Is "thanks to" now used also in negative contexts? [closed]

Recently I saw some uses of the idiom thanks to in negative contexts. They sound strange to me, probably because thanks express a grateful feeling or acknowledgment of a benefit, so I thought thanks to would be used only in positive contexts.

Searching ELU I found this 2010 question and the accepted answer clearly states that

Thanks to has a positive connotation (unless used sarcastically).

Other answers in the same question also say that thanks to should be used in positive contexts.

Contrariwise, today I read this headline:

Memorial Day parades canceled, thanks to wet weather.

Also Dictionary.com show a negative context for thanks to:

The case went poorly thanks to the lawyer's incompetence.

I know that sarcastically thanks to can be used in any context, but at least the headline about the Memorial Day does not seem sarcastically to me.

Perhaps the question I mentioned earlier is outdated, as 6 years have passed, and now thanks to is also used in negative contexts? How does that sound to a native speaker of English?

TL;DR, Is thanks to (as a synonym for due to) used in negative contexts?

According to merriam webster, looks like it is used in place of "because of", just like it would mean in any sentence using "thanks to", positive or negative.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thanks%20to