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Travel: Is Hawaii welcoming tourists after the Maui fire?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

Even those who don’t speak a word of Hawaiian can usually figure out when aloha means hello or goodbye. But since Aug. 8, when Maui experienced the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history, mixed messages are causing mainlanders to wonder if the welcome mat is truly waiting for them halfway across the Pacific.To come or not to come? That is the question.One faction of Hawaii residents is telling visitors to stay away so that more resources are available to those recovering from the loss of loved ones and property. Another camp is pleading for tourists to bring much-needed revenue, especially after what is now a one-two punch between the travel-restricting pandemic that lasted roughly two years and the wildfire that only a few months ago ravaged Maui and decimated historic Lahaina Town.Considerate of both these viewpoints is Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Henry Kapono, who in between hard-ticket concerts plays Duke’s at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort on Sundays.“Mixed messag...

Gallery: Veterans Day Celebration at Faneuil Hall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

‘The Buccaneers’ review: What if Edith Wharton, but ‘Gossip Girl’?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

Nina Metz | Chicago TribuneIn the opening pages of “The Buccaneers,” Edith Wharton’s novel about American heiresses of the 1870s looking to marry Englishmen with titles, Mrs. St. George, the mother of the central character, regards her daughter’s chances. “Nan, though certainly not a beauty like (her sister) Virginia, was going to be fascinating, and by the time her hair was put up, the St. George girls need fear no rivalry.”Still, she worried. There was the daughter of an acquaintance named Lizzy Elmsworth, whose “dark eyebrows had a bolder curve, and Lizzy’s foot — ah, where in the world did an upstart Elmsworth get that arrogant step?”Wharton’s wry sense of humor often defies adaptation, and that’s true of the Apple TV+ version of “The Buccaneers,” which attempts to infuse the series with a modern zestiness along the lines of: What if Edith Wharton, but “Gossip Girl”? It’s pushy at the outset, but gets better as it goes.The show’s creator is Katherine Jakeways, a British actor wi...

Peter Lucas: Massachusetts Legislature auditing plan takes on phase 2

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

Attorney General Andrea Campbell may have boxed herself in over the squabble of auditing the Massachusetts Legislature.Campbell ruled last week that State Auditor Diana DiZoglio does not have the authority to audit either branch of the Legislature, a proposal that DiZoglio campaigned on and made a key initiative of her office since she was elected in 2022.DiZoglio served in both the House and Senate before she ran and was elected auditor.Campbell, in her decision, also declined to represent fellow progressive DiZoglio in her effort to sue the Legislature over its “closed door operation” and get it to open its books.Herald file photoDiana DiZoglio (Herald file photo)In a letter to DiZoglio, Campbell said the auditor’s office was created by the Legislature and vested with the authority to audit the state’s various state agencies and departments, but, she wrote, “that authority does not include the power to audit the Legislature itself over the Legislature’s objection.”And ...

The actors strike is over — what now?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

Nina Metz | Chicago Tribune (TNS)Union negotiators representing TV and film actors have agreed to a new contract with the studios, putting an end to a strike that began in July.The entire membership will have to vote to approve it before it’s official. But with the Writers Guild of America ending its own four-month strike in September, the picket lines are over, clearing the path for everyone to return to work, including crew, who also saw their jobs paused during the two strikes. What happens now?TelevisionLooking to have new episodes ready to go after the first of the year, broadcast network sitcoms and dramas will be ramping up quickly. According to Deadline.com: “Just minutes after the end of the strike was announced, casts and crews started receiving notifications for tentative start dates in late November and early December.”A half-season is typically around 13 episodes. But Deadline is also reporting that “Wolf Entertainment crime procedurals (which include the One Chicago sh...

Brush fire burns 10 acres near Otay Mesa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Firefighters were working Friday to extinguish a brush fire in the Otay Mesa area.The fire, dubbed the Border 36 Fire, had burned between 10 and 15 acres as of noon, Cal Fire San Diego said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Watch: Police chase ends in Carlsbad The fire was moving in a southernly direction, towards the U.S.-Mexico border.No structures were threatened, Cal Fire said.Check back for updates on this developing story.

Drugs at B.C. prison ‘insane’ with multiple drone drops daily, says union boss

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

VANCOUVER — A union leader says a prison in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley is experiencing an “insane” drug problem, with drones making multiple deliveries to prisoners each day. John Randle, regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, says staff at the Mountain Institution in Agassiz are exhausted from handling the “non-stop” drone drops and overdoses among inmates.The union says in a statement that officers seized almost 200 grams of crystal meth and other drugs at the prison on Wednesday.It also says there have been two fatal overdoses in the prison since mid-October.Randle says the planned expansion of a needle exchange program to facilities that he says includes medium-security Mountain Institution risks worsening the problem.Correctional Service Canada says on its website it has been rolling out the needle exchange program since 2018 and it’s currently being used at nine federal facilities.This report by The Canadian...

RBC commits to racial equity audit after shareholder pressure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

TORONTO — Royal Bank of Canada has committed to racial equity audits after facing pressure from shareholders.The bank says it will conduct a third-party audit of employment practices next year and another on business practices in 2025.RBC spokesman Jeff Lanthier says the bank remains focused on identifying and helping to address barriers that can impede the success of Black, Indigenous and other racialized groups.The bank’s announcement comes after it met this week with shareholder advocacy group SHARE and the British Columbia General Employees’ Union, which had together put forward a resolution at RBC’s annual general meeting calling for an audit that received 42 per cent shareholder approval.Racial equity audits look to identify and fix practices that may negatively affect Indigenous peoples and communities of colour, and overall evaluates how well a company is addressing systemic racism.The two groups also filed a similar resolution at BMO that got 37 per cent s...

The GOP congressman who leads the House’s probe of COVID-19’s origins says he won’t seek reelection

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who leads the House GOP’s investigation of the origins of COVID-19, says he won’t seek reelection next year.Wenstrup represents Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District and was first elected to the House in 2012. He said in a video posted on X on Thursday that he would be stepping down to spend more time with his family.A married father of two young children, the Cincinnati native is a doctor of podiatric medicine and colonel in the Army Reserve. As chair of the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic, Wenstrup led an inquiry into the virus’ origins and the government’s response.Wenstrup, who is also a longtime member of the House Intelligence Committee, has accused U.S. intelligence of withholding key facts about its investigation into the coronavirus. Republicans on the committee last year issued a staff report arguing that there are “indications” that the virus may have been developed as a biowe...

Montreal Jewish, Muslim communities describe anxiety amid rising tensions tied to war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:10:12 GMT

MONTREAL — Hateful acts targeting Jews and Muslims in Montreal since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war are prompting anxiety but also some defiance among community members.Ethan Armand Hotchkiss says a recent series of antisemitic acts in the city, including the firebombing of a synagogue and shots fired at two Jewish schools, led him to don his kippah Thursday to proudly exhibit his Jewish identity.But though he feels safe wearing the symbol at Jewish community events, he says he’s not doing so regularly in public to avoid potentially dangerous situations.National Council of Canadian Muslims CEO Stephen Brown, who is based in Montreal, says many Muslims have become scared to express their identities after recent cases of vandalism and assault.He says his organization has heard of three Muslim women in Montreal who have had their hijabs torn off as tensions rose in the past month.In the month after the Oct. 7 start of the war, 41 hate crimes targeting the Jewish community a...