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Texas trooper’s accounts of bloodied and fainting migrants on US-Mexico border unleashes criticism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s escalating measures to stop migrants along the U.S. border with Mexico came under a burst of new criticism Tuesday after a state trooper said migrants were left bloodied from razor-wire barriers and that orders were given to deny people water in sweltering heat.In one account, Texas Trooper Nicholas Wingate told a supervisor that upon encountering a group of 120 migrants on June 25 — including young children and mothers nursing babies — in Maverick County, a rural Texas border county, he and another trooper were ordered to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico.” The trooper described the actions in an email dated July 3 as inhumane.Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Safety, said the accounts provided by the trooper were under internal investigation. He said the department has no directive or policy that instructs troopers to withhold water from migrants or push them back into the river...

North Korea fires 2 short-range missiles into the sea as US docks nuclear submarine in South Korea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern sea early Wednesday in what appeared to be a statement of defiance as the United States deploys a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in decades.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that from 3:30 to 3:46 a.m. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from an area near capital Pyongyang that flew about 550 kilometers (341 miles) before landing in waters east of the Korean Peninsula.Those flight details were similar to the assessment of the Japanese military, which said the missiles landed outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone and that there were no immediate reports of damage from ships or aircraft in affected areas.The flight distance of the North Korean missiles roughly matched the distance between Pyongyang and the South Korean port city of Busan, where the USS Kentucky arrived Tuesday afternoon in the first visit by a U.S. nuclear-armed submar...

House passes resolution to show support for Israel after Democrat’s comments about ‘racist’ state

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday passed a Republican-led resolution reaffirming its support for Israel with strong bipartisan approval — an implicit rebuke of a leading Democrat who, over the weekend, called the country a “racist state” but later apologized.The resolution, introduced by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, passed with over 400 lawmakers backing the measure. It did not mention Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., by name, but was clearly a response to her recent remarks about the Jewish state. The measure was drafted soon after she criticized Israel and its treatment of Palestinians at a conference on Saturday.Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, walked back the comments the next day, insisting her comments were aimed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and not the Jewish state. “I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist,” Jayapal said in a statement. “I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has e...

Lack of compensation for Doukhobor religious group disappointing: B.C. ombudsperson

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

VICTORIA — Children taken from their homes 70 years ago due largely to the religious beliefs of their parents will soon receive a formal apology from British Columbia’s government, but their quest for compensation remains uncertain, says the province’s ombudsperson.Jay Chalke said he’s “deeply disappointed” the province won’t commit to compensating members of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors, who were forcibly removed from their parents in the 1950s and placed in a former tuberculosis sanatorium at New Denver, B.C., for up to six years. The Sons of Freedom were a small group within the Doukhobor community, an exiled Russian Christian group that was once known for naked protests and periodically burning down their own homes as a rejection of materialism.There may be up to 100 survivors from the Sons of Freedom group, who are now aged in their 70s or 80s, Chalke said at a news conference.His office released a report on the Doukhobors on Tuesday, entit...

Virginia finalizes guidance on transgender students, including rolling back some accomodations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration said Tuesday that it has finalized new policies on the treatment of transgender students, guidance that will direct school districts to roll back some current accommodations and increase parental notification requirements about certain discussions involving gender identity. Youngkin said the guidelines, which have been sharply criticized by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups since they were first unveiled last year, will empower parents while prohibiting discrimination and creating a safe learning environment. “All children in Virginia deserve to have a parent engaged in their life and to be treated with dignity and respect. The (Virginia Department of Education’s) updated model policies reaffirm my administration’s continued commitment to ensure that every parent is involved in conversations regarding their child’s education, upbringing, and care,” he said in a statement. The Republican governor’s administration first ...

Coroner identifies two victims killed by man who later died in police shootout in Louisiana

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

HARVEY, La. (AP) — Louisiana authorities have identified the former shipyard worker who was killed in a shootout with sheriff’s deputies Monday, and the two ex-coworkers the man had gunned down hours before he was killed.The suspect killed Monday afternoon at an apartment complex in suburban New Orleans was Willis Thomas, 31, of Harvey, Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich, the Jefferson Parish coroner, told New Orleans news outlets. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto said deputies tracked Thomas to his apartment a couple of hours after he killed two of his former coworkers, identified by Cvitanovich as Nakie James Brown, 48, and Dustin Parrie Jr., 20, at FMT Shipyard. It remains unclear why Thomas had been fired at the shipyard or why he shot the two men. Thomas was tracked to the apartment after deputies received information about a car he left the scene in. The car turned out to belong to the suspect’s mother, who had picked him up when he called her from the shipyard, Lopinto said. The woman...

Baltimore squeegee worker on trial for murder acted in self-defense in motorist’s death, lawyer says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore teenager acted in self-defense when he shot and killed a baseball bat-wielding driver who approached youths washing windshields at a busy downtown intersection last summer, attorneys for the teen argued as his murder trial got underway Tuesday.The high-profile tragedy reignited longstanding debate about Baltimore’s squeegee workers, mostly Black youths from disadvantaged backgrounds looking to make fast cash. City leaders have since banned the practice at certain high-traffic intersections and stepped up efforts to connect squeegee workers with above board job opportunities.“The state would have you believe this case is about squeegee boys,” defense attorney J. Wyndal Gordon told jurors in his opening statement. “This case is about road rage.”Timothy Reynolds, 48, died from gunshot wounds after the July 2022 confrontation in evening rush hour near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. An engineer and father of three, he grew up in the Baltimore area and was an avid ...

Pearl Harbor sailor laid to rest in home state of Maine more than 80 years later

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A naval aviator killed during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was laid to rest more than 80 years later in his home state on Tuesday. Ensign Stanley W. Allen received a funeral with full military honors at Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Augusta, with several family members in attendence. He was 25 when he died, and his remains were previously buried with unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Ensign Allen, who was trained to fly a spotter float plane from the USS Oklahoma, was among 429 sailors who died on the battleship, which rolled over with many trapped inside on Dec. 7, 1941.Allen was among 388 service members whose remains went unidentified before a 2015 program in which bodies were disinterred for DNA analysis. Since then, more than 350 have been identified. The Bowdoin College graduate enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves in 1940 in Boston before training at Naval Air Station Pensacola and getting assigned to Observation S...

Alberta moves to decentralize health-care delivery, 15 years after centralizing it

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

EDMONTON — Alberta’s new health minister has been given the go-ahead to decentralize the entire health-care delivery system — 15 years after the province completed a multistage, multiyear process to centralize it.In a mandate letter released Tuesday, Premier Danielle Smith directed Health Minister Adriana LaGrange to reform the management and structure of Alberta Health Services to spread out decision-making to improve front-line care.“We need to foster an environment within AHS and the entire health community that welcomes innovation and incentivizes the best patient care,” the United Conservative premier wrote.LaGrange, speaking in a radio interview on QR Calgary, said it’s not clear yet what the reforms will be.“I do see some challenges and some gaps that have been created over time, over decades,” said LaGrange.She said the focus will be on primary, acute and continuing care, but said, “all of this will involve structures, and it’s too early to say what those will lo...

An alleged Chicago brothel operator is sentenced to probation, home confinement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:53 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A 35-year-old woman who prosecutors said operated a multistate prostitution business from a three-story Chicago building that functioned like a brothel was sentenced Tuesday to probation.Jessica Nesbitt pleaded guilty in February to a federal conspiracy charge.U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly told Jessica Nesbitt she must serve nine months of her two-year probation in home confinement, news outlets reported. “It’s difficult to look upon this as a crime that had identifiable victims who suffered significant harm,” Kennelly said.A federal indictment unsealed in 2019 said Nesbitt took in millions of dollars through prostitution services that she and her employees provided in Illinois, California, Florida, Indiana, Nevada, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.Nesbitt admitted arranging prostitution services with herself and employees at rates of $300 to $1,000 per hour. She admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors that she took in more than $1 million in payments ...