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Judge dismisses liberal watchdog’s claims that Wisconsin impeachment panel violated open meeting law

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A judge dismissed on Tuesday a liberal watchdog group’s claims that a panel researching the possible impeachment of a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice violated the state’s open meeting laws.Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington wrote in his ruling that American Oversight filed its claims prematurely and should have given District Attorney Ismael Ozanne more time to decide whether to launch his own lawsuit. Remington allowed the group to continue seeking records from the panel, however.Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos asked former state Supreme Court justices David Prosser, Pat Roggensack and Jon Wilcox in September to advise on whether impeaching current Justice Janet Protasiewicz would be justified.Protasiewicz is a member of the court’s four-justice liberal majority. Republicans are furious with her after she declared on the campaign trail last year that the Legislature’s GOP-drawn district boundaries are “rigged.” The high cour...

US gas prices have fallen or remained steady for 10 weeks straight. Here’s why

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s not just you. Across the U.S., prices at the pump have felt milder in recent months.Gas prices have fallen or remained steady since Sep. 19 — marking about a 70-day trajectory of decline, Andrew Gross, spokesperson for motor club AAA, said Tuesday.As of Tuesday, the national average for gas prices stood just below $3.25, according to AAA. That’s down 25 cents from a month ago and 30 cents less than this time last year. Experts point to a recent decline in oil prices and a seasonal dip in demand, as well as easing inflation.Each penny decline in the national average saves motorists close to $3.8 million, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “If you amplify that times 30 cents, we’re talking about Americans that are spending hundreds of millions less on gasoline today than they were a year ago.”Despite the drop, the global energy market can be volatile and lower gas prices down the road aren’t promised. Here’...

Tortoise Frank the Tank, found wandering bok choy field, gets a new home in B.C.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

VANCOUVER — Adoption requests came from as far away as New Zealand, but Frank the Tank, a 17-kilogram tortoise found wandering in a Richmond bok choy field last month, will be staying in British Columbia.Kahlee Demers, manager at the Maple Ridge Community Animal Centre, says the shelter received an “enormous amount” of emails from people seeking to adopt Frank.She says the sulcata tortoise was taken by ferry to his new home on Monday although his new family didn’t want to be identified for privacy reasons.Despite being surrounded by leafy greens, Frank was in poor shape when he was found in early October, suffering shell rot and respiratory problems due to being out in the cold. Demers says veterinarian Adrian Walton of Dewdney Animal Hospital worked to get Frank back in shape, with the tortoise gaining some weight and showing off his “great personality.”Walton said last month that sulcata tortoises are endangered in their native Africa, but can be bought as pets i...

Writer John Nichols, author of ‘The Milagro Beanfield War’ with a social justice streak, dies at 83

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Writer John Nichols, best known for his populist novel “The Milagro Beanfield War,” has died. He was 83.Nichols died Monday at home in Taos, New Mexico, amid declining health linked to a long-term heart condition, said daughter Tania Harris of Albuquerque.Nichols won early recognition with the 1965 publication of his offbeat love story “The Sterile Cuckoo,” later made into a movie starring Liza Minnelli. The coming-of-age book and subsequent movie were set amid private Northeastern colleges that were a familiar milieu to Nichols, who attended boarding school in Connecticut and private college in upstate New York.He moved in 1969 with his first wife from New York City to northern New Mexico, where he found inspiration for a trilogy of novels anchored in the success of “The Milagro Beanfield War.”That novel — about a fictional Hispanic agricultural community in the mountains of northern New Mexico, a scheme by business interests to usurp the town̵...

Memorial event to honour Quebec singer Karl Tremblay of Les Cowboys Fringants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

MONTREAL — Thousands of Quebecers are gathering at Montreal’s Bell Centre to pay tribute to folk-rock singer Karl Tremblay, whose band Les Cowboys Fringants has been a beloved fixture of the province’s music scene for more than two decades.Tremblay died earlier this month at age 47 after a long bout with prostate cancer, prompting an outpouring of grief and affection from across the province.Premier François Legault offered a national funeral to Tremblay’s family, which includes his partner and bandmate Marie-Annick Lépine as well as two daughters.  Legault told reporters outside the Bell Centre today that Tremblay’s music united Quebecers, who recognized themselves in Les Cowboys Fringants’ songs.He said the lead singer’s death created an incredible “wave of love and sadness” from fans, many of whom felt like they’d lost a member of their own family.The flag at the Quebec legislature was lowered to half-mast today, and legislatu...

Former Ontario doctor sentenced to 9 years in prison, found guilty of sexually assaulting patients

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

A former doctor from Schomberg, Ont. was sentenced to nine years in jail after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting multiple female patients at his King Township clinic.The allegations against 52-year-old Wameed Ateyah stem from sexual assaults that happened at the Schomberg Medical Centre, located at 17250 Highway 27, sometime between 2008 and 2017. At the time, Ateyah was the only practicing physician offering walk-in clinic services in Schomberg. The York Regional Police investigation began in August 2020, when two victims, a 49-year-old and a 28-year-old woman, came forward alleging that Ateyah had sexually assaulted them during visits to the medical clinic. This led to several additional victims coming forward, claiming their doctor sexually assaulted them. One of the female victims was 17 years old at the time of the alleged incident.In September 2023, Ateyah was found guilty of 15 counts of sexual assault and sexual exploitation. A judge at the Newmarket Superior Court ...

Alaska landslide survivor says force of impact threw her around ‘like a piece of weightless popcorn’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

WRANGELL, Alaska (AP) — Christina Florschutz was dressing after stepping out of the shower of her upstairs bathroom when she heard “a horrible noise, a very loud noise.”Florschutz, who had heard both a tornado and a mudslide before, knew exactly what this noise was — a landslide.The force of the mountainside slammed into the home she shared with her husband near the southeast Alaska island community of Wrangell, tossing her around “like a piece of weightless popcorn” before she lost consciousness, she told the Wrangell Sentinel and KSTV radio in a recent interview as she still waited to hear the fate of her husband, who remains missing from last week’s disaster. The Nov. 20 landslide came down into the path of three homes, one unoccupied, after a storm brought heavy rain. She is the only person so far found alive. Four people have been confirmed killed in the landslide: Timothy and Beth Heller and two of their children, Kara, 11, and Mara, 16. Two other people remain missing: ...

New Mexico creates new council to address cases of missing and slain Native Americans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico is creating a new advisory council that will be charged with implementing a state plan for responding to cases of missing or slain Native Americans, with top state officials vowing Tuesday that the work will lead to more people being found and families gaining closure.Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s announcement follows criticism from advocates who feared the state was losing momentum after the governor dissolved the task force that came up with the plan more than a year ago.Advocates on Tuesday renewed their criticism, saying work to implement the plan has stalled and that communication among law enforcement and victims’ families remains one of the biggest problems. That issue was acknowledged by the governor as she announced the next step in New Mexico to address what has been described as a crisis for Indigenous communities both in the United States and Canada.“Bringing more law enforcement to the table will help address a major cr...

Honduran opposition party leader flees arrest after being stopped in airport before traveling to US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The president of Honduras’ main opposition party fled an international airport Tuesday breaking through a parking gate with his pickup truck after immigration agents stopped him for carrying two passports before he boarded a flight to the United States, authorities said.David Chávez Madison, president of the National Party, fled the Palmerola International Airport around 3 a.m. Tuesday, leaving behind his passports when immigration agents called him for a second inspection, Allan Alvarenga, director of Honduras’ immigration agency told local press.Chávez fled the terminal dressed in a black baseball cap, black jacket and black pants, according to images released by authorities.The passport issue, however, may not have been Chávez’s main problem.Hours later, a judge ordered Chávez’s capture based on the investigation of a 2016 complaint by the nongovernmental National Anticorruption Council related to irregularities during Chávez’s time as director of the...

Migrants battle cold as city looks to clear Chicago police stations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:41 GMT

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Police Department's Harrison District remains one of the few stations where migrants are being placed as the city finds housing for them.The Harrison District has a warming bus from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., but the conditions even during the day are very difficult.Migrants told WGN-TV that they're experiencing freezing water, ice covering tents inside and out, and are not being allowed inside the station.The goal has been to move migrants out of police stations as winter approaches. Migrants awaiting shelter placement face frigid temperatures as winter weather sets in According to the city, eight police stations have been cleared as of Monday, including Wentworth, Grand Crossing, South Chicago, Chicago Lawn, Austin, Jefferson Park, Albany Park, and Near North.But there are still nearly 1,100 migrants at Chicago police districts, which has gone down from 3,300 in mid-October.A volunteer said the city has offered to take migrants to a warming center during the ...