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Families minister says Tory premiers touting child care should ask Poilievre for plan

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

OTTAWA — Provincial conservative premiers touting $10-a-day child-care deals with Ottawa is a welcome move, even if some of the leaders now campaigning on the deals were among the last to sign them, federal Liberal Families Minister Karina Gould said.Now she says they need to push federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to explain if he would keep the agreements in place.“They should probably be prodding their federal counterpart at the Conservative Party of Canada as to what their position is.”Between July 2021 and March 2022, the federal government signed deals with every province and territory that would see child-care fees cut in half within the year and to an average of $10 a day within five years. The 2021 budget earmarked $30 billion over five years for the plan.Poilievre has not committed to honour the agreements. During the last election, the Conservatives under then-leader Erin O’Toole campaigned on a promise to respect the deals — not all of which w...

Ancient ritual, drones, a star-packed concert: What we know about the coronation

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

Royal jewels dating back centuries. A four-tonne horse-drawn coach. A next-day concert and a nation illuminated by lasers and drone-driven lights.Elaborate tradition tinged with present-day sensibilities is expected at next weekend’s coronation of King Charles III, when the 74-year-old officially establishes a new era of the monarchy.The ancient ritual is typically an extravagant display of solemn pageantry that dates back more than 1,000 years.But Buckingham Palace has hinted at a scaled-down version compared to previous spectacles, and promised modern touches, too. Details have been sparse and slow to release in recent weeks. Here’s what we know about the coronation of King Charles III:What is a coronation ceremony? An heir instantly becomes the new monarch when the king or queen dies but there is also a mourning period, so public affirmation must wait. A coronation ceremony offers a platform for that transition. In this case, King Charles III will be crowned eight months af...

Ask Amy: A parent is haunted by her folks’ creepy friend

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

Dear Amy: My parents are wonderful people. They have a long-time friend, “Roger,” who is a heavy drinker and doesn’t have a family of his own. He doesn’t seem to reciprocate their friendship, and they seem to accept Roger as something of a family member — he’s just someone who is often around.I am a 40-year-old woman and have known Roger all of my life. When I was a teenager he repeatedly made leering and gross comments to me; I knew he’d been drinking and didn’t know what to do about it, so I did my best to avoid him. Once I went to college, it was easy to do, but on visits home Roger often seemed to find a way to sexually harass me.I never told my parents.Last year, my husband and I decided to move back to my hometown. We have a teenage daughter and a younger son. We moved back home in order to spend more time with my folks, who are getting up in years.Roger is still around, and doesn’t seem to have changed at all.I don’t want to control my parents, but I don’t want my daugh...

Bridge: April 29, 2023

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

“Simple Saturday” columns focus on basic technique and logical thinking.When you are declarer, you mustn’t try to play two contracts at once. Focus on the contract that is, not one you might have bid.In today’s deal, six spades would have been a reasonable spot for North-South, probably making if East had the queen of trumps, but they stopped at four, just as reasonably. West led the queen of diamonds, and South took dummy’s ace and let the jack of trumps ride for a finesse.ACE OF CLUBSWest took the queen and led another diamond, and South ruffed East’s king and drew all the trumps. That left him with none, and when West took the ace of clubs, he cashed three diamonds.South must have thought he was at a slam. After he wins the first diamond, he can cash the A-K of trumps, then start the clubs. West wins and forces with a diamond, but South runs the clubs. West can score his low trump and his queen, but South keeps control and loses only three tric...

Word Game: April 29, 2023

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

TODAY’S WORD — PROFESSED (PROFESSED: pro-FEST: Declared or claimed; pretended.)Average mark 38 wordsTime limit 60 minutesCan you find 52 or more words in PROFESSED? The list will be published Monday.YESTERDAY’S WORD — EULOGIZING legion lien lieu line ling lingo lion lionize loge loin lone long lounge luge lune lung lunge ogle ogling oiling glen glue glueing glug going gone gong gouge guile ionize zein zing zone niggle noel noilTo purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last!RULES OF THE GAME:1. Words must be of four or more letters.2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible.4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.Contact Word Game crea...

The Ejection of Tucker Carlson Is a Classic “Reverse Ferret” by Rupert Murdoch

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

It’s been a lifetime since Fox News offloaded Tucker Carlson, and when I say a lifetime, I mean six days.It feels like forever thanks to the exhausting velocity of theories that seek to explain the downfall of cable television’s most famous host and racist. Carlson was fired because of the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit. Carlson was fired because he used the C-word. Carlson was fired because he prayed too much. Carlson was fired because even his colleagues at Fox despised him.That’s just a partial list of the best guesses circulating in the media ether. While Carlson was probably felled by more than a single factor, these guesses are akin to the trees that obscure the proverbial forest. Rupert Murdoch, who founded Fox News, did what he often does at a moment of crisis, swiveling 180 degrees to secure his business empire. The move is famous enough to have an unusual name in Britain, where Murdoch first came to global prominence: the reverse ferret.In the 1980s, Kelvin MacKenzie was ...

Police: 5 people killed in shooting at home north of Houston

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — Five people were killed in a shooting at a home in southeast Texas late Friday night, authorities said.Four people were pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting in Cleveland and the fifth died at a hospital, the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office said early Saturday.The shooting in the community about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of Houston was reported around 10:30 p.m.No further details about the shooting or the victims were immediately available.A rifle was used in the shooting and no arrests have been made, ABC News reported.Source

Virginia NAACP calls for chief DEI officer to resign after ‘reckless’ speech to VMI faculty

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

Local groups are calling for the resignation of Virginia’s Chief Officer of Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion after his recent remarks calling the initiative “dead” in a speech at the Virginia Military Institute.During a keynote speech on April 21, in which Chief Officer Martin Brown praised VMI for educating the leaders of tomorrow, he declared, “We are living in a crazy time right now,” later adding, “We can’t continue to operate like we have as a country, as a state, and as institutions of higher learning.”Brown went on to say, “We can’t ascribe perpetual victimization or even motives because they’re different. Acknowledging those truths frees us up to deal with the real issues of today … it’s creating a sense of division in the greatest country in the world.”Martin D. Brown, Chief Diversity Officer and Director of the Office of Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion under Governor Glenn Youngkin. (Co...

Un grupo armado retiene a 50 mineros en Maripí, Bocayá

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

(CNN en Español) — Este sábado, la compañía minera Esmeraldas Santa Rosa informó a través de un comunicado que un grupo de hombres fuertemente armados y al parecer con explosivos, irrumpieron en las instalaciones de la compañía, en el municipio de Maripí, en el Occidente de Boyacá,  Colombia, sometiendo a los vigilantes y mantienen secuestrados a más de 50 mineros.El comunicado agregó que la Policía de Boyacá y el Ejército de Colombia ya se encuentran en el lugar coordinando acciones para lograr la liberación de los trabajadores.Hasta el momento, ni la gobernación de Boyacá ni la policía Nacional o el Ejercito han comunicado aspectos del operativo.La empresa pidió calma a las familias y amigos de las personas retenidas.Noticia en desarrollo.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.Source

Hurricanes overcome injuries to reach 2nd round of playoffs

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:51:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes are making a habit of winning at least one postseason series. This time they did it while missing some key players.Paul Stastny scored six minutes into overtime Friday night and the Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 2-1 in Game 6 to move on to the second round for the third straight year and fourth in the last five. In that stretch, they won a preliminary round series in the 2020 playoff bubble before losing in the first round. It made Rod Brind’Amour the third head coach in NHL history to get a playoff series win in each of his first five seasons.For Brind’Amour, the latest series win was made even more impressive with the Hurricanes playing without injured stars Max Pacioretty, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen.“It was tough, it was definitely a grind, there’s no doubt about that,” the coach said. “Give the guys a lot of credit, especially with what we’re missing. It’s hard to believe we’re missing three All-Star player...