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Toronto is dealing with an ‘unprecedented’ spike in raccoon distemper cases

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

Toronto Animal Services is grappling with what they call an “unprecedented” spike in the number of distemper cases in the city’s raccoon population.Distemper is generally present in raccoons and tends to spread between May to November every year. Cases die down during the colder months, but a mild winter led to sustained spread throughout December and is continuing into this spring, explains the manager of Toronto Animal Services’ Enforcement and Mobile Response Unit.“If we look at the data at the end of 2022, we could see the emergence of a raccoon distemper outbreak, which does occur every two to three years in the population,” says Jasmine Herzog-Evans.“For example, during the same period last year, we received 451 requests [for service related to raccoons]. This year, we’ve already received 1,088.”The airborne virus is highly contagious and spreads quickly among raccoons as they tend to live in large, close groups.“Thin...

Israeli PM vows ‘aggressive response’ after rocket attacks

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s prime minister has vowed an “aggressive response” after militants fired rockets at Israel from southern Lebanon and Gaza amid ongoing tensions in Jerusalem.In a statement late Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu said “we will strike our enemies and they will pay a price for every act of aggression.” He said Israelis remain united in the face of external enemies despite their domestic political divisions. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Militants in Lebanon fired a heavy barrage of rockets at Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, forcing people across Israel’s northern frontier into bomb shelters, wounding at least two people and ratcheting up regional tensions a day after Israeli police raided Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.Israel’s military said 34 rockets had been fired across the border, and that 25 were shot down by its Iron Dome aerial defense system. Another five rockets struck Israeli territo...

CP NewsAlert: No evidence of homicide in case of woman found in Winnipeg landfill

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

Winnipeg police say they have no evidence to suggest the death of an Indigenous woman whose body was found in a landfill Monday was a homicide.— More coming —The Canadian Press

Civil rights probe launched after fatal Park Police shooting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation after a U.S. Park Police officer fatally shot a 17-year-old who drove off with an officer in the back seat after the teenager was found asleep in a suspected stolen car. The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington launched the investigation this week after federal officials released body-worn camera footage showing the officer fatally shooting Dalaneo Martin last month. The police video is one of the first released by the National Park Service and follows a 2022 order by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland requiring the agency’s 3,000 law enforcement officers to wear body cameras. It is also one of the first times body-worn camera footage has ever been released by a federal law enforcement agency. Martin’s death comes amid an ongoing national reckoning over authorities’ use of force and months as the beating death of Tyre Nichols by police in Memphis, Tennessee, renew...

Man who identified as Iranian pastor charged in ‘historical sexual assaults’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

Police have laid several charges against a man that allegedly posed as an Iranian pastor and sexually assaulted multiple women in York Region dating back to 2019.York Regional Police said an investigation commenced in January 2023 when a 42-year-old woman reported being sexually assaulted.Authorities determined that the accused met the victim on social media and identified himself as an Iranian pastor, convincing her to move from Iran to Canada by offering her assistance and housing.It’s alleged that the woman was sexually assaulted multiple times while living in his residence between September and November 2022.During the course of the investigation, police learned that a second woman, a 40-year-old from Richmond Hill, reported being sexually assaulted by the same man between September 2019 and August 2020. Police said the accused often identified himself as a pastor after being involved with a church in Richmond Hill.On Thursday, police charged 42-year-old Saeid Rezaei of Ne...

Oklahoma AG: Glossip murder conviction should be vacated

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The conviction and death sentence for Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip should be thrown out and a new trial ordered, the state’s new attorney general said Thursday, as support has grown even among death penalty supporters who say Glossip is innocent.In a filing with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said that although the state is not suggesting Glossip is innocent, the key witness against Glossip lied to the jury about his psychiatric treatment and reasons for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium.That information was only recently disclosed to Glossip’s defense team after Drummond turned over a box of evidence, consisting largely of prosecutors’ notes in the case, that Drummond’s predecessor, John O’Connor, had previously designated as “work product.”“After thorough and serious deliberation, I have concluded that I cannot stand behind the murder conviction and death sentenc...

Ranchers can rejig to avoid U.K. trade spat, bilateral deal gives edge over EU: envoy

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

OTTAWA — Britain’s envoy to Ottawa suggests that an uproar in the Prairies over expanded trade agreements could be overcome if ranchers rejig their use of hormones — and she says an additional bilateral deal between Canada and London would give both countries an edge over Europe.“We have quite similar approaches to trade,” said British High Commissioner Susannah Goshko.“Any negotiation — even when you’re negotiating with friends — requires you to think quite hard. Nobody signs up to something that isn’t in their national interest, as well as in the collective interest.”She was speaking just days after the announcement of the United Kingdom’s ascension to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.The 11 countries that helped craft the deal have approved the U.K.’s membership in principle, though member states will still have to individually ratify Britain’s membership.Ottawa pushed to get the pact&#...

Doctor says health wait times now permanent after high court rejects challenge

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

OTTAWA — The doctor who led a legal challenge over a patient’s right to pay for private medical care says a decision by Canada’s top court not to hear an appeal means long wait times have been “forcibly embedded” into the medicare system.Dr. Brian Day is CEO of the Cambie Surgery Centre, which, along with a handful of patients, has spent more than a decade in court challenging the British Columbia Medicare Protection Act, which bans extra-billing and private insurance for medically necessary procedures.They argued long wait times in B.C.’s publicly funded system amounted to a breach of the patients’ rights to life, liberty and security of the person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.The Supreme Court of B.C. dismissed the constitutional challenge three years ago and the provincial Court of Appeal upheld the ruling last year. On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada said it would not hear an appeal.Day said in a statement that Canada needs to brin...

Maine Mom: School wrong to help, hide gender transition

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine woman is suing a school district whose counselor encouraged her teen’s social gender transition, providing a chest binder and using a new name and pronouns, without consulting parents.It’s the latest lawsuit to pit a parent’s right to supervise their children’s health and education against a minor’s right to privacy when confiding in a mental health professional. A similar lawsuit filed in California was working its way through the courts earlier this year. In Massachusetts, parents are suing a middle school for not telling them their two pre-teens were using different names and pronouns.The federal lawsuit in Maine argues the mother of the 13-year-old student has a “right to control and direct the care, custody, education, upbringing and healthcare decisions of her children,” and that Great Salt Bay Community School violated her constitutional right by keeping gender-affirming treatments from parents.Civil rights advocates have argued in other c...

WATCH LIVE | Mayor-elect Johnson meets Mayor Lightfoot ahead of inauguration

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:36:44 GMT

CHICAGO — Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson has been busy since election day with local and national leaders reaching out to him amid the win. Johnson is expected to meet with Mayor Lori Lightfoot Thursday ahead of his inauguration next month. The 47-year-old teacher and former Cook County commissioner will inherit a city that seven in ten voters say is on the wrong track. Johnson will now have to build relationships with City Council and implement his public safety plans -- the top concern for voters across the city. Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson details plan heading into inauguration "The people of Chicago, no one disagrees with youth employment, no one disagrees with mental health support, no one disagrees with training and promoting 200 more detectives, no one disagrees with addressing the housing crisis," Johnson said.Johnson said his first plan of action was to meet with the newly created police district council. He is set to meet with Mayor Lightfoo...