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Maine mass shooting puts spotlight on complex array of laws, series of massive failures

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Across the nation, much of the debate around gun rights and restrictions centers on mental health. Many advocates on both sides agree that getting people with serious mental illness into treatment, and then preventing those who are dangerous from accessing guns, is key to preventing mass shootings. Yet in the weeks and months before the mass shooting in Lewiston, there were so many red flags that people all around the killer were raising concerns to authorities. He was still able to kill 18 people, wound another 13 and shatter a community’s sense of security.Lawmakers want answers as to why laws in two states — Maine and New York — didn’t prevent the tragedy.“It’s a massive failure,” said Republican state Sen. Lisa Keim, sponsor of Maine’s so-called “yellow flag” law, noting that it has been successfully invoked 82 times previously. Maine’s law requires more hurdles than “ red flag ” laws in more than 20 states, including New York, which generally allow ...

Report finds no evidence of mechanical failure in plane crash that killed North Dakota lawmaker

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Federal investigators say they found no evidence of a mechanical failure before a North Dakota state senator’s plane crashed in Utah last month, killing him, his wife and their two young children, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board.Doug and Amy Larsen and their two sons, 11-year-old Christian and 8-year-old Everett, died Oct. 1 in the crash near Moab, Utah. The family’s single-engine aircraft went down shortly after they had stopped to refuel while returning home from a family gathering in Arizona.The plane was piloted by Doug Larsen, 47, who flew Black Hawk helicopters and mobilized twice during his 29 years with the North Dakota Army National Guard. Larsen had recently earned his commercial pilot’s license and had hopes of one day flying for a major airline, state Sen. Jim Roers said.He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Service Star and Army Aviator Badge, among other hon...

A New York City lawmaker has been charged with bringing a gun to a pro-Palestinian protest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City lawmaker was arraigned on a gun charge Thursday after prosecutors said she brought a pistol to a pro-Palestinian demonstration.City Council member Inna Vernikov, a Republican and vocal supporter of Israel, was seen in photos and videos with the butt of a gun jutting out from her waistband while she was counterprotesting at an Oct. 13 pro-Palestinian rally at Brooklyn College, according to prosecutors.Student demonstrations both in support of Israel and in support of Palestinians have roiled college campuses in New York and across the nation since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The conflict is especially fraught at Brooklyn College, which has large numbers of Palestinian and Jewish students.Vernikov was charged in Brooklyn criminal court with one count of possessing a gun at a sensitive location.Vernikov had a license to carry a concealed weapon, but under New York law, licensed gun owners may not bring weapons to certain sensitive locations, inclu...

Justice Department opens civil rights probes into South Carolina jails beset by deaths and violence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Two South Carolina jails where incarcerated people have died violently at the hands of employees or others held behind bars are under federal investigation, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.Officials said the civil rights probes will examine the conditions at detention centers in the southern state’s urban hubs of Charleston and Columbia. They cited the deaths of a mentally ill Black man stunned 10 times by two jail employees who kneeled on his back until he stopped breathing and another man beaten to death by five attackers locked in cells with unsecured doors.“People confined in local jails across our country do not abandon their civil and constitutional rights at the jailhouse door,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke told reporters Thursday. “Incarceration should never carry with it the risk of death or serious harm.”Eight people jailed at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center have died since 2022, according to Clarke...

US Air Force terminates missile test flight due to anomaly after California launch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — An unarmed U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile was intentionally destroyed over the Pacific Ocean when something went wrong during a test launch from California, the Air Force said.The flight of the Minuteman 3 missile was “safely terminated” at 12:06 a.m. Wednesday due to an “anomaly” during launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, the Air Force Global Strike Command said in a statement.An investigative group was being formed to determine the cause.“An anomaly is any unexpected event during the test,” the statement said. “Since anomalies may arise from many factors relating to the operational platform itself, or the test equipment, careful analysis is needed to identify the cause.” Minuteman 3 missiles are routinely tested with launches from Vandenberg on the coast northwest of Los Angeles. A typical test involves a missile’s reentry vehicle traveling about 4,200 miles (6,800 kilometers) over the Pacific to Kwajalein Atoll in the...

Rwanda announces visa-free travel for all Africans as continent opens up to free movement of people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Rwanda announced Thursday that it will allow Africans to travel visa-free to the country, becoming the latest nation on the continent to announce such a measure aimed at boosting free movement of people and trade to rival Europe’s Schengen zone.President Paul Kagame made the announcement in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, where he pitched the potential of Africa as “a unified tourism destination” for a continent that still relies on 60% of its tourists from outside Africa, according to data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.“Any African, can get on a plane to Rwanda whenever they wish and they will not pay a thing to enter our country” said Kagame during the 23rd Global Summit of the World Travel and Tourism Council.“We should not lose sight of our own continental market,” he said. “Africans are the future of global tourism as our middle class continues to grow at a fast pace in the decades to come.”Once implemented, Rwanda w...

Finance committee calls for feds to block RBC-HSBC deal on competition concerns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

OTTAWA — The finance committee of the House of Commons has called on the Finance Minister to block RBC’s $13.5-billion takeover of HSBC Canada over concerns it will hurt competition. The committee says in a report to Parliament that there are already very few financial institutions in the Canadian banking sector, so the removal of a competitor could raise bank fees that are already elevated.The six committee members from the Conservative, Bloc Québécois and NDP parties voted in favour of the report, while Liberal members abstained.The takeover has already been approved by the Competition Bureau, but still requires approval from Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.RBC spokesman Andrew McGrath said in a statement that the takeover is in the best interest of HSBC Canada’s 700,000 clients, and that the Competition Bureau’s review did not identify Competition Act concerns with the deal.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in October called for the deal to be blocked, poi...

REVIEW: Priscilla is an amazing film that will anger Elvis fans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

The 2022 Elvis biopic is not the first time the King of Rock and Roll’s life has been adapted to the big screen, but in the year since its release it has been solidified in many people’s eyes as the definitive one. It captures the excess of his life, the complicated relationship with his manager, and the power his performance had on the public. But a biopic film can’t capture every perspective of its subject, simply due to the amount of time in covering a life. One that was touched on briefly in the film was his relationship with his wife Priscilla, which eventually fell apart due to his frequent drug usage according to the 2022 film. However, if you were to ask Priscilla Presley herself why the relationship fell apart, it seems like she’d say drugs were only a small part of it.Callie Spaeny in Priscilla, courtesy of Elevation Pictures.Sofia Coppola’s (the director behind Marie Antoinette and Lost in Translation) latest film Priscilla is an adaptation o...

TVA Group lays off more than 500 employees as audiences and ad revenues shrink

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

MONTREAL — The TVA Group says it is laying off 547 employees — nearly a third of its workforce — amid restructuring as the company contends with declining audiences and ad revenues.The Montreal-based broadcaster says the shift involves overhauling its news division, ending its in-house entertainment content production and optimizing its real estate assets — including a reconsideration of the future use of its headquarters east of downtown.Pierre Karl Péladeau, CEO of Quebecor Inc., which owns TVA, says the subsidiary’s deficit is no longer sustainable.He says the company aims to refocus its activities, reduce operating costs and continue to offer original Quebec content.The 63-year-old company attributes its financial strain to the proliferation of streaming services and the shift of advertising spending to web giants rather than legacy media.TVA also took a shot at social media platforms for benefiting from links to news stories without paying for content and at CBC/Radio-Can...

City Council delays vote on Chicago’s status as a Sanctuary City

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:45:25 GMT

CHICAGO — A special Chicago City Council meeting led to some chaos as the council members met to vote on a possible referendum on the city's status as a Sanctuary City.For the referendum vote to happen, there needs to be at least 26 alderpeople present. The fractured body, throughout the contentious day, made multiple attempts to vote but came up short. Mayor Johnson in Washington D.C. over migrant crisis The meeting comes as Mayor Brandon Johnson is in Washington D.C. in an urgent attempt to get funding to deal with the crisis.The meeting ended with shouts and accusations. Venezuelan migrants accused of stealing nearly $3K in merchandise from Oak Brook Macy’s The lights were turned off in the midst of a chaotic debate as alderpeople argued about what constitutes a quorum."It's becoming very frustrating to get business done in the appropriate manner," 32nd Ward Ald. Scott Waguespack said. Dozens of alderpeople argued for citizens to vote on Chicago's decades-old Sanctuary ...