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NTSB finds operator error likely caused fatal crash of medical helicopter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Operator error likely caused a medical helicopter to break apart mid-flight and crash during a training exercise last year, killing the pilot and flight instructor, National Transportation Safety Board investigators said in their final report.The Mercy Flight helicopter was on its second training run of the day when it went down in a field in the western New York town of Elba in April 2022. No patients were on board.In a report issued Dec. 8, investigators cited the pilots’ “inappropriate flight control inputs” while practicing for an unstable condition known as vortex ring state. The errors caused the main rotor blade to make contact with the helicopter’s tail, leading to the mid-flight break-up. The flight instructor’s “inadequate monitoring of the flight” also contributed, the NTSB said.Killed were pilot James Sauer of Churchville, a retired New York state police pilot, and Bell Helicopter instructor Stewart Dietrick, of Prosper, Texas.Accor...

More non-Indigenous and Indigenous people aware of residential schools: report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

WINNIPEG — Research suggests public awareness of past harms from residential schools has increased but more work needs to be done educating Canadians on lasting impacts of the institutions.Researchers from the University of Manitoba, University of Victoria and Toronto Metropolitan University, in collaboration with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, measured the progress of non-Indigenous and Indigenous Peoples in their shared journey toward reconciliation in 2022. The team surveyed 3,174 Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in six regions across the country through an online questionnaire.They found 90 per cent of non-Indigenous respondents and 94 per cent of Indigenous respondents had read or heard about residential schools, up from 65 per cent and 87 per cent respectively in 2021. The researchers say this is likely due to widespread publicity of unmarked burial sites at several former residential schools and a visit to Canada last year by Pope Francis, who apologize...

Alberta researchers call for public inquiry into program to ensure oilsands cleanup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

Alberta university researchers are calling for an open public inquiry into a provincial program designed to ensure oilsands producers can pay to clean up after themselves.They say the agreement at an international climate meeting to transition away from fossil fuels makes it all the more imperative that there’s enough money left to clean up tailings ponds and other impacts when the mines complete their useful life. Co-author Martin Olszynski at the University of Calgary says the government’s current plan allows companies to delay paying for remediation until production starts to decline — meaning there will be less money for cleanup just as it starts to be needed. He says the current tailings pond plans are scientifically unproven and won’t return the land to something that can be used for other purposes.He and his colleagues are calling for an inquiry similar to the one being held into renewable energy in Alberta, especially after delegates at the COP28 meeting in...

Montreal mayor Valérie Plante says fatigue was factor in news conference health scare

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is back on the job after taking ill and sinking to the ground during a news conference last Tuesday.Plante told reporters at city hall she has consulted her doctor and is doing well after taking a week off to recuperate.Video from last Tuesday shows Plante trailing off in the middle of answering a question in English, then saying she didn’t feel well and slowly sinking to the floor.Plante says she had started to feel dizzy, felt her vision blur, and decided to sit down to ensure she didn’t fall and hurt herself.She says fatigue likely played a role after an “intense” fall session that included tabling a budget, managing a homelessness crisis, and responding to a spending scandal at the city’s public consultation office.Plante says she took the dizzy spell as a sign she needed rest, adding that she is “up and running” after a few days of sleep, light yoga and time with her children and husband.This report by The ...

Satan club plans to meet after classes at Tennessee elementary school

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — An After School Satan Club plans to begin offering activities to children at a Tennessee elementary school following Christmas break, officials said.The Satanic Temple plans to host the club at Chimneyrock Elementary School in Cordova, news outlets reported. It will begin meeting on Jan. 10 in the school’s library and run through the spring semester, according to an announcement Tuesday posted on social media.A flyer about the club says the Satanic Temple is a non-theistic religion that views Satan “as a literary figure who represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit.”It says it does not attempt to convert children to any religious ideology, but offers activities that “emphasize a scientific, rationalistic, non-superstitious worldview.” Memphis-Shelby County Schools said in a statement that the district would rent out the space to the organization per its policy.“As a public school distric...

South Carolina’s top education official wants online digital maps as part of $38M school safety ask

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

GILBERT, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s top education official plans to ask lawmakers for $5 million to put a digital map of every school in the state online and make those maps immediately available on police officers’ mobile devices as they respond to a shooting or other emergency at a given school.Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver announced those plans Wednesday as she joined Gov. Henry McMaster and law enforcement officials at the state’s newest project to protect students — a closed school now dedicated to training officers, firefighters, paramedics and others to respond to school safety.Weaver and McMaster joined South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel at the Center for School Safety and Targeted Violence, which the division has used for training since 2017 with permission of the local school board, but has since purchased and turned into a training facility.“If our students and teachers aren’t safe, nothing else matters,” said Weaver, who was elected s...

2 snowmachine riders found dead after search in western Alaska

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

NOME, Alaska (AP) — Two snowmachine riders in western Alaska were found dead a day after they were reported overdue and a storm hampered search efforts, authorities said.Alaska State Troopers identified the riders as Charlene Habros, 34, and Dustin Gologergen, 55, both of Nome. Troopers, the Alaska National Guard and Nome search and rescue were working to recover the bodies Wednesday, troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel said by email.Troopers received a report around 7 a.m. Monday that the two were traveling from Teller to Nome — about 70 miles (112.7 kilometers) away — and were overdue. Initial ground search efforts from Nome were hampered by a storm. The wind chill in Nome earlier Monday morning was as cold as 20 below 0 Fahrenheit (-29 Celsius) and stayed well below 0 F throughout the day.A search plane located the snowmachine but there were no signs of the two, and a Teller-based search-and-rescue team was unable to reach the site because of poor weather. Road-clearing crews f...

BP denies ex-CEO Looney a $41 million payout, saying he misled the firm over work relationships

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The former chief executive of BP has been denied a 32.4 million pound ($41 million) payout after he was found to have misled the company over his past relationships with colleagues, the energy giant said Wednesday.Bernard Looney resigned in September after acknowledging he had not been “fully transparent” in his disclosures about his work relationships.BP said the company sought assurances from Looney in 2022 about the relationships but has concluded that his statements were “inaccurate and incomplete.”“Mr. Looney knowingly misled the board,” BP said. “The board has determined that this amounts to serious misconduct.”The firm said the 32.4 million pounds’ worth of salary, pension, bonus payments and shares have been forfeited as a result. Some payments already given to Looney, including 50% of the cash bonus paid for the 2022 financial year, will be “clawed back,” it added.The move reflects “the decision by the board that Mr. Looney should not retain ...

Albania’s Constitutional Court blocks Parliament’s ratification of deal with Italy on migrants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday blocked, at least temporarily, the ratification by lawmakers of a contentious deal that Tirana signed with Rome to process asylum applications of some migrants arriving in Italy by sea in Albania instead. The court’s chief judge, Olta Zacaj, said the court would hold a public hearing on Jan. 18 to determine whether the agreement violates Albania’s constitution. The decision means the Parliament will not vote on whether to ratify the deal, a session that had been planned for Thursday. It was not immediately clear when — presumably after the January debate — the lawmakers could vote. The court’s decision followed a petition from the opposition, which has argued that the agreement runs counter to Albania’s constitution and international law. Under the five-year deal announced in November, Albania was to shelter up to 36,000 migrants for a year, or about 3,000 a month, trying to reach Italy withou...

Judge questions whether legal cases cited by Michael Cohen’s lawyer actually exist

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:19 GMT

A lawyer for Michael Cohen, the fixer-turned-foe of former President Donald Trump, appears to have cited court rulings that do not exist in a legal filing seeking to have Cohen’s post-prison supervision end early, according to a federal judge in New York who is threatening penalties.U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman issued an order Tuesday telling attorney David M. Schwartz to provide by Dec. 19 copies of three rulings Schwartz cited in the motion he filed last month. If the copies cannot be produced, the judge said Schwartz should explain in writing why he should not be sanctioned.“As far as the Court can tell, none of these cases exist,” Furman wrote. He added that if copies of the rulings aren’t submitted, he wanted “a thorough explanation of how the motion came to cite cases that do not exist and what role, if any, Mr. Cohen played in drafting or reviewing the motion before it was filed.”Schwartz did not immediately respond to phone and email messages Wednesday.A new ...