Ontario’s proposed updates to municipal code of conduct rules flawed, critics say

As the Ontario legislature considers a bill that would give municipal councils the power to remove misbehaving and unethical members, some critics say the proposed legislation has serious flaws that must be addressed to ensure accountability.

The Progressive Conservative government's bill seeks to standardize municipal codes of conduct and give councils the power to vote on vacating the seat of a councillor who has violated the code.

For years, municipalities have voiced the need for updated laws to deal with problematic councillors.

Under current rules, municipalities establish their own codes of conduct and appoint an integrity commissioner, said John Mascarin, a partner at Aird & Berlis in Toronto who specializes in municipal law.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down after being defunded by Congress, targeted by Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a cornerstone of American culture for three generations, announced Friday it would take steps toward its own closure after being defunded by Congress — marking the end of a nearly six-decade era in which it fueled the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and even emergency alerts.

The demise of the corporation, known as CPB, is a direct result of President Donald Trump's targeting of public media, which he has repeatedly said is spreading political and cultural views antithetical to those the United States should be espousing. The closure is expected to have a profound impact on the journalistic and cultural landscape — in particular, public radio and TV stations in small communities across the United States.

CPB helps fund both PBS and NPR, but most of its funding is distributed to more than 1,500 local public radio and television stations around the country.

The corporation also has deep ties to much of the nation’s most familiar programming, from NPR’s “All Things Considered” to, historically, “Sesame Street,” “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood” and the documentaries of Ken Burns.

Native American radio stations at risk as Congress looks to cut $1B in public broadcasting funding

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Dozens of Native American radio stations across the country vital to tribal communities will be at risk of going off the air if Congress cuts more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to industry leaders.

The U.S. Senate is set to vote this week on whether to approve the Department of Government Efficiency's plan to rescind previously approved public broadcasting funding for 2026 and 2027. Fear is growing that most of the 59 tribal radio stations that receive the funding will go dark, depriving isolated populations of news, local events and critical weather alerts. The House already approved the cuts last month.

“For Indian Country in general, 80% of the communities are rural, and their only access to national news, native story sharing, community news, whatever it is, is through PBS stations or public radio,” said Francene Blythe-Lewis, CEO of the Lincoln, Nebraska-based Native American video programming producer Vision Maker Media. “If the claw back happens, I would say a good 90% of those stations will cease to exist.”

Native American communities rely on local radio stations

Smith, Alberta Next panel’s first town hall hears support, calls for separation vote

RED DEER - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her hand-picked panel heard from several Albertans Tuesday who argued the only way to get the province a fair deal from Ottawa is to leave confederation.

The event in Red Deer was the first in a series of town halls to address public concerns with the federal government.

Some 450 people showed up to put questions to Smith and the 15 other members of her Alberta Next panel about the grievances inspiring separatist sentiment in the province.

Most of the attendees lauded Smith and the panel's strategies to wrest more control from the federal government, including pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan and creating a provincial police force to replace the RCMP.

Tech industry group sues Arkansas over new social media laws

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A tech industry trade group sued Arkansas Friday over two new laws that would place limits on content on social media platforms and would allow parents of children who killed themselves to sue over content on the platforms.

The lawsuit by NetChoice filed in federal court in Fayetteville, Arkansas, comes months after a federal judge struck down a state law requiring parental consent before minors can create new social media accounts. The new laws were signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year.

“Despite the overwhelming consensus that laws like the Social Media Safety Act are unconstitutional, Arkansas elected to respond to this Court’s decision not by repealing the provisions that it held unconstitutional but by instead doubling down on its overreach,” NetChoice said in its lawsuit.

Arkansas is among several states that have been enacting restrictions on social media, prompted by concerns about the impact on children's mental health. NetChoice — whose members include Facebook parent Meta and the social platform X — challenged Arkansas' 2023 age-verification law for social media. A federal judge who initially blocked the law struck it down in March.

Politicians held accountable — what about bureaucrats?

The Sio Silica caretaker convention scandal report by Manitoba’s ethics commissioner should be required reading in every public service in Canada.

Manitoba’s regional authorities spent over $35M last year in the ongoing effort to keep health-care workers safe

Last Christmas Eve, a man walked into Thompson General Hospital with a loaded rifle concealed in his clothing.

He moved through the emergency department and other areas — some full of patients — before taking an elevator to the second-floor chapel.

No one knows how long the 33-year-old man was in the facility. He was discovered by a patient who wanted to use the chapel for prayer.

The patient, hearing a commotion behind the locked doors, notified a nurse. Security was nowhere to be found.

Saskatchewan lays charges in wildfires while 1,000 more flee in Manitoba

Prairie wildfires developed on two fronts Friday, as 1,000 more Manitoba residents were forced to flee their homes and Saskatchewan RCMP charged two people with starting blazes.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe told a news conference that one charge relates to starting a fire near La Ronge, which has forced 7,000 people from the area.

“The RCMP have informed us that they have now charged a couple of individuals,” Moe said.

An 18-year-old woman from Montreal Lake Cree Nation and a 36-year-old man from Pelican Narrows each face one count of arson, said RCMP.

Georgia detains second opposition leader within days as ruling party faces more protests

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgian police on Friday detained a second opposition leader within days as protests continue in the South Caucasus country against the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Lawyers for Nika Melia, one of the figureheads for Georgia's pro-Western Coalition for Change, said his car was stopped by police on Thursday. Soon after, he was bundled away by a large group of people in civilian clothing.

According to Georgia’s interior ministry, Melia has been detained on charges of verbally insulting a law enforcement officer.

The arrest came a week after that of Zurab Japaridze, another leader of the pro-Western, liberal coalition of parties that support European Union integration and want a restoration of democratic standards.

Olympic boxing champ Imane Khelif must undergo genetic sex screening to fight for new governing body

Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif must undergo genetic sex screening to participate in upcoming events with the sport's new governing body.

World Boxing announced mandatory sex testing for all athletes Friday. The governing body specifically mentioned Khelif when announcing the policy, saying the Algerian gold medal winner must be screened before she will be approved to fight at any upcoming events, including the Eindhoven Box Cup next month in the Netherlands.

“The introduction of mandatory testing will be part of a new policy on ‘Sex, Age and Weight’ to ensure the safety of all participants and deliver a competitive level playing field for men and women,” World Boxing wrote in a statement. The fighters' national federations will be responsible for administering the tests and providing the results to World Boxing.

Khelif won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics last summer amid international scrutiny on her and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, another gold medal winner. The previous governing body for Olympic boxing, the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, disqualified both fighters from its 2023 world championships after claiming they had failed an unspecified eligibility test.

Teen girl found guilty of manslaughter in attack on homeless Toronto man

TORONTO - One of the teen girls accused in the fatal swarming attack on a homeless Toronto man has been found not guilty of second-degree murder, but guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. 

Ontario Superior Court Justice Philip Campbell said it wasn't proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the girl dealt the fatal blow to Kenneth Lee, or had the state of mind required for murder during the 2022 attack.

"This was a manslaughter, and was very close to the most serious example of that offence, but it was not a murder," he said Friday as he delivered the verdict. 

The girl, who was 14 at the time of the attack, had tried to plead guilty to manslaughter at the start of her murder trial, but the Crown rejected that plea. 

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ lawyers say ex-assistant’s social media posts undercut her rape allegation

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs ' lawyers confronted his rape-alleging former personal assistant on Friday with her social media posts praising the hip-hop mogul as a mentor, “my brother” and “friend for life” for years after she says he assaulted her.

Defense attorney Brian Steel quizzed the woman about some of the dozens of posts she made about Combs in the wake of the alleged rape, portraying the warm messages as contradictory to her claims that working for him was often toxic and terrifying.

The woman, testifying under the pseudonym “Mia" for a second day at Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial, read some of the messages aloud as they were displayed for jurors.

Mia told the jury that the posts were a facade: “Instagram was a place to show how great your life was, even if it was not true.”

Colorado’s governor vetoes landmark ban on rent-setting algorithms

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has vetoed a bill that would have made Colorado the first state to ban landlords from using rent-setting algorithms, which many advocates have blamed for driving up housing costs across the country.

RealPage is the target of a federal lawsuit filed last year that accuses the real estate software company of facilitating an illegal scheme to help landlords coordinate to hike rental prices. Eight other states, including Colorado, have joined the Department of Justice's lawsuit, though RealPage has vehemently denied any claims of collusion and has fought to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Critics say RealPage software combines confidential information from each real estate management company in ways that enable landlords to align prices and avoid competition that would otherwise push down rents. RealPage’s clients include huge landlords who collectively oversee millions of units across the U.S.

The Colorado bill, which recently passed the Democratic-led Legislature along party lines, would have prevented the use of such algorithms.

3rd suspect arrested in connection with death of a Super Bowl reporter in New Orleans

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A third person has been charged in connection to the death of a television reporter who had traveled to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl earlier this year.

Christian Anderson, 33, of New Orleans, was arrested for his alleged role in a recurring scheme that police say involved targeting victims, drugging them and robbing them.

Among those alleged victims was Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old reporter and anchor for Telemundo based in Kansas City, Missouri. Manzano was found dead Feb. 5 in his hotel room in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner.

Manzano's death came a year after his wife died in a car accident. The couple leaves behind a toddler daughter.

To the margins of our rivers, our marginalized

It’s not surprising that in the not-quite-public spaces on the margins of Winnipeg's rivers live the marginalized, the people not quite suited, for whatever reason, to a life away from its shores.

Bloodhounds hunting ‘Devil in the Ozarks’ fugitive are seen as key part of manhunt

A bloodhound picked up the scent shortly after the “ Devil in the Ozarks ” escaped from a lockup in northern Arkansas. The hound didn't have to go far to begin the hunt — it lives at the prison as part of a specialized unit that uses man's best friend to help track fugitives.

Although the scent of convicted killer Grant Hardin was lost because of heavy rain, experts say that even days after Sunday's escape, the animal's highly developed sense of smell can still pick up a fresh trail.

That’s partly due to about 300 million cells in their nose that supercharges their sense of smell, said Terri Heck, a Bloodhound handler and trainer who works with the Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office.

They’ve got wide nostrils to scoop up smells, and their long ears often work to stir up scents as they drag along the ground. Even their drool plays a role, as that wetness wakes up scents, Heck said.

Supreme Court lets Trump end legal protections for 500,000 migrants, exposing more to deportation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday again cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants for now, pushing the total number of people who could be newly exposed to deportation to nearly 1 million.

The justices lifted a lower-court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The decision comes after the court allowed the administration to revoke temporary legal status from about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case.

The court did not explain its reasoning in the brief order, as is typical on its emergency docket. Two justices publicly dissented.

The administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court after a federal judge in Boston blocked the administration’s push to end the program. The Justice Department argues that the protections for people fleeing turmoil in their home countries were always meant to be temporary, and the Department of Homeland Security has the power to revoke them without court interference.

Mother of jailed Egyptian democracy activist hospitalized after resuming hunger strike

LONDON (AP) — The mother of a pro-democracy activist imprisoned in Egypt is seriously ill in a London hospital after resuming a hunger strike aimed at pressing for her son’s release, her family said Friday.

Laila Soueif was admitted to St Thomas’s Hospital on Thursday night with dangerously low blood sugar levels.

“A couple of hours ago I thought we were going to lose her,” her daughter, Sanaa Souief, said outside the hospital. “The bottom line is, we’re losing her.”

She added: “(Prime Minister) Keir Starmer needs to act now. Not tomorrow, not Monday, but right now.”

US inflation gauge cools with little sign of tariff impact, so far

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key U.S. inflation gauge slowed last month as President Donald Trump’s tariffs have yet to noticeably push up prices. Spending by Americans slowed despite rising incomes, potentially an early reaction to higher prices on some imported goods.

Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose just 2.1% in April compared with a year earlier, down from 2.3% in March and the lowest since September. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.5% from a year earlier, below the March figure of 2.7%, and the lowest in more than four years. Economists track core prices because they typically provide a better read on where inflation is headed.

The figures show inflation is still declining from its post-pandemic spike, which reached the highest level in four decades in July 2022. Economists and some business executives have warned that prices will likely head higher as Trump’s widespread tariffs take effect, though the timing and impact of those duties are now in doubt after they were struck down late Wednesday in court.

On a monthly basis, overall prices and core prices both increased just 0.1% from March to April. The cost of big-ticket manufactured goods rose a hefty 0.5%, though that increase was offset by a 0.1 decline in other goods, such as groceries. The cost of services rose just 0.1% from March to April.

Russian captain denies manslaughter in North Sea collision as he faces UK trial

LONDON (AP) — The Russian captain of a cargo ship that collided with a U.S. tanker in the North Sea pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of one of his crew at a U.K. court hearing on Friday.

Vladimir Motin, 59, from St. Petersburg, appeared by video link from prison for the pretrial hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court. Assisted by a Russian interpreter, he denied a charge of gross manslaughter over the death of 38-year-old Mark Angelo Pernia.

Motin was ordered detained until his next hearing, and his trial was set for Jan. 12.

The Portugal-flagged cargo ship Solong was traveling at about 15 knots (17 mph or 28 kph) when it hit the anchored tanker MV Stena Immaculate about 12 miles (19 kilometers) off the coast of northeast England on March 10, sparking a fire that lasted nearly a week. The tanker was transporting jet fuel for the U.S. military.

Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams wins libel case against BBC over claim he sanctioned killing

LONDON (AP) — Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams won his libel suit against the BBC on Friday over a claim that he authorized the killing of an informant inside the Irish republican movement.

A jury at the High Court in Dublin ruled in Adams’ favor and awarded him 100,000 euros ($113,000) in damages. Jurors deliberated for just under seven hours after the monthlong trial before reaching a verdict, rejecting the BBC's argument that it had acted in good faith and in a “fair and reasonable” way.

Adams sued Britain’s public broadcaster over a claim in a decade-old television documentary and online article that he sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson, a long-serving Sinn Fein official who acknowledged in 2005 that he had worked for British intelligence. He was shot dead at his cottage in rural Ireland four months later.

In the BBC program, broadcast in September 2016, an anonymous source claimed the shooting was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA and that Adams gave “the final say.”

Hong Kong pro-democracy and gay rights activist Jimmy Sham released after 4 years in prison

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's prominent pro-democracy and LGBTQ+ activist Jimmy Sham was released from prison on Friday after serving over four years in the city's biggest national security case under a Beijing-imposed law.

Sham's activism made headlines during 2019 anti-government protests, when he was the convenor of a now-disbanded pro-democracy group that organized some of the biggest peaceful marches that year, including one that drew an estimated 2 million people.

Sham was among 47 activists arrested in 2021 for their roles in an unofficial primary election. He was sentenced with 44 other activists last year after judges ruled that their plans to effect change through the primary would have undermined the government’s authority and create a constitutional crisis. Only two of the original defendants were acquitted.

Even behind bars, Sham continued to fight for recognition of his same-sex marriage registered overseas at the city's top court, which later ruled the government should provide a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships. It was a landmark decision for the city’s LGBTQ+ community.