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Employer-sponsored health coverage costs jumped this year. More hikes may be coming

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

The cost of health coverage through work jumped this year, in part because of inflation, according to a survey of U.S. employers.Premiums for both family and single plans climbed 7% after barely rising in 2022, according to a report Wednesday by KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.Later this fall, companies begin their annual coverage enrollment window for 2024, and health care experts say another price hike could be coming.“It’s hard to imagine that there won’t be another year of health care cost increases, at least at the level we’re seeing right now,” said Paul Fronstin, director of health benefits research for the Employee Benefit Research Institute.Employer-sponsored health insurance is the most common form of coverage in the United States. KFF says almost 153 million Americans have it. Companies generally pay most of the premium — 70% or more in many cases.That can soften the impact of price hikes on employees. Coverage costs also are taken out of paychecks bef...

Why Egypt and other Arab countries are unwilling to take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — As desperate Palestinians in sealed-off Gaza try to find refuge under Israel’s relentless bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack, some ask why neighboring Egypt and Jordan don’t take them in.The two countries, which flank Israel on opposite sides and share borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank, respectively, have replied with a staunch refusal. Jordan already has a large Palestinian population. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made his toughest remarks yet on Wednesday, saying the current war was not just aimed at fighting Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, “but also an attempt to push the civilian inhabitants to … migrate to Egypt.” He warned this could wreck peace in the region.Jordan’s King Abdullah II gave a similar message a day earlier, saying, “No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt.”Their refusal is rooted in fear that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians into their countries and nullify ...

Protesters in Lebanon decrying Gaza hospital blast clash with security forces near U.S. Embassy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of angry protesters clashed Wednesday with Lebanese security forces in a Beirut suburb near the U.S. Embassy in support of both Gaza’s civilian residents and Hamas in its war with Israel.The protest in the Aukar neighborhood came as U.S. President Joe Biden made a show of solidarity with Israel during his visit there Wednesday, a day after an explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital killed at least 500 people and prompted mass protests.Biden offered his assessment that the explosion was not the result of a strike by the Israeli military. The Palestinian group Hamas, which rules Gaza, and many Arab countries accuse Israel of striking the hospital, while the Israeli military claims it was a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in Gaza.Demonstrators holding Palestinian flags and the flags of various Palestinian factions took down a security wall and cut a barbed wire barrier on a winding road that leads to the U.S. Embassy outside of Beirut. R...

Trial of former RCMP intelligence official paused, expected to resume next week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

OTTAWA — The trial of a former RCMP intelligence official accused of disclosing secrets is on hold until next week while an issue is sorted out.Details of the matter in the Ontario Superior Court case of Cameron Jay Ortis are covered by a publication ban.Justice Robert Maranger told the jury another court would decide the issue, and he anticipates the trial resuming in his courtroom on Monday.Ortis is charged with violating the Security of Information Act by allegedly revealing secrets to three individuals in 2015 and trying to do so in a fourth instance, as well as breach of trust and a computer-related offence.Ortis, 51, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.The trial is expected to continue well into next month.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2023.The Canadian Press

Minnesota leaders to fight court ruling that restoring voting rights for felons was unconstitutional

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A pro-Trump Minnesota judge declared a new state law restoring voting rights for convicted felons unconstitutional, drawing a sharp rebuke from Minnesota’s attorney general and secretary of state who said he overstepped his authority and urged residents to vote anyway.Mille Lacs County District Judge Matthew Quinn declared the law unconstitutional in a pair of orders last week in which he sentenced two offenders to probation, but warned them they are not eligible to vote or register to vote — even though the law says they are. It was an unusual step because nobody involved in those cases ever asked him to rule on the constitutionality of the law.In his orders, Quinn, concluded the Legislature’s passage of the law did not constitute the kind of “affirmative act” he said was needed to properly restore a felon’s civil rights. So he said he now has a duty going forward to “independently evaluate the voting capacity” of felons when they complete probation.Attorne...

A list of Manitoba’s new cabinet ministers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s new premier and his cabinet have been sworn in. The premier’s executive council will have 15 ministers:Wab Kinew: premier, minister of intergovernmental affairs and international relations, minister responsible for Indigenous reconciliationUzoma Asagwara: deputy premier, minister of health, seniors and long-term careRon Kostyshyn: minister of agricultureMatt Wiebe: minister of justice and attorney general, keeper of the great seal of the province of Manitoba, minister responsible for the Manitoba Public Insurance CorporationNahanni Fontaine: minister of families, minister responsible for accessibility, minister responsible for gender equityBernadette Smith: minister of housing, addictions and homelessness, and minister responsible for mental healthNello Altomare: minister of education and early childhood learningIan Bushie: minister of municipal and northern relations, and minister of Indigenous economic developmentMalaya Marcelino: minister of labo...

Lobbyist gets 2 years in prison for Michigan marijuana bribery scheme

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A lobbyist responsible for $42,000 in bribes given to the head of a Michigan marijuana licensing board was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison.Brian Pierce cooperated with investigators in bagging the big target, Rick Johnson, who was formerly known as a powerful Republican lawmaker before leading the marijuana board in 2017-19.The board reviewed and approved applications to grow and sell marijuana for medical purposes. Johnson was recently sentenced to more than four years in prison for accepting $110,000 when he was in charge.Pierce, a lobbyist and consultant for politicians and the marijuana industry, was greedy and in a “dark place” when he conspired to bribe Johnson, defense attorney Ben Gonek said in a court filing.Prosecutors said Pierce’s corruption included paying a Detroit stripper $2,000 to have sex with Johnson.“Pierce’s bribes corrupted the process for the state’s issuance of licenses for businesses to operate in a n...

Q&A: Errol Morris on his John le Carré documentary ‘The Pigeon Tunnel’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Errol Morris has just sat down with a reporter when his wife calls.“I’m being deposed,” Morris says, smiling, into his phone. “I hope that it’s going to turn into a criminal investigation, but I believe it’s just an interview.”Morris, the veteran documentarian of “The Thin Blue Line,”“The Fog of War” and “The Unknown Known,” knows a thing or two about interviews. He famously invented a contraption called “The Interrotron” to capture face-to-face eye contact on camera.In his latest film, “The Pigeon Tunnel,” Morris sits down with the celebrated spy novelist John le Carré, the enigmatic author of “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” The interviews were conducted shortly before the author’s death in 2020 at the age of 89. Their exchange probes the life and work of le Carré, whose real name was David Cornwell, and who as a former British intelligent agent was, himself, expert in conducting interrogations. The film, which opens Friday...

Man charged with bringing gun to Wisconsin Capitol arrested again for concealed carry violation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A man who twice brought guns to the Wisconsin state Capitol and demanded to see Gov. Tony Evers has been arrested again on suspicion of a concealed carry violation he allegedly committed that same night, the governor’s administration said Wednesday.Joshua Pleasnick, 43, of Madison, entered the Capitol on the afternoon of Oct. 4 without a shirt, guiding a dog on a leash and openly carrying a holstered handgun, according to prosecutors and investigators. He approached Evers’ office and demanded to speak with the governor. Evers wasn’t in the building at the time.Pleasnick was arrested, booked and released on bail. According to prosecutors, he returned to the Capitol that same night with an AK-style semi-automatic rifle and a police baton in his backpack. He again demanded to see Evers but the building was already closed. He was taken into custody again that same night and was formally charged this Monday with openly carrying a firearm in a public build...

Neymar’s next chapter is off to a difficult start as Ronaldo and Messi continue to lead the way

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:24 GMT

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — In what has become an all-too familiar sight, Neymar left the soccer field in tears after yet another injury.Quite a contrast to Lionel Messi’s smiles at Inter Miami and Cristiano Ronaldo’s reenergized success with Portugal.Neymar hurt his knee in the first half of Brazil’s 2-0 World Cup qualifying loss at Uruguay on Tuesday. Now he, Brazil and Saudi club Al Hilal face an anxious wait to learn the extent of the damage.At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a knee to the back from Colombia defender Juan Zuniga in the quarterfinals ruled Neymar out of the tournament with a fractured vertebra. Then last year in Qatar, there were more tears when Neymar feared an ankle injury would cut his tournament short. Instead, it was a loss to Croatia in the quarterfinals that prematurely ended his bid to win soccer’s biggest trophy.Ronaldo and Messi turned the Ballon d’Or award for the world’s best player into a personal duel at the height o...