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Relief for UK’s Jeremy Hunt as robust economy again keeps lid on borrowing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

LONDON — The United Kingdom is borrowing a lot less than it expected to when Chancellor Jeremy Hunt put together his budget late last year. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it doesn’t really give Hunt any more scope to lighten the heaviest tax burden in decades before the next election.Higher-than-expected tax receipts kept public-sector borrowing down to £4.3 billion in July, with receipts from self-assessment coming in nearly 20 percent ahead of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecasts of £9.9 billion. That also bodes well for August’s data, given that self-assessment payments usually straddle those two months.As a result, the government has borrowed £56.6 billion in the first four months of its fiscal year, a big rise from last year but well below the OBR’s forecast of £68 billion. That’s mainly a result of two things, analysts said: First, the economy has performed better than expected, avoiding the recession that was expected after Russia’s invasion ...

Šefčovič replaces Timmermans as EU Green Deal chief

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

Maroš Šefčovič — the European Commission’s Mr Fix It — on Tuesday took control of the EU’s climate policy after Frans Timmermans quit to make a run for Dutch prime minister.Šefčovič was handed the powerful role of executive vice president by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.“Having successfully dealt with the most challenging files in the past, Maroš Šefčovič is one of the most senior and experienced members of my college,” said von der Leyen. “He will be in charge of bringing the European Green Deal forward with the same priority.”The Commission president paid tribute to Timmermans’ “passionate and tireless work to make the European Green Deal a reality.”A member of the center-left Social Democrats, Šefčovič takes the post at a perilous moment for EU climate policy. EU efforts to reduce greenhouse gases are being met with growing resistance as concerns mount over the costs to business and mandatory interventions into everyday life.It is not the first time Šefčovič has been...

Woman admits bribing state employee to issue driver’s licenses without a road test

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

A woman has admitted to bribing an employee of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles to issue driver’s licenses to people who never took a road test.Neta Centio, 56, of Taunton, pleaded guilty Monday to a charge of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud, the latest scandal at the RMV’s Brockton branch.From July 2020 until April 2021, Centio paid a road test examiner at the Brockton office to say that applicants for driver’s licenses had passed their road tests when they had not even showed up, federal prosecutors said.That resulted in driver’s licenses being given to several unqualified drivers, prosecutors said.Centio took money from several learner’s permit holders and used mobile payment service CashApp to split the money with the road examiner, prosecutors said.After Centio’s fraud was discovered, she told the road test examiner, “Don’t say nothing about the CashApp. … Break the phone.”Centio faces up to 20 years in prison and the fo...

Dick’s Sporting Goods blames ‘increasingly serious’ theft problem for profit plunge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

New York (CNN) — Dick’s Sporting Goods warned Tuesday that retail theft is damaging its business and would lead to lower annual profits.The sporting goods and athletic clothing seller reported second-quarter results Tuesday morning that included a 23% drop in profit, despite sales that rose 3.6% in the period. Shares of Dick’s (DKS) plunged nearly 24% Tuesday.The company blamed shrink, the industry term for theft and damaged inventory, for its surprisingly poor earnings. Although other national retailers have also warned investors about growing theft, Dick’s is among the first to blame its lackluster quarterly financial report primarily on theft.“Our [second-quarter] profitability was short of our expectations due in large part to the impact of elevated inventory shrink, an increasingly serious issue impacting many retailers,” CEO Lauren Hobart said in a statement. Retail “shrink” is a term that refers to merchandise that goes missing due to theft, fraud, damage, accountin...

Massachusetts ‘heroic’ man who drowned after saving wife, child from New Hampshire river ‘had a pure heart of gold’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

The 37-year-old Lawrence man who died after saving his wife and her child from a raging New Hampshire river is being remembered as a hero who had a “pure heart of gold.”Vincent Parr drowned following the Sunday afternoon rescue in the Swift River in White Mountain National Forest.This drowning in a New Hampshire river comes less than a week after a Lynn woman died when she tried to help her child who had slipped into Franconia Falls.After Parr’s wife and her child on Sunday got caught in the fast-moving currents near an eddy, Parr dove in to rescue them — but he became caught in the current himself. His wife and her child safely got to shore, but Parr didn’t immediately return to the surface amid the strong current.He ended up slipping away for several minutes before resurfacing and receiving CPR. Parr was ultimately pronounced dead.“Vincent was a family man and had a pure heart of gold,” reads a GoFundMe page for Parr’s funeral expens...

Firefighters in Greece have discovered the bodies of 18 people in an area with a major wildfire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

By COSTAS KANTOURIS and ELENA BECATOROS (Associated Press)ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters found the burnt bodies of 18 people, believed to have been migrants who had crossed the nearby border with Turkey, in an area of northeastern Greece ravaged by a major wildfire that raged for a fourth day Tuesday. The discovery in the Avantas area near the city of Alexandroupolis came as hundreds of firefighters battled dozens of wildfires across the country amid gale-force winds. On Monday, two people died and two firefighters were injured in separate fires in northern and central Greece.With their hot, dry summers, southern European countries are particularly prone to wildfires. Another major blaze was burning across Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands for a week, although no injuries or damage to homes was reported.European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst...

Home hospital care is on the rise — is it right for you?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

By John Rossheim | NerdWalletIncessant patient-monitor alarms. Hospital food. Middle-of-the-night checks of vital signs. The audible suffering of random roommates.Yes, being in the hospital is no fun, and not only because you’re receiving treatment for an acute illness or serious injury.Decades ago, doctors began wondering if select patients presenting in hospital emergency rooms with certain illnesses and injuries couldn’t be sent home to be monitored closely and treated there, rather than being admitted to a hospital ward. This seemed feasible for many chronically ill patients experiencing flare-ups, such as people with complications from diabetes or certain heart conditions.“Who wouldn’t want to be home rather than in the hospital?” says Dr. Jeff Levin-Scherz, an assistant professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a health management consultant at WTW, a financial services company. And the stressful hospital environment isn’t just unpleasant for patients; it ...

Ontario Place redesign to include more public space following criticism over initial plan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

An Austrian-based company set to open a private spa and waterpark at Ontario Place released its updated vision for the space, following what critics say was a loss of public park space in its initial design.On Tuesday, Therme says public space will be expanded, partly owing to space that will be on the bridge connecting the West Island of Ontario Place to the mainland, and will also include a beach.The spa will also be smaller than its initial design, which was six stories high and taking up 19 per cent of Ontario Place’s 155 acres.Therme Canada says the updated design was based on input from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, as well as feedback from public meetings, community engagement and City of Toronto planning staff.Some of the changes include (as provided by Therma Group):Public parkland area that includes parks, rooftop trails and gardens, will increase by 35 per cent to 15.9 acresAdditional public park space will run over and through the middle of the Therm...

Correctional officer at St. Louis jail freed after being held hostage by inmates

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A guard was abducted Tuesday by inmates at a downtown St. Louis jail, but was freed hours later.The St. Louis Department of Public Safety confirmed the correctional officer was freed but didn’t provide any information about the abduction or whether he was injured. An afternoon news conference is scheduled to discuss the attack — the latest of several acts of violence inside the jail that holds nearly 700 inmates.Police reported the guard’s abduction just after 6 a.m. on the fourth floor of the City Justice Center.Detectives told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the officer was a 70-year-old man who didn’t have a weapon when he was taken hostage. Medics brought a man wearing a guard’s uniform out on a stretcher about 8:30 a.m. The newspaper reported that he was conscious but looked haggard.It wasn’t clear what prompted the abduction, but advocates for inmates have long complained about conditions at the jail. It was the site of three upr...

Mississippi officer out of job after 10-year-old is taken into custody for urinating in public

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:08 GMT

SENATOBIA, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi police officer who took part in the arrest and jailing of a 10-year-old child who urinated in a parking lot is “no longer employed,” and other officers will be disciplined over the incident, the city’s police chief said.Senatobia Police Chief Richard Chandler announced the news in a Facebook post Monday, but he didn’t specify whether the officer who has left the department was fired or quit, or what type of discipline the other officers would face. Chandler didn’t immediately reply to a Tuesday voicemail seeking further information about the changes.“We appreciate the public’s patience while we investigated this incident. We deeply value your trust and support, and we are dedicated to continually improving and learning from our mistakes,” Chandler wrote in the Facebook post, noting that the officers violated their training on how to deal with children.The child’s mother told news outlets that her son urinated behind...