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СÀ¶ÊÓƵicut lawmakers voted Friday to take steps to protect people from the state's growing bear population. But they stopped far short of a bear hunt and restrictions on people unintentionally feeding the hungry animals.

MONTREAL — A city on Quebec's north shore declared a state of emergency on Friday as forest fires raged in different parts of the province, forcing thousands from their homes.

SANTA FE, N.M.

BASS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — A long stretch of New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway reopened Friday morning as firefighters worked to contain a 5,000-acre forest fire spewing thick plumes of smoke.

WASHINGTON — In the land of partisan blinders, the one named Manchin is still king, it seems.

CALGARY — A boil-water advisory remains in effect for three communities in southwest Calgary after a water main break at a nearby construction site.

OTTAWA — Canada is open to the idea of including a requirement to cut back on the production of plastic in a new global treaty to eliminate plastic pollution, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Friday.

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia RCMP say they are enforcing a provincial ban on burning and another on travel and activities in the woods that were put in place as firefighters battle raging wildfires.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Three chemical companies said Friday they had reached a $1.18 billion deal to resolve complaints of polluting many U.S. drinking water systems with potentially harmful compounds known as PFAS. DuPont de Nemours Inc.

VICTORIA — The British Columbia government has extended an order deferring old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek watershed on Vancouver Island. The extension to Feb.