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Thirsty Thursday? How midweek and weekend Virginia booze sales stack up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

If you don’t like lines, Thursday may be a better day than Saturday to shop for booze in Virginia.Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority has released its fiscal year 2023 sales results, and Saturday is still the biggest day for sales.Saturday sales at the state’s 339 ABC stores totaled $280.4 million in fiscal 2023 — almost 25% of weekly retail sales. Sunday sales totaled $102.3 million.Daily sales rose every day except Thursday.Virginia ABC stores sell to both retail customers and businesses that hold liquor licenses, such as bars and restaurants. Retail sales rose by $44.6 million to $1.18 billion, with $8.8 million in online sales. Sales to licensees totaled $250.4 million, an increase of nearly $21 million, indicating what ABC calls continued strength of Virginia’s hospitality industry.The total $1.5 billion in sales was up $54.3 million over fiscal 2022. Those sales include distilled spirits, Virginia wines and mixers and the collection of license fees ...

Mayor to provide update on Denver homelessness following 2nd sweep

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver Mayor Mike Johnston will provide another update on the city's homelessness state of emergency following a second encampment sweep.At 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Johnston will address the latest activity that supports the state of emergency. Mayor Mike Johnston declares emergency over homelessness in Denver This update comes hours after the city conducted a sweep of an encampment between 17th and 18th and Logan.Mayor postpones encampment sweepFOX31 originally learned about the sweep late Tuesday night. It comes three days after a shooting on the same street sent two people to the hospital.The original announcement only gave those living in the encampment less than a day's notice. Denver’s mayor plans to house 1,000 homeless. Will it work? After speaking with advocacy groups, Johnston decided to postpone the sweep one extra day and start at 7 a.m. on Thursday, “in an effort to give people living in the encampment additional time to plan their next steps.”Johnston h...

‘One day I hope to hug you in heaven,’ New Hampshire nurse tells kidnappers who held her for 13 days in Haiti

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

(CNN) — American nurse Alix Dorsainvil gladly would give medical care to the captors who held her and her daughter hostage for nearly two weeks this summer in Haiti, she said in her first public comments since the pair’s release this month.“I want you guys to know that everything I said during my time in captivity was sincere,” Dorsainvil said directly to her abductors in Haitian Creole in a video on YouTube also shared on the website of the community ministry where she works.“They were not the manipulative words of someone desperate to escape but simply the truth, especially when I told you my clinic doors are always open to you or anyone in need when you’re sick or wounded, without any problem.”The New Hampshire native also told the kidnappers, whom she called “gangsters,” she holds “no grudges against you in my heart,” adding, “I love you in Christ, and one day I hope to hug you in heaven.”Dorsainvil and her daughter were set free 13 days after they ...

FDA warns against using certain eye drops over microbial contamination

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

(CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning against buying or using certain eye drops from Dr. Berne’s and LightEyez due to microbial contamination.The drops contain methylsulfonylmethane or MSM, a naturally occurring organosulfur compound popular in complementary and alternative medicine, as the active ingredient.The FDA says Dr. Berne’s agreed to recall its MSM Drops 5% Solution after sampling and testing showed contamination with bacteria and fungus.Samples of LightEyez MSM Eye Drops – Eye Repair were found to have four types of bacteria in them, the FDA says, but the company has not responded to the agency’s requests to discuss concerns or recall products.“These products are unapproved drugs and illegally marketed in the U.S.,” the FDA said in an announcement Tuesday. “There are no legally marketed ophthalmic drugs that contain MSM as an active ingredient.”Consumers who have these products should discard them.“Using contaminated eye drops coul...

Wisconsin elections head won’t testify at reappointment hearing that state AG says is improper

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s top elections official said she will not testify next week at a Senate committee hearing on her reappointment, leaning on a letter from the state attorney general that says lawmakers have no authority to force a vote on firing her.Republicans who control the Senate have vowed to oust Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe before the 2024 presidential election. They moved in June to begin the process of holding a vote on her reappointment despite not receiving a nomination from the bipartisan elections commission, which deadlocked along party lines on the matter.Democratic elections commissioners hoped that by not nominating Wolfe, they could avoid a confirmation vote and keep her in office indefinitely under a recent state Supreme Court ruling that conservatives have used to maintain control of key policy boards.Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul backed that argument in a letter sent to the Legislature’s attorneys on...

CIA stairwell attack among flood of sexual misconduct complaints at spy agency

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — In a secluded stairwell at CIA headquarters last year, officer trainee Ashkan Bayatpour came up behind a colleague, wrapped a scarf around her neck and plainly spoke as he tried to kiss her on the mouth.“There are many uses for this,” the woman recalls him saying. “This is what I want to do to you.”Bayatpour was convicted Wednesday of a state misdemeanor charge of assault and battery in a case that was remarkable for breaking through the CIA’s veil of ultra-secrecy and playing out in a public courtroom where it has emboldened a sexual misconduct reckoning.At least two-dozen women have come forward in recent months with their own complaints of abusive treatment within the CIA, telling authorities and Congress not only about sexual assaults, unwanted touching and coercion but of what they contend is a campaign by the spy agency to keep them from speaking out, with dire warnings it could wreck their careers and even endanger national security.“There are harassers ev...

Turkish airstrike in northern Iraq kills 4 Kurdish insurgents as Ankara’s top diplomat visits region

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — A Turkish airstrike in northern Iraq on Thursday killed three members of a Kurdish insurgent group, officials said, as Ankara’s top diplomat visited the seat of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish regional government. Turkish military actions against members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, hiding in northern Iraq, have intensified in recent weeks. The violence is pitting Turkey and Turkish-backed groups on one side, and Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria on the other.Ankara considers the PKK — which has waged a decadeslong insurgency within Turkey — and allied Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq as terrorist organizations. It claims members of the PKK regularly find sanctuary in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region. On Thursday, a Turkish military drone targeted a vehicle some 137 kilometers (86 miles) north of the city of Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish government, authorities said. One PKK leader and two fighters were killed.Meanwhile, Tu...

Alex Murdaugh friend pleads guilty to helping steal from dead maid’s family

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

KINGSTREE, S.C. (AP) — Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh ‘s old college buddy has pleaded guilty to a second set of charges for helping the disgraced South Carolina attorney steal millions of dollars of insurance settlements from the sons of Murdaugh’s dead housekeeper.Cory Fleming, a 54-year-old former attorney, wasn’t immediately sentenced after his guilty plea to 23 state charges Wednesday.Prosecutors indicated they would ask at a September hearing that Fleming spend more time in prison than the nearly four-year sentence he received for similar federal charges earlier this month, according to media reports.During his federal sentencing, Fleming said he knew Murdaugh, now serving a life sentence for killing his wife and son, was going to steal something from the family of his housekeeper. She worked for Murdaugh’s family for decades before dying after a fall at their home in 2018.But Fleming said he thought it might be $100,000 — not the entire $4 million-plus awa...

Nova Scotia floods caused $170M in insured damages, estimate shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

Historic flooding in Nova Scotia last month caused more than $170 million in insured damages, an initial estimate from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. shows.Severe thunderstorms in July dumped more than 250 millimetres of rain on the hardest hit parts of the province, causing damage to roads, homes and bridges while killing four people.The Insurance Bureau of Canada created a separate web page called Nova Scotia Floods to help people understand insurance coverage and the various stages of the claim process.Craig Stewart, the vice president of climate change at IBC, says over 1.5-million households in Canada remain highly exposed to flooding and don’t have access to flood insurance.IBC says insured weather damages in Canada routinely exceed $2 billion annually, with water damages responsible for most of the losses. Stewart says IBC is advocating for investments in climate adaptation and asking the federal government to work on reducing risks Canadians face due to ex...

Stock market today: Wall Street slips ahead of a highly anticipated speech from the Federal Reserve

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:15 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are slipping on Wall Street Thursday, despite a blowout profit report from one of its most influential companies, after a couple mixed reports on the U.S. economy. The S&P 500 was 0.4% lower in midday trading after flipping from an earlier gain. It’s still on track for a winning week, which would trim its loss for what’s been a dismal August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 83 points, or 0.2%, at 34,389, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% lower.Nvidia was in the spotlight after it reported much stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. That raised hopes that this year’s frenzy on Wall Street around artificial-intelligence technology isn’t just hype.Nvidia first stunned the market three months ago when it said the quick adoption of AI would send its revenue soaring in the three months through July. Its sales came in even better than forecast, at $12.51 billion, and the company gave a f...