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Crews put out fire at Tamarac apartment building; no injuries

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

Crews were able to put out a fire that ignited at an apartment building in Tamarac.Tamarac Fire Rescue units responded to the scene of the blaze in the area of Northwest 64th Avenue and 62nd Street, late Friday afternoon.Firefighters arrived to find a first floor unit engulfed.Residents were able to evacuate safely, as crews worked to put the fire out.Fire officials said the unit above the one where the fire started is not livable, adding that an elderly person was living there.Fortunately, no one was hurt.Investigators are trying to determine what caused the fire.

Greszler: New OT regs could cost workers money, jobs

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

The Biden administration is trying to hike the threshold under which hourly wage work regulations apply by about $25,000 per year. The proposed overtime rule threatens to throw millions of workers out of their salaried jobs and into hourly work, leading to lost flexibility and autonomy, benefit and wage cuts, and job losses.The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that hourly employees be paid 1.5 times their usual rate for any hours worked over 40 in a given week. Employees who receive regular salaries regardless of the hours they work are exempt from overtime requirements so long as they pass a duties test and are paid a minimum salary level.If the rule is finalized, employers who have salaried employees earning between the current threshold of $684 per week ($35,568 per year) and the proposed threshold of $1,158 per week ($60,209 per year) will have to decide whether they will convert them to hourly workers, trade salary increases for benefit cuts or eliminate their jobs. According ...

‘Time Bomb Y2K’ recalls millennium angst

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

As a year ends, HBO’s eerily appropriate documentary “Time Bomb Y2K,” Saturday at 10 and streaming on MAX, looks back at the dawn of the 21st century when a potential technological disaster threatened humanity.“The Y2K computer bug as it was called (even though it wasn’t really a bug),” Marley McDonald explained in a phone interview with her co-director Brian Becker, “was the error coded into our computer programs. Most computers are date sensitive and in the ‘60s at the beginning of computers, they used things called Hollerith cards, which only had 80 digits of information.“To save space on these cards, they dropped the first two digits of the year date. So 1968 became 68. The fear was that when computers switched over from 99 to 00, the computers would think it was 1900 and that would of course throw all our date dependent systems into disarray.“The question was, What does happen? If computers just shut down, do nuclear missiles go off? That technical problem then translated...

Editorial: Don’t give into the gloom about Ukraine

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

Nearly two years ago, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine unified European nations, reinvigorated the trans-Atlantic alliance and forged a spirit of rare bipartisanship in Washington. Now that resolve is fraying.President Joe Biden’s administration and the European Union are struggling to deliver aid for Ukraine’s military and budget, with even some of the country’s staunchest supporters expressing doubts about its battlefield prospects and calling for negotiations to end the war.This frustration is perhaps understandable, but it’s misguided. It ignores the enormous sacrifices Ukraine’s people have made to defend their freedom and push back against Russian aggression — and underestimates the ability of Ukraine’s military to regain the advantage, if given sufficient weaponry. Abandoning the war effort now would wreck the West’s credibility and ultimately endanger the democracies supporting Ukraine’s defense as much as Ukraine itself.It’s true that Ukraine’s forces failed to ad...

Murray: Immigrant voting an affront to democracy

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

“The town of Boston,” a 1771 Massachusetts colonial governor complained to his predecessor, “is the source from whence all the other parts of the Province derive more or less troubled water.”The defiant stance of those early whigs, and their cussed purely American determination to create a new nation, could not have foreseen that their sacrifices would eventually produce a public servant such as outgoing Democratic Socialist Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara. Her home rule petition to give noncitizens the right to vote in municipal elections seems to treat so much of what we hold sacred in this city of the Freedom Trail as passing fashions for old timers.  Progressives like Lara can’t see that the democratic traditions of Boston shine far brighter than a Revere bowl to the world.Voters are like jurors and their worth and truthfulness to their duty must be vetted. The nascent American republic and its urban centers matured, and found that the best way to govern ourselves was to allow...

Dear Abby: Dad thinks DIL baby-trapped son

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

Dear Abby: Our son “Ted” met a young lady, “Gina,” who I really like. She told him she had polycystic ovary syndrome and would have a hard time conceiving. Well, she got pregnant and they ended up, spur of the moment, going to the courthouse to get married.When Gina went into labor, we drove three hours to be with them and stayed in a hotel, only to be told she didn’t want company. She’d had a horrible three-day labor that ended with a C-section. I sort of understand her not wanting to see anybody, but we dropped everything and weren’t able to even see our grandchild.My husband, “Peter,” has a lot of resentment toward Gina and Ted. My problem is, when Peter and I married, I was three months pregnant. He has it stuck in his head that Gina “trapped” Ted into getting married. When Peter and I went through a rough patch, he made that comment about us a couple times.When Ted and Gina come here, which isn’t often, my ...

Trump’s dominance in GOP frustrates some in Iowa eager for a competitive campaign

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa frenzy is typically in full force by now.With less than three weeks until the Iowa caucuses formally usher in the presidential nomination process, White House hopefuls are usually in a heated competition. They fan out across the state and pack as many events into a single day as is humanly possible — all in a bid to appeal to undecided voters and lock down support that could lift them to victory in Iowa and keep them in the race for months to come. But as the campaign intensifies ahead of the Jan. 15 caucuses, the normal frenzy is subdued. While the schedule is filling up, former President Donald Trump is such a commanding force in the party that some voters worry the contest that normally transforms Iowa into the center of the political world may turn out to be something of a snooze. “It’s kind of frustrating,” said Jenna Maifeld, a 19-year-old student at the University of Iowa who is eager to participate in her first caucus but is disappointed with...

Retirements could tip control of the House majority. It’s Republicans who have the early edge

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A chaotic year for the House is coming to a close with more Democrats than Republicans deciding to leave the chamber, a disparity that could have major ramifications in next year’s elections.About two dozen Democrats have indicated they won’t seek reelection, with half running for another elected office. Meanwhile, only 14 Republicans have said they are not seeking another term, with three seeking elected office elsewhere.More retirements can be expected after the holidays, when lawmakers have had a chance to spend time with families and make decisions ahead of reelection deadlines. But so far, the numbers don’t indicate the dysfunction in the House is causing a mass exodus for either party.“Members sort of knew that this is what the institution is currently like when they chose to run for office,” said Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank that maintains a database of vital statistics on Congress, including retireme...

California is expanding health care coverage for low-income immigrants in the new year

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — More than 700,000 immigrants living illegally in California will gain access to free health care starting Monday under one of the state’s most ambitious coverage expansions in a decade. It’s an effort that will eventually cost the state about $3.1 billion per year and inches California closer to Democrats’ goal of providing universal health care to its roughly 39 million residents.Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers agreed in 2022 to provide health care access to all low-income adults regardless of their immigration status through the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. California is the most populous state to guarantee such coverage, though Oregon began doing so in July.Newsom called the expansion “a transformative step towards strengthening the health care system for all Californians” when he proposed the changes two years ago. Newsom made the commitment when the state had the largest budget surplus in its history. But as...

States set to enact new laws on guns, pornography, taxes and even fuzzy dice

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:26:58 GMT

Fuzzy dice finally will be free to dangle in Illinois. Starting Monday, police there no longer will be allowed to pull over motorists solely because they have something hanging from the rearview mirror of the windshield. That means air fresheners, parking placards and, yes, even those dice are fair game to hang. The revised Illinois windshield rule is one of hundreds of new laws taking effect with the new year in states across the U.S. While some may seem a bit pedestrian, others have real practical effects or touch on controversial issues such as restrictions on weapons and medical treatments for transgender people.Though the original Illinois windshield law was meant to improve roadway safety, it came to be seen by some as an excuse for pulling over drivers. The new law still prohibits objects that obstruct a driver’s view but forbids law enforcement officers from conducting stops or searches solely because of suspected violations.“With this new law, we are sending a powerfu...