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Retailers looking to boost delivery speeds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

NEW YORK — Haven’t ordered any of your holiday gifts yet?Well, you might find solace in discovering some of America’s biggest retailers are working to increase their shipping speeds to please shoppers expecting faster and faster deliveries.Walmart, Target and Amazon are all-in on the shipping wars, a move retail experts say will help them maintain a competitive edge against low-cost retailers Shein and Temu, which were founded in China. For Walmart and Target, their investments are also aimed at narrowing the gap in delivery speed with Amazon, which has set the standard for fast shipping.Amazon packages have been arriving at the doors of Prime customers even faster this year under the company’s new distribution model, which divides the country into eight regions and predominantly ships items from warehouses in those areas. The idea, according to Amazon, is to get shipments to travel shorter distances with fewer touchpoints, which helps the company not only speed up...

Ticker: Xfinity notifies customers of data breach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

Hackers accessed Xfinity customers’ personal information by exploiting a vulnerability in software used by the company, the Comcast-owned telecommunications business announced this week.In a Monday notice to customers, Xfinity said there was unauthorized access to internal systems as a result of this vulnerability — which was previously announced by software provider Citrix — between Oct. 16 and 19.Xfinity discovered the “suspicious activity” on Oct. 25, and in the following months determined that information was “likely acquired.” On Dec. 6, the company concluded that information included usernames and hashed passwords — and, for some customers, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, account security questions, birthdates and contact information.Analysis of the breach is still continuing but to date, Xfinity is “not aware of any customer data being leaked anywhere, nor of any attacks on our customers,” the company said in a statem...

Immigration and declines in death cause uptick in US population growth this year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

By MIKE SCHNEIDER (Associated Press)ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Immigration powered population gains in the United States for a second year in a row and — coupled with a drop in the number of deaths from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic — caused an uptick in the U.S. growth rate in 2023, according to estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.The United States added 1.6 million people, more than two-thirds of which came from international migration, bringing the nation’s population total to 334.9 million people. Population gains or losses come from births outpacing deaths, or vice versa, along with migration. After immigration declined in the latter half of last decade and dropped even lower amid pandemic restrictions at the start of this decade, the number of immigrants last year bounced back to almost 1 million people. The trend continued this year, growing to 1.1 million people, the highest number of immigrants in more than two decades, according to ...

South Carolina couple is charged with murder in the 2015 killings of four of their family members

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

PENDLETON, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina couple has been charged with killing four older family members in a gory 2015 Halloween attack in the victims’ home.Amy and Rosmore “Ross” Vilardi remained jailed Tuesday in Anderson County on four counts of murder each. They have a preliminary court hearing scheduled for Feb. 20.The case hadn’t been added to the state’s online court records system as of Tuesday, and a spokesperson for the county sheriff’s office said the agency has not identified an attorney who might speak on their behalf. In interviews with news outlets since the killings, the couple has said they are innocent.During a news conference Friday to announce the charges, Sheriff Chad McBride declined to say why they were brought so long after the killings, adding that such details would be reserved for court.“God bless this family. They’ve been through so much,” McBride said. “They’ve waited for a long time.”The killings shocked Pendleton, a rural town of...

Quebec health minister asks public to avoid emergency rooms amid overcrowding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé is asking the public to avoid the province’s overcrowded emergency rooms.He says people who don’t need urgent care should seek help from clinics staffed by family doctors or nurse practitioners.Dubé says patients can also call 811 to speak to a nurse and obtain an appointment at a medical clinic.The comments come four days after a group representing chief doctors in the province’s emergency departments sent a letter to Dubé saying the situation in ERs is “out of control.”Health data website Index Santé says the average ER occupancy in Quebec was 131 per cent this afternoon. Three emergency room doctors who spoke to The Canadian Press on Monday said Quebec hospitals are struggling to transfer patients out of ERs and into wards.—Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.This report by The Canadian Pr...

Zac Efron and Lily James on the simple gesture that frames the tragedy of the Von Erich wrestlers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

Zac Efron didn’t realize how much he needed a hug.He’d transformed himself into a mass of muscle and repressed emotion to play professional wrestler Kevin Von Erich in the new film “The Iron Claw.” It was a taxing role and unlike anything he’d done before, both physically and psychologically. He often found himself with real bruises from recreating fights in the ring. Downtime between shots, too, was usually spent lifting.But he hadn’t quite realized how much it was affecting him until he and Lily James sat down to film the first date between his character and the woman who would marry him. Pam tells Kevin that he has oldest brother syndrome. Kevin tells her that he’s not actually the oldest: That brother died in an accident when he was 6 and Kevin was 5. He says he’s fine, but Pam gets out of her seat, walks around the table and drapes her arms around Kevin, who seems to melt in the warmth of a love that’s not conditional.“It felt very needed, that hug,” Efron told The Associated P...

Migrant child’s death and other hospitalizations spark concern over shelter conditions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The death of a 5-year-old migrant boy and reported illnesses in other children living at a warehouse retrofitted as a shelter has raised fresh concerns about the living conditions and medical care provided for asylum-seekers arriving in Chicago. Medical professionals have worried for months about the disjointed healthcare system, saying new arrivals in the U.S. face numerous health issues. For many, the problems are either related to their journey, including trauma, or from living in crowded group settings where infections spread easily and quickly.Five-year-old Jean Carlos Martinez was a resident at a shelter in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood when he suffered a medical emergency, then died shortly after arriving at Comer Children’s Hospital on Sunday afternoon, the city said. Four more people living in the same shelter — a 1-year-old girl, a 4-year-old girl, an 8-year-old girl, and an 18-year-old woman — were hospitalized with fevers this week, according to the Chicag...

Man who helped bilk woman out of $1.2M is sentenced to prison and ordered to repay some of the money

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Texas man who was part of a romance scam that bilked a Missouri woman out of $1.2 million was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in federal prison and ordered to repay part of the money.Rotimi Oladimeji, 38, of Richardson, Texas, was sentenced one year after he pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s office in St. Louis said in a news release. Oladimeji and two others spotted the victim on the “Silver Singles” online dating site, prosecutors said. Posing as a Belgian national who was a veterinarian and animal behaviorist living in St. Louis, they made plans to meet with her but never followed through.The scammers claimed the man needed money because he was not being allowed to leave the United Arab Emirates, where he had gone for a business deal. Federal prosecutors said the victim lost nearly $1.2 million. Oladimeji had received about 20% of th...

Food industry groups accuse Galen Weston of inaccurate claim over grocery code

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

A group of associations representing independent grocers, food suppliers and farmers is accusing Loblaw Cos. Ltd. chairman Galen Weston of making an inaccurate statement to the House of Commons agricultural committee studying food prices. A letter sent Tuesday to MP Kody Blois, who chairs the agriculture committee, asks the committee to disregard part of Weston’s testimony when they draft their final report.At a Dec. 7 committee meeting, Weston told MPs that Canada’s voluntary grocery code of conduct, which is near completion, will put too much power in the hands of large suppliers and could raise prices for Canadians. As an example, Weston said Australia’s grocery code has a third-party mechanism that has supported cost increases in “essentially 100 per cent of cases,” and that if this “had happened in Canada since the beginning of last year, it would have resulted in $750 million in additional inflation pressure for consumers.”However, Chr...

Toronto’s New Year’s Eve celebrations return to the waterfront for 3rd straight year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:21:22 GMT

Toronto’s New Year’s Eve celebrations will return to the waterfront for what the city promises will be “the biggest fireworks display in Canada.”In a release Tuesday, the city said the free 10-minute fireworks show will be synchronized to music and be visible anywhere with a view of the city’s inner harbour.If you can’t attend, the event will be live-streamed on the City’s CultureTO YouTube channel.Designated viewing areas for the fireworks include:• Sherbourne Common, 61 Dockside Dr.• Toronto Music Garden, 476 Queens Quay W.• Harbour Square Park, 25 Queens Quay W.• Sugar Beach Park, 11 Dockside Dr.• Little Norway Park, 659 Queens Quay W.• HTO Park, 339 Queens Quay W.• Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W.DJ sets by DJ Sofia Fly and DJ Cozmic Cat will begin at 11:30 p.m., leading up to the fireworks display.There will also be pop-up live performances starting at 10 p.m. at the following locations:• Sherbourne Common, 61 Dockside Dr.• Toron...