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Athletics-Britain stripped of Olympic 4x100m medal as CAS upholds Ujah doping violation
"I accept the decision issued by the Court of Arbitration for Sport today with sadness," Ujah said in a statement issued by UK Athletics on Friday. "I would like to make it clear that I unknowingly consumed a contaminated supplement and this was the reason why an anti-doping rule violation occurred at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Britain has been stripped of its Olympic silver medal in the men's 4x100m relay in Tokyo last August after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld Chijindu Ujah's anti-doping violation on Friday.
Ujah has been provisionally suspended since Ostarine and S-23 -- both substances prohibited by world anti-doping organisation WADA -- were detected in his A and B samples following the final. In a statement on Friday, CAS said its Anti-Doping Division had found that Ujah had committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation and that his team's result from the 4x100m relay on Aug. 6 had been disqualified.
Ujah and his relay team mates Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake finished narrowly second behind Italy. Canada will now be upgraded to silver with China moving into the bronze medal position. In a statement CAS acknowledged that Ujah had not challenged the decision in his written submissions to the hearing and that he claimed he had "not knowingly or intentionally doped".
The 27-year-old said he had been left "devastated" by his anti-doping violation. "I accept the decision issued by the Court of Arbitration for Sport today with sadness," Ujah said in a statement issued by UK Athletics on Friday.
"I would like to make it clear that I unknowingly consumed a contaminated supplement and this was the reason why an anti-doping rule violation occurred at the Tokyo Olympic Games. "I would like to apologise to my team mates, their families and support teams for the impact which this has had on them. I'm sorry that this situation has cost my teammates the medals they worked so hard and so long for, and which they richly deserved. That is something I will regret for the rest of my life."
A UKA spokesperson added: "UKA continue to be in regular communication with the athletes concerned but will not be making public comment on the case until after the World Athletics/AIU process which will follow on from this CAS outcome." Britain suffered a disappointing performance in track and field in Tokyo, failing to win a gold medal for the first time since the Atlanta Games in 1996.
Ujah was eliminated in the semi-finals of the individual 100m. He will now have to wait for the Athletics Integrity Unit to determine the length of any ban, which could be as long as four years.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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China-Pakistan axis has its root in history, says former MEA secretary | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928207-athletics-britain-stripped-of-olympic-4x100m-medal-as-cas-upholds-ujah-doping-violation | 2022-02-18T18:25:29 | en | 0.980474 |
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — The improper storage of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine at a New Haven clinic, which led to hundreds of people being told to get another jab, is an isolated incident of miscommunication, according to an internal review.
New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond said there was a lack of communication as to who was responsible for checking when the vaccine should have been moved from a freezer to a refrigerator, WTNH-TV reported. Bond said approximately 2,900 doses had been left in the freezer too long and 656 were administered to 625 people.
Officials have said the efficacy of the doses might have been diminished because vials containing the vaccine were kept at a temperature below what is recommended.
Bond said the 625 people who received the vaccine were cross-referenced with a state database and none have been identified as having contracted COVID-19. The database does not include the results of rapid at-home tests.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said a third-party investigation into the matter will begin on Monday. The Connecticut Department of Public Health is also investigating the incident and a report is expected next week. | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Improperly-stored-COVID-19-doses-called-isolated-16929983.php | 2022-02-18T18:25:29 | en | 0.985638 |
BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — Funeral services are Monday for former Mississippi state Rep. Michael Janus, who died Tuesday. He was 55.
State Sen. Scott DeLano announced at the Capitol that Janus had died of cancer.
Janus was a Republican who served in the Mississippi House from 1996 to 2009. He stepped down to become city manager of D'Iberville.
He ran for mayor of Biloxi multiple times, including in a 2009 Republican primary that he lost to incumbent A.J. Holloway.
Janus was fired as D'Iberville city manager in 2013 after signing an agreement with a Pascagoula consulting firm without the D'Iberville city council’s knowledge or approval.
Janus served a 21-month federal prison sentence after he pleaded guilty in 2014 to one count of program fraud for fraudulently obtaining a $180,000 finder’s fee from D'Iberville for a company he co-owned with businessman Scott Walker. WLOX-TV reported that according to prosecutors, the city paid the fee for help in obtaining a $3 million Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality grant.
Janus told the TV station that he had no criminal intent.
“Folks have asked, ‘Do you think the judge was fair?’ And I say, yes I do. I do agree with the judge,” Janus told WLOX after his federal sentencing. "Public servants should be held to a higher standard.”
Republican state Rep. Richard Bennett of Long Beach told WXXV-TV that Janus was one of his mentors when he joined the House.
“Michael was such a good guy. He was one of the brightest minds in the Legislature," Bennett said. "We never really got to see his full potential because the Democrats were in power at the time.”
Bennett said that, with the blessing of then-Gov. Haley Barbour, Janus and and Rep. Jim Simpson Jr. started the Republican Caucus and Janus was a catalyst in flipping power in the House. Republicans gained in after the 2011 election.
Janus took a three-month leave of absence in 2011 from the D'Iberville city manager position to temporarily serve as chief of staff for Republican U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo of Mississippi. Palazzo had served in the state House from late 2006 to early 2011, and he said Janus changed the course of his life by suggesting he run for that office.
“I will forever be indebted to him for his counsel and friendship over the years,” Palazzo said.
Janus is survived by his wife, Talie, and daughters Hannah and Sarah. | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Janus-former-Mississippi-lawmaker-dies-of-16930010.php | 2022-02-18T18:25:36 | en | 0.986525 |
Sports News Roundup: Olympics-Cross-country skiing-Sweden's Karlsson out of women's 30km race; Olympics-Winter sports 'superpower' Norway set golden record at Beijing Games and more
Aided by Gu’s two wins, in Big Air and halfpipe, the country are level with the United States in third place for gold medals, with just days left in the Games. Olympics-Freestyle skiing-Switzerland claim top two spots in men's ski cross First-time Olympian Ryan Regez of Switzerland dominated the final men's ski cross race to win gold on Friday at the Beijing Games, while fellow Swiss skier Alex Fiva claimed silver.
Following is a summary of current sports news briefs.
Olympics-Cross-country skiing-Sweden's Karlsson out of women's 30km race
Frida Karlsson has not been included in Sweden's team for Sunday's 30km freestyle race, the final cross-country skiing competition of the Beijing Olympics, as she needs to take time to recover, the Swedish team said on Friday. Karlsson, who is currently sixth in the World Cup standings, has struggled to find her best form in Beijing, collapsing after finishing fifth in the opening skiathlon race and finishing 12th in the 10km classic.
Olympics-Winter sports 'superpower' Norway set golden record at Beijing Games
Norway's Johannes Thingnes Boe won the men's biathlon 15km mass start to claim their 15th gold medal at the Beijing Games on Friday, a Winter Olympics record achieved due to the country's high level of professionalism across the board. With two cross-country skiing races left, Norway already has victories in the biathlon, ski jumping, Nordic combined, speed skating, cross-country and freestyle skiing, so no-one could accuse them of being one-trick ponies.
Kremlin disagrees with IOC president Bach's assessment on skater Valieva
The Kremlin said on Friday it disagreed with Olympic chief Thomas Bach's assessment of events surrounding Russian teenage skater Kamila Valieva, after the International Olympic Committee president hit out at her entourage. The 15-year-old skater tumbled to fourth place in the women's singles event at the Beijing Olympics as a doping scandal continued to swirl, with Bach saying it had been "chilling" to witness Valieva crumble under pressure.
Olympics-Curling-Gushue triumphs on Games return as Canada win bronze in men's event
Brad Gushue walked away with a medal on his return to the Olympic stage after leading Canada to victory over the United States to win bronze in the men's curling competition at the National Aquatics Centre on Friday. Canada's shrewd style of play managed to contain their opponents' exuberance and they sealed the 8-5 victory after U.S. skip John Shuster, the reigning Olympic champion, gave up a steal of two in the ninth end and his team fell three points behind.
Taiwan rebukes China for using Games to push 'political propaganda'
Taiwan's government rebuked China on Friday for using the Beijing Winter Olympics to assert its sovereignty claims over the island, saying the country had "cast a shadow" over the peaceful spirit of the event to spread "propaganda". China views self-governed Taiwan as its own territory, and it competes at the Olympics and most other international sports events as "Chinese Taipei" at Beijing's insistence.
Athletics-Britain stripped of Olympic 4x100m medal as CAS upholds Ujah doping violation
Britain has been stripped of its Olympic silver medal in the men's 4x100m relay in Tokyo last August after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld Chijindu Ujah's anti-doping violation on Friday. Ujah has been provisionally suspended since Ostarine and S-23 -- both substances prohibited by world anti-doping organisation WADA -- were detected in his A and B samples following the final.
Olympics-Bobsleigh-Germany's Nolte leaves veterans playing catch-up at halftime of two-woman race
Germany's Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi powered ahead in the first two rounds of the women's bobsleigh in Yanqing on Friday, with only compatriots Mariama Jamanka and Alexandra Burghardt keeping within half a second of their scorching runs. It's 23-year-old Nolte's first Olympic outing, but she showed her mettle in forging ahead of competitors with at least ten medals between them, with a time of 2:02.05 after two runs.
Olympics-Gu's sweeping win helps China extend medal record
China 'snow princess' Eileen Gu's dominant win in the halfpipe at the Beijing Olympics on Friday added to the country's best ever gold medal tally at a Winter Games, with freestyle skiing accounting for half of the hosts' podium-topping finishes. With eight golds and 14 medals in all, China showed a huge improvement from four years ago in Pyeongchang, where they only took home one gold. Aided by Gu's two wins, in Big Air and halfpipe, the country are level with the United States in third place for gold medals, with just days left in the Games.
Olympics-Freestyle skiing-Switzerland claim top two spots in men's ski cross
First-time Olympian Ryan Regez of Switzerland dominated the final men's ski cross race to win gold on Friday at the Beijing Games, while fellow Swiss skier Alex Fiva claimed silver. Regez led from the start, zooming over the technical section at the start of the course and pumping his long legs to put plenty of distance between himself and the rest of the pack.
Doping-Nigeria's Okagbare banned for 10 years by AIU for doping at Tokyo Olympics
Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare has been banned for 10 years for doping in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics and refusing to co-operate with the investigation, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Friday, effectively ending her career. Okagbare, who won silver in the long jump at the Beijing 2008 Games, was provisionally suspended last year after testing positive for multiple prohibited substances before the Tokyo Olympics and later hit with three separate anti-doping charges.
(With inputs from agencies.)
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Putin slams US boycott of Beijing Olympics ahead of talks with Xi amidst Ukraine crisis | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928220-sports-news-roundup-olympics-cross-country-skiing-swedens-karlsson-out-of-womens-30km-race-olympics-winter-sports-superpower-norway-set-golden | 2022-02-18T18:25:36 | en | 0.955321 |
BERLIN (AP) — Geopolitical tensions including the current crisis between Russia and Ukraine could hamper international efforts to curb global warming at a crucial time, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Friday.
Speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference, the former Secretary of State warned that the rise in the cost of energy stoked by the crisis may make consumers and governments wary of taking tough measures needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“It’s not going to be positive because it’s going to distract rather enormously,” Kerry said of the current tensions.
“The prices of fuel will inevitably rise even more," he said. “It will push people towards the path of least resistance, which we are already too much locked into, and that will bring about the path of greatest destruction."
Kerry, who has led the Biden administration's international climate diplomacy efforts, noted that without Russia, China and other major emerging economies reducing their emissions of planet-warming gas, global goals to limit temperature rise by the end of the century can't be met.
“It is dictated by simple mathematics and physics,” he said.
Scientists have said emissions need to drop drastically this decade to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, a warning that Kerry echoed during his comments in Munich.
“This is really the critical year during which we will either prove we’re serious and we’re going to try to do what we have to do in 10 years, or we can’t do it," he said. "In which case we will be spending trillions of dollars cleaning up the mess and trying to cope with the crisis.” | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Kerry-warns-geopolitics-risk-hurting-climate-16930063.php | 2022-02-18T18:25:42 | en | 0.970862 |
PKL: Dabang Delhi KC thrash Telugu Titans to warm up for semi final
A collective effort from Dabang Delhi KC helped them beat Telugu Titans 40-32 in match 128 of Pro Kabaddi League Season 8.
- Country:
- India
A collective effort from Dabang Delhi KC helped them beat Telugu Titans 40-32 in match 128 of Pro Kabaddi League Season 8. With the second-place finish already confirmed, Delhi were relaxed on the mat and gave their youngsters a chance to experience the limelight. The likes of Neeraj Narwal and Manjeet had a great outing and ensured the Titans never really had a chance to cause an upset.
Titans' disappointing season came to an end with just 1 win in 22 matches. Ankit Beniwal scored 10 points for the Titans who will now need to rebuild the squad in the summer. Telugu Titans started the match on the front foot with their raiders Rajnish, Adarsh and Ankit Beniwal chipping in with points. They had Delhi down to three men on the mat by the 5th minute but Manjeet Chhillar produced a Super Tackle to kickstart a Delhi comeback.
Raider Ashu Malik and all-rounder Vijay found errors in the Telugu defence with a few pacy raids. Delhi played with the confidence of a side guaranteed of a Top-2 finish in the league. And they got an ALL OUT with 2 minutes to half time to widen their lead to 8 points. The Titans kept trying to invoke errors from the Delhi defence despite the ALL OUT. At the interval, the scores were 19-14 in Delhi's favour. There was no urgency on the mat with both teams well aware of their destiny. The Titans were out of the playoff fight while at the other end Delhi knew the 2nd place was fixed. Young raiders Manjeet and Ashu Malik carried out the attacks for Dabang as they slowed the pace of the match.
Titan's left-corner Muhammed Shiyas picked a High 5 after two Super Tackles to stop an ALL OUT. The scores were 27-20 with 10 minutes remaining. Neeraj Narwal's 2-point raid initiated Delhi's push for a second ALL OUT. They eventually clinched it with 5 minutes remaining to once again open the lead to 10 points.
Delhi's coach Krishan Kumar Hooda made a lot of changes to his squad to preserve his top players from injuries. The players combined to ensure there were no hiccups in the final minutes. (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928235-pkl-dabang-delhi-kc-thrash-telugu-titans-to-warm-up-for-semi-final | 2022-02-18T18:25:44 | en | 0.97353 |
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Defense lawyers in the Vatican’s fraud and extortion trial on Friday accused Pope Francis of violating their clients' human rights by issuing four secret, executive decrees that gave prosecutors free reign to investigate in ways that deprived the suspects of basic legal guarantees.
The lawyers argued that the resulting trial into the Vatican’s bungled 350 million euro investment in a London real estate deal is therefore illegitimate, and they again called for Tribunal President Giuesppe Pignatone to throw out the indictments. Pignatone is set to rule on their motions March 1.
The pope’s prosecutors have accused the Holy See’s longtime money manager, Italian brokers and lawyers involved in the London deal of fleecing the Vatican of tens of millions of euros, much of it donations from the faithful, and of then extorting 15 million euros from the Vatican to finally get full ownership of the property. The 10 suspects deny wrongdoing.
The trial, which formally opened in July, has been consumed with seven months of defense motions to throw out the indictments, most of them citing the prosecutors’ refusal to turn over to the defense all the evidence they gathered during their two-year investigation. Prosecutors have repeatedly resisted orders from Pignatone to provide all the information.
On Friday, lawyers repeated those arguments. But they also called into question Francis’ own role in the investigation, since he gave prosecutors carte blanche to pursue their probe, including by deviating from existing Vatican laws.
Francis’ four papal decrees, known as “rescriptum,” imposed a “summary rite” over the whole investigation, essentially creating ad hoc norms that defense lawyers say violate the basic concept of the rule of law, the right to a fair trial and a host of other basic human rights. Those rights, they argued, are guaranteed under the church’s own canon law, which is the basic source of law for the Vatican’s criminal code.
The decrees gave prosecutors authorization to intercept suspects electronically and take “whatever” precautionary measures against them were necessary. During the investigation, prosecutors searched suspects' homes, seized their laptops, issued arrest warrants and in two cases detained suspects preemptively. Because of the “summary rite” imposed, there was no independent judge overseeing the prosecutors during their investigation.
Attorney Marco Franco, representing broker Gianluigi Torzi, argued that Torzi didn’t even know about the existence of the decrees until after he was indicted and had spent 10 days in a Vatican barracks, where he was jailed after he voluntarily agreed to respond to prosecutors' questions. The decrees, meanwhile, have still not been published in any official Vatican publication as would be expected of any law, Franco noted.
Attorney Luigi Panella, representing the Vatican’s former money manager Enrico Crasso, noted that neither the defense nor the tribunal knows what prompted Francis to issue the decrees, in yet another violation of their rights. “For the rescriptum to be valid, it is fundamental to be able to evaluate the request for them and their conformity to the law,” he said.
He said the pope's decrees place the entire trial “outside the laws of this state, but also outside the principles of a fair trial guaranteed by international human rights conventions and the Italian Constitution.”
The arguments about Francis’ role underscore the anomalous circumstances of the trial and the perceived conflicts of interest. Francis and the Vatican claim to have been victims of a crime, but Francis himself is the absolute monarch of the Vatican, with supreme legislative, executive and judicial power. Although the victim of the alleged crime, Francis has issued executive decrees benefiting the prosecution, modified the city state’s laws to allow cardinals to be prosecuted, and even appointed a new judge to hear the case.
Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi is expected to respond to the defense arguments on Feb. 28. His only intervention on Friday was to accuse Franco of “calumny” for having suggested that Torzi, while detained in the Vatican barracks, had little choice but to turn over his cellphone and laptops.
Pignatone said after he ruled on the defense motions he would set a calendar for future hearings and court activity “if there will be future activity.” | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Lawyers-papal-decrees-violated-fraud-suspects-16930172.php | 2022-02-18T18:25:48 | en | 0.97017 |
NorthEast United dent Bengaluru's top-four hopes with 2-1 win
Bengaluru FCs top-four aspirations were dealt a blow as NorthEast United FC came from behind to win 2-1 in the Hero Indian Super League at the PJN Stadium here on Friday.Cleiton Silva gave Bengaluru the lead in the 66th minute after a barren first half, but two goals in the space of six minutes from Deshorn Brown 74th and Laldanmawia Ralte 80th allowed Khalid Jamils team to snap a 10-game winless run and move up a rung from the foot of the points table.
Bengaluru FC's top-four aspirations were dealt a blow as NorthEast United FC came from behind to win 2-1 in the Hero Indian Super League at the PJN Stadium here on Friday.
Cleiton Silva gave Bengaluru the lead in the 66th minute after a barren first half, but two goals in the space of six minutes from Deshorn Brown (74th) and Laldanmawia Ralte (80th) allowed Khalid Jamil's team to snap a 10-game winless run and move up a rung from the foot of the points table. NorthEast United now have 13 points from 18 matches. SC East Bengal dropped to the bottom of the heap, having just 10 points from 17 outings.
Bengaluru, meanwhile, endured a second straight defeat, remaining at sixth place with 23 points from 17 games. It will now be harder for Marco Pezzaiuoli's charges with only three games remaining and teams above them having more games in hand.
NorthEast United got the first real chance of the game when Imran Khan headed a Joe Zoherliana cross wide. One minute later, Deshorn Brown hit the crossbar after Suhair Vadakkepeedika set him up with a brilliant ball as the Highlanders kept Bengaluru backline on tenterhooks.
Bengaluru took time to warm up to the contest, Sunil Chhetri making runs down the left channel to try and find the likes of Cleiton Silva. But the better chances kept falling to NorthEast United as Hernan Santana forced Lara Sharma into a great save just before the cooling break.
At halftime, both teams were locked goalless although Bengaluru looked the better side enjoying more ball possession but lacking teeth upfront. NorthEast United had the better opportunities in goal but failed to make the most of it.
Sharma was called into action early on in the second half and he did well to keep Suhair's effort at bay while at the other end Mirshad Michu saved well from Chhetri who ran at the NorthEast United defence with venom and played a one-two with Udanta Singh before taking a swipe at goal but Michu narrowed the angle down in time and got his right leg in the way.
The deadlock was finally broken and Silva was at the right place at the right time, slotting home a Danish Farooq cross by outwitting Zakaria Diallo.
But the Blues' joy was short-lived as Brown got on the scoresheet, Zoherliana whipping in a cross for Brown to leap over Yaya Banana and nod past Sharma and into the goal. NorthEast United added to their tally and made a remarkable comeback minutes later, Marcelinho doing all the spadework to escape a few Bengaluru shirts and put the ball on a plate for Laldanmawia Ralte who tapped home with ease.
It was heartbreak for Bengaluru as they tried hard to wrest back the advantage but in the end, NorthEast United prevailed.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928236-northeast-united-dent-bengalurus-top-four-hopes-with-2-1-win | 2022-02-18T18:25:51 | en | 0.96587 |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Louisville's police chief has informed a detective he will be fired for allegedly threatening to kill other officers.
A pre-termination letter from Chief Erika Shields said Detective Christopher Palombi “made statements that you were going to bring guns to the homicide unit and kill people,” WDRB-TV reported.
Palombi made the threats in December and January, according to the letter.
Palombi's lawyer, Thomas Clay, said Thursday he will appeal the termination. Clay said Palombi has severe post traumatic stress disorder from serving in combat in Afghanistan and being shot at during the 2020 protests in Louisville.
Clay said he has been out of state in treatment for 30 days.
“From my observation, he doesn’t pose a danger to anybody,” Clay said.
The department recommended firing Palombi for a violation of obedience to rules and regulations and conduct unbecoming. The letter said Palombi allegedly made the threats after being told he would be transferred out of the homicide unit.
The threats constitute a violation of terroristic threatening, Shields wrote. Palombi has not been charged. | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Louisville-chief-to-fire-detective-who-threatened-16930091.php | 2022-02-18T18:25:54 | en | 0.974434 |
Men's T20 WC Qualifier A: Aravind shines in UAE's win over Ireland; Bahrain defeat Germany
Career-best performances by UAE youngster Vriitya Aravind and Bahrain's Junaid Aziz steered their respective teams to victory in the Group B matches of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier A, on the opening day at Al Amerat on Friday.
- Country:
- Oman
Career-best performances by UAE youngster Vriitya Aravind and Bahrain's Junaid Aziz steered their respective teams to victory in the Group B matches of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier A, on the opening day at Al Amerat on Friday. A dream spell by leg-spinner Aziz, who picked five wickets in ten balls and a captain's knock by Sarfaraz Ali, who smashed an unbeaten 69 off 38 balls, led Bahrain to a six-wicket win over Germany at the Oman Academy ground 2.
For UAE, the stars of their 18-run win over Ireland were the team's young pair - 19-year-old Aravind and 21-year-old Karthik Meiyappan. Chasing a target of 158, Ireland openers Paul Stirling and skipper Andy Balbirnie made a cautious start to take their side to 50 for no loss at the end of power play overs.
Meiyappan struck in the very first ball of his spell as he had Stirling caught by Muhammad Waseem in the deep for 32. Balbirnie left soon after and Gareth Delany was Meiyappan's second wicket, who also accounted for Simi Singh to leave Ireland struggling at 66-4. George Dockrell and Shane Getkate got off to starts but got out earlier in a bid to accelerate the run-rate as Ireland stuttered to 111-6 in 16 overs. Lorcan Tucker's innings of 25 ended when he was caught by Basil Hameed off Zahoor Khan, who also had Craig Young leg before wicket. Ireland was restricted to 139 for nine with experienced Rohan Mustafa bagging two late wickets.
Earlier, 20-year-old Aravind displayed maturity beyond his age as he shouldered the responsibility of shepherding the team to a challenging target. Coming into bat with the team's total reading 20-2, Aravind paced his innings in style. The wicketkeeper-batter tackled the middle overs with tact before launching an attack in the death overs. The last five overs were the most productive for UAE as Aravind displayed his range of strokes and along with Zafar Farid (12) and fetched 63 valuable runs.
Ireland's Craig Young's last over cost him 14 and Mark Adair's penultimate over of the innings went for 14 as Aravind hammered two successive boundaries. Joshua Little got the back of Farid off the second ball in the inning's final over before Aravind launched a blitz with a six, followed by two back-to-back cuts behind square for boundaries as UAE finished at 157 for five. Adair had claimed the wicket of opening batter Chirag Suri in the very first over to give Ireland a dream start. Aravind came in to join Muhammad Waseem and the duo took the score to 20 in four overs. Young broke the standoff the first ball of the fifth over when he removed Waseem. Unperturbed Aravind then counter-attacked Young as he hit two successive fours in the same over.
Aravind and Mustafa steadied the ship further as the scoring rate fell with the team able to score 58-2 at halfway stage. Simi Singh got the breakthrough Ireland wanted in the next over as he dismissed but Basil Hameed and Aravind got together to share a 34-run crucial stand. Hameed's exit left Aravind and Farid to take the team to a total they could defend. "We had a good quadrangular series here and I am glad at the momentum we have right now. Vriitya [Aravind] played an amazing innings and glad to watch the team's young members doing well. He and Karthik [Meiyappan] are just 19- and 21-year-olds," said Ahmed Raza, Captain of UAE, as per an offfical release.
Coming out to bat after Bahrain had won the toss, Germany put up a score of 106 with 20 balls to spare. They lost six wickets in 14 balls, while adding 7 runs to the scoreboard. Vijay Shankar with a solid 43 ball 50, was the top scorer. After getting off to a steady start in the first five overs, opener Justin Broad and Michael Richardson were dismissed in back-to-back overs. A flurry of wickets in quick succession undermined their efforts as Dylan Blignaut and Faisal Mubashir were dismissed in consecutive deliveries of the ninth over.
Shankar and captain Venkat Ganesan were able to rebuild the innings with a priceless 44-run partnership before the latter was dismissed as part of a three-wicket over by Aziz. Germany lost Shankar in the first ball of the very next over, their fourth wicket in five deliveries. In response, a confident and mature knock from skipper Ali helped Bahrain reach their target. Dieter Klien picked two wickets in the first over for Germany. But a 57-run partnership between Ali and Aziz put their side back in total control.
Aziz was dismissed in the tenth over but by the time Germany picked up their next wicket, Bahrain needed 15 from 6 overs. Ali stayed until the end to see the win through, and Bahrain got over the line with four overs to spare. "I was enjoying batting out there, just connecting bat on ball as much as possible felt really good. The whole team is enjoying the opportunity to come here and showcase their talents and it is really a big platform for us," Sarfaraz Ali, Captain Bahrain said. (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928263-mens-t20-wc-qualifier-a-aravind-shines-in-uaes-win-over-ireland-bahrain-defeat-germany | 2022-02-18T18:25:59 | en | 0.975845 |
BLOOMFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Dexter man has been sentenced to life in prison plus 15 years for the stabbing death of another man.
Joshua Koonce was sentenced Thursday in Stoddard County after he pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder and armed criminal action, The Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff reported.
Prosecutors said a home health care worker found Casey dead at his home in Dexter on June 26, 2018. An autopsy determined he had been stabbed five times.
Koonce was later arrested in Pueblo, Colorado, after he checked into a drug and alcohol detox center under a fictitious name before attempting suicide, police said. | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Man-sentenced-in-stabbing-death-in-southeast-16930117.php | 2022-02-18T18:26:06 | en | 0.974014 |
Soccer-Walker, Carrasco to serve Champions League bans after UEFA dismisses appeals
Porto finished third in their group behind Liverpool and Atletico and dropped down to the Europa League, where they beat Lazio in the first leg of the knockout round playoffs on Thursday.
Manchester City defender Kyle Walker and Atletico Madrid winger Yannick Carrasco will remain suspended for three Champions League matches for assaulting opponents after governing body UEFA dismissed their clubs' appeals on Friday. Walker was sent off in City's last group stage game, a 2-1 loss to RB Leipzig, for kicking goal scorer Andre Silva while Carrasco received a red card in Atletico's 3-1 win at Porto for raising his hands to midfielder Otavio as tempers raged.
City already have one foot firmly in the next round after beating Portuguese side Sporting 5-0 in the first leg of the last-16 earlier this week, so Walker would miss the first leg of the quarter-final if they qualify. Atletico Madrid play Manchester United in their last-16 first leg next week.
UEFA also said Porto defender Wendell will serve a three-game ban after he was dismissed in the same game for appearing to lightly strike Matheus Cunha with his elbow, sparking a melee involving the players and coaching staff. Porto finished third in their group behind Liverpool and Atletico and dropped down to the Europa League, where they beat Lazio in the first leg of the knockout round playoffs on Thursday.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Soccer-Liverpool ease past Cardiff into FA Cup fifth round
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PREVIEW-Soccer-Liverpool have chance to appear in City's rear view mirror | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928265-soccer-walker-carrasco-to-serve-champions-league-bans-after-uefa-dismisses-appeals | 2022-02-18T18:26:07 | en | 0.950282 |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A Maryland woman pleaded guilty Friday to her role in a plot with her husband to sell submarine secrets to a foreign country.
Diana Toebbe entered the plea in federal court in Martinsburg to one count of conspiracy to communicate restricted data. Prosecutors said they would seek a prison term of up to three years at sentencing.
Her husband, Jonathan, a Navy nuclear engineer, pleaded guilty Monday to passing information about American nuclear-powered warships to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.
Diana Toebbe was charged with acting as a lookout at several prearranged “dead-drop” locations at which memory cards containing the secret information were left behind. At the time of her arrest, Diana Toebbe was teaching at a private school in Maryland.
In pleading guilty to the same charge as his wife, Jonathan Toebbe, 43, faces a potential punishment between roughly 12 and 17 years in prison, a sentencing range agreed to be lawyers.
Prosecutors said he abused his access to top-secret government information and repeatedly sold details about the design elements and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarines.
Jonathan Toebbe acknowledged during his plea hearing that he conspired with his wife to pass classified information to a foreign government in exchange for money with the intent to “injure the United States.”
The memory cards were devices concealed in objects such as a chewing gum wrapper and a peanut butter sandwich. The Annapolis, Maryland, couple was arrested on Oct. 9 after he placed a memory card at a dead drop location in Jefferson County, West Virginia.
The FBI has said the scheme began in April 2020, when Jonathan Toebbe sent a package of Navy documents to a foreign government and wrote that he was interested in selling to that country operations manuals, performance reports and other sensitive information. He included in the package, which had a Pittsburgh return address, instructions to his supposed contact for how to establish a covert relationship with him, prosecutors said.
That package was obtained by the FBI in December 2020 through its legal attaché office in the unspecified foreign country. That set off a monthslong undercover operation in which an agent posing as a representative of a foreign country made contact with Toebbe, ultimately paying $100,000 in cryptocurrency in exchange for the information Toebbe was offering.
The country to which Jonathan Toebbe was looking to sell the information has not been identified in court documents and was not disclosed in court during his wife's plea hearing Friday.
Jonathan Toebbe, who held a top-secret security clearance through the Defense Department, agreed as part of the plea deal to help federal officials with locating and retrieving all classified information in his possession, as well as the roughly $100,000 in cryptocurrency paid to him by the FBI.
FBI agents who searched the couple’s home found a trash bag of shredded documents, thousands of dollars in cash, valid children’s passports and a “go-bag” containing a USB flash drive and latex gloves, according to court testimony last year.
During a December hearing, Diana Toebbe’s lawyers denied prosecution assertions that cited 2019 messages exchanged by the couple in which she had contemplated fleeing the United States to avoid arrest. Instead, the defense said it was contempt for then-President Donald Trump as the reason behind the couple’s emigration plans. | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Maryland-woman-pleads-guilty-in-submarine-spy-case-16930116.php | 2022-02-18T18:26:13 | en | 0.982262 |
India beat West Indies by eight runs in second T20I, seal series
Nicholas Pooran 62 off 41 and Rovman Powell 68 not out off 36 kept the West Indies in the run chase but eventually ended at 178 for three in 20 overs.Brief Scores India 186 for 5 in 20 overs Rishabh Pant 52 not out, Virat Kohli 52 Roston Chase 325.
- Country:
- India
India beat West Indies by 8 runs in the second T20 International to take an unassailable 2-0 in the three-match series here on Friday.
India posted a challenging 186 for five against the West Indies after being put in to bat.
Virat Kohli (52) and Rishabh Pant (52 not out) scored half-centuries for the hosts while Roston Chase took three wickets for the Caribbean side. Nicholas Pooran (62 off 41) and Rovman Powell (68 not out off 36) kept the West Indies in the run chase but eventually ended at 178 for three in 20 overs.
Brief Scores: India: 186 for 5 in 20 overs (Rishabh Pant 52 not out, Virat Kohli 52; Roston Chase 3/25). West Indies 178/3 in 20 overs (Nicholas Pooran 62; Rovman Powell 68 not out; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1/29).
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928270-india-beat-west-indies-by-eight-runs-in-second-t20i-seal-series | 2022-02-18T18:26:14 | en | 0.914154 |
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
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Paris police didn’t give fines for waving flag, saying ‘freedom’
CLAIM: Police in Paris ticketed protesters for carrying the French flag and saying the word “freedom.”
THE FACTS: Paris police ticketed protesters for offenses related to “participating in a prohibited protest,” not for carrying the French flag or saying the word “freedom," as some people falsely claimed online. Following demonstrations in the French capital last weekend against COVID-19 mandates — inspired by rallies among truckers and others in Canada — one popular post asserted that Paris police were issuing tickets with fines of up to 135 euros ($153) for actions such as holding the flag and shouting “liberté.” “Tanks and tear-gas in France, with €135 fee for those holding a french flag and €90 to those who dare utter the word “freedom”, while protesting in Paris is now made illegal," one tweet said. While some people on social media said they took the post to be a metaphor, others believed that people were actually being ticketed for these actions. But Paris police officials said in a statement issued to The Associated Press that tickets handed out to protesters were for participating in the rally despite a police order that prohibited involvement, a police spokesperson confirmed. Police gave out two tiers of driving tickets for fines of 135 and 90 euros ($102) for infractions that related to driving on a temporarily closed road and for attending a prohibited protest, according to information from the Paris police, checked against a ledger of fine amounts from the National Agency for the Automated Processing of Offenses by the AP. Police set up checkpoints into the French capital on key roads last weekend and said they successfully stopped at least 500 vehicles from heading to the banned protest, which, like in Canada, aimed to blockade roads and use vehicles to create a convoy. Still, a few dozen vehicles were able to slip into Paris and disrupt traffic. Authorities fired tear gas as they demanded that the demonstrators disperse, some of whom climbed onto their vehicles to create chaos, the AP reported. In Canada, similar demonstrations have unfolded over the past several weeks in and around the capital city of Ottawa among truckers and others angry over Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers Monday to quell the protests.
— Associated Press writer Sophia Tulp in Atlanta and Beatrice Dupuy in New York contributed this report.
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Posts distort research details to suggest secret vaccine campaign
CLAIM: Johns Hopkins University research shows that someone can “be vaccinated with a PCR swab test without knowing.”
THE FACTS: Researchers have developed tiny devices for potentially delivering drugs, but the technology hasn't been tested or used with vaccines — or delivered through PCR swab tests. Social media posts baselessly linked the technology developed by Johns Hopkins researchers to a method of stealthily administering vaccines to unknowing recipients. “Johns Hopkins U Confirms You Can Be Vaccinated with a PCR Swab Test Without Knowing,” reads one blog post’s headline shared on Facebook and Instagram. But the university confirmed no such thing. The blog post points to a November 2020 article by the university announcing that researchers had “designed tiny, star-shaped microdevices that can latch onto intestinal mucosa and release drugs into the body.” The researchers published a study a month prior in the journal Science Advances on using such technology to deliver medicine in animals’ gastrointestinal tract. But the so-called “theragrippers” — which latch onto tissue and release medicine — have not been approved for use in humans, or tested for vaccine administration. “This nanotechnology has shown promise in a laboratory setting,” Johns Hopkins Medicine said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “However, it is still in its infancy and has not been approved for use in humans.” The statement said the university article “has been inaccurately used for disinformation purposes over the past few months,” noting that the devices are deployed through an endoscope and have “been neither tested nor used for vaccine delivery." While the university’s article reporting on the research included a photo of the devices on a cotton swab, it did not say they are delivered that way. Instead, the cotton swab was used to convey the size of the devices, saying that “a theragripper is about the size of a speck of dust.” The COVID-19 vaccines that are currently authorized for use in the U.S. are administered via shots into one’s muscle.
— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia contributed this report.
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Image of girl with gun is an old meme, not recent Ukraine photo
CLAIM: A photo of a girl on a bus with a rifle shows “life in Ukraine, now.”
THE FACTS: The photo shows a Russian social media influencer holding a fake gun after a photo shoot in March 2020, not a recent image of life in Ukraine amid warnings of an imminent Russian invasion. The image was taken well before tensions began escalating between the two countries in recent weeks. A Twitter user shared the photo — which shows a girl scrolling through a smartphone on public transportation while holding a fake gun — last weekend, with a false caption suggesting it was just taken in Ukraine. In reality, the image was taken two years ago in Russia, according to Ekaterina Gladkikh, who lists her location on Instagram as Novosibirsk, a city in Siberia. Gladkikh told The Associated Press through direct messages on Instagram that she was returning from a photo shoot when the image was taken. “With this fake weapon, I managed to sit in a cafe and, as you can see, and take a ride in transport. None of the passers-by or the guards asked me any questions,” she said. “I live in Russia, not in Ukraine,” she added. In other photos posted on Instagram, she can be seen wearing the same beige hat from the widely shared photo. She also posted a story highlight video in March 2020 where she was wearing the same distinctive nail polish as the photo — one hand was painted with red nail polish, while the other was painted with blue polish. Reverse image search results show the photo has also appeared over time on Facebook and Twitter, with captions from 2020 and 2021 asserting it showed “a normal day in Russia.” One Facebook post from March 2020, the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, captioned the photo: “Slav Girl in need of social distance in bus.” An April 2020 entry on a blog post headlined “Evolution of a Meme: Girl in Belarus on a Bus with AK,” discussed how the image had been repurposed multiple times by online meme pages. The photo has begun recirculating in recent days as tensions mount between Russia and Ukraine.
— Associated Press writers Arijeta Lajka in New York and Sophia Tulp contributed this report.
___
PA school board didn’t vote to ban CNN in classrooms
CLAIM: A school board in suburban Pittsburgh voted to ban CNN from its classrooms.
THE FACTS: Teachers can still use their own discretion to show instructional videos from any source, including CNN, according to Norwin School District Superintendent Jeff Taylor. The Norwin School Board had voted on Monday to stop routinely playing television programs during homeroom classes at Norwin Middle School unless they are “student, teacher or administrator driven.” But this vote by the Pittsburgh-area school board is being misrepresented online. “School District Just Banned CNN From Classrooms,” read one widely-shared headline. “CNN got thrown out of Pennsylvania classrooms for being FAKE NEWS!” a Twitter user wrote. “Pennsylvania school removes CNN from classrooms, can choose patriotic videos instead,” read a misleading Fox News headline. While the article itself contained more nuance, users on Instagram posted screenshots of the headline alone that racked up tens of thousands of likes. Taylor explained in a phone interview that teachers in the district still have the option to play CNN or any other media source they deem has instructional value. Taylor said the claims stemmed from the middle school’s use of CNN 10, a 10-minute daily digital news program for students, publicly available on CNN’s website. The program had been shown to students during the homeroom period at Norwin Middle School since 2018. In a workshop meeting on Jan. 10, a school board member expressed concern over the program, saying it hadn’t been approved by the board and that he would like to remove it from the classroom. However, the motion that ultimately came to a board vote didn’t specifically address CNN 10. Instead, the board voted to stop showing TV programs during homeroom at Norwin Middle School to allow students to socialize and interact, unless the program was “either student, teacher or administrator driven.” A video of Monday’s meeting shows Taylor asked the board to clarify whether the phrase “teacher driven” meant teachers could still opt to show CNN 10 videos to their students. “I believe that’s the intent of the motion,” said board member Raymond Kocak. No board members expressed dissent, and the board approved the motion with a 5-4 vote. Taylor told the AP that “student, teacher or administrator driven” could be understood to mean hand-selected by those individuals. He clarified that the board’s decision covered homeroom classes for Norwin Middle School only, and did not affect curriculum for other classes or schools in the 5,300-student K-12 district. Taylor reiterated the importance of teaching current events in the classroom and pointed out that Pennsylvania state curriculum standards require it. Reached for comment, Fox News Digital Deputy Managing Editor Kelley Kramer said, “The Norwin School Board voted to end mandatory student programming from classrooms, which is accurately reflected in the FOX News Digital story.” Taylor, the superintendent, told the AP in a Thursday interview that the CNN 10 programming was not a requirement, but teachers routinely played it as background viewing in homeroom classes. A spokesperson for WarnerMedia, which owns CNN, declined to comment.
— Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.
___
Prosecutors in DC haven’t charged Trump’s children with crimes
CLAIM: Prosecutors in the District of Columbia recently filed criminal charges against Ivanka Trump and her brothers.
THE FACTS: District prosecutors have not filed any criminal charges against Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump or Donald Trump Jr., according to a spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. The YouTube commentator who made the claim, Christo Aivalis, has also admitted it is false. Aivalis made the claim in a video titled, “Ivanka Trump CHARGED with MAJOR CRIME.” In the clip, Aivalis cites a news article discussing new developments in an ongoing lawsuit filed in January 2020 by District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine against former President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, the Trump International Hotel and the Trump Organization, alleging that the committee overpaid the hotel to enrich the Trump family. But the suit involving the inaugural committee is a civil matter, not a criminal case. None of Trump’s children are named as defendants, although the suit alleges that Ivanka Trump was involved. Reached by the Associated Press for comment, Aivalis admitted that the claim in his video is inaccurate. “I appear to have been mistaken in this regard, misunderstanding the nature of the efforts by DC officials,” Aivalis wrote in an email to the AP. The District of Columbia attorney general’s office has not filed any criminal charges against Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump or Donald Trump Jr., spokesperson Marrisa Geller confirmed to the AP. Alan Garten, executive vice president and chief legal officer at the Trump Organization, wrote in an email to the AP that the claim that the three siblings have been criminally charged is “completely untrue.” The lawsuit filed by prosecutors in the District of Columbia alleges that the committee spent over $1 million to book a ballroom at the Trump International Hotel in the capital, and that one of the event’s planners raised concerns about the high price with Ivanka. Ivanka has said she instructed the hotel to charge a “fair market rate.” Racine’s office announced on Thursday that the case is going to trial, according to a news release.
— Associated Press writer Josh Kelety in Phoenix contributed this report.
___
Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck
___
Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck | https://www.chron.com/news/article/NOT-REAL-NEWS-A-look-at-what-didn-t-happen-this-16930200.php | 2022-02-18T18:26:19 | en | 0.95899 |
Ind vs WI, 2nd T20I: Kohli, Pant and Bhuvneshwar Kumar star as hosts gain unassailable 2-0 lead in series
Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant's quality knocks were backed up by a spirited bowling performance at the death by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel as India defeated West Indies by eight runs in the second T20I of the three-match series against India here at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Friday.
- Country:
- India
Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant's quality knocks were backed up by a spirited bowling performance at the death by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel as India defeated West Indies by eight runs in the second T20I of the three-match series against India here at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Friday. With this win, India has gained an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, and the final match will now be played on Sunday at the same venue.
Chasing 187, West Indies openers Brandon King and Kyle Mayers put on 34 runs for the first wicket, however, this stand was finally broken in the sixth over by Yuzvendra Chahal as he dismissed Mayers (9). Soon after, Ravi Bishnoi struck in his very first over to dismiss King (22) and the visitors were reduced to 59/2, still needing 128 runs to win from 69 balls. Pooran and Rovman Powell kept West Indies in the chase as the duo mixed caution with aggression and after 15 overs, the Windies' score read 124/2, needing 63 runs to win from 30 balls. Pooran (62) finally departed in the penultimate over on the bowling of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, with the Windies needing 28 runs to win from nine balls. This wicket brought an end to the 100-run stand for the third wicket.
In the second-last over of the game, Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded just four runs and as a result, the visitors were required to score 25 runs in the final over to win the game. Harshal Patel managed to hold his nerve and in the end, India registered a win. Earlier, Virat Kohli played a 52-run knock as India posted 186/5 in the allotted twenty overs. Rishabh Pant (52*) and Venkatesh Iyer (33) also contributed with the bat as India posted a score of more than the 180-run mark. Pant and Iyer had formed a 76-run stand for the fifth wicket. Sent into bat, India got off to a bad start as the hosts lost opening wicket Ishan Kishan (2) in the second over.
The left-handed batter was dismissed by Sheldon Cottrell. Virat Kohli then joined skipper Rohit Sharma in the middle and after the end of powerplay overs, India's score read 49/1. The 49-run stand for the second wicket between Rohit and Virat was cut short by Roston Chase as the spinner sent Rohit (19) back to the pavilion in the eighth over and this brought Suryakumar Yadav to the middle. However, the right-handed batter went back to the pavilion after scoring just 8 runs and the hosts were reduced to 72/3 in the 10th over. Kohli brought up his half-century in the 14th over of the innings, however, he was clean bowled in the same over he brought up the milestone. The right-handed batter was dismissed by Chase. In the final six overs, India managed to add 76 more runs to their total, taking the score past the 180-run mark.
Brief Scores: India 186/5 (Rishabh Pant 52*, Virat Kohli 52; Roston Chase 3-25) vs West Indies 178/3 (Rovman Powell 68*, Nicholas Pooran 62; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-29). (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928277-ind-vs-wi-2nd-t20i-kohli-pant-and-bhuvneshwar-kumar-star-as-hosts-gain-unassailable-2-0-lead-in-series | 2022-02-18T18:26:22 | en | 0.973321 |
NEW YORK (AP) — A notorious fraudster convicted a decade ago for cheating online eyeglass customers and harassing some of them with grisly threats was arrested Friday for a third time after resuming internet-based criminal behavior soon after getting out of prison nearly two years ago, a prosecutor said.
Vitaly Borker, 45, of Brooklyn was charged with two counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He awaited an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court. Defense attorney Dominic Amorosa, said in an email that Borker plans to plead not guilty.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams noted in a statement that one of his predecessors, Geoffrey S. Berman, posed the rhetorical question after Borker's second conviction of whether more time in prison would cause Borker to retreat from crime.
“Apparently, it has not. As alleged, just after his release from federal prison, serial fraudster Vitaly Borker reverted back to his illegal conduct connected to online eyewear businesses,” Williams said.
Darnell D. Edwards, acting head of the New York office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said Borker was “up to his old tricks of bilking those looking for online eyewear.”
“Make no mistake, each time Mr. Borker breaks the law, Postal inspectors have no problem with bringing him to justice for his continued criminal activity,” Edwards said.
The latest charges against Borker accuse him of continuing fraudulent tactics in selling eyeglasses to online customers. Some claims were similar to charges in the previous two cases against him, alleging he advertised discounted designer sunglasses and eyeglasses but often delivered shoddy, used or counterfeit products.
A criminal complaint said he began defrauding customers after he was moved from a prison to a residential reentry center in June 2020 after completing most of a two-year prison sentence he received in April 2019.
At that sentencing, Judge Paul Gardephe said that in over two decades as a judge and prosecutor he had never seen someone return “so quickly to exactly the same crime after doing four years, a harsh sentence.”
Gardephe said there was a “great risk” Borker would commit fraud again.
Prior to the sentencing, Borker wrote to the judge, saying: “Something is just not right inside my brain.”
The Ukrainian immigrant violated terms of his release by resuming fraud after serving a four-year prison sentence for harassing customers from 2007 to 2015.
After Borker's first arrest in 2010, Judge Richard J. Sullivan, who now sits on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said victims who testified that Borker had threatened them with rape and murder were “highly credible.”
Each of two counts of wire fraud carry the maximum potential of 20-year prison terms while a conviction for aggravated identity theft would require Borker to serve a mandatory two-year prison sentence in addition to any sentence on other charges. | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Notorious-eyecare-fraudster-nabbed-3rd-time-on-16930076.php | 2022-02-18T18:26:25 | en | 0.97809 |
Nigerian sprinter Okagbare banned for 10 years for doping
This is an outcome that was driven by our intelligence-led target testing as well as our commitment to investigate the circumstances behind a positive test. Okagbare won the bronze medal in the long jump at the 2008 Olympics.
- Country:
- United Kingdom
Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare received a 10-year ban for being part of an “organized doping regimen'' ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, the Athletics Integrity Unit said Friday.
The former world championships silver medalist was initially suspended in July just before she was due to run in the semifinals of the 100 meters at the Olympics.
Okagbare tested positive for blood booster EPO in Nigeria in June, in addition to another failed test for human growth hormone in Slovakia in July. A ban of five years was imposed by the AIU for the presence and use of multiple prohibited substances and the suspension was doubled for her refusal to cooperate with the investigation.
“A ban of 10 year(s) is a strong message against intentional and co-ordinated attempts to cheat at the very highest level of our sport,” AIU head Brett Clothier said. “This is an outcome that was driven by our intelligence-led target testing as well as our commitment to investigate the circumstances behind a positive test.” Okagbare won the bronze medal in the long jump at the 2008 Olympics. That was later upgraded to a silver medal when a Russian athlete was banned for doping. At the 2013 world championships, she doubled up with long jump silver and 200-meter bronze. Okagbare also won the 100 and the 200 at the Commonwealth Games in 2014. AP BS BS
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Doping-Nigerian sprinter Okagbare banned for 10 years by Athletics Integrity Unit
Nigerian sprinter Okagbare banned for 10 years for doping
Doping-Nigerian sprinter Okagbare banned for 10 years by Athletics Integrity Unit
Doping-Nigeria's Okagbare banned for 10 years by AIU for doping at Tokyo Olympics | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928294-nigerian-sprinter-okagbare-banned-for-10-years-for-doping | 2022-02-18T18:26:29 | en | 0.97289 |
- The NZD/USD slides 0.04% in the North American session on Friday.
- Russia/Ukraine headlines dominate market participants' mood as uncertainty clouds investors.
- New York Fed Williams favors a gradual increase of hiking rates, pushing back the chance of a 50bps in March.
The NZD/USD appears to finish the week on a higher note, as the kiwi climbs 0.72%, ahead of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) monetary policy meeting the following week. At the time of writing, the NZD/USD is trading at 0.6691.
Geopolitical headlines loom the financial markets. Market players’ mood is a rollercoaster, between risk-on/off, as Ukraine/Russia headlines cross the wires. Major US equity indices remain in the red, while in the FX space, the NZD is the strongest, while the EUR and the CAD are the laggards.
Russia/Ukraine update
In the last couple of hours, wires reported that Ukrainian forces shell Shanzharovka village in LPR using 122 mm caliber artillery, increasing the tension in the zone. Meanwhile, the US State Department, cited by Fox, says that evacuation announcements of 700K in Donbas and reports of an explosion in Donetsk are “false flags” from Russia. Further, US officials cited by the WSJ expect a Russian attack on Ukraine in the next few days and would involve tanks, jets, ballistic missiles, and cyberattacks.
New York Fed Williams crosses news wires
The NZD/USD reacted to the downside and broke under the 0.6700 figure, as the market sentiment turned sour. Moreover, to add a mix to the news, New York’s Fed President John Williams said that he does not see a compelling argument for taking a big step at the start of the interest rate liftoff cycle. Williams added that the US central bank could steadily increase rates and reassess by adjusting the pace of rate hikes if required.
IThe US economic docket featured the Existing Home Sales for January increasing by 6.5M more than the 6.1M foreseen. At the same time, the Consumer Board Leading Index contracted to 0.3%, worse than the 0.2% increase estimated by analysts, trailing December’s reading.
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GBP/USD struggles to gain traction, stays near 1.3600
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Gold closes in on $1,900 amid souring market mood
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Decentraland price to revisit $4 as MANA approaches a launch pad
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US Permission Granted: Retail Sales and Nonfarm Payrolls give the Fed options Premium
Consumer sentiment last month was the worst in almost a decade but depression did not keep anyone home. Consumer spending saw the largest gain in ten months. | https://www.fxstreet.com/news/nzd-usd-drops-below-06700-as-russia-ukraine-headlines-worsen-the-market-mood-202202181800 | 2022-02-18T18:26:32 | en | 0.939624 |
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man is accused of torturing an employee in Iraq after the worker raised concerns about a project to produce weapons parts in that country, federal prosecutors said.
Under a superseding indictment returned Tuesday, federal authorities accused Ross Roggio, 53, of Stroudsburg, with suffocating the victim with a belt, threatening to cut off one of the victim's fingers and directing Kurdish soldiers to inflict pain and suffering on the victim.
Roggio and the Roggio Consulting Company were previously charged in 2018 with illegally exporting firearms parts and tools from the United States to Iraq as part of a weapons project in Kurdistan. The superseding indictment adds the torture charges to the previous counts.
Roggio was managing a project in 2015 to construct a factory and produce weapons in the Kurdistan region of Iraq when one of his employees raised concerns, prosecutors said.
According to the superseding indictment, Roggio arranged for Kurdish soldiers to abduct the employee and detain the worker at a Kurdish military compound for approximately 39 days while Roggio led multiple interrogation sessions.
“This defendant leveraged his position and used foreign soldiers in order to intimidate and coerce someone who was a threat to the success of his corrupt scheme,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire.
A telephone number called to seek comment from Roggio was no longer working. | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Pennsylvania-man-accused-of-torturing-employee-in-16929977.php | 2022-02-18T18:26:37 | en | 0.956752 |
- US equities tumbled for a second successive session on Friday ahead of the long weekend, on course for a negative weekly close.
- The S&P 500 was last down just under 1.0% on Friday and trading below the 4350 level.
- The Ukraine crisis remains the major driving force in the market right now as violence in Eastern Ukraine escalates.
US equity markets tumbled for a second successive session on Friday ahead of the long weekend and now look on course to post a second successive negative weekly close for the first time since November 2021. US equity investors said on Friday that they didn’t want to be caught “exposed” ahead of the long weekend (US markets are shut on Monday for President’s Day) and were taking profit just in case the Ukraine crisis further escalates. The S&P 500 was last down just under 1.0% on Friday and trading below the 4350 level, putting it on course to post a 1.8% weekly loss, taking its losses since earlier monthly highs near 4600 to more than 5.0%.
S&P 500 bears will be hoping that, given the index pushed to fresh weekly lows on Friday, the next stop at some point next week will be a test of the annual lows in the 4220s, a further more than 2.5% down from current levels. As hostilities between pro-Russia separatists and the Ukrainian military in Eastern Ukraine escalate and Russia continues to amass troops near the Ukrainian border, jitters about the breakout of a broader Russo-Ukrainian war will keep equity investors skittish. One key event on the radar next week is a face-to-face meeting between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov next week which might de-escalate tensions somewhat. Reportedly the US agreed to the meeting on the conditions that Russia doesn’t invade Ukraine.
With geopolitics remaining at the forefront of investor attention given fears that an outbreak of war might lead to massive Western sanctions versus Russia with inflationary implications for the global economy, Fed speak and US data has been ignored this week. In truth, there hasn’t been any tier one data to impact Fed tightening expectations too much, nor have Fed members said anything new or particularly interesting. This is likely to remain the case next week, with the only data of note flash February PMIs, January Core PCE inflation and the second estimate of Q4 GDP growth.
Returning back to US equities, the Nasdaq 100 index dropped 1.0% on Friday to test the 14K level, taking its losses on the week to around 1.6%. At current levels, the index is trading more than 16% below last November’s record highs in the 16.75K region. The bears will now be looking for the index to fall back towards the 13.5K area, which would mark a 20% drop from recent highs and thus confirm a “bear market”.
The Dow, meanwhile, dropped 0.6% towards a test of the 34K level, also putting the index on course to post a second successive week of losses. The index has now reversed nearly 5.0% lower versus last week’s highs in the 35.8K area. The S&P 500 CBOE Volatility Index or VIX, often referred to as Wall Street’s “fear gauge”, was slightly higher in the 28.00s, a more than four point rebound from earlier weekly lows around 24.00.
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Latest Forex News
Editors’ Picks
EUR/USD retreats to 1.1350 area on modest dollar strength
EUR/USD is edging lower toward 1.1350 as the cautious market mood helps the dollar stay resilient against its rivals ahead of the weekend. Ahead of Fedspeak and US President Biden's meeting with international leaders, the US Dollar Index is posting modest daily gains a little below 96.00.
GBP/USD struggles to gain traction, stays near 1.3600
GBP/USD is fluctuating in a relatively tight range around 1.3600 on Friday as investors asses the latest developments surrounding the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The upbeat data from the UK seems to have failed to provide a boost to the British pound.
Gold closes in on $1,900 amid souring market mood
Gold reversed its direction and rose toward $1,900 in the second half of the day with risk flows cooling off on reports claiming additional Russian troops were moving to the Ukrainian border. The 10-year US T-bond yield is down 1.5%, helping XAU/USD gain traction.
Decentraland price to revisit $4 as MANA approaches a launch pad
Decentraland price eyes a retest of $2.92 after rejection at the $3.39 resistance barrier. This downswing will allow MANA to trigger an ascent to the weekly resistance level at $3.86.
US Permission Granted: Retail Sales and Nonfarm Payrolls give the Fed options Premium
Consumer sentiment last month was the worst in almost a decade but depression did not keep anyone home. Consumer spending saw the largest gain in ten months. | https://www.fxstreet.com/news/sp-500-on-course-for-second-successive-weekly-loss-tumbles-under-4350-as-eastern-ukraine-violence-escalates-202202181723 | 2022-02-18T18:26:38 | en | 0.944523 |
Nigerian sprinter Okagbare banned for 10 years for doping
This is an outcome that was driven by our intelligence-led target testing as well as our commitment to investigate the circumstances behind a positive test. Okagbare won the bronze medal in the long jump at the 2008 Olympics.
- Country:
- United Kingdom
Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare received a 10-year ban for being part of an “organized doping regimen'' ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, the Athletics Integrity Unit said Friday.
The former world championships silver medalist was initially suspended in July just before she was due to run in the semifinals of the 100 meters at the Olympics.
Okagbare tested positive for blood booster EPO in Nigeria in June, in addition to another failed test for human growth hormone in Slovakia in July. A ban of five years was imposed by the AIU for the presence and use of multiple prohibited substances and the suspension was doubled for her refusal to cooperate with the investigation.
“A ban of 10 year(s) is a strong message against intentional and co-ordinated attempts to cheat at the very highest level of our sport,” AIU head Brett Clothier said. “This is an outcome that was driven by our intelligence-led target testing as well as our commitment to investigate the circumstances behind a positive test.” Okagbare won the bronze medal in the long jump at the 2008 Olympics. That was later upgraded to a silver medal when a Russian athlete was banned for doping. At the 2013 world championships, she doubled up with long jump silver and 200-meter bronze. Okagbare also won the 100 and the 200 at the Commonwealth Games in 2014. AP BS BS BS
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ALSO READ
Doping-Nigerian sprinter Okagbare banned for 10 years by Athletics Integrity Unit
Nigerian sprinter Okagbare banned for 10 years for doping
Doping-Nigerian sprinter Okagbare banned for 10 years by Athletics Integrity Unit
Doping-Nigeria's Okagbare banned for 10 years by AIU for doping at Tokyo Olympics | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/1928296-nigerian-sprinter-okagbare-banned-for-10-years-for-doping | 2022-02-18T18:26:37 | en | 0.97272 |
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police are investigating after staff discovered racist graffiti in hallways and bathrooms of a Lincoln middle school.
The graffiti — scrawled words and images in pencil — was found three different times this week inside Dawes Middle School in northeast Lincoln, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
Police Sgt. Chris Vigil described the graffiti as depicting “racially hateful themes,” but declined to reveal the words or further describe the drawings.
Principal Liz Miller sent a message to parents Friday morning saying the school is working with police and the school district’s security team to try to find out who scrawled the graffiti.
“The student or students found responsible for writing these hateful messages on the bathroom walls will face the appropriate consequence,” Miller said. “We want to be clear — the language used will not be tolerated at Dawes Middle School.” | https://www.chron.com/news/article/Police-investigating-after-racist-graffiti-found-16930180.php | 2022-02-18T18:26:43 | en | 0.941945 |
WILLIAMSBURG, Iowa (AP) — Rescue crews called to a grain bin in eastern Iowa Friday found a man dead, buried under 10 feet (3.05 meters) of corn, authorities said.
Emergency responders were called around 7:30 a.m. Friday to the grain bin near Williamsburg. the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Arriving crews worked for an hour before finding the man buried. He was declared dead at the scene. Officials did not immediately release the man’s name.
The sheriff’s office says the 20,000-bushel capacity grain bin is owned by Kinze Manufacturing and is leased to Circle J Grain of Williamsburg.
Williamsburg is located about 83 miles (133.6 kilometers) east of Des Moines. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Crews-find-man-dead-under-10-feet-of-corn-in-Iowa-17029192.php | 2022-03-25T20:41:54 | en | 0.968377 |
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Latest on Match Play (all times local):
___
3 p.m.
Richard Bland won the Battle of Blighty and is headed to the knockout stage of the Dell Technologies Match Play.
The 49-year-old Bland faced 48-year-old Lee Westwood in an All-England match that featured the two oldest players in the field. They have known each other since junior golf. Bland won on the 17th hole and won his group.
Bland only became eligible for the 64-man field two months ago when he was runner-up in the Dubai Desert Classic. Now he still holds out hope of advancing far enough on the weekend to move into the top 50 and get to the Masters.
Dustin Johnson also is playing this weekend at Austin Country Club. He was 2 up over Max Homa, assured of a half-point he needed to win his group.
___
2:30 p.m.
The winning streak of Billy Horschel at the Dell Technologies Match Play is over. No matter. He halved his match with Thomas Pieters, and that was all he needed to win his group and move into the knockout stage this weekend.
Horschel is the defending champion. His streak dated to the third day of round-robin matches last year and he still had effectively miles to reach Tiger Woods and his record 13 straight wins. That was when the entire tournament was single-elimination. Geoff Ogilvy once had 11 straight wins until losing in the championship match in 2007 the year after he won.
Tyrrell Hatton was undefeated in his group and advanced by beating Daniel Berger. Also advancing was Seamus Power of Ireland. That all but assures Power will stay in the top 50 in the world and get into the Masters.
___
More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/article/The-Latest-Tie-enough-for-Horschel-to-advance-in-17029287.php | 2022-03-25T20:41:55 | en | 0.98316 |
AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — UMass has found a new leader for its basketball program, hiring Frank Martin as its coach Friday.
Martin, 56, takes over the Minutemen program from Matt McCall, who was fired this month after going 58-81 over five seasons in Amherst.
“It is evident that there is tremendous alignment in place to win and do it the right way,” Martin said in a statement. “Let’s all get on this ride together, let’s dream big and let’s be relentless at making our dreams a reality.”
Martin arrives following his own dismissal from South Carolina last week after 10 seasons and just one NCAA appearance with the Gamecocks. But that appearance to cap the 2016-17 season culminated in South Carolina’s first Final Four berth. Martin was 171-147 during his tenure at the school.
He had more NCAA tournament bids in his first head coaching job at Kansas State from 2007 to 2012, leading the Wildcats to March Madness four times including an Elite Eight berth in 2010. He finished 117-54 overall.
The move to Massachusetts will be a homecoming for Martin’s wife, Anya (Forrest), a 1998 UMass alum who ran track for the school.
Martin’s hiring by UMass was announced a day after former Chattanooga coach Lamont Paris was tapped as Martin’s successor at South Carolina.
___
More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/College-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/article/UMass-hires-Frank-Martin-as-new-basketball-coach-17029252.php | 2022-03-25T20:41:57 | en | 0.97294 |
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Democrat Elvi Gray-Jackson said Friday that she is ending her run for U.S. Senate in Alaska and instead will seek reelection to the state Senate.
Gray-Jackson, in a statement released by her campaign, said that as first-quarter fundraising concludes “and after some deep reflection on our current system and the monumental expenses necessary to run a successful campaign, I have decided that my best efforts to change that system and to change Alaska will be done in the Senate in Juneau.”
Gray-Jackson had been the only Democrat who had so far filed to run for the U.S. Senate seat, which is held by Republican Lisa Murkowski. Gray-Jackson had filed as a candidate last month.
Murkowski, who is seeking reelection, reported having about $4.3 million available at the end of the last quarter, which ended Dec. 31. Murkowski at that time held a huge cash-on-hand advantage over Republican Kelly Tshibaka, who began running late last March and has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. One other challenger who had reported raising funds, Libertarian Sean Thorne, lagged far behind both.
Gray-Jackson, in the statement, said she looks “forward to supporting a new candidate who represents the best of Alaska’s ideals to challenge" Murkowski. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Democrat-Gray-Jackson-ends-US-Senate-run-in-Alaska-17029344.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:00 | en | 0.974043 |
SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 3 Midday" game were:
1-9-7
(one, nine, seven)
SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 3 Midday" game were:
1-9-7
(one, nine, seven) | https://www.theheraldreview.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Daily-3-Midday-game-17029387.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:02 | en | 0.927907 |
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders struggled for hours Friday to find a compromise on a deal aimed at curbing energy prices that have gone through the roof and hurt households and businesses across the 27-nation bloc.
There was a clear rift between the bloc's southern and northern nations during the day-long talks in Brussels, with Mediterranean countries led by Spain pushing for intervention on the market with measures like price caps while Germany and the Netherlands resisted drastic options.
Leaders, however, did agree on a proposal from the European Commission to move toward the joint purchase of natural gas and ensuring that the bloc’s storage facilities are nearly full to try to avoid another energy crisis tied to the EU’s dependency on Russian energy.
The war in Ukraine has made EU nations realize they have been way too reliant on Russia for natural gas and oil to warm their homes and run their industries.
Earlier in the day, the United States and the EU announced a new partnership to reduce the continent’s reliance on Russian energy. Under the plan, the U.S. and other nations will increase liquified natural gas exports to Europe by 15 billion cubic meters this year. Even larger shipments would be delivered in the future.
Facing protests at home from farmers, truckers and the fishing industry, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had put forward plans to the EU to decouple electricity from gas prices. Yet the radical options failed to gather an immediate consensus. The EU will revisit the matter in May but Spain and Portugal could receive special dispensation to weather price hikes in the meantime.
“The Iberian peninsula has a very special situation. There, their energy mix is with a high load of renewables, this is very good,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the summit. “Therefore, we agreed on a special treatment... so that the Iberian peninsula can deal with this very specific situation they are in and manage the electricity prices in the way we have been discussing.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said divergent views within the Council paved the way for the very long debate, “because the different states’ interests and energy models are not the same.”
With energy prices high and supplies low, the EU is looking at its last crisis — the COVID-19 pandemic — as a blueprint. The member states joined up to buy vaccines in huge quantities for an equitable distribution.
“The root cause of high electricity prices is, in big part, high and volatile gas prices," von der Leyen said. “So we will join forces, pool our demand and use our collective bargaining power when purchasing gas. In addition, we must complete pipeline infrastructure and ramp up our storage. This will be our insurance policy against supply disruption. It's also time to look at the design of our energy market.“
Europe was already facing a tricky test before Russia’s invasion because of an outlook for slowing economic growth accompanied by surging inflation, which is being driven by high energy prices. The European commission has predicted that the bloc’s economic growth would slow from 5.3% last year to 4% this year and 2.8% in 2023.
EU leaders agreed in principle at a March 11 summit to phase out dependency on Russian gas, oil and coal imports by 2027. The EU currently imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil.
___
Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
___
Follow all AP stories on the effects of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/EU-leaders-reach-compromise-on-energy-after-long-17029380.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:06 | en | 0.959421 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/articles/38945458 | 2022-03-25T20:42:07 | en | 0.738227 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the New Mexico Lottery's "Pick 3 Day" game were:
6-2-5
(six, two, five)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the New Mexico Lottery's "Pick 3 Day" game were:
6-2-5
(six, two, five) | https://www.theheraldreview.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Pick-3-Day-game-17029210.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:08 | en | 0.92051 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/articles/38945511 | 2022-03-25T20:42:13 | en | 0.738227 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the New Mexico Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:
0-4-3-3
(zero, four, three, three)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the New Mexico Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:
0-4-3-3
(zero, four, three, three) | https://www.theheraldreview.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Pick-4-Day-game-17029209.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:14 | en | 0.909194 |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors are dropping their appeal of a judge's decision to overturn the death sentence for a Minnesota man convicted in the 2003 kidnapping and killing of Dru Sjodin, but they said they still intend to seek the death penalty when he is resentenced.
In a court filing Friday, prosecutors and defense attorneys for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. voluntarily agreed to dismiss the appeal. Interim U.S. Attorney Nicholas Chase told The Associated Press that the case will now be set for a resentencing, as the judge ordered, and “we are still seeking the death penalty.”
Rodriguez was convicted in 2006 of kidnapping Sjodin, a 22-year-old University of North Dakota student, resulting in her death. The Crookston man was sentenced to death in the first and only federal capital punishment case in North Dakota.
Last year, the judge who oversaw Rodriguez’s trial overturned the death penalty and ordered that a new sentencing phase be conducted, ruling that Rodriguez’s constitutional rights were violated.
Judge Ralph Erickson, who is now on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that the coroner gave misleading testimony, lawyers failed to outline a possible insanity defense and there was evidence of severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
Friday's court filing does not explain why prosecutors dismissed their appeal. Chase had no further comment.
In order to appeal, prosecutors needed permission from the Biden administration. The Justice Department under President Joe Biden halted federal executions last summer, pending a review of the department’s policies and procedures.
If prosecutors would have been successful on appeal, the death penalty would have been reinstated. If they would have lost their appeal, the case would would have proceeded with resentencing, just as it is now.
Authorities said Rodriguez, a convicted sex offender, kidnapped Sjodin from the parking lot of a Grand Forks, North Dakota, shopping mall in November 2003 and drove her to Minnesota, where he killed her and left her body in a field near Crookston.
Sjodin's kidnapping sparked days of massive searches, reshaped the way Minnesota handled sex offenders and led to the national sex offender registry being renamed for her. Sjodin was from Pequot Lakes, Minnesota.
Rodriguez’s conviction remains in place. He is currently locked up at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
__
Associated Press writer Dave Kolpack contributed from Fargo, N.D. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Feds-drop-appeal-in-Sjodin-killing-still-seek-17029162.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:18 | en | 0.969251 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/articles/38945668 | 2022-03-25T20:42:19 | en | 0.738227 |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Three men have pleaded guilty to reduced federal charges in Las Vegas, admitting that they set fire to a police vehicle during a May 2020 racial injustice protest in the days following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
Tyree Walker, 23, Devarian Haynes, 23, and Ricardo Densmore, 24, will each face two years in federal prison, three years of federal supervision following their release, 100 hours of community service and a $100 fine, according to plea agreements filed this week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
Each had faced conspiracy and arson charges in a four-count indictment filed in June 2020 that could have gotten them five to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.
Each pleaded guilty to one count of civil disorder and remained free Friday on supervised release pending sentencing June 22 before U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon, records showed.
Attorneys for the three men did not immediately respond to email messages about the pleas. Walker appeared in court Monday, Haynes entered his plea Tuesday and Densmore pleaded guilty Thursday.
Densmore recorded and posted video on social media showing Haynes pouring a flammable liquid from a fuel can through a missing window of a marked police patrol SUV, Walker dropping a flaming paper object inside, and Haynes dropping the gas can into the vehicle, according to an affidavit filed by a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent.
After arrests and during questioning, each man admitted his participation with the other two, according to the affidavit.
The early May 31, 2020, incident occurred during more than a week of racial injustice protests that sometimes drew thousands of people in downtown Las Vegas, on the resort-lined Strip — which was nearly deserted following closures due to the coronavirus pandemic — and in other Nevada cities.
Some protesters threw rocks and bottles, police used tear gas, several injuries were reported, some downtown Las Vegas businesses were vandalized and police made dozens of arrests.
On June 2, 2020, an armed man was shot and killed by Las Vegas police after a crowd was ordered to disperse near the Las Vegas federal courthouse, and a Las Vegas police officer was wounded and left paralyzed in a shooting during a separate protest near a Strip hotel-casino. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/3-plead-guilty-to-burning-Vegas-police-SUV-amid-17029295.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:20 | en | 0.972876 |
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Friday:
Titan International Inc., up 72 cents to $15.75.
The wheel and tire supplier entered into a three-year deal to supply farm wheels and tires to CNH Industrial.
Cutera Inc., up $9.31 to $54.93.
The maker of laser skin treatments said the FDA cleared its AviClear device for the treatment of acne.
Tilray Brands Inc., up $1.59 to $8.56.
The cannabis company gained ground on news that the U.S. House of Representatives will consider a measure to legalize the drug.
Dexcom Inc., up $12.58 to $480.97.
The medical device maker announced a four-for-one stock split.
Huntsman Corp., down $4.48 to $35.98.
The chemical company said shareholders voted to elect all 10 of its director nominees, forgoing candidates from investor Starboard Value.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., up 49 cents to $22.59.
The home goods retailer reached a cooperation agreement with billionaire investor Ryan Cohen.
General Motors Co., down 70 cents to $43.65.
The automaker is shutting down a pickup truck factory in Indiana for two weeks because a computer chip shortage.
Bank of America Corp., up 66 cents to $43.73.
Banks gained ground along with rising bond yields, which allow them to charge more lucrative interest on loans. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/business/article/Cutera-Titan-rise-Huntsman-General-Motors-fall-17029388.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:23 | en | 0.927925 |
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon nurse charged with sexually assaulting a dozen women in prison has been fired from Portland-based health care system Legacy Health.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Legacy Health said this week that Tony Klein was fired March 17.
Klein, 37, faces federal charges for 2016 and 2017 allegations while he worked as a nurse for the Oregon Department of Corrections.
On March 14, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a 25-count indictment, charging Klein with sexually assaulting 12 women at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and then lying about it later while under oath.
If convicted, Klein could face life in prison.
Before the indictment, OPB published an investigation that found at least 27 women in custody had accused Klein of sexual abuse and inappropriate comments while he worked at the state’s only prison for women. The number of women who made allegations against Klein was confirmed by the state Department of Corrections.
Klein’s attorneys didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“Legacy is not aware of any report of misconduct made about Tony Klein relating to his employment at the hospital. Klein was on leave from September 2021 until his termination on March 17,” the spokesperson said.
Officials declined to say what made them place Klein on leave. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Hospital-fires-nurse-charged-with-sexual-assault-17029177.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:24 | en | 0.976618 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/articles/38945678 | 2022-03-25T20:42:25 | en | 0.738227 |
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — GOP lawmakers override Utah governor's veto to join 11 other states banning transgender students from girls sports.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — GOP lawmakers override Utah governor's veto to join 11 other states banning transgender students from girls sports. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Alert-GOP-lawmakers-override-Utah-governor-s-17029409.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:27 | en | 0.872668 |
Wheat for May gaind 16.500 cents at $11.0225 a bushel; May corn was up 5.75 cents at $7.54 a bushel, May oats advanced 34.75 cents at $7.38 a bushel; while May soybeans rose 9.50 cents at $17.1025 a bushel.
Beef was mixed and pork was higher on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Apr. live cattle was up .80 cent at $1.4047 a pound; Mar. feeder cattle was off .35 cent at $1.5642 a pound; while Apr. lean hogs gained 4.70 cents at $1.0747 a pound. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/business/article/Grains-higher-Livestock-mixed-17029296.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:29 | en | 0.951069 |
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The House majority seemingly within their grasp, Republican lawmakers huddling at a retreat in Florida this week turned to the architect of the “Republican Revolution” nearly three decades ago — former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — for ideas on starting their own political revolt come November.
Needing only a handful of seats to recapture the House, Republicans are exceedingly confident of their chances. With incumbent Democrats retiring in droves, and President Joe Biden's poll numbers slumping amid deep voter pessimism about the economy, many in the party — including their leader Kevin McCarthy — are treating the Republican victory as a fait accompli.
They see Gingrich, the man who swept away four decades of Democratic House rule with the “Contract With America” in 1994, as a model. He spoke to House Republicans Wednesday night as they gathered in Jacksonville, Fla., to prepare for the campaigning ahead. His message was simple: offer a contrast to what he called the failing Democratic agenda and then deliver to the American people.
“He saw the chance in Republicans when no one thought we could win,” McCarthy said on Wednesday. “If we’re successful, in which we win 18 seats, that’s the same number of Republicans after the 1994 election.”
He added, “But it’s different than just recruiting candidates and raising money. It’s what you do with it. You make a commitment to the American public.”
But while Republicans have numbers on their side in the election, what they would do with a majority is very much a work in progress. And it remained unclear at the three-day retreat what, if any, lessons Republicans have learned from the tumultuous eras of Gingrich, Dennis Hastert, John Boehner and Paul Ryan — the past four Republican House speakers, all of whom found it is easier to win power in the House than to control it.
Much of Gingrich’s “contract” never became law as the triumph of the ’94 elections gave way to intra-party strife, a damaging budget standoff that ended in a government shutdown and an ethics tangle that contributed to Gingrich leaving office. Boehner, like Gingrich, relinquished the gavel and resigned amid divisions between the party's ideological factions.
McCarthy, 57, is charting his own delicate course as he works to become speaker in what would be a divided Washington, with President Joe Biden still in the White House. Last summer McCarthy tasked several groups of Republican lawmakers with drafting proposals on the party’s core legislative priorities, including lowering costs in the economy, securing the Southern border and countering China, in hopes of making a fast start in 2023.
But creating a governing majority is a daunting challenge. Hard-right members of the conference are ascendant, creating headaches with their inflammatory actions and statements. Many in the party are likely to welcome new rounds of brinkmanship over government spending and the debt. And some Republicans are already agitating for partisan investigations of figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, that could easily overshadow their legislation.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump continues to hold enormous sway over the GOP despite his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his lies about election fraud that fueled the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. McCarthy has kept close to Trump, jetting to his private club to secure his support earlier this year, as the party relies on his brand and his fundraising prowess to motivate Republican voters.
North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry, who is the top Republican of the Financial Services Committee and close to GOP leadership, said what comes after the election is what will determine whether a new GOP majority endures.
“I think right now, not being the Democrats is a sufficient answer to win the election,” Rep. Patrick McHenry, the top Republican of the Financial Services Committee, told The Associated Press in an interview. “But that doesn’t make us worth a damn as a governing majority. That doesn’t electrify our electorate. That doesn’t bring over folks that are in the middle.”
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, in line to take over the powerful House Oversight committee, said the way for the conference to move forward is to focus on what they can realistically deliver to the American people.
“We’ve got plenty of things that I think the base and the American people will appreciate that we can do,” he said. “So let’s commit to things that are achievable, not just talking points that will get you on Fox News for four and a half minutes.”
Members spent the damp and rainy days of the retreat reiterating that while there are loud voices on the fringe of party lines, including a few who have called for Biden's impeachment, the majority are united behind McCarthy’s vision.
“I call it a 50-year election,” McCarthy told reporters. “It won’t come around like this in the House" for a long time.
Gingrich gave McCarthy a vote of confidence, saying he's capable of leading them to victory.
“I think (Kevin) proved that in the last election,” Gingrich told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “If you look at who won and what their recruiting has been like.” | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/House-Republicans-bullish-on-midterms-plot-17029163.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:31 | en | 0.968165 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/articles/38946347 | 2022-03-25T20:42:31 | en | 0.738227 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Parole recommended for last California inmate who participated in 1976 school bus hijacking. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Alert-Parole-recommended-for-last-California-17029359.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:33 | en | 0.873167 |
Stocks wound up mostly higher on Wall Street Friday after another day of bouncing around as traders try to figure out what’s next for the economy.
It was a fitting ending for a bumpy week that had both gains and losses for major U.S. indexes. Treasury yields rose sharply again and crude oil prices rose moderately.
On Friday:
The S&P 500 rose 22.90 points, or 0.5%, to 4,543.06.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153.30 points, or 0.4%, to 34,861.24.
The Nasdaq fell 22.54 points, or 0.2%, to 14,169.30.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.54 points, or 0.1%, to 2,077.98.
For the week:
The S&P 500 is up 79.94 points, or 1.8%.
The Dow is up 106.31 points, or 0.3%.
The Nasdaq is up 275.46 points, or 2%.
The Russell 2000 is down 8.16 points, or 0.4%.
For the year:
The S&P 500 is down 223.12 points, or 4.7%.
The Dow is down 1,477.06 points, or 4.1%.
The Nasdaq is down 1,475.67 points, or 9.4%.
The Russell 2000 is down 167.33 points, or 7.5%. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/business/article/How-major-US-stock-indexes-fared-Friday-17029408.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:36 | en | 0.9166 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/articles/38946749 | 2022-03-25T20:42:37 | en | 0.738227 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal immigration authorities announced Friday that they'll stop housing detainees at an Alabama jail with a history of problems and will limit the use of three other detention centers.
The decisions reinforce a commitment by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to review detention facilities to determine whether they are humane, meet applicable standards and are a responsible use of funding, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release.
ICE says it will stop using the Etowah County Jail in Gadsden, Alabama, as soon as possible, taking into account a 30-day notification requirement. The jail has “a long history of serious deficiencies," the release says.
Advocates who have long sought the end of ICE detention at the Etowah County Jail hailed the news as a victory, but they urged federal authorities not to just transfer people from one facility to another.
“The Etowah County Detention Center exemplifies everything that is wrong with immigration detention and why the detention system must be abolished," Detention Watch Network advocacy director Setareh Ghandehari said in a news release. "The administration can and must do more to completely phase out the use of immigration detention by continuing to terminate contracts, shut down additional facilities and free people from detention.”
Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton told The Gadsden Times that the decision to quit sending detainees to the jail “was just a bombshell,” and that he was working with members of Alabama’s congressional delegation to get more information.
Just this week the center was notified that 135 detainees would be coming next week, he said. “No one has canceled that,” said Horton.
ICE said it will also limit its use of the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida; the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana; and the Alamance County Detention Facility in Graham, North Carolina.
ICE has already reduced its use of the Glades County facility in recent years, in part because of “persistent and ongoing concerns related to the provision of detainee medical care.” But it was still paying for a minimum number of beds and has now decided not to extend that guaranteed minimum bed provision. Future use of the facility will depend on conditions meeting detention standards, the agency said.
Rebecca Talbot with Immigrant Action Alliance credited organizing and resistance for ICE's policy change regarding the Glades County facility.
“Emptying Glades, ending the guaranteed minimum, and requiring Glades to fully address conditions that do not meet detention standards are all huge steps in the right direction,” Rebecca Talbot with Immigrant Action Alliance said in a news release. “Now it’s time for the Biden administration to commit to closing Glades fully and forever, and to release those who have been transferred from Glades to other facilities.”
ICE had been using the Alamance County facility for long-term detention, but says it will now only use it for stays of under 72 hours if applicable standards are met. The agency said it is concerned about conditions, including a lack of outdoor recreation.
ICE plans to reduce the guaranteed minimum at Winn Correctional Center to match the facility's staffing constraints, the release says. ICE will also assign a custody resource coordinator to provide an assessment and will monitor conditions and take actions as needed, the release says.
ICE Acting Director Tae Johnson has told staff to begin preparations, including relocating ICE staff and detainees as needed. The agency said it plans to continue to review other detention centers and adjust its use as appropriate. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/ICE-to-stop-using-Alabama-jail-limit-use-of-3-17029342.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:37 | en | 0.958023 |
(RNS) — American Jews say they were blindsided by the U.S. Senate’s lightning-fast passage of a bill to make daylight saving time year-round and intend to fight it.
The Sunshine Protection Act, which passed the Senate on March 15, will make it nearly impossible for Jews to pray communally in the morning, Jewish advocates say, and still get to work or school on time during the winter months.
According to Jewish law, morning prayers must take place after the sun rises. Daylight saving time, which currently begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, extends darkness on late-winter mornings.
“It will affect our religious life, our professional life and our family life,” said Rabbi Abba Cohen, vice president for government affairs for Agudath Israel of America. “If congregational and personal prayers begin after 8 in the morning, how will people get to work at 9 a.m. or earlier?”
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This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.
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Cohen said Agudath Israel has issued a statement and sent a detailed explanation of these difficulties to lawmakers in the House of Representatives, whose leaders have not said whether they will bring the bill up for a vote.
In Judaism, the morning prayer service, called “Shacharit” because it starts after dawn — shachar in Hebrew — typically lasts 30 to 40 minutes when recited communally. Reading from the Torah and saying certain prayers, including the kaddish, or mourner’s prayer, must take place in a group with a quorum of 10, known as a minyan.
Unlike previous legislation on seasonal time changes, leaders of the Jewish community say, lawmakers didn’t inform them that the issue was on the Senate’s agenda, or that it would be fast-tracked through a procedure called unanimous consent.
Other stakeholders, from farmers to schoolteachers, also expressed surprise at the bill’s quick passage.
In a statement about the bill, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the measure’s lead sponsor, said permanent daylight saving time would reduce car accidents, robberies and seasonal depression and promote physical fitness.
“Switching in and out of Daylight Saving Time is outdated, and it’s only a source of annoyance and confusion,” Rubio said. “Frankly, it’s just dumb, and there’s just no other way to say it.”
Since the bill’s passage, synagogues have begun circulating petitions, and some Jewish organizations have begun lobbying lawmakers against its implementation.
In a document sent Monday (March 21), Agudath Israel noted that under DST, sunrise in Detroit would occur after 8 a.m. for 131 days of the year, and after 9 a.m. on 23 days. In Cincinnati sunrise would begin after 8 a.m. 135 days of the year.
Such a late start would make it “extremely difficult” for religiously observant Jews who work outside their homes to pray in the morning, Cohen said.
“Morning prayers happen every morning, and it’s not something employers are familiar with. Coming to work late every morning is a much bigger ask” in American workplaces, Cohen said.
As it is, many employers allow observant Jews to leave early for Shabbat, which can begin as early as 4 p.m. in some states.
Needing to leave early on Fridays “is an issue that Jews raise before they are employed. It’s something that employers are familiar with.” The same hasn’t been true for morning services, Cohen noted.
Nathan Diament, executive director for advocacy at the Orthodox Union, said the time shift is not only a Jewish issue. OU, Agaduth Israel and other Jewish organizations are also expressing concern about how the bill will impact schoolchildren “who will be traveling in the morning in the pitch black” and on “health impacts” for society as a whole.
“We’ll be engaging with members of Congress, and just as we do on all kinds of issues, will work in coalition with other groups aligned on the same perspective on this issue,” Diament said.
While admitting that thwarting the bill’s passage will be an uphill battle, “I think it’s possible the House won’t pass it,” Cohen said. “Congress isn’t passing it today, which gives us a chance to find our allies and for us to put our concerns forward.” | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/All-year-daylight-saving-time-threatens-Jews-17029188.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:39 | en | 0.961308 |
NEW YORK (AP) — The following is a list of initial public offerings planned for the coming week. Sources include IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital, and SEC filings.
NEW YORK (AP) — The following is a list of initial public offerings planned for the coming week. Sources include IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital, and SEC filings. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/business/article/Initial-public-offerings-scheduled-to-debut-next-17029221.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:42 | en | 0.920542 |
HONOLULU (AP) — A U.S. judge has rejected a deal between prosecutors and a former elected Hawaii official who agreed to plead guilty and accept a 15-year prison term for leading a drug-trafficking organization.
Arthur Brun pleaded guilty last year to charges including drug trafficking conspiracy, distribution of methamphetamine and assault of a federal law enforcement officer.
Prosecutors said he led the drug ring while serving as a member of the county council on the island of Kauai.
Among the allegations laid out in court documents by prosecutors: Brun conspired with a gang leader, requested sexual favors as payment for drugs and assaulted a law enforcement officer.
Brun was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, but according to court records, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson rejected the deal Brun negotiated for a 15-year sentence.
Judges, who have the final say in sentencing, aren't bound by plea agreements.
“The government wanted 15 years of a man's life and the court felt that 15 years wasn't enough,” said Brun's attorney, Rustam Barbee. “The government wanted their pound of flesh and Judge Watson wanted two pounds.”
Barbee said his client will have to go to trial unless he can get a new deal from prosecutors.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Hawaii declined to comment. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Judge-rejects-15-year-deal-for-ex-councilman-in-17029311.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:43 | en | 0.976093 |
NEW YORK (AP) — The Black News Channel has pulled the plug after the 2-year-old venture failed to meet payroll and lost the backing of its biggest investor.
Princell Hair, the company's president and CEO, told employees Friday in a memo that the news network was ceasing live production and would file for bankruptcy. BNC was available in some 50 million homes with cable and satellite but had failed to attract many viewers.
The network, founded in 2020 by former GOP congressman J.C. Watts, hired more than 250 Black journalists and production personnel last year in a relaunch following an investment by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Kahn.
But it was consistently losing money, despite two rounds of layoffs, and Kahn decided to stop investing in it further. It is currently three weeks short of payroll, a company spokesman said.
Hair, a former CNN executive, took over in the relaunch last year. BNC brought on contributors like Charles Blow, columnist at The New York Times, and commentator Marc Lamont Hill. Correspondents were stationed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Philadelphia.
The end came even as BNC recorded its biggest audience ever this week with its live coverage of the Judiciary Committee hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Hair said.
He told employees that their contributions had been remarkable, but “due to challenging market conditions and global financial pressures, we have been unable to meet our financial goals, and the timeline afforded to us has run out.”
Establishing a network is particularly tough at a time when consumers have so many choices and many are cutting cable or satellite cords.
“Remember that we built something great here,” Hair said in his memo. “BNC, or something very close to it, will surely return at some point, because the world needs it, and all of you have proven it can be done.”
News of BNC's shutdown was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The National Association of Black Journalists said Friday that it was looking at ways to help members that were thrown out of work by the shutdown. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Black-News-Channel-shuts-down-days-after-ratings-17029412.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:45 | en | 0.984204 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors and lawyers for convicted murderer Scott Peterson will give closing arguments in late June before a California judge decides whether Peterson deserves a new trial in the slaying of his pregnant wife 20 years ago.
The arguments will follow an anticlimactic two final days of testimony into whether juror Richelle Nice was biased and lied to get on the jury that convicted Peterson in 2004 and put him on death row for the murders of Laci, 27, and the unborn child they planned to name Conner.
The California Supreme Court overturned Peterson's death sentence in 2020 and tasked Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo with deciding if he received a fair trial.
On Friday, she ordered Stanislaus County prosecutors and Peterson's attorneys to submit written arguments by May 25 and reply briefs by June 9. They'll return to court June 29 to provide oral arguments before she takes the case under submission for a later decision.
“I think everyone is anxious to get this in," she said.
She also ordered Peterson returned to San Quentin State Prison until June, where he previously had been on death row, after his attorneys said they were having trouble communicating with him while he has been recently housed in the San Mateo County Jail.
Massullo had delayed the final two days of the hearing from early this month after Peterson's attorneys said they had surprise testimony from documentary producer Shareen Anderson.
Anderson had belatedly told an investigator that Nice and other co-authors of a post-trial book about the case had discussed a book deal during the trial, which would have been improper.
That was contradicted by other testimony, and Peterson's attorneys quickly dropped the allegation when Anderson subsequently said her recollection was “fuzzy” and she wasn't sure whether the book deal was discussed during or after the trial.
But they still flew Anderson in from New York this week with the expectation that she would testify Thursday about a photograph on Nice's wall that she recalled seeing while she was working on the television documentary “The Murder of Laci Peterson" in 2017.
Anderson abruptly refused to testify, however, saying through her attorney that she hadn't been properly legally served with an order to appear, and that her testimony couldn't be required because she was acting as a journalist while producing the documentary.
The attorneys eventually settled on a simple stipulation: As Anderson was leaving Nice's home after an interview, she observed a photo on Nice's wall of a small child wearing pajamas imprinted with the words, “Little Man.”
Peterson's attorneys say Nice referred to Conner during jury deliberations as “little man,” which they say are among indications that she was biased against their client.
They contend that she lied about her lack of bias to get on the jury, and lied again in a sworn declaration in 2020.
Nice testified earlier that she held no bias against Peterson until after she heard the evidence that he dumped his wife’s body into San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002.
Nice failed to disclose during jury selection that she sought a restraining order while pregnant in 2000, saying she “really fears for her unborn child” because of threats from her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.
She said in her sworn declaration 20 years later that she didn’t “feel ‘victimized’ the way the law might define that term.”
As their final witness, Peterson's attorneys called to the stand on Friday her former attorney, Negad Zaky, to testify about his communications with the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office while preparing Nice’s declaration.
Zaky said he had discussions with prosecutors but that they didn't tell him how to write the declaration that Nice later signed under oath. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Juror-misconduct-hearing-in-Scott-Peterson-case-17029282.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:49 | en | 0.986135 |
WILLIAMSBURG, Iowa (AP) — Rescue crews called to a grain bin in eastern Iowa Friday found a man dead, buried under 10 feet (3.05 meters) of corn, authorities said.
Emergency responders were called around 7:30 a.m. Friday to the grain bin near Williamsburg. the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Arriving crews worked for an hour before finding the man buried. He was declared dead at the scene. Officials did not immediately release the man’s name.
The sheriff’s office says the 20,000-bushel capacity grain bin is owned by Kinze Manufacturing and is leased to Circle J Grain of Williamsburg.
Williamsburg is located about 83 miles (133.6 kilometers) east of Des Moines. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Crews-find-man-dead-under-10-feet-of-corn-in-Iowa-17029192.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:51 | en | 0.968377 |
SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 3 Midday" game were:
1-9-7
(one, nine, seven)
SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 3 Midday" game were:
1-9-7
(one, nine, seven) | https://www.lakecountystar.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Daily-3-Midday-game-17029387.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:54 | en | 0.927907 |
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana police officer injured when violence broke out over the police killing of a Black man in Baton Rouge in 2016 has grounds to pursue a lawsuit against a protest organizer, Louisiana's Supreme Court said Friday.
The 6-1 opinion was not a ruling in a case, but an answer to questions posed by a federal appeals court considering whether an officer identified as John Doe, can continue his federal lawsuit against Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson.
The case has freedom-of-speech implications, involving questions of who is liable for damages that occur during activities protected by the First Amendment. But the questions before Louisiana's highest court involved whether state law could be read to place a duty on a protest organizer “not to negligently precipitate” a crime. The majority said it can. And it also said state law does not bar police officers from collecting damages under such circumstances.
The officer suffered serious head and facial injuries when someone threw a hard object at him as protesters blocked a highway in 2016. The protest arose from the police shooting death of a Black man, Alton Sterling.
“Because it is alleged that Mckesson, with knowledge that such protests could turn violent, staged a protest in direct contravention of law, thereby provoking the police to respond, a person can easily associate the injury to the police officer with the alleged conduct,” Justice William Crain wrote in a concurring opinion.
The case had been through a long federal court path before the state Supreme Court was asked to weigh in. A federal district judge threw out the officer's original lawsuit. It was revived by a divided panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Mckesson then went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Although the case involves First Amendment issues, the U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped a constitutional ruling in November, saying matters of state law need to be settled first. That led to the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit sending the state Supreme Court the questions that were answered Friday.
Justice Piper Griffin was the lone dissenter. Finding that Mckesson had a legal duty in the case “will have a chilling effect on political protests in general as nothing prevents a bad actor from attending an otherwise peaceful protest and committing acts of violence.”
“Courts would see increased litigation from all sides of the political spectrum and the flow of political speech could hinge on which viewpoints had patrons with deeper pockets,” Griffin said.
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This story corrects the spelling of Mckesson's last name. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Louisiana-court-Protest-leader-can-be-sued-for-17029159.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:56 | en | 0.975775 |
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Democrat Elvi Gray-Jackson said Friday that she is ending her run for U.S. Senate in Alaska and instead will seek reelection to the state Senate.
Gray-Jackson, in a statement released by her campaign, said that as first-quarter fundraising concludes “and after some deep reflection on our current system and the monumental expenses necessary to run a successful campaign, I have decided that my best efforts to change that system and to change Alaska will be done in the Senate in Juneau.”
Gray-Jackson had been the only Democrat who had so far filed to run for the U.S. Senate seat, which is held by Republican Lisa Murkowski. Gray-Jackson had filed as a candidate last month.
Murkowski, who is seeking reelection, reported having about $4.3 million available at the end of the last quarter, which ended Dec. 31. Murkowski at that time held a huge cash-on-hand advantage over Republican Kelly Tshibaka, who began running late last March and has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. One other challenger who had reported raising funds, Libertarian Sean Thorne, lagged far behind both.
Gray-Jackson, in the statement, said she looks “forward to supporting a new candidate who represents the best of Alaska’s ideals to challenge" Murkowski. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Democrat-Gray-Jackson-ends-US-Senate-run-in-Alaska-17029344.php | 2022-03-25T20:42:58 | en | 0.974043 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the New Mexico Lottery's "Pick 3 Day" game were:
6-2-5
(six, two, five)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the New Mexico Lottery's "Pick 3 Day" game were:
6-2-5
(six, two, five) | https://www.lakecountystar.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Pick-3-Day-game-17029210.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:00 | en | 0.92051 |
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A Washington state man who acknowledged organizing a rim-to-rim hike at Grand Canyon National Park for 139 people when the size of such groups is limited has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the October 2020 trip.
Joseph Don Mount of Chehalis pleaded guilty Friday to violating the park's rule limiting group size and was sentenced to two years of probation.
Beginning about five years ago, the park limited the number of visitors in such groups to 11 people to prevent overcrowding on trails. The restriction has remained in place throughout the pandemic.
Mount was warned about the size limitation and a prohibition on splitting large groups into smaller groups in a bid to get around the rule. But investigators have said Mount kept organizing the trip, recruiting prospective hikers, posting an itinerary and a list of those who signed up for the trip, and making other preparations.
His attorney, Ryan Stevens, said his client had good intentions in trying to draw together people who shared the same religious faith into an outing and that a lot of people had committed to the trip by the time his client was confronted by park employees about group size for his upcoming trip.
Others on the trails at the time complained that the group wasn’t distancing or wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and that they clogged the path, delaying itineraries.
Investigators say Mount collected thousands of dollars in registration fees from hikers to cover guide services, transportation and other costs. Mount projected at one time that after covering those costs, he would net a profit of about $65, according to court records. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Man-acknowledges-leading-outsized-group-in-Grand-17029324.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:02 | en | 0.975516 |
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders struggled for hours Friday to find a compromise on a deal aimed at curbing energy prices that have gone through the roof and hurt households and businesses across the 27-nation bloc.
There was a clear rift between the bloc's southern and northern nations during the day-long talks in Brussels, with Mediterranean countries led by Spain pushing for intervention on the market with measures like price caps while Germany and the Netherlands resisted drastic options.
Leaders, however, did agree on a proposal from the European Commission to move toward the joint purchase of natural gas and ensuring that the bloc’s storage facilities are nearly full to try to avoid another energy crisis tied to the EU’s dependency on Russian energy.
The war in Ukraine has made EU nations realize they have been way too reliant on Russia for natural gas and oil to warm their homes and run their industries.
Earlier in the day, the United States and the EU announced a new partnership to reduce the continent’s reliance on Russian energy. Under the plan, the U.S. and other nations will increase liquified natural gas exports to Europe by 15 billion cubic meters this year. Even larger shipments would be delivered in the future.
Facing protests at home from farmers, truckers and the fishing industry, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had put forward plans to the EU to decouple electricity from gas prices. Yet the radical options failed to gather an immediate consensus. The EU will revisit the matter in May but Spain and Portugal could receive special dispensation to weather price hikes in the meantime.
“The Iberian peninsula has a very special situation. There, their energy mix is with a high load of renewables, this is very good,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the summit. “Therefore, we agreed on a special treatment... so that the Iberian peninsula can deal with this very specific situation they are in and manage the electricity prices in the way we have been discussing.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said divergent views within the Council paved the way for the very long debate, “because the different states’ interests and energy models are not the same.”
With energy prices high and supplies low, the EU is looking at its last crisis — the COVID-19 pandemic — as a blueprint. The member states joined up to buy vaccines in huge quantities for an equitable distribution.
“The root cause of high electricity prices is, in big part, high and volatile gas prices," von der Leyen said. “So we will join forces, pool our demand and use our collective bargaining power when purchasing gas. In addition, we must complete pipeline infrastructure and ramp up our storage. This will be our insurance policy against supply disruption. It's also time to look at the design of our energy market.“
Europe was already facing a tricky test before Russia’s invasion because of an outlook for slowing economic growth accompanied by surging inflation, which is being driven by high energy prices. The European commission has predicted that the bloc’s economic growth would slow from 5.3% last year to 4% this year and 2.8% in 2023.
EU leaders agreed in principle at a March 11 summit to phase out dependency on Russian gas, oil and coal imports by 2027. The EU currently imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil.
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Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
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Follow all AP stories on the effects of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/EU-leaders-reach-compromise-on-energy-after-long-17029380.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:04 | en | 0.959421 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the New Mexico Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:
0-4-3-3
(zero, four, three, three)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the New Mexico Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:
0-4-3-3
(zero, four, three, three) | https://www.lakecountystar.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Pick-4-Day-game-17029209.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:07 | en | 0.909194 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The upcoming closure of one of the few remaining coal-fired power plants in the southwestern U.S. has generated a dispute over financing and customers rates.
Environmentalists and consumer advocates argue in regulatory filings made Thursday that Public Service Co. of New Mexico plans to continue collecting from customers the costs of running the San Juan Generating Station after it closes. That could amount to as much as $125 million.
The groups also are concerned that New Mexico's largest electric provider plans to delay the use of bonds to recover lost investments in the power plant.
Customers will pay back the bonds through their bills over 25 years, but the amount will be less due to lower interest rates on the bonds and because the utility will forego profit on its investments.
Pat O’Connell, a senior clean energy policy analyst with Western Resource Advocates, said Friday that customers won't benefit from any savings until the bonds are issued.
“Gas is expensive too and we’re in a state where people are paying their last dollar for a tank of gas. It would help them to get a reduction in their electric bill now,” he said. “Savings delayed is savings denied, so let’s have the savings.”
The utility denied that its plans amount to double dipping or that customers will miss out on savings.
The $8 million in monthly cost-recovery charges collected through customers’ bills after the plant closes will be used as a credit when rates are reconsidered next year as part of a lengthy process before the state Public Regulation Commission.
The revenues collected through rates that covered San Juan will offset the $2.4 billion in investments that Public Service Co. of New Mexico has made in infrastructure, said utility spokesman Ray Sandoval.
He noted that the company agreed to delay asking for a rate increase in 2020 given the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and again in 2021 as part of merger negotiations that are now the focus of a legal battle before the state Supreme Court.
The environmental and consumer advocacy groups want regulators to order an immediate reduction in consumer rates after the utility abandons the coal plant later this year.
They argued in the regulatory filings that the utility’s interpretation of the state’s Energy Transition Act — which sets renewable energy mandates and governs financing related to the San Juan power plant’s closure — is “absurd and self-serving.”
The groups estimate the withheld savings to typical residential electricity customers would be about $9.50 per month.
By holding off on giving that money back, Sandoval said Public Service Co. of New Mexico is preventing customers from having to endure “a rollercoaster of rates.”
"There’s no ability to double dip by PNM because the rates are set by the PRC,” he said.
The other issue is whether interest rates will be as favorable by the time the utility issues the bonds. Consumer advocates have said customers will lose out on some anticipated savings if interest rates climb.
Mariel Nanasi, executive director of the group New Energy Economy, said another option would be for the commission to establish a regulatory liability account that would continue to track costs after the San Juan power plant closes so the amount can be returned to ratepayers when costs are adjusted in the next rate case.
“Requiring PNM to either issue a rate credit or establish a regulatory account will serve to protect ratepayers from PNM’s over-collection, is an efficient way of doing so, and is consistent with the commission’s ratemaking authority to protect ratepayers,” she said.
It's unclear how soon regulators could take up the case.
One unit at the power plant is scheduled to close by July 1 and the other is set to close at the end of September, which will help the utility meet peak demands this summer.
The utility had to ask for an extension because solar and battery projects that were meant to replace the lost capacity have been delayed. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/New-Mexico-coal-fired-plant-closure-causes-17029167.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:08 | en | 0.966484 |
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon nurse charged with sexually assaulting a dozen women in prison has been fired from Portland-based health care system Legacy Health.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Legacy Health said this week that Tony Klein was fired March 17.
Klein, 37, faces federal charges for 2016 and 2017 allegations while he worked as a nurse for the Oregon Department of Corrections.
On March 14, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a 25-count indictment, charging Klein with sexually assaulting 12 women at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and then lying about it later while under oath.
If convicted, Klein could face life in prison.
Before the indictment, OPB published an investigation that found at least 27 women in custody had accused Klein of sexual abuse and inappropriate comments while he worked at the state’s only prison for women. The number of women who made allegations against Klein was confirmed by the state Department of Corrections.
Klein’s attorneys didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“Legacy is not aware of any report of misconduct made about Tony Klein relating to his employment at the hospital. Klein was on leave from September 2021 until his termination on March 17,” the spokesperson said.
Officials declined to say what made them place Klein on leave. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Hospital-fires-nurse-charged-with-sexual-assault-17029177.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:10 | en | 0.976618 |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Three men have pleaded guilty to reduced federal charges in Las Vegas, admitting that they set fire to a police vehicle during a May 2020 racial injustice protest in the days following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
Tyree Walker, 23, Devarian Haynes, 23, and Ricardo Densmore, 24, will each face two years in federal prison, three years of federal supervision following their release, 100 hours of community service and a $100 fine, according to plea agreements filed this week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
Each had faced conspiracy and arson charges in a four-count indictment filed in June 2020 that could have gotten them five to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.
Each pleaded guilty to one count of civil disorder and remained free Friday on supervised release pending sentencing June 22 before U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon, records showed.
Attorneys for the three men did not immediately respond to email messages about the pleas. Walker appeared in court Monday, Haynes entered his plea Tuesday and Densmore pleaded guilty Thursday.
Densmore recorded and posted video on social media showing Haynes pouring a flammable liquid from a fuel can through a missing window of a marked police patrol SUV, Walker dropping a flaming paper object inside, and Haynes dropping the gas can into the vehicle, according to an affidavit filed by a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent.
After arrests and during questioning, each man admitted his participation with the other two, according to the affidavit.
The early May 31, 2020, incident occurred during more than a week of racial injustice protests that sometimes drew thousands of people in downtown Las Vegas, on the resort-lined Strip — which was nearly deserted following closures due to the coronavirus pandemic — and in other Nevada cities.
Some protesters threw rocks and bottles, police used tear gas, several injuries were reported, some downtown Las Vegas businesses were vandalized and police made dozens of arrests.
On June 2, 2020, an armed man was shot and killed by Las Vegas police after a crowd was ordered to disperse near the Las Vegas federal courthouse, and a Las Vegas police officer was wounded and left paralyzed in a shooting during a separate protest near a Strip hotel-casino. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/3-plead-guilty-to-burning-Vegas-police-SUV-amid-17029295.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:13 | en | 0.972876 |
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Gov. Kristi Noem has vetoed a bill what would have removed old marijuana charges from South Dakotans’ criminal background checks.
The Rapid City Journal reported Friday that Noem had vetoed the bill. The measure would have automatically removed simple marijuana charges and convictions from public background records if the the violation was more than five years old. The person also would have had to fulfill sentencing and probation requirements and have no subsequent arrests.
The governor said in a letter to legislators that the bill would have allowed someone convicted of marijuana chares to hide their criminal history.
The bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. Mike Rohl, said he doesn’t think he can muster enough votes between the House and Senate to override the veto. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Noem-vetoes-bill-removing-pot-charges-from-17029385.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:14 | en | 0.974195 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal immigration authorities announced Friday that they'll stop housing detainees at an Alabama jail with a history of problems and will limit the use of three other detention centers.
The decisions reinforce a commitment by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to review detention facilities to determine whether they are humane, meet applicable standards and are a responsible use of funding, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release.
ICE says it will stop using the Etowah County Jail in Gadsden, Alabama, as soon as possible, taking into account a 30-day notification requirement. The jail has “a long history of serious deficiencies," the release says.
Advocates who have long sought the end of ICE detention at the Etowah County Jail hailed the news as a victory, but they urged federal authorities not to just transfer people from one facility to another.
“The Etowah County Detention Center exemplifies everything that is wrong with immigration detention and why the detention system must be abolished," Detention Watch Network advocacy director Setareh Ghandehari said in a news release. "The administration can and must do more to completely phase out the use of immigration detention by continuing to terminate contracts, shut down additional facilities and free people from detention.”
Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton told The Gadsden Times that the decision to quit sending detainees to the jail “was just a bombshell,” and that he was working with members of Alabama’s congressional delegation to get more information.
Just this week the center was notified that 135 detainees would be coming next week, he said. “No one has canceled that,” said Horton.
ICE said it will also limit its use of the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida; the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana; and the Alamance County Detention Facility in Graham, North Carolina.
ICE has already reduced its use of the Glades County facility in recent years, in part because of “persistent and ongoing concerns related to the provision of detainee medical care.” But it was still paying for a minimum number of beds and has now decided not to extend that guaranteed minimum bed provision. Future use of the facility will depend on conditions meeting detention standards, the agency said.
Rebecca Talbot with Immigrant Action Alliance credited organizing and resistance for ICE's policy change regarding the Glades County facility.
“Emptying Glades, ending the guaranteed minimum, and requiring Glades to fully address conditions that do not meet detention standards are all huge steps in the right direction,” Rebecca Talbot with Immigrant Action Alliance said in a news release. “Now it’s time for the Biden administration to commit to closing Glades fully and forever, and to release those who have been transferred from Glades to other facilities.”
ICE had been using the Alamance County facility for long-term detention, but says it will now only use it for stays of under 72 hours if applicable standards are met. The agency said it is concerned about conditions, including a lack of outdoor recreation.
ICE plans to reduce the guaranteed minimum at Winn Correctional Center to match the facility's staffing constraints, the release says. ICE will also assign a custody resource coordinator to provide an assessment and will monitor conditions and take actions as needed, the release says.
ICE Acting Director Tae Johnson has told staff to begin preparations, including relocating ICE staff and detainees as needed. The agency said it plans to continue to review other detention centers and adjust its use as appropriate. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/ICE-to-stop-using-Alabama-jail-limit-use-of-3-17029342.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:16 | en | 0.958023 |
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — GOP lawmakers override Utah governor's veto to join 11 other states banning transgender students from girls sports.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — GOP lawmakers override Utah governor's veto to join 11 other states banning transgender students from girls sports. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/Alert-GOP-lawmakers-override-Utah-governor-s-17029409.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:19 | en | 0.872668 |
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's unemployment rate fell further below 4% in February, the state Commerce Department said on Friday, as the rolls of the unemployed continued to fall.
The seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 3.7% compared to 3.9% unemployment in January — extending a streak in which the state hasn’t logged a month-over-month rising rate since September 2020. The December rate was 4.1%.
The number of those unemployed declined by over 10,150 people to about 187,250, a department news release said, while those working grew by 18,100 to almost 4.83 million people.
With another counting format based on monthly worksite surveys, the agency reported seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment rose by 22,400 to almost 4.69 million. The leisure and hospitality services industry and professional and business services sector saw the largest percentage increases in employment in February.
Gov. Roy Cooper’s office, citing state economists, said last week that the state’s economy had recovered to pre-pandemic employment levels last July. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/North-Carolina-unemployment-rate-falls-to-3-7-in-17029291.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:20 | en | 0.968135 |
HONOLULU (AP) — A U.S. judge has rejected a deal between prosecutors and a former elected Hawaii official who agreed to plead guilty and accept a 15-year prison term for leading a drug-trafficking organization.
Arthur Brun pleaded guilty last year to charges including drug trafficking conspiracy, distribution of methamphetamine and assault of a federal law enforcement officer.
Prosecutors said he led the drug ring while serving as a member of the county council on the island of Kauai.
Among the allegations laid out in court documents by prosecutors: Brun conspired with a gang leader, requested sexual favors as payment for drugs and assaulted a law enforcement officer.
Brun was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, but according to court records, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson rejected the deal Brun negotiated for a 15-year sentence.
Judges, who have the final say in sentencing, aren't bound by plea agreements.
“The government wanted 15 years of a man's life and the court felt that 15 years wasn't enough,” said Brun's attorney, Rustam Barbee. “The government wanted their pound of flesh and Judge Watson wanted two pounds.”
Barbee said his client will have to go to trial unless he can get a new deal from prosecutors.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Hawaii declined to comment. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Judge-rejects-15-year-deal-for-ex-councilman-in-17029311.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:23 | en | 0.976093 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Parole recommended for last California inmate who participated in 1976 school bus hijacking. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/Alert-Parole-recommended-for-last-California-17029359.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:25 | en | 0.873167 |
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Democratic Party endorsed two candidates for statewide offices on Friday, but tabled nominations for six other seats currently held by Republicans.
Participants at the convention in Minot voted to back Bismarck attorney Fintan Dooley for state Agriculture Commissioner, a position Doug Goehring has held since 2009. Democrats also endorsed Melanie Moniz, a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes, for the seat on the public service commission currently held by Julie Fedorchak, who has been on the panel since 2012.
Democrats are expected to finish endorsements on Saturday.
Former Marine and Velva native Trygve Hammer announced this week that he would seek the second seat on the public service commission held by Republican Sheri Haugen-Hoffart, who was appointed to replace Brian Kroshus when Kroshus was appointed to be state tax commissioner. Haugen-Hoffart is running for the remainder of Kroshus’ four-year term.
The PSC regulates gas and electric utilities, coal mining, land reclamation, grain elevators and auctioneers.
Democrats have no announced candidates for attorney general, secretary of state, tax commissioner or the U.S. House of Representatives.
Two candidates have emerged for John Hoeven’s U.S. Senate seat: University of Jamestown engineering professor Katrina Christiansen and Fargo art and antiques dealer Michael Steele.
North Dakota Republicans have controlled both chambers of the Legislature since 1994 and hold every statewide office.
Just over 200 delegates attended the convention Friday, including 81 who participated online. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/North-Dakota-Dems-back-candidates-for-statewide-17029349.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:27 | en | 0.956755 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors and lawyers for convicted murderer Scott Peterson will give closing arguments in late June before a California judge decides whether Peterson deserves a new trial in the slaying of his pregnant wife 20 years ago.
The arguments will follow an anticlimactic two final days of testimony into whether juror Richelle Nice was biased and lied to get on the jury that convicted Peterson in 2004 and put him on death row for the murders of Laci, 27, and the unborn child they planned to name Conner.
The California Supreme Court overturned Peterson's death sentence in 2020 and tasked Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo with deciding if he received a fair trial.
On Friday, she ordered Stanislaus County prosecutors and Peterson's attorneys to submit written arguments by May 25 and reply briefs by June 9. They'll return to court June 29 to provide oral arguments before she takes the case under submission for a later decision.
“I think everyone is anxious to get this in," she said.
She also ordered Peterson returned to San Quentin State Prison until June, where he previously had been on death row, after his attorneys said they were having trouble communicating with him while he has been recently housed in the San Mateo County Jail.
Massullo had delayed the final two days of the hearing from early this month after Peterson's attorneys said they had surprise testimony from documentary producer Shareen Anderson.
Anderson had belatedly told an investigator that Nice and other co-authors of a post-trial book about the case had discussed a book deal during the trial, which would have been improper.
That was contradicted by other testimony, and Peterson's attorneys quickly dropped the allegation when Anderson subsequently said her recollection was “fuzzy” and she wasn't sure whether the book deal was discussed during or after the trial.
But they still flew Anderson in from New York this week with the expectation that she would testify Thursday about a photograph on Nice's wall that she recalled seeing while she was working on the television documentary “The Murder of Laci Peterson" in 2017.
Anderson abruptly refused to testify, however, saying through her attorney that she hadn't been properly legally served with an order to appear, and that her testimony couldn't be required because she was acting as a journalist while producing the documentary.
The attorneys eventually settled on a simple stipulation: As Anderson was leaving Nice's home after an interview, she observed a photo on Nice's wall of a small child wearing pajamas imprinted with the words, “Little Man.”
Peterson's attorneys say Nice referred to Conner during jury deliberations as “little man,” which they say are among indications that she was biased against their client.
They contend that she lied about her lack of bias to get on the jury, and lied again in a sworn declaration in 2020.
Nice testified earlier that she held no bias against Peterson until after she heard the evidence that he dumped his wife’s body into San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002.
Nice failed to disclose during jury selection that she sought a restraining order while pregnant in 2000, saying she “really fears for her unborn child” because of threats from her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.
She said in her sworn declaration 20 years later that she didn’t “feel ‘victimized’ the way the law might define that term.”
As their final witness, Peterson's attorneys called to the stand on Friday her former attorney, Negad Zaky, to testify about his communications with the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office while preparing Nice’s declaration.
Zaky said he had discussions with prosecutors but that they didn't tell him how to write the declaration that Nice later signed under oath. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Juror-misconduct-hearing-in-Scott-Peterson-case-17029282.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:29 | en | 0.986135 |
(RNS) — American Jews say they were blindsided by the U.S. Senate’s lightning-fast passage of a bill to make daylight saving time year-round and intend to fight it.
The Sunshine Protection Act, which passed the Senate on March 15, will make it nearly impossible for Jews to pray communally in the morning, Jewish advocates say, and still get to work or school on time during the winter months.
According to Jewish law, morning prayers must take place after the sun rises. Daylight saving time, which currently begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, extends darkness on late-winter mornings.
“It will affect our religious life, our professional life and our family life,” said Rabbi Abba Cohen, vice president for government affairs for Agudath Israel of America. “If congregational and personal prayers begin after 8 in the morning, how will people get to work at 9 a.m. or earlier?”
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This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.
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Cohen said Agudath Israel has issued a statement and sent a detailed explanation of these difficulties to lawmakers in the House of Representatives, whose leaders have not said whether they will bring the bill up for a vote.
In Judaism, the morning prayer service, called “Shacharit” because it starts after dawn — shachar in Hebrew — typically lasts 30 to 40 minutes when recited communally. Reading from the Torah and saying certain prayers, including the kaddish, or mourner’s prayer, must take place in a group with a quorum of 10, known as a minyan.
Unlike previous legislation on seasonal time changes, leaders of the Jewish community say, lawmakers didn’t inform them that the issue was on the Senate’s agenda, or that it would be fast-tracked through a procedure called unanimous consent.
Other stakeholders, from farmers to schoolteachers, also expressed surprise at the bill’s quick passage.
In a statement about the bill, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the measure’s lead sponsor, said permanent daylight saving time would reduce car accidents, robberies and seasonal depression and promote physical fitness.
“Switching in and out of Daylight Saving Time is outdated, and it’s only a source of annoyance and confusion,” Rubio said. “Frankly, it’s just dumb, and there’s just no other way to say it.”
Since the bill’s passage, synagogues have begun circulating petitions, and some Jewish organizations have begun lobbying lawmakers against its implementation.
In a document sent Monday (March 21), Agudath Israel noted that under DST, sunrise in Detroit would occur after 8 a.m. for 131 days of the year, and after 9 a.m. on 23 days. In Cincinnati sunrise would begin after 8 a.m. 135 days of the year.
Such a late start would make it “extremely difficult” for religiously observant Jews who work outside their homes to pray in the morning, Cohen said.
“Morning prayers happen every morning, and it’s not something employers are familiar with. Coming to work late every morning is a much bigger ask” in American workplaces, Cohen said.
As it is, many employers allow observant Jews to leave early for Shabbat, which can begin as early as 4 p.m. in some states.
Needing to leave early on Fridays “is an issue that Jews raise before they are employed. It’s something that employers are familiar with.” The same hasn’t been true for morning services, Cohen noted.
Nathan Diament, executive director for advocacy at the Orthodox Union, said the time shift is not only a Jewish issue. OU, Agaduth Israel and other Jewish organizations are also expressing concern about how the bill will impact schoolchildren “who will be traveling in the morning in the pitch black” and on “health impacts” for society as a whole.
“We’ll be engaging with members of Congress, and just as we do on all kinds of issues, will work in coalition with other groups aligned on the same perspective on this issue,” Diament said.
While admitting that thwarting the bill’s passage will be an uphill battle, “I think it’s possible the House won’t pass it,” Cohen said. “Congress isn’t passing it today, which gives us a chance to find our allies and for us to put our concerns forward.” | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/All-year-daylight-saving-time-threatens-Jews-17029188.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:32 | en | 0.961308 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California parole commissioners on Friday recommended parole for the last of three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of children for $5 million ransom in 1976.
The two commissioners decided Frederick Woods, now age 70, is no longer a danger to the public after previous panels had denied him parole 17 times.
The parole recommendation by Commissioner Patricia Cassady and Deputy Commissioner Keith Stanton could still be rejected by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Woods’ accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, were freed years ago. An appeals court ordered Richard Schoenfeld released in 2012, and former Gov. Jerry Brown paroled James Schoenfeld in 2015.
All three were from wealthy San Francisco Bay Area families when they kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver near Chowchilla.
They buried the children, ages 5 to 14, along with their bus driver in a ventilated underground bunker east of San Francisco. The victims were able to dig their way out more than a day later.
Woods read an apology for his crime, according to a pool report from Friday's hearing by CBS News producer George Osterkamp.
“I’ve had empathy for the victims which I didn’t have then,” Woods said. “I’ve had a character change since then.”
“I was 24 years old," he added. "Now I fully understand the terror and trauma I caused. I fully take responsibility for this heinous act.”
California law now requires parole commissioners to give greater weight to freeing inmates who were youthful offenders when they committed their crime, and those who are now elderly and have served lengthy prison sentences.
All three were initially sentenced to prison for the rest of their lives. However, an appeals court later reduced their sentences to life with the possibility of parole.
The three planned for more than a year to ransom the children for $5 million from the state Board of Education.
James Schoenfeld once told parole officials that he envied friends who had “his-and-hers Ferraris.” Woods said during an earlier parole hearing that he just “got greedy.”
Madera County prosecutors in previous parole hearings said Woods' disciplinary infractions showed he had not yet learned to follow the rules.
But Woods and his attorney, Dominique Banos, emphasized that he had a discipline-free record since his last parole hearing in October 2019.
They also previously questioned why some of the victims testified that Woods should be released, although others previously said he deserved to remain behind bars.
Two survivors, Larry Park and Rebecca Reynolds Dailey, spoke Friday in favor of Woods' parole.
But opposing Woods' release were survivors Jennifer Brown Hyde and Laura Yazzi Fanning; Matthew Medrano, son of survivor Jodi Heffington Medrano who has since died; and Carol Marshall, mother of survivor Michael Marshall, and Lynda Carrejo.
Woods and his attorney were at the California Men's Colony prison in San Luis Obispo, while other participants were in remote locations because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Woods' parole has also previously been backed by some prominent supporters, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo of Palo Alto in 2015. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Parole-recommended-for-inmate-in-1976-school-bus-17029367.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:33 | en | 0.980089 |
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A Washington state man who acknowledged organizing a rim-to-rim hike at Grand Canyon National Park for 139 people when the size of such groups is limited has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the October 2020 trip.
Joseph Don Mount of Chehalis pleaded guilty Friday to violating the park's rule limiting group size and was sentenced to two years of probation.
Beginning about five years ago, the park limited the number of visitors in such groups to 11 people to prevent overcrowding on trails. The restriction has remained in place throughout the pandemic.
Mount was warned about the size limitation and a prohibition on splitting large groups into smaller groups in a bid to get around the rule. But investigators have said Mount kept organizing the trip, recruiting prospective hikers, posting an itinerary and a list of those who signed up for the trip, and making other preparations.
His attorney, Ryan Stevens, said his client had good intentions in trying to draw together people who shared the same religious faith into an outing and that a lot of people had committed to the trip by the time his client was confronted by park employees about group size for his upcoming trip.
Others on the trails at the time complained that the group wasn’t distancing or wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and that they clogged the path, delaying itineraries.
Investigators say Mount collected thousands of dollars in registration fees from hikers to cover guide services, transportation and other costs. Mount projected at one time that after covering those costs, he would net a profit of about $65, according to court records. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Man-acknowledges-leading-outsized-group-in-Grand-17029324.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:35 | en | 0.975516 |
NEW YORK (AP) — The Black News Channel has pulled the plug after the 2-year-old venture failed to meet payroll and lost the backing of its biggest investor.
Princell Hair, the company's president and CEO, told employees Friday in a memo that the news network was ceasing live production and would file for bankruptcy. BNC was available in some 50 million homes with cable and satellite but had failed to attract many viewers.
The network, founded in 2020 by former GOP congressman J.C. Watts, hired more than 250 Black journalists and production personnel last year in a relaunch following an investment by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Kahn.
But it was consistently losing money, despite two rounds of layoffs, and Kahn decided to stop investing in it further. It is currently three weeks short of payroll, a company spokesman said.
Hair, a former CNN executive, took over in the relaunch last year. BNC brought on contributors like Charles Blow, columnist at The New York Times, and commentator Marc Lamont Hill. Correspondents were stationed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Philadelphia.
The end came even as BNC recorded its biggest audience ever this week with its live coverage of the Judiciary Committee hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Hair said.
He told employees that their contributions had been remarkable, but “due to challenging market conditions and global financial pressures, we have been unable to meet our financial goals, and the timeline afforded to us has run out.”
Establishing a network is particularly tough at a time when consumers have so many choices and many are cutting cable or satellite cords.
“Remember that we built something great here,” Hair said in his memo. “BNC, or something very close to it, will surely return at some point, because the world needs it, and all of you have proven it can be done.”
News of BNC's shutdown was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The National Association of Black Journalists said Friday that it was looking at ways to help members that were thrown out of work by the shutdown. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/Black-News-Channel-shuts-down-days-after-ratings-17029412.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:38 | en | 0.984204 |
CORYDON, Ind. (AP) — A man suspected in an Evansville double-homicide died early Friday when his vehicle crashed about 100 miles (161 kilometers) away in southern Indiana during a police pursuit, state police said.
Samuel Aaron Robb, 30, of Valparaiso, died about 5 a.m. EDT after his car became airborne along State Road 135 in Harrison County, struck a utility pole and came to rest upside down, Indiana State Police said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by the county coroner.
The crash occurred after a state trooper tried to stop Robb after spotting him in his car it in a hotel parking lot in the town of Corydon, but he sped off at a high rate of speed and the trooper pursued him, police said.
Authorities had been advised to be on the lookout for Robb and his vehicle after he was identified as a suspect in a double homicide that occurred late Thursday night in Evansville, police said.
State police said in a statement that “the investigation reveals that the driver was, in fact, the suspect wanted in connection with the two murders in Evansville" and identified him as Robb.
Evansville police have not released information about the two homicide victims. Officers found two bodies in an Evansville home about 11:30 p.m. CDT after a 911 caller stated that she was inside a residence where shots had been fired, the Evansville Courier & Press reported. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Police-Suspect-in-Evansville-double-homicide-17029200.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:39 | en | 0.988367 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The upcoming closure of one of the few remaining coal-fired power plants in the southwestern U.S. has generated a dispute over financing and customers rates.
Environmentalists and consumer advocates argue in regulatory filings made Thursday that Public Service Co. of New Mexico plans to continue collecting from customers the costs of running the San Juan Generating Station after it closes. That could amount to as much as $125 million.
The groups also are concerned that New Mexico's largest electric provider plans to delay the use of bonds to recover lost investments in the power plant.
Customers will pay back the bonds through their bills over 25 years, but the amount will be less due to lower interest rates on the bonds and because the utility will forego profit on its investments.
Pat O’Connell, a senior clean energy policy analyst with Western Resource Advocates, said Friday that customers won't benefit from any savings until the bonds are issued.
“Gas is expensive too and we’re in a state where people are paying their last dollar for a tank of gas. It would help them to get a reduction in their electric bill now,” he said. “Savings delayed is savings denied, so let’s have the savings.”
The utility denied that its plans amount to double dipping or that customers will miss out on savings.
The $8 million in monthly cost-recovery charges collected through customers’ bills after the plant closes will be used as a credit when rates are reconsidered next year as part of a lengthy process before the state Public Regulation Commission.
The revenues collected through rates that covered San Juan will offset the $2.4 billion in investments that Public Service Co. of New Mexico has made in infrastructure, said utility spokesman Ray Sandoval.
He noted that the company agreed to delay asking for a rate increase in 2020 given the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and again in 2021 as part of merger negotiations that are now the focus of a legal battle before the state Supreme Court.
The environmental and consumer advocacy groups want regulators to order an immediate reduction in consumer rates after the utility abandons the coal plant later this year.
They argued in the regulatory filings that the utility’s interpretation of the state’s Energy Transition Act — which sets renewable energy mandates and governs financing related to the San Juan power plant’s closure — is “absurd and self-serving.”
The groups estimate the withheld savings to typical residential electricity customers would be about $9.50 per month.
By holding off on giving that money back, Sandoval said Public Service Co. of New Mexico is preventing customers from having to endure “a rollercoaster of rates.”
"There’s no ability to double dip by PNM because the rates are set by the PRC,” he said.
The other issue is whether interest rates will be as favorable by the time the utility issues the bonds. Consumer advocates have said customers will lose out on some anticipated savings if interest rates climb.
Mariel Nanasi, executive director of the group New Energy Economy, said another option would be for the commission to establish a regulatory liability account that would continue to track costs after the San Juan power plant closes so the amount can be returned to ratepayers when costs are adjusted in the next rate case.
“Requiring PNM to either issue a rate credit or establish a regulatory account will serve to protect ratepayers from PNM’s over-collection, is an efficient way of doing so, and is consistent with the commission’s ratemaking authority to protect ratepayers,” she said.
It's unclear how soon regulators could take up the case.
One unit at the power plant is scheduled to close by July 1 and the other is set to close at the end of September, which will help the utility meet peak demands this summer.
The utility had to ask for an extension because solar and battery projects that were meant to replace the lost capacity have been delayed. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/New-Mexico-coal-fired-plant-closure-causes-17029167.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:41 | en | 0.966484 |
WILLIAMSBURG, Iowa (AP) — Rescue crews called to a grain bin in eastern Iowa Friday found a man dead, buried under 10 feet (3.05 meters) of corn, authorities said.
Emergency responders were called around 7:30 a.m. Friday to the grain bin near Williamsburg. the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Arriving crews worked for an hour before finding the man buried. He was declared dead at the scene. Officials did not immediately release the man’s name.
The sheriff’s office says the 20,000-bushel capacity grain bin is owned by Kinze Manufacturing and is leased to Circle J Grain of Williamsburg.
Williamsburg is located about 83 miles (133.6 kilometers) east of Des Moines. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/Crews-find-man-dead-under-10-feet-of-corn-in-Iowa-17029192.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:44 | en | 0.968377 |
PARKLAND, Wash. (AP) — A procession and memorial for slain Pierce County deputy Dominique “Dom” Calata was underway Friday in Tacoma.
Calata, 35, was shot and killed last week during a SWAT operation in which law enforcement Sgt. Rich Scaniffe was shot and wounded.
A procession began Friday morning at the Washington State Fairgrounds, following a route that concluded at the Church for All Nations in Parkland. A memorial service will start around 1 p.m. at the church.
The South Sound Gang Task Force was serving a warrant March 16 for second-degree assault for Jeremy Dayton, 40. The task force had asked for help from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department’s SWAT team due to Dayton’s prior felony convictions, according to Wendy Haddow, a spokesperson for the Tacoma Police Department, which is assisting with the investigation.
During the operation, gunfire was exchanged between Dayton and law enforcement, Haddow said. Calata and Scaniffe were shot. Dayton was killed at the scene.
Calata worked for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department for more than six years and was assigned to the patrol division of the Edgewood Police Department. He was also a U.S. Army Veteran and served in the National Guard for the past seven years.
Calata was married and had a 4-year-old child. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Procession-memorial-for-slain-Pierce-County-17029312.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:45 | en | 0.984751 |
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Gov. Kristi Noem has vetoed a bill what would have removed old marijuana charges from South Dakotans’ criminal background checks.
The Rapid City Journal reported Friday that Noem had vetoed the bill. The measure would have automatically removed simple marijuana charges and convictions from public background records if the the violation was more than five years old. The person also would have had to fulfill sentencing and probation requirements and have no subsequent arrests.
The governor said in a letter to legislators that the bill would have allowed someone convicted of marijuana chares to hide their criminal history.
The bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. Mike Rohl, said he doesn’t think he can muster enough votes between the House and Senate to override the veto. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Noem-vetoes-bill-removing-pot-charges-from-17029385.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:47 | en | 0.974195 |
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Democrat Elvi Gray-Jackson said Friday that she is ending her run for U.S. Senate in Alaska and instead will seek reelection to the state Senate.
Gray-Jackson, in a statement released by her campaign, said that as first-quarter fundraising concludes “and after some deep reflection on our current system and the monumental expenses necessary to run a successful campaign, I have decided that my best efforts to change that system and to change Alaska will be done in the Senate in Juneau.”
Gray-Jackson had been the only Democrat who had so far filed to run for the U.S. Senate seat, which is held by Republican Lisa Murkowski. Gray-Jackson had filed as a candidate last month.
Murkowski, who is seeking reelection, reported having about $4.3 million available at the end of the last quarter, which ended Dec. 31. Murkowski at that time held a huge cash-on-hand advantage over Republican Kelly Tshibaka, who began running late last March and has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. One other challenger who had reported raising funds, Libertarian Sean Thorne, lagged far behind both.
Gray-Jackson, in the statement, said she looks “forward to supporting a new candidate who represents the best of Alaska’s ideals to challenge" Murkowski. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/Democrat-Gray-Jackson-ends-US-Senate-run-in-Alaska-17029344.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:50 | en | 0.974043 |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — State regulators are considering suspending Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson in light of his drunken driving conviction in December.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Friday that the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training began an investigation shortly after Hutchinson crashed his county-owned SUV near Alexandria on Dec. 8. He acknowledged he had been drinking at a sheriff's conference.
The sheriff was driving more than 126 miles per hour, wasn't wearing a seat belt and was carrying a loaded gun when he crashed. His blood alcohol level was more than 0.13% about three hours after the crash. Minnesota's legal limit is 0.08% but drops to 0.04% for anyone driving with a gun.
Hutchinson pleaded guilty to fourth-degree misdemeanor drunken driving and was sentenced to two years on probation.
The board is considering suspending Hutchinson's law enforcement license, which would render him unable to work as sworn officer and unable to make arrests. He could continue to work for the sheriff's department performing tasks not associated with sworn police work, the Star Tribune reported.
Hutchinson's attorney, March Schneider, declined to comment. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Regulators-may-suspend-sheriff-after-drunken-crash-17029345.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:51 | en | 0.983248 |
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's unemployment rate fell further below 4% in February, the state Commerce Department said on Friday, as the rolls of the unemployed continued to fall.
The seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 3.7% compared to 3.9% unemployment in January — extending a streak in which the state hasn’t logged a month-over-month rising rate since September 2020. The December rate was 4.1%.
The number of those unemployed declined by over 10,150 people to about 187,250, a department news release said, while those working grew by 18,100 to almost 4.83 million people.
With another counting format based on monthly worksite surveys, the agency reported seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment rose by 22,400 to almost 4.69 million. The leisure and hospitality services industry and professional and business services sector saw the largest percentage increases in employment in February.
Gov. Roy Cooper’s office, citing state economists, said last week that the state’s economy had recovered to pre-pandemic employment levels last July. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/North-Carolina-unemployment-rate-falls-to-3-7-in-17029291.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:54 | en | 0.968135 |
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders struggled for hours Friday to find a compromise on a deal aimed at curbing energy prices that have gone through the roof and hurt households and businesses across the 27-nation bloc.
There was a clear rift between the bloc's southern and northern nations during the day-long talks in Brussels, with Mediterranean countries led by Spain pushing for intervention on the market with measures like price caps while Germany and the Netherlands resisted drastic options.
Leaders, however, did agree on a proposal from the European Commission to move toward the joint purchase of natural gas and ensuring that the bloc’s storage facilities are nearly full to try to avoid another energy crisis tied to the EU’s dependency on Russian energy.
The war in Ukraine has made EU nations realize they have been way too reliant on Russia for natural gas and oil to warm their homes and run their industries.
Earlier in the day, the United States and the EU announced a new partnership to reduce the continent’s reliance on Russian energy. Under the plan, the U.S. and other nations will increase liquified natural gas exports to Europe by 15 billion cubic meters this year. Even larger shipments would be delivered in the future.
Facing protests at home from farmers, truckers and the fishing industry, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had put forward plans to the EU to decouple electricity from gas prices. Yet the radical options failed to gather an immediate consensus. The EU will revisit the matter in May but Spain and Portugal could receive special dispensation to weather price hikes in the meantime.
“The Iberian peninsula has a very special situation. There, their energy mix is with a high load of renewables, this is very good,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the summit. “Therefore, we agreed on a special treatment... so that the Iberian peninsula can deal with this very specific situation they are in and manage the electricity prices in the way we have been discussing.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said divergent views within the Council paved the way for the very long debate, “because the different states’ interests and energy models are not the same.”
With energy prices high and supplies low, the EU is looking at its last crisis — the COVID-19 pandemic — as a blueprint. The member states joined up to buy vaccines in huge quantities for an equitable distribution.
“The root cause of high electricity prices is, in big part, high and volatile gas prices," von der Leyen said. “So we will join forces, pool our demand and use our collective bargaining power when purchasing gas. In addition, we must complete pipeline infrastructure and ramp up our storage. This will be our insurance policy against supply disruption. It's also time to look at the design of our energy market.“
Europe was already facing a tricky test before Russia’s invasion because of an outlook for slowing economic growth accompanied by surging inflation, which is being driven by high energy prices. The European commission has predicted that the bloc’s economic growth would slow from 5.3% last year to 4% this year and 2.8% in 2023.
EU leaders agreed in principle at a March 11 summit to phase out dependency on Russian gas, oil and coal imports by 2027. The EU currently imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil.
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Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
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Follow all AP stories on the effects of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/EU-leaders-reach-compromise-on-energy-after-long-17029380.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:56 | en | 0.959421 |
LONDON (AP) — The 25-foot tall (7.6 meter) sculpture of a shark crashing through the roof of Magnus Hanson-Heine’s house in rural Oxford, England, is now a protected landmark — and he’s not happy about it.
Hanson-Heine loves the installation, erected by his father and a local sculptor in 1986 as an anti-war, anti-nuke protest that still remains relevant now as bombs fall on Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin rattles his nuclear weapons.
But he says the Oxford City Council ignored his father’s other message this week when it designated the structure a heritage site that makes a “special contribution” to the community. Bill Heine installed the shark without the approval of local officials because he didn’t think they should have the right to decide what art people see, and the council spent years trying to remove the sculpture.
“Using the planning apparatus to preserve a historical symbol of planning law defiance is absurd on the face of it,” Hanson-Heine, a quantum chemist, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Bill Heine, an American expat who studied law at the University of Oxford, got the idea for the sculpture after he heard U.S. warplanes fly over his house one night in April 1986. When he woke up the next morning, he learned that the planes had been on their way to bomb Tripoli in retaliation for Libyan sponsorship of terrorist attacks on U.S. troops.
The image of a shark crashing through the roof captured the shock civilians must feel when bombs smash into their homes, Magnus Hanson-Heine said. His father died in 2019.
Heine and his friend sculptor John Buckley built the great white out of fiberglass, then installed it on Aug. 9, the 41st anniversary of the day the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
The shark’s anti-war message is just as important today as Russian bombs fall on Ukraine, Henson-Heine said.
“That’s obviously something that the people in Ukraine are experiencing right now in very real time,” he said. “But certainly when there’s nuclear weapons on the stage, which has been through my entire life, that’s always a very real threat.”
But the sight of three-quarters of a great white shark sticking out of the roof of a row of brick houses on a quiet suburban street isn’t always a serious subject.
The shark house has its own website, which features photos of Bill Heine and Buckley sharing a glass of wine alongside the sculpture and a young passer-by in a pose that makes it look as if she’s eating the shark.
Hanson-Heine recently had it repainted to restore the blue-green shimmer to the shark’s hide — keeping it in tip-top shape.
He laughs when asked whether the shark's head can be found inside the house.
“I believe it was an urban myth for a while that it was poking above the toilet,'' he said. “But no.” | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/UK-Shark-House-owner-dismayed-at-getting-17029245.php | 2022-03-25T20:43:58 | en | 0.962876 |
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Democratic Party endorsed two candidates for statewide offices on Friday, but tabled nominations for six other seats currently held by Republicans.
Participants at the convention in Minot voted to back Bismarck attorney Fintan Dooley for state Agriculture Commissioner, a position Doug Goehring has held since 2009. Democrats also endorsed Melanie Moniz, a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes, for the seat on the public service commission currently held by Julie Fedorchak, who has been on the panel since 2012.
Democrats are expected to finish endorsements on Saturday.
Former Marine and Velva native Trygve Hammer announced this week that he would seek the second seat on the public service commission held by Republican Sheri Haugen-Hoffart, who was appointed to replace Brian Kroshus when Kroshus was appointed to be state tax commissioner. Haugen-Hoffart is running for the remainder of Kroshus’ four-year term.
The PSC regulates gas and electric utilities, coal mining, land reclamation, grain elevators and auctioneers.
Democrats have no announced candidates for attorney general, secretary of state, tax commissioner or the U.S. House of Representatives.
Two candidates have emerged for John Hoeven’s U.S. Senate seat: University of Jamestown engineering professor Katrina Christiansen and Fargo art and antiques dealer Michael Steele.
North Dakota Republicans have controlled both chambers of the Legislature since 1994 and hold every statewide office.
Just over 200 delegates attended the convention Friday, including 81 who participated online. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/North-Dakota-Dems-back-candidates-for-statewide-17029349.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:00 | en | 0.956755 |
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon nurse charged with sexually assaulting a dozen women in prison has been fired from Portland-based health care system Legacy Health.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Legacy Health said this week that Tony Klein was fired March 17.
Klein, 37, faces federal charges for 2016 and 2017 allegations while he worked as a nurse for the Oregon Department of Corrections.
On March 14, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a 25-count indictment, charging Klein with sexually assaulting 12 women at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and then lying about it later while under oath.
If convicted, Klein could face life in prison.
Before the indictment, OPB published an investigation that found at least 27 women in custody had accused Klein of sexual abuse and inappropriate comments while he worked at the state’s only prison for women. The number of women who made allegations against Klein was confirmed by the state Department of Corrections.
Klein’s attorneys didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“Legacy is not aware of any report of misconduct made about Tony Klein relating to his employment at the hospital. Klein was on leave from September 2021 until his termination on March 17,” the spokesperson said.
Officials declined to say what made them place Klein on leave. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/Hospital-fires-nurse-charged-with-sexual-assault-17029177.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:02 | en | 0.976618 |
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — For a month now, Russian forces have repeatedly attacked Ukrainian medical facilities, striking at hospitals, ambulances, medics, patients and even newborns — with at least 34 assaults independently documented by The Associated Press.
With every new attack, the public outcry for war crimes prosecutions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, his generals and top Kremlin advisers grows louder.
To convict, prosecutors will need to show that the attacks are not merely accidents or collateral damage. The emerging pattern, tracked day by day by the AP, shows evidence of a consistent and relentless onslaught against the very civilian infrastructure designed to save lives and provide safe haven to Ukraine’s most vulnerable.
AP journalists in Ukraine have seen the deadly results of Russian strikes on civilian targets first hand: the final moments of children whose tiny bodies were shredded by shrapnel or had limbs blown off; dozens of corpses, including those of children, heaped into mass graves.
Deliberate attacks on hospitals will likely be a top priority for war crimes prosecutors.
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This story is part of an ongoing investigation from The Associated Press and Frontline that includes the War Crimes Watch Ukraine interactive experience and an upcoming documentary.
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This accounting of attacks on medical facilities is part of a larger effort by the AP and the PBS series Frontline to track evidence of potential war crimes committed during the one of the largest conflicts in Europe since the end of World War II.
The War Crimes Watch project launched by AP and Frontline includes details of apparent targeted attacks as well as indiscriminate destruction of civilian buildings and infrastructure. The AP/Frontline online database will continue to be updated as long as the conflict lasts. The goal is to provide an independent accounting of events, apart from potentially inflated claims by advocates, or misinformation spread by state-backed propaganda.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights confirms at least 1,035 civilians, including 90 children, have died in the four weeks since the start of the war. Another 1,650 civilians have been wounded. Those numbers are certainly an undercount since scores of bodies now lie under the rubble of demolished buildings or were hurriedly buried in mass graves.
Still, Russian officials have denied hitting civilian targets, deriding the mounting documentation of atrocities as “Fake News” and claiming without evidence that dead and wounded civilians photographed were “crisis actors.”
Military attacks on civilian populations and their property are generally forbidden under international laws governing armed conflicts going back more than a century. Attacks on medical facilities and staff are considered particularly heinous under international law, which stipulates they must be protected. Still, bombing a hospital is not necessarily a war crime. Prosecutors must show that the destruction is intentional or reckless.
But the evidence of such attacks in Ukraine verified by AP and Frontline is both mounting and horrendous, and belies Russian claims that they were staged, self-inflicted or militarily justified.
Among the most thoroughly documented strikes was the March 9 bombing of a children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol. Two AP journalists, the last international media to remain in the city after it was encircled by Russian forces, arrived at the hospital minutes after the explosion.
They saw a smoldering two-story deep crater in the interior courtyard, surrounded by the twisted and burned remains of several cars. The force of the explosion tore the facades off three surrounding buildings, blowing out the windows and wrecking rooms inside.
The AP journalists took photos and video of stunned survivors coming out of the hospital. A pregnant woman being carried on a stretcher held her belly, blood staining her sweatpants, her face pale. She later died, as did her baby.
Another pregnant woman, Mariana Vishegirskaya, her face bloodied, clutched her belongings in a plastic bag and made her way down a set of debris-strewn stairs and out of the ruined hospital.
Vishegirskaya was taken to another nearby hospital, Mariupol Regional Intensive Care, where she gave birth the following day to a baby girl she named Veronika.
Kremlin officials admitted Russian aircraft had struck the hospital but insisted all patients and staff had been evacuated prior to the bombing. At a U.N. Security Council meeting the day after the strike, Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia claimed the wounded pregnant women were “crisis actors,” playing the part of victims to frame Russia.
The assaults on medical facilities in Ukraine began with at least two attacks on the very first day of the war.
On Feb. 24, a local media organization posted a photo on Twitter of City Children’s Hospital No. 1 in Donetsk, struck by an artillery shell that damaged its top floor. AP found that the photo matches the pictures of the hospital from before the war.
Another photo posted on Twitter showed a large explosion and fire at Central City Hospital in Vuhledar, along with the crumpled nose cone of a rocket. Four civilians were killed.
Chris Weakley, a former U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician, identified the cone as coming from a Russian Tochka ballistic missile, used to carry cluster munitions.
The stockpiling and use of cluster munitions is banned under an international convention signed by 110 countries, but Russia and Ukraine are not among them. However, their use in civilian areas is by definition indiscriminate — a violation of international humanitarian law.
Kharkiv Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital No. 1 was also struck by a cluster bomb munition, wounding one staff member. Photos posted on the hospital’s social media account show an unexploded bomblet. Weakley identified it as a Russian-made 9N235 cluster submunition.
AP video from March 11 shows damage to ambulances and buildings at Dergachi Central Hospital, including expended cluster rocket canisters impaled in the ground. Weakley identified them as Russian-made 9M27K cargo rockets, which carry the same bomblets found in Kharkiv.
David Crane, who served as chief prosecutor of a United Nations-sponsored war crimes tribunal over atrocities committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war, said what is happening in Ukraine is worthy of prosecution.
“The bottom line is this is medieval warfare in the Ukraine,” Crane said. “It’s precisely the sort of warfare that the laws of armed conflict were designed to prevent."
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AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker reported from Washington and News Verification Reporter Beatrice Dupuy from New York. AP reporters Mstyslav Chernov and Evgeny Maloletka in Mariupol, Ukraine, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Lebanon; Jason Dearen and Larry Fenn in New York; Juliet Linderman in Baltimore; Joshua Goodman in Miami; Richard Lardner and Helen Wieffering in Washington; Lori Hinnant in Paris; and James LaPorta in Wilmington, North Carolina, contributed. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/War-Crimes-Watch-Russia-s-onslaught-on-Ukrainian-17029302.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:04 | en | 0.960015 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California parole commissioners on Friday recommended parole for the last of three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of children for $5 million ransom in 1976.
The two commissioners decided Frederick Woods, now age 70, is no longer a danger to the public after previous panels had denied him parole 17 times.
The parole recommendation could still be rejected by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Woods’ accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, were freed years ago. An appeals court ordered Richard Schoenfeld released in 2012, and former Gov. Jerry Brown paroled James Schoenfeld in 2015.
All three were from wealthy San Francisco Bay Area families when they kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver near Chowchilla.
They buried the children, ages 5 to 14, along with their bus driver in a ventilated underground bunker east of San Francisco. The victims were able to dig their way out more than a day later.
Woods read an apology for his crime, according to a pool report from Friday's hearing by CBS News producer George Osterkamp.
“I’ve had empathy for the victims which I didn’t have then,” Woods said. “I’ve had a character change since then.”
“I was 24 years old," he added. "Now I fully understand the terror and trauma I caused. I fully take responsibility for this heinous act.”
California law now requires parole commissioners to give greater weight to freeing inmates who were youthful offenders when they committed their crime, and those who are now elderly and have served lengthy prison sentences.
All three were initially sentenced to prison for the rest of their lives. However, an appeals court later reduced their sentences to life with the possibility of parole.
The three planned for more than a year to ransom the children for $5 million from the state Board of Education.
James Schoenfeld once told parole officials that he envied friends who had “his-and-hers Ferraris.” Woods said during an earlier parole hearing that he just “got greedy.”
Madera County prosecutors in previous parole hearings said Woods' disciplinary infractions showed he had not yet learned to follow they rules.
But Woods and his attorney emphasized that he had a discipline-free record since his last parole hearing in October 2019.
They also previously questioned why some of the victims testified that Woods should be released, although others previously said he deserved to remain behind bars.
Two survivors, Larry Park and Rebecca Reynolds Dailey, spoke Friday in favor of Woods' parole.
But opposing Woods' release were survivors Jennifer Brown Hyde and Laura Yazzi Fanning; Matthew Medrano, son of survivor Jodi Heffington Medrano who has since died; and Carol Marshall, mother of survivor Michael Marshall, and Lynda Carrejo.
Woods' parole has also previously been backed by some prominent supporters, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo of Palo Alto in 2015. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Parole-recommended-for-inmate-in-1976-school-bus-17029367.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:06 | en | 0.980395 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal immigration authorities announced Friday that they'll stop housing detainees at an Alabama jail with a history of problems and will limit the use of three other detention centers.
The decisions reinforce a commitment by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to review detention facilities to determine whether they are humane, meet applicable standards and are a responsible use of funding, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release.
ICE says it will stop using the Etowah County Jail in Gadsden, Alabama, as soon as possible, taking into account a 30-day notification requirement. The jail has “a long history of serious deficiencies," the release says.
Advocates who have long sought the end of ICE detention at the Etowah County Jail hailed the news as a victory, but they urged federal authorities not to just transfer people from one facility to another.
“The Etowah County Detention Center exemplifies everything that is wrong with immigration detention and why the detention system must be abolished," Detention Watch Network advocacy director Setareh Ghandehari said in a news release. "The administration can and must do more to completely phase out the use of immigration detention by continuing to terminate contracts, shut down additional facilities and free people from detention.”
Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton told The Gadsden Times that the decision to quit sending detainees to the jail “was just a bombshell,” and that he was working with members of Alabama’s congressional delegation to get more information.
Just this week the center was notified that 135 detainees would be coming next week, he said. “No one has canceled that,” said Horton.
ICE said it will also limit its use of the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida; the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana; and the Alamance County Detention Facility in Graham, North Carolina.
ICE has already reduced its use of the Glades County facility in recent years, in part because of “persistent and ongoing concerns related to the provision of detainee medical care.” But it was still paying for a minimum number of beds and has now decided not to extend that guaranteed minimum bed provision. Future use of the facility will depend on conditions meeting detention standards, the agency said.
Rebecca Talbot with Immigrant Action Alliance credited organizing and resistance for ICE's policy change regarding the Glades County facility.
“Emptying Glades, ending the guaranteed minimum, and requiring Glades to fully address conditions that do not meet detention standards are all huge steps in the right direction,” Rebecca Talbot with Immigrant Action Alliance said in a news release. “Now it’s time for the Biden administration to commit to closing Glades fully and forever, and to release those who have been transferred from Glades to other facilities.”
ICE had been using the Alamance County facility for long-term detention, but says it will now only use it for stays of under 72 hours if applicable standards are met. The agency said it is concerned about conditions, including a lack of outdoor recreation.
ICE plans to reduce the guaranteed minimum at Winn Correctional Center to match the facility's staffing constraints, the release says. ICE will also assign a custody resource coordinator to provide an assessment and will monitor conditions and take actions as needed, the release says.
ICE Acting Director Tae Johnson has told staff to begin preparations, including relocating ICE staff and detainees as needed. The agency said it plans to continue to review other detention centers and adjust its use as appropriate. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/ICE-to-stop-using-Alabama-jail-limit-use-of-3-17029342.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:09 | en | 0.958023 |
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A nearly $17 billion, 16-year transportation revenue package that will pay for a variety of projects across the state, including building four new hybrid electric ferries, was signed Friday by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.
Inslee split his signing ceremonies between two cities, starting the morning at the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal to sign the revenue portion of the package. Later in the afternoon, he was to head to Tacoma to sign the bill that covers the projects paid for by the package.
"There is no way to tackle climate change without tackling transportation and that’s what these bills do,” Inslee said. “In this package we’re entwining the ability to get better, more efficient transportation with the way to save our climate.”
The plan gets $5.4 billion of its funding from a carbon pricing program signed into law last year that requires the state’s largest emitters, like refineries, to purchase credits for allowed emissions if they exceed a cap set by regulators. The rest comes from several other sources, including federal infrastructure money, funding from the state budget, and higher fees on enhanced licenses and license plates.
In addition to the new ferries, it electrifies two existing ferries and provides funding for more walking and biking corridors, highway maintenance and fulfilling the state’s court-ordered obligation to replace fish passage culverts. Funding is also provided to ensure that those age 18 and younger can ride for free on public transportation, including the state's ferries and Amtrak.
It also pays for the state’s share of the cost — $1 billion — to replace the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River that connects Washington and Oregon.
Republicans, who are the minority party in both chambers, continued to express frustration that they weren’t part of what has normally been a bipartisan process in the past, and said that the new fees people will pay will affect residents already dealing with high inflation and rising gas prices.
The cost for a new enhanced license or ID, which people will ultimately need to fly domestically under the REAL ID Act if they don’t have a passport or other qualifying identification, will increase from the current $78 for a six-year license to $96. And the cost for a license plate for a new car will increase from $10 to $50.
And the fee new residents pay when first registering their car in Washington to check that it isn’t stolen will increase from $15 to $50 on July 1 and then to $75 in 2026.
Rep. Andrew Barkis, the ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee, said that his proposal to use and redirect existing revenues in a way that would have avoided fee increases were not considered.
“We do need to address our transportation system," he said. “This process cut out the entirety of the Republican delegation. We were not considered in the policy."
Democratic Sen. Marko Liias, the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said the package is “changing the framework for how we approach transportation forever in this state.”
“No longer will it be how much concrete we can pour,” he said. “The answer will be how many people and how much freight can we move on these corridors.” | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Washington-governor-signs-17-billion-17029323.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:10 | en | 0.958193 |
CORYDON, Ind. (AP) — A man suspected in an Evansville double-homicide died early Friday when his vehicle crashed about 100 miles (161 kilometers) away in southern Indiana during a police pursuit, state police said.
Samuel Aaron Robb, 30, of Valparaiso, died about 5 a.m. EDT after his car became airborne along State Road 135 in Harrison County, struck a utility pole and came to rest upside down, Indiana State Police said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by the county coroner.
The crash occurred after a state trooper tried to stop Robb after spotting him in his car it in a hotel parking lot in the town of Corydon, but he sped off at a high rate of speed and the trooper pursued him, police said.
Authorities had been advised to be on the lookout for Robb and his vehicle after he was identified as a suspect in a double homicide that occurred late Thursday night in Evansville, police said.
State police said in a statement that “the investigation reveals that the driver was, in fact, the suspect wanted in connection with the two murders in Evansville" and identified him as Robb.
Evansville police have not released information about the two homicide victims. Officers found two bodies in an Evansville home about 11:30 p.m. CDT after a 911 caller stated that she was inside a residence where shots had been fired, the Evansville Courier & Press reported. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Police-Suspect-in-Evansville-double-homicide-17029200.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:12 | en | 0.988367 |
HONOLULU (AP) — A U.S. judge has rejected a deal between prosecutors and a former elected Hawaii official who agreed to plead guilty and accept a 15-year prison term for leading a drug-trafficking organization.
Arthur Brun pleaded guilty last year to charges including drug trafficking conspiracy, distribution of methamphetamine and assault of a federal law enforcement officer.
Prosecutors said he led the drug ring while serving as a member of the county council on the island of Kauai.
Among the allegations laid out in court documents by prosecutors: Brun conspired with a gang leader, requested sexual favors as payment for drugs and assaulted a law enforcement officer.
Brun was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, but according to court records, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson rejected the deal Brun negotiated for a 15-year sentence.
Judges, who have the final say in sentencing, aren't bound by plea agreements.
“The government wanted 15 years of a man's life and the court felt that 15 years wasn't enough,” said Brun's attorney, Rustam Barbee. “The government wanted their pound of flesh and Judge Watson wanted two pounds.”
Barbee said his client will have to go to trial unless he can get a new deal from prosecutors.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Hawaii declined to comment. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/Judge-rejects-15-year-deal-for-ex-councilman-in-17029311.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:15 | en | 0.976093 |
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Saying Florida public schools are making sexually explicit books available to children, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Friday to give parents a say in what books schools can and can't have in their libraries.
It will force all elementary schools to provide a searchable list of every book available in their libraries or used in instruction. School boards must let the public know when they plan to consider approving new instructional books and allow anyone to comment. Any objections to the material, by a parent or not, must be reported to the state.
“Unfortunately, we've seen some books in some of these libraries, I mean you're talking about kids in middle school, some of the stuff that has ended up there is incredibly, incredibly disturbing stuff,” DeSantis said. “Parents understand when they see this. They understand how to blow the whistle on this.”
The bill also sets a 12-year term limit for school board members.
Democrats opposed the bill during the legislative session that ended earlier this month, saying that it amounts to censorship and compared it to book burning. But it aligns with DeSantis' agenda to squash school district decisions he disagrees with.
“You have some groups that want to take away classic books like ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,' but they want things like, ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir,’ which is a cartoon-style book with graphic images of children performing sexual acts. That is wrong," DeSantis said. “They want to eliminate ’Of Mice and Men,' but ‘Lawn Boy,’ a book containing explicit passages of pedophilia is somehow accepted."
Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon said the bill is part of the governor's culture wars designed to help him win the 2024 Republican nomination for president.
“The governor's actions today and his words just illustrate his political ambitions. He cares more about rallying a base of people who will support him in a future presidential bid than he does about making sure Floridians have access to housing, have access to quality health care,” she said. “The bill he signed today is going to cause more stress and strain on school systems.”
The books DeSantis mentioned were political flashpoints in Texas and Virginia and were removed from libraries. Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin campaigned on the issue.
“Gender Queer” is an autobiography by Maia Kobabe, who was born female, but now identifies as nonbinary and asexual. The School Library Journal described it as a “book to be savored rather than devoured, this memoir will resonate with teens.”
“It’s also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand,” the review continues.
“Lawn Boy” is a semiautobiographical novel by Jonathan Evison. The Washington Post said, “Evison takes a battering ram to stereotypes about race and class" and said it's "spiked with angst and anger, but also full of humor and lots of hope."
After controversy about the book, Evison said he received death threats and explained that a passage some find objectionable is not about pedophilia, but rather an adult character recalling a sexual encounter he had as a fourth grader with another fourth grader.
DeSantis also used the bill signing ceremony to denounce critical race theory in schools, mask mandates in schools and Dr. Anthony Fauci. He also encouraged people to pay attention to school board races and vote members out.
“Florida now joins places like Russia and China, modern-day examples of what happens when free thought and free speech are tightly restricted in all levels of society, including in school,” Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book said in a statement. “As a mom and a former classroom teacher — and simply an American who values freedom of speech — this is a very, very scary place to be.” | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/education/article/DeSantis-signs-bill-to-keep-explicit-books-out-of-17029306.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:16 | en | 0.97841 |
PARKLAND, Wash. (AP) — A procession and memorial for slain Pierce County deputy Dominique “Dom” Calata was underway Friday in Tacoma.
Calata, 35, was shot and killed last week during a SWAT operation in which law enforcement Sgt. Rich Scaniffe was shot and wounded.
A procession began Friday morning at the Washington State Fairgrounds, following a route that concluded at the Church for All Nations in Parkland. A memorial service will start around 1 p.m. at the church.
The South Sound Gang Task Force was serving a warrant March 16 for second-degree assault for Jeremy Dayton, 40. The task force had asked for help from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department’s SWAT team due to Dayton’s prior felony convictions, according to Wendy Haddow, a spokesperson for the Tacoma Police Department, which is assisting with the investigation.
During the operation, gunfire was exchanged between Dayton and law enforcement, Haddow said. Calata and Scaniffe were shot. Dayton was killed at the scene.
Calata worked for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department for more than six years and was assigned to the patrol division of the Edgewood Police Department. He was also a U.S. Army Veteran and served in the National Guard for the past seven years.
Calata was married and had a 4-year-old child. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Procession-memorial-for-slain-Pierce-County-17029312.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:18 | en | 0.984751 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors and lawyers for convicted murderer Scott Peterson will give closing arguments in late June before a California judge decides whether Peterson deserves a new trial in the slaying of his pregnant wife 20 years ago.
The arguments will follow an anticlimactic two final days of testimony into whether juror Richelle Nice was biased and lied to get on the jury that convicted Peterson in 2004 and put him on death row for the murders of Laci, 27, and the unborn child they planned to name Conner.
The California Supreme Court overturned Peterson's death sentence in 2020 and tasked Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo with deciding if he received a fair trial.
On Friday, she ordered Stanislaus County prosecutors and Peterson's attorneys to submit written arguments by May 25 and reply briefs by June 9. They'll return to court June 29 to provide oral arguments before she takes the case under submission for a later decision.
“I think everyone is anxious to get this in," she said.
She also ordered Peterson returned to San Quentin State Prison until June, where he previously had been on death row, after his attorneys said they were having trouble communicating with him while he has been recently housed in the San Mateo County Jail.
Massullo had delayed the final two days of the hearing from early this month after Peterson's attorneys said they had surprise testimony from documentary producer Shareen Anderson.
Anderson had belatedly told an investigator that Nice and other co-authors of a post-trial book about the case had discussed a book deal during the trial, which would have been improper.
That was contradicted by other testimony, and Peterson's attorneys quickly dropped the allegation when Anderson subsequently said her recollection was “fuzzy” and she wasn't sure whether the book deal was discussed during or after the trial.
But they still flew Anderson in from New York this week with the expectation that she would testify Thursday about a photograph on Nice's wall that she recalled seeing while she was working on the television documentary “The Murder of Laci Peterson" in 2017.
Anderson abruptly refused to testify, however, saying through her attorney that she hadn't been properly legally served with an order to appear, and that her testimony couldn't be required because she was acting as a journalist while producing the documentary.
The attorneys eventually settled on a simple stipulation: As Anderson was leaving Nice's home after an interview, she observed a photo on Nice's wall of a small child wearing pajamas imprinted with the words, “Little Man.”
Peterson's attorneys say Nice referred to Conner during jury deliberations as “little man,” which they say are among indications that she was biased against their client.
They contend that she lied about her lack of bias to get on the jury, and lied again in a sworn declaration in 2020.
Nice testified earlier that she held no bias against Peterson until after she heard the evidence that he dumped his wife’s body into San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002.
Nice failed to disclose during jury selection that she sought a restraining order while pregnant in 2000, saying she “really fears for her unborn child” because of threats from her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.
She said in her sworn declaration 20 years later that she didn’t “feel ‘victimized’ the way the law might define that term.”
As their final witness, Peterson's attorneys called to the stand on Friday her former attorney, Negad Zaky, to testify about his communications with the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office while preparing Nice’s declaration.
Zaky said he had discussions with prosecutors but that they didn't tell him how to write the declaration that Nice later signed under oath. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/Juror-misconduct-hearing-in-Scott-Peterson-case-17029282.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:21 | en | 0.986135 |
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Gareth Bale has spoken out against the psychological harm that professional athletes can receive from the media after a leading Spanish sports daily published a column on the Real Madrid player entitled “The Welsh Parasite.”
Bale wrote on Twitter on Friday that the column published by Marca was a “piece of slanderous, derogatory and speculative journalism.”
“At a time where people are taking their own lives because of the callousness and relentlessness of the media, I want to know, who is holding these journalists and the news outlets that allow them to write article like this, accountable?” Bale wrote.
In the opinion piece published on Thursday, writer Manuel Juliá compared Bale to a “parasite” who, after playing well in his first seasons with Madrid, now “sucks blood without giving anything in return.” The column was accompanied by a drawing of a mosquito with Bale’s face on Real Madrid’s emblem.
Bale criticized the media for holding athletes to an impossible standard, and when they fail to always reach it, for attacking them ruthlessly with no concern for their mental wellbeing.
“Instead of commiserating with (athletes) when they show one ounce of human error, they are torn to shreds instead, encouraging anger and disappointment in their fans,” Bale said. “The everyday pressures on athletes is immense, and it’s clear as day how negative media attention could easily send an already stressed athlete, or anybody in the public eye, over the edge.”
Fair or not, many Madrid fans believe Bale has failed to consistently perform to his potential since joining the club in 2013 for a then world record 100 million euros (then $132 million). Many Madrid supporters, and the Spanish media, accuse him of not wanting to play as hard for his club as he does for Wales.
Earlier in his career at Madrid, Bale did rise to the occasion. He helped the club win four European Cups, scoring in the 2014 and 2018 Champions League finals. But he then struggled to stay injury-free and eventually fell out of favor with former coach Zinedine Zidane.
Bale spent last season on loan back at former club Tottenham before returning to the Spanish capital.
He has barely played for Carlo Ancelotti in this campaign, but that has not stopped him from playing well for Wales. He was in prime form on Thursday when he scored twice to help Wales beat Austria 2-1 in a World Cup qualifying playoff.
The two-goal performance came days after Bale withdrew from contention for Madrid ahead of its match against fierce rival Barcelona, which it lost by a humbling 4-0.
The 32-year-old winger’s contract with Madrid expires in June.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/sports/article/Bale-says-media-pressure-can-push-athletes-over-17029199.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:22 | en | 0.97723 |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — State regulators are considering suspending Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson in light of his drunken driving conviction in December.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Friday that the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training began an investigation shortly after Hutchinson crashed his county-owned SUV near Alexandria on Dec. 8. He acknowledged he had been drinking at a sheriff's conference.
The sheriff was driving more than 126 miles per hour, wasn't wearing a seat belt and was carrying a loaded gun when he crashed. His blood alcohol level was more than 0.13% about three hours after the crash. Minnesota's legal limit is 0.08% but drops to 0.04% for anyone driving with a gun.
Hutchinson pleaded guilty to fourth-degree misdemeanor drunken driving and was sentenced to two years on probation.
The board is considering suspending Hutchinson's law enforcement license, which would render him unable to work as sworn officer and unable to make arrests. He could continue to work for the sheriff's department performing tasks not associated with sworn police work, the Star Tribune reported.
Hutchinson's attorney, March Schneider, declined to comment. | https://www.theheraldreview.com/news/article/Regulators-may-suspend-sheriff-after-drunken-crash-17029345.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:25 | en | 0.983248 |
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A Washington state man who acknowledged organizing a rim-to-rim hike at Grand Canyon National Park for 139 people when the size of such groups is limited has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the October 2020 trip.
Joseph Don Mount of Chehalis pleaded guilty Friday to violating the park's rule limiting group size and was sentenced to two years of probation.
Beginning about five years ago, the park limited the number of visitors in such groups to 11 people to prevent overcrowding on trails. The restriction has remained in place throughout the pandemic.
Mount was warned about the size limitation and a prohibition on splitting large groups into smaller groups in a bid to get around the rule. But investigators have said Mount kept organizing the trip, recruiting prospective hikers, posting an itinerary and a list of those who signed up for the trip, and making other preparations.
His attorney, Ryan Stevens, said his client had good intentions in trying to draw together people who shared the same religious faith into an outing and that a lot of people had committed to the trip by the time his client was confronted by park employees about group size for his upcoming trip.
Others on the trails at the time complained that the group wasn’t distancing or wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and that they clogged the path, delaying itineraries.
Investigators say Mount collected thousands of dollars in registration fees from hikers to cover guide services, transportation and other costs. Mount projected at one time that after covering those costs, he would net a profit of about $65, according to court records. | https://www.lakecountystar.com/news/article/Man-acknowledges-leading-outsized-group-in-Grand-17029324.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:27 | en | 0.975516 |
Fourth-seeded Arkansas used what amounted to a sneak attack to take down No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga, not only knocking the Bulldogs out the NCAA Tournament but taking out a whole lot of fans still hoping to win bragging rights and office pools.
Then again, the number of busted brackets before the Elite Eight just might mean everyone gets a second chance.
Defending national champion Baylor? The first No. 1 seed to go down. Gonzaga and Arizona, two more top seeds and betting favorites, joined the Bears on the sidelines in the Sweet 16. Kentucky, Tennessee and Auburn? All ousted before the opening weekend was even done.
In the case of the John Calipari's bunch, that meant getting bumped by No. 15 seed Saint Peter's in the opening round, a loss that probably doesn't feel any better even with the Peacocks topping Murray State to reach the Sweet 16.
It all left exasperated SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm to say: “My bracket's busted. It's just so bad right now.”
Then, after a beat: “I do have a lot of company though.”
No kidding.
The Bulldogs were a 10-point favorite to beat the Razorbacks and Arizona a 1.5-point favorite to beat Houston on Thursday night. Instead, they became the first 1-seeds to lose on the same day in the Sweet 16 or earlier since the 2011 tourney.
“Just being the underdog, man, use it to your advantage,” Arkansas' Trey Wade said. “They never see you coming.”
Very few people did anyway.
There were 17.3 million brackets filled out in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge and just 8.3% of them had Arkansas reaching the Elite Eight, an less than half of those have the Hogs going to the Final Four. By contrast, nearly 23% of brackets had Gonzaga winning it all.
In fact, nearly two-thirds of brackets had Gonzaga, Baylor or Kentucky advancing through their half of the bracket to reach the final in New Orleans.
Meanwhile, more brackets (19.9%) had Houston losing in the first round than advancing to the Elite Eight (14.2%), even though the Cougars made it to the Sweet 16 in 2019 and the Final Four just last year.
Houston, by the way, is now the favorite to win it all, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, ahead of No. 2 seed Duke and Kansas, the lone remaining 1-seed entering Friday.
The quest for a perfect bracket in the men's tournament? The NCAA said that was over before last weekend, the moment that No. 11 seed Iowa State beat LSU on Friday night to eliminate the final two perfect brackets remaining after the first 24 games.
And with the Cyclones playing No. 10 seed Miami on Friday night, at least one double-digit seed will be in the Elite Eight.
“You get seeded a certain spot, who cares about that? I tell the team all the time, if you’re in the dance, you’ve got a darned good team because you earned your way into the dance," said Miami coach Jim Larrañaga, who knows all about busting up brackets after taking No. 11 seed George Mason to the Final Four in 2006.
“To me, it doesn’t matter what you’re seeded. It’s not reflective of who you are,” Larrañaga said. “It’s just a number put by your name to start the tournament. What matters is how you play and how you match up against your opponent."
Yet plenty of well-known prognosticators have had trouble figuring those matchups out.
Television star Jimmy Fallon lamented his fortunes after picking Gonzaga and Tennessee to reach the Final Four. Former President Barack Obama had the Bulldogs playing Arizona in the title game and he hasn't fared a whole lot better in the women's tournament, where he had Baylor advancing to the Final Four with South Carolina, UConn and Stanford. The Bears were upset by South Dakota in the second round.
“We don't need Barack Obama's bracket. We don't need Jimmy Fallon. We don't need none of that, OK?" said Hailey Van Lith, the star guard for the top-seeded Cardinals. “Look, we are still here. That is what it is.”
___
More AP coverage of March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/sports/article/Busted-brackets-mark-another-topsy-turvy-NCAA-17029259.php | 2022-03-25T20:44:29 | en | 0.966106 |
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