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FIFA to fund Canada’s soccer league

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

World football/soccer organization FIFA has announced it will be providing funding to Canada’s premier league in an effort to help grow a “player pathway.”Five years ago, the Canadian Premier League was created to establish and help grow soccer across the country, by giving Canadian talent a place to play.Five seasons and two playoff champions later, the CPL has seen many successes.FIFA says $2 million will be invested into the league between 2023 and 2026.The funding is expected to go toward travel, accommodation, and match fees of the league’s referees, as well as supporting the travel and accommodation budgets of teams.“We are pleased to support CSA and CPL through the FIFA Forward Programme in creating opportunities for Canadian players to excel at the highest levels of domestic football,” said Andrea Pizzati, FIFA Member Associations Regional Coordinator – Americas.“The CPL serves as a crucial component in Canada’s football development pathway and looking back...

Federal offender Stamatakos, ‘Toronto’s Joker,’ still wanted despite sighting claims

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says the search continues for a man wanted on a Canada-wide arrest warrant despite recent videos on social media of citizens claiming to know where he is. Federal offender Michael Stamatakos, 31, is wanted for once again breaching his statutory release. The same suspect was wanted in February for the same reason. He was taken into custody a few weeks later when he was recognized while checking himself into a hospital in Hamilton.Last month, the TikTok account “Toronto’s Joker”uploaded videos of a man who resembles Stamatakos and appears to mock Toronto police. In one, he stands in front of a Toronto police cruiser, sticking his tongue out. The TikTok account has since been deleted or suspended.More recently, one TikTok video recorded in Durham Region of someone being taken into custody outside of a residence in Oshawa went viral, with many claiming the suspect was Stamatakos. A Durham R...

Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí helped beat sexism in Spain. Now it’s time to ‘focus on soccer’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

SANT JOAN DESPÍ, Spain (AP) — It’s been a whirlwind last few months for Aitana Bonmatí, the newly crowned Ballon d’Or winner, with memorable victories on and off the field.Far from the days of being the only girl playing on her village’s soccer team, Bonmati led Spain to Women’s World Cup glory in August after helping Barcelona win the Champions League for a second time, while being named the best player at both competitions.The 25-year-old midfielder was also named the best player in the world along with Lionel Messi.Amid all the huge successes, it has also been a fraught time for Bonmatí after she and her fellow Spain teammates decided they would not be silent when the now-former president of the Spanish soccer federation Luis Rubiales kissed forward Jenni Hermoso on the lips without her consent during the World Cup awards ceremony, drawing attention away from their greatest achievement.While Bonmatí says that taking a stand was a source of pride and strength for the players...

Georgia lawmakers launch investigation of troubled Fulton County Jail in Atlanta

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — The troubled jail in Atlanta where former President Donald Trump surrendered in August is in such bad shape that inmates are able to make weapons from broken flooring and pipes, an attorney for the sheriff’s office told state lawmakers Thursday.But Amelia Joiner also said the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office had made progress in recent months to reduce overcrowding across its jail facilities.Joiner was among several people who testified on the first day of hearings before a state Senate subcommittee studying problems with the jail system in Georgia’s most populous county. Fulton County’s main jail, which opened in 1989 in a neighborhood west of downtown Atlanta, has been plagued by overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and violence. Ten people have died in Fulton County custody this year, Joiner said. The U.S. Department of Justice announced earlier this year that it had opened a civil rights investigation into conditions in the jail system, which has fi...

Pembina Pipeline reports record third quarter; raises full-year guidance

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

CALGARY — Pembina Pipeline Corp. says it earned $346 million in the third quarter of 2023, down from $1.8 billion in the same three-month period of 2022.The Calgary-based pipeline company says the decrease was primarily due to the benefit in 2022 from a gain on the change in ownership of the majority of Pembina’s field-based gas processing assets, which were wholly-owned prior to the creation of Pembina Gas Infrastructure last year.On an adjusted basis, Pembina said it earned a record $1.02 million, a six per cent increase over the third quarter of 2022.The company attributed the results to record quarterly conventional pipelines volumes, rising utilization on other key systems, and a strong contribution from Pembina’s marketing business.Pembina says based on these results, it is raising its full-year earnings guidance range for 2023 to between $3.75 billion and $3.85 billion, up from a previous estimate of $3.55 billion to $3.75 billion.Pembina reported third-quarter re...

Virginia governor orders schools to disclose details of school-related drug overdoses

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

Gov. Glenn Youngkin has issued an executive order requiring school systems to notify parents of school-related overdoses after the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said there have been seven fentanyl-related overdoses connected to one high school in the last three weeks.Both Youngkin and Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman faulted the Loudoun school system for failing to timely notify parents of the rash of overdoses in recent weeks at Park View High School in Sterling. None of the overdoses were fatal but several occurred on school grounds and required CPR or the administration of naloxone to save the students’ lives, according to the sheriff’s office.School officials say they are taking the issue seriously and working with the sheriff’s office to combat the problem.Chapman said his deputies had been in touch with school officials, and had been under the impression that the school system was going to notify parents of what was happening. On Tuesday Park View’...

Cornell cancels classes after student is charged with threatening Jewish people on campus

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Cornell University has canceled classes on Friday after a student was charged with making online antisemitic threats against Jewish people on campus. Cornell junior Patrick Dai, 21, has been charged with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications after authorities say he made threatening comments on an online Greek Life forum over the weekend. He was held without bail following his first appearance in federal court. The statements prompted officials to send police to guard a Jewish center and kosher dining hall as unnerved students feared for their safety. Cornell Hillel, a Jewish campus organization, advised students and staff to avoid the dining hall “in an abundance of caution.”A spokeswoman at the Ivy League school said the decision to close on Friday was made “in recognition of the extraordinary stress of the past few weeks.” Faculty and nonessential staff will also be excused from work. There has been a swell of both antisem...

Big city mayors get audience with administration officials to pitch a request for help with migrants

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Biden administration officials hosted big city mayors at the White House on Thursday to discuss how to manage a growing number of migrants, one day after those leaders sent a letter asking for more federal help. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson met with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and Homeland Security Department officials before heading to Capitol Hill for meetings with lawmakers. “I had a good series of conversations,” said Johnston, who led the coalition. “I think we shared our sense of urgency and we shared this belief that we need funding, but really what we want is a longer-term solution.” The other Democratic mayors who signed onto the letter to President Joe Biden were Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Sylvester Turner of Houston and Eric Adams of New York. The meeting came together quickly and not all five could make it.Adams said he was abruptly returning home from a planned trip to Washington so he could “deal with a...

Lights shut off during immigration chaos at Chicago City Council special meeting

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

CHICAGO — A special Chicago City Council meeting led to some chaos as the council members met to vote on a possible referendum on the city's status as a Sanctuary City.For the referendum vote to happen, there needs to be at least 26 alderpeople present. The fractured body, throughout the contentious day, made multiple attempts to vote but came up short. Mayor Johnson in Washington D.C. over migrant crisis The meeting comes as Mayor Brandon Johnson is in Washington D.C. in an urgent attempt to get funding to deal with the crisis.The meeting ended with shouts and accusations. Venezuelan migrants accused of stealing nearly $3K in merchandise from Oak Brook Macy’s The lights were turned off in the midst of a chaotic debate as alderpeople argued about what constitutes a quorum."It's becoming very frustrating to get business done in the appropriate manner," 32nd Ward Ald. Scott Waguespack said. Dozens of alderpeople argued for citizens to vote on Chicago's decades-old Sanctuary ...

After loss of baby, couple honors her memory with NICU little libraries

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:13 GMT

It has been almost a year and a half since Nina Trader and her husband Derek Braasch made their way up into Central DuPage Hospital. But now instead of pushing a stroller, they push a cart packed with boxes full of books. It’s all in the name of Sophia, the premature baby girl they lost."This was our first child. We went through fertility issues for seven years before conceiving her," Nina Trader said. "She was 25 weeks and a day. Only 15 ounces. It was tough.”The family spent weeks in the NICU. Sophia’s passing had the couple drowning in grief. They knew they needed to find a way to turn their pain into purpose. Dr. Jeffrey Lawhead is the medical director of the NICU at Central DuPage Hospital."In the rare occasions when things don't end up well, the families are really trying to figure out what it's all about, what's the meaning of it and how can we honor our daughter or son's existence," he said. More from Erin: Doctor, retired music teacher team up to bring healing music ...