Conservation group makes $60M land deal to end mining threat outside Okefenokee Swamp
The Conservation Fund said it will buy all 7,700 acres (31.16 square kilometers) that Alabama-based Twin Pines owns outside the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Georgia, halting the company's mining plans.
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Calgary Herald
7 minutes ago
- Calgary Herald
Weary travellers at YYC despite fed intervention in Air Canada labour fight
It was a subdued Saturday morning by the Air Canada counters at the Calgary International Airport. Article content Travellers stood wearily in lines by the counter, baggage in tow while staff ran back-and-forth between the counters with passports in hand. Article content Article content Some had been at the airport for hours, waiting to hear back on cancelled flights and rebooking alternatives. Article content 'We've been here since seven this morning,' Clem Lacoume said. She had travelled to Canada from France with a friend, Emma Sambras, two weeks ago to explore British Columbia and had a flight scheduled home on Saturday. Article content Article content At 12:58 a.m. ET on Saturday, 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants walked off the job on strike, after the airline and the union representing them failed to reach a deal ahead of the deadline. The airline estimated 130,000 customers would be affected for each day of the strike. Article content Article content Patty Hajdu, the federal jobs minister, directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board on Saturday morning to order flight attendants back to work, impose final and binding arbitration and extend the terms of the parties' existing contract until a new one one is determined. Article content However, with several flights already cancelled and travellers urgently attempting to rebook alternatives, it will still take time until flights are back to scheduled routine, according to Adam Danyleko, CEO of Elite Travel Management, a Calgary-based travel agency. Article content 'It takes a while for the routes to get back online,' he said. 'They've already cancelled them so they've got to do a lot of work with the actual individual airport locations to bring the routes back online and to bring the flight attendants back online.' Article content Article content Article content On Saturday morning, more than 100 flight attendants banded at the far end of the airport building, near the departure doors leading to the counters for the U.S. airlines. Article content 'Our members are ready for this,' Brittany Thomas, local vice-president for CUPE Local 495 in Calgary. 'They didn't want it to get to this but they are here because they have to be here. Article content 'There's a lot of community,' she added. 'We have a very strong engagement because we know each other, we're friends, we're tight-knit.' Article content The days leading up to the strike held a lot of 'anxiety and stress,' she said. The last time the airline's flight attendants went on strike was in 1985. Article content Daylen Mitansky, local vice-president of CUPE Local 495, said when he heard the strike was to be official, he cried. 'It's really heartbreaking,' he said. 'We're all sad about the passengers being stranded and it's really hard on a lot of us.
Toronto Star
3 hours ago
- Toronto Star
GridStrat Unveils GridStrat Clarity, a Business and Industry-Aware AI Engine for Improved AI Search Visibility and Live Market Intelligence
Calgary, Aug. 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GridStrat today announced the launch of GridStrat Clarity, a business-aware AI platform that continuously analyzes a company and its operating environment to improve how AI systems answer questions about the business and to surface live market signals for sales, financing, and compliance teams. The Calgary-based firm specifies that the platform merges Generative Answer Engine Optimization (AEO/GEO) with continuous business ecosystem monitoring, a response to corporate and customer decisions increasingly originating and receiving decision support from AI tools. 'AI is now the front door to most buying and strategic decision making. GridStrat Clarity maximizes your business's value creation potential in this critical environment by continuously teaching AI systems the correct and most compelling facts about your business. Now you can ensure prospective stakeholders, from customers to investors, have your best information at their fingertips, and you can get ahead and stay ahead of competition by more rapidly digesting market shifts and improving your tactics.'
Ottawa Citizen
7 hours ago
- Ottawa Citizen
Air Canada flight attendants go on strike, planes grounded
Air Canada grounded hundreds of flights and locked out flight attendants after they went on strike, disrupting some 130,000 passengers a day during the summer vacation season. Article content About 10,000 flight attendants walked off the job early Saturday after pay talks between the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the country's biggest airline fell through. At Toronto Pearson, Canada's busiest airport, the departure board showed one cancellation after another. Article content Article content Air Canada suspended operations of its main line and Rouge budget brand as the strike began at 12:58 a.m. Eastern time. The Montreal-based carrier had scrapped hundreds of flights in the days before the deadline and said it imposed a lockout in response to the stoppage. Article content Article content 'We are now officially on strike,' the union's Air Canada component said on its website. Article content It's a major interruption to the nation's air travel system. Air Canada is the country's biggest airline, with a 50 per cent share of domestic passengers at Toronto Pearson and about 61 per cent at Montreal's primary airport, according to a recent report from the country's competition watchdog, based on 2023 data. Article content The strike may cost Air Canada $75 million daily in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, TD Cowen analyst Tom Fitzgerald said in a note on Friday. Cargo operations will also be affected. Article content Article content Regional flights by Air Canada Express aren't affected because they're operated by third-party airlines, allowing some flights to US destinations such as Newark and Boston to go ahead. Article content Pay dispute at heart of labour action Article content Pay is a major sticking point in the negotiations. Air Canada said it offered to increase total compensation, including benefits and bonuses, by 25 per cent in the first year and 38 per cent over four years, and agreed to pay workers for some of the time they spend on the ground. Air Canada flight attendants are paid only when the aircraft is in motion and not for work such as boarding — a common practice in the industry. Article content Patty Hajdu, Canada's minister of jobs and families, said she met with both sides late Friday and urged them to keep working to make a deal. 'It is unacceptable that such little progress has been made,' she said in a social media post.
