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BofA to pay $250M in fake account, fee policies 

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

NEW YORK — Bank of America will reimburse customers more than $100 million and pay $150 million in fines for “double-dipping” on overdraft fees, withholding reward bonuses on credit cards and opening accounts without customer consent.Combined, it is one of the highest financial penalties in years against Bank of America, which has largely spent the last 15 years trying to clean up its reputation and market itself to the public as a bank focused on financial health and not on overdraft fee income and financial trickery.BofA must refund $100 million to customers, pay $90 million in penalties to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and $60 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.“Bank of America wrongfully withheld credit card rewards, double-dipped on fees, and opened accounts without consent,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, in a statement. “These practices are illegal and undermine customer trust.”Empowered by a broad mandate...

Alberta calls on federal government to help Indigenous communities with opioid crisis

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

WINNIPEG — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the federal government is failing when it comes to some of the big issues in its jurisdiction, particularly Indigenous health care.Speaking at the annual premiers’ conference on Tuesday, Smith said provincial leaders have a shared frustration with Ottawa.“The federal government continues to intervene in our areas of jurisdiction, continues to try to dictate how we operate our programs and policies and yet they fail in their areas of jurisdiction,” she told reporters in Winnipeg.“We’ve got a lot of big issues that the federal government needs to deal with — for instance on the issue of Indigenous health. They are completely failing Indigenous communities in supporting them in urban environments and in supporting them in the mental-health and addiction crisis.”On Monday, Treaty 6 First Nations in Western Canada declared a state of emergency over rising opioid deaths and called on all levels of governmen...

Net-zero electricity grid for Alberta is possible, Wilkinson says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

DRUMHELLER, Alta. — Against the backdrop of Alberta’s newest solar farm, federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Tuesday he still believes the province can get its electricity grid to net zero by 2035 – in spite of Premier Danielle Smith’s insistence to the contrary.Wilkinson made the comments in Starland County near Drumheller, Alta., in front of the thousands of gleaming solar panels that make up the latest solar project to be connected to the province’s electricity grid.“The federal government’s view is that it can be done,” Wilkinson said, moments after renewable energy firm Capstone Infrastructure formally cut the ribbon on its 25 MW Michichi solar project, which will produce enough renewable power to offset approximately 30,000 metric tonnes of CO2 each year. “But we also have to be willing to listen to the concerns of Alberta and Saskatchewan and try to find ways to address those concerns – and ideally, address those within the 2035 time frame.”Wilkinson an...

In Ukraine, civilians train in survival skills to cope with dangers from Russia’s war

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — In a cramped municipal building in a residential area of the Ukrainian capital, a group of people take turns training to shoot using a replica of a machine gun with the help of a weapons training simulator relying on virtual reality.The nearly 20 participants — all of them civilians and most of them women — have never held a weapon before.With Russia’s war on Ukraine now in its 17th month, the Kyiv City Administration has opened up training for civilians who want to learn survival skills, including how to shoot, provide first aid and recognize land mines. These and other skills could be used in a hostile environment provoked by missile strikes and other man-made disasters.In a dark room with tightly closed blinds, the unreal poof-poof sounds of the replica weapons are heard. People enthusiastically ask the instructors how to hold their weapons properly and ask to try one more time.“I am more than 45 years old. As soon as the opportunity arose, I decided that I n...

Georgia Democrat Mesha Mainor, at odds with her party, switches to Republicans

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia state legislator from Atlanta switched to the Republican Party on Tuesday, after being at odds with Democrats for reasons including her support for school vouchers and disciplining prosecutors.Rep. Mesha Mainor becomes the only Black member of the GOP among Georgia’s 236 state lawmakers, and the first Black Republican woman to ever serve in the Georgia General Assembly. Mainor’s defection gives Republicans a 102-78 edge in the House.Mainor said legislative Democrats drove her out of the party for breaking party orthodoxy, claiming at a Tuesday news conference outside the Georgia Capitol that they had “relentlessly tried to sabotage every single thing that I have done for District 56” and “publicly slandered me in every way imaginable.”“I thought it was OK to not agree with those things as a Democrat. But they told me, ‘You know what, those are values we just don’t have,’” Mainor said, flanked by state Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon.But she...

‘I could die today’: Casino employee recalls armed heist in trial of Las Vegas police officer

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — At the trial of a Las Vegas police officer accused of a trio of casino heists, an employee said Tuesday that in her 40-year gaming career she had never been more afraid for her life than when she came face to face with the robber.“All I kept thinking in my head was: I could die today,” said Sherry McGrath, who was supervising the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino’s sportsbook the day that authorities said Caleb Rogers robbed while armed with a weapon issued by the police department.Prosecutors for the federal government are expected to paint Rogers, 35, as a gambling addict whose debts were snowballing when he allegedly stole nearly $165,000 from casinos off the Las Vegas Strip between November 2021 and February 2022.Since 2015, and at the time of the heists, Rogers was employed by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as an active-duty patrol officer. A department spokesperson said last week that Rogers has been on unpaid leave “without police powers,” pendin...

Mexico says protest was organized by a drug gang and a cartel car bomb killed National Guard officer

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican security officials claimed Tuesday that a demonstration that blocked the main highway to the resort of Acapulco and led to the abduction of government officials was organized by a drug gang.They also said that a National Guard officer had been killed by a car bomb set by a cartel in an earlier attack elsewhere. The violence suggested that Mexico’s crime problem continues to be dire, despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador exaggerating how much he has reduced the number of homicides since taking office in December 2018. Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez credited López Obrador on Tuesday for a 17.5% decline in the number of homicides. In fact, about 11% of the decline happened in the final months of his predecessor’s term. In the 4 1/2 years López Obrador has been in office, homicides have edged down by only about 7%, but remain at historically high levels.Rodríguez acknowledged that a demonstration Monday by hundreds of people in the...

Former soldier charged with plowing Humvee into a Georgia Army headquarters

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) — A former soldier who left the Army a decade ago has been charged with stealing a military Humvee and crashing it into an office building at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia.On Monday, the armored vehicle plowed through the glass front doors of the Army post’s headquarters building, which houses the offices of Fort Stewart’s commanding general and other top leaders. No one was injured.Treamon Dominic Lacy, 39, was charged in federal court in Georgia with theft of government property and destruction of government property. The former Army staff sergeant served from 2002 to 2013, Fort Stewart officials said in a statement. Lacy was a wheeled-vehicle mechanic who deployed twice to Iraq.Jordan Poe, an agent with the Army Criminal Investigation Division, said in a court affidavit that security camera video showed Lacy getting out of the Humvee immediately following the crash. Someone detained him at the scene until military police arrived, Poe said.Th...

Saints’ Alvin Kamara pleads no contest to a misdemeanor in the beating of a man at a Las Vegas club

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge stemming from a fight last year that left a man unconscious at a Las Vegas nightclub, his attorney said Tuesday.Kamara and three other men faced felony and misdemeanor charges for allegedly punching, kicking and stomping on Darnell Greene Jr. of Houston outside an elevator at the club. The altercation came a day before the NFL’s 2022 Pro Bowl.Kamara played in the Pro Bowl and was arrested after the game.A felony battery charge carried up to a five-year sentence. Kamara instead pleaded no contest to breach of peace, and will serve community service and pay restitution to the victim.His attorneys, David Chesnoff, Richard Schonfeld and Drew Findling, issued a statement that read: “Alvin is pleased that this matter is behind him and looks forward to a successful NFL season.”Kamara faces a possible suspension by the NFL.“We have been closely monitoring all developments in the matter w...

Joint Chiefs nominee wins over lawmakers but faces uncertain fate because of senator’s hold

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s pick to serve as America’s top military officer warned senators Tuesday of the difficulties posed by any potential conflict in Asia and described how he would use lessons learned from the Ukraine war to help the U.S. military prepare. But Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. may not be able to apply those lessons anytime soon, even after being well-received in a confirmation hearing to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Brown’s nomination is among more than 260 being stalled by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. He is blocking the confirmation of all senior military officers in protest over Defense Department policy that pays for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care. A history-making fighter pilot, Brown has a deep knowledge of China and a broad understanding of space, cyber and other technologies. His confirmation would mean that, for the first time, both the P...