the official, a day after demanding he quit or be fired.Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom told senators last month he had unintentionally exaggerated the state’s cash position by $3.5 billion by overstating the amount the state had sent to colleges and universities for a decade. He has signaled he won’t resign.The error wasn’t in actual cash, but in the way the state reports its balance sheets. It could affect South Carolina’s credit rating and destroyed any confidence that a large number of lawmakers in the Republican-dominated state had in Eckstrom.A resolution introduced Thursday seeks a two-thirds vote from the House and the Senate to trigger a state constitutional provision that says the governor should remove Eckstrom for “willful neglect of duty.”The constitution allows Eckstrom a hearing in his own defens...

Chef Marcus Samuelsson elevates diversity of culinary world

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Marcus Samuelsson is keen on leading with intention. That focus is seared into the delectable dishes prepared at his popular restaurants, but it is also expressed with his staffing.“My restaurants are a reflection of the society we’re living in. (At) Hav & Mar, we decided on Black leadership, female leadership, because there was a void for it. Red Rooster opened in Harlem because we wanted to create jobs within our industry for Black and brown individuals,” said Samuelsson, a multiple James Beard Award-winning chef. “I love food and I want to gear it towards … everybody, but the opportunities should also be a little bit more evenly distributed.”To honor trailblazing restaurants founded by women and people of color, Samuelsson and fellow chef Jonathan Waxman host “Seat at the Table,” an eight-part Audible original series that premiered toward the end of last year. In the series, chefs, along with many involved in the inception of their restaurants, present a...

Banks said to be working on rescue plan for First Republic

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Some of America’s largest banks are working on a rescue package for First Republic Bank, according to several media reports. First Republic Bank’s stock began to falter as customers began pulling their deposits out. But it was up more than 6% Thursday after reports of the recue package surfaced.The news comes after the collapse last week of Silicon Valley Bank, which was the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history after the demise of Washington Mutual in 2008.The shuttering of Silicon Valley Bank Friday and of New York-based Signature Bank two days later has revived bad memories of the financial crisis that plunged the United States into the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Over the weekend the federal government, determined to restore public confidence in the banking system, moved to protect all the banks’ deposits, even those that exceeded the FDIC’s $250,000 limit per individual account.Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan C...

Drought over? Spring outlook finds relief — and flood risk

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Record snowfall and rain have helped to loosen drought’s grip on parts of the western U.S. as national forecasters and climate experts warned Thursday that some areas should expect more flooding as the snow begins to melt.The winter precipitation wiped out exceptional and extreme drought in California for the first time since 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday in a seasonal, nationwide outlook that came as parts of the state are under water. In neighboring Nevada, flood warnings were in effect and rushing water prompted some evacuations overnight in one of Arizona’s tourist towns.Elsewhere, NOAA’s forecast warned of elevated flood risks from heavy snowpack this spring in the upper Midwest along the Mississippi River from Minnesota south to Missouri. Despite the receding drought, experts cautioned that the relief may be only a blip as the long-term effects persist from what has been a stubborn dry streak.Gr...

NDP calls on federal government to make caregiver credit a refundable tax benefit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

OTTAWA — New Democrats are calling on the federal government to follow through with its promise to make a tax credit for caregivers a refundable benefit. NDP MP Bonita Zarrillo, who is the party’s critic for disability inclusion, sent a letter to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Wednesday calling for the change in the upcoming federal budget. Individuals who are supporting a spouse, common-law partner or dependant with a physical or mental impairment can currently claim the credit against the federal taxes they owe. The change would make the credit available as a benefit, regardless of whether or not they owe taxes. “Caregiving is the backbone of Canadian society – and its economy. But we are at a breaking point for caregivers as the health-care crisis puts growing pressure on families to care for their loved ones,” Zarrillo wrote in her letter. The mandate letter that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave Freeland after the 2021 election had tasked her with conv...

Floods fill some of California’s summer strawberry fields

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

As river water gushed through a broken levee, thousands of people in a California farming town were forced to evacuate as their homes were flooded and businesses destroyed.Yet another potential casualty of the powerful rainstorms that drenched coastal California: hundreds of acres of fresh strawberries slated for America’s supermarket shelves this summer.Industry experts estimate about a fifth of strawberry farms in the Watsonville and Salinas areas have been flooded since the levee ruptured late Friday about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of San Francisco and another river overflowed. It’s too soon to know whether the berry plants can be recovered, but the longer they remain underwater the more challenging it can get, said Jeff Cardinale, a spokesperson for the California Strawberry Commission.“When the water recedes, what does the field look like — if it is even a field anymore?” Cardinale said. “It could just be a muddy mess where there is nothing left.” For years, C...

Yukon First Nation declares state of emergency over opioids ‘terrorizing’ community

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

MAYO, YUKON — A small Yukon First Nation says it’s dealing with an “opioid emergency” that is terrorizing its citizens and families with violence, crime, overdoses and death. The Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation in Mayo, 400 kilometres north of Whitehorse, has declared a state of emergency and called for a meeting with officials in the Yukon government, the RCMP and the Village of Mayo to develop an action plan to protect its members. The First Nation says in the emergency declaration that the action plan could include increased law enforcement within its territory, limiting when non-citizens can be on settlement land, check stops, or the eviction of tenants in First Nations housing who are engaged in illegal activities.It says the plan could also include “action to warn and protect people who use drugs,” and the availability of treatment opportunities for its citizens.The declaration comes days after a double homicide of two Whitehorse men whose bodies were...

Montenegro: President dissolves parliament ahead of election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro’s president, who is running for reelection this weekend, dissolved parliament Thursday, paving the way for an early parliamentary election in the near future. President Milo Djukanovic issued a decree dissolving parliament three months after Montenegro’s government fell in a no-confidence vote and after lawmakers failed to elect a new one. Djukanovic is expected to set a date for the early election on Friday. Montenegro is holding its presidential election on Sunday. Analysts predict the voting will not produce a clear winner and that the pro-Western incumbent will face one of several challengers in a runoff two weeks later. His opponents include candidates from several parties in a pro-Serbia alliance. Djukanovic and his Democratic Party of Socialists led Montenegro to independence from Serbia in 2006 and into NATO in 2017. But faced with corruption allegations, the party lost a 2020 parliamentary election to an alliance of partie...

Moldovan lawmakers approve divisive national language bill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Moldovan lawmakers on Thursday voted in favor of a divisive bill that will replace references to the country’s official national language from Moldovan to Romanian in the Constitution and in legislation.The bill was initiated by Moldova’s ruling pro-Western Party of Action and Solidarity, PAS, and will change references to “Moldovan language”, “mother tongue” and “state language” with “Romanian language.” This has sparked a debate with social, political, and geopolitical overtones.The vote Thursday was the second and final one. All 57 lawmakers present from PAS, which holds 63 of the legislature’s 101 seats, voted in favor as did one unaffiliated lawmaker. The opposition Communists and Socialists bloc, which hold 31 seats, and 6 lawmakers from the Russia-friendly Shor Party, mostly boycotted the vote.While those in favor of the official linguistic changes see them as an important step for the European Union candidate to distance itself from its Soviet ...

Chicago man held on $5M bond after Zion woman strangled to death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:22:59 GMT

ZION, Ill. — A Chicago man is facing murder charges for allegedly strangling a woman to death in her Zion home Monday. Craig Larsen, 50, was charged with first-degree murder after a pathologist ruled the woman's death was by strangulation, according to an autopsy report.According to Zion police, family members found the 38-year-old woman dead in her home at the 2200 block of Lewis Avenue around 11:08 a.m. Paramedics claimed the woman seemed to have been dead for some time, but reports say she was seen alive just two days earlier. There were also signs that suggested that she had been involved in a struggle. Geneva man pleads guilty in DUI crash that killed man, 73, who was loading fridge onto truck Neighbors reported to the police while the woman did live alone, Larsen frequently visited her apartment. Detectives located Larsen in his Chicago home where police say he made unsolicited comments about her death. Larsen was also noticed having fresh cuts and scratches about his face,...