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Walters: Compromise settles dispute over status of fast food franchises

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

In some ways, the most interesting — and perhaps most significant — event of the 2023 legislative session’s closing days was a compromise agreement on state oversight of the fast food industry.Last year, unions pushed through legislation that would have created a new state commission to set wages and working conditions in the industry.Inferentially, the legislation set aside the industry’s franchise system and treated locally outlets of as merely branches of their corporate franchisors.While the wage increases that would have resulted garnered most of the media attention, erosion of the franchise model was most worrisome aspect to the fast food corporations and their franchisees.Immediately, big guns in the industry pledged tens of millions of dollars for a campaign to challenge the legislation via a referendum that qualified to go before voters in 2024.The Legislature’s response was entertaining another bill that would have doubled down on attacking the franchise model by making co...

Setup for World Culture Festival shuts down DC roads

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

World Culture Festival starts next week in D.C. but restrictions on the roads are already in effect.The festival features music, food trucks and yoga, and is expected to generate $29.8 million for D.C., Angie Gates, president and CEO of Events DC said last spring.Setup for the festival started Monday and many roads are impacted through Oct. 5.Parking restrictionsYou can’t legally park on these streets from Sept. 28 at 6 a.m. through Oct. 1 at 11 p.m.:3rd Street from Independence Avenue SW to Constitution Avenue NW7th Street from Independence Avenue SW to Constitution Avenue NWMadison Drive from 14th Street to 3rd Street NWJefferson Drive from 14th Street to 3rd Street SWThis part of 4th Street will be posted as “Emergency No Parking” from Sept. 18 through Oct. 5, 2023 at noon:4th Street from Independence Avenue, SW to Pennsylvania Avenue NWRoad closuresPortions of 4th Street will also be closed to vehicles from Sept. 18 through Oct. 5 at noon:4th Street from Jeffer...

Llegan al país cinco estadounidenses liberados en un intercambio de prisioneros con Irán

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

El gobierno de Estados Unidos confirmó que este martes aterrizaron en el país los cinco estadounidenses que estuvieron detenidos en Irán y que fueron liberados como parte de un acuerdo de intercambio de prisioneros del gobierno de Joe Biden con ese país. Varios de los detenidos estuvieron más de 5 años detenidos en Irán. A pesar de su liberación, varios legisladores republicanos criticaron el acuerdo, diciendo que equivalía a un pago de “rescate” y que sólo alentaría a Irán a encarcelar a más extranjeros. Como primer paso en el intercambio de prisioneros, los cinco estadounidenses fueron puestos bajo arresto domiciliario el 10 de agosto y su liberación estaba condicionada a la transferencia de los $6,000 millones en ingresos petroleros congelados de Corea del Sur al banco central de Catar. El uso de los fondos liberados por parte de Irán será supervisado por Catar y restringido a la compra de alimentos, medicinas u otros artículos con fines humanitarios, según lo permitido por ...

India expulsa a un diplomático canadiense mientras se profundiza la disputa por el asesinato de un activista sij

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

(CNN) — La acusación de Canadá de que India podría haber estado involucrada en el asesinato de un activista sij en su territorio ha desencadenado una creciente disputa con Ottawa y Nueva Delhi, que expulsaron a altos diplomáticos, lo que hizo que las relaciones entre los dos países se hundieran.Las expulsiones diplomáticas de represalia se produjeron después de que el primer ministro Justin Trudeau dijera que Canadá estaba investigando “acusaciones creíbles” que vinculaban a India con el asesinato en junio del ciudadano canadiense y destacado líder sij Hardeep Singh Nijjar.“Durante las últimas semanas, las agencias de seguridad canadienses han estado persiguiendo activamente acusaciones creíbles de un vínculo potencial entre agentes del gobierno de la India y el asesinato del ciudadano canadiense Hardeep Singh Nijjar”, dijo Trudeau en el parlamento este lunes, añadiendo que su gobierno tomaría todas las medidas necesarias “para hacer que los perpetradores de este a...

Italy braces for Uruguay passion at the Rugby World Cup

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

Uruguay lost its opening game at the Rugby World Cup and received all of the plaudits.Los Teros were tipped to lose by 40-plus points to France last Thursday in Lille. But after 55 minutes they trailed only 13-12, then conceded a fluke try. France eventually prevailed 27-12 and was booed by its own supporters.Rugby-mad Uruguay President Luis Lacalle Pou was at the game with French President Emmanuel Macron after trade talks in Paris, and the former Old Boys player in Montevideo went into the Uruguay changing room to praise Los Teros, and take lots of photos.“Everything that is done in life, if it is not with passion, it does not work,” Lacalle Pou told the team. “And let people who don’t know us notice it.”The rugby world noticed. Uruguay humbled France, albeit a second-string side, but still. Los Teros earned 11 turnovers in their own 22 and stopped every French maul. That sterling work was undone by a vulnerable set-piece and 16 penalties.But the passion with which Uruguay t...

Cherry Creek School District to open mental health facility for struggling students

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — FOX31 and Channel 2 are getting an inside look at a first-of-its-kind mental health facility that will offer intensive support and education.It will be run by the Cherry Creek School District with the help of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Department of Psychiatry.The facility will serve Cherry Creek students aged 10-18 who are experiencing a mental health crisis ranging from anxiety and severe depression to suicidal ideations. Denver Public Schools superintendent ‘encouraged’ by new annual report The whole idea comes as facilities that serve kids in a mental health crisis or have other severe needs have dwindled statewide from 77 to 16 facilities.This is the first program and facility of its kind to be operated by a school district.In response, Cherry Creek Schools, with support from its voters in 2020, made the decision to build their own facility to serve students in the district.After treating students with severe to moderate needs...

Sean Payton is growing frustrated with Russell Wilson but knows fixing the Broncos starts with him

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Jerry Rosburg isn't walking through that door to save the Denver Broncos head coach from himself like he did a year ago.When the Broncos jumped out to a 21-3 lead against Washington on Sunday, it seemed the safest of bets that coach Sean Payton would improve to 73-0, including playoffs, when his teams held a lead of 18 points or more.Russell Wilson's teams in Seattle had never blown that big of a lead.Denver's defense had sacked Sam Howell three times, rookie speedsters Marvin Mims Jr. and Jaleel McLaughlin had scored their first NFL touchdowns and second-year speedster Brandon Johnson had caught Wilson's third TD throw. Can the Broncos bounce back after 2 consecutive losses? When the Commanders went three-and-out on their next drive, Mims returned the punt 45 yards to the Washington 40-yard line with 7:57 left before halftime.The rout was on.After burning his final timeout with 6:46 left in the first half, however, Wilson coughed up the ball at midfield and the Comm...

Miami-Dade’s controversial water park project faces further delay amid legal challenges

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

Plans for a water park near Zoo Miami have hit yet another snag as Miami-Dade County leaders grapple with legal challenges and environmental concerns. Commissioner Kionne McGhee, the sponsor of the Miami Wilds lease for the project, has requested a postponement of the final vote, further delaying the controversial development. Background and Legal ChallengesThe Miami Wilds project, which gained initial approval in 2020, has faced complications due to litigation and changes in county leadership. Conservation groups have raised concerns about the project’s impact on the Pine Rocklands forest and the endangered Florida bonneted bat population in the area. On Sept. 6, concerned conservationalists voiced their opinions at a meeting where commisssioners defered the vote. “You’re throwing away Miami’s history for the fleeting joy of a water slide,” said one opposer.Another opposer said, “The surrounding land is host to both the largest fragment of pine r...

Modi government expels a Canadian diplomat after Trudeau says India was involved in Sikh’s killing

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India expelled a senior Canadian diplomat Tuesday and accused Canada of interfering in its internal affairs, escalating a breach with Ottawa over its allegations of Indian involvement in the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.It came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were credible allegations that India was connected to the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh independence advocate who was gunned down on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia, and Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat. India rejected the allegations as “absurd.”India has fought against a movement to establish an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan since the 1980s, when a raid on separatists in a major temple led to the assassination of a prime minister and a wave of anti-Sikh violence.Nijjar was wanted by Indian authorities, who accused the activist of involvement in an alleged attack on a Hindu priest in India and had offer...

Ivanova officially appointed as European innovation commissioner

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:28:19 GMT

Bulgarian economist Iliana Ivanova has cleared the last hurdle to become the country’s newest European commissioner. Ivanova was appointed by the Council of the EU as Bulgaria’s new commissioner, in a joint decision with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — who picked Ivanova in June and assigned her the portfolio of innovation, research, education, culture and youth. For little over a year, until the end of the Commission’s mandate on October 31, 2024, Ivanova will take over from her compatriot Mariya Gabriel, who resigned in May to become the country’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister. Ivanova easily passed the confirmation procedure in Parliament, with an uneventful hearing and approval in plenary by a wide margin.