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Pool deck at collapsed Florida condo building failed to comply with codes, standards, officials say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — The swimming pool deck of a beachfront South Florida condominium that collapsed two years ago, killing 98 people, failed to comply with the original building codes and standards, with many areas of severe strength deficiency, federal investigators said Thursday.Investigators with the National Institute of Standards and Technology gave an update on the collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida, during a regular meeting of the National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee. The town of Surfside is located just north of Miami Beach.Besides design understrength, investigators reported signs of corrosion, misplaced reinforcement and the placement of heavier and additional plant containers on the deck than those in the original plans. These and other factors led to “ critically low margins against failure,” investigators said.Experts have previously suggested problems with the pool deck might have led to the 40-year-old, 12...

Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Audio and Spotify have ‘mutually agreed’ to part ways

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

(CNN) — Archewell Audio, the company of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has announced the end of a multi-year partnership with Spotify in a joint statement released to CNN Friday.“Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together,” the statement said.The Sussexes were among Spotify’s most notable audio personalities, having announced an exclusive partnership with the service in December 2020.In a news release at the time, Spotify said the pair “will host and produce podcasts that build community through shared experience, narratives, and values.”The announcement comes just two weeks after Spotify said it had cut 200 jobs within its podcast unit, amounting to 2% of the audio streaming company’s global workforce, in a “strategic realignment.”Archewell Audio’s multi-year partnership with Spotify was intended to include numerous programs but, ultimately, the couple’s company produced one s...

Boston Mayor Wu rejects City Council budget cuts to Boston Police, Veterans departments

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

Mayor Michelle Wu has vetoed millions of dollars in cuts the City Council tried to push through for the Boston Police and Veterans Services departments following days of backlash.Wu also rejected the entirety of cuts proposed for the Public Works and Transportation departments, totaling more than $5 million, along with the Boston Public Library, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, and the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet.In a Friday letter to the City Council, Wu called the Council’s attempt to slash nearly $31 million from the Boston Police budget “illusory, as the city is obligated to cover salary and overtime expenses incurred by the department”She also said plans to cut from departments like the Office of Veterans Services, where the Council had approved a $900,000 reduction, “would reduce critical programming and limit our ability to fund future obligations.”“Our returned budget also includes rejections, because the scale and scope of amendments passed by the Council would resul...

The Who’s Pete Townshend tells the story behind ‘Tommy’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

Chris Jones | Chicago Tribune (TNS)CHICAGO — In the beginning, there was no pinball wizard.“Tommy” was the fourth studio album released by the British band known as The Who and a colossal step forward when it came to rock music and narrative complexity. It was originally to be a mystical, psychological study of a traumatized post-war boy. No bumpers or flippers attached.Pete Townshend was in his early 20s when he wrote most of “Tommy,” which was released in 1969. Now, as the album-turned-Broadway musical plots a Chicago comeback, he’s 78. With Townshend credited with music, lyrics and book and Des McAnuff as director, “Tommy” the musical opens soon at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.In the late 1960s, Townshend was enthralled with the notions of Meher Baba, the Indian spiritual leader who taught that the ordinary world is mostly illusory and that true meaning flows only from the inner transformation of consciousness. Pop music was still in the thrall of the three-minute single when Townsh...

Unionized UPS workers could strike this summer, scrambling supply chains and home delivery

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

By HALELUYA HADERO and MATT OTT (AP Business Writers)NEW YORK (AP) — Unionized UPS workers voted overwhelmingly on Friday to authorize a strike, setting the stage for a potential work stoppage if the package delivery company and Teamsters can’t come to an agreement before their contract expires next month. The Teamsters said 97% of unionized workers voted for the authorization, which the union urged for in order to have more leverage during negotiations with the company. But a yes vote does not mean a strike is imminent. “If this multibillion-dollar corporation fails to deliver on the contract that our hardworking members deserve, UPS will be striking itself,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a prepared statement. “The strongest leverage our members have is their labor and they are prepared to withhold it to ensure UPS acts accordingly.”The Teamsters represent about 340,000 UPS employees, more than half of the company’s...

Losing hope of finding kids in plane crash, Indigenous searchers turned to a ritual: ayahuasca

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

By REGINA GARCIA CANO (Associated Press)BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The weary Indigenous men gathered at their base camp, nestled among towering trees and dense vegetation that form a disorienting sea of green. They sensed that their ancestral land — Selva Madre, or Mother Jungle — was unwilling to let them find the four children who’d been missing since their charter plane crashed weeks earlier in a remote area in southern Colombia.Indigenous volunteers and military crews had found signs of hope: a baby bottle, half-eaten fruit, dirty diapers strewn across a wide swatch of rainforest. The men were convinced the children had survived. But punishing rains, harsh terrain and the passing of time had diminished their spirits and drained their stamina.The weak of body, of mind, of faith do not make it out of this jungle. Day 39 was do or die — for the children and the search teams.That night at camp, Manuel Ranoque, father of the two youngest children, reached f...

Massage therapists ease the pain of hospice patients — but aren’t easy to find

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

Kate Ruder | KFF Health News (TNS)BOULDER, Colorado — Ilyse Streim views massage for people in hospice care as “whispering to the body through touch.”“It’s much lighter work. It’s nurturing. It’s slow,” said Streim, a licensed massage therapist.Massage therapy for someone near the end of life looks and feels different from a spa treatment. Some people stay clothed or lie in bed. Others sit up in their wheelchairs. Streim avoids touching bedsores and fresh surgery wounds and describes her work as “meditating and moving at the same time.” She recalled massaging the shoulders, hands, and feet of one client as he sat in his favorite recliner and watched baseball on TV in the final weeks of his life.“When you’re dying and somebody touches you without expectation of anything in return, you just get to be,” said Streim.Massage therapists like Streim, who specializes in working with people who are dying or have an advanced form of cancer or other illness, are rare. Fewer than 1% of therapis...

Manitoba health officials praise response to tragic crash near Carberry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

Manitoba health officials have confirmed 10 people are still in hospital following Thursday’s crash near Carberry that left 15 people dead.Of those patients, six are in critical condition and four are being cared for in surgical units, in both the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre (HSC) and Brandon Regional Health Centre (BRHC).Shared Health confirms the age of all those in hospital are between early 60s and late 80s.“The response to yesterday’s incident was provincial on a massive scale. Thirteen ambulances were involved in the scene response, with crews assessing, triaging and transporting individuals to Brandon Regional Health Centre (BRHC) and other locations where they were either treated or stabilized before being transferred to HSC,” said Shared Health in a statement.“Air ambulance response was also significant, with Shared Health patient transport, STARS and LifeGuard Sask Air all providing support either at the scene or for transport between hospitals ...

Homophobic chants force US-Mexico soccer match to end early in Las Vegas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The United States men’s soccer team’s match against Mexico was cut short Thursday night by the referee after repeated homophobic chants could be heard from fans.Four players were ejected in the game, which the U.S. won 3-0 for a spot Sunday in the CONCACAF Nations League final against Canada.Christian Pulisic scored two goals and Ricardo Pepi scored one in a strong showing, but this game will be remembered much more for the ugliness.Play was halted in the 90th minute because of the homophobic chants. When action resumed, 12 minutes of stoppage time were signaled but resumed chants caused Salvadoran referee Iván Barton to end the match in the eighth added minute.FIFA fined Mexico 100,000 Swiss francs ($108,000) in January for anti-gay chants by fans at two games.Americans Weston McKennie and Sergiño Dest were ejected by Barton along with Mexicans César Montes and Gerardo Arteaga during the testy second half.“These are rivalry games. These are derby games....

Abortion providers in North Carolina file federal lawsuit challenging state’s new restrictions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:14:25 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Abortion providers in North Carolina filed a federal lawsuit Friday that challenges several provisions of a state law banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy in the dwindling days before the new restrictions take effect.Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Dr. Beverly Gray, an OB-GYN at Duke Health, are asking a federal judge to block numerous provisions they argue are unclear and unconstitutional, or to place an injunction on the law to prevent it from being enforced.Though the law may be commonly referred to as a 12-week abortion ban, the plaintiffs argue that it actually includes additional restrictions that many patients are not aware of — hurdles that will “impede health care professionals from providing quality care,” according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.“Many of these provisions are going to constrain an already very constrained abortion ecosystem in this state,” Planned Parenthood South Atlantic CEO Jenny Black told The Assoc...