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Decline of rare right whale appears to be slowing, but scientists say big threats remain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The decline of one of the rarest whales in the world appears to be slowing, but scientists warn the giant mammals still face existential threats from warming oceans, ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear.The population of North Atlantic right whales, which live off the U.S. East Coast, fell by about 25% from 2010 to 2020 and was down to only about 364 whales as of 2021. Now the whales are at around 356 in total, according to a group of scientists, industry members and government officials who study them. This suggests the population is potentially levelling off, as equal numbers of whales could be entering the population as are being killed, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium said Monday. However, getting an accurate count of the aquatic creatures involves certain ranges of error, which put estimates for 2021 and 2022 at roughly around the same number.The whales were buoyed by a strong birthing year in 2021, when 18 calves were born into the ...

After years of decline, endangered right whale population could be levelling off

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

HALIFAX — The population of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales appears to be levelling off after years of discouraging declines, according to new data released today by an international team of marine scientists.While that news is encouraging, a senior scientist with the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium says the latest data also show the number of human-caused injuries continues to rise.“There’s a delay in those injuries being accounted for,” Philip Hamilton, senior scientist at the New England Aquarium in Boston, said in a weekend interview. “People get very focused on counting the (whales). People want to have a success. But we don’t have success yet, even though things are levelling off. We’re still in pretty dire shape.”Put another way, the recent flattening of the population trend indicates that human activities are now killing as many whales as are being born each year. That represents an “untenable burden on ...

Chevron buys Hess for $53 billion, 2nd buyout among major producers this month as oil prices surge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Chevron is buying Hess Corp. for $53 billion and it’s not even the biggest acquisition in the energy sector this month as major producers seize the initiative while oil prices surge.The Chevron-Hess deal comes less than two weeks after Exxon Mobil said that it would acquire Pioneer Natural Resources for about $60 billion. Crude prices are up 9% this year and have been hovering around $90 per barrel for about two months. Chevron said Monday that the acquisition of Hess adds a major oil field in Guyana as well as shale properties in the Bakken Formation in North Dakota. Chevron is paying for Hess with stock. Hess shareholders will receive 1.0250 shares of Chevron for each Hess share. Including debt, Chevron valued the deal at $60 billion. Chevron said the deal will help to increase the amount of cash given back to shareholders. The company anticipates that in January it will be able to recommend boosting its first-quarter dividend by 8% to $1.63. This would still need ...

UAW’s confrontational leader makes gains in strike talks, but some wonder: Has he reached too far?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

WAYNE, Mich. (AP) — Throughout its 5-week-old strikes against Detroit’s automakers, the United Auto Workers union has cast an emphatically combative stance, reflecting the style of its pugnacious leader, Shawn Fain.Armed with a list of what even Fain has called “audacious” demands for better pay and benefits, the UAW leader has embodied the exasperation of workers who say they’ve struggled for years while the automakers have enjoyed billions in profits. Yet as the strikes have dragged on, analysts and even some striking workers have begun to raise a pivotal question: Does Fain have an endgame to bring the strikes to a close?People with personal ties to Fain say his approach, on the picket lines and at the bargaining table, reflects the bluntly straightforward manner he developed as he rose through the union’s ranks. He is, they say, the right man for the moment. Others, though, say they worry that Fain set such high expectations for what he can extract from the companies...

Biden names technology hubs for 32 states and Puerto Rico to help the industry and create jobs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — The Biden administration is designating 31 technology hubs touching 32 states and Puerto Rico to help spur innovation and create jobs in the industries that are concentrated in these areas.President Joe Biden is set to announce the hubs on Monday at the White House with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. “I have to say, in my entire career in public service, I have never seen as much interest in any initiative than this one,” Raimondo told reporters during a Sunday conference call to preview the announcement. Her department received 400 applications, she said. “No matter where I go or who I meet with — CEOs, governors, senators, congresspeople, university presidents — everyone wants to tell me about their application and how excited they are,” said Raimondo.The tech hubs are the result of a process Raimondo’s department launched in May to distribute a total of $500 million in grants to cities.The $500 million came from a $10 billion authorizati...

IRS crackdown on wealthy taxpayers brings in $160 million in back taxes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

(The Hill) - The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has brought in $160 million in back taxes from wealthy taxpayers, amid a recent push to crack down on top income earners.The agency said Friday that it had collected $122 million from 100 taxpayers, on top of the $38 million it collected from more than 175 high-income earners earlier this year. The 100 taxpayers resulting in the latest haul are just a portion of the 1,600 individuals that the IRS is currently contacting for hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes, according to the agency. In one case, an individual was ordered to pay more than $15 million for falsifying personal expenses — including the construction of a 51,000-square-foot mansion, luxury cars, artwork, country club memberships and homes for his children — as deductible business expenses.Another person was sentenced to more than four years in prison for fraudulently obtaining $5 million in COVID relief loans that he used to purchase multiple luxury cars...

Trump claims Sidney Powell was 'never' his attorney following lawyer's Georgia plea deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

(The Hill) - Former President Trump claimed Sunday that Sidney Powell was “never” his attorney, just days after Powell took a plea deal in the Georgia election interference case. “Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to ask the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted,” the former president said in a Truth Social post. Trump reiterated false claims that he won the 2020 presidential election and said that while Powell was not his attorney, she was "one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still" think so, as well. The former president praised Powell, though, for her representation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn in 2019 following special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into the 2016 presidential election.“Ms. Powell did a valiant job of representing a very unfairly treated and governmentally abused General Mike...

Low fuel supplies for Gaza's hospital generators put premature babies in incubators at risk

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A premature baby squirms inside a glass incubator in the neonatal ward of al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip. He cries out as intravenous lines are connected to his tiny body. A ventilator helps him breathe as a catheter delivers medication and monitors flash his fragile vital signs.His life hinges on the constant flow of electricity, which is in danger of running out imminently unless the hospital can get more fuel for its generators. Once the generators stop, hospital director Iyad Abu Zahar fears that the babies in the ward, unable to breathe on their own, will perish.“The responsibility on us is huge,” he said.Doctors treating premature babies across Gaza are grappling with similar fears. At least 130 premature babies are at “grave risk” across six neonatal units, aid workers said. The dangerous fuel shortages are caused by the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which started — along with airstrikes — after Hamas militants attacked Israeli towns o...

The rain has started

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Showers and thunderstorms moved into Caldwell and Hays Counties before 4:30 this morning. There was also light rain on the west side of Mason County. These are the first showers and thunderstorms that will affect Central Texas this week.Moisture from former Hurricane Norma has been moving into our area to combine with surface moisture from the Gulf to saturate the atmosphere. This morning's map also shows an upper-level low over California that will move to the Baja Peninsula then head to Texas. This will keep rain/thunderstorms chances from tomorrow into the weekend.Updated projected rain totals Most of the thunderstorms will remain below severe criteria but the Storm Prediction Center does have Gillespie, Llano, Mason, and San Saba Counties in a Marginal Risk for severe storms on Wednesday.Most thunderstorms should remain below severe limitsThe Weather Prediction has Mason and San Saba Counties under a Marginal Risk for flash flooding on Wednesday.Marginal flash f...

Largest infrastructure project in Cottage Grove’s history will remove ‘forever chemicals’ from water supply

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:10:52 GMT

The city of Cottage Grove recently broke ground on its largest infrastructure project to date: a $39 million low-zone water-treatment plant at the intersection of 110th Street and Ideal Avenue.The new plant, which includes a new city well, will treat all the water in the city south of U.S. Highway 61, said Ryan Burfeind, the city’s public works director. It is expected to be operational by June 2025.The new well will replace two wells contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) “that are far removed from the main treatment plant,” Burfeind said. “It’s actually cheaper to drill a new well as opposed to laying miles and miles of pipe.”The money for the construction of the plant is coming from the city’s share of the $850 million settlement reached in 2018 between the state of Minnesota and 3M Co., the company that made the PFAS substances that have leaked into water supplies across the metro area and worldwide.The groundbreaking “signaled the start of the permanent solution, lon...