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Small Town Week, Episode 5: How the new Six Nations energy storage facility could change Ontario’s grid

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

(This is the final episode of Small Town Week, a five-part series in which we examine big problems facing small communities.)In today’s Big Story Podcast, so far this week, we’ve covered problems facing small communities — from housing to the economy to healthcare. Although these issues are felt across pretty much every community, big or small, in Canada, there’s one existential threat we must face globally: the climate crisis.We are hurtling rapidly towards a point of no return, and that’s pushing us towards alternative ways to create energy. In some communities, this is viewed as a threat, perhaps as dire as the climate crisis itself. In other places, like a First Nation in southern Ontario, it’s a solution to the needs of a province. It’s a chance to turn the tide of our increasing demand for power and move away from reliance on fossil fuels.Fatima Syed, Ontario reporter for The Narwhal, says the energy project near Six Nations of the Grand River cou...

Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif launches $3.5 billion Chinese-designed nuclear energy project

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday launched the construction of a 1,200-megawatt Chinese-designed nuclear energy project, which will be built at a cost of $3.5 billion as part of the government efforts to generate more clean energy in the Islamic nation.The ceremony to mark the project’s start comes less than a month after Pakistan signed an agreement with China’s National Nuclear Corporation Overseas in the capital, Islamabad, to construct a Hualong One reactor — a third-generation nuclear reactor and is considered safer because of the latest security features.Pakistan and China are longtime allies. Pakistan’s relations with Beijing are so close that its leadership calls China their “Iron Brother.” China is also building roads, bridges, power plants, and railways to link its far west with the Chinese-built port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean.The nuclear power plant known as Chashma-5 will be constructed at a site along the left embankment...

Cannabis company Canopy Growth signs deals with lenders to reduce debt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

SMITHS FALLS, Ont. — Canopy Growth Corp. says it has signed deals with its secured and unsecured lenders that it expects will help the cannabis company reduce its total debt by about $437 million over the next six months.The company says the moves are also expected to help lower annual interest costs by approximately $20 million to $30 million. Canopy chief financial officer Judy Hong says the agreements will enable the company to preserve cash and further improve its balance sheet through accretive and meaningful reductions in its overall debt.The company says it will repay about $193 million in existing notes with a mix of cash, shares and new unsecured non-interest bearing convertible debentures.Canopy will also reduce $100 million debt provided under a credit agreement for a cash payment of $93 million, with the expectation of further principal reductions at 95 cents on the dollar upon completion of certain asset sales.The company has been selling some of its facilities as part ...

Man found fatally stabbed at baseball diamond in Uptown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

CHICAGO -- Police are investigating an incident where a body was found at a baseball diamond near Marine Drive and Montrose Friday morning. According to police, a 64-year-old man was found unresponsive near the 4400 block of Nort Marine Drive around 5:30 a.m. with stab wounds to the head and neck. The man was pronounced dead on the scene. The baseball diamond is located just west of DuSable Lake Shore Drive and the area is currently blocked off by police for investigation. There is currently no one in custody and police are investigating the incident. Man shot, critically wounded during armed robbery at Bucktown liquor store WGN is actively following this incident and will update as more information is recovered.

2 men injured after shooting in South Lawndale

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

CHICAGO -- Two men are injured after a shooting that took place in the city's South Lawndale neighborhood early Friday morning. According to police, two men were sitting inside a parked vehicle when an unknown man exited a black sedan and fired multiple shots into the car. Man shot, critically wounded during armed robbery at Bucktown liquor store A 32-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound to the right shoulder, neck and buttocks and was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition. Another 36-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound to the back and was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition. There is currently no one in custody and police are investigating the incident.

Suspect in custody in Long Island's Gilgo Beach serial killings, sources say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. (WPIX) -- A suspect in the decade-old Gilgo Beach serial killer case on Long Island, New York, was taken into custody Friday morning in Massapequa Park, a senior law enforcement source told PIX11 News.The remains of at least 10 bodies were discovered in the underbrush along a 3-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach between December 2010 and April 2011, sparking a long-standing investigation into the serial killer case. The earliest victims could date back to at least 1996. Previously unseen video of Gilgo Beach murder victim released The accused killer is a man in his 50s or 60s, the police source said. He will be transported to Riverhead Criminal Court, where an indictment will be unsealed later Friday. The suspect's name was not immediately released.On Dec. 11, 2010, Suffolk County police officer John Malia and his cadaver dog made a startling discovery in the brush off Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach, Long Island.They found the skeletal rem...

Aspirin under increased scrutiny after medical study: Is it safe for everyone?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

(WGN Radio) – A study of 19,000 people has doctors taking a closer look at aspirin. The study, published last month in Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at a huge group of people 65 and older. Half were given 100 mg of aspirin daily, while the other half were given a placebo. The study found the group taking low-dose aspirin were 25% more likely to be anemic, explained Dr. Kevin Most, Chief Medical Officer at Northwestern Medicine’s Central DuPage Hospital. Anemia describes a condition where the body didn't have enough healthy blood cells to carry oxygen throughout their bodies properly. Have the odds of getting long COVID changed? "So we're really starting to look again at aspirin being in the scrutiny now," Dr. Most said in a recent interview with WGN Radio. "We need to understand the risk and reward of, OK, it's going to prevent a stroke, it's going to prevent a heart attack potentially, but now it's also going to cause anemia. So we need to make sure we balance that to make ...

Disturbing drone video shows people harassing manatees at Florida beach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A drone video taken off a beach in Florida may look like it captured a cool experience, but it really shows something disturbing — beachgoers touching, pushing and generally harassing manatees. "I'm not surprised to see it. People are naturally curious about manatees, but it is also troubling to see," said J.P. Brooker, the director of the Florida Conservation Program at Ocean Conservancy, the oldest ocean marine conservation unit. "Manatees are a very sensitive species in Florida, and they are very susceptible to all kinds of human interventions. Whether that's us making the water inhospitable to them or that's us going up and actually touching them." Glitter float tubes harm Florida manatees, advocates say Brooker said that although the people seen in the video probably didn't think they were doing anything wrong, their actions could have been very harmful to the manatee."Manatees can get stressed by humans touching them, riding them, hugging them, even tho...

2024's Social Security COLA increase might be slightly larger than last estimated, but it won't match 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – The next cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients is projected to be slightly better than previously estimated, but still the lowest in years, the Senior Citizen’s League predicts.The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy group, had estimated in mid-June that 2024’s COLA increase could be somewhere around 2.7% — a huge drop-off from 2023’s 8.7% increase.The group’s revised estimate, issued Thursday following the publication of the Labor Bureau’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W), now puts that number at 3%, they say.Three percent, however, would still amount to the lowest COLA increase since 2020. “There are still three more months of data before the COLA is announced in October, and this estimate could change,” TSCL wrote in a Thursday news release, warning that CPI-W data in the coming months could still swing the percentages lower. Prices for these items rose and fell the most in June TSCL’s late...

An ode to mac and cheese, the poster child for processed food

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:30 GMT

(The Conversation) - In January 2015, food sales at restaurants overtook those at grocery stores for the first time. Most thought this marked a permanent shift in the American meal.Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, that trend took a U-turn. Restaurant revenue cratered, while shoppers emptied grocery shelves stocking up on food to cook at home. And with sales of pantry items soaring, shoppers found themselves reaching for an old reliable.In April 2020, sales of Kraft macaroni and cheese were up 27% from the same time last year. General Mills, the maker of Annie’s mac and cheese, has seen a similar bump.The cheap, boxed meal has long been a poster child for processed food. While it’s often dismissed as stuff for kids, a lot of grownups secretly savor it. As I tell my own students, we love to bad mouth processed foods – usually while our mouths are full of it. It’s also played an important role in kitchen science, wars and women’s liberation.Solving the age-old pr...