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‘I didn’t have the energy to be upset’: Entrepreneurs struggle with parental leave

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

TORONTO — For as long as she has worked, Marie Chevrier Schwartz has paid into Canada’s Employment Insurance program. Yet when she eventually needed to collect the benefit, she was denied support.In 2021, the chief executive of Toronto-based brand promotions company Sampler had just given birth to her first child and, for the first time since founding her company eight years earlier, planned to take a break. She spent months co-ordinating with the board of directors and senior leadership about what responsibilities other staff would assume during her three months of maternity leave.But after Chevrier Schwartz applied for parental benefits, she found officials didn’t seem to trust that she had stopped working. In two interviews and an audit of her application, she said they questioned why her email signature and voicemail still said she was chief executive and whether she’d truly backed away. Chevrier Schwartz said she had been too caught up with her newborn to chan...

Attorney General Garland keeps poker face as firestorm erupts after Trump charges

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — On his first day as attorney general, Merrick Garland pledged a return to what he called the “norms” of the Justice Department and said he would work to eliminate the perception of political interference. But in the two years since he took office, the former federal judge has found himself in the middle of a political firestorm of historic proportions.The case against Donald Trump — the first former president to face federal criminal charges — brought a crush of protesters to the Miami courthouse last week, as well as a torrent of social media broadsides from Trump and an onslaught of criticism from Republicans. The decision to charge Trump, who is running for president again, is perhaps the most consequential in the history of the Justice Department. The ultimate call on that came from Garland, whose demeanor leans to the mild.Even the day when prosecutors informed Trump about the charges was outwardly quiet in the halls of the stately Justice Department headquart...

Sunday Forecast: High mid 80s, increasing clouds

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

Sunday: Increasing clouds and slight chance of a PM shower. SE 5-10 mph. Air quality is Moderate for Chicago but considered Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups in Indiana and southern MI. High mid 80s, cooler lakeside.Sunday Night: Cloudy skies and a slight chance of a shower. E 5-10 mph. Low: 67Monday: Slight chance of an early showers/sprinkle then partly sunny. E 10-15 mph. Highs mid 80s, cooler lakesideChicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Extended outlook calls for a pattern of dry weather for the rest of the week is expected with hazy sunshine from Canadian wildfire smoke. Temps creep up toward 90 the end of the week-- but each day looks about 5 to 10 degrees cooler by the lake. Next weekend partly sunny & warm a chance of showers both days and temps in the mid 80s. 

Who founded Father's Day? A renegade, great-granddaughter says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — You could call her the mother of Father’s Day.The late Sonora Smart Dodd launched the celebration of dads in 1910 in her hometown of Spokane, Washington. As a result, she is the one responsible for those annual gifts that run the gamut from embarrassingly silly-looking neckties to kids’ finger paintings crafted with so much love by those tiny hands that they can bring a tear to the eye of even the most stoic father.It’s a tradition Dodd decided to start as she sat in a Spokane church on Mother’s Day 1909, listening to a sermon about — what else? — Mother’s Day.“And it bugged her,” Dodd’s great-granddaughter, Betsy Roddy, told The Associated Press in 2017. “She thought, ’Well, why isn’t there a Father’s Day?”Dodd and her five younger brothers, after all, had been raised by their father after their mother died in childbirth in 1898. ‘Jeopardy!’ fans stunned after Lord’s Prayer question stumps all 3 contestants William Jackson Smart became a farmer after fighting i...

How car owners can cope with owing more than it's worth

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

(NerdWallet) - When Atlanta resident Morgan Nichole Scott financed a used Infiniti QX60 in late summer 2020, car prices were starting to skyrocket. But the single, working mother of four couldn’t delay the purchase because her old car had stopped running.Fast-forward to March 2023, when used-car prices had declined from record highs. Scott visited a dealership wanting to trade in the now-refinanced car and encountered obstacles because of negative equity, or owing more on her loan than the car was worth.Scott says the dealership wouldn’t take her car as a trade-in unless she paid the negative equity. Alternatively, the salesperson said she could keep her current car and get a new $62,000 loan for a 2023 Infiniti QX60. That would mean she’d continue to pay a $400 monthly car payment and add to it a $1,300 payment for the new car — bringing her total to $1,700 a month.“I was very clear that I didn’t want a mortgage payment for a car payment,” says Scott. “I was looking at the paperwor...

Noah Feldman: When does this Supreme Court care about precedent? Ask Kavanaugh

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

When the Supreme Court ruled last week that an Alabama redistricting map violated the Voting Rights Act — thus declining to strike down some remaining parts of the VRA — headlines branded the decision a “surprise” and “unexpected.” In particular, some commentators expressed astonishment at the emphasis the majority placed on respect for judicial precedent, or stare decisis. Why would a majority of the justices, some of whom previously gutted other parts of the VRA, and who have overturned decades precedent on issues from abortion to guns to religion, hold back here?The answer is straightforward, at least according to Justice Brett Kavanaugh — who provided the decisive fifth vote to uphold precedent in the voting case, but who voted to overturn nearly 50 years of precedent on abortion last year. Since Kavanaugh is now this court’s closest thing to a swing justice, it behooves us to listen carefully to what he has to say on the subject.A...

Real World Economics: Emmer’s arrogant ignorance is not bliss

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

Edward LottermanIgnorance by politicians is nothing new. One need not be an expert in everything to run for office, or even get elected.And it’s the wise politicians who know what they don’t know, admit it, and seek the expert advice of better experts to guide them — regardless of whether that advice conforms to their predetermined policies or helps them politically. That’s called integrity.Then there are politicians like Minnesota’s own Tom Emmer. Reading this congressman’s recent comments at a House Financial Services committee hearing, a tirade posed as “questioning” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, one would be hard pressed to find more ignorance packed into 459 words. (You can see it on YouTube or read a transcript in his press release).This periodic hearing ostensibly is for the committee to query the Treasury Secretary, no matter who it is, but is really just political theater and both parties play the game. What stands out this...

Local 8-year-old rollerskater headed to national championship

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A Schenectady rollerskating team is headed for the national championship. They're traveling next week to compete in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, followed by another championship in Nebraska. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Competitive rollerskating entails various events, including figure, freestyle, partner, and dance skating.As the team nears the end of their season, which runs from September to August, one member of the team who only started skating about a year and a half ago, stands out.8-year-old Zoey Murawski sometimes finds herself competing against skaters who are 12 and 13, and has taken home lots of medals. She'll be competing in seven events in Hermitage at the championship. You can watch Zoey's interview with NEWS10's Giuliana Bruno here:

10 juveniles shot in downtown St. Louis, one victim dead

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

ST. LOUIS - St. Louis Metropolitan Police are investigating a shooting that happened early Sunday morning.It happened just after 1:00 a.m. on 14th Street and Washington Avenue downtown. Ten people under the age of 18 were shot. One person has died, the other nine are being treated at nearby hospitals.The only remnants of the scene are some leftover police tape that's already been cut down. It’s unclear what led up to the shooting, but there are multiple bars that stay open late on the block.Previous incidents in the past where large crowds have resulted in fights, shootings, and overall crime have fueled outrage over dangerous situations for residents with some directed at late night businesses. They have vehemently denied they’re to blame, instead asking for more police patrol. 10 juveniles injured in downtown shooting, 1 killed Recently in mid-May, cellphone video showed large crowds on Locust downtown fighting with several suspects having guns. Officers broke up the crowd witho...

High-speed pursuit in Pasadena leads to deadly crash, 4 hospitalized 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:23:44 GMT

A high-speed pursuit came to a violent end when a driver crashed into two innocent vehicles in Pasadena overnight, killing themselves and injuring four others. The crash occurred around 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning near the entrance ramp to the 110 Freeway at Glenarm Street. According to CHP Officer Roberto Gomez, units traveling northbound on the 110 noticed a vehicle with no lights that was unable to maintain their lane. “The officers initiated a traffic stop but the vehicle then failed to yield,” said Officer Gomez. “[The driver] continued northbound at a high rate of speed and moments later a collision involving two other vehicles at Glenarm Street who were stopped at a red light occurred.” “The driver of the suspect’s vehicle was pronounced deceased on scene, Officer Gomez added. “With the suspect, no seatbelt was utilized at the time as well.”  DUI driver arrested after pursuit, crashing spree in Orange A high-speed pursuit came to a violent end when the dr...