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Medicaid coverage restored to about a half-million people after computer errors in many states

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — About 500,000 people who recently lost Medicaid coverage are regaining their health insurance while states scramble fix computer systems that didn’t properly evaluate people’s eligibility after the end of the coronavirus pandemic, federal officials said Thursday.The computer issues affected people in 29 states and the District of Columbia and likely included a significant number of children who should have been eligible for Medicaid at higher income levels even if their parents or caregivers were not, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.All states are undertaking a massive review of their Medicaid rolls after a three-year, pandemic-era prohibition on ending coverage expired this spring. While the freeze was in effect, Medicaid enrollment swelled by nearly one-third, from 71 million people in February 2020 to 94 million in April 2023.States often use computer programs as a first step in determi...

Nice Now, Weekend Is Wet

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

The weather winning streak rolls on today with another nice afternoon of low humidity and comfortable temps after a seasonably chilly start. Clouds do start to increase at the mid to high levels, foreshadowing the wet weather to move in the weekend. Highs today top off near 70. It’ll be dry and comfortably cool this evening if you’re heading out. The dry weather comes to a close tomorrow as we track rain moving in from south to north. The earliest arriving of the rain will be along the South Coast, in the morning with showers likely developing either midday or in the afternoon across northern Mass. Rain will be steadiest/heaviest midday/afternoon across Southeast Mass. We’ll certainly have a cool, raw feel to the air with temps in the 50s to low 60s and a busy northeasterly breeze developing. The winds will be strongest across the Cape/Islands with gusts 30-40mph there. Rain tapers to patchy drizzle tomorrow night into Sunday morning before more showers return Sund...

Spat over visas for Indian Asian Games athletes sparks diplomatic row between New Delhi and Beijing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

HANGZHOU, China (AP) — A long-standing border dispute between India and China has left three Indian martial arts competitors stranded at home and unable to make it to the Asian Games in Hangzhou, while sparking a diplomatic row Friday between the two countries.The three women wushu athletes are from India’s eastern Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety. Unlike the rest of India’s athletes competing at this year’s games who were given Asian Games badges that also serve as visas to enter China, the three were given visas stapled to their passports. Olympic Council of Asia official Wei Jizhong told reporters in Hangzhou on Friday that the three athletes, Nyeman Wangsu, Onilu Tega and Mepung Lamgu, had refused to accept them because they differed from those given the rest of the team.“According to the Chinese government regulations, we have the right to give them different kind of visa,” he said.In July, the same athletes did not compete at the World Un...

Syria and China announce strategic partnership as Asian Games diplomacy kicks off

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China and Syria announced the formation of a strategic partnership on Friday as Chinese leader Xi Jinping kicked off a series of diplomatic meetings ahead of the upcoming Asian Games.Xi met Syrian President Bashar Assad in the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou, which is hosting the 15-day sports competition. “In the face of the unstable and uncertain international situation, China is willing to work with Syria to firmly support each other … and jointly safeguard international fairness and justice,” Xi said in a video clip posted online by state broadcaster CCTV.Assad’s visit parallels in some ways that of Russian President Vladimir Putin last year for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Both leaders are virtual pariahs in the West but welcomed by China as it tries to expand its global influence and promote an alternative to the U.S.-led international order.The Syrian leader will attend the Asian Games opening ceremony on Saturday night alo...

Gases from Philippine volcano sicken dozens of children, prompting school closures in nearby towns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Smog containing gases from a restive Philippine volcano sickened dozens of students and prompted 25 towns and cities to shut their schools on Friday as a health precaution, officials said.There was no imminent threat of a major eruption of Taal Volcano, which authorities said remains at a low level of unrest in Batangas province south of Manila. But they said its emission of sulfur dioxide-laden steam in recent days caused skin, throat and eye irritation for at least 45 students in nearby towns.Classes were suspended in 25 towns and cities in Batangas to keep students safely at home. Some schools resumed online classes and home learning that were in wide use at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.Smog has also been reported in Manila north of Taal in recent days, but the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it was largely caused by vehicle emissions and not the volcano.Taal, one of the world’s smallest volcanoes, is am...

Double shooting at Scarborough plaza leaves two men injured

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

Two men are in hospital with serious injuries following an overnight shooting in a Scarborough parking lot on Friday.Officers responded to a plaza parking lot on Birchmount Road near Vauxhall Drive, south of Ellesmere Road, around 1:30 a.m.Paramedics tell CityNews two men were rushed to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.No suspect information has been made available.The investigation is ongoing.

India’s Parliament passes law that will reserve a third of legislature seats for women from 2029

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Parliament has approved landmark legislation that reserves one-third of the seats in its powerful lower house and in state legislatures for women to ensure more equal representation, ending a 27-year impasse over the bill amid a lack of consensus among political parties.But the wait is still not over, as the new law will not apply to next year’s national elections.It will be implemented in the 2029 national elections following a new census and adjustment of voting districts after next year’s polls, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during a debate in the upper house of India’s Parliament on Thursday night.The lower house of Parliament approved the legislation on Wednesday with a 454-2 vote, and the upper house passed it unanimously, 214-0, late Thursday.India’s once-a-decade census was to be held in 2021 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All opposition parties supported the bill and said the delay in its implementation is an injustice to w...

BTS member Suga begins alternative military service in South Korea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Suga, a member of K-pop supergroup BTS, began fulfilling his mandatory military duty Friday as a social service agent, an alternative form of military service in the country.Suga, 30, became the group’s third member to start carrying out their military duties. The two others, Jin and J-Hope, are already performing active service at army bases. “I’ll faithfully serve and come back … Please stay healthy and let’s meet all again in 2025!” Suga wrote in a message posted on the online fan platform Weverse.BTS’s management agency, Big Hit Music, said that Suga later began commuting to a workplace designated under the country’s alternative military service system.In South Korea, all able-bodied men must serve in the army, navy or air force for 18-21 months under a conscription system established due to threats from rival North Korea. Individuals with physical and mental issues can instead carry out their duties at non-military facilities such as welfare centers, c...

Weekend need to know: Nuit Blanche, Just for Laughs, Halloween Haunt

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

Art installations are taking over Toronto streets and parks for the return of Nuit Blanche this weekend.Comedy lovers can check out their favourite stand-up comics for the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. Plus, Halloween Haunt is back at Canada’s Wonderland.There will also be another party to say goodbye to the TTC Line 3 Scarborough RT since it permanently closed, shortly after the train derailed back in July, injuring five people.There are no scheduled subway closures this weekend, but road closures for events and construction remain. Scroll below for more details.Here’s what’s going on for the first weekend of fall:Top eventsNuit BlancheMuch of Toronto’s streets, parks, and alleyways will be filled with people checking out art installations for Nuit Blanche 2023.People can explore different neighbourhoods across the city and enjoy art projects by local, national and international artists for free.This year’s theme is called Breaking Ground. The theme is meant to invite arti...

Massachusetts has a huge waitlist for state-funded housing. So why are 2,300 units vacant?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:55 GMT

Deb Libby is running out of time to find a place to live.Libby, 56, moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, four years ago, in part to be closer to the doctors treating her for pancreatic cancer.But the landlord wants her out by the end of the month and she can’t find anything else she can afford. She earns only a little more than minimum wage at a hardware store and often has to take unpaid time off because of health problems.Libby thought she found a potential solution nearly a year ago: She applied for state public housing, a type of subsidized housing that’s almost unique to Massachusetts. But she’s heard nothing since.“It’s frightening,” she said. “I seriously don’t know what to do. It’s like the system’s broken.”In Massachusetts, which has some of the country’s most expensive real estate, Libby is among the 184,000 people on a waitlist for the state’s 41,500 subsidized apartments. Yet a WBUR and ProPublica investigation found that nobody is living in nearly 2,300 state-funded apart...