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Circle back: Maine claims biggest ice disk, at 1,776 feet

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

MADAWASKA, Maine (AP) — Volunteers cut a big ol’ circle in a frozen lake and set it in motion, claiming a world record in a category that few people know exists: The biggest ice carousel.With a diameter of 1,776 feet — or 541 meters — the giant piece of ice estimated at 146,000 tons moved slowly like a Lazy Susan to hoots, hollers and high fives on Saturday.Northern Maine Ice Busters had to cut through ice nearly 30 inches thick on a path painstakingly measured by survey crews to create a perfect circle measuring nearly six football fields across. It’s a laborious-but-fun way to provide entertainment during the long, cold winter, and it has turned into something of a rivalry in places like Finland, Minnesota and Maine. There’s even a World Ice Carousel Association.“It’s a friendly competition,” said John Mazo, media liaison for the Northern Maine Ice Busters.On Saturday, it took a herculean effort to get the giant disk moving with 10 outboard boat engines, farm equ...

Canada first to develop medical standards to keep kids from suffering pain in silence

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

OTTAWA — The Health Standards Organization has released a new set of guidelines to help hospital workers manage children’s pain — particularly for those who can’t communicate when they’re hurt.It’s the first national standard in the world focused on pediatric pain. Emergency physician and pediatric pain researcher Dr. Samina Ali says for a long time, doctors believed young children’s nervous systems were so underdeveloped they couldn’t feel or remember pain.“In the mid-’80s, babies were receiving open heart surgery with no anesthesia,” said Ali, who is also a professor of pediatrics and an adjunct professor of emergency medicine at the University of Alberta.“Even if those little ones don’t have the words at that time, their bodies remember and we see the long-term consequences of that in their physical and psychological development.”Since then, the country has made major strides toward managing the pain of young...

Stocks are mixed as jump in oil prices fans inflation fears

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock markets around the world are mixed Monday, as a jump in oil prices threatens to add upward pressure on inflation. The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in afternoon trading after drifting between small gains and losses through the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 323 points, or 1%, at 33,598, as of 3:15 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower. Oil jumped 5.6% after Saudi Arabia and other crude-producing countries said over the weekend they would cut production. That lifted stocks of energy companies, including a 6.5% rise for Exxon Mobil, 10.9% leap for Marathon Oil and 3.1% gain for BP. While oil’s jump helps energy producers, it also weighs on much of the rest of the market. Beyond raising gasoline prices and other costs for everyone, it also dents one of the main themes that helped stocks rise in this year’s just completed first quarter: that turmoil in the banking system and a continued slowdown in inflation could push...

McDonald’s temporarily closes US offices ahead of layoffs

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

NEW YORK — McDonald’s has closed its U.S. offices through Wednesday and told its corporate staff to work remotely as it prepares to announce a round of layoffs.In a memo to workers posted on the website TheLayoff.com, the Chicago-based burger giant said it wanted to “ensure the comfort and confidentiality of our people during the notification period” and would hold all notification meetings virtually. It told international corporate staff to follow guidance in their particular regions.The company said in the memo that the layoffs are intended to make McDonald’s more efficient.“We have a clear opportunity ahead of us to get faster and more effective at solving problems for our customers and people and to globally scale our successful market innovations at speed,” the company said.McDonald’s declined to comment on the memo or the layoffs on Monday. The memo was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.Though the U.S. labor market remains strong, layoffs have b...

Rogers CEO pledges reduced prices as company finalizes $26-billion merger with Shaw

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

TORONTO — The head of Rogers Communications Inc. pledged to lower costs for customers and brushed aside competition concerns after the company closed its $26-billion purchase of Shaw Communications Inc. on Monday.“What we want to make sure we get right is all the things for our customers, and in particular, affordability,” Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said in an interview.“One of the key pluses of this is that competition is going up, especially in the west, and prices are going to come down.”The deal, which was first announced in March 2021, cleared its final regulatory hurdle last week after Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne agreed to the transfer of Shaw-owned Freedom Mobile’s wireless licences to Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron. But though he signed off on the deal, Champagne issued a stern warning to the companies involved as he announced 21 “enforceable” conditions that Rogers and Videotron must adhere to, aimed at bolstering competition ...

Venezuela opposition envoy urges Biden to ease oil sanctions

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — The new representative of Venezuela’s opposition in the U.S. is urging the Biden administration to relax crippling oil sanctions on Nicolas Maduro’s government or risk seeing the socialist-run country turn into another Cuba with Washington scapegoated for increasing authoritarianism and economic hardships.Fernando Blasi’s comments to The Associated Press represent a sharp break from the opposition’s “maximum pressure campaign” of the past four years when it was relying on the U.S. to muscle Maduro out of power. The failure of that hardline approach led the opposition in January to oust the beleaguered former lawmaker Juan Guaidó from his role as “interim president,” a title he claimed as head of the National Assembly elected in 2015 — widely considered Venezuela’s last democratic vote. The opposition has replaced that arrangement with a more horizontal style of leadership of mostly exiled politicians. “If we continue down this path, Venezue...

Gulf of Mexico oil worse for climate than thought, study

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

Offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico are releasing far more climate-changing methane than official estimates show, according to a new study published Monday.Using data collected from aircraft in part, climate scientists found the additional methane coming from oil and gas platforms in shallow waters of the Gulf region raises their carbon intensity — the amount of climate-changing gas per unit of energy in the fuel — to twice as much as estimated by U.S. agencies like the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The study is published in PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Reductions in both methane and carbon dioxide emissions are essential to lessen the future severity of climate change, the study notes. “You don’t have to travel halfway around the world to find unusually high emissions in oil and gas fields,” said Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist who was not involved in the study. “It’s happening right here in our backyard...

Veto stands: Transgender pronouns OK in North Dakota schools

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

Teachers in North Dakota can still refer to transgender students by the personal pronouns they use, after lawmakers on Monday failed to override the governor’s veto of a controversial bill to place restrictions on educators.House lawmakers fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to block the veto. This happened days after Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s office announced the veto and the Senate overrode it.The bill would have prohibited public school teachers and employees from acknowledging the personal pronouns a transgender student uses, unless they received permission from the student’s parents as well as a school administrator.It would have also prohibited government agencies from requiring employees to acknowledge the pronouns a transgender colleagues uses.Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have drafted hundreds of laws this year to push back on LGBTQ+ freedoms, particularly seeking to regulate aspects of transgender people’s lives, including gender-affirming health care, ...

2 killed in construction accident at New York’s JFK Airport

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Two workers were killed in a construction accident at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday, officials said.The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, said the two workers got trapped under construction rubble at around 11 a.m.A spokesperson for the city Fire Department said it happened in a trench near the airport’s busy Terminal 7.Some 60 firefighters worked to remove the workers from the trench, the Fire Department said. Both workers were pronounced dead at the scene. Their names were not immediately released.The Port Authority said in a news release that it will conduct a thorough investigation.The Associated Press

Jalen Carter reportedly gets his day with the Bears

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

LAKE FOREST — One of the biggest names in the NFL Draft is making a visit to Halas Hall early this week.Per numerous reports, including Adam Schefter of ESPN and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, defensive tackle Jalen Carter is visiting the Bears in Lake Forest on Monday as he continues his rounds before the draft on April 27-29. General manager Ryan Poles confirmed the team would have him for a visit at some point in April during his free agency news conference on March 16. Currently, the Bears hold the ninth selection in the draft after trading the No. 1 overall selection to the Panthers at the start of the new league year.He could be an option for the Bears if he falls that far since the team is in need of an impact defensive lineman as they continue to build the team under second year general manager Ryan Poles.However, there could be some hesitancy due to the legal trouble that Carter has had over the last month. On March 16, he just pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of rec...