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Watchdog wants RFK Jr. uninvited after comments called antisemetic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

By Ali Swenson | Associated PressNEW YORK — A Democratic watchdog group has called for a U.S. House committee to rescind an invitation to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after the Democratic presidential candidate was filmed falsely suggesting COVID-19 could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, sent a letter to Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, asking him to disinvite Kennedy from a hearing scheduled for Thursday after the candidate’s comments at a New York City dinner last week prompted widespread accusations of antisemitism and racism.In the filmed remarks first published by The New York Post, Kennedy said “there is an argument” that COVID-19 “is ethnically targeted” and that it “attacks certain races disproportionately.”“COVID-19 is ta...

Man stabbed with pencil, bitten in Santa Rita Jail attack; suspect had pending mental health evaluation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

DUBLIN — While awaiting a mental health review by psychiatrists, a Santa Rita Jail inmate allegedly stabbed his cellmate with a pencil, bit him in the ear, and pulled a plastic bag over his head, authorities say.The 41-year-old San Lorenzo resident allegedly attacked his cellmate on May 31, just two weeks after his attorney openly doubted that his client was mentally competent to stand trial and asked for him to receive a psychological evaluation. Since the attack, which has not resulted in criminal charges, the man has been evaluated and is awaiting transfer to a hospital, but remains in jail for now, court records show.The man’s next court date, where a judge will review a recommendation that he be hospitalized, has been set for Friday, according to court records.The man was arrested last March, after allegedly attacking his roommate at a residential care home in San Lorenzo, according to court records. Just two months later, his lawyer formally declared a doubt to his...

Smartmatic subpoenas Flynn, Bannon in defamation suits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

By Marshall Cohen | CNNTrump allies Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon have been subpoenaed by Smartmatic as part of the voting technology company’s massive defamation lawsuits against Fox News and Newsmax over their promotion of 2020 election lies.Court filings made public last week in New York and Delaware indicate that Flynn and Bannon were hit with subpoenas, demanding that they sit for depositions and answer questions under oath. The depositions were initially scheduled for this week, though timing can change based on negotiations and other developments in the lawsuits.Bannon is also required to turn over subpoenaed documents to Smartmatic, including any communications with top officials from Fox News, the Trump campaign and the Trump administration about the 2020 presidential election, according to court filings.CNN has reached out to attorneys for Flynn and Bannon.Smartmatic’s lawsuits against Fox News and Newsmax are part of a constellation of pending defamation cases stemming f...

After protests, Iran’s morality police return to the streets

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

By Associated PressDUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian authorities on Sunday announced a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf and morality police returned to the streets 10 months after the death of a woman in their custody sparked nationwide protests.The morality police had largely pulled back following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last September, as authorities struggled to contain mass protests calling for the overthrow of the theocracy that has ruled Iran for over four decades.The protests largely died down earlier this year following a heavy crackdown in which over 500 protesters were killed and nearly 20,000 detained. But many women continued to flout the official dress code, especially in the capital, Tehran, and other cities.The morality police were only rarely seen patrolling the streets, and in December, there were even some reports — later denied — that they had been disbanded.Authorities insisted throughout the crisis that the rules had not...

Grocery chain adds new anti-theft measures at some Bay Area stores

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

(KRON) -- Customers who shop at Safeway stores in the Bay Area may have to get used to a few changes in some locations, as the grocery chain is installing new measures to prevent theft. Federal judge upholds San Jose gun insurance ordinance (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)The aim of the changes is to "maintain a safe and welcoming shopping experience for our customers and associates given the increasing amount of theft," Safeway told KRON4. "Those updates include operational changes to the front end of the stores to deter shoplifting. Like other local businesses, we are working on ways to curtail escalating theft...These long-planned security improvements were implemented with those goals in mind." -- SafewayKRON On is streaming now.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height...

Energy Company Plotted Gas Plant in Small Pennsylvania Town — But No One Told Residents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

When Zulene Mayfield received a call from a reporter last summer, she was surprised. A journalist working at Philadelphia’s public radio station had contacted her for a story about a plan to develop a liquefied natural gas facility in her hometown of Chester, Pennsylvania, a city that sits along the Delaware River just southwest of the Philadelphia International Airport.Since 1992, Mayfield has led an environmental justice group called Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living. She formed the group to address local concerns about the concentration of waste disposal facilities throughout the city, most notably incineration and waste treatment plants. Chester is home to one of the country’s biggest incinerators, a waste-to-energy facility owned by the Covanta corporation, which burns trash from up and down the East Coast.The facilities, Mayfield said, were sickening residents in Chester, an overwhelmingly Black and low-income community. Over the years, Mayfield helped lead severa...

Mother says man who killed 4 people in Georgia needed mental help for years but refused treatment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — The 40-year-old man who shot four people in the country’s 31st mass killing this year needed mental help for nearly a decade but his family and officials couldn’t force him to get treatment, his mother said.Andre Longmore walked through his neighborhood in the semi-rural suburb of Hampton, Georgia, on Saturday and fatally shot four neighbors, all older adults. The killings set off a massive search that ended Sunday with Longmore dead in a shootout in another suburb about 15 miles (25 kilometers) north of Hampton. The exchange of gunfire wounded a sheriff’s deputy and two police officers, who all were expected to recover.Longmore had a “mental breakdown” in 2014, leading to an inpatient hospital stay, his mother Lorna Dennis, told WSB-TV on Sunday. She said her son “kept deteriorating” but refused to seek medical attention, and that officials said they couldn’t force him to seek care.“It’s hard to lose your son, and it’s also hard to know your son cost...

Reabren las estaciones Vienna y Dunn Loring de la línea naranja tras meses de remodelaciones

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

Las estaciones de Metro Vienna y Dunn Loring abrieron este lunes después de estar cerradas por dos meses debido a remodelaciones, con lo que se resume el servicio en el norte de Virginia. Ambas estaciones pararon su servicio el 3 de junio debido a un reemplazo de 20 millas de líneas de riel instaladas hace 40 años. Las estaciones también instalaron cables de fibra óptica para servicios de comunicaciones. Estos cierres afectaron el transporte de muchos pasajeros que dependen de estas estaciones para viajar desde Virginia hasta DC. “¡Bienvenidos de nuevo! El trabajo de vía de la Línea Naranja está completo; las estaciones de Viena y Dunn Loring están abiertas. Gracias por su paciencia mientras reemplazamos el riel para que sea más seguro para usted”, tuiteó WMATA.Durante el cierre Metro, ofreció autobuses para  pasajeros y ofrecieron estacionamientos a costo reducido. La viajera Jody Carlson le dijo a NBC4, cadena hermana de TELEMUNDO 44, que estaba contenta de que el cier...

Matthew Jordan recounts Tiger memories ahead of hitting opening tee shot at British Open

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

HOYLAKE, England (AP) — Matthew Jordan has been given the honor of hitting the first tee shot at the 151st British Open. He’ll know exactly where to put it.The 27-year-old Jordan lives in Hoylake and is a member at Royal Liverpool. No surprise, then, that he has been approached by a number of players about the optimal way to get around the course.He hasn’t been giving much away.“I might pick and choose what I tell people,” Jordan said Monday.For the two British Opens staged at Hoylake since the turn of the century — won by Tiger Woods in 2006 and Rory McIlroy in 2014 — Jordan was a wide-eyed spectator enthralled with seeing the best players of the world right in front of him.He said he “froze” when Woods walked past him and through the clubhouse. “In ’06, he was on the putting green,” Jordan recalled about Woods, “and I don’t think I moved for 20 minutes.”He remembers getting up early enough to see the first group out. On Thursday, he’ll be among them — his tee tim...

Alabama Republicans, despite Supreme Court ruling, reject call for second majority Black district

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:46 GMT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Republicans, under orders of the U.S. Supreme Court to redraw congressional districts to give minority voters a greater voice in elections, rejected calls Monday to craft a second majority-Black district and proposed a map testing the judges’ directive. Lawmakers must adopt a new map by Friday after the high court in June affirmed a three-judge panel’s ruling that Alabama’s existing congressional map — with a single Black district out of seven statewide — likely violated the Voting Rights Act. In a state where more than one in four residents is Black, the lower court panel had ruled in 2022 that Alabama should have another majority-Black congressional district or something “close to it” so Black voters have the opportunity to “elect a representative of their choice.”Republicans, long resistant to creating a second Democratic-leaning district, proposed a map that would increase the percentage of Black voters in the 2nd congressional d...