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Ontario investigates fee-for-access nurse practitioner walk-in clinics

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones says the government is investigating a walk-in clinic in Ottawa that is reportedly charging patients $400 a year for access.Several local media reports say the South Keys Health Center is set to soon open, with the membership fee on top of billings for individual services from the clinic’s nurse practitioners.CityNews has learned of a similar nurse practitioner’s clinic in Toronto offering packages for $1,200 a year that provide “unrushed appointments” that start on time and “on-site lab testing.”While it would be illegal to charge such a fee for access to doctors or other services covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, nurse practitioners don’t fall under the same banner.“If it is happening, then the practice will be shut down,” said Jones. “If there is a situation where OHIP-funded services are being charged, patients have an opportunity to report those.”The clinic directo...

Vancouver housing market more balanced after spring and summer slowdown: board

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

VANCOUVER — The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says a jump in new listings is helping to bring some balance back to the region’s housing market.The board says September sales totalled 1,926, a 13.2 per cent increase from the 1,701 sales recorded the same month last year. But the total was 26.3 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average of 2,614 and marked a 16.1 per cent drop from 2,296 sales in August.The figures include multifamily and land sales, which the board says typically account for less than one to two per cent of those totals.There were 5,446 new listings last month, a 28.4 per cent increase from a year earlier, as new listings were 5.2 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average.The composite benchmark home price in September for Metro Vancouver was $1,203,300, a 4.4 per cent increase from September 2022 and a 0.4 per cent decrease from August 2023.Andrew Lis, the board’s director of economics and data analytics, says the upward shift in new listings...

What to do with 1.1 million bullets seized from Iran? US ships them to Ukraine

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia has long turned to Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine. Now Ukrainian forces will be using bullets seized from Iran against Russia troops.A U.S. Navy ship seized the 1.1 million rounds off of a vessel that was being used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to arm Houthi rebels in Yemen’s civil war in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution. . Those 7.62 mm rounds have now been transferred to Ukraine, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday. The much-needed ammunition has been sent at a time when continued U.S. financial support for Kyiv’s fight to defend itself remains in question. The 7.62 mm ammunition is the standard round for Soviet-era Kalashnikov assault rifles and their many derivatives. Ukraine, as a former Soviet republic, still relies on the Kalashnikov for many of its units.The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet and its allies have intercepted numerous ships believed to be transporting weapons and ammunition from Iran to Yemen in su...

Turkey warns of more strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria after bombing in Ankara

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister warned Wednesday that Kurdish militants behind a suicide bombing in the Turkish capital earlier this week would face continued retaliatory airstrikes on positions belonging to the militant group in Syria and Iraq.The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack outside the Interior Ministry in Ankara in which one attacker blew himself up and another would-be bomber was killed in a shootout with police. Two police were wounded in the attack.Turkish warplanes already have conducted two airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant sites in northern Iraq following the attack, which came as parliament prepared to reopen after a long summer recess. Meanwhile, dozens of people suspected of links to the PKK have been detained in a series of raids across Turkey.Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference that Turkish intelligence officials have established that the two assailants arrived from Syri...

US appeals court hears arguments over 2010 hush-money settlement of Ronaldo rape case in Vegas

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A United States appeals court didn’t immediately issue a ruling after listening to arguments on Wednesday from lawyers trying to revive a woman’s bid to force international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions more than the $375,000 in hush money he paid her after she accused him of raping her in Las Vegas in 2009. An attorney for the woman is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the dismissal of the case in June 2022 and reopen the civil lawsuit she first filed in Nevada in 2018.The appeal argues the federal court judge in Nevada erred in repeatedly rejecting the woman’s attempts to unseal and include as evidence the confidentiality agreement she signed in 2010 in accepting payments from Ronaldo.Judge Johnnie Rawlinson declared the three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appellate court in recess and said they would consider the appeal as submitted following about 45 minutes of oral arguments Wednesday from lawyers for Ronald...

Tearful mourners pay their respects to Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco’s City Hall

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Mourners bearing bouquets and cards paid their respects Wednesday to the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco City Hall, where she launched her groundbreaking political career and spent a decade as the city’s first female mayor.Musicians played the violin and other string instruments as a steady line of people snaked into the City Hall rotunda, where her casket was on display behind velvet ropes. People brought flowers that were later whisked away by staff, stood for a few seconds in contemplation or squeezed back tears before moving on to a side room to sign condolence books.Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also of San Francisco, was among the officials in attendance. Feinstein died Thursday at her Washington, D.C., home after a series of illnesses.Jose Romero Cooper, 61, and 73-year-old Mark Cooper were among the first to say goodbye, waiting in line before doors were open to the public. The married couple said they had followed Feinst...

Biden suggests he has path around Congress to get more aid to Ukraine, says he plans major speech

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a likely roadblock from House Republicans on aid for Ukraine, President Joe Biden said Wednesday he’s planning to give a major speech on the issue and suggested there may be “another means” to provide support for Kyiv if Congress continues to balk.“I’m going to be announcing very shortly a major speech I’m going to make on this issue and why it’s critically important for the United States and our allies that we keep our commitment” to Ukraine, Biden told reporters after giving unrelated remarks at the White House.White House officials declined to say when Biden planned to give his speech. The president did not elaborate on the alternate method he was looking at to get additional military aid to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. “There is another means by which we may be able to find funding, but I’m not going to get into that right now,” he said.Aid for Ukraine has been a source of tension and uncertainty as several Republicans in the House have ...

Novavax touts non-mRNA COVID vaccine, future of domestic production remains uncertain

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

OTTAWA — The last remaining manufacturer to offer an alternative to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in Canada is boasting about the importance of having several available vaccine options — though the company is providing little certainty about its ability to manufacture the shot domestically.Maryland-based Novavax held a press conference to tout the safety and efficacy of its updated vaccine, which targets more recent strains of COVID-19, and the importance of having an option for people who can’t or won’t accept an mRNA shot.The new formulation is awaiting Health Canada approval.The federal government has promised to make the Novavax vaccine in Canada at the purpose-built National Research Council’s biologics manufacturing centre in Montreal, but it has not yet been approved to start bulk production.This summer, Ottawa amended its purchasing agreement with Novavax, and now has the ability to end the deal if bulk production doesn’t start by the end of 2024.The company...

Capitol rioter from Illinois who attacked Reuters cameraman, police officer gets more than 4 years in prison

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

A man who attacked a police officer and a Reuters cameraman during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than four years in prison.Shane Jason Woods, 45, was the first person charged with assaulting a member of the news media during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.Woods, of Auburn, Illinois, took a running start and tackled the Reuters cameraman “like an NFL linebacker hunting a quarterback after an interception,” federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing.Woods also attacked and injured a Capitol police officer who was 100 pounds (45 kilograms) lighter than him, according to prosecutors. He blindsided the officer, knocking her off her feet and into a metal barricade. The next day, the officer was still in pain and said she felt as if she had been “hit by a truck," prosecutors said.“Woods’ actions were as cowardly as they were violent and opportunistic," prosecutors wrote. "He targeted people smaller than him who did not see him coming. He attacked people who had ...

Say goodbye to the COVID vaccine card: The CDC has stopped printing them

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:26 GMT

(AP) — It's the end of an era for a once-critical pandemic document: The ubiquitous white COVID-19 vaccination cards are being phased out.Now that COVID-19 vaccines are not being distributed by the federal government, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped printing new cards.The federal government shipped more than 980 million cards between late 2020, when the first vaccines came out, through May 10, according to the latest available data from the CDC.Federal and local health officials don't expect the discontinuation of the cards to be a particularly big change, since the days of keeping them tucked in purses and wallets to ensure entry into festivals, bars and restaurants are largely over. If you’ve held on to your card, it’s still valid as proof of vaccination. Otherwise, people who need their COVID-19 immunization records will need to request them just like any other vaccine. Free COVID tests are arriving – but they may look expired In many cases,...