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Massive potash mine being built in Saskatchewan breaks new ground for women

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

In July of this year, mining giant BHP announced a company first.More than 14,000 kilometres away from its Melbourne, Australia headquarters, BHP said it had achieved its “gender balance” target for its local workforce in Saskatchewan.With women making up more than 43 per cent of the company’s workforce at its Jansen potash mine project as well as its Saskatoon corporate office, the province became the first BHP location in the world to reach a goal set back in 2016.That was when the Australian multinational announced its aim to achieve gender balance — defined by the company as a minimum of 40 per cent women and 40 per cent men — across its global workforce by the end of 2025.BHP had good reason to hail its Saskatchewan achievement, which was no small feat in an industry where the typical worker has long been a burly hard-hatted man. As recently as 2019 in Canada, federal government statistics showed just 14 per cent of this country’s mining sector workforce...

Bangladesh’s top court upholds decision barring largest Islamist party from elections

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s highest court on Sunday dismissed an appeal by the country’s largest Islamist party seeking to overturn a 2013 ruling that barred it from participating in elections for violating the constitutional provision of secularismBangladesh is set to hold its next national elections on Jan. 7. A five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan handed out the ruling. Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s main lawyer did not appear before the court due to “personal problems” and his petition, filed previously, seeking to postpone the hearing for six weeks was also rejected.The High Court’s decision 10 years ago canceled the party’s registration with the Election Commission, thus stopping it from participating in elections or using party symbols. But it did not ban it from political particpation. The ruling, at the time, came amid calls to ban the party for opposing the country’s 1971 independe...

16-year-old boy fatally shot during altercation in Austin home: CPD

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

CHICAGO -- A 16-year-old boy is dead after he was shot by a known man inside an Austin home Saturday night, police said. According to police, the teen was in a physical altercation inside the home in the 100 block of North Parkside Avenue around 8:34 p.m. with a known 33-year-old man who then fired shots. 4 Edgewater businesses targeted in smash & grab The boy sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and was pronounced dead on the scene.A witness told police that the man fled the residence with a handgun. There is currently no one in custody and police are investigating the incident.

3 people, including police officer, injured after car crash on South Side

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

CHICAGO -- Three people including a Chicago officer are injured after a crash in the Back of the Yards neighborhood overnight, police said. According to Chicago police, the incident occurred near the corner of 47th Street and Damen Avenue around 3:30 a.m. An off-duty officer was driving when another car entered on-coming traffic and crashed into the police car. Chicago man accused of promoting prostitution arrested after allegedly failing to appear for court date The officer was transported to the hospital with a broken hip.The 33-year-old woman driving the other vehicle was transported to Stroger Hospital with a broken wrist. A 12-year-old boy who was a passenger in her vehicle was also transported to the hospital for observation. The woman was later taken into custody. Charges are pending and police are investigating the incident.

A little rain today and Monday

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Low rain chances continue for our area today through tomorrow. The 20% chance of rain today, overnight and Monday will yield totals up to no more than .01" to .10".Looking at a few showers Monday before a cold front arrives NWS Austin to start issuing ‘Ice Storm Warnings’ Temperatures this afternoon will warm to the upper 60s to low 70s with a south wind 10 to 15 mph. A drier and warmer southwest to west wind Monday will send many highs to the upper 70s to lower/middle 80s.Today's normal high is 70°The next cold front arrives during the day Monday delivering a strong northwest to north wind. Most highs Tuesday and Wednesday will peak only in the upper 50s to low 60s. Northwest to north winds Monday night and Tuesday are expected with gusts as high as 25 to 30+ mph.Thanksgiving Day will start with the coldest morning of the week as most lows fall to the middle to upper 30s. There may well be a freeze in some of the Hill Country. Most highs under the mostly sunny sk...

How does Texas' Thanksgiving food compare to other parts of the US?

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and millions of Texans will gather with family, friends and loved ones next Thursday to break bread and celebrate the blessings in their lives. But how does that dinner table spread compare to other parts of the country?While turkey is the centerpiece to many Americans' Thanksgiving meal, fried or smoked turkey are particularly popular in the Lone Star State, as documented by media platform Wide Open Country. Honey baked ham is also a common alternative for those who aren't much of a turkey eater.There are also Mexican dishes that have become cornerstones of the Texas Thanksgiving celebration, such as tamales or charro beans. Casseroles like sweet potato or green bean varieties are also particularly prevalent in Texas cooking, and pair well with biscuits and cornbread dressing.But no meal is complete without dessert, and pecan pie is a Texas staple that tends to make its way onto the menu alongside pumpkin and apple pies. Swee...

Letters: Summit’s an ‘avenue.’ A spur might make a better ‘trail’

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

Want a trail? Grab the spurI read that the Met Council has agreed that Summit Avenue is considered to be consistent with its policies as a regional trail system. What? A trail? I don’t know about you, but my interpretation of a trail is an unpaved path winding through the woods, with a compass or GPS device in hand.Last time I looked, Summit Avenue is an avenue, and my interpretation of an avenue is a road cleared and paved for motorized travel.If the Met Council wants to get in some good work, how about settle the purchase of the railway leaving the old Ford plant, now the site of the Highland Bridge project?The railway is owned by the Canadian Pacific railway and they have not surrendered their hold on the spur. Long abandoned and a bit long in the weeds, it looks like a dandy spot to run a bikeway for the two-wheelers. The Met Council must abandon setting their sights on the Summit and spur on the sale of the spur.Mark Kirchner, St. Paul Our discipline problemWe have a disci...

The U.S. just released a massive new climate change analysis. Here’s what it says about Colorado’s future.

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

Colorado is slated for a future with less water, shrinking snowpack, more disastrous wildfires and an unpredictable agricultural economy as climate change continues to drive warming and aridification across the state and region, according to a massive new federal climate report.The Fifth National Climate Assessment — released by the White House on Tuesday — combines thousands of studies and spells out the risks a warming world poses to American society. The last such assessment was released in 2018.Climate change is “harming physical, mental, spiritual and community health and well-being through the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme events, increasing cases of infectious and vector-borne diseases, and declines in food and water quality and security,” the assessment said.The lower 48 states since 1970 have warmed by 2.5 degrees compared to the global average of 1.7 degrees, according to the report. The warming has created rising sea levels, increased wea...

Improving Investor Behavior: 45 years, 20 lessons

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

A few weeks ago I attended the retirement party of a dear friend of almost 50 years. Long ago, we were both young financial advisors chasing similar career paths. We even migrated to independent businesses around the same time. His retirement prompted me to reflect with gratitude on all my opportunities and lessons from the past four decades.At the outset of my career, my goal was (and still is) to help people find their freedoms: freedom of time, freedom of work, freedom of relationships, and freedom of purpose. Along the way, I’ve learned the nuances that come with working toward those freedoms. With that focus on freedom, here are my 20 lessons to help improve your investor behavior, which I’ve learned over the last 45 years of working with clients. Some may seem to repeat a bit in theme, but that’s only because they reinforce behaviors that I see as crucial.Steve Booren1. Simplicity beats complexity. Complexity is harder to implement than simplicity, and it always sounds “smarte...

Denver schools swell with more than 2,000 new migrant students as district scrambles to meet kids’ needs

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

Nadia Madan-Morrow found herself in a bind Tuesday morning. She was short 11 teachers.Some accompanied fifth-graders on an overnight trip into the mountains, while others called out sick because they had COVID-19 — a sign that three years after the pandemic began, both the virus and the statewide shortage of substitute teachers continue to plague schools.But the principal of Denver’s Place Bridge Academy wasn’t just scrambling to staff classrooms last week. She faced another problem: The lunch period for seventh- and eighth-graders has swelled to more than 200 students — too many to supervise all at once — after an unprecedented number of migrant children enrolled in Place Bridge since the start of the school year.“This influx of kiddos is happening on top of all of the other challenges schools are facing after the pandemic,” Madan-Morrow said.Her school, which serves preschoolers through middle schoolers in southeast Denver, is on the frontline of the city&#...