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Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley said policy makers will know in three to four months whether the economy is healthy enough to overcome federal budget cuts and allow the central bank to begin reducing record stimulus.

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A group of York University students is using comics to tackle an issue that doesn’t usually get the funny pages treatment: sexual violence.

As part of Design for Public Awareness, a class taught by Prof. Jan Hadlaw, the students created 12 graphic art projects that address issues surrounding sexual assault.

Hadlaw said she wasn’t sure at first about using comics to tackle such a weighty subject.

“I had to think about it for a minute — it’s a challenging topic on many levels — but it was clearly an inspired idea,” she said.

The course material was presented in conjunction with Noa Ashkenazi, the university’s sexual harassment prevention and education adviser.

Sexual assault has been a hot topic at York. Taking action to prevent attacks must go beyond getting security or law enforcement involved, Ashkenazi said.

“We cannot expect police to change the social norms. We need to change the social norms,” she said.

In a single-panel comic called “In a Tight Situation,” Superman sits on a stool, hands covering his face, with a speech bubble that reads: “I shouldn’t have worn such tight clothing! I was asking for it. . . . It’s all my fault.” Beside him is Batman, a sympathetic look on his face and a hand on his comrade’s shoulder.

“We wanted use the power in these heroes to comment on how people view sexual violence,” said Hel

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Councillor Doug Ford finally spoke up on radio about a cell-phone video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine seen by two Toronto Star reporters.

Radio station Newstalk 1010 reported Saturday that Councillor Ford told them, “I have never seen my brother involved with anything like coke.”

The mayor’s brother, who is usually quick to publicly defend Ford, has been silent to media since the story broke Thursday night.

Mayor Rob Ford turned down three chances on Friday to address the specifics of media reports about the video.

The Ford brothers have cancelled their weekly radio show on Newstalk 1010, scheduled for this Sunday.

Related:

Time for mayor to step down: Editorial

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The cost of goods imported into the U.S. dropped in April, propelled by retreating fuel costs.

The 0.5 percent decline in the import-price index followed a 0.2 percent drop the prior month, according to Labor Department figures released today in Washington. The decrease matched the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Such prices were down 2.6 percent in the past 12 months.

Tepid economic growth around the globe has reduced demand for commodities, including oil, putting downward pressure on costs. With inflation under control, monetary officials from the Federal Reserve to the European Central Bank have room to do more to stoke expansion without creating jumps in prices.

Estimates for the change in import prices ranged from a drop of 1 percent to a 0.3 percent gain, according to the 43 economists surveyed.

The cost of imported petroleum fell 1.9 percent in April from the prior month.

Excluding fuels, import prices declined 0.2 last month from March, and were down 0.7 percent from April 2012. That was the biggest 12-month decrease since the year ended November 2009 payday loans guaranteed no fax.

The value of imported automobiles fell 0.3 percent from the prior month, the most since December 2011. The price of imported capital goods dropped 0.2 percent, the most in more than a year.

Goods from China were 0.1 percent less expensive. Imports from Japan declined 0.6 percent, the biggest drop since September 2008. Latin American goods fell 1.5 percent and those from the European Union decreased 0.1 percent. The price of Canadian imports retreated 0.6 percent, and goods from Mexico were 0.9 percent less expensive.

The price of U.S. exports dropped 0.7 percent after falling 0.5 percent the previous month, today

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Running late for a doctor’s appointment, Jennifer Green and her young daughter waited at a green light for a Walk signal that never came. Then, confused, they waited a second time.

On the third green light after she arrived at Sheppard Ave. E. and Ambrose Rd. on Friday, Green finally decided to defy the unchanging Don’t Walk signal. She and her daughter ran across the street, mother muttering in the general direction of the red hand.

They made it across without incident. Between 2007 and 2011, at least nine others did not. According to a new city study, this seemingly unremarkable North York intersection near the Leslie subway station was the worst in Toronto for people on foot over that five-year period.

One of the intersections on the city’s 10-worst list has already been redesigned. In a new report to council, the city promises “immediate” improvements to the other nine.

Depending on the intersection, the transportation department will do such things as provide more crossing time, give pedestrians a brief head start before cars are allowed to move, install “Yield to Pedestrians” signs, paint or repaint pedestrian markings on the road, and make left turns sharper so cars are forced to slow down.

Pedestrian advocates are pleased. Though some intersections would be better overhauled than tweaked, Dylan Reid said, small-scale changes “can make a difference.”

“People underestimate the role that bad design plays in creating collisions,” said Reid, co-founder of advocacy group Walk Toronto. “People often blame pedestrians and drivers, but often they’re responding to the cues that the infrastructure is giving them.”

Only one of the 10 “priority” intersections is downtown: three are in North York, four in Scarborough, one in Etobicoke, one on the border of Etobicoke and old Toronto. While many downtown intersections had far more car-pedestrian collisions in total than the intersections on the list, the city’s analysis compared the number of collisions with the number of cars and pedestrians passing through.

“We’ve always known that it’s a somewhat more difficult environment for walking in our suburban areas, where they cross the arterials,” said pedestrian projects manager Fiona Chapman.

The “immediate” actions will cost $70,000, which will come from elsewhere in the existing 2013 transportation budget. Chapman said she could not say exactly when they will be completed.

The report also listed options for further improvements to the nine intersections. The funding for those “medium- or long-term” initiatives would have to be approved at a later date.

The city study found that by far the most car-pedestrian intersection collisions happened when cars turning left struck pedestrians crossing with the right of way: 39 per cent, or 1,864. Twenty per cent, or 951, occurred when right-turning cars struck pedestrians who had the right of way. Collisions between cars driving straight through and pedestrians crossing without the right of way accounted for 13 per cent, or 639 in total.

There were nine collisions between cars and pedestrians at Sheppard and Ambrose over the five-year period. Eight of those, the city says, were the result of “improper driving” or drivers failing to yield to pedestrians as they turned left or right.

The intersection seems unremarkable, but cars approach downhill in three directions, and they move fast. A medical office building on one corner attracts slow-moving elderly pedestrians. Drivers leaving the McDonald’s drive-through near another corner eat burgers while turning back on to Sheppard.

Other drivers sometimes ignore the signs that prohibit driving straight through in two directions. And pedestrians only get a Walk signal, and appropriate time to cross, if they push the button Green did not.

“It’s just a whole combination of nasty little things,” said John Coulter, who works in a building nearby, as he prepared to cross.

One of the “immediate” improvements the city says it will implement: having the Walk signal activated by cars in addition to the pedestrian button.

Toronto’s 10 worst intersections for pedestrians, 2007-2011

1. Sheppard Ave. E. and Ambrose Rd./Provost Dr.

2. St. Dennis Dr. and Deauville Lane

3. Steeles Ave. E. and Ashcott St./Fenton Rd.

4. Neilson Rd. and McLevin Ave.

5. St. Clair Ave. E. and Brimley Rd.

6. Roncesvalles Ave. and Fermangh Ave./High Park Blvd.

7. Steeles Ave. E. and Strawberry Hills Dr./Hillcroft Dr.

8. Rexdale Blvd. and Queens Plate Dr.

9. Wilson Ave. and Allingham Gardens

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Police say they have recovered a cellphone belonging to a Hamilton man who was last seen Monday when he took two men for a test drive of a pickup truck he was trying to sell online.

They have also released descriptions of the two men believed to have met with Timothy Bosma, 32. Homicide investigators have taken over the case because of the “unusual nature” of the disappearance.

“We always have to hold out hope,” Det.-Sgt. Matt Kavanagh told a news conference Friday when asked whether Bosma was still believed to be alive.

Police said the two men last seen with Bosma are believed to have contacted an Etobicoke man about selling the same model pickup truck online. The two suspects arrived at a business on foot to test drive the car on Sunday, Kavanagh said.

MORE ON THESTAR.COM:

Tim Bosma’s wife pleads for his return after test drive disappearance

Hamilton man who put pickup for sale vanishes after test drive with two men

Homicide investigating disappearance of Tim Bosma

On Thursday afternoon, police found Bosma’s cellphone in an industrial complex in west Brantford – the direction he was last believed to have been heading with the two men.

No other items were recovered, but police said they were able to track the cellphone they believed the suspects used to contact Bosma.

That is how investigators were able to speak with the man in Etobicoke, who told police he thought it was suspicious that the men who arrived at his business to look at his truck were on foot. He was returned to his business after the test drive.

Police said they’ve also received information that Bosma’s vehicle was seen travelling in the downtown area of south Brantford at 10:10 p.m. on Monday.

Investigators are asking any business owners with surveillance cameras in the area to review footage for that day between 9:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

Police are not sure what route the vehicle may have travelled through Brantford.

Bosma’s own cellphone was turned off shortly after his disappearance and the phone believed to be used by the two men was only active for three months – its signal bouncing off cell towers in Etobicoke – before it was also disconnected, Kavanagh said.

As police were making these discoveries on Thursday, Bosma’s wife, Sharlene, pleaded with the men she believes kidnapped her husband to return him safely.

“It is just a truck. You don’t need him, but I do and our daughter needs her daddy. So please, please let him come home,” she tearfully told a news conference.

Friends and family had taken to social media, posting pictures of Bosma and pleas for help in finding him.

Hamilton police have dedicated 150 officers to a ground and air search for Bosma, utilizing K-9 units and reassigning officers to the homicide unit, Supt. Dan Kinsella told media.

“We will continue to commit any and all resources,” he said.

Police have confirmed a description of one of the suspects. He is described as a white male in his mid-20s, 6-foot-1 to 6-foot-2, 170 to 180 pounds. He has light to medium, short brown hair, is unshaved and was wearing an orange shirt and running shoes.

Also described, was a unique tattoo on one of the man’s wrists where a watch would normally be: A box framing the word “Ambition.”

The second man also in his mid-20s is described as white, 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-10, small to medium build, dark hair, wearing a red-hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up over his head.

Bosma’s Dodge Ram, which has not been recovered, is described as black with an Ontario licence plate number 726 7ZW.

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PHOENIX— The jury has rendered its verdict — Jodi Arias is guilty of first-degree murder — but the trial is far from finished.

The same jury now returns to the courtroom Thursday to decide whether she deserves to die for killing her one-time boyfriend on June 4, 2008, at his suburban Phoenix home.

Jodi Arias found guilty

Despite her wish that she get death, the decision is only up to a jury at this point. Arias could choose not to testify at the penalty phase and not appeal her conviction if she were to get death, but such scenarios are rare and still take years to play out.

Arias: How sex and murder created a ratings killer

The sheer brutality of the attack and previous testimony from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner that Travis Alexander did not die a quick death will be at the heart of the prosecution’s argument that Jodi should receive the ultimate punishment for her crime.

Alexander was stabbed and slashed nearly 30 times, shot in the forehead and had slit his throat from ear to ear, leaving the motivational speaker and businessman nearly decapitated. Friends found his decomposing body in his shower about five days later.

Arias spoke out about the verdict minutes after her conviction Wednesday, telling a TV station that she would “prefer to die sooner than later.”

“Longevity runs in my family, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my natural life in one place,” a tearful Arias told Fox affiliate KSAZ. “I believe death is the ultimate freedom and I’d rather have my freedom as soon as I can get it.”

Arias, 32, fought back tears as a court clerk read aloud the highly anticipated verdict after a four-month trial in which the jury heard 18 days of testimony from the defendant, saw a series of gruesome crime scene photos and heard a raunchy phone sex chat between Arias recorded with Alexander just weeks before he died.

The next portion of the trial is called the “aggravation phase,” and it will focus on whether the jury believes the crime was committed in an especially cruel, heinous and depraved manner. If jurors find the aggravators exist, the next step will be the penalty phase during which the panel will recommend either life in prison or death. The process could take several more weeks to wrap up.

The trial quickly became an Internet sensation and transformed Arias from a little-known waitress to a morbid curiosity and a star of a real-life true-crime drama that the public followed incessantly. The presence of cameras in the courtroom, the advance of Internet streaming video and social media, the salacious details of the case, and the attention it got on cable networks like HLN gave the trial the feel of a celebrity proceeding.

The jury heard all about the stormy relationship between Alexander and Arias after they met at a 2006 conference in Las Vegas and he persuaded her to convert to Mormonism. They began dating but broke up five months later, at which point prosecutors said she began stalking him and became increasingly obsessed with Alexander.

The 30-year-old victim was a rising star at a legal services company called Prepaid Legal, where he gave rousing motivational speeches to colleagues and was a beloved co-worker to people across the organization.

Arias sought to portray him as an abusive sexual deviant in her trial, hoping that the jury would buy her claims that she killed him in self-defence after being unable to take the abuse any more. She claimed he attacked her and forced her to fight for her life. Prosecutors said she killed out of jealous rage after Alexander wanted to end their affair and planned to take a trip to Mexico with another woman.

Alexander’s family members wept and hugged each other after the verdict. They thanked prosecutor Juan Martinez and the lead detective on the case, but declined comment until after sentencing.

Alexander’s friend, Chris Hughes, said he was happy with the verdict, pointing out a bold proclamation Arias made in one of her jailhouse interviews that she wouldn’t be found guilty easy payday loans.

“She said, ‘No jury would convict me. Mark my words.’ This jury convicted her,” Hughes said. “Luckily, we had 12 smart jurors. They nailed it.”

When asked about Alexander’s family, Arias told the station, “I just hope that now that a verdict has been rendered, that they’ll be able to find peace.”

Arias seemed to cry silently when asked about her mother. With tears falling, she said her mom “has been a saint and I haven’t treated her very well.”

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said no more media interviews with Arias would be granted. She has been placed on suicide watch.

Outside court, more than 200 spectators and reporters watched for the verdict on their smartphones. A ripple of relief spread as people learned the result. The crowd cheered, with some people jumping, waving, high-fiving and dancing in approval.

Hughes said it was frustrating to hear the defence besmirch his friend’s reputation during the trial, but praised the jurors for the verdict. He said he and the Alexander family were shocked by the international attention the case had received.

“Travis was grandiose, so it’s interesting how this played out … it is a bit of a circus. We were all surprised that it’s like this,” he said.

Testimony began in early January. The trial quickly snowballed into a made-for-the-tabloids drama, garnering daily coverage from cable news networks and spawning a virtual cottage industry for talk shows, legal experts and even Arias, who used her notoriety to sell artwork she made in jail. She also sent out tweets via an intermediary, attracting tens of thousands of followers.

Arias said she recalled Alexander attacking her in a fury after a day of sex. She said Alexander came at her “like a linebacker,” body-slamming her to the tile floor. She managed to wriggle free and ran into his closet to retrieve a gun he kept on a shelf. She said she fired in self-defence but had no memory of stabbing him.

She acknowledged trying to clean the scene of the killing, dumping the gun in the desert and working on an alibi to avoid suspicion. She said she was too scared and ashamed to tell the truth. However, none of Arias’ allegations that Alexander had physically abused her in the months before his death, that he owned a gun and had sexual desires for young boys were corroborated by witnesses or evidence during the trial. She acknowledged lying repeatedly before and after her arrest but insisted she was telling the truth in court.

During her 18 days on the witness stand, Arias described an abusive childhood, cheating boyfriends, dead-end jobs, a shocking sexual relationship with Alexander, and her contention that he had grown physically violent in hopes of gaining sympathy from jurors.

But aside from her admitted lies, Arias had yet another formidable obstacle to overcome.

Her grandparents had reported a .25-calibre handgun stolen from their Northern California home about a week before Alexander’s death — the same calibre used to shoot him — but Arias insisted she didn’t take it. Authorities believe she brought it with her to kill him. The coincidence of the same calibre gun stolen from the home also being used to shoot Alexander was never resolved.

Meanwhile, the entire case devolved into a circus-like spectacle attracting dozens of enthusiasts each day to the courthouse as they lined up for a chance to score just a few open public seats in the gallery. One trial regular sold her spot in line to another person for $200. Both got reprimands from the court, and the money was returned.

Many people also gathered outside after trial for a chance to see Martinez, who had gained celebrity-like status for his firebrand tactics and unapologetically intimidating style of cross-examining defence witnesses.

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For years they have frustrated gasoline retailers and some consumers. Now they’re on the way out.

The cumbersome plastic boots used to combat harmful ground-level ozone are already gone from fuel dispensers at a few dozen gas stations in the city of St. Louis and four surrounding Missouri counties with hundreds more retailers to follow suit in coming months.

The change in regulations has been in the works for months, and gas station owners were allowed to begin removing the equipment in mid-March.

So-called stage 2 vapor recovery equipment has been an important part of the Missouri’s efforts to reduce local ozone levels over the past 25 years.

The special nozzles capture gasoline vapors and move them to underground tanks as drivers refuel. But the Environmental Protection Agency says the equipment is no longer necessary. It’s not because ozone pollution is no longer a problem. In fact, St. Louis area is still a non-attainment area for ozone, meaning levels exceed federal standards.

However, new cars today have technology that does the same job. In fact, all cars manufactured since 2006 have built-in carbon canisters that capture vapors before they escape.

Gasoline retailers, which had sought the change, wasted little time asking the state for permits to remove the equipment.

Within a month of getting approval to remove the vapor recovery equipment, half of the 765 gasoline retailers in the city and surrounding counties had applied for permits to do so, said Renee Bungard, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. As of Monday, 47 had completed the work, she said.

“We’ve been asking for this to happen for quite some time,” said Ronald Leone, executive director at the Missouri Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association. “If we no longer need it, which we clearly don’t, it make sense to get rid of it in the most expeditious manner possible.”

Gas station owners disliked the vapor recovery equipment for a number of reasons. But the main reason they want it gone?

“Customers hated it,” said Rob Forsyth, vice president of Belleville-based FKG Oil Co totally free credit score., which operates 16 MotoMart stores in Missouri.

The special nozzles were clumsy and prevented motorists them from topping off their tanks, he said. They are also a headache for station owners, Forsyth said.

“It was by design a cumbersome, difficult to maintain system,” he said.

The EPA last year told states they could begin authorize removal of so-called Stage 2 vapor recovery equipment if they did technical studies proving that it wouldn’t hurt air quality.

For area gasoline retailers, it was a welcome change in regulation. For another local company, it was opportunity knocking.

Pacific-based Husky Corp., which makes and sells hoses, nozzles, swivels and other parts of the gas dispenser assemblies, has spent recent months gearing up to help station owners make the conversions, not just in Missouri, but across the country.

Husky has added about 15 employees, boosting local employment by 10 percent, and may add another 15 or so in the coming months and years as gas retailers in 39 other markets look to replace gas dispenser assemblies, said Brad Baker, the company’s executive vice president.

Baker said large regional gasoline marketing retail chains have been first to make the conversions locally, followed by national chains. Small mom-and-pop operators will be the last group to replace equipment.

Already, he said, Husky has “sold enough in Missouri to take care of 30 to 40 percent of the market.”

Switching out the hose-and-nozzle assemblies isn’t cheap. Conversions can cost $3,000 to $7,000 per station depending on a number of variables, including the number of dispensers and labor costs, Baker said.

“If you’ve got multiple locations, it turns out to be a pretty big number pretty quickly,” he said.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis area remains a non-attainment area for ozone, meaning levels still exceed federal standards.

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