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United Airlines rolling out plan that lets passengers in economy class with window seats board first

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN and DAVID KOENIG (AP Business Writers)United Airlines will start boarding passengers in economy class with window seats first starting next week, a move designed to reduce the time planes spend sitting on the ground.The airline said in an internal memo that it will implement the plan on Oct. 26. The plan – called WILMA, for window, middle and aisle — was tested at several locations and deemed to shave up to two minutes off boarding time.Variations of the WILMA approach have existed for many years.“It spreads people out along the aisle of the airplane so that more people can put their luggage away at the same time. That’s the main thing that speeds up the boarding process,” says Jason Steffen, an associate professor of physics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who designed his own boarding model a decade ago.The change will begin with passengers in the fourth boarding group. Customers in first class and business class will se...

Body found as crews respond to brush fire off Interstate 5

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A vegetation fire off Interstate 5 led to the discovery of a dead body Wednesday morning, the Highway California Patrol confirmed to FOX 5.CHP says a call came in around 4:55 a.m. reporting a deceased individual was found in the area of the State Route 905 eastbound connector, near Beyer Boulevard. The southbound I-5 ramp to eastbound SR-905 is blocked as an investigation takes place, said Caltrans. The Tacoyo Avenue off-ramp is also closed due to this investigation.There's no word yet on how long the ramps will be closed. 1 person dead, another wounded in South Bay shooting San Diego Fire-Rescue crews are no longer on the scene.There is no further information at this time. CHP is handing the investigation.This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Lawsuit dropped after school board changes course, adopts Youngkin’s transgender student policy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Washington-based attorney confirmed Wednesday his firm was dropping litigation it filed last month regarding Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s new policies on transgender students because the school board his firm sued has since adopted guidelines consistent with the governor’s. But the firm could potentially still bring other litigation in districts that are bucking the administration’s guidance, said Charles Cooper of Cooper & Kirk, which is widely known for its work on conservative legal causes.Attorneys from the firm represented two parents who sued the Virginia Beach School Board seeking the enforcement of Youngkin’s policies, which roll back many accommodations for transgender students urged by the previous Democratic administration.The policies have prompted an outcry from LGBTQ advocates and Democratic lawmakers, who say they codify discrimination and could harm an already vulnerable population. Republicans, religious groups and other...

New Speaker puts MPs on notice over unruly, toxic behaviour in House of Commons

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

OTTAWA, Ill. — Speaker Greg Fergus is warning MPs that he will use all powers available to him to maintain order and decorum in the House of Commons if they can’t do it themselves. Fergus rose before question period today to declare his intention to bring down the temperature during parliamentary proceedings.He says behaviour in the House has deteriorated over the years, and heckling from MPs intended to intimidate and drown out others has become boorish, rude and insulting. Fergus, who was elected Speaker at the beginning of October, says he’s committed to protecting MPs’ freedom of speech, but questionable language and provocative statements will not be tolerated.He says there’s a growing tendency for MPs to make pointed criticisms as a way to bully or attack each other’s integrity, and that’s introducing toxicity to question period and other proceedings. The official Opposition tried to prevent Fergus from delivering his speech, with Conservati...

As Canada evacuates citizens in Israel, some Israeli-Canadians want to stay

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

As Shawna Goodman-Sone spoke to a reporter from a suburb of Tel Aviv Wednesday, she had to end the call abruptly and seek refuge in her home’s safe room as an air raid warning went off.Before fleeing into the reinforced room, she spoke about moving to Israel from Montreal nine years ago — and why she has decided to stay in the country despite the war with Hamas.“We’re taking a leap of faith that this is where we belong,” Goodman-Sone said. “This is where we chose to live, this is where our home is, our community, our friends, and all of our friends’ kids are serving in the army. I’m so grateful we made this decision.”Global Affairs Canada estimates that roughly 35,000 Canadian citizens live in Israel, which allows people with at least one Jewish grandparent, and their spouses, to quickly obtain citizenship. Since Israel declared war on Hamas on Sunday, more than 1,300 Canadians have left the country on military flights organized ...

Movie Review: Cornwell/le Carré, through Errol Morris’ lens, in riveting ‘The Pigeon Tunnel’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

Errol Morris’s conversation with the late David Cornwell in “ The Pigeon Tunnel ” is fascinating even without the filmmaking flourishes.Cornwell, better known by his pen name John le Carré, was the spy-turned-novelist whose tales of espionage and betrayal defined an era, gave literary heft to a genre and inspired numerous adaptations. And here, Morris challenges him to reflect on his unconventional childhood — his con-man father, his mother who left him at 5 never to return — on through his time in the secret services and beyond. You hear how he quite literally began life on the run, how he learned to be a “little spy” from quite a young age, how his father loomed so large in his imagination and how untrustworthy his own memory even turned out to be.It could have been just a transcript; It would have been a must-read.Cornwell died in 2020 at 89, and this film which will be streaming on Apple TV+ Friday, is said to be his final and “most candid” interview. That might simply be market...

Financial pressures could impact Canadians’ holiday spending: survey

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

New survey data suggests that Canadians are planning on reining in their holiday spending this year.Deloitte’s fifth annual holiday retail outlook survey has found that Canadians are expected to spend 11 per cent less for the holiday season than compared to last year, for an average of $1,347 per person.The findings show that growing financial pressures may be the cause for this drop. Two-thirds of respondents said they’re concerned about a recession, while 55 per cent are worried about rent and mortgage increases.“You add all those things together which are obviously grounded in inflation, economic risk, and whatnot, they’re feeling extreme pressure,” said Marty Weintraub, National Retail Leader with Deloitte.It’s not just the holiday season that may suffer from these fears, as Weintraub says Halloween also falls under the umbrella of the holiday spending season.“Halloween, I would say, is sort of encompassed in the holiday shopping season ...

Musician Mike Skinner turns actor and director with ‘The Darker the Shadow, the Brighter the Light’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Mike Skinner is doing it all himself — even if it takes years.He wrote, directed, edited and starred in a feature-length movie, “The Darker the Shadow, the Brighter the Light.” It is accompanied by an album of the same name released last Friday — the first album from The Streets in 12 years. Formed in London in the early 1990s, The Streets’ debut record “Original Pirate Material” was released in 2002 and became an instant classic. Their lyrics reference club culture, hangovers in cafes and dating celebrities, but also topics like male fragility in “Dry Your Eyes” and battles with grief in “Never Went to Church.”Skinner’s movie “The Darker the Shadow, the Brighter the Light” is described as a “neo-noir detective film” but instead of a private eye solving the case, it’s a DJ. Though obviously nonfiction, it references Skinner’s life as a DJ in his mid-40s — taking place in backstage rooms, on dance floors and behind decks and in the backseats of c...

Environmental group challenges federal action on protecting endangered spotted owl

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

VANCOUVER — An environmental group is in Federal Court in Vancouver challenging what it describes as Ottawa’s failure to protect the endangered northern spotted owl despite an “imminent threat” to its recovery.The Wilderness Committee, represented by environmental law charity Ecojustice, says federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault delayed by eight months recommending an emergency order to cabinet that would have protected the owl in B.C.’s Fraser Canyon. Ecojustice lawyer Kegan Pepper-Smith told the court that the Wilderness Committee initially petitioned the federal government last October to raise the issue well ahead of the 2023 logging season, where the old growth forest that spotted owls rely on could be threatened. Pepper-Smith said Guilbeault had the responsibility under Canada’s Species at Risk Act to respond to the imminent threat to the recovery of the spotted owl population, given the animal’s endangered status.The federal gover...

Far-right influencer sentenced to 7 months in 2016 voter suppression scheme

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:24:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A right-wing social media influencer was sentenced to seven months in federal prison on Wednesday for spreading falsehoods via Twitter, now known as X, in an effort to suppress Democratic turnout in the 2016 presidential election.Douglass Mackey, who posted under the alias Ricky Vaughn, was convicted in March of the charge of conspiracy against rights after a trial in federal court in Brooklyn.Prosecutors said Mackey, who had 58,000 Twitter followers, conspired with others between September and November of 2016 to post falsely that supporters of Democrat Hillary Clinton could vote for her by text message or social media post.For example, they said, Mackey tweeted a photo of a woman standing in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign. “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” the tweet said. “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.”U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement that Mackey “weaponized disinformation in a dangerous scheme to stop targeted groups, including blac...