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New York lawmakers move to pass bill that considers reparations for slavery

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York would create a commission to consider reparations to address the lingering, negative effects of slavery under a bill passed by the state Assembly on Thursday. “We want to make sure we are looking at slavery and its legacies,” said state Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages before the floor debate. “This is about beginning the process of healing our communities. There still is generational trauma that people are experiencing. This is just one step forward.”The state Assembly passed the bill about three hours after spirited debate on Thursday. The state Senate is expected to vote on the bill before the end of the legislative session on Friday.New York is following the lead of California, which became the first state to form a reparations task force in 2020. That group recommended a formal apology from the state on its legacy of racism and discriminatory policies and the creation of an agency to provide a wide range of services for Black residents. They did not ...

Defrocked priest facing new sexual assault charges in Igloolik, Nunavut

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

IQALUIT — Court records show defrocked Oblate priest Eric Dejaeger is facing six charges of indecent assault and two charges of sexual assault for crimes he allegedly committed in Nunavut between 1978 and 1982.The records indicate that five of the complainants are female and one is male. Their identities are protected by a publication ban.A Nunavut Court of Justice document also says that the alleged crimes took place in Igloolik, an Inuit hamlet in the territory’s Qikiqtaaluk Region. Iqaluit RCMP announced Wednesday that Dejaeger was arrested on a Canada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ont., where he was living. Police gave no details about when and where the alleged assaults occurred, but said the charges stem from investigations conducted between 2011 and 2015.The former priest has previously been convicted of committing numerous sexual offences when he was working as an Oblate missionary.He appeared on the charges in Iqaluit on Thursday. His next court appearance is set for June...

Mexico charges migrant in detention center fire that killed 40

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A federal judge in Mexico has charged another Venezuelan migrant for his alleged role in the March blaze at a Mexican detention center that left 40 dead and dozens more wounded.Mexico prosecutor’s office said Thursday in a statement that a man identified as Carlos “C” was charged with homicide, injuries and damages caused by the fire in a migrant detention facility in Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.Authorities identified him, along with another migrant from Venezuela, as one of the people who allegedly started the fire, which was the deadliest ever at a Mexican immigration facility.The tragic blaze and its aftermath captured global attention earlier this year as loved ones across the Hemisphere mourned and demanded justice for the victims.It also sparked controversy and intense criticism about the treatment of migrants by both Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and American authorities, which have constantly pressured the Mex...

Nursing home resident pleads guilty to murder, rape of 80-year-old invalid

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A 61-year-old Indianapolis nursing home resident pleaded guilty to murder and rape Thursday in the death of an 80-year-old invalid last year.Dwayne Freeman faces 45 years in prison as part of a plea agreement when he’s sentenced June 22 for the crimes against Patricia Newnum.Court documents say an employee at Homestead Healthcare Center entered Newnum’s room to give her medication on the morning of Feb. 2, 2022. She saw Freeman naked and lying on top of Newnum while holding a pillow over her face. Documents say Freeman admitted to having sex with Newnum, but said it was consensual. It wasn’t clear why Freeman was a resident of the nursing home.The Marion County Coroner’s Office ruled Newnum died of asphyxiation by smothering. Newnum’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Homestead, which is owned by Adams County Memorial Hospital, a small hospital in northeast Indiana. The hospital contracts with Cincinnati-based CommuniCare to operate th...

Fugitive suspect in 1984 Florida killing arrested 39 years later in California

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A man wanted in the 1984 killing of a Florida woman has been arrested in California nearly four decades later, authorities said Thursday. Detectives from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office were traveling to San Diego County to interview Donald Michael Santini, who was being held in jail following his arrest Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.Santini had been on the run since June 1984, when Florida authorities obtained an arrest warrant linking him to the strangling death of 33-year-old Cynthia Ruth Wood of Bradenton, located south of Tampa.Wood’s body was found in a watery ditch three days after she went missing on June 6 of that year. The arrest warrant said a medical examiner determined she had been strangled and Santini’s fingerprints were found on her body, WFTS-TV reported. “We are aware of this arrest and have sent detectives to interview Santini, while we await extradition,” the sheriff’s office sa...

Officers round up hundreds of pigs from overwhelmed Florida animal sanctuary

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

CANTONMENT, Fla. (AP) — Animal control officers rounded up more than 600 pigs from an animal sanctuary in Florida after their overwhelmed owner called for help. It took nearly four days for officers in Escambia County to capture so many pigs on the 8-acre (3.2-hectare) property used by In Loving Swineness Sanctuary, said John Robinson, the county’s animal control director.Last year, the sanctuary had about 150 miniature pigs that its owners were using to remove invasive cogon grass around the Florida Panhandle community of Cantonment, the Pensacola News Journal reported. The pigs proved to be prolific procreators. Their population had grown so large, Robinson said, that the sanctuary operator called his agency last week saying: “I can’t take this anymore.” During the roundup, the pigs showed “zero interest” in cooperating with animal control officers, who left several of the larger hogs behind to ensure nobody got hurt, Robinson said. “It’s so difficult when you’re dealing wit...

A third day of smoky air gives millions in US East Coast, Canada a new view of wildfire threat

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Images of smoke obscuring the New York skyline and the Washington Monument this week have given the world a new picture of the perils of wildfire, far from where blazes regularly turn skies into hazardous haze.A third day of unhealthy air from Canadian wildfires may have been an unnerving novelty for millions of people on the U.S. East Coast, but it was a reminder of conditions routinely troubling the country’s West — and a wake-up call about the future, scientists say.“This is kind of an astounding event” but likely to become more common amid global warming, said Justin Mankin, a Dartmouth College geography professor and climate scientist. “This is something that we, as the eastern side of the country, need to take quite seriously.”Millions of residents could see that for themselves Thursday. The conditions sent asthma sufferers to hospitals, delayed flights, postponed ballgames and even pushed back a White House Pride Month celebration. The fires sent plumes ...

California’s Newsom pushes constitutional amendment to tighten gun access amid 2024 campaign

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed Thursday amending the U.S. Constitution to harden federal gun laws amid a surge of mass killings across the nation, his latest step onto the national stage amid the unfolding 2024 White House campaign. With the U.S. bitterly divided over gun rights and the 2nd Amendment, the chances of recasting the Constitution to enshrine universal background checks, a waiting period to buy firearms and other restrictions into law appeared remote. A new amendment has not been added since 1992. Newsom has denied any interest in a presidential run and is supporting President Joe Biden’s reelection bid. But his proposal marked his latest maneuver in what has taken on the look like a shadow campaign as he injects himself into the national discussion on guns, abortion, immigration and other contentious issues. He’s been in a running dispute with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, and traveled to Flori...

David Sedaris’ first children’s book, ‘Pretty Ugly,’ to be published next February

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — David Sedaris is publishing his first children’s book, a collaboration with Ian Falconer conceived decades ago and finished shortly before the “Olivia” creator died in March. Toon Books, an imprint of Astra Publishing House, announced Thursday that “Pretty Ugly” will be published Feb. 27 of next year. A look at the “age-old question” of what makes people attractive or unattractive, “Pretty Ugly” began 20 years ago as a contribution to the anthology “Little Lit: Strange Stories for Strange Kids.”More recently, Toon publisher Françoise Mouly, who helped edit “Little Lit,” thought “Pretty Ugly” would work as a stand-alone book.“With the systematic attacks so-called conservatives are leveling on all those they see as deviant or even just different, it felt urgent to publish a tale with such a clear moral center,” Mouly said in a statement. “David and Ian agreed and earlier this year, we finalized the editing and design, prepping it for spring 2024 publi...

GM’s electric vehicles will gain access to Tesla’s vast charging network

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:07 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Electric vehicles made by General Motors will be able to use much of Tesla’s extensive charging network beginning early next year under an agreement the two companies announced Thursday.In addition, GM will adopt Tesla’s connector, the plug that links an electric vehicle to a charging station.GM joins Ford in shifting its electric vehicles to work with about 12,000 of Tesla’s roughly 17,000 chargers, and both Detroit automakers are pushing to make Tesla’s connector the industry standard. GM CEO Mary Barra and her Tesla counterpart, Elon Musk, made the announcement during a Twitter Spaces conversation. Their discussion comes two weeks after Ford CEO Jim Farley joined Musk to announce that Ford’s electric vehicles would gain access to much of Tesla’s EV-charging network, the largest in the nation. Farley also said Ford would switch to Tesla’s connector rather than go with the connector used by the rest of the industry. At first,...