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Editorial: Gas stove ban conspiracy theory comes true

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

You aren’t crazy if they really are out to get your gas stove.Earlier this month, Democrats in New York passed a budget limiting the use of natural gas in new construction. Natural gas hookups won’t be allowed in most construction projects, including homes. That means no natural gas appliances, such as stoves and dryers. Buildings will have to install electric heating. There are some exceptions, including for restaurants, hospitals and large industrial buildings.New York passed this intrusive law over concerns about global warming. Climate alarmists are concerned about the methane in natural gas. The conventional wisdom is that it’s a much greater contributor to global warming than carbon dioxide in the short term. But if this were the case, you might expect New York politicians to inform the public how much this effort will reduce global temperatures.Instead, you’re not even supposed to notice this is happening.Recall that in January, U.S. Consumer Product Safety commissioner Richa...

What to do when you’re ghosted by potential employer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

Q. I interviewed with a company and it went really well — almost too well! They offered me a job during the third round. But I haven’t heard anything since. I followed up twice and still haven’t heard anything. What else should I do?A. First, congrats on what I’m assuming was a verbal offer! You’ve done what you could — if they changed their mind or the job was put on hold or for whatever reason, they owe you the courtesy to reach out either way.You’ve already followed up twice, so there’s unfortunately nothing else you can do. Sure, you can keep calling or perhaps checking in periodically perhaps every two weeks, and this is all personal preference — but you may end up feeling like you’re begging for a job.When I worked in corporate recruiting, trust me: when we wanted to officially extend an offer, we did. When we didn’t or when something else happened (like an internal employee moved into that role or the job disso...

Bruins have tough what-ifs to ponder

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

Pro sports are an increasingly player-driven culture, and it makes sense. Players are clearly the most valuable asset of any organization, a fact that’s proven every payday.But how much player empowerment is too much? The Bruins’ leadership group was as solid as you’ll ever find. But the aftermath of their stunning early flame-out makes one wonder if a little more tough love from above at the right moments would have meant they’d still be playing right now.For the B’s, the player-driven ethos worked as well as it could possibly work. Until it didn’t. During the regular season, the B’s won a record 65 games and looked unbeatable. But there is no such thing, especially in he NHL. The B’s gagged up a 3-1 series lead to the Florida Panthers and lost in the first round.When it was all over, we learned that Patrice Bergeron came back into the lineup in Game 5 with a herniated disc in his back. We know goalie Linus Ullmark was playing with so...

Creative Maxum loves to try new things

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

Maxum, who likes to go by Max, is an energetic and creative child. Max can present as shy and quiet, but once he gets comfortable, he opens up and engages easily. Max likes to build with LEGOS and play video games. He is very active and enjoys playing outside. He loves to play sports and has a great arm! Max also likes to draw and watch superhero movies.Max attends a collaborative school and has special education supports to assist him there. He is doing well and making progress in school. Max has a lot of curiosity and likes to learn and try new things. Max enjoys playing with his peers and is able to make friends easily.Max would do best in a home that is adventurous, playful, and compassionate. He has two sisters that he would like to maintain a relationship with. Max currently visits with his birth parents four times a year and per his open adoption agreement will visit with his parents two times a year once the adoption is finalized.If you’re at least 18 years old, have a stabl...

Dear Abby: Poolgoers leave towels to claim shady spot

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

Dear Abby: The other day I went to the pool in my neighborhood and found there were four lounge chairs with towels on them indicating they were “reserved.” They are the best chairs in the pool area because they are covered by a small roof and protected from the sun. I then had to use another chair that only partially covered me.It wasn’t until three hours later, when I was about to leave, that a couple carrying party items showed up to claim the chairs. Would it have been OK to move the “reserved” chairs to another area and put mine under the roof, and then put them back when I leave? What if the people come and I’m still there? — All Wet in FloridaDear All Wet: What those neighbors did was rude. Yes, it would have been OK for you to sit in the shade, protected from the sun. If the entitled folks who tied up the chairs (for hours) came down to use them within 15 minutes, you could have moved. But under the circumstances, you should not have ...

What should I do on the death anniversary? More are asking as US mass killings rise

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — On a September day that he knew would be hard, 51-year-old Damone Presley marked the occasion with barbecue and balloons.He was commemorating the one-year anniversary of the day in 2021 that his daughter and her three friends were fatally shot in Minnesota by a man who left their bodies in an abandoned SUV in a Wisconsin cornfield. Presley gathered 50 friends to celebrate the life of his daughter, Nitosha Flug-Presley, who was 30 when she died. He went big on the anniversary because he felt sure that’s what his daughter would have wanted.“She would always do stuff big,” Presley told The Associated Press.There have been 553 mass killings in the United States since 2006, and at least 2,880 people have died, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Those include killings where four or more died, not including the assailant, within a 24-hour period. So far in 2023, the nation has witnesse...

Mexico prosecutors withdraw case against woman sentenced to prison for killing rapist attacking her

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican prosecutors announced Saturday night that they are withdrawing a case against a woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a man as he raped and attacked her.In a ruling last week that touched off a public outcry, a court in Mexico State said that while it agreed 23-year-old Roxana Ruiz was raped in 2021, it found her guilty of homicide with “excessive use of legitimate defense.” It also ordered Ruiz to pay more than $16,000 in reparations to the family of her attacker.Feminist groups, which have supported Ruiz’s defense, angrily protested, saying the ruling was criminalizing survivors of sexual violence while protecting perpetrators in a country with high levels of gender-based violence and femicides. Protesters in Mexico City carried signs reading “Defending my life isn’t a crime.” Ruiz, an Indigenous woman and single mother, told reporters after the court’s ruling that she had received death threats because of the...

Using ‘he/him,’ ‘she/her’ in emails got 2 dorm directors fired at small New York Christian college

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Shua Wilmot and Raegan Zelaya, two former dorm directors at a small Christian university in western New York, acknowledge their names are unconventional, which explains why they attached gender identities to their work email signatures.Wilmot uses “he/him.” Zelaya goes by “she/her.”Their former employer, Houghton University, wanted them to drop the identifiers in line with a new policy for email formats implemented in September. Both refused and were fired.“My name is Shua. It’s an unusual name. And it ends with a vowel, ‘a,’ that is traditionally feminine in many languages,” Wilmot said in a nearly one-hour video he and Zelaya posted on YouTube shortly after they were let go last month. “If you get an email from me and you don’t know who I am, you might not know how to gender me.”Ongoing culture wars in the U.S. over sexual preferences, gender IDs and transgender rights have engulfed politics, school campuses and many other facets of public and private life. At leas...

Kinsey Institute experts study sex, gender as misconceptions block state dollars

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Unfounded claims about Indiana University’s sex research institute, its founder and child sex abuse have been so persistent over the years that when the Legislature prohibited the institute from using state dollars, one lawmaker hailed the move as “long overdue.”The decision, largely symbolic, does not halt the Kinsey Institute’s work, ranging from studies on sexual assault prevention to contraception use among women. But researchers tell The Associated Press the Republican-dominated Legislature’s February decision is based on an enduring, fundamental misunderstanding of their work — a false narrative that they, despite efforts to correct such misinformation, cannot shake.Funding from the university remains unclear, but Zoe Peterson, senior scientist and director of the Sexual Assault Research Initiative at the Kinsey Institute, will continue her inquiries into consent and those who perpetrate sexual assault. Contrary to what conspiracy theorists claim about...

New York City has a right to shelter, but will it establish a right to sleep outside?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Eric Adams has hailed his city’s right to shelter as a hallmark of compassion for its most destitute. Now he must decide if he will extend that compassion by bestowing homeless people with the right to sleep outside.The City Council unanimously approved a “Homeless Bill of Rights” last month that would make New York the first big U.S. city to establish an explicit right to sleep in at least some public places.If Adams, a Democrat, allows the measure to become law, it could be a notable departure for the city, which has for years sent police and sanitation crews to clear homeless encampments as they arise.It also would run against the prevailing political headwinds in other places that have struggled with large numbers of people living in tents and other makeshift shelters.The Los Angeles City Council passed a broad anti-camping measure two years ago. Then last year, the city outlawed tents within 500 feet (150 meters) of schools and day cares and banne...