Toronto - Toronto restaurant and bar owners may want to raise a glass to David Miller. The mayor is backing off the proposal to tax the sale of alcohol in the city. The bottle tax was expected to bring in about 44 million dollars a year.
Miller liked the idea of a new alcohol tax but city staff say it’s just too complicated, they’re advising against it, and the mayor is willing to take that advise.
“I saw it as a tax on the Liquor Control Board of Ontario which is a provincial agency, but they argue their legislation says alcohol has to be the same price everywhere and they can’t impose the tax. If we can’t do it, we can’t do it.”
Miller still has to deal with a 240 million dollar budget shortfall, he’s renewing his calls to both the federal and provincial governments to do their part to keep Toronto out of the red.
Miller wants help to finance the TTC, social services and one cent from the GST to help restore Toronto’s financial health.
Souce: cfrb
Los Angeles (EON) - It may seem as though Britney Spears’ life is a wreck, but fortunately she did get some good news today.
Her hit-and-run charge was dismissed and Brit’s lawyer entered a plea of not guilty to driving without a license.
Spears 25, could still be in trouble for this charge and is scheduled to be back in court in November.
Britney was not present in court Thrusday, but the judge asked she be there for the November 26 court date.
The charges stemmed from an incident on August 6 in Los Angeles, where Spears allegedly crashed into a parked car in a private parking lot.
New York - While no outbreaks of the current staph bacterial infection have been reported in the local four-county region, it is getting too close for comfort. We agree that area schools and health departments should react appropriately by being proactive.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or MRSA, was responsible for the death of a Virginia high school student last week, and since then numerous cases have been reported in New York _ as close to this area as Madison and Albany counties.
Staphylococcus aureus, often referred to as “staph,” is a bacteria commonly carried on the skin or in the nose of healthy people, according to the state Department of Health. Infection results when staph enters through a break in the skin. When MRSA occurs outside health-care facilities, in places such as schools, it is called community-associated MRSA. (more…)
Boston (EON) - A new study has found a link between weight gain and the risk of developing breast cancer.
The study found that gaining weight while going through life as an adult can increase the ridk of breast cancer. If people are able to maintain their weight though the researchers have found that it can actually lower the risk of developing breast cancer.
Over 99,000 post-menopausal women were looked at in the study done by Jiyoung Ahn of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.
It was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine and found that women who did not take menopausal hormone therapy and gained weight while they were going through adulthood had an increased risk in developing breast cancer compared to those who maintained a stable weight.
Women who were not obese or overweight at age 18 but were between the ages of 35 and 50 had a 1.4 times higher risk of developing breast cancer.
Washington (EON) - Republican Senator John McCain has released a new ad which will show in New Hampshire and highlights his history as a P.O.W. as well as attacking Senator Hillary Clinton.
The ad was produced by Foxhole Productions and cost McCain $100,000 to show the commercial across the state of New Hampshire.
The ad states by McCain that “A few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend $1 million on the Woodstock concert museum. Now, my friends, I wasn’t there. I’m sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time. No one can be president of the United States that supports projects such as these. I’m John McCain, and I approve this message.”
The campaign of McCain is trying to regain momentum as he competes with the Republicans such as Giuliani and Romney who have been leading him in many polls.
The ad also shows McCain as a young P.O.W. laying on his back smoking a cigarette. The crowd in the debate hall from Sunday is also shown giving him a standing ovation.
San Diego (EON) - Thanks to the winds beginning to take a break in Southern California, firefighters have began to take control of the wildfires which have caused over 500,000 people to evacuate from their homes.
Firefighters had a great chance to fight back against the wildfires on Wednesday and that they did by taking control of the blazes.
So far only one person has died from the fires which is a miracle considering the immense damage that they have already caused. The number of those evacuated now is 10 times the number evacuated back four years ago when 22 died from similar fires.
The winds dropped on Wednesday to 21 to 36mph which is far less than the 100mph or so gusts firefighters were dealing with earlier in the week which caused the fires to spread.
Dennis Bouslaugh of the U.S. Forest Service stated that “They’re taking it down considerably.”
Many of the fires north of San Diego are now contained and all five fires in Los Angeles County are about 50% or more contained.
The fires remaining in San Diego still continue to threaten 8,500 homes. The week’s fire has already destroyed 1,500 homes since Sunday and has burned 674 square miles across five counties.
Property damage has reached at least $1 billion in San Diego County alone.
Baghdad (EON) - Turkey has made its response to Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party of PKK by bombing Kurdish rebel bases in the border regions of Iraq.
Turkey was hit over the weekend by a deadly ambush as a dozen or so Turkish soldiers were killed by the Kurdish rebels.
The raid has put an increased pressure on Turkey to make a huge impact in Iraq on the PKK near the northern border of the country.
Turkey has yet to launch a full-scale assault against them but has begun to tak esteps towards it. A military aircraft left the Diyarbakir military airport in southeast Turkey and headed for a huge attack against the PKK militants.
The F-16 fighter jets and rockets hit the Kurdish rebel camps close to the border and went as far as 50 kilometers into Iraq. It is believed that the death toll for the rebels is currently at 34 at the very least.
Over the last two weeks of violence Turkey has suffered deaths of over 30 soldiers, building great pressure for this type of attack and response.
The PKK has denied any casualties thus far.
Hollywood (EON) - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are back at the top of the U.S. pop album chart after a slow week of sales allowed them to regain that coveted top spot with the Magic album.
Two albumed made their debut in the Top 10 but none of the albums managed to sell more than 100,000 copies in what ended up being an amazingly slow week of sales.
The Magic album from Springsteen managed to sell 77,000 copies which was actually enough to take the top spot for the week. This barely beat the record by the Dreamgirls soundtrack which sold 60,000 copies and became the number one album back in January.
The three-week total for Magic is now at 547,000 copies sold. The album took the top spot away from Kid Rock’s new album Rock N Roll Jesus which saw a 55% sales dip.
The weekly total fell just 200 behind Springsteen.
Colbie Caillat continues to do well with Coco as sales increased by 20% again to bring the total to 417,000 copies sold.
A new entry this week was from Jimmy Eat World with Chase the Light. It made its debut at No. 5 selling 62,000 copies. The other new entry was Angie Stone with Art of Love and War which sold 45,000 copies, putting the R&B singer at No. 12.
New York (EON) - Sean “Diddy” Combs has come out and spoken about the October 13th incident which resulted outside of a club in New York City and ended up placing him in a situation where he was accused of assault.
He stated that “I got into an argument, I am a human being. I am going to get into an argument. I am making no denial about that, but I did not punch anybody.”
The New York City police are planning to charge Diddy with a 3rd degree assault charge as well as other misdemeanor charges.
The incident took place on October 13th outside a club in Gotham city. The incident took place around 3:30 a.m. on that morning. Diddy was seen having an argument with a man outside of the location. He is accused of assault for punching the man in the face, hitting him twice once back inside the club.
Diddy stated “Sometimes you get into an argument and as a celebrity, things are a little crazy, so thing get blowm out of proportion. But no, I didn’t punch anybody.”
“I’m staying focused on being a role model and you know, being somebody that all my grandmas and aunties out there can be proud of and tell their kids to look up to you, know what I’m saying,” he added. “I mean it is apart of celebrity… but it just wasn’t true.”
Los Angeles (EON) - Las Vegas prosecutors have added a new charge to the O.J. Simpson case as the charge of coercion with a deadly weapon has been added against O.J. Simpson.
The new charge was made public after a hearing on Tuesday which resulted in two co-defendants pleading guilty to a reduced charge. In return they have agreed to testify against O.J. Simpson as well as others involved.
A spokesman for the Clark County District Attorney in Las Vegas, Michael Sommermeier, stated that the new charge and remaining charges were fixed. All defendants are now being tried for the same crimes.
The 60-year-old Simpson and three co-defendants are being accused of a robbery after breaking into a Las Vegas hotel room and stealing items from two sports memorabilia collectors.
The defendants were arrested back in the middle of September and charged with crimes including kidnapping, conspiracy, robbery, and use of a deadly weapon.
If convicted Simpson could face life in prison. He was free on bail after spending a week in jail in September. He is set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on November 8th.