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Shopping online? How to avoid delivery thefts, ID fraud, sale panic and other seasonal scams

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

David J. Neal | (TNS) Miami HeraldSocial media teems with videos of boxes being swiped off porches. The internet means fraudsters don’t have to show you their face to fool you. And the big business of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa means it’s also a busy time of year for criminals.Here are some online shopping tips for getting through the season without being victimized:Safe shopping—Don’t use public WiFi: Use private networks to keep information you enter into the website from being lifted.—Check companies and websites: Amazon used to sell just books. Walmart wasn’t born an ubiquitous chain of megastores. Everybody was small at some point. Don’t avoid lower-profile, less-established companies just because they’re not giant retail institutions.But do your homework.Check with the Better Business Bureau for complaints. Search court records where the business is based for any lawsuits. Remember, a company’s social media posts really are just advertisements for the business. Yelp, Goog...

Many would-be kidney donors are ineligible because of their weight or smoking habits. This project helps them qualify

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

Ilana Arougheti | Chicago Tribune (TNS)More than 70 kidney transplants were performed every day in the United States last year. Rachel Watson wanted to be one of the donors, but was told she didn’t qualify — at first.Watson, a 27-year-old digital marketer living in Warrenville, had been moved by a news story about a local politician in need of a kidney. In 2022, she reached out to a Chicagoland hospital about donating one of her kidneys to a stranger. During a phone screening, Watson was told that she weighed too much to be considered as a donor.In January, Watson tried again at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. She passed an initial donor screening, but her BMI was still too high.That’s when she learned about Project Donor, which helps interested kidney and liver donor candidates who are turned away because of their weight or smoking history.Project Donor, a program run out of the University of Chicago’s Center for RISC, which develops creative solutions for social probl...

Kevin McCarthy was booted as House speaker two months ago. Now he’s leaving Congress by year’s end

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and KEVIN FREKING (Associated Press)LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two months after his historic ouster as U.S. House speaker, Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that he is resigning and will leave Congress by the end of the year. His announcement capped a stunning end to a House career for the onetime deli counter owner from Bakersfield, California, who ascended through state and national politics to become second in line to the presidency, until a cluster of hard-right conservatives engineered his removal in October.McCarthy is the only speaker in history to be voted out of the job.“No matter the odds, or personal cost, we did the right thing,” McCarthy wrote in The Wall Street Journal, announcing his decision. “It is in this spirit that I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways.”Word about McCarthy’s future had been expected, days before the filing deadline to seek reelection to t...

High surf, strong rip tides prompt hazard warning for San Diego County beaches

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

SAN DIEGO — A hazard statement has been issued by the National Weather Service for beaches along the San Diego County coast this week as high surf is expected to create dangerous conditions for swimmers.The notice will be in effect through late Thursday night as a long-period swell from the west-northwest is anticipated to set in. According to forecasters, the swell's peak is expected Thursday.While the hazard statement is in effect, NWS says waves are expected to reach heights of around four to six feet along the coast, particularly impacting South County beaches. On Thursday, some areas may see sets reach upwards of seven feet. El Niño winter has started. Here’s what conditions are predicted for San Diego Weather officials urge the public to stay out of the water throughout the duration of the beach hazard statement. According to NWS, the high surf will increase drowning risk with dangerous swimming and surfing conditions, including strong rip currents. "Waves will be high enoug...

Boy who died at San Diego border after crossing from Mexico identified

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A 13-year-old boy who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border with fatal injuries last weekend has been identified.A County of San Diego official confirmed to FOX 5 Wednesday that Dario Zamudio was the decedent in this incident, which occurred on Saturday, Dec. 2. U.S. trying to help address Mexico’s water debt to the Rio Grande According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Cal Fire, the boy arrived at the border fence with traumatic injuries just after 10:30 a.m. in the area of 43700 Old Highway 80 in Jacumba. Zamudio was believed to be involved in a car accident in Mexico, and was taken to the border wall for faster treatment, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department reported Monday afternoon.Despite attempted life-saving measures by firefighters and paramedics, the boy was pronounced dead at the scene. CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the incident.The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office will investigate the cause and m...

No decisions made on ‘potential’ dissolution of Peel Region: Ontario Minister

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

Ontario’s municipal affairs and housing minister says he has not yet made any decisions on the break up of Peel Region, though he is now calling it a “potential” dissolution. Paul Calandra’s comments come amid media reports citing unnamed sources that say the government is reconsidering its plan to dissolve the upper-tier municipality and leave Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon standing on their own.Calandra says legislation was put in place for “a potential dissolution of Peel for 2025.”That law, titled the Hazel McCallion Act (Peel Dissolution), says the Region of Peel be dissolved on Jan. 1, 2025, and a transition board will be appointed to provide recommendations to the minister on winding down the region’s financial operations and the long-term sustainability of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon as single-tier municipalities.Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown is pointing to a Deloitte report that shows the dissolution would lead to an ex...

Republicans threaten contempt proceedings if Hunter Biden refuses to appear for deposition

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are warning Hunter Biden that they will move to hold him in contempt of Congress if he doesn’t appear this month for a closed-door deposition, raising the stakes in the growing standoff over testimony from President Joe Biden’s son.Hunter Biden has insisted that he will only testify to the House if it’s in public. But in a letter sent to his attorney Wednesday, top Republicans told him that their subpoena for a closed-door deposition on Dec. 13 is non-negotiable.“Contrary to the assertions in your letter, there is no ‘choice’ for Mr. Biden to make,” wrote Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.Comer and Jordan added that seeking a private session before a public hearing is an approach both parties have historically taken when deposing witnesses.Hunter Biden has told Republicans he will not testify behind closed doors because info...

Over 100 organizations urge Ford once again to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

Over 100 organizations and service providers who advocate for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and gender-based violence are urging the province to declare IPV an epidemic on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.In a letter to Premier Doug Ford, the organizations said they bring this forward to honour the victims of intimate partner violence, including three women who were killed by the same men. In an inquest into their death, 86 recommendations were made to help prevent similar deaths. The first of these was to declare IPV an epidemic.Minister of Social Services Michael Parsa announced an additional $18.14 million to approximately 400 gender-based violence service providers on Tuesday, but did not answer a question about whether the province planned to declare IPV an epidemic.“This is a problem in our province, and it requires action, and I’ve said this from day one when I came on to this ministry, Minister Williams has made ...

Three North Carolina Marines were found dead in a car with unconnected exhaust pipes, autopsies show

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Three Marines found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in a car outside a North Carolina gas station in July were in a vehicle with unconnected and rusted exhaust pipes, according to newly released autopsy findings.The Pender County Sheriff’s Office had already said months ago that autopsies performed on Camp Lejeune lance corporals Tanner Kaltenberg, Merax Dockery and Ivan Garcia determined that they all had died from such poisoning, which can happen from car exhaust. The new reports, which said there were no obvious signs of suicide, foul play or drug use, confirmed that cause of death.But the reports from the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and obtained by news outlets provided additional information on the circumstances surrounding their deaths. The Marines were found dead the morning of July 23 at a convenience store parking lot in Hampstead in the southeastern part of the state. The reports suggested the 2000 Lexus sedan belonging to G...

Ottawa gives Newfoundland and Labrador more control over offshore wind power projects

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:01 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador signed an agreement today giving the eastern province full regulatory control over renewable energy projects in its inland bays.Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the deal will allow the province to regulate wind projects in those areas as if they were onshore developments.He says the deal is aimed at streamlining the approval process, particularly as opportunities arise from the province’s nascent wind-powered hydrogen sector.Wilkinson told reporters in Ottawa the agreement lets Newfoundland and Labrador determine the pace and the scale of the industry, and reap all of its economic benefits.Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey says the agreement is a necessary and important first step to kick-start an offshore wind industry in the blustery province.The two governments jointly manage the province’s offshore oil sector through a federal-provincial regulatory board.Larry Hughes, an engineering profes...