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‘Experimental with no oversight:’ Experts had concerns about OceanGate sub for years

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — The small submersible missing in the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean has not been subject to industry-standard tests and scrutiny, according to two subsea engineers who flagged concerns about the vessel in 2018.Bart Kemper, principal engineer with Kemper Engineering Services in Louisiana, described the development of OceanGate’s Titan submersible as “experimental with no oversight.” That approach is not at all representative of typical industry practice, Kemper said in an interview Tuesday.He said the Titan’s disappearance Sunday as it descended toward the wreck of the Titanic is “horrible.”“These are literally the things that keep us up at night because we don’t want to be responsible for one of these stories. We take this seriously,” Kemper said of his subsea engineering colleagues. “It’s heartbreaking.”Crews from the United States and Canada raced to find the Titan and the five people inside it Wednesday, as its oxygen reserves deplet...

Stock market today: Drops for tech stocks sap more momentum from Wall Street’s rally

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Drops for technology stocks left Wall Street mixed Wednesday and sapped more momentum from its five-week rally.The S&P 500 fell 23.02, or 0.5%, to 4,365.69. It was a third straight pullback for the index after it rallied last week to its highest level in more than a year.Weakness for high-growth stocks hit the Nasdaq composite in particular, and it lost 165.09, or 1.2%, to 13,502.20. Still, roughly as many stocks rose as fell on Wall Street, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by a milder 102.35 points, or 0.3%, to 33,951.52.Wall Street had been on a tear this year, with the S&P 500 up nearly 14% amid hopes that inflation is coming down quickly enough for the Federal Reserve to stop hiking interest rates soon. That would take pressure off the economy and could allow it to avoid a recession. Some analysts say the rally ran too far, too fast while inflation has remained stubbornly high, which could force the Fed to keep rates higher for longer.Fed Chai...

Army veteran sentenced to 55 years for road rage shooting death of Muslim man

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A suburban Indianapolis Army veteran was sentenced to 55 years in prison Wednesday for the road rage shooting death of a Muslim man after witnesses said he hurled ethnic and religious insults at the victim.Dustin Passarelli of Plainfield was convicted in May of murder and a felony firearm enhancement in the February 2019 shooting death of 32-year-old Mustafa Ayoubi. Passarelli followed Ayoubi off Interstate 465, and a verbal altercation took place, prosecutors said. Witnesses said Passarelli made several Islamophobic remarks, including “Go back to your country,” and used hate speech before opening fire.Passarelli told police that Ayoubi either threw something at his car or collided with it on the highway and that after he followed Ayoubi to an apartment complex, Ayoubi broke one of Passarelli’s car windows with a punch.The defense argued that Passarelli was within his rights to fire at Ayoubi because it was self-defense.Passarelli was not charged with...

West Virginia governor can’t use Senate bid as excuse to not disclose finances, judge says

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A federal judge in Delaware has ordered West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice to provide information about his finances to attorneys for a Pennsylvania coal exporter who have sued to collect $1.9 million owed by Justice and one of his coal companies.Justice, who is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in West Virginia, has refused to respond to information requests from Xcoal Energy & Resources, which is trying to collect the balance of a judgment of more than $10 million against Justice and Southern Coal Corp.Attorneys for Justice have argued that Xcoal is seeking sensitive financial information that media organizations and political opponents could try to obtain and use against him as he tries to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin — a potential matchup that could determine control of the U.S. Senate. They also contend that an existing protective order entered in the lawsuit nearly five years ago is insufficient in the context of “one of the m...

Unifor announces union drive for Amazon workers in Metro Vancouver

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. — Unifor says it’s planning a union drive for Amazon workers in Metro Vancouver.The union announced the drive in a press release Wednesday after an in-person event near an Amazon fulfillment centre in New Westminster that included an appearance by Chris Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union in the U.S. In the press release, national president Lana Payne says joining a union would help Amazon workers push their employer to improve working conditions. Payne says Amazon workers took risks during the COVID-19 pandemic so that millions of people could stay home and get their essentials delivered.Unifor’s regional director for the west Gavin McGarrigle says in the press release that the Amazon Labor Union has shown what’s possible at the e-commerce giant. McGarrigle says it’s time to turn things around for workers in the warehouse industry. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2023.The Canadian Press

Hunter Biden plea agreement in tax, gun case set for July court date

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden will go before a judge next month to formally strike a plea agreement with prosecutors on tax and gun charges that will likely spare President Joe Biden’s son time behind bars, according to court documents posted Wednesday.U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika must still approve the plea agreement that was reached following a lengthy federal investigation. It calls for the president’s son to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay taxes. Hunter Biden also must commit to court-imposed conditions that will spare him full prosecution on a felony gun charge. The hearing is scheduled for July 26 as a combined initial appearance and plea agreement. News of the plea deal Tuesday sparked criticism from Republicans who are pursuing their own congressional investigations into nearly every facet of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including foreign payments. Attorney General Merrick Garland, traveling in Stockholm on Wednesday, said ...

Toxic algae suspected in deaths of sea lions and dolphins on Southern California coast

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marine mammal rescue organizations have been swamped with reports of sick and dead sea lions and dolphins along the Southern California coast this month, and experts believe a bloom of harmful algae is to blame.Hundreds of sea lions are believed to have died in the first weeks of June, according to a statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, known as NOAA Fisheries.The number of dead dolphins has reached about 100, according to Michelle Berman Kowalewski, founder and director of the Channel Islands Cetacean Research Unit, a Santa Barbara-based biosurveillance organization.Tissue samples have been collected for tests to confirm the animals are victims of domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by the algae Pseudo-nitzschia, according to NOAA Fisheries. The toxin enters the food chain and sickens marine mammals as they eat prey.Domoic acid is also a risk to people who eat crustaceans, fish and shellfish th...

New York proposal would protect doctors who send abortion pills across state lines

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Doctors in New York who prescribe abortion pills to patients in states where the procedure is illegal would be provided with legal protection under a bill approved by state lawmakers. The measure, which will be considered by Gov. Kathy Hochul, is among a wave of state-level abortion bills taken up nationwide in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right to abortion. Advocates say the New York bill, if approved, would allow women in states around the country to get abortion pills more safely and quickly.“It will make it much less difficult for people to get abortions with pills in a timely way,” said Dr. Linda Prine, co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access. Prine said she would be involved in the effort.A year after the Dobbs ruling, 14 states have bans on abortion throughout pregnancy — with some exceptions — while other states have adopted deep restrictions. The bill, given final legislative approval Tuesday...

The Titan submersible: The latest on the search, outlook for rescue

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

A growing number of aircraft, ships and underwater equipment from the U.S., Canada and France searched Wednesday for a submersible vessel carrying five people that disappeared on its way to the wreckage of the Titanic. The small craft named Titan, owned by undersea exploration company OceanGate Expeditions, has been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021. The U.S. Coast Guard has been leading the search Titan since the Titan disappeared Sunday in a remote area of the North Atlantic Ocean.Here’s what we know so far about the submersible and what’s being done to find it: WHAT’S THE LATEST ON THE SEARCH?A Canadian aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Officials said they don’t know what made the sounds, and a robotic vessel scouring the area so far has “yielded negative results.” Additional remotely operated vessels were ...

Trump-Russia special counsel Durham at center of political clash as he appears before Congress

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:43:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The special counsel who investigated the FBI’s probe of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign found himself at the center of a heated political fight as he appeared before a congressional committee Wednesday, with Democrats denouncing his inquiry and Republicans arguing that its findings helped prove an anti-Trump bias within law enforcement.John Durham, the Justice Department special counsel who recently completed his report, testified before the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing that unfolded against the backdrop of a 37-count indictment of Trump on charges he illegally retained classified documents. Despite roughly six hours of testimony, the hearing broke little new ground. Under questioning from Republicans, he repeated many of the strongest findings of condemnation in his 306-page report and also faced criticism from Democrats over a four-year investigation that produced just one conviction and fell short of Trump’s claims that it wo...