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White man who pulled gun gets probation for MLK Day confrontation with Black teens

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — A white man was sentenced to probation in South Florida Tuesday for pulling a gun and yelling racial slurs in a traffic confrontation with a group of Black teenagers protesting housing inequality on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2019.As part of a deal with with prosecutors, Mark Bartlett, 55, pleaded guilty to a hate crime and aggravated assault and also agreed not to possess a firearm for a decade, the Miami Herald reported. Bartlett must also perform 300 hours of community service and take anger management classes and racial sensitivity training. Bartlett could have faced decades in prison, but Miami-Dade County Judge Alberto Milian granted Bartlett a withhold of adjudication, which means Bartlett will avoid a formal conviction.Bartlett had previously claimed he was acting in self-defense during the confrontation, but following a 2021 hearing Milian ruled that Bartlett did not act reasonably in getting out of his SUV and pulling a pistol on the teenage protesters who ...

Hawaii reopens popular stretch of Waikiki beach after endangered monk seal pup weans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — A young Hawaiian monk seal has weaned and relocated, allowing a stretch of a popular Hawaii beach to reopen Tuesday after it was made off-limits to protect the endangered pup while it nursed.Hawaii officials last month cordoned off a large stretch of a popular Waikiki neighborhood beach to protect the seal mother, named Kaiwi, and her days-old pup, named Pualani. State conservation and and resources enforcement officers kept around-the-clock watch.The birth of an endangered seal at one of Hawaii’s most popular tourism hubs highlighted the tension between protecting the islands’ fragile ecosystems and maintaining access to the pristine white-sand beaches that attract millions of visitors each year. Kaimana Beach is next to a mid-sized hotel and is a favorite swimming and sunbathing spot for locals and visitors. Starting six years ago, monk seals have occasionally given birth there, setting the stage for conflict between seal mothers and beachgoers.Authorities took ext...

New Mexico man charged in cold case: ‘I needed to confess’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Officers found Tony Peralta sitting on a curb not far from a convenience store where he borrowed a cell phone to call 911 and confess to the 2008 killing of his former landlord.Sweating and taking puffs from his cigarette, he told them he’s tired of covering it up, tired of living with the lie and tired of being overwhelmed by guilt. He agreed to take the officers to where he buried the body before standing up and volunteering to be cuffed.Police in the southeastern New Mexico community of Roswell released the 911 recording and nearly an hour of officer body camera video in response to a records request filed by The Associated Press. The May 1 footage shows Peralta repeatedly thanking the officers for picking him up.“I confess, man. I confess. I don’t want to live life anymore without confessing,” he said while sitting in an interview room at police headquarters. The uniformed officers and detectives who talked with Peralta peppered him with ques...

What to know about the Texas prison where Elizabeth Holmes is serving her 11-year sentence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

BRYAN, Texas (AP) — Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has reported to a federal prison in Texas — marking the start of her 11-year sentence for overseeing a notorious blood testing hoax.Holmes, 39, was convicted of fraud last year for duping investors who contributed hundreds of millions of dollars in the failed Silicon Valley startup. Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, Holmes’ former partner and fellow executive who is currently serving a nearly 13-year prison sentence, said Theranos had developed a device that could quickly scan for diseases and other medical conditions with a just few drops of blood. But the technology never worked as advertised — leading to the meteoric downfall of a company that once promised to revolutionize health care.On Tuesday, Holmes entered a federal women’s prison camp in Bryan, Texas — a minimum-security facility where the federal judge who sentenced Holmes in November recommended she be incarcerated.Here are some things to know about Feder...

NYC enacts ‘Homeless Bill of Rights,’ but doubts arise over key provisions such as right to shelter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Eric Adams allowed a “Homeless Bill of Rights” to become law over the weekend, a step supporters say will strengthen legal protections for the unhoused in a city struggling with a record number of people in its shelter system.The measure passed the City Council with bipartisan support in April as city shelters were swelled beyond capacity by the arrival of 70,000 international migrants since last spring.Among other things, the new law gives people the explicit right to sleep outdoors in public places — though not anyplace they like. New York City has other laws in place that could limit where outside the unhoused can sleep.Police can clear sidewalks and streets of anyone who impedes the flow of traffic. Most city parks close at 1 a.m. And people can’t generally sleep on privately owned property.The law also gives people the right to complain about shelter accommodations without repercussion and includes safeguards to prevent a person from being assigne...

With vocabulary more important than ever, National Spelling Bee requires different prep

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Navneeth Murali would strongly prefer for the Scripps National Spelling Bee to get rid of the onstage, multiple-choice vocabulary questions that were introduced to the competition two years ago.“It’s sort of hit or miss, the onstage vocab format, and it’s sort of brutal in my opinion,” the 17-year-old former speller said.The vocabulary questions are part of a series of changes to the post-pandemic bee, which is leaner and, in some ways, meaner. Accomplished spellers can be bounced from the bee without ever misspelling a word. And because there is no alternative path to the bee as there was in the late 2010s, the regional bees spellers must win to qualify can be incredibly tense, and sometimes shocking. Last year’s national runner-up, Vikram Raju, didn’t make it back in his final year of eligibility.The tweaks help ensure the bee, which began Tuesday with the preliminary rounds and concludes Thursday, finishes on schedule with a sole cham...

Skilling: Partly cloudy, warm before 90 degrees on Wednesday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

We did in Chicago today! Recorded our first official 90-deg high temp of 2023 at 1:34pm Tuesday afternoon. This first 90 comes 19-days later than a year ago when the first 90 at O'Hare occurred on May 11th (a day earlier, May 10, 2022 at Midway).Air quality issues have arisen with an Illinois EPA Air Quality Alert in effect until midnight. The presence of scattered t-storm should allow increased mixing of air a modest decrease in sunshine Wednesday thus cutting down on the photochemical reactions which produce ozone as a by-product.The same wide spread in Chicago area temps between the immediate lake shoreline, where mid afternoon temps have held to 60 at the Wilmette harbor buoy, 65 on the Lake Forest shoreline, 64 at the Waukegan Harbor buoy, 67 at Burns Harbor, IN, 66 at Michigan City and 71 at Ogden Dunes and 72 at Calumet Harbor represented the coolest area temps. The offshore Harrison-Dever Crib—3 miles off the North Side of Chicago report 61-deg a mid afternoon.In stark contr...

Here's what's in, what's out of the debt limit bill to avert US default

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP/WGN) — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have been working the phones in an intense push to sell Congress on the 99-page bill that would suspend the nation's debt limit through 2025 to avoid a federal default while limiting government spending.The Democratic president and Republican speaker have to win their respective parties’ support for the plan in time to avert a default that would shake the global economy. On Tuesday, lawmakers will begin scrutinizing and debating the legislation, which also includes provisions to fund medical care for veterans, change work requirements for some recipients of government aid and streamline environmental reviews for controversial pipelines and other energy projects.The modest deal gives both men wins to tout, with Biden protecting major parts of his agenda from Republican cuts and McCarthy scoring several conservative spending caps and changes to government programs. McCarthy has pledged that the House will vote ...

Former Cubs pitcher apologizes for sharing homophobic social media post

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass apologized Tuesday for expressing support on social media for anti-LGBTQ+ boycotts of Target and Bud Light.Bass shared a post on his Instagram stories Monday urging others to spurn the American companies over support for they showed for the LGBTQ+ community. Both companies are dealing with fallout from those campaigns, which have included hostile and homophobic criticism and calls from LGBTQ+ activists not to cave to anti-LGBTQ+ groups.The right-handed reliever made a brief statement on the field but did not take questions before the Blue Jays hosted Milwaukee.“I recognize yesterday ​​I made a post that was hurtful to the Pride community, which includes friends of mine and close family members of mine,” Bass said. “I am truly sorry for that.”Bass said he had addressed teammates about the controversial post and apologized to them for sharing it. LGBTQ+ activists call for new strategies to promote equality after Target backl...

Chicago City Council to vote on making outdoor dining permanent

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:31 GMT

CHICAGO -- The Chicago City Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a plan to make outdoor dining permanent across the city.During the COVID pandemic, many businesses needed patios to stay afloat and continue serving customers. Those temporary rules could now become part of the city’s municipal code."It will attract visitors and it’s something we need," 50th Ward Alderperson Debra Silverstein said.President and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association, Sam Toia, said if passed, this would be quite a win for bars and restaurants."Restaurants have been going through a rough time over the last few years cause of the pandemic inflation and the sidewalk ordinance. Today will help restaurants move forward in the summer months." Toia said. "Citizens and tourists love eating outdoors we are the best summer city in America and this outdoor ordinance makes us an even better summer city."If approved by the city council on Wednesday, the new plan would allow aldermen to approve or deny expan...