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Judge denies bid to prohibit US border officials from turning back asylum-seekers at land crossings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday denied a bid by immigration advocates to prohibit U.S. officials from turning away asylum-seekers at border crossings with Mexico if they don’t have appointments on a mobile phone app.The ruling is a victory for the Biden administration and its approach to creating new pathways to enter the United States, while, at the same time, making it more difficult for those who don’t follow prescribed methods to seek asylum.More than 263,000 people scheduled appointments on the CBP One app from when it was introduced in January through August, including 45,400 who were processed in August. The top nationalities of those who scheduled appointments are Haitian, Mexican and Venezuelan. The app has been criticized on the right as too permissive and on the left as too restrictive.CBP One has become “the sole mechanism to access the U.S. asylum process at a (port of entry) on the southern border,” attorneys for Al Otro Lado and the Haitian Brid...

Virginia statehouse candidates face questions about residency requirements

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia state lawmakers are required to live in the district they represent, as well as in any district they might be seeking to represent. If they move out of their district, the state constitution says they are out of office.Those requirements, combined with political maps that took effect this year, have created a headache for some candidates.At least two sitting lawmakers seeking reelection in new districts say they are living either with or in the home of a relative rather than with their immediate family, in order to meet the residency requirements.But for one of those two, Democratic Del. C.E. “Cliff” Hayes, a private investigative company’s findings that were provided to The Associated Press by the House Republican caucus raise questions about that claim.Hayes said Friday that he’s following the rules. He reported to state officials earlier this year that he was living in a Chesapeake home that’s in both the 77th District, which he currently...

Lexi Thompson makes bold run at PGA Tour cut in Las Vegas, but 2 late bogeys stall her bid

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Lexi Thompson delivered star-power moments built for a stage like Las Vegas, and when she poured in a pair of long birdie putts Friday, she was on the verge of history.Thompson was 4 under with seven holes to play. She was on the verge of becoming the first woman in 78 years to make a 36-hole cut on the PGA Tour.One poor swing, one mediocre chip and one missed putt at end left her on the outside of the cut at the Shriners Children’s Open, but no less proud of two days she won’t soon forget. She wanted to inspire kids to chase their dreams, and she did all of that at the TPC Summerlin.“Playing with the guys — amazing feeling,” Thompson said after a 2-under 69. “Growing up with guys, I’ve always wanted to be out on a PGA Tour event and tee it up. But the biggest thing was seeing the kids out there outside the ropes and then meeting a few of the Shriners ambassadors. That was the most special.”Her golf was a close second.Thompson made five birdies in ...

Trump says he stands with Netanyahu after a barrage of GOP criticism for saying he ‘let us down’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said Friday that he stood with Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as his GOP rivals continued to pointedly denounce his lashing out at Netanyahu days after Hamas’ deadly attacks.Referring to Netanyahu by his nickname, Trump posted “#IStandWithIsrael” and “#IStandWithBibi” on his Truth Social network Friday afternoon. That stood in stark contrast to comments earlier this week, when Trump told a rally crowd in Florida that Netanyahu had “let us down” before the U.S. killed a top Iranian general. Trump further faulted the country’s intelligence agencies, saying they needed to “step up their game,” and referred to Hezbollah, the group Israel fears may launch a large-scale attack from the country’s north, as “very smart.”The comments drew widespread condemnation from the White House as well as Trump’s GOP rivals, who have generally avoided directly attacking the former president and GOP front-runner because...

As accusations fly over ballot stuffing in mayoral primary, Connecticut Democrat takes the 5th

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A local Democratic official in Connecticut’s largest city invoked her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination Friday rather than answer questions in court about allegations of illegal ballot box stuffing during a recent mayoral primary.Wanda Geter-Pataky, vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, exercised her right to remain silent multiple times during a court hearing in a lawsuit challenging the results of the Sept. 12 primary, in which incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim defeated fellow Democrat John Gomes.Among the questions she wouldn’t answer: Whether she was the woman seen on surveillance footage making multiple trips in the predawn darkness to an election drop box outside a government building, and stuffing papers inside that looked like ballots.“She is invoking her Fifth Amendment privilege,” her lawyer, John Gulash, told the court.Testimony began Thursday and is scheduled to continue next week in a court proceeding in which ...

Environmentalists warn of intent to sue over snail species living near Nevada lithium mine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

RENO, Nev. (AP) — In an ongoing legal battle with the Biden administration over a Nevada lithium mine, environmentalists are poised to return to court with a new approach accusing U.S. wildlife officials of dragging their feet on a year-old petition seeking endangered species status for a tiny snail that lives nearby. The Western Watersheds Project said in its formal notice of intent to sue that the government’s failure to list the Kings River pyrg as a threatened or endangered species could push it to the brink of extinction.It says the only place the snail is known to exist is in 13 shallow springs near where Lithium Americas is building its Thacker Pass Mine near the Oregon line.President Joe Biden has made ramped-up domestic production of lithium a key part of his blueprint for a greener future. Worldwide demand for the critical element in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries is projected to increase six-fold by 2030 compared with 2020.Past lawsuits filed by conse...

Black student disciplined over hairstyle hopes to ‘start being a kid again’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

For more than a month, Darryl George, a Black high school student in Texas, spent each school day sitting by himself in punishment over his hairstyle. This week, he was sent to a separate disciplinary program, where he’s been told he will spend several more weeks away from classmates.In an interview with The Associated Press, George said he has felt discouraged about missing out on his classes and time with the football team.“I feel like I’m missing my full experience of being in the classroom,” George said Thursday. George, 18, was first pulled from the classroom at his Houston-area school in August after school officials said his locs fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violated the district’s dress code. His family argues his hairstyle does not break any rules.By the time George is allowed to return to Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, in November, he will have missed 56 of 67 days of regular classroom instruction to start his junior year. The family ha...

US military to begin draining leaky fuel tank facility that poisoned Pearl Harbor drinking water

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — The military next week plans to begin draining fuel from World War II-era underground fuel tanks in Hawaii, nearly two years after the massive facility sickened 6,000 people when it leaked jet fuel into a Pearl Harbor drinking water well.Removing the fuel is a key step toward shutting down the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility as demanded by the state of Hawaii. The November 2021 spill poisoned the Navy’s water system serving 93,000 people in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The leak continues to threaten an aquifer used by Honolulu’s municipal water utility to serve 400,000 people on Oahu.“I want the community to know that my team and I understand the enormity and the significance of this mission,” said Vice Admiral John Wade, the commander of Joint Task Force-Red Hill.Work to drain the 104 million gallons (394 million liters) remaining in the tanks was scheduled to begin on Monday. Each tank is 250 feet (76 meters) tall and 100 f...

Iowa jurors clear man charged with murder in shooting deaths of 2 students

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Jurors have cleared an Iowa man charged with murder in the shooting deaths of two students at a Des Moines alternative school, a month after another man was convicted for his role in the killings.Jurors acquitted 20-year-old Bravon Tukes of two counts of first-degree murder and single counts of attempted murder, criminal gang participation and willful injury causing serious injury. ORIGINAL: Teens charged in fatal school shooting get separate trials The decision came about a month after jurors convicted another man on charges stemming from the Jan. 23 shooting deaths of two students at the Starts Right Here program.The shooting killed Gionni Dameron and Rashad Carr. Will Keeps, a former Chicago gang member and rapper who started the program for at-risk teens, was injured.

AI makes breakthrough reading 2,000-year-old scroll burned in Mt. Vesuvius eruption

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:11 GMT

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDKY) — After 21 years, cutting-edge technology pioneered at the University of Kentucky is being used to read a 2,000-year-old scroll.The Herculaneum scrolls were burned and buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., and now the scrolls are too fragile to unfurl.But Brent Seales, a computer science professor at the University of Kentucky, and his researchers developed technology to read what's on the scrolls without opening them.It's been a 20-year passion for Seales, but now his work is being used to unlock history. Parents sue Hyatt Hotels Corporation after death of 1-year-old son The unopened scrolls belong to the Institut de France in Paris and are believed to be from a library owned by a senior Roman statesman."What I expect is writing that expresses what it means to be human, speaking of love and war and of all the things that still matter to us because we are human, just like they were human, and the gulf that separates us,...