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NEW 'No more barriers in CAF' as Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan to be officially named head of military
Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan will become the first female to lead the Canadian Armed Forces following a ceremony in Ottawa today.
The Justice Department said Tuesday it will not appeal a federal district judge's ruling that ended the nation's federal mask mandate on public transit unless the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes the requirement is still necessary.
In a statement released a day after a Florida judge ended the sweeping mandate, which required face coverings on planes and trains and in transit hubs, Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said officials believe that the federal mask order was "a valid exercise of the authority Congress has given CDC to protect the public health." He said it was "an important authority the Department will continue to work to preserve."
Coley said the CDC had said it would continue to assess public health conditions, and if the agency determined a mandate was necessary for public health, the Justice Department would file an appeal.
As of Tuesday, the agency hadn't made a determination, officials said.
The federal judge's ruling did away with the last major vestige of federal pandemic rules and led to a mishmash of new locally created rules that reflected the nation's ongoing divisions over how to battle the virus.
Major airlines and airports in places like Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City quickly switched to a mask-optional policy. Los Angeles County dropped its mandate for mass transit and a train conductor in New Jersey told commuters of their masks Tuesday: "Feel free to burn them at will."
New York City, Chicago and Connecticut, however, continued to require masks for travelers.
The ride-sharing companies Lyft and Uber announced on their websites Tuesday that masks will now be optional while riding or driving.
Even Walt Disney World in Florida on Tuesday announced it was lifting its mask requirement for its monorail, buses and sky gondola.
For many, the news was welcome. A video showed some passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight cheering and applauding as they removed masks upon hearing the announcement they were now optional. One man happily twirled his mask on his finger.
However Brooke Tansley, a television producer and former Broadway performer, was incensed after boarding a flight with her 4-year-old and 8-month-old baby-- neither old enough to be vaccinated -- only to learn the mask mandate had ended mid-flight.
"Very very angry about this," she said in a tweet, noting her baby was too young to wear a mask.
President Joe Biden went all-in on flexibility Tuesday when asked if Americans should mask up on planes.
"That's up to them," Biden declared during a visit to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. But the White House continues to require face coverings for those traveling with him on Air Force One, citing CDC guidance.
In Portland, Oregon, transit employees immediately began taking down "mask required" announcements and signs, but said it would likely take several days to remove everything.
The city joined Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Missouri, and two of Alaska's largest cities, Anchorage and Juneau, in making masking optional on mass transit.
Some passengers at Chicago's Union Station said the rules were confusing. Amtrak dropped its requirement. The Chicago Transit Authority and Metra, the regional commuter rail service, kept the requirement at first but dropped it late Tuesday.
"It's like this patchwork of different rules and enforcement of it," said Erik Abderhalden, who wore a mask as he waited for a Metra train to his home in suburban Naperville. "I mean, it's like Swiss cheese ... there's no uniformity and it seems pretty laissez-faire."
Subway rider Cooper Klinges was pleased that New York City's public transit system wasn't following the trend and planned to keep its mask requirement in place. As he waited at a Brooklyn train station, he said he canceled a flight earlier this year over concerns about the virus.
"I don't think we are out of the woods yet," said Klinges, a teacher, citing concerns about the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus. "It is still around. We have to still stick it out."
The CDC had recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the subvariant, which is now responsible for the vast majority of U.S. cases. But the court ruling puts that decision on hold.
After a winter surge fueled by the omicron variant that prompted record hospitalizations, the U.S. has seen a significant drop in virus spread in recent months that led most states and cities to drop mask mandates.
But several Northeast cities have seen a rise in hospitalizations in recent weeks, leading Philadelphia to bring back its mask mandate.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas, and Crawford from Chicago. Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Michael Balsamo and Will Weissert in Washington and Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this report.
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Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan will become the first female to lead the Canadian Armed Forces following a ceremony in Ottawa today.
Two people have died after an outbreak of listeriosis triggered a national recall of certain plant-based milks, the Public Health Agency of Canada said Wednesday.
Farm equipment maker John Deere says it will no longer sponsor 'social or cultural awareness' events, becoming the latest major U.S. company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash.
Rare images of the Mashco Piro, an uncontacted Indigenous tribe in the remote Peruvian Amazon, were published on Tuesday by Survival International,
Authorities are asking parents to speak with their teenagers following a "frenzy" of recent door-knock pranks in Surrey, B.C., that have escalated into property damage.
Introducing himself to the nation after being tapped as Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance used his Wednesday night address to the Republican National Convention to share the story of his hardscrabble upbringing and make the case that his party best understands the challenges facing struggling Americans.
The War Amps is speaking out after one of its members who lost most of his hand in an airplane propeller accident was denied coverage by Quebec for a mechanical hand.
A donated clawfoot bathtub has become the preferred lounging spot for a pair of B.C. grizzly bears, who have been taking turns relaxing and reclining in it – with minimal sibling squabbling – for the past year.
U.S. President Joe Biden, under pressure from fellow Democrats to drop his re-election campaign, tested positive for COVID-19 while visiting Las Vegas on Wednesday and is self-isolating after experiencing mild symptoms, the White House said.
A donated clawfoot bathtub has become the preferred lounging spot for a pair of B.C. grizzly bears, who have been taking turns relaxing and reclining in it – with minimal sibling squabbling – for the past year.
A pair of cemetery investigators are cleaning and preserving as many gravestones they have permission to work on, as they conduct their research and document gravestones.
After more than three years, a B.C. woman has been reunited with a lost family heirloom.
One of Edmonton’s main contributors to Google Street View is a man who dresses up as an alien.
Nearly 10 years after it was first proposed, an interactive piece of public art is officially open in Vancouver's Hastings Park.
An event July 22 at Dynamic Earth in Sudbury will mark the 60th anniversary of the iconic Big Nickel, the largest coin in the world.
Cyclist Jagjeet Singh cruised through Montreal on Sunday morning as he rides across the country to raise money for a children's charity.
A rare ammonite fossil – about 75 million years old - has been discovered in eastern Saskatchewan.
Seven-year-old goalie Hudson Hardill is an unlikely Calgary Flames fan, being that he lives in Peterborough, Ont., and his dad Chris is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.