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Abortion Rights Activists Face Attack From DeSantis and Conspiracy Lawsuit — for Spray Painting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

Abortion rights activists hold signs at a protest in support of abortion access on July 13, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.Photo: John Parra/Getty ImagesThis Past winter, the Biden administration appeased the far right by leveling severe charges against abortion rights defenders. Now, the activists targeted in the federal crackdown are also facing legal attacks from an anti-abortion group and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.In addition to the federal criminal charges — which carry a sentence of 12 years in prison — Florida’s attorney general sued two of the activists for damages. Heartbeat of Miami, a “crisis pregnancy center,” is also absurdly alleging that all four activists were engaged in a conspiracy.The purported crime, the conspiracy, the federal charges? Spray painting.“The underpinning of these prosecutions is absolutely political, and Florida political specifically,” Lauren Regan, executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center and attorney for defendant Amber...

Mental Health Action Day: Why a DC nonprofit asked students to pause learning and start dancing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

Our Minds Matter, a D.C. nonprofit, is reminding students about the importance of taking time to move in honor of Mental Health Action Day.The student-led nonprofit received funding from MTV Entertainment Studios and TaskForce for its  “Move with Music for Mental Health Action Day,” on Thursday.At participating schools, classroom instruction was paused Thursday and Our Minds Matter invited students to get up and dance, or just move in general, to the music.The third annual event is all about encouraging conversations with peers, movement through dance and time with loved ones and friends.Laura Beth Levitt, who serves as program director for the student-led group made up of thousands of kids across the country, said the goal is to create more access to educational resources for students.“The idea was, ‘Can we start to shift the culture from awareness into action?'” Levitt said. “School doesn’t have to be super rigid and academic.”Organizers a...

Teen facing charges after loaded ‘ghost gun’ falls onto gym floor at Md. school

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

A 17-year-old student is facing charges after his loaded gun fell onto the gym floor at a Prince George’s County, Maryland, alternative school on Thursday morning, police said.It happened at Non-Traditional Program 9-12 South school in Cheltenham, Prince George’s County police said.A “ghost gun”— a gun without a serial number — fell out of the teenage boy’s waistband in the gym at around 9:15 a.m., police said.The 9th-grade student is being charged with having a handgun, having a dangerous weapon on school property, possession of a firearm by a minor and having loaded handgun.Run by Prince George’s County Public Schools, the alternative school is designed for students in 9th-12th grades, according to its website. It used to be known as Croom Vocational.Source

Major Russian airline could idle 30% of helicopter fleet as part supplies dry up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — One of Russia’s largest airlines, with an extensive network throughout Siberia, may have to take a third of its helicopter fleet out of service because of trouble getting parts, the airline’s head said Thursday.The statement by Utair chief executive office Andrei Martirosov at an aviation trade show indicates that sanctions imposed by the West after Russia sent troops into Ukraine are making a dent in Russia’s economy.Russian officials have claimed that the country can find substitutes for foreign parts and other other items.“Of the helicopters in circulation, the fleet may be reduced by 30%. This is mainly due, of course, to engines for both foreign-made helicopters and domestic helicopters, in which the engines are not of domestic production,” Martirosov was quoted as saying by state news agency Tass.Utair is Russia’s fourth-largest airline, with both fixed-wing aircraft and a helicopter fleet of more than 200 that provides both scheduled serv...

The difference between banks and credit unions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

Nearly all of us have some kind of business with a financial institution – a checking or savings account, a mortgage or other type of loan, maybe some investments. But a lot of us could still use a little help navigating the crowded field of financial accounts, products, and services. Jeff Bentley has made that his mission. Bentley is President and CEO of Northwest Federal Credit Union. But having started his career working with several large regional banks, he knows the differences between banks and credit unions better than most.Bentley describes his years in banking as primarily focused around profit. “We had shareholders to please. And frankly, you were incented to keep your job to make money,” he explains. “And so you found ways to enhance profits, whether it be prepayment penalties, or fees, kind of ‘gotcha fees.’”It’s about building trustBut Bentley describes a different world in credit unions, which he discovered later in his career. Now, he says “we’re focused on serv...

Storied rugby club Wasps forced to start again at bottom of English league pyramid

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Wasps, one of England’s most storied rugby teams and a two-time European champion, must begin rebuilding from the bottom of the country’s league pyramid after having a license to play in the second-tier Championship revoked on Thursday.The club was expelled from the top-flight Premiership after falling into administration — a form of bankruptcy protection — in October amid debts totaling 95 million pounds ($118 million). It had been hit by a winding-up order from the revenue department for 2 million pounds in unpaid tax after financial issues stemming from its relocation from London to Coventry in 2014.Wasps’ new owners, HALO22 Limited, failed to meet a deadline by the Rugby Football Union for proving the club could operate at the second-tier level. Among the commitments that have not been kept are the provision of evidence that creditors have been paid and the creation of a suitable governance structure.The RFU has also been told by Wasps that the cl...

Judge signals hesitance to shut down pipeline, pleads with Wisconsin tribe to work with oil company

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge signaled Thursday he will not force an energy company to shut down an oil pipeline in northern Wisconsin, despite arguments from a Native American tribe that the line is at immediate risk of being exposed by erosion and rupturing on reservation land.The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa asked U.S. District Judge William Conley last week to issue an emergency ruling forcing Enbridge to shut down the Line 5 pipeline after large chunks of riverbank running alongside it were washed away.But Conley voiced frustration with the tribe at Thursday’s hearing for not allowing Enbridge to reinforce the land around the pipeline.“The band has not helped itself by refusing to take any steps to prevent a catastrophic failure at the meander,” Conley said. “You haven’t even allowed simple steps that would have prevented some of this erosion.”The tribe says less than 15 feet (4.6 meters) of land now stands between the Bad River and Line 5 along a meander on ...

Trial delayed for driver held since 2015 in deadly Las Vegas Strip pedestrian crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Trial was delayed Thursday for a woman who has been in custody in state psychiatric facilities for more than seven years after being accused of intentionally plowing a car into pedestrians on a Las Vegas Strip sidewalk in December 2015.Paris Paradise Morton, who rejected a plea bargain this week that would avoid trial, told Clark County District Court Judge Tierra Jones she wants a different court-appointed attorney to represent her on murder and 70 other felony charges. The crash killed an Arizona woman and injured dozens of other people near the Paris Las Vegas and Planet Hollywood resorts.The judge called off a trial that had been scheduled to begin May 30 and set a closed-door hearing with Morton next Wednesday to determine if she will get a new lawyer. No new trial date was set.Morton, now 32, has been prosecuted as Lakeisha Nicole Holloway, the name she gave to authorities following the crash a few days before Christmas 2015. Records show she legally changed h...

Los diez juveniles más prometedores que se perderán el Mundial Sub-20 en Argentina

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

MENDOZA, Argentina – El Mundial Sub-20, que empieza este sábado en Argentina, no contará con varios de los futbolistas más prometedores del planeta por la resistencia de los clubes a ceder sus jugadores en un momento clave de la temporada.Estas son las diez bajas más sensibles del campeonato:1. ALEJANDRO GARNACHO (ARGENTINA)El Manchester United no quiso desprenderse del extremo de 18 años en un momento clave de la temporada, con el equipo luchando en la Premier por mantenerse en los puestos de Liga de Campeones y a pocas semanas de la final de la FA CUP contra el Manchester City.Nacido en España, pero de familia argentina, defiende los colores de la Albiceleste y cada vez va ganando más minutos en los Diablos Rojos. Acaba de recuperarse de una lesión en el tobillo. Arranca la Copa Mundial Sub-20 en Argentina Mundial Sub-20 en Argentina: la FIFA confirma los equipos y jugadores 2. VITOR ROQUE (BRASIL)Fue una de las estrellas ...

At least 80 people were killed in an attack in northern Nigeria. Police arrested 7 suspects

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:59 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The death toll from an attack by dozens of gunmen in north central Nigeria’s Plateau state has reached 80, local authorities said Thursday, with survivors still searching for bodies days after the incident.The gunmen targeted several villages in the remote Mangu district of Plateau during the attack that started Monday and lasted till Tuesday, according to residents. Burials continued on Thursday in parts of Mangu located 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Jos, the state capital.The police told The Associated Press seven suspects had been arrested. It was a “situation of sporadic shooting across a vast area of different villages,” said Alabo Alfred, the command spokesman.The security crisis in the north-west and central regions of the country has stifled Nigeria’s development, despite its status as Africa’s largest economy and one of its top oil producers. After decades of conflict, current and former pastoralists from the Fulani tribe took up arms against far...