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Why you should bench credit cards for March Madness bets

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

By the end of the 2023 NCAA tournament, an estimated one in four Americans will have wagered $15.5 billion in bets on the various games, according to the American Gaming Association. Last year, Matt Cappelen — a 34-year-old firefighter from Elk Grove Village, Illinois — would have been in the middle of the action. For this year’s dance, though, he’ll be sitting on the sidelines of the betting game.“I’ve always been a die-hard sports fan,” Cappelen said. “Pretty much anything that involves a winner and a loser, I loved.”Since legal online sports betting was first made available in Illinois in 2020, the fun of sports had only gotten that much bigger for Cappelen.“I was able to combine making money, or so I thought, and sports,” he said. “What better way to do that than with gambling?”But in the three years since, Cappelen built up $83,000 in gambling debts on sites like Bovada and FanDuel. Up to 90% of that, he says, was done on credit cards. “You feel like you’re playing with fake mo...

Zellers opens a dozen stores in Canada amid wave of nostalgia and price sensitivity

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

Canadian retail chain Zellers marked its official comeback on Thursday with the opening of a dozen stores in Ontario and Alberta and new website.The relaunch of the popular discount department store comes amid a wave of nostalgia for the brand and growing demand for affordable goods amid sky-high inflation. The company plans to open 25 stores in total.The 10,000 square foot stores will be located within Hudson’s Bay department stores and feature an assortment of private-label products, including clothing, toys and home and living items.Tiffany Bourré, a spokeswoman for Hudson’s Bay Co., says the products are exclusive to Zellers and there is no crossover of product with Hudson’s Bay stores.The company has also launched a new Zellers e-commerce website, with all items online and in-store featuring so-called rounded pricing, so for example $5 rather than $4.99 or $5.49. Bourré says it’s about offering customers a “simplified and easy” shopping experience ...

IMF warns without reforms, Lebanon could see hyperinflation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The International Monetary Fund gave a grim assessment Thursday of Lebanon’s prospects for getting out of its deepening financial crisis, saying that without reforms, the country is headed for hyperinflation. Since late 2019, tiny Lebanon has fallen into the worst economic crisis in its modern history, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a political class that has ruled the country since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. Three-quarters of Lebanon’s population of over 6 million, including a million Syrian refugees, now lives in poverty and inflation is soaring.Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, the head of the IMF mission visiting Lebanon, said at a news conference Thursday that continued inaction by Lebanese leaders would leave the nation in a “never-ending crisis” in which it could spiral into hyperinflation, “affecting the quality of life of many Lebanese for years to come.”The IMF visit came as progress towards finalizing a sorely needed IMF bailout package for ...

NC approves Medicaid expansion, reversing long opposition

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Medicaid expansion deal in North Carolina received final legislative approval on Thursday, likely ending a decade of debate over whether the closely politically divided state should accept the federal government’s coverage for hundreds of thousands of low-income adults. North Carolina is one of several Republican-led states that have begun considering expanding Medicaid after years of steadfast opposion. Voters in South Dakota approved expansion in a referendum in November. And in Alabama, advocates are urging lawmakers to take advantage of federal incentives to expand Medicaid in order to provide health insurance to thousands of low-income people.Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a longtime expansion advocate, is expected to sign the bill, which would leave 10 states in the U.S. that haven’t adopted expansion. North Carolina has 2.9 million enrollees in traditional Medicaid coverage. Advocates have estimated that expansion could help 600,000 adults.The ...

Nebraska Legislature set to vote on transgender health bill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Legislature was set to vote Thursday on a contentious bill that seeks to ban gender-affirming care for minors and led one lawmaker to stage a weekslong filibuster.The vote to advance the bill was expected on the third day of debate in which lawmakers have angrily accused one another of hypocrisy and a lack of collegiality. It also saw Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt promising to join fellow Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh’s effort to filibuster every bill that comes before lawmakers for the rest of the 90-day session if the bill advances. Hunt took to the floor of the Legislature on Wednesday to confess that the debate is deeply personal for her, because her teenage son is transgender. She called the bill an affront to her as a parent and called out by name lawmakers she would hold accountable if they vote to advance it.“If this bill passes, all your bills are on the chopping block, and the bridge is burned,” she said. “I’m not doing anything for you. Bec...

Pope Francis’s tour came with a minimum $55-million price tag for Ottawa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

A family member of residential school survivors says the minimum $55-million price tag for the Pope’s visit to Canada last year feels like another slap in the face for Indigenous people. “Think of all the money that could have gone to survivors, all of the money that could have gone to healing, all of the money that was rightfully supposed to be given to folks who survived genocide,” Michelle Robinson, who is Sahtu Dene, said from Calgary. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under freedom of information laws show the federal government spent a minimum of $55,972,683 for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to visit Canada over six days last July.   Pope Francis apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools during stops in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut.Indigenous Services Canada earmarked about $30 million. Those funds were to be used for travel, local programs and healing initiatives.Crown-Indigenous Relations spent $5.1 million, the majority for a $3.9-mill...

Cost of India quitting coal is $900 billion, think tank says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

BENGALURU, India (AP) — If India stopped burning coal tomorrow, over five million people would lose their jobs. But for a price tag of around $900 billion over the next 30 years, the country can make sure nobody is left behind in the huge move to clean energy to curb human-caused climate change, according to figures released by New Delhi-based think tank Thursday.The International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology, known by the acronym iFOREST, released two reports detailing how much it will cost for India to move away from coal and other dirty fuels without jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions who still are employed in coal mines and thermal power plants. Ensuring that everyone can come along in the clean energy shift that’s needed to stop the worst harms of climate change and guaranteeing new work opportunities for those in fossil fuel industries, known as a just transition, has been a major consideration for climate and energy analysts. “Just transiti...

WATCH LIVE | TikTok CEO faces off with Congress over security fears

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CEO of TikTok will make a high-profile appearance Thursday before a U.S. Congressional committee, where he'll face a grilling on data security and user safety while he makes his own case for why the hugely popular video-sharing app shouldn't be banned. Shou Zi Chew's testimony comes at a crucial time for the company, which has acquired 150 million American users but is under increasing pressure from U.S. officials. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have been swept up in a wider geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington over trade and technology. Chew, a 40-year-old Singapore native, is making a rare public appearance to counter the volley of accusations that TikTok has been facing. On Wednesday, the company sent dozens of popular TikTokers to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers to preserve the platform. It has also been putting up ads all over Washington that tout promises of securing users data and privacy and creating a safe platform for its young ...

6 killed after driver loses control, veers into highway work zone: police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

WOODLAWN, Md. (AP) — New details are emerging about a crash along the Baltimore beltway Wednesday that left six construction workers dead after a driver lost control of her vehicle, which went careening into a work zone, according to Maryland State Police.Lisa Adrienna Lea, 54, was identified as the driver of a gray Acura headed northbound on Interstate 695 near the Security Boulevard exit when she went to change lanes and struck the front passenger side of a Volkswagen, state police said in a news release late Wednesday. The impact caused her to lose control, and her vehicle ended up traveling between the temporary jersey walls of the construction zone.Police said Lea was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Shock Trauma Center for treatment of the injuries she sustained in the crash, which closed the beltway for hours in both directions, snarling traffic along the west side of the highway that encircles Baltimore. She was the sole occupant of the Acura.Emergency pe...

TikTok's security risks continue to raise fears, but why?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:26:11 GMT

The battle between the U.S. and China over TikTok comes into full view on Thursday when the social media platform's CEO testifies before Congressional lawmakers.Shou Zi Chew's hearing is happening at what he's called a “pivotal moment” for the hugely popular short video-sharing app. TikTok is owned by parent company ByteDance, which has offices in Beijing. The platform has 150 million American users but it's been dogged by persistent claims that it threatens national security and user privacy, or could be used to promote pro-Beijing propaganda and misinformation.Chew will attempt to persuade lawmakers not to pursue a ban on the app or force its sale to new owners.So are the data security risks real? And should users be worried that the TikTok app will be wiped off their phones?Here’s what to know:WHAT ARE THE CONCERNS ABOUT TIKTOK?Both the FBI and officials at the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share TikTok user data — such as browsing history, lo...