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‘Smoke screen’: Canadian airlines use NDAs to keep a lid on passenger settlements

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

Colleen Dafoe was at the Halifax airport last December with her husband and daughter when WestJet told her their trip was cancelled.The airline suggested rescheduling them on a flight more than 10 days later, she said — well after the end of their planned vacation to the Dominican Republic to celebrate Dafoe’s 50th birthday with extended family. They never left Nova Scotia.Dafoe said she asked for a refund from WestJet, which refused and instead offered a vacation voucher valid for one year. Eventually, she turned to small claims court for the $1,200 in compensation she believed her family was owed under Canada’s passenger rights charter.Only after she launched the legal action did a WestJet lawyer offer to pay them the full amount — if they signed a non-disclosure agreement barring them from discussing the matter.“My husband and I hemmed and hawed about this. Part of us wanted to stand our ground and not accept the confidentiality clause, because airlines should not silence pe...

13-year-old boy seriously injured after drive-by shooting on South Side: CPD

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

CHICAGO -- A teen boy is in serious condition after he was shot during a drive-by shooting in South Chicago overnight.Police said the incident happened near the 8700 block of South Marquette Avenue around 12:40 a.m. overnight. Authorities offer new details after body found in trunk of burning vehicle on South Side He was driven to Trinity Hospital and was later transferred to Comers Hospital in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the chest.There is currently no one in custody and police are investigating.

Sunday Forecast: Cloudy with some drizzle, high mid 40s

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

Sunday: Cloudy with some areas of drizzle. W 5-10 mph. High mid 40sSunday Night: Overcast skies and building NW winds. WNW 10-20 mph. Low: 30Monday: Blustery, cold & AM snow showers with falling temps. NW 15-25, G45 mphNoon temp around 27Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Extended outlook calls for more sunshine Tuesday with a high around 33. Back to near 40 on Wednesday with increasing clouds. Thursday is the Winter Solstice and we'll end up in the mid 40s with a chance of evening rain showers. Chance of rain on Friday with highs in the mid to upper 40s. 

Warming to some 70s today

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Some Hill Country communities fell to freezing before 6 a.m. Sunday. A combination of the clear sky, dry air, and light winds contributed to the sharp drop in temperatures.The wind is out of the west to northwest this morning. A warming southwest wind combined with another day of sunshine will send many highs to the upper 60s to low 70s this afternoon. Highs much above normal, which is 64°Another cold front moves across late tonight leaving a northwest to north wind for tomorrow resulting in most highs back to where they were Saturday ... the low to mid 60s. Another cold morning will greet early risers Tuesday when lows fall to the 30s.Winds will gust to between 20 and 25 mph tomorrow morning into early afternoon.We will lose the sunshine in favor of clouds Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday's highs will peak in the upper 50s to low 60s, warming Wednesday to the mid/upper 60s to around 70°.Central Texas' next rainmakerThe next upper-level low will drop south through the...

Letters: The history of the Lake Elmo airport and landscape is clear

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

Airports are contentious. But this one’s been there a long timeRecently, a number of Washington County residents have been engaged in an organized effort to complain about the Lake Elmo Airport, its recently re-aligned runway, and the airport’s flight school. According to public statements in print and television reporting, the recent runway realignment and the current flight school are to blame for making life at their residences unbearable.Airports are contentious. There are of course real effects upon communities surrounding any size airport, but not all residents in those communities are equally impacted. It is also true that airports have community value, with costs that can be both mitigated and absorbed. Working out who is impacted and what (if any) remedies are appropriate must be done within the history of the landscape.In the case of the Lake Elmo Airport, the history of the landscape is simple and clear: The airport opened in 1951, with most residences in Baytown To...

Police responded to over-night crashes and still looking for hit-and-run suspect

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

ST. LOUIS — Overnight, St. Louis police responded to two fatal crashes. The first occurred just after 3 a.m. on Germania Ave. at Sharpe Ave. in the Boulevard Heights neighborhood near the river. This was a one-vehicle crash.Around 5 a.m. this morning, another one-vehicle crash took place, killing a woman driver at Halls Ferry Circle in the Baden neighborhood of North Saint Louis.In a separate incident on December 15, police are actively searching for the owner of a vehicle involved in a deadly hit-and-run at Gravois Ave. and Nebraska Ave. in South St. Louis. The victim died in the hospital due to their injuries.Updates on these incidents will be provided as more information becomes available.

Colorado River drought task force achieves consensus — but some water experts say recommendations “fell short”

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

The final recommendations from a statewide task force charged with finding water-saving solutions for the drying Colorado River focus largely on expanding and tweaking existing programs.That outcome has underwhelmed some water experts, prompting calls for more decisive action to address overuse and drought on the river that’s the lifeblood of the American Southwest.Delivered after four months of hours-long meetings, all but one of the eight recommendations would expand or change current programs, including initiatives aimed at continuing the measurement of snowpack, improving water infrastructure and boosting a program to replace thirsty grasses with native plants.The task force’s prescriptions fail to meet the gravity of the crisis, said Kelly Nordini, CEO of Conservation Colorado. While some recommendations would mark good steps forward, Nordini said, other substantive topics discussed by the task force did not make it to the final proposals for action.“We just f...

YESS Institute’s peer mentors build healthy school communities through social-emotional learning

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

Elijah Romero knew what it was like to be the quiet kid in school.“I didn’t really want to talk or want to engage in classes,” Elijah, a senior at Denver North High School, said.When he took an elective class from the YESS Institute at school though, he realized he could open up to his fellow students.“(The class) starts a small community in your class, and I started feeling more comfortable and realized not everyone is that bad,” Elijah said. “When I wasn’t really talking to people; I wasn’t confident in anything. Me (becoming confident) through this class made me want to help other kids here have enough confidence in themselves.”The Denver Post Season To Share is the annual holiday fundraising campaign for The Denver Post and The Denver Post Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Grants are awarded to local nonprofit agencies that provide life-changing programs to help low-income children, families and indivi...

Improving Investor Behavior: Is your home an investment?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

The former home of Groucho Marx, the cigar-chomping, round-glass-wearing comedian of the 1920s, is up for sale in Long Island, N.Y. For the low price of just $2.3 million, you too could own the five-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot home built in 1926. Marx paid a scant $27,000 for it in 1926 (roughly $465,000 in 2023 dollars) and lived there for a few years before selling and relocating to the budding Hollywood scene on the West Coast.Had Marx stayed in his home and ultimately gifted it to his children, how would his investment have performed over the years? Like many of those interested in real estate, I was curious to see how the numbers worked out. An investment purchased for $27,000 ultimately sold for $2.3 million. Seems good, right?Steve BoorenAs an investment adviser, I tend to compare returns to that of the S&P 500. Using a starting date of January 1926 and compounding until August 2023, the S&P 500 had an annual rate of return of 6.21% (excluding dividends). This means th...

Wish Book: Half Moon Bay charity helps ‘unheard and unseen’ Chinese seniors

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:20:41 GMT

They were shivering in shock, huddled under blankets in a local evacuation center when Kiki Wolfeld found them.It had been hours since their disgruntled coworker had gunned down seven others who worked at Half Moon Bay’s mushroom farms. Yingze Wang and her husband, Jinsheng Liu, were among the small group of Chinese farmworkers who had somehow survived the rampage that cool January afternoon.They were trying to comprehend what had happened and where they would go next, but no one there spoke Mandarin to explain — until Wolfeld with the nonprofit Senior Coastsiders arrived.People are brought to the family reunification center at the IDES Hall in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, after a gunman shot and killed seven people. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) “Everything will be OK,” Wolfeld, a China-born former social worker, reassured them.The nonprofit founded four decades ago had hired her just months earlier to reach out to Half Moon Bay’s elderly, larg...