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Trump to skip ‘battle of losers’ when five other Republicans debate in Miami

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

For a third time the Republican party will hold a primary debate and for a third time the party’s leading candidate will duck it.Former President Donald Trump will be in Florida but otherwise engaged on debate night. He will, therefore, avoid, according to his campaign, “a battle of losers on the debate stage” in Miami, where five other conservatives will gather to do their best to prove to the nation that they can somehow trump the absent 45th president.On stage Wednesday evening will be Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum both are also actively seeking the party nod, but did not meet the polling threshold required to join the third debate. Former Vice President Mike Pence has suspended his presidential campaign.With the candidate himself not planning to mount the de...

4 things we learned from the Chicago Bears, including contingency plans at QB and Velus Jones Jr.’s ‘unacceptable’ penalty

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

Coming off a 24-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, the Chicago Bears are now immersed in a short week as they work toward Thursday night’s game against the Carolina Panthers at Soldier Field.The Bears will be looking to get back on track against the 1-7 Panthers but will have to stay flexible as they sort through their quarterback situation. Here are four things we learned Tuesday at Halas Hall.1. The Bears haven’t offered clarity on their quarterback plans for Thursday.They held a closed walk-through Tuesday and officially listed Justin Fields as a limited participant. Fields, who missed the last three games with a dislocated right thumb, is testing the thumb’s grip strength and overall functionality.On Monday, coach Matt Eberflus said Fields needs to pass three checkpoints to play. The first is getting clearance from the team’s medical staff. Then Fields must express his own comfort and confidence in playing. Finally, Bears coaches will assess whe...

Revolution to host Philadelphia in a playoff elimination match

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

New England Revolution fiery midfielder Matt Polster does not intend to go meekly into the offseason.The Revolution face elimination from the MLS Cup playoffs when they host the Philadelphia Union in the second game of a best-of-three Round One series on Wednesday night (7) at Gillette Stadium. The Revolution will be playing the 50th MLS Cup playoff game in club history.The No. 4 seed Union delivered a 3-1 beatdown on the No. 5 Revolution in the series opener on Oct. 28 at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa. If the Revolution can force a third game, it would be played at Subaru Park on Sunday at 3 p.m.Polster is confident the club can regroup and bring the show back to Philly and he has a good reason to feel that way. The Revolution posted a 12-1-4 record at Gillette, including a 2-1 victory over the Union in the regular season finale on Oct. 21.“It comes from being confident,” said Polster. “You don’t want to go into a game nervous in terms of second guessing yourself. It’s just being conf...

Peace Corps agrees to pay $750,000 to family of dead volunteer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

The Peace Corps has agreed to pay $750,000 to the family of a 24-year-old volunteer from Illinois who died in 2018 in East Africa after the agency’s doctors misdiagnosed a case of malaria, a law firm announced Tuesday.Bernice Heiderman of Inverness, Illinois, died in January 2018 on the island nation of Comoros after texting her mother that the local Peace Corps doctor wasn’t taking seriously her complaints of dizziness, nausea, fever and fatigue, said Adam Dinnell, a partner at the Houston-based law firm of Schiffer Hicks Johnson PLLC. The doctor told her to drink water and take aspirin, said Dinnell, whose firm filed a federal lawsuit for damages in Chicago on behalf of the Heiderman family.The woman’s mother, Julie Heiderman, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview the family feels that with the settlement, the Peace Corps has taken some accountability for her daughter’s death and realized it had treated the family “horrifically.”The agency speaks of its “sophist...

Judge says man who hit and killed two fellow UBC students should serve 3 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

RICHMOND, B.C. — A British Columbia judge has ruled that a 23-year-old man who hit and killed two University of British Columbia students while he was speeding through the campus in 2021 should serve three years in jail and be prohibited from driving for five years. Provincial court Judge Glenn Lee told the court in Richmond, B.C., that Tim Goerner will still be young when his sentence is done and he can then spread a message to people about the dangers of drinking and driving. “This can be your role in giving back to society,” Lee told Goerner on Tuesday. “I really encourage you to do that.”The court heard he had been drinking at a party before the high-speed crash that killed Emily Selwood and Evan Smith as they walked down a sidewalk on the university campus in the early morning hours of Sept. 26, 2021.The sentence is in line with a joint submission by the Crown and his defence lawyer, who outlined why Goerner should serve the term for two counts of danger...

Toronto’s final major Union Station construction project now set to finish in 2025

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

It has been two years since City of Toronto officials announced a formal end to a massive, $825-million renovation of Union Station, but a large exterior security project set to be done in 2023 has been postponed until 2025.After the Yonge Street van attack in 2018, municipal crews moved quickly to boost security around Union Station. That push to boost safety saw dozens of concrete barriers installed on Front Street West in a bid to add protection to Canada’s busiest rail hub.However, CityNews recently visited the forecourt of Union Station and saw a number of decaying barriers. Some were stuffed with garbage and other items. One barrier had a hand-written sign telling residents and visitors where the bicycle station was located.“That’s one of the main gateways to go into the city. It definitely needs some love,” Victor Perez-Amado, a public realm expert and an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said when asked about the current state of...

Intact Financial Corp. earns $163 million in third quarter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

TORONTO — Intact Financial Corp. says it earned $163 million in the third quarter, less than half its earnings a year ago when it brought in $375 million. The company says earnings worked out to 83 cents per share, down from $2.05 during the same quarter last year. It says net operating income per share was $2.10, down from $2.78 a year earlier. Intact says increased catastrophe losses offset the impact of improving underwriting fundamentals, as well as higher earned premiums and investment income.Revenues totalled $6.9 billion for the quarter, up from $6.7 billion a year earlier. The company says that over the next 12 months, it expects hard insurance market conditions to continue in most lines of business, driven by inflation and natural disasters.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:IFC)The Canadian Press

Judge to rule on temporary block of North Dakota’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota district judge said Tuesday he’ll decide soon on whether to temporarily block the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for children, among the latest in a series of similar lawsuits playing out across the U.S.Three families and a pediatrician are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in September. They want a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, ultimately permanent, to block enforcement of the law.They say the ban violates the state constitution, including the equal protection clause and fundamental rights to parent one’s children, rights to “personal autonomy and self-determination” and due process, and that it is “unconstitutionally vague.”“All of these families have been left to consider whether they may have to leave their home state of North Dakota just to make sure their kids can keep accessing this health care that has so positively impacted their lives and families,” said the plaintiffs’ l...

Toronto police identify man found shot to death in east end apartment complex

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

Toronto police have identified a man who was shot to death at a Toronto Community Housing building in the city’s east end on Monday.Police say Mark Riley, 24, of Toronto, was pronounced dead at the scene inside the apartment building in the Kingston and Galloway roads area.Officers were called to the complex for reports of a shooting at around 12:40 p.m.A second man was found in the area suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to hospital with serious but non life-threatening injuries.An officer on scene said Monday that the injured man is a suspect and is in police custody at hospital, but at this point “his medical needs are taking precedent.”Police have not yet announced any charges and can’t say if any other suspects are outstanding.

Linebacker Blake Martinez puts Pokemon trading card business on hold, returns to NFL with Panthers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Blake Martinez has put his embattled Pokemon trading card business on hold and is returning to the NFL.The 29-year-old linebacker has joined the Carolina Panthers practice squad and the team is hoping he can help offer some stability to a position that has been ravaged by injuries. The Panthers (1-7) play the Chicago Bears on Thursday night, although coach Frank Reich said he’s unsure if that will be enough time for Martinez to get up to speed given that he’s only participated in one practice.Martinez has been out of football since last November when he abruptly announced his retirement from the Las Vegas Raiders to focus on “family and future passions.”One of those passions included Pokemon cards.In 2022 he started “Blake’s Breaks,” a company which buys and sells Pokemon cards and reportedly did $8.3 million in revenue in just nine months, according to a CNBC report. One of his rare Pokemon cards was sold for $672,000.But his company’s reputation ...