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Remote work giant wants workers back in the office

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

NEW YORK  — The company whose name became synonymous with remote work is joining the growing return-to-office trend.Zoom, the video conferencing pioneer, is asking employees who live within a 50-mile radius of its offices to work onsite two days a week, a company spokesperson confirmed in an email. The statement said the company has decided that “a structured hybrid approach – meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams – is most effective for Zoom.”The new policy, which will be rolled out in August and September, was first reported by the New York Times, which said Zoom CEO Eric Yuan fielded questions from employees unhappy with the new policy during a Zoom meeting last week.Zoom, based in San Jose, California, saw explosive growth during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic as companies scrambled to shift to remote work, and even families and friends turned to the platform for virtual gatherings. But that...

COVID hospitalizations jump again: How bad is it in San Diego?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – For the second week in a row, the number of people being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 rose significantly, by more than 12%.An additional 9,056 people were hospitalized with the virus last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – that represents a 12.5% jump. The summer wave started a few weeks ago. Last week, the number of new hospitalizations was up 12.1%.In about two dozen states, the surge in hospitalizations is far more than 12%. Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming all saw more than a 20% increase in new COVID hospitalizations. Map: Does your drinking water contain ‘forever chemicals’? New Hampshire saw the biggest jump in a single week – 96%, or a near doubling in the number of people being admitted. Hover over your state on the map (below) to see the percent incre...

Health advocacy work helped to heal Mark Holland during mental health crisis

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

OTTAWA — Advocating for the health of Canadians gave Mark Holland a sense of purpose he needed to help pull him out of the darkest period of his life, the newly appointed health minister said in an interview. After moving from government House leader to the health portfolio, he says it’s “the dream” to work in a ministerial posting he’s so passionate about. Holland was a career politician when he lost his seat in the 2011 election, serving first as an Ontario city councillor in Pickering and Durham before running for federal office in 2004.When he lost, he fell into despair. “I had lost my sense of professional purpose, I’d lost politics,” he said.He spoke candidly last fall about the mental-health struggle he endured at that time. He was told he was toxic, that no organization would want to hire him. His marriage failed and he was “not in a good place” with his children.Holland said that he had tried to take his own life.“...

Air Force veteran Tony Grady joins Nevada’s crowded Senate GOP field, which includes former ally

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Retired Air Force Lt. Col. and former Lt. Gov. candidate Tony Grady announced his bid for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, joining an increasingly crowded GOP field hoping to unseat Democrat Jacky Rosen in what will be one of the most closely watched Senate races next year.The announcement came with a minute-long action movie-themed launch video, emphasizing campaign issues such as crime, illegal immigration and inflation, before showing clips of Grady in the Air Force.“And now Washington elites want to choose our candidate?” the video read, with pictures of Rosen and President Joe Biden speaking side by side. “Not a chance.”The GOP field includes retired Army Capt. and Purple Heart recipient Sam Brown, a former ally of Grady’s, who had long been recruited and endorsed by Washington Republicans for his ability to raise money from the party’s grassroots and his profile as a war hero in a solidly purple state known for razor-thin outcomes. The other major Republic...

A 6-year-old said ‘I did it’ after shooting his teacher at Virginia school, warrants say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — In the moments after a 6-year-old shot his teacher in a Virginia classroom last January, the boy made statements including “I shot that (expletive) dead,” and “I did it. I got my mom’s gun last night,” according to recently unsealed police search warrants.The new court documents in the city of Newport News offer fresh details regarding a shooting that critically wounded a first-grade teacher and shocked the nation. The teacher, Abby Zwerner, survived despite being shot in the hand and chest and is suing the Newport News Public Schools for $40 million. The 6-year-old’s mother, Deja Taylor, was charged with felony child neglect and a misdemeanor count of reckless storage of a firearm. A plea hearing for Taylor’s case is set for next week.The search warrants, which were unsealed after six months, said a reading specialist at Richneck Elementary was walking by Zwerner’s classroom when she heard a gunshot. “Several children ran out of classroom ...

Federal report sheds new light on Alaska helicopter crash that killed 3 scientists, pilot

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A helicopter that crashed on Alaska’s remote and vast North Slope in July, killing three state scientists and the pilot, stopped sending flight-status data to a real-time tracking system as it passed over the southeastern shoreline of an Arctic lake, according to a preliminary report on the crash released Tuesday.The Bell 206L-4 helicopter was later found fragmented and partially submerged in Lake Itinik, a large oval-shaped body of water that measures 3 miles (4.83 kilometers) wide in some places, according to the report from the National Transportation Safety Board. There was no indication in the report of what caused the helicopter to crash into the lake in clear conditions. The cause typically is detailed months later when federal investigators file their final report.The last of the helicopter’s data transmissions sent every three minutes indicated it was traveling in a northwesterly direction at an altitude of 144 feet (43.89 meters) above mean sea lev...

Amazon nations seek common voice on climate change, urge developed world to help protect rainforest

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Leaders from South American nations that are home to the Amazon challenged the developed world on Tuesday to do more to help stop massive destruction of the world’s largest rainforest, a task they said can’t fall to just a handful of countries when the crisis has been spurred by so many.Assembling Tuesday and Wednesday in the Brazilian city of Belem, the members of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, or ACTO, also sought to chart a common course on how to combat climate change, hoping a united front could give them a major voice in global talks.The calls from the presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia came as the leaders aim to fuel much-needed economic development in their regions while preventing the Amazon’s ongoing demise from reaching a “point of no return:” Some scientists say that when 20% to 25% of the forest is destroyed, rainfall would dramatically decline, transforming more than half of the rainforest to tropical savannah, with immense bio...

Electric bus maker Proterra files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

BURLINGAME, Calif. (AP) — Electric bus and truck maker Proterra says it is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from a federal court in Delaware.The Burlingame, California, company is a big supplier of buses to transit systems across the nation. A statement on Proterra’s website Monday said that it intends to maintain normal operations and will file motions with the court to use existing capital to keep funding operations, including paying employees, vendors and suppliers.President Joe Biden visited the company’s factory in South Carolina in 2021 to highlight U.S. electric vehicle makers.The company said in the statement that it’s taking action to separate its business units “to maximize their independent potential.” It sells heavy truck, van, bus and off-highway equipment equipment in the U.S., European and Asia-Pacific markets.“While our best-in-class EV and battery technologies have set an industry standard, we have faced various market and macroeconomic hea...

German man whose wife accused him of holding her captive for years to be released

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A 55-year-old German man who was arrested after his wife accused him of holding her captive for over a decade will be released without charges, the lead prosecutor in the French city of Sarreguemines said Tuesday.The woman, aged 53, was found Monday bedridden, half-naked, and with a shaved head in the couple’s home in Forbach, near the French-German border in the Grand Est region of northeastern France. She has maintained her allegations of being held captive and abused by her husband since 2011.In a statement on Tuesday evening, prosecutor Olivier Glady said there was no evidence supporting the woman’ claims of kidnapping, torture or abuse. “The situation of kidnapping which she keeps complaining about is a nonexistent reality,” he said. Glady said the husband took care of his wife following the onset of severe symptoms related to an undisclosed illness. A thorough forensic examination of the woman found no signs of rape or injury, he said.Glady said there ...

Chicago man accused of killing girl headed straight for her in apartment building, prosecutors say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:13 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The man accused of killing a 9-year-old Chicago girl who had been riding her scooter outside crossed a street and headed straight toward her in the vestibule of her apartment building before shooting her, prosecutors said Tuesday.Serabi Medina’s father, who had told her to come into the vestibule, shouted at Michael Goodman, but the man ignored him, allegedly raising his arm and shooting Medina in the head Saturday night in the Portage Park neighborhood, prosecutors said during a court hearing.The father tackled Goodman, causing the gun to go off again and striking Goodman in the eye, according to prosecutors, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Goodman has been released from the hospital after being treated for the injury and appeared in court Tuesday.The girl was rushed to Stroger Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.Goodman, 43, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. He was ordered held without bail Tuesday.Goodman had a valid license to own the gu...