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As public health emergency ends, pandemic-era support programs have already been fading away

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The formal end of the national Public Health Emergency on Thursday is largely a symbolic and psychological step, representing the country’s formal emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic. But behind the scenes, several core aspects of America’s pandemic-era emergency safety net are also coming to a close, from extra food assistance to automatic re-enrollment in Medicaid. While these measures were always designed to be temporary, their expiration is inevitably producing hardship and confusion.“People are starting to get their jobs back, but it’s still not all the way back and everything is more expensive than before the pandemic,” said Radha Muthiah, president of the Capital Area Food Bank. “The people we serve always seem to be playing catch-up.”Safety net programs gave Americans a lifeline during the height of the pandemic. The child tax credit was increased,unemployment benefits and food assistance were expanded, and a federal moratorium on eviction kept peopl...

5.4 magnitude earthquake near Tokyo causes minor injuries, damage

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — An earthquake shook Japan’s capital, Tokyo, and surrounding areas on Thursday, injuring several people and causing minor damage, officials and media said.The quake had a 5.4 magnitude and its epicenter was in Chiba prefecture, southeast of Tokyo, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. No tsunami warning was issued.Four people were hurt, including a man who was hit by a falling ceiling light, according to Japan’s Kyodo news agency, and some rail service was canceled or delayed.Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone nations, and a massive 2011 quake and subsequent tsunami killed thousands and caused a cataclysmic meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.The Associated Press

House GOP points to migration surge as lawmakers advance asylum restrictions, border wall

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are seeking Thursday to pass a sweeping bill to build more border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers, creating a hardline counter to President Joe Biden’s policies just as migrants are amassing along the border with the end of pandemic restrictions.The bill has virtually no chance of becoming law. Democrats, who have a narrow hold on the Senate, have decried the aggressive measures in the bill as “cruel” and “anti-immigrant,” and Biden has already promised he would veto it.But the House GOP pointedly scheduled the vote for the same day as the expiration of Title 42, a public health emergency rule that allowed border authorities to quickly return many migrants who crossed the border illegally. Biden has conceded that the U.S.-Mexico border will be “chaotic for a while” as migrants weigh whether to cross and U.S. officials use a new set of policies that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration while offering more legal pa...

Expel George Santos? GOP leaders aren’t ready to take that step

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Protecting a narrow, four-vote majority, Republican leaders in the House are making clear that they intend to let the legal process play out with New York Rep. George Santos before they take steps to force his resignation or expel him.The freshman congressman was accused Wednesday by federal prosecutors of embezzling money from his campaign, falsely receiving unemployment funds and lying to Congress about his finances and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Santos pleaded not guilty.Republican leaders, who for months have faced mounting questions about Santos after most of his campaign biography was exposed as a lie, were unmoved and brushed aside calls — including from some colleagues — that they take immediate action to push Santos out of Congress.“In America, there’s a presumption of innocence. But they’re serious charges. He’s going to have to go through the legal process,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Scalise was seconde...

Free speech, racial equity battles play out on Wisconsin campuses

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The fight over racial equity and free speech on Wisconsin college campuses is intensifying, mirroring a national battle as Republicans work to close campus diversity offices and demand students and faculty treat conservative speakers with respect.In just the past two weeks, the state’s top Republican announced a push to defund the University of Wisconsin System’s diversity efforts — a move the Democratic governor lambasted as ridiculous. A student from UW-Madison posted racial slurs online, triggering bitter protests but no announced discipline. And a state medical college canceled a diversity symposium featuring Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson out of concerns the discussion would be too disruptive, resulting in cries of bias from conservatives.Amid that backdrop, Republican legislative leaders are set to hold a hearing Thursday with only invited speakers to discuss “how the lack of free speech and intellectual diversity on college campuses affects the quality ...

National Arts Centre hopeful for uninterrupted new season after years of disruption

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

TORONTO — The National Arts Centre has revealed its first full slate of new programming since 2019, betting that years of disruptions are no more.NAC’s executive director of communications Annabelle Cloutier says the upcoming orchestra, popular music, dance and theatre programs reflect a new optimism following four seasons of uncertainty.Highlights of the 2023/2024 lineup include the Newfoundland-set Sept. 11 musical “Come From Away” from Aug. 14 to Sept. 1, 2024, and Robert Lepage’s “Le projet Riopelle” from Dec. 14 to 16, 2023, billed as an exploration of the work and life of artist Jean Paul Riopelle. COVID-19 cases continued to upend shows as recently as March when the page-to-stage adaptation of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s book “Fall On Your Knees” had to scrap seven Ottawa shows due to infections among actors and crew.During the season before that, truck convoy protests that seized downtown Ottawa forced NAC to close Jan. 28 to Feb. 19, 2022, and Cloutier says that resulted in the c...

Colorado legislative session reinforces once-purple state’s Democratic shift

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

DENVER (AP) — As Colorado House lawmakers churned through final votes during the last night of this year’s session, Republicans stood up and marched out of the chamber before the Democratic speaker could gavel it to a close — a defiant act meant to show how sidelined and silenced they felt. The political theater this week was the culmination of a 120-day session that proved to be the latest illustration of the leftward shift in what was long a battleground state, leaving Republicans scrambling to adjust to their unfamiliarly weak position and surfacing internal rifts among Democrats over just how progressive Colorado should be. The shift has been partly driven by migration to Colorado and the transformation of white, college-educated voters — a disproportionate share of the state’s electorate — into Democratic supporters during the Trump era. The last Republican presidential candidate that Colorado voters backed was George W. Bush in 2004. The current governor, both U.S....

ASEAN leader acknowledges no progress toward ending Myanmar’s deadly civil strife

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian President Joko Widodo somberly acknowledged to fellow Southeast Asian leaders Thursday that no progress has been made to end the civil strife gripping Myanmar and renewed a call for an end to the violence, including a recent airstrike a rights group called an “apparent war crime.”“I have to be honest,” Widodo told fellow leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on the final day of their two-day summit in the Indonesian harbor town of Labuan Bajo. “There has been no significant progress in the implementation of the five-point consensus.”ASEAN’s chairperson this year, Widodo was referring to a peace plan forged by the 10-nation bloc with Myanmar’s top general in 2021 that called for an immediate end to the violence and dialogue among contending parties to be brokered through an ASEAN special envoy.Myanmar’s military-led government refused to take steps to enforce the plan, prompting ASEAN leaders to exclude the co...

Nate Spears seeing it all as Saints hitting coach

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

Feast or famine is a phenomenon most professional baseball players are familiar with. But when it comes to dealing with both at the same time … well, welcome to Saints hitting coach Nate Spears’ world.Spears, in his first season in the Twins organization after coaching for seven seasons in the Boston Red Sox organization, is all smiles when talking about the recent exploits of the hot-hitting Michael Helman. As for Trevor Larnach and Jose Miranda, struggling Twins hitters sent down to the Saints in recent days, it’s time to dig in and work.Helman, who has consistently hit for average and power since being called up to the Saints from Double-A Wichita last season, had a hit on Wednesday in the Saints’ 4-2 loss to Indianapolis at CHS Field. He is batting .360 in his past eight games, with four home runs and 16 RBIs despite missing the first 22 games of the season due to injury.“He just seems like he’s ready to hit every pitch,” Spears said. “When you get locked in and continue to put ...

Alex Kirilloff sends Twins to walk-off win over Padres

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:12:35 GMT

When the Twins reversed their decision to option Alex Kirilloff to Triple-A just days after sending him down, manager Rocco Baldelli expressed hope that the lefty hitter could bring a jolt to their lineup.The Twins’ slumping offense has desperately needed a jolt, and Kirilloff delivered it on Wednesday night, coming through with the clutch hit the Twins needed in the 11th inning and sending them to a 4-3 win over the Padres at Target Field.“He doesn’t have much fear. He goes up there in big spots and just looks for a pitch that he thinks he can handle and simplifies it,” Baldelli said. “That was big for us. We needed someone to just come up and make it happen and he did that today.”A night earlier, Baldelli had talked about mixing up the lineup. One move was sliding Kirilloff, who finished the day with a pair of hits, into the cleanup spot. Another was moving Max Kepler, who, as the automatic runner, scored the game-winning run, into the No. 2 spot in the batting order. Kepler, like...