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St. Louis prosecutor to seek reelection despite ouster bid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis’ elected prosecutor has said she will run for reelection in 2024, even as she tries to fend off an effort by Missouri’s attorney general to force her out of office.Democratic Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner spoke Tuesday night at an often-raucous public forum and made it clear that not only will she not resign, but that she plans to run again.Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey last month filed a lawsuit asking a judge to remove Gardner from office, accusing her of incompetence. Bailey cited a low rate of convictions in homicide cases, accused Gardner of failing to keep crime victims and their families updated, and said her office is too slow to take up cases brought by police.In addition to the lawsuit, a Republican-led bill in the statehouse would give the governor authority to appoint a special prosecutor to take on violent crimes in jurisdictions with a homicide rate over a certain threshold — a measure drafted with St. Louis in mind.Gar...

UN seeks court opinion on climate in ‘win’ for island states

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

The countries of the United Nations led by the island nation of Vanuatu adopted what they called a historic resolution Wednesday calling for the U.N.’s highest court to strengthen countries’ obligations to curb warming and protect communities from climate disaster.The resolution was adopted by consensus and Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau called it “a win for climate justice of epic proportions.” He reeled off a string of recent disasters including back-to-back Category 4 cyclones in his own country and record-breaking Cyclone Freddy that refused to leave southeastern Africa in recent weeks. “Catastrophic and compound effects like this are growing in number,” he said. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday he hoped the opinion, when issued, would encourage nations “to take the bolder and stronger climate action that our world so desperately needs.”Saudi Arabia and Iraq sought to soften the resolution saying it would increase the workload of ...

Russia puts Pussy Riot member on wanted list

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities have put a member of the Pussy Riot punk group on a wanted list for criminal suspects as the Kremlin works to stifle political dissent. Russian news outlet Mediazona discovered an entry for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of wanted individuals on Wednesday. The entry, also reviewed by The Associated Press, said Tolokonnikova faces criminal charges, but it didn’t specify what the charges are. Tolokonnikova became widely known for taking part in a 2012 Pussy Riot protest inside Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. She spent nearly two years in prison.Earlier this month Russia’s top human rights lawyer, Pavel Chikov, said a criminal case had been launched against Tolokonnikova on the charge of offending religious believers’ feelings, which became a criminal offense in Russia after the 2012 Pussy Riot protest. Tolokonnikova left Russia and reportedly lives in the U.S. In 2021, the Russian gover...

Dem senators from 4 states ask NOAA to address whale deaths

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Senators from four states want federal environmental officials to address a spate of whale deaths on both coasts, urging “transparency and timeliness” in releasing information about whale deaths and their causes.The call late Tuesday by New Jersey Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker; Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse for action by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marked the first large-scale request for action by Democratic federal lawmakers on an issue that has rapidly become politicized.Thus far, mostly Republican lawmakers have called for a pause or an outright halt to offshore wind farm preparation work, which they blame for the deaths of whales along the U.S. East Coast since December.But in their letter to a NOAA administrator, the Democratic senators conspicuously did not blame — or even mention — offshore wind as a potential cause of the death...

Congress to consider new no-fly list for unruly passengers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Senate and House members proposed a new no-fly list for unruly passengers on Wednesday, an idea that was pushed by airline unions but failed to gain traction last year.The legislation would let the Transportation Security Administration ban people convicted or fined for assaulting or interfering with airline crew members. It would be separate from the current FBI-run no-fly list, which is intended to prevent people suspected of terrorism ties from boarding planes.The number of incidents involving unruly passengers dropped sharply last year after a judge struck down a federal requirement to wear masks on planes. However, incidents serious enough to be investigated by federal officials remained more than five times higher than before the pandemic.“The violent incidents have not stopped,” Cher Taylor, a Frontier Airlines flight attendant who said she witnessed a passenger attack another in 2021 in Miami and walk away before police arrived, said during a news conf...

$3.8 billion, 100-acre 'megadevelopment' breaks ground in Bronzeville

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

CHICAGO — The "largest mixed-use project ever undertaken in Chicago" broke ground Wednesday thanks to $60 million in city funding.According to a press release from public relations firm Purpose Brand, LLC, the 100-acre megadevelopment dubbed Bronzeville Lakefront will be constructed on the site of the former Michael Reese Medical Campus and is "the nation’s first megadevelopment to have a 50% Black development team," with "a 98% diverse or minority supplier team for the infrastructure portion of the project." See the day-by-day lineup for Lollapalooza 2023 The project is expected to create 45,000 construction jobs, 31,000 long-term, full-time jobs, and have an overall economic impact of $8.2 billion, according to the project's website.This story will be updated, check back later for additional details.

How could the US ban TikTok?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

(The Hill) - Lawmakers are sounding alarms over TikTok and putting forward proposals that aim to ban the video-sharing app, but there’s no clear consensus over what path forward the U.S. government may pursue. In addition to a litany of technical issues over how to enforce a ban on a social media platform, the unprecedented nature of the situation poses obstacles that complicate attempts to block the app, which is owned by China-based parent company ByteDance. The nitty-gritty: How could a TikTok ban be enforced?The growing political pressure, with calls to ban the app on both sides of the aisle but more broadly from Republicans, is rooted in allegations that TikTok poses national security threats. The company has strongly pushed back on the allegations. Can the president do it himself?Former President Donald Trump, left, and President Joe Biden, right. (AP Photo/File)To ban the app in the U.S., the president could try to do so through an executive order — which is the cou...

WATCH LIVE | Chicago man exonerated after spending 28 years in prison

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

CHICAGO — A 46-year-old man has had his wrongful conviction of double murder officially overturned after spending 28 years behind bars.David Wright was first arrested in Aug. 1994 for killing his friends Tyrone Rockett and Robert Smith, according to a release from his attorneys. It goes on to state, in "his petition for post-conviction relief, no physical evidence linked him to the murders, nor did any eyewitness witness identify him as being the perpetrator. Instead, in a story that has become all too common, Mr. Wright was convicted based on statements – a false “confession” – he signed following a grueling, abusive 14-hour interrogation by Chicago Police Detectives James Cassidy, Kenneth Boudreau, and John Halloran." Several 7-Elevens robbed across Chicago in last 3 days WGN plans to livestream a press conference following his official exoneration hearing within this story. More details of his case will be added later today.

Driver shows 'Get Out of Jail Free' card to deputy at traffic stop: 'Points for the effort and humor'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

(WFLA) – When a sheriff’s deputy asked to see some identification during a traffic stop outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday, he wasn’t expecting a Monopoly Chance card.“[On Friday, March 24,] a deputy did a traffic stop, and the driver handed him this card, along with his driver’s license,” the Chisago County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post, including a picture of the pink Monopoly “Get Out of Jail Free” card.Captain Andrew Mahowald, of the Chisago County Sheriff’s Office, told Nexstar the driver had been stopped after one of the department’s deputies spotted him for speeding through Franconia Township just before he produced the card. Do speeding ticket quotas really exist? The deputy and the team behind the CCSO’s Facebook account later had a big laugh about it.“Unfortunately the state of Minnesota does not recognize this as a valid document,” the Facebook post continued. “Points for the effort and humor though!”Despite not recognizing the “document,” C...

19-year-old hospitalized after bullying incident in Georgia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:49 GMT

GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. (WSAV) – Hundreds of people showed up at a vigil on Monday night in front of the Brunswick hospital in Glynn County, Georgia, where 19-year-old Trent Lehrkamp is recovering after an apparent bullying incident left him in the ICU last week.Lehrkamp has been in the hospital for over a week, having been dropped off by three people he called friends last Tuesday. The teen was found to be heavily intoxicated, with a blood alcohol level of .464, or more than five times the legal limit in Georgia, police said.Upon arrival, the teen was only taking six breaths per minute, and needed to be placed on a ventilator. He was also covered in spray paint and urine, according to a police report from the Glynn County Police Department. The three teens who dropped Lehrkamp off left their names on a piece of paper and left in a white Jeep. Suspected catalytic converter thief crushed to death at car lot Lehrkamp's father, Mark Lehrkamp, told Glynn County Police officers about two oth...