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With another Toronto shelter hotel to close, residents call for action from new mayor

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

Michael Smith wants to settle down. At 71 years old, he imagines what it would be like to have his own home. Somewhere he can call up his friends, fire up the BBQ and share a meal over the sounds of his favourite music: Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley and The Doors. Smith has been homeless for about 25 years. In that time, he says the closest he’s come to a place of his own is in a downtown Toronto hotel, one of several sites the city converted to temporary homeless shelters at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Smith – who has schizophrenia, a heart condition, walks with a cane and has survived multiple strokes – was connected with a nearby family doctor shortly after he moved to the hotel in 2020, he says. Almost everyone coming and going from the hotel says hello. A cashier at the Tim Hortons next door knows him by name and comes by his table later to warn about a storm brewing. But Smith is set to be displaced when the Strathcona Hotel owner reclaims the site at the end of Au...

Tokito Oda wins wheelchair final to become youngest male Wimbledon champion

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Tokito Oda became the youngest man to win a Wimbledon singles title in any discipline after defeating Alfie Hewett in the men’s wheelchair final on Sunday.The 17-year-old Japanese player won 6-4, 6-2 on No. 1 Court to earn his second straight Grand Slam title after also winning the French Open in June.“I’m still 17. So, I want to open a champagne, but I couldn’t,” Oda said. “So I have to drink sparkling water.”His French Open victory, where he also beat Hewett in the final, made Oda the youngest man to win a Grand Slam singles title in any discipline — excluding juniors — at 17 years, 33 days.He was 17 years, 69 days when he won the Wimbledon title. Boris Becker was the youngest men’s singles champion at the All England Club at 17 years, 228 days in 1985.In the women’s wheelchair doubles final, Diede De Groot followed up her singles victory by adding another title alongside Jiske Griffioen. The Dutch pair beat Yui Kamiji of Japan and Kgoth...

N.W.T. researchers studying permafrost, ‘the foundation on which everything is built’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

INUVIK, N.W.T. — Off the side of the road not far from the airport in Inuvik, N.W.T., among the shrubs and spruce trees, a series of rusted metal bars are buried deep in the ground. Installed in 2004, they are helping researchers measure how the ground is changing over time.Jennifer Humphries, permafrost specialist at the Aurora Research Institute, says it’s the only site in the world south of the treeline looking at the long-term thermal expansion and contraction of the ground connected to annual changes in air temperature. She says the ground there has been expanding two centimetres every year. “It is a very neat site,” she says.Past clouds of buzzing insects, several trees nearby sport metal platforms attached to their slim trunks, measuring changes in tilt. As the permafrost degrades unevenly below, Humphries says it can cause what’s known as “drunken forests” where off-kilter trees lean in different directions.This is one of several places in...

Threads collects so much sensitive information it’s a ‘hacker’s dream,’ experts say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

It knows when you’ve been online shopping, the last time you worked out and whether you’ve been lurking on your ex’s profile.Meta’s new social media platform Threads is gobbling up massive amounts of sensitive data on its 100 million users and counting.The specificity and quantity of information the text and multimedia platform can access poses a risk to most users, if it falls into the wrong hands or is used to target them, tech experts agree.“This is a hacker’s dream,” said Claudette McGowan, a longtime banking executive who founded Protexxa, a Toronto-based platform that uses artificial intelligence to rapidly identify and resolve cyber issues for employees.“The more data you have sitting in a certain position (or) spot is going to get people really, really excited about getting access to it and being very creative about it.”Threads falls under Meta’s wider privacy policy that covers its other social media platforms, Facebook and Instagra...

Sunday Brunch: Khmai Fine Dining

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

Join Sunday Brunch this morning with Khmai Fine Dining to showcase authentic Cambodian food.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

California woman kidnapped in Mexico released by captors, FBI says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

SAN MATEO, Calif. (KRON) — A San Mateo, California woman who was kidnapped in Mexico last year has been found and will soon be reunited with her Bay Area family, the FBI has confirmed.Monica De Leon Barba was walking her dog in Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Mexico on Nov. 29, 2022, when she was kidnapped, the FBI previously shared.Authorities said De Leon Barba, a U.S. citizen living in Mexico at the time, was held in captivity until Friday, when she was released by her captors. No arrests have been made in connection to her kidnapping and an investigation remains underway. The FBI shared video of her suspected kidnapping to the public in April to help find her. In the video, De Leon Barba can be seen walking along the road with her dog before apparently being forced into a vehicle by several suspects. Alabama woman who disappeared after reporting child along interstate found In a second clip, three cars used in the kidnapping were highlighted, the FBI said. The descriptions of five suspe...

Weekend Break: Voyage en France

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

Check out today's segment of Weekend Break with Erik Runge where he takes a trip to Voyage en France in Wheaton.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

Why guys who post a lot on social media are seen as less manly

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

(The Conversation) - For better or worse, much of life is categorized along gendered lines: Clothing stores have sections for men and women, certain foods are considered more manly or more feminine, and even drinks can take on a gendered sheen (“manmosa,” anyone?).Our newly published research finds that even social media is a canvas for rigid gender stereotyping.Specifically, we show that men who post often on social media are seen as feminine, a phenomenon we refer to as the “frequent-posting femininity stereotype.” We observed this bias in four experiments featuring over 1,300 respondents from the U.S. and U.K.To post is to be seen as unmanlyAs consumer behavior researchers, we have long been interested in the contradictions, peculiarities and restrictions associated with masculinity.These dynamics have far-reaching implications in the world of marketing. It is widely known, for example, that Coke Zero was created as an alternative to Diet Coke, a product that ...

Alabama woman who disappeared after reporting child along interstate found

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

HOOVER, Ala. (WIAT) — The search for a 25-year-old woman in Alabama has come to an end after authorities say she returned home, ending a two-day search. Carlethia “Carlee” Russell called police Thursday night, reporting that she had seen a toddler walking along I-459 in Hoover, Alabama, a city just outside of Birmingham. She then called a family member to tell them she was stopping to check on the child, police said.“The family member lost contact with the caller, but the line remained open,” Lt. Daniel Lowe of the Hoover Police said at a news conference on Friday. Officials give timeline leading up to the disappearance of Birmingham woman Police found Russell's car and some of her belongings near the scene, but were unable to find her or the child. There had also been no reports of a missing child that night. A witness, meanwhile, had reported seeing a man and a gray vehicle near the area where Russell reported seeing the toddler, Lowe said.Russell’s parents, Talitha and Carlos R...

Real World Economics: Changing climate pressures insurers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:01 GMT

Edward LottermanThe invention of insurance more than five centuries ago was at least as key to the development of modern economies as the steam engine.Being able to spread risk from those engaging in an enterprising activity to others who were willing to absorb it for a fee facilitated greater trade and investment.Virtually every household and business buys insurance. But the property and casualty part of the industry is in rough waters. Some companies are insolvent. Others are no longer serving large geographic markets.Longstanding policyholders suddenly find that firms with which they have done business for years are not just raising rates, but rather refusing entirely to renew coverage. Homeowners — and condo owners associations — scramble to get coverage that, if for no other reason, understandably is required by mortgage lenders.Commercial property owners, including farmers, face the same price and coverage shocks.State insurance regulators and legislators often see...