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‘We owe it to our community’: Fort Lauderdale mayor to outline $500M 10-year plan to help prevent flooding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

Fort Lauderdale officials are on a mission to drain out the issues of the city’s flood-prone communities, months after historic flooding impacted the region.7News cameras on April 13 captured standing water in Fort Lauderdale’s Melrose Park neighborhood a day after downpours swept across Broward County.More than two dozen inches of rain fell in a matter of hours, leaving much of the city and other parts of the county underwater.Many residents were forced to leave their homes. Some put their belongings in canoes.“This past April taught us a lesson, that even though it was a once-in-a-thousand-year storm — 26 inches in five hours — no community has ever suffered that anywhere in the history of the country,” said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis.Wednesday night, in his state of the city speech, Trantalis will outline his plan to help prevent flooding in the future.It’s a 10-year plan that will cost $500 million dollars, to protect some of t...

Warm Thursday, showers return for the weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

It was another day in the 80s outside of the coast! Tomorrow it won’t be as warm but still above average. Temperatures will continue to slide down into the 60s over the next 7 days. Although that’ll come at the expense of some weekend showers.Overnight, areas of fog will redevelop as temperatures fall to the upper 50s and low 60s and are more in line with our dew points. Once the fog lifts, we’ll see sun, with some high clouds mixing in later. High temperatures inland will in the upper 70s. A south/southeasterly breeze will keep temperatures in the upper 60s for the Islands and Cape Cod. It’ll be near 70° on the coast.Look to our west on radar and satellite, and there are our changes into the weekend. A cold front is draped across the Midwest and South as of this evening. That will slowly advance east into the weekend. It’ll bring us rain and could pull in some tropical moisture from Tropical Storm Philippe. Here’s a look at rain chances into Satu...

Victim’s sister takes the stand as testimony begins in trial of man accused of killing couple in NH

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

Testimony got underway Wednesday in the trial of the man accused of killing a couple in Concord, New Hampshire last year. Logan Clegg was in court as he faces charges in connection with the deaths of Djeswende and Stephen Reid. During proceedings on Wednesday, Stephen’s sister took the stand and described the moment she realized something had happened to her brother.Clegg is accused of shooting and killing the Reids while they were walking on a hiking trail. Speaking in court, Stephen’s sister Susan Forey said she reported the couple missing a few days after they left their home for their walk. Forey said she was concerned after hearing Stephen did not show up for a tennis match with his older brother and went to his apartment to check on him. “The apartment was neat,” Forey said. “The computer was there and they weren’t.” “I just realized that something was terribly wrong,” Forey continued. “So, I knew that I had to report them missing.”The search fo...

‘Mark my words’: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore defends non-binding Orioles agreement, guarantees a lease will get done

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

Six days after the Orioles and the state of Maryland announced a 30-year deal to keep the team at Camden Yards and five days after it was revealed that the agreement was a memorandum of understanding, and not a lease contract, Gov. Wes Moore emphasized the importance of the MOU and guaranteed a lease would get signed.“Mark my words, and you can bet on it, the Orioles will be here for 30 years,” Moore said in an impassioned speech Wednesday during a meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works in Annapolis.One of the largest priorities for the Moore administration has been securing a long-term lease with the Orioles — who have negotiated with the state for years, since the Gov. Larry Hogan administration — and Moore stressed Wednesday that the agreement was not merely a ballpark lease, but is “bigger than baseball.” The state built and owns the ballpark, which is rented by the Orioles.The aim of a future lease, both the Moore administration ...

Trump back in court as fraud trial probes who was responsible for his financial statements

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The fraud trial that could block former President Donald Trump from doing business in New York drilled down Wednesday into the question of who — his company or hired accountants — bore responsibility for financial statements that the state calls fraudulent.With accountants on the witness stand and Trump at the defense table for a third day, his attorneys tried to pin blame on accounting firms for any problems with the statements. But lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James sought to show that the accountants relied entirely on information supplied by Trump and his company.Outside the courtroom, meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers appealed a key pretrial ruling: that he engaged in fraud by puffing up the values of prized assets. The trial concerns six claims that remain in the lawsuit after that ruling. Trump denies any wrongdoing. The trial comes as he leads the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and the stakes are high for him and the rea...

3 New England states join together for offshore wind power projects, aiming to lower costs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island will procure future wind energy projects together rather than separately as part of a joint agreement the states’ governors announced Wednesday — the first such multi-state agreement in the nation.The partnership could lead to the three states acquiring clean energy at more competitive and affordable rates, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said. Energy from off-shore wind projects is seen as key to meeting each states’ climate change goals.“We can go further when we work together,” said Lamont, a Democrat.The new multistate agreement, which could become a model for other parts of the country, comes as some offshore wind developers are seeking to renegotiate contracts they signed with states in 2019 and 2020 when costs were lower. Those costs include the price of steel needed for wind turbines and higher interest rates.This week, electric utility Avangrid announced it was pulling out of Connecticut’s largest offshore wind proje...

Costco is seeing a gold rush. What’s behind the demand for its 1-ounce gold bars?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Looking for something to add to your Costco cart along with the 30 rolls of toilet paper? How about a bar of gold? While not a typical outlet for the sale of precious metals, the members-only warehouse chain has seen its 1-ounce gold bars sell out faster than discounted 170-ounce jugs of laundry detergent.In a company earnings call last week, CFO Richard Galanti said the gold bars, sold exclusively online, are “typically gone within a few hours” of appearing on Costco’s website — adding that there’s a two-bar limit per member. As of Wednesday, they remained sold out.Unlike some other discount finds at the retail giant, gold bars come with hefty price tag. No prices were listed Wednesday because of the bars’ unavailability, but multiple media outlets reported last week that the 1-ounce gold pieces — offered in two designs — were selling for just below $2,000 each.That’s slightly higher than the current market price of gold, which stood at about...

AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton says the world is heeding warnings about the technology

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

TORONTO — Months after artificial intelligence luminaries began ringing alarm bells about the technology’s risks, one of the field’s pioneers says he feels like people are listening.Geoffrey Hinton says he’s optimistic people are heeding his concerns about the deep risks advances in AI could cause.The British-Canadian computer scientist, often called the godfather of AI, says those risks include joblessness, fake news, discrimination, bias, battle bots and existential risk.Hinton shared his thoughts Wednesday evening at a Toronto talk put on by AI funding firm Radical Ventures at the MaRS Discovery District. Though some have downplayed his warnings about existential risk, Hinton says that any AI made by humanity that is smarter than us will create sub-goals to achieve efficiency.He says the most obvious sub-goal is to attain more power, which could lead to immortality for AI and to existential risk for humanity.Earlier the same day, Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez released a blog sayin...

TSX ekes out small gain despite energy losses as price of oil falls; U.S. markets up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index eked out a small gain Wednesday as broad-based gains led by utility and technology stocks outweighed losses in energy and battery metals, while U.S. markets rose, led by technology. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 13.89 points at 19,034.81.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 127.17 points at 33,129.55. The S&P 500 index was up 34.30 points at 4,263.75, while the Nasdaq composite was up 176.54 points at 13,236.01.Investors are continuing to digest the idea that interest rates will remain higher for longer, a hard pill to swallow for the stock market, said John Zechner, chairman and lead equity manager at J Zechner Associates.But a pair of economic reports showing some cooling helped release the pressure Wednesday, with 10-year U.S. Treasury yields retreating throughout the day from their highest level since 2007.One report showed private sector hiring slowed by more than economists expected last month, while ano...

BlackBerry to separate cybersecurity and Internet of Things business units

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:38 GMT

WATERLOO, ONT. — BlackBerry Ltd. says it will carve its cybersecurity and Internet of Things business units into two independently operated entities. The Waterloo, Ont.-based technology company says it plans to pursue a subsidiary public offering for the Internet of Things business.BlackBerry has been evaluating a range of strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value since May. The company lost US$42 million in the second quarter of its 2024 fiscal year as revenue from Internet of Things rose four per cent while cybersecurity revenue was down 40 per cent. BlackBerry CEO and executive chair John Chen says in a press release that the new proposed structure will increase operational agility for the two business units. The company says each business will be able to pursue its own distinct strategy and capital allocation policy.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:BB)The Canadian Press