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Ticker: Feds to expand passenger rights rules on airlines; Twitter to purge inactive accounts 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

President Biden says his administration will write new rules to expand the rights of airline passengers.Biden said Monday that the rules will require airlines to compensate passengers and cover their meals and hotel rooms if they are stranded for reasons within the airline’s control.It’s the administration’s latest salvo at the airlines, and it comes just weeks before the busy summer travel season.Airlines for America, which represents the biggest carriers, says that airlines have no incentive to delay or cancel flights. The trade group blames weather and air traffic control outages for most delays.As outlined at the White House by Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the rules would focus on cancellations and long delays caused by things such as mechanical issues with the plane or lack of a crew.Twitter to purge inactive accountsTwitter Inc. will purge accounts that haven’t been active for several years, and this could lead to a drop in follower coun...

Writers Guild of America blasts Boston University for picking Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav as commencement speaker

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

The Writers Guild of America is ripping into Boston University after BU picked the leader of Warner Bros. Discovery to be this month’s commencement speaker amid the Hollywood writers’ strike.Following BU’s “poor decision” to have Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav as commencement speaker on May 21, the Writers Guild of America is warning that picketers could descend upon the ceremony at Nickerson Field.“Boston University should not give voice to someone who wants to destroy their students’ ability to build a career in the film and television industry,” a Writers Guild of America, East, spokesperson said in a statement to the Herald.“The University should expect students, Writers Guild members, as well as other unions and community groups to picket Zaslav’s commencement address,” the spokesperson added.BU has been facing heat since the university last week announced that Zaslav, a BU Law alum from 1985, would ...

School bus strike ‘isn’t a great situation’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

School bus drivers took to picket lines in Marlboro Monday morning, after negotiators failed to agree on a contract through the weekend.“Many students walking,” big road signs read throughout the town Monday. “Drive with caution.”Kids took to the sidewalks in packs around bell time Monday afternoon, as volunteers and police guided traffic around Marlboro High School and groups of drivers picketing elicited mixed reactions on the corners.The strike comes about four months of negotiations between the transportation company for the schools, North Reading Transportation, and Teamsters Local 170 union representing the drivers.“Some parents are angry because it’s a disruption,” said Ken Bergen, a Teamsters business agent on the picket line. “We understand, and we did the best we could. Teamsters Local 170 has been negotiating with this company, with the various contracts, for over 50 sessions. That’s ridiculous.”Similar strikes w...

Biden uses humor to try to defuse concerns about his age

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden served in the Senate for 270 years. He used to be three years older than his sister Valerie, but now has 20 years on her. And the fourth U.S. president — whom Biden affectionally calls “Jimmy” Madison — is a good friend.All kidding aside, the 80-year-old Biden will tell you, he is at the end of his career, not the beginning. He’s been doing this for a long time. And he’s gotten a “hell of a lot of wisdom” over those years, making him deserving of a second term.As Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, embarks on his reelection campaign, he is increasingly musing aloud about his advanced age, cracking self-deprecating jokes and framing his decades in public life as a plus, hoping to convince voters his age is an asset rather than a vulnerability.In short, he’s trying to own it. “I stand here humbled being the first sitting president of the United States to have an opportunity to speak at Ebenezer Sunday service,” Biden said in January at ...

Stalled gun bill advances in Texas after new mass shootings

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Facing new pressure over gun violence in Texas after two more mass shootings, Republicans on Monday unexpectedly allowed a bill that would raise the purchase age for semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21 to advance out of a House committee — even though the proposal has almost no chance of becoming law.The surprise move revealed faint momentum for gun control advocates after a weekend mass shooting at an outdoor mall near Dallas, but at the same time underscored how Texas Republicans are so resistant to gun restrictions that even clearing a small legislative hurdle caused supporters to celebrate.Two Republicans joined Democrats in an 8-5 vote on the House Select Committee on Community Safety to advance the bill, which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has previously spoken against. It is unclear when or if the proposal would get a full vote in the Texas House with just a few weeks left to pass any new laws. “It doesn’t have the support of the Legislature,R...

Comedian Hannah Gadsby returns with a stand-up ‘love letter’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Hannah Gadsby’s new Netflix special illustrates a different side of the comedian that fans may not expect — a happier one. “It’s a lighter show,” Gadsby tells The Associated Press ahead of “Something Special” airing on Tuesday. “It’s more positive. It’s expressing a happiness I don’t think I had done in earlier Netflix specials.”The comedian kicks it off with good news — “I got married. I know! It’s nice” — and then promises viewers a change of pace from previous sets: “This is going to be a feel-good show because I believe I owe you one.”Gadsby, who uses the pronoun they, is in many ways going back to the style of comedy they employed before exploding to fame with the special “Nanette” in 2018, which had deeply affecting stories of violence, homophobia, misogyny and shame.“It’s much more difficult to do comedy around a positive theme. Nobody is really that pleased watching someone be happy,” they said. “It’s a real risky show. I’d say this is riskier than ‘Nan...

B.C. flood risk enters period of stabilization, but more snowmelt anticipated

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

GRAND FORKS, B.C. — The flooding situation in British Columbia has entered a “period of stabilization” after at-risk regions received less rain than expected, but forecasters say warm weather will likely trigger further threats later this week.Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said Monday that communities such as Grand Forks, about 520 kilometres east of Vancouver, saw less precipitation than was originally forecasted for the weekend.The result is the provincial river forecast centre downgrading flood warnings to flood advisories, including in the entire Boundary Region where sandbagging has been at full speed for days. As many as 41 properties in the area were under evacuation orders at one time on Sunday.Ma warned, however, that diminished risk does not mean no risk, and devastated communities such as Cache Creek, 350 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, remains under flood warnings.“Communities that face challenges last week, such as Cache Creek, Okanagan In...

Abortion clinics in 3 states sue to protect pill access

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

Abortion providers in three states filed a lawsuit Monday aimed at preserving access to the abortion pill mifepristone, even as the drug is threatened by a separate Texas lawsuit winding its way through U.S. court system.The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Virginia on behalf of clinics in Virginia, Montana and Kansas, is the latest legal action over the decades-old pill, which is part of the two-drug regimen used in most U.S. abortions.A federal judge in Texas issued a ruling last month that would have revoked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s longstanding approval of the pill, an unprecedented challenge to the federal drug regulator. But the Supreme Court blocked that decision and other limits from a lower court from taking effect while the lawsuit continues. Abortion-rights advocates and their opponents continue jostling for a legal foothold on the issue across the country.The clinics in Virginia, Montana and Kansas sued the FDA on Monday in federal court to force t...

2 set for trial in shooting at FedEx driver in Mississippi

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — An August trial has been set for two white men in Mississippi who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home.Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Charles Case, were indicted in November on charges of attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle of D’Monterrio Gibson in January 2022. On Monday, Lincoln County Circuit Court Judge David Strong set Aug. 8 as the starting date for their trial, the Daily Leader reported.Gibson, who was 24 at the time, was not injured. But the chase and gunfire sparked social media complaints of racism in Brookhaven, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of the state capital, Jackson.During a news conference days after the incident, Gibson said he was wearing a FedEx uniform and was driving an unmarked van that FedEx had rented when he dropped off a package at a house. He said as he was leaving, he noticed a white pickup truck pulling away from anoth...

North Dakota governor outlaws pronoun policies in schools

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:49 GMT

North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum has signed a bill that prohibits public schools and government entities from requiring teachers and employees to refer to transgender people by the pronouns they use, the governor’s office announced Monday.The new law also requires teachers to tell a parent or legal guardian if the student identifies as transgender. It prohibits transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice without prior approval from a parent or guardian.It is effective immediately.Burgum said in a statement that the new law “largely codifies existing practices while reaffirming the First Amendment right to free speech … balancing the rights and interests of students, parents and teachers.”Opponents countered that the state’s Republican leaders are violating the constitutional rights of students and teachers by compelling the speech of adults and potentially exposing children to dangerous repercussions if an abusive parent doesn’t...