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Lawmakers Want Independent Look At Cannabis Commission

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

Warning that action is “desperately needed” to address upheaval at the Cannabis Control Commission, the Senate’s top Republican and several other lawmakers urged their colleagues Monday to subject the state’s marijuana regulatory agency to new scrutiny.A quintet of legislators said they believe the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy should open its own oversight hearing to examine publicly reported problems at the CCC or advance legislation that would stand up an independent internal audit unit within the agency.Their request comes four days after Treasurer Deborah Goldberg suspended CCC Chair Shannon O’Brien for undisclosed reasons. The lawmakers asked their colleagues to investigate why O’Brien is suspended, who is executing the chair’s duties in her stead, and what legislative changes might improve the situation.In their nine-page letter, the legislators also described concerns over “ongoing governance issues” a...

New Healey Orders Target Plastic Bottles, Biodiversity

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey plans this week to ban state agencies from purchasing single-use plastic bottles effective immediately, a step that she said Massachusetts will be the first state in the nation to take.Healey made the announcement Monday morning in New York City, where she spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative ahead of a panel on sustainable ocean conservation practices. Though the governor was met with applause when she announced that she would sign an executive order that “bans the purchase of single-use plastics by state agencies in Massachusetts,” Healey’s office later clarified that the ban will apply only to single-use plastic bottles.“We know that plastic waste, plastic production are among the leading threats to our oceans, our climate and environmental justice. In government, we have an obligation — we also have an opportunity — to not only stop contributing to this damage, but to chart a better path forward,” Healey said. She add...

US Rep. Wexton, a Democrat, won’t seek reelection to Congress after new medical diagnosis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat, announced Monday she won’t seek reelection in her competitive district in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington after learning she has a severe form of Parkinson’s disease.Wexton announced in April that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and that she planned to continue her work in Congress. On Monday, she said she received a modified diagnosis of progressive supra-nuclear palsy, which she described as “a kind of ‘Parkinson’s on steroids.”“I want to be honest with you now – this new diagnosis is a tough one,” Wexton said in her statement, “There is no ‘getting better’ with PSP. I’ll continue treatment options to manage my symptoms, but they don’t work as well.”Wexton said she received the new diagnosis after feeling like she wasn’t responding well to treatment and noticing that the women in her Parkinson’s support group were having a different experience.She plans to continue ser...

Demonstrators wouldn’t leave as police moved in on ‘Freedom Convoy,’ court hears

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

OTTAWA — A member of the Quebec provincial police force says protesters were resistant to clearing the street along Parliament Hill during a large operation to dislodge the “Freedom Convoy” last year.Capt. Etienne Martel with Sûreté du Québec took the stand through a French interpreter in the criminal trial of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, who are facing charges related to their role in the 2022 protest.The demonstration blockaded streets and intersections around Ottawa for three weeks in protest against COVID-19 public-health restrictions, vaccine mandates and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government. Martel says his officers were part of a line of police that moved slowly down Wellington Street in crowd control gear on Feb. 18 to try to disperse demonstrators.He says they barely managed to move 150 meters over the course of many hours because the crowds would not leave, though they were not violent.The Crown hopes to prove that Lich and Barber encouraged crowds...

The strike by auto workers is entering its 4th day with no signs that a breakthrough is near

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

The auto workers’ strike against Detroit’s Big Three went into its fourth day on Monday with no signs of an early breakthrough and against the threat that the walkout could soon spread.In a sign of the potential economic and political of a long strike, President Joe Biden is sending two top administration officials to Detroit this week to meet with both sides. Biden has sided with the UAW in brief public comments, saying that the automakers have not fairly shared their record profits with workers.An administration official said Monday that acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior aide Gene Sperling will not serve as mediators — they won’t be at the bargaining table — but are going to Detroit “to help support the negotiations in any way the parties feel is constructive.” The official was not authorized to discuss private discussions and spoke anonymously.UAW President Shawn Fain said Monday that the Biden administration won’t broker a deal.“This is our battl...

Gator with missing upper jaw finds new home in Florida reptile park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A Florida reptile park has taken in an alligator that lost its nose and upper jaw to a fight or boat propeller.Gatorland Orlando said over the weekend that the injured alligator came from a lake in nearby Sanford, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Orlando.“She had basically no chance of surviving in the wild with such a severe injury,” the park said in a social media post.Over the next few days, the park’s veterinarian staff will be monitoring the gator in an effort to make sure it is eating in a stress-free environment, the park said.Gatorland Orlando is home to thousands of alligators and crocodiles, a breeding marsh, an aviary, a nature walk, a petting zoo and educational wildlife programs. It opened in 1949 and is considered one of the few remaining “Old Florida” tourist attractions in central Florida.The Associated Press

Hearings in $1 billion lawsuit filed by auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn against Nissan starts in Beirut

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Hearings in the $1 billion lawsuit filed by auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn against Nissan and other defendants started in Beirut on Monday with lawyers of both sides meeting the judge in charge of the case, judicial officials said.The former Nissan CEO filed the case against Nissan in May in Beirut, alleging he was detained in Japan in 2018 on false charges because of what he calls the automaker’s disinformation against him. The 69-year-old Ghosn is seeking half of the $1 billion in damages and half for compensation including salary, retirement funds and stock options.Ghosn is also seeking monetary compensation from a Nissan affiliate based in Lebanon, as well as from entities that took part in the investigation leading up to his arrest.He was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on charges of breach of trust, misusing company assets for personal gains and violating securities laws by not fully disclosing his compensation. In December 2019, he jumped bail in Japan in a d...

UK police say they received a sexual assault report after media aired claims against Russell Brand

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British police on Monday urged women who allege they were sexually assaulted by Russell Brand to talk to officers, as the U.K. entertainment industry faced questions about whether the comedian’s bad behavior went unchallenged because of his fame.Brand, 48, denies allegations of sexual assault made by four women in a Channel 4 television documentary and The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. The accusers, who have not been named, include one who said she was sexually assaulted during a relationship with him when she was 16. Another woman says Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.London’s Metropolitan Police force said that after the allegations were made public it had received “a report of a sexual assault which was alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003.” That is three years before the earliest of the alleged assaults reported by the media outlets.The police force said “officers are in contact with the woman and will be provid...

BMO to shutter indirect retail auto finance business as bad debt mounts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

MONTREAL — BMO Financial Group plans to close its indirect retail auto finance business in order to reroute resources, as borrowers dig deep to stay on top of recent interest rate hikes.The decision will also trigger an unspecified number of layoffs in Canada and the U.S., the Bank of Montreal said.It comes after the company’s bad debt provisions more than tripled to $492 million in the quarter ended July 31 compared to a year earlier. In its retail line, the bank’s provisions for credit losses rose 800 per cent to $81 million last quarter from $9 million the year before.Those dents on the income statement hint at the financial strain facing consumers, who have struggled to cope with a spike in interest rates over the past year and a half.The higher borrowing costs have begun to slow some lending demand and deal-making amid heavy competition among Canadian banks on mortgage rates and wider concerns about a general economic slowdown.The Bank of Montreal’s indirect r...

German ambassador’s attendance at Israeli court hearing ignites diplomatic spat

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:16 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli government has complained to Germany after the German ambassador attended a high-profile Supreme Court hearing last week looking at the legality of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, an Israeli diplomatic official said Monday.The complaint, sent at the order of Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, sparked a rare diplomatic spat between the two allies, with German leaders defending their ambassador against the criticism.The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing behind-the-scenes diplomacy, said that Israel had relayed its “dismay” through diplomatic channels, including the Israeli Embassy in Berlin.“This was a decision taken by the highest figure in the ministry,” he added. Cohen is a close ally of Netanyahu.Last Tuesday’s hearing was the first challenge to Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul, which has bitterly divided the Israeli public and put the country on the brink of a constitutional...