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BAT increasing its stake in Organigram with $124.6M investment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

TORONTO — Shares of Organigram Holdings Inc. rose 30 per cent after it says BAT signed a deal to increase its stake in the cannabis company by investing $124.6 million.The company says it plans to use $83.1 million of to create a strategic investment pool to help grow its geographic footprint and invest in emerging growth opportunities. The rest of the money will be will be used for general corporate purposes.Organigram says the investment will help it extend its footprint beyond Canada and strengthen its financial position for long-term, sustainable growth. Under the proposal, which is subject to regulatory and Organigram shareholder approvals and other conditions, BAT has agreed to buy 38,679,525 common shares and non-voting class-A convertible preferred shares over three tranches. The first tranche is expected to close on or around Jan. 16, 2024, followed by two more on or around Aug. 30, 2024 and Feb. 28, 2025.BAT already holds an 18.8 per cent stake in Organigram. Organigram sa...

’80s icon Boy George is returning to Broadway in ‘Moulin Rouge! The Musical’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Boy George — the Culture Club icon of the 1980s — is returning to Broadway in “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”The singer-songwriter whose hits include “Karma Chameleon” and “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” will play Moulin Rouge club owner Harold Zidler in the jukebox adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s hyperactive 2001 movie. He starts Feb. 6 and ends May 12 at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre, taking over the role from Tituss Burgess. The show about the goings-on in a turn-of-the-century Parisian nightclub has been updated with tunes like “Single Ladies” and “Firework” alongside the big hit “Lady Marmalade.” It won 10 Tony Awards in 2021, including best new musical.Boy George was last represented on Broadway in 2003 with “Taboo,” for which he wrote music and lyrics. Critics largely disliked the show, which told some of his life story. He also performed in that show, but did not play himself.Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press

An 11-year-old killed in Cincinnati has been identified and police are seeking the shooter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An 11-year-old boy killed in a weekend shooting in Cincinnati was identified Monday by the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office as Dominic Davis.Police Chief Terri Theetge told reporters Sunday that a shooter in a sedan fired 22 rounds “in quick succession” into a crowd of children just before 9:30 p.m. Friday on the city’s West End. No suspect has been arrested. A 53-year-old woman was hit along with the boy who died; three other boys aged 12, 13 and 15; and a 15-year-old girl. One victim was hospitalized in stable condition.Theetge said it was too early to say whether the shooting was random or targeted and declined to discuss other aspects of the investigation. The shots were fired in a “vibrant neighborhood” next to a park and near a historic elementary school, said Mayor Aftab Pureval at the news conference.Dominic Davis’ father, Isaac Davis, came forward at the Sunday news conference along with Dominic’s mother and grandmother and also urged...

Ontario to require companies to disclose salary in job listings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

Ontario will soon require employers to be more transparent about pay in their job listings.The Ford government will table a bill that would force companies in the province to include the expected salary ranges when looking for candidates. The legislation would also require businesses to disclose if artificial intelligence (AI) is being used during their hiring process.The province says the proposed legislation will help give “workers more information to make informed decisions in their career search.”“At a time when many companies are posting record profits, it is only fair they communicate transparently about how they pay workers,” said David Piccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development in a statement. “And as the use of artificial intelligence in Ontario skyrockets, our government will continue to take action to ensure workers aren’t excluded from the job market because of technological biases and that their privacy rights are protect...

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI hosts its first big tech showcase as the AI startup faces growing competition

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT has invited hundreds of software developers to its first developer conference Monday, embracing a Silicon Valley tradition for technology showcases that Apple helped pioneer decades ago.The path to OpenAI’s debut DevDay has been an unusual one. Founded as a nonprofit research institute in 2015, it catapulted to worldwide fame just under a year ago with the release of a chatbot that’s sparked excitement, fear and a push for international safeguards to guide AI’s rapid advancement.The San Francisco conference comes a week after President Joe Biden signed an executive order that will set some of the first U.S. guardrails on AI technology.Using the Defense Production Act, the order requires AI developers likely to include OpenAI, its financial backer Microsoft and competitors such as Google and Meta to share information with the government about AI systems being built with such “high levels of perf...

Book Review: Solitary writer ruminates on grief, love and writing during pandemic’s first spring

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

The flood of pandemic literature shows no sign of letting up. In the three-plus years since the COVID-19 lockdown, we have seen fiction from the likes of Gary Shteyngart, Elizabeth Strout and many others. Now Sigrid Nunez, author of “Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag” and the National Book Award-winning “The Friend,” has written a pandemic novel called “The Vulnerables.”The title refers to the groups of people, including the elderly, considered at high risk of getting severely ill at the start of the pandemic in spring 2020. The unnamed narrator, a stand-in for the 72-year-old author, is among them.In the publishing world “The Vulnerables” is classified as a novel but it more often reads like an elegant, funny essay about what it felt like to be stuck in New York City in the early days of the lockdown, when your wealthier friends fled to their country houses, leaving you alone with a bad case of writer’s block.The narrator broods about the writing life even though she knows tha...

King Charles III will preside over Britain’s State Opening of Parliament, where pomp meets politics

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Yeomen of the guard, a diamond-studded crown and an official known as Black Rod — they’re all ingredients of Britain’s State Opening of Parliament, an event where centuries-old ritual meets modern-day politics.On Tuesday, King Charles III will sit on a gilded throne and read out the King’s Speech, a list of planned laws drawn up by the U.K.’s Conservative government and aimed at winning over voters before the country’s general election next year.The king is performing a role that his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, fulfilled for seven decades and other British monarchs carried out before her in a tradition stretching back hundreds of years.WHAT HAPPENS AT THE STATE OPENING?Britain holds elections every four or five years, with the government’s term divided into Parliament sessions that are roughly a year long. Each begins with a grand State Opening ceremony, where politicians and the monarch symbolically enact the tussle between Crown and Parliament ...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 12-18

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 12-18:Nov. 12: Singer Brian Hyland is 80. Playwright-actor Wallace Shawn (“The Princess Bride”) is 80. Keyboardist Booker T. Jones of Booker T. and the MG’s is 79. Sportscaster Al Michaels is 79. Singer Neil Young is 78. Guitarist Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult is 76. Country singer Barbara Fairchild is 73. Actor Megan Mullally (“Will and Grace”) is 65. Bassist David Ellefson (Megadeth) is 59. Actor Rebecca Wisocky (“Ghosts,” “Devious Maids”) is 52. Actor Radha Mitchell (“Finding Neverland”) is 50. Actor Tamala Jones (“Castle,” ″The Brothers”) is 49. Actor Angela Watson (“Step By Step”) is 49. Singer Tevin Campbell is 47. Actor Ashley Williams (“Huff,” ″Good Morning, Miami”) is 45. Actor Cote de Pablo (“NCIS”) is 44. Actor Ryan Gosling is 43. Bassist Chris Huffman of Casting Crowns is 43. Actor Anne Hathaway is 41. Singer Omarion (B2K) is 39. Drummer Griffin Goldsmith of Dawes is 33.Nov. 13: Actor Jimmy Hawkins (“It’s A Wonderful Life”) is 8...

Cubs bringing back Hendricks, Gomes for 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Pitcher Kyle Hendricks' $16 million option for 2024 was exercised Sunday by the Chicago Cubs, who also exercised a $6 million option on catcher Yan Gomes.Chicago's decision made Hendricks' contract worth $70 million over five seasons, and Gomes' deal became guaranteed for at least $18 million over three years. Hendricks would have been due a $1.5 million buyout if the option had been declined and Gomes would have been due $1 million had his option been turned down.Hendricks, a 33-year-old right-hander, was 6-8 with a 3.74 ERA in 24 starts this year. He made his season debut on May 25 after recovering from a capsular tear in his right shoulder sustained in July 2022.Hendricks is 93-69 with a 3.48 ERA in 246 starts and one relief appearance over 10 major league seasons, all with the Cubs.Gomes, 36, hit .267 with 20 doubles, 10 homers and 63 RBIs, throwing out 25 of 85 runners attempting to steal. He earned $500,000 in performance bonuses for starts.Gomes has a .248 aver...

New York landlord accused of setting fire to home with 8 tenants inside over unpaid rent

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:08 GMT

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (WPIX) - A New York landlord accused of setting a building on fire with his tenants inside has been arrested a month after the alleged incident, authorities said Sunday.Rafiqul Islam is accused of setting fire to the stairs inside the Brooklyn home on Sept. 26, according to the Fire Department of the City of New York. Islam was angry that his second-floor tenants stopped paying rent and refused to move out, FDNY officials said. Islam allegedly set the fire with two adults and six children inside the home, officials said.All eight people were able to escape the fire, according to the FDNY. Car splits in half after crashing into pole on Long Island; driver charged with DUI: NCPD Before the fire, Islam allegedly threatened to cut off his tenant's gas and electricity. He also threatened to set the home on fire if the rent continued to go unpaid, officials said.Officials said a video showed a man wearing a mask and a hood enter and leave the home before the call to 91...