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Mexico investigates 8 over deadly fire at migrant facility

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Mexican authorities said Wednesday that eight employees or officials are being investigated for possible misconduct at a migrant detention center where a fire killed 39 detained men.Anger and frustration in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez boiled over as hundreds of migrants walked to a U.S. border gate hoping to make a mass crossing.Mexican officials appeared to place blame for the deaths in the fire late Monday largely on private, subcontracted security guards at the detention center in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. Video showed guards hurrying away from the smoky fire apparently without trying to free detainees.No charges were announced, but authorities said they would seek at least four arrest warrants later in the day, including one for a migrant who was part of what they described as a small group that started the fire.Five of those under investigation for possible misconduct are private security guards, two are fed...

Vermont deputy indicted in New York state brawl, shooting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A Vermont lawman who was shot multiple times by police responding to gunfire in the historic center of Saratoga Springs has been indicted on charges including attempted murder and possessing a firearm in a “sensitive location.”Vito Caselnova, a sheriff’s deputy in Rutland County, Vermont, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday.The charges came more than four months after a chaotic sidewalk brawl and series of gunshots left three people, including the deputy, wounded, and questions about who shot who. Three other men involved in the fight — one of whom police initially accused of also firing a gun — were charged only with throwing punches.Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen said the decision to levy the most serious charges against Caselnova, who was off-duty at the time of the incident, was made by a grand jury. In a press statement, she criticized the city’s public safety commissioner and mayor for their initial account of how the v...

Gwyneth Paltrow’s defense leans on experts in ski trial

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow’s attorneys came close to wrapping up their case on Wednesday by relying on more experts to mount their defense on the seventh day of trial over her 2016 ski collision with a 76-year-old retired optometrist.Paltrow’s defense team called to the stand a radiologist, a neurologist, a neuropsychologist and a forensic psychologist, leaning on medical analysis rather than the testimony of the actor-turned-lifestyle influencer’s friends or husband in order to make their case. In the final hour of their last full day to call witnesses though, they called Terry Sanderson, the man suing Paltrow, back to the witness stand.The eight-person jury is expected to get the case Thursday to deliberate after closing arguments. More than just a display of their financial investment in the case, Paltrow’s team allotting most of their time to expert testimony is a gamble. Throughout the trial, bombshell testimony from Paltrow and Sanderson has...

How ‘swatting’ calls spread as schools face real threats

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

A spate of threats and false reports of shooters have been pouring into schools and colleges across the country for months, raising concerns among law enforcement and elected leaders. Schools in Pennsylvania were the latest targeted by so-called swatting. Computer-generated calls on Wednesday made claims about active shooters, but it was all a hoax. One day earlier, nearly 30 Massachusetts schools received fake threats. School officials are already on edge amid a backdrop of deadly school shootings, the latest Monday at a Christian school in Nashville.Here is a look at the issues involved:WHAT IS SWATTING?Hundreds of cases of swatting occur annually, with some using caller ID spoofing to disguise their number. The goal is to get authorities, particularly a SWAT team, to respond to an address.An FBI official said in November that they believe the wave of false threats focused on schools may be coming from outside of the country.Officials said at the time that they had identified call...

Officials warn of wildfire risk as Southwest US dries out

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Snowcapped mountains in the Southwestern U.S. signal a possible delayed start to the wildfire season for some higher elevations, but officials in New Mexico and Arizona warned Wednesday that dry, windy conditions in other areas are increasing wildfire risks and prompting red flag warnings.With leaves crunching under her feet and the wind starting to kick up, New Mexico’s governor warned that if the state wants to avoid a historic wildfire season like last year’s when more than 1 million acres (400,000 hectares) burned, she said everyone will have to be prepared.“You can start to think about the landscape in New Mexico and the extreme drought here,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told those gathered at the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park. “We are at extreme risk.”New Mexico is coming off a devastating wildfire season that included the largest blaze in the state’s recorded history — a conflagration sparked last spring by the U.S. government ...

Graphic novelist, 9 other writers win $50,000 Whiting Awards

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A graphic novelist based in Hawaii, a reporter for an offshoot of The Economist and a contributor to The New Yorker are among this year’s winners of the Whiting Award, a $50,000 honor given annually to 10 emerging fiction and nonfiction writers. R. Kikuo Johnson is the first graphic novelist to receive a Whiting since the prize was established in 1985, according to the Whiting Foundation, which announced the awards Wednesday night. Other winners include Linda Kinstler, who writes for The Economist’s 1843 magazine; New Yorker writer Stephania Taladrid; fiction writers Marcia Douglas, Sidik Fofana and Carribean Fragoza; poets Tommye Blount and Ama Codjoe; dramatist Mia Chung and poet-dramatist Emma Wippermann.“Every year we look to the new Whiting Award winners, writing fearlessly at the edge of imagination, to reveal the pathways of our thought and our acts before we know them ourselves,” Courtney Hodell, Whiting’s director of literary programs, said...

Most gig workers paid sick leave under new Seattle law

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Most gig workers in Seattle will be permanently entitled to paid sick leave and safe time under a first-in-the-nation law signed by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell on Wednesday. The measure expands pandemic-era protections and strengthens labor rights for app-based workers.Seattle previously allowed food delivery workers to accrue paid sick and safe time, but that policy was due to expire May 1, six months after the end of the emergency order imposed by the city during the coronavirus pandemic. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to make it permanent for “on-demand” gig workers on apps such as DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart.“A healthy workforce leads to a healthy community, and no one should have to choose between taking a sick day to care for themselves — or their families — and making rent,” Harrell said. The measure also expands the categories of workers covered by the policy beyond food delivery, to include those who work for car wash or other apps. Wo...

Woman shot and killed in gas station in Chicago's Austin neighborhood

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

CHICAGO — A woman is dead after she was shot in the head while she was in a gas station Wednesday afternoon in Chicago's Austin neighborhood.The shooting happened around 3:30 p.m. at a gas station in the 4800 block of West Washington Boulevard. Woman found shot to death in Chatham alley According to information from the Chicago Police Department, the 22-year-old woman was in the gas station when someone got out of a car and fired shots. She was shot in the head and leg and taken to a hospital where she died, police said. No one has been arrested yet and Area Four detectives are still investigating.

Senator blocks nearly 200 military promotions over abortion policy

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (Nexstar) -- A single U.S. senator is blocking military promotions because he says the Pentagon shouldn’t be paying for the travel of personnel to obtain abortions.Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is blocking the promotions of high-level military officials to take a stance against the Pentagon's policy of paying for travel for military members seeking out-of-state abortions.“As long as I have a voice in this body, Congress will write the laws, not the Secretary of Defense, not the Joint Chiefs,” Sen. Tuberville said. “This is about not forcing the taxpayers of this country to fund abortion. That's been a bipartisan consensus for more than 40 years.”Sen. Tuberville says the military already provides abortions in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is at risk. And Tuberville says paying for travel for elective abortions is a violation of federal law.Pentagon officials say Tuberville is jeopardizing national security.Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin defended the P...

7 California officers, nurse charged in 2020 in-custody death of suspected DUI driver

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:31:33 GMT

(KTLA) - Seven California Highway Patrol officers and a registered nurse have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of an alleged DUI driver in California nearly three years ago, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.Officers Dionisio Fiorella, 39; Michael Little, 57; Dustin Osmanson, 41; Darren Parsons, 48; Diego Romero, 35; Justin Silva, 30; and Marciel Terry, 32; as well as RN Arbi Baghalian, 42; have been charged in the death of Edward Bronstein.The officers have also been charged with assault by an officer. City of Chicago forces suburban couple to pay red light violation that isn’t theirs On March 31, 2020, Osmanson and Terry pulled over Bronstein in Burbank on suspicion of driving under the influence, prosecutors said.The officers took Bronstein, 38, to a CHP maintenance yard in Altadena and obtained a warrant to draw his blood.Bronstein at first refused to have his blood drawn but eventually agreed as officers “pushed him ...