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U.S. unemployment claims drop by 24,000 to 209,000, another sign of labor market resiliency

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, a sign that U.S. job market remains resilient despite higher interest rates.The Labor Department reported Wednesday that jobless claims dropped by 24,000 to 209,000. The previous week’s total — 233,000 — had been the highest since August. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, fell by 750 to 220,000.The applications are viewed as a proxy for layoffs. They remain extraordinarily low by historical standards, signalling that most Americans enjoy unusual job security.Overall, 1.84 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits the week that ended Nov. 11, down by 22,000 from the week before.The Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times since March 2022 to slow the economy and rein in inflation that hit a four-decade high last year. The job market and economic growth remained surprisingly resilient, defying pr...

Tiger Woods and son Charlie to play in PNC Championship again

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

Tiger Woods is returning to the PNC Championship, the 36-hole event that has become one of his favorites because of his partner: His son.Woods and 14-year-old Charlie are playing the PNC Championship for the fourth straight year, the one tournament he has not missed during the last injury-plagued four years.“It is an amazing gift to be able to share my love of golf with Charlie and we genuinely do look forward to playing in the PNC Championship all years,” Woods said Wednesday. “Competing together, against a field of so many golfing greats and their families, is so special.”The PNC Championship is Dec. 16-17 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando at Grande Lakes.Woods and son were runner-up in 2021, just 10 months after Woods badly damaged his right leg and ankle in a car crash in Los Angeles. They finished seventh in their 2020 debut and tied for eighth last year.Woods is to play next week at his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas for the first time since surgery to fuse his right ...

Poland’s new parliament debates reversing a ban on government funding for in vitro fertilization

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new parliament began debating the reinstatement of government funding for in vitro fertilization as its first legislation following elections in which the conservative party that had banned it lost control of the legislature. Members of the new centrist majority said in parliament Wednesday that it was symbolic to begin their term with work on abolishing one of the bans introduced by the outgoing right-wing government. “The reinstatement of IVF funding is the first decision of the democratic majority,” said one of their lawmakers, Agnieszka Pomaska. The lawmakers stressed that thousands of childless couples in the shrinking nation of some 38 million were waiting for the return of government support for IVF. State funding was introduced in 2013 by a liberal government led by Donald Tusk, but the subsequent conservative government banned it in 2016 in one of its first moves, saying the procedure involved destroying human embryos. A citizens’ ...

Haitian police say member of a gang accused of kidnapping Americans has been extradited to the US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian law enforcement authorities said a man belonging to a violent gang accused of kidnapping four U.S. citizens has been extradited to the U.S.Haiti’s National Police said Tuesday that Jhon Peter Fleronvil is affiliated with the gang known as “Kokorat San Ras,” roughly translated to mean “Cohorts of No Race.” Fleronvil was extradited on Monday and faces charges of abducting four U.S. citizens in Haiti’s central Artibonite region in July 2022, police said.Fleronvil was arrested in September in the northern coastal town of Fort Liberte as he tried to flee to the nearby border with the Dominican Republic, authorities said.According to a recent U.N. report, “Kokorat San Ras, despite its limited numbers, is also a very brutal gang” that operates in the Artibonite region. Its roughly 20 members have “committed acts of extreme violence, forcing people to abandon large areas of cropland and threatening agricultural production.”The gang has been a...

Timekeepers no more, rank-and-file Jehovah’s Witnesses say goodbye to tracking proselytizing hours

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

Jehovah’s Witnesses are well-known for proselytizing door-to-door and handing out their literature on city streets. Less known to the general public, their adherents have been required for the past century to make regular reports to their congregation’s leaders on how many hours they put into such ministry. Those hourly reports were a key metric for a congregation’s spiritual vitality and a factor in deciding who rose to leadership. Former adherents tell of pressure to meet these quotas and guilt when they didn’t.But in a historic shift, that practice ended this month.For the first time since 1920, leaders of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have removed the hours-reporting requirement for rank-and-file adherents.“Our ministry involves much more than counting time,” Samuel Herd, a member of the denomination’s Governing Body, said in announcing the policy change to applause at the October annual meeting of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, ...

What does the government’s new ‘anti-scab’ legislation mean for the labour movement?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

In today’s Big Story Podcast, if you haven’t noticed yet, Canada’s labour movement is undergoing a bit of a resurgence. Workers are unionizing more, and those that are already unionized are using their newfound leverage to win concessions from employers. Amid this climate comes Bill C58, which will prohibit some employers from using replacement workers (commonly known in unions as “scabs”) during strikes or lockouts.David Reevely is the Ottawa correspondent for The Logic, and he thinks the replacement worker ban could have a major impact on future labour actions.“A ban on replacement workers could lead to more strikes and lockouts, and it could lead to strikes and walkouts that are shorter,” says Reevely.How long has this bill been in the works, and exactly what does it cover? What happens if critical workers leave the job? And what can it tell us about the direction of both the labour movement and the federal government right now?You can subscribe to T...

Decomposed bodies of man, 6-year-old boy found in Logan Square apartment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

CHICAGO — The decomposed bodies of a man and child were found in an apartment in the city's Logan Square neighborhood.Chicago police have opened a death investigation.Police said officers made a well-being check around 10 p.m. Tuesday in the 3500 block of West Lyndale. Upon arrival, police discovered the bodies of a boy and a man in a bedroom of a second-floor apartment. The medical examiner has identified the victims as 6-year-old Samuel Cano and 40-year-old Josean Cano.According to police, the bodies had been there for a while because they were advanced in state of decomposition.Police have not released any further information.

Dean's Reviews: Napoleon, Wish

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

WGN Entertainment Reporter Dean Richards reviews this week's movie releases.Get Dean's reviews and A-List interviews delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for Dean's Downloads weekly newsletter. You'll also get his Dean Cooks recipes too!

Black Friday shopping: What's open — and when

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

Black Friday is almost upon us, when retailers kick off the holiday season with offers meant to get customers in the shopping mood.The term “Black Friday” in relation to shopping the day after Thanksgiving is most often traced to Philadelphia where police had to deal with large crowds who thronged the streets of the city before the annual Army-Navy game and to take advantage of sales. According to the Dec. 18, 1961, issue of Public Relations News, a newsletter, it became customary for police to refer to post-Thanksgiving shopping as Black Friday and Black Saturday because of the headaches they created. The 25+ best early Black Friday deals so far Retailers began taking ownership of the term in the late 1980s as the opening bell for the holidays. Of course, Black Friday has morphed more accurately into a month of offers that begin in October, when Halloween jack-o'-lanterns are still flickering.A number of stores that were closed on Thanksgiving, including Walmart and Target, reo...

Video shows puppies tossed in van in $100,000 pet shop heist in California

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:50 GMT

(KTLA) - Security video captured a group of thieves ransacking a California pet shop and tossing puppies in a $100,000 dog heist.Video shows four masked men breaking into Top Dog Pet Store in Gardena on Tuesday as security alarms blared and dogs were heard barking. Mystery illness sickens dogs in Los Angeles County: Here’s what you need to know The burglars were seen arriving at the shop in a large white Chevy van just after 1 a.m.“They ran to where the dogs were, grabbed the cages, dragged them out and tossed them into the van,” said Andres Avalos, the shop’s owner. “They came in through the front door, kicked the door open, turned the light on, grabbed the dogs and took off.”Video shows the suspects quickly rolling out large cages filled with dogs inside. Avalos said they escaped with 12 French bulldogs, including a 10-month-old show dog named “Roll X.”Security video captured a $100,000 dog heist after thieves ransacked a pet shop in Gardena on Nov. 21, 2023. (Top Dog Pet Stor...