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Legitimacy of ‘customer’ in Supreme Court gay rights case raises ethical, legal flags

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and COLLEEN SLEVIN (Associated Press)A Christian graphic artist who the Supreme Court said can refuse to make wedding websites for gay couples pointed during her lawsuit to a request from a man named “Stewart” and his husband-to-be. The twist? Stewart says it never happened.The revelation has raised questions about how Lorie Smith’s case was allowed to proceed all the way to the nation’s highest court with such an apparent misrepresentation and whether the state of Colorado, which lost the case, has any legal recourse.It has served as another distraction at the end of a highly polarizing term for a Supreme Court marked by ethical questions and contentious rulings along ideological lines that rejected affirmative action in higher education and President Joe Biden’s $400 billion plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts.Here’s a look at the legal questions surrounding the mysterious would-be customer, “Stewart...

Tesla sales jump 83% from a year ago

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

DETROIT — Tesla’s second-quarter deliveries rose 83% from a year ago after the company cut prices several times on its four electric vehicle models and buyers took advantage of U.S. government tax credits.The Austin, Texas, producer of EV, solar panels and batteries said that it sold a record 466,140 vehicles worldwide from April through June, nearly doubling the 254,695 it sold during the same period a year earlier. The vast majority of the sales were Tesla’s popular Model 3 and Model Y versions.But the price cuts, both for special orders and on existing inventory, raised questions from analysts who expect the cuts to reduce Tesla’s profit margins when it announces second-quarter earnings on July 19.Tesla’s sales were better than Wall Street expectations. Analysts polled by data provider FactSet expected deliveries of 445,000 for the quarter.The company produced 479,700 vehicles from April through June, about 13,000 more than it sold, indicating that invento...

7 injured in turbulence on Hawaiian Airlines flight to Australia

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu to Sydney hit severe turbulence, injuring seven people on board.The plane was carrying 163 passengers and 12 crew members on Thursday when it “encountered unexpected severe turbulence approximately five hours into the flight,” said a statement from the airline.“The plane just dropped,” passenger Sultan Baskonyali told ABC News. “We weren’t prepared.” She described one man going upward, hitting his head on the ceiling and dropping back down.Airport medics assessed and released three injured passengers when the flight landed in Sydney, the airline said Monday. One passenger and three flight attendants were “referred for further evaluation.”“Our immediate priority is to continue to care for our passengers and crew affected by this turbulence events, and we thank Sydney airport first responders for their swift assistance,” the airline said. Last year, severe t...

Baltimore samaritan who bandaged a shooting victim from block party says ‘All they know is guns’

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

By JULIET LINDERMAN (Associated Press)BALTIMORE (AP) — Authorities searched Monday for the suspects who opened fire during a holiday weekend block party in Baltimore that killed two people, wounded 28 others and prompted one resident to jump into action when she found a wounded teenage girl on her doorstep.Police identified the deceased as 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez and 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi. The 28 injured victims ranged in age from 13 to 32, with more than half younger than 18, officials said.Charlene Bowie, 66, who lives close to where the shooting took place, said she saw a huge crowd, largely made up of teenagers.“They were having fun in the beginning, but you know kids … they started drinking and they was getting all out of order,” she said.Bowie said she called the police and told her 15-year-old granddaughter to come inside. They heard gunshots a little while later, and a bullet struck her air conditioner, breaking off a piece of it and hitting ...

Ticker: Yellen books China trip this week; Workers strike at California hotels

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Beijing Thursday as part of an ongoing Biden administration effort to thaw U.S.-China relations, a senior Treasury official said.Yellen, who has called the notion of an economic decoupling from China “disastrous,” has frequently said in the past year that she would like to visit China.She says the two nations “can and need to find a way to live together” in spite of their strained relations over geopolitics and economic development.Yellen will meet this week with Chinese officials, U.S. companies doing business in China and with Chinese people and will stay through July 9, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the trip.The goal of her visit is to deepen and increase the frequency of communication between U.S. and China, the official said. While there are clear areas of common interest where Yellen can make progress, the official said, there are also significant disagreements...

2 dead, 3 hurt in small airplane crash in rural Alaska

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Two people were killed and three others seriously injured when a small plane crashed shortly after taking off from a rural Alaska community over the weekend, officials said.Five people were on board the plane operated by Vertigo Air Taxi when it went down Sunday afternoon about 3 miles (5 kilometers) north of Old Harbor, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Old Harbor is on the southeast coast of Kodiak Island, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southwest of the city of Kodiak.The plane took off from Old Harbor and was bound for Kodiak when it crashed in hilly terrain, said Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region. The agency is investigating the crash, and a National Transportation Safety Board representative arrived in Kodiak on Monday.The names of those on board were not immediately released. Two of the people had serious injuries and the third was in critical condition, Johnson said.Vertigo Air Taxi on its website sa...

Search for two people missing after Quebec landslide a ‘colossal’ task: police

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

SAGUENAY, Que. — The search for two people swept away by a landslide and a flooded river in Quebec’s Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region is being complicated by the river’s geography and debris in the water, provincial police said Monday.A man and a woman, both in their 40s, went missing on Saturday after a major landslide along the Éternité River, which was engorged by torrential rain.“There’s still a lot of work to do,” police spokesman Sgt. Hugues Beaulieu said at a news conference in Rivière Éternité, Que. “There’s a lot of debris left to clear and the river at its highest point swelled to four times its normal size, so that left a lot of debris which is making the work enormously complicated for the people on the ground.”Around 30 police officers were searching the area on Sunday, along with police divers and two helicopters.Beaulieu said they’ve now been joined by officers specialized in search and rescue, along with trained vol...

Mexican president tells Americans not to vote for DeSantis because of Florida’s tough migrant law

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president called on U.S. citizens Monday not to vote for Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis because of his state’s enactment of a tough immigration bill.The comments about the Florida law, which the Mexican government has said is likely to cause discrimination against migrants, marks President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s second recent break with Mexico’s tradition of non-intervention in the politics of other countries. In March, he called Peru’s government racist and illegitimate.“We could not remain silent,” López Obrador said of the Florida law at news conference Monday.Under the Florida law that went into effect July 1, employers who hire immigrants who are in the country illegally will face tough punishments. It also bolsters DeSantis’ migrant relocation program and limits social services for immigrants lacking permanent legal status.López Obrador called for “not one vote for those who despise migrants.”T...

Alberta premier urges ‘rapid resolution’ to B.C. port strike

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the ongoing strike at British Columbia ports could cause “substantial economic harm” in Alberta and across Canada.Port workers across B.C. walked off the job Saturday morning, and Smith is urging the federal government to work with all parties “to ensure a rapid resolution.”Negotiators with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada and the BC Maritime Employers Association are expected to be back at the table today after talks paused late Sunday.Smith issued a statement saying her government is monitoring the situation and is concerned about the negative impact the strike will have on the Canadian economy, including increased inflationary pressures on consumers.Business groups across Canada have warned about the economic impact of the strike, which affects thousands of cargo loaders at more than 30 ports. They’ve urged the federal government to take action to get staff back to work, while the union has pu...

Barrie safest, Winnipeg least-safe place to live in Canada: Data

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 12:51:42 GMT

New data has been released on the safety and security of Canadian cities.Rentola — a rental housing site — says they released their data to help Canadians, while they consider new places to live.The site looked into various safety elements of Canadian cities, which includes, police forces, efficient emergency response systems, and community engagement initiatives.Looking at the dataCrime severity index map. (Photo Credit: Rentola)Cities in Ontario took the majority of the top ten spots listed in the safety index. Barrie took the top slot with an overall rating of 7.13 out of 10.Toronto slotted into fourth with a 6.63 rating, behind Brantford and Guelph. The only two cities in the top ten that are outside of Ontario are Saint John, New Brunswick, and Lethbridge, Alberta.Despite Lethbridge being in the top 10, Rentola found that the southern Alberta city has the highest crime rate across the country. The site noted that cumulative data indicates the majority of the crimes ...