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Ticker: Lottery reports record high profits; JPMorgan to pay $75M on Epstein claims;

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

The Massachusetts Lottery did even better financially last fiscal year than it initially thought.Executive Director Mark William Bracken said Tuesday that the final net profit for fiscal year 2023 was roughly $1.194 billion, an increase of $18 million over the pre-audit estimate of $1.176 billion announced in July.“While we knew we had a record, we did even better than the record that we thought we had,” Bracken said during a Lottery Commission meeting. “Great job for the team and for our players.”On top of setting a record, last year’s profit was also enough to beat the projected $1 billion in net profit that Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and Lottery officials told state lawmakers they could expect the Lottery to generate for local aid to cities and towns.JPMorgan to pay $75M on Epstein claimsJPMorgan Chase agreed Tuesday to pay $75 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to settle claims that the bank enabled the sex trafficking acts committed by financier Je...

Las Vegas hospitality workers could go on strike as union holds authorization vote

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

Associated PressLAS VEGAS (AP) — Tens of thousands of hospitality workers who keep the iconic casinos and hotels of Las Vegas humming were set to vote Tuesday on whether to authorize a strike amid ongoing contract negotiations.There’s been increased labor organizing in recent years across multiple industries — from strikes to work stoppages — and Tuesday’s vote will take place on the same day President Joe Biden joined United Auto Workers strikers on a picket line in Michigan. The Culinary Workers Union, a political powerhouse in Nevada, hasn’t gone on strike in more than three decades. Results of the vote are expected to be released Tuesday night after a second round of votes are cast in the evening. Some 53,000 housekeepers, cocktail and food servers, porters, cooks and bartenders in Las Vegas are taking part.The union is seeking better pay, benefits and working conditions as it bargains with the top employers on the Las Vegas Strip, including M...

Toronto man arrested on child porn charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

Toronto police have arrested a 34-year-old man after he allegedly uploaded a large quantity of child pornography online.Police executed a search warrant at a residence in the Pape and Cosburn avenues area on Tuesday, September 24, arresting Nathan Sand.Police allege Sand not only uploaded the content, but was also in possession of child pornography.He’s been charged with two counts of possess child phonography and one count of access child pornography.More to come

Dozens dead in gas station explosion as Nagorno-Karabakh residents flee to Armenia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — An explosion at a crowded gas station in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region left scores of people dead and injured as thousands of ethnic Armenians rushed to flee into neighboring Armenia, the separatist territory’s authorities said Tuesday. Some 28,000 people — about 23% of the region’s population — have fled across the border since Azerbaijan defeated separatists who have governed the breakaway region for about 30 years in a swift military operation last week, according to Armenia’s government. Residents of Nagorno-Karabakh scrambled to flee as soon as Azerbaijan lifted a 10-month blockade on the region’s only road to Armenia. That blockade had caused severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel. While Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of Armenians, many residents feared reprisals.“I think we’re going to see the vast majority of people in Karabakh leaving for Armenia,” said Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at the Car...

House Speaker Anthony Rota resigns over honouring man who fought for Nazis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

OTTAWA — House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota has resigned after he invited a man who fought for the Nazis to attend Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to Parliament last week.Senior Canadian politicians have called the move an international embarrassment, while Russia is using the controversy to advance propaganda that seeks to legitimize its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  “This House is above any of us. Therefore, I must step down as your Speaker,” Rota, who was first elected to the role in December 2019, told the House of Commons ahead of question period on Tuesday.All sides had called for Rota to resign after he invited and recognized in the House a Ukraine military veteran now living in Canada who had served in a Nazi unit during the Second World War.Government House leader Karina Gould said Tuesday that members of Parliament had lost confidence in Rota, the Liberal MP for the northern Ontario riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming. During his resigna...

Florida to seek death penalty against man accused of murdering Lyft driver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

OKEECHOBEE, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a Florida man accused of murdering a Lyft driver whose car he allegedly stole in an attempt to escape another killing. Okeechobee County prosecutors recently filed a court notice saying they will seek a death sentence against Mathew Flores, who is charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery for the Jan. 30 slaying of 74-year-old Gary Levin. They cited several aggravating circumstances, including that the killing happened while the suspect was fleeing another felony — a robbery — and that it was done in a “cold, calculated and premeditated manner.”Flores, 36, was indicted earlier this month for Levin’s shooting death. Flores, who is jailed without bond, is set to be arraigned next week in Okeechobee County. No attorney is listed for him in the Levin case in court records. Flores has pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge for allegedly shooting Jose Carlos Martinez, 43, on Jan. 24...

DeSantis purposely dismantled a Black congressional district, attorney says as trial over map begins

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — On the same day Alabama Black voters scored a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal trial opened in Florida in which lawyers say Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis violated the U.S. Constitution by deliberately dismantling a congressional district that favored Black candidates.It’s one of several lawsuits around the country that are challenging Republican-drawn maps they say are gerrymandered to diminish the ability of Black voters to select a candidate of their choice. If successful, the lawsuits could help Democrats as they try to regain control of the House.The focus in Florida is a district that stretched more than 200 miles to connect Black voters in Jacksonville and in the majority Black county of Gadsden about 200 miles (322 kilometers) to the west. DeSantis vetoed maps the Legislature drew, which would have preserved a Black district, and forced the Legislature to approve one his staff drew.“The governor pushed and pushed and pushed,” said att...

15 ‘potential’ gravesites found near former Yukon residential school

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

CARCROSS, Yukon — An investigation into unmarked graves and the deaths of children who attended the former Chooutla Residential School in Carcross, Yukon, has found 15 “potential” gravesites at or near the school.Researchers say they’ve also used archival documents to identify 33 students who either died at the school or shortly after being injured there. Brian Whiting, with B.C.-based company GeoScan which performed the ground-penetrating radar search, says “more invasive” work would be required to confirm if the sites are graves, but their location is consistent with accounts from survivors.Whiting says Geoscan searched more than 37,000 square metres of land and all 15 potential sites were found within 58 square metres of the former school site. Nicole Marion, with the research group Know More, says their work began in January of 2022 and included 4,500 archival documents and various access to information requests.Marion says they have “very poo...

Stock markets tumble Tuesday amid higher bond yields, interest rate expectations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index closed down almost 250 points Tuesday with broad-based losses led by the telecom, utilities and base metal sectors, while U.S. stock markets also tumbled.The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 244.46 points at 19,556.15.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 388.00 points at 33,618.88. The S&P 500 index was down 63.91 points at 4,273.53, while the Nasdaq composite was down 207.71 points at 13,063.61.September has so far been a rocky month, said Allan Small, senior investment adviser at iA Private Wealth. While there wasn’t one specific news item causing markets to slip Tuesday, there’s a lot for investors to worry about, he said.“I think the short sellers are out in full force,” he said.With stubborn inflation amid a slowing economy, soaring bond yields, higher energy costs and a second looming U.S. government shutdown, “there are so many reasons … to be negative,” said Small.A group of reports in the U.S. pain...

Judge rules Trump committed fraud in building real estate empire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:11 GMT

A New York judge on Tuesday found former President Trump liable for fraud, handing a major legal victory to New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) in her sprawling civil case over Trump’s businesses.New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron granted James’s request to find Trump liable for the first of seven causes of action she has accused him of in the lawsuit.Engoron simultaneously denied Trump’s demand to toss the entire suit without trying the case.  The non-jury trial on the remaining matters is set to begin Monday, barring Trump’s separate, last-minute effort for a delay.Engoron also granted James’s request to sanction five of Trump’s lawyers for bringing up already-dismissed arguments in court, ordering them to pay a $7,500 fine each.James’s office is suing Trump, the Trump Organization and two of his adult children — Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.— claiming more than a decade of fraud. The lawsuit alleges Trump’s company sought...