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Pet Valu sees profits dip but revenues surge amid major store expansion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

MARKHAM, Ont. — Pet Valu Holdings Ltd. is reporting a drop in profits despite major sales growth in its latest quarter.In the three months ended July 1, the pet food and supplies retailer says net income fell by $1.2 million or nearly five per cent year over year to $24.1 million.The dip came despite a revenue jump of $28.7 million or nearly 13 per cent in its second quarter to $256.4 million from $227.7 million in the same period a year earlier.The Ontario-based company says the increase was driven largely by retail sales growth, offset partly by greater expenses linked to store growth, including higher compensation and amortization costs.With seven new storefronts launched last quarter to reach 758 in total, Pet Valu continues to aim for between 40 and 50 store openings this year as it looks to seize on the surge in pet purchases made during the COVID-19 pandemic.On an adjusted basis, diluted net income attributable to common shareholders fell to 33 cents per share versus 35 cents...

Poland to hold parliamentary election on Oct. 15, launching campaign in shadow of war in region

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president announced Tuesday that the country would hold its parliamentary election on Oct. 15, marking the official start of an electoral campaign that has informally been underway for months and is being shaped by Russia’s war against Ukraine.President Andrzej Duda said in a statement posted on Twitter that the elections for the 460-seat lower house of parliament, the Sejm, and for the 100-seat Senate will both take place on that Sunday.The election campaign begins during rising anxieties in Poland over the presence of Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries across the NATO nation’s northeastern border in Belarus, where they have arrived by the thousands since a short-lived mutiny in Russia in June. Tensions have also been growing with ally Ukraine, to the country’s southeast, over grain imports and historical memories of past ethnic conflicts.The Associated Press

Georgia fires football staffer who survived fatal crash, less than a month after lawsuit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia has fired the football recruiting staffer who survived a January crash that killed player Devin Willock and another recruiting staffer, less than a month after she filed a lawsuit against the university’s athletic association.The school issued a statement saying Victoria “Tori” Bowles was dismissed because she refused to cooperate with an internal investigation into the crash. Her attorneys claim she is being retaliated against for filing the lawsuit, which also names former Georgia player and first-round NFL draft pick Jalen Carter.The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported Bowles’ firing.The Jan. 15 crash, which occurred just hours after a parade celebrating Georgia’s second straight national championship, killed the 20-year-old Willock and the driver of the Ford Expedition, 24-year-old Chandler LeCroy.Police said LeCroy had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit and was racing Carter at about 104 mph when the SUV sw...

GO train service on Lakeshore East line suspended Friday night into weekend due to construction

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

It is a short week for many in the GTA and with another weekend around the corner, you may need to plan ahead with GO train service on the Lakeshore East line off-limits to transit riders starting Friday night.In a notice posted on the GO Transit website, trains won’t be running on the line from around 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 11, until end of service on Sunday, Aug. 13.Regular service is expected to resume on Monday morning.The transit agency says service is being temporarily suspended due to track and maintenance and signal work between Danforth and Rouge Hill GO stations, platform work at Eglinton GO, bridge rehabilitation over Rouge River, and work for the Stouffville rail corridor expansion.GO Transit will be running replacement buses for riders at Durham College Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering GO, and Union Station Bus Terminal.Buses won’t be running at Rouge Hill, Guildwood, Eglinton, Scarborough and Danforth GO stations. Transit riders are being advised to use t...

Temperatures soar in Iberia as wildfires force the evacuation of 1,400 in Portugal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — More than 1,000 firefighters are battling a series of wildfires in Portugal as it and neighboring Spain experience several days of extreme summer heat, with temperatures in many areas rising above 40 degrees Celsius (104 F).Three major fires raged in Portugal on Tuesday, with the biggest in the southwest near the town of Odemira, where on Monday about 1,400 people were evacuated from villages and a camp site as a precaution. They were gradually returning home on Tuesday.The National Civil Protection Service said about 1,000 firefighters, 320 vehicles and nine aircraft were deployed at that fire on Tuesday. It has so far scorched around 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres).The recent spate of wildfires came as temperatures have spiked. On Monday, the city of Santarem, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the capital, Lisbon, set the year’s highest temperature at 46.4 C (115.5 F). Temperatures are forecast to fall nationwide from Tuesday, though they will mostl...

Soaring sales of diabetes drug Mounjaro, widely used for weight loss, sends Eli Lilly to new heights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

Eli Lilly’s diabetes treatment Mounjaro, which is widely used for weight loss, raked in nearly $1 billion in second-quarter sales, or more than $200 million above what Wall Street had expected.Shares of the drugmaker soared to an all-time-high early Tuesday after Lilly said Mounjaro sales swelled more than 70% since the first quarter to $980 million. Almost all of that came from the U.S., and the company said significant demand was leading to delays in filling orders for some doses.Analysts expected the drug to bring in about $740 million during the quarter, according to FactSet.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug at the end of last year’s second quarter to treat type 2 diabetes, but analysts see a lot of potential for it in the booming market for weight-loss treatments, and doctors have already been prescribing it off-label for that.Regulators are currently deciding whether to also make weight loss an approved use. Lilly said earlier this year that the inj...

Niger’s junta rejects a diplomatic visit by regional and U.N. officials over ‘atmosphere of menace’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Niger’s military junta has refused the latest diplomatic attempt to reinstall the ousted president, rejecting a proposed visit by representatives of the West African regional bloc, the African Union and United Nations on Tuesday, according to a letter seen by The Associated Press.The letter cited “evident reasons of security in this atmosphere of menace” against Niger, two weeks after mutinous soldiers overthrew the country’s democratically elected leader. The regional bloc known as ECOWAS had threatened to use military force if the junta didn’t reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum by Sunday, a deadline that was ignored.On Monday, acting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met with the coup leaders and said they refused to allow her to meet with Bazoum, whom she described as under “virtual house arrest.” She described the mutinous officers as unreceptive to her appeals to start negotiations and restore constitutional rule.“These conver...

Stock market today: Wall Street slumps with markets worldwide on worries about banks and the economy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are slumping Tuesday as more caution creeps into financial markets worldwide.The S&P 500 was 1% lower in early trading, following up on losses for stocks across Europe and much of Asia. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 370 points, or 1%, at 35,102, as of 9:50 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% lower.In the U.S., bank stocks dropped after Moody’s cut the credit ratings for several smaller and midsized ones amid a long list of concerns about their financial strength. Across the Pacific, stocks sank 1.8% in Hong Kong and 0.3% in Shanghai after a report showed exports for China’s troubled economy shrank by the most since the start of the pandemic in 2020.The worries layered on top of a mixed set of earnings reports from big U.S. companies.UPS fell 3% after it cut its forecast for revenue this year. It reported stronger profit for the spring but weaker revenue.Eli Lilly helped to limit the market’s losses after jumping 16.4%. The medi...

CPD: 24 armed robberies throughout Northwest Side since Saturday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

CHICAGO — Nearly 25 armed robberies have been conducted throughout the Northwest Side since Saturday night.The latest incidents happened in a span of less than two hours early Tuesday morning throughout West Town, Logan Square and Wicker Park.The spree began at around 12:30 a.m. in the 1500 block of North Milwaukee. Police said a 53-year-old man was walking on the sidewalk when three males exited a silver sedan and robbed him of his cell phone and wallet at gunpoint.At around 1 a.m. in the 2000 block of West Superior, police said a 30-year-old woman was riding a bicycle when she was cut off by a silver sedan. She was then robbed of her cell phone and bag at gunpoint.Approximately five minutes later in the 1900 block of West Chicago, a 36-year-old man was robbed on the sidewalk at gunpoint by the same three suspects of his cell phone. Man charged with first-degree murder of 9-year-old girl in Portage Park Then at approximately 1:50 a.m. and 2 a.m., two separate bicyclists, a 32-yea...

Black musician sues white supremacist group over alleged attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:51:43 GMT

(The Hill) -- A Boston musician has filed suit against white supremacist group Patriot Front nearly a year after he claimed members of the organization beat him on the street.Charles Murrell III, a Black music teacher and musician, was near Boston Public Library on July 2, 2022, when he was approached and beaten by a group of Patriot Front members, the suit alleges.The white supremacist group performed a march down the Boston Freedom Trail carrying banners reading “Reclaim America” and fascist imagery. The suit alleges that the group encountered Murrell on the sidewalk and proceeded to punch, kick and beat him with their metal shields.The men were unidentifiable due to face coverings except for the group’s leader, Thomas Ryan Rousseau.The suit alleges Rousseau and the group violated Murrell’s civil rights and seeks civil damages for physical and emotional distress.“This attack left me with both physical and emotional injuries. While I am still trying to heal, I hope that this healin...