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Ronald Druker named St. Anthony Shrine Pope Francis Award honoree

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

Ronald Druker says downtown Boston is his “home,” and his longtime neighbor is St. Anthony Shrine.Ronald M. Druker (Contributed photo)He’s seen the Shrine’s good works. The faith, the women’s clinic, the food pantry, counseling services, and respite offered to CEOs to the downtrodden.“They do so much for people,” he said of his neighbor. “They have dedicated their life to others.”He likened them to “first responders” for the soul.Druker is president of the Druker Company, known for the mixed-use developments throughout the city, from Heritage on the Garden, The Colonnade Hotel and Residencies on Huntington Avenue and Atelier/505 in the South End, bios declare. He also helped found the Downtown Crossing Business Improvement District.He’s long been quietly behind the city’s arts and cultural life scenes, too, and now he’s the recipient of the Shrine’s Pope Francis Award.The Pope Francis Award is presen...

Brush fire breaks out near Rancho Bernardo

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego Fire-Rescue crews are fighting a multi-acre brush fire that broke out near the Interstate 15 through Rancho Bernardo.The fire was reported just before 2:30 p.m. near the intersection of Escala Drive and Chretien Court, SDFD said in an incident report.As of 3:30 p.m., five acres of brush had been burned and it appears to be holding at that size. According to SDFD, flames are moving at a slow rate of spread, but there is heavy fuel in the area.10 homes have been evacuated near the brush fire, as well as one condo complex of six units, SDFD said. However, all were done so out of an abundance of caution. No structures are considered threatened at this time.A total of 52 personnel have been assigned, including five engines and two helicopters. At 3:44 p.m., SDFD called off the second aircraft. ‘Critical’ fire conditions possible in San Diego as Santa Ana winds pick up SDFD says no individual flames have been reported by helicopter crews yet, just a lot of smoke. ...

Woman stabbed in downtown Toronto, male suspect wanted

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

Toronto police are searching for a male suspect after a woman was stabbed and seriously injured in the city’s downtown core. Authorities were called to Granby Street and Church Street just after 6 p.m. on Monday for reports of a stabbing.Toronto paramedics tell CityNews 680 that a woman was discovered with stab wounds and rushed to a trauma centre in serious but stable condition. A male suspect fled the scene.The victim is an adult woman. An age was not provided.There are no other details at this time.

Trudeau to host top EU officials in Newfoundland, amid growing focus on green tech

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to welcome the top two leaders of the European Union to Newfoundland next month.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is to visit St. John’s alongside European Council President Charles Michel in late November.Trudeau’s office noted that the meeting takes place at one of the ports closest to Europe at a time when both sides of the Atlantic are expanding trade in clean technology.The EU and Ottawa hold leaders’ summits every two years as part of an agreement signed in 2017 alongside a major trade deal.The bloc of 27 countries has become an increasingly important partner to Canada in a world of growing political and economic instability.The EU’s ambassador to Canada, Melita Gabric, said last month that she’s hoping the leaders will advance discussions about Canada possibly joining a major research-funding pact called Horizon Europe. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3...

Wife of Grammy winner killed by Nashville police sues city over ‘excessive, unreasonable force’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The wife of Grammy-winning sound engineer Mark Capps, who was killed by police in January, filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Nashville and police Officer Ashley Coon on Monday. Three police officers, including Coon, said Capps was killed after pointing a handgun at them. But Capps’ family says details from the body camera footage suggest he didn’t aim a weapon. The suit alleges Coon used “excessive, unreasonable force by shooting and killing Capps when he was not posing an active threat of imminent harm.” It also argues the city is to blame for Capps’ death because it allowed the Metro Nashville Police Department to operate with a “culture of fear, violence, and impunity.”The city had no comment on the suit, said Metro Nashville Associate Director of Law-Litigation Allison Bussell.“We have not been served with the Capps lawsuit and have not reviewed or investigated the allegations,” she wrote in an email.The lawsuit seeks a jury trial with damages t...

Connecticut police officer under criminal investigation for using stun gun on suspect 3 times

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

A Connecticut police officer shocked a shoplifting suspect three times with a stun gun, including when the man was on the ground apologizing, according to police body camera video released Monday as officials announced criminal and internal affairs investigations.Naugatuck Officer Nicholas Kehoss is seen on the video pulling the stun gun trigger for about five seconds during each of the three times. Kehoss also yells at the man, tells him to “shut up” and calls him an “idiot” during the arrest on Oct. 14, according to the video.Police said the man, Jarell Day, 33, of Waterbury, was suspected of stealing $200 worth of beer in a robbery at a Naugatuck grocery store and later rammed police cruisers with a car as he fled from officers. Day crashed the car and fled on foot, but Kehoss caught up to him, according to the video.Day was showing his hands when Kehoss ordered him to get on the ground and first fired the stun gun, the video shows. Day falls to the ground and Kehoss orders...

Lawyer wants federal probe of why Mississippi police waited months to tell a mom her son was killed

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A civil rights attorney said Monday he will ask the U.S. Justice Department to investigate why authorities in Mississippi’s capital city waited several months to tell a woman that her son died after being hit by a police SUV driven by an off-duty officer.Bettersten Wade last saw 37-year-old Dexter Wade when he left home March 5, attorney Ben Crump said during a news conference in Jackson. She filed a missing-person report a few days later.Bettersten Wade said it was late August before she learned her son had been killed by a Jackson Police Department vehicle as he crossed Interstate 55 the day she last saw him.Dexter Wade was buried in a pauper’s cemetery near the Hinds County Penal Farm in the Jackson suburb of Raymond before the family was notified of his death, NBC News reported last week.Crump said he and other attorneys will petition a court to have the body exhumed and an autopsy done. He also said Wade will be given a proper funeral.“In our c...

Alberta raises Crown agency’s loan guarantee capacity, cites economic reconciliation

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

EDMONTON — Alberta’s premier has announced the government is expanding the loan guarantee capacity of the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corp.Premier Danielle Smith says Indigenous Peoples have historically been overlooked and underserved within Alberta’s economy, and that her government is looking to change that.The province says it has doubled the Crown corporation’s loan guarantee capacity to $2 billion and will increase it to $3 billion in 2024-25. The Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corp., which launched in 2019, is intended to address long-standing barriers for Indigenous groups by reducing the costs of borrowing and increasing the amounts that can be borrowed for major infrastructure projects.Alberta Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson says the federal Indian Act does not allow First Nations to use their land as collateral and makes it hard for them to borrow money for such projects.Chana Martineau, CEO of the Crown corporation, says that since 2019...

2 teens are arrested in the fatal shooting of a Rocky Mountain College student-athlete

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A freshman football player at Rocky Mountain College was fatally shot over the weekend and police in Billings, Montana have arrested two teenagers, officials said.Chandler Wyatt Stalcup, 18, of Crystal River, Florida, was shot early Saturday. He remained on life support until Monday when his organs were harvested for donation, the Yellowstone County Coroner’s Office told KULR-TV.Police were responding to a report of a gun being discharged during a fight at a house party just before 3 a.m. Saturday when they received a call about the shooting near campus, police Lt. Matt Lennick said. A 16-year-old male suspect was arrested about six hours later and was being held in juvenile detention. Investigators recommended a deliberate homicide charge. A second suspect, a 17-year-old male, was arrested Monday on suspicion of accountability to deliberate homicide and was also being held in juvenile detention, Lennick said.Stalcup had gone to the house party to pick s...

North, NW suburban homeowners hit hardest by new Cook County tax bills

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:18 GMT

CHICAGO -- A Cook County Assessor's Office employee is calling the increase in property taxes for many homeowners a once in a generation event due to a number of factors.Residents living in several North and Northwest suburbs in Cook County are expected to be surprised when they open their property tax bills with an average increase of nearly 16% in the area, the highest increase in 30 years."The vast majority about 80% of tax payers are going to get higher bills this year," the Director Research at Cook County Treasurer's Office Hal Dardick said.The second installment bills for 2023 reflect new valuations from the Cook County Assessor.Across Cook County, taxes rose for 1.3 million homeowners and 94,000 commercial property owners from $909 million to $17.6 billion, a 5.4% higher than last year, but below 8% rate of inflation for 2022.In Chicago, property taxes increased around 3% in 2023, while homeowners in the south suburbs saw an average of 3.9% increase. For property owners nort...