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North Carolina Republicans close in on new districts seeking to fortify GOP in Congress, legislature

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republicans closed in Tuesday on enacting new boundaries for the state’s congressional and legislative districts that aim to fortify GOP prospects both in the narrowly divided Congress and in the state General Assembly, where conservatives hope to solidify control there for the rest of the decade.The full Senate voted along party lines for maps for the state’s congressional delegation and for the Senate’s own districts. The state House voted later Tuesday for districts in their own chamber. House and Senate leaders aimed for their chambers to give final approval to all three maps Wednesday. They were all drawn by Republicans in time for the 2024 elections after recent state Supreme Court rulings reversed decisions of the court last year that had thrown out proposed district lines it had deemed were illegal partisan gerrymanders. The state’s highest court flipped from a Democratic to a Republican majority with the 2022 elections, ...

Georgia man killed himself as officers sought to ask him about escapees, authorities say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

MACON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man has died after he wounded himself when police officers appeared at his door to question him about four escaped inmates, authorities said.Bibb County deputies said Christian Demond Williams, 23, died Tuesday morning at a Macon hospital. The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force found Williams at a Macon apartment after investigators got a tip that he might have information about four men who escaped Oct. 16 from the Bibb County jail.Bibb County deputies said another man has been arrested in a car theft believed to be connected to the jailbreak.When task force agents arrived Monday, a bullet was fired through the door of the apartment, Bibb County Sheriff David Davis has told reporters.After a SWAT team was called, a woman inside the apartment led officers to Williams, who was lying wounded. She said Williams had shot himself, deputies said. He was taken to a Macon hospital in critical condition. Davis said no officers fired their guns.Bibb County Coroner L...

NCAA title game foes Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese headline AP preseason women’s All-America team

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

Caitlin Clark of Iowa is a unanimous pick for The Associated Press preseason women’s basketball All-America team for the second consecutive season.The star guard was on all 36 ballots from the national media panel that selects the AP Top 25 each week. She led the Hawkeyes to the NCAA championship game for the first time in school history where they lost to Angel Reese and LSU. Reese was also selected as a preseason All-American, appearing on 35 ballots.Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech, Cameron Brink of Stanford, Paige Bueckers of UConn and Mackenzie Holmes of Indiana were also selected for the team. Kitley and Holmes tied in the voting for the fifth spot.Clark is now a three-time preseason All-American and is set to have another record year. Last season’s AP player of the year averaged 27.8 points, 8.6 assists and 7.1 rebounds. The senior, who has one more season left of eligibility after this year if she wants it, is 810 points behind Kelsey Plum’s NCAA record of...

10 days after heading to sea, 3 fishermen are missing off Georgia amid wide search by Coast Guard

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Three commercial fishermen are missing, 10 days after their boat headed to sea off Georgia, prompting a search by the U.S. Coast Guard over thousands of square miles of ocean.Crews were still scouring the waters with boats and planes for the 31-foot (9.45 meter) fishing vessel Carol Ann after searching more than 32,000 square miles (82,880 square kilometers) over several days, the Coast Guard said Tuesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter.The boat’s captain, Dalton Conway, departed the port city of Brunswick on Oct. 14 along with two crew members, Caleb Wilkinson and Tyler Barlow. The Coast Guard launched its search efforts Friday after the boat’s owner reported the fishermen hadn’t returned on schedule.Barlow’s parents, Kim Jones and Chris Barlow, said they’re still hopeful all three men will be found safe.“We just need to keep the search going,” Jones told the Savannah Morning News. “We don’t want this search to end, because we do firmly believe th...

New York can resume family DNA searches for crime suspects, court rules

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s highest court on Tuesday ruled police can resume a DNA searching method that can identify relatives of potential suspects, a technique that has helped solve crimes but caused privacy concerns. The method, known as familial DNA searches, allows law enforcement agencies to search information in their DNA databases to find blood relatives of people who have left genetic material at a crime scene.The order from the New York Court of Appeals allows the state to use such searches in criminal cases, reversing a lower court ruling from last year that blocked the practice. The case was brought by two men whose brothers were convicted of crimes and had genetic information in the state’s databanks. They alleged that searches could improperly target them because of their family members’ crimes and that the technique was never approved by the state Legislature. Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson, writing for the majority, said that the state’s rulemaking...

White House scraps plan for B-52s to entertain at state dinner against backdrop of Israel-Hamas war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House scrapped plans to have the new wave band the B-52s perform at Wednesday’s state dinner for Australia’s prime minister after deciding that it would be inappropriate at a time when “so many are facing sorrow and pain,” in the words of first lady Jill Biden.Without directly referencing the devastation of the Israel-Hamas war, the first lady announced Tuesday that “we’ve made a few adjustments to the entertainment portion” of the dinner. Instead of the band best known for “Love Shack,” the entertainment will be instrumental music provided by the Marine band and the Army and Air Force Strolling Strings. “Nurturing our partnerships and relationships with our allies is critically important, especially in these tumultuous times,” she said. “Food is comforting, reassuring and healing, and we hope that this dinner provides a little of that as well.”Members of the B-52s will instead be guests at the dinner honoring Australian Prime Mini...

First Quantum Minerals earnings rise to US$325 million in third quarter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

TORONTO — First Quantum Minerals Ltd. reported US$325 million in net earnings attributable to shareholders for the third quarter, up from US$113 million a year earlier. Sales revenues totalled US$2.0 billion, up from US$1.7 billion.Diluted earnings per share for the Toronto-based company were 47 cents US, up from 37 cents US a year earlier. CEO Tristan Pascall says production continued to improve during the third quarter at each of the company’s three main copper operations. Earlier in the year, First Quantum’s production took a hit amid a dispute with the Panama government over its Cobre Panamá copper mine. On Monday, the company announced that the bill enacting its mining concession contract for the mine became law, after reaching a deal with the government in March. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:FM)The Canadian Press

Quebec anti-corruption police note proliferation of small-scale schemes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

Quebec’s anti-corruption police force says although the scandals that defined the province’s construction industry in the last decade have subsided, corrupt activities have sprouted on a smaller scale in other sectors.Anti-corruption commissioner Frédérick Gaudreau presented the force’s five-year report in Quebec City today, noting criminal proceedings against 259 people and 57 convictions since 2018.Many of those legal proceedings are ongoing, and 17 of the 57 convictions stemmed from charges filed before 2018, when the anti-corruption unit known as UPAC became a full-fledged police force.Only 44 out of the 259 cases have gone through the entire judicial process in the last five years, and 40 of them resulted in convictions.Instead of large-scale conspiracies, Gaudreau said the force is now seeing smaller, covert corruption schemes.He noted cases at the municipal level, in school administrations and in the health-care sector.This report by The Canadian Press was f...

York U, students’ union, named in $15M lawsuit alleging decades of anti-Semitic campus incidents

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

York University and its students’ union, the York Federation of Students, have been named in a $15 million class-action lawsuit that alleges failure to address recurring anti-Semitic incidents at the school over a span of two decades.Diamond and Diamond Lawyers, which initiated the legal action, says the lawsuit represents current students, recent alumni, and attendees from 1998-2021.“The plaintiffs allege they have been made to feel unsafe on campus, silenced, forced to hide their Jewish identity, been harassed, and even threatened with physical violence,” a release from the law firm states. Related: York U threatens sanctions against student unions over controversial statements about Hamas attacks Diamond and Diamond Lawyers said the school and the student union were negligent “in failing to address anti-Semitic incidents, violating York’s non-discrimination policies, and providing insufficient staff training on handling harassment.&#...

The US is sharing hard lessons from urban combat in Iraq and Syria as Israel prepares to invade Gaza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The prospect of Israeli forces launching an assault into Gaza’s dense urban neighborhoods, where militants use civilians as human shields, brings back searing memories of the deadly battles the U.S.-led coalition fought against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.For U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his military leaders, that intense combat and the thousands of civilians killed in airstrikes and neighborhood gunfights in Mosul and Raqqa are lessons to be shared as Israel prepares for a possible ground invasion against Hamas. “In our conversations with the Israelis, and as we’ve made very clear, we’re continuing to highlight, the importance of mitigating civilian casualties and ensuring that … things like safety corridors are thought through,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday. The U.S. can paint a vivid picture of civilian slaughter. During the eight-month siege to liberate Mosul from Islamic insurgents, as many as 10,000...