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Hard-line Republicans won’t back Scalise for speaker and frustration grows as the House sits idle

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

By LISA MASCARO, FARNOUSH AMIRI and STEPHEN GROVES (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Nominated to be House speaker, Rep. Steve Scalise on Thursday ran straight into a familiar, intensifying Republican problem: Skeptical GOP colleagues are refusing to give their support, denying him the majority vote needed to win the gavel.Frustrations mounted as the crisis deepened and Republicans lost another day without a House speaker. Scalise must peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed his chief rival, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman favored by hard-liners, who announced he was no longer in the running and tossed his vote to Scalise.But many hard-liners taking their cues from Donald Trump have dug in for a prolonged fight to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job. They argue that Majority Leader Scalise is no better choice, that he should be focusing on his health as he battles cancer and that he is not the leader they will sup...

$2 billion needed to revamp San Diego storm drains

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego’s aging storm water infrastructure -- particularly the pipes – are in a desperate state of disrepair. Todd Snyder with the city's Stormwater Department said, ”When we do an assessment of our system we found that corrugated metal -- that's metal pipe -- that has been installed anywhere from 50 to 80 years ago, really a lot of the system has reached its useful lifetime.”In fact, San Diego’s Stormwater Department has identified a thousand areas that are deteriorating to the point where they could fail during a significant rain storm. Will the ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse Saturday be visible in San Diego? As forecasters predict a wet El Nino winter, the city is trying to proactively repair the old pipes before they become an emergency.“Just last rain season we had over 20 sinkholes," Snyder pointed out.In order to try and avoid more emergency work after the fact, the Stormwater Department is prioritizing work on pipes by age.    Jake Valencia, a civil engineer ...

With funding for Kansas schools higher, the attorney general wants to close their lawsuit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ Republican attorney general asked the state’s highest court to reward the GOP-controlled Legislature for following through on a decade’s worth of court-mandated education funding increases by making it harder for local school districts to force higher spending in the future.Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office wants the Kansas Supreme Court to close a lawsuit that four school districts filed against the state in 2010. The request was filed Wednesday by Tony Powell, a former state Court of Appeals judge who now serves as Kobach’s solicitor general.The state Supreme Court issued seven rulings from 2013 through 2019 requiring the Legislature to increase funding for public schools and to make its formula for distributing its funds fairer to poorer areas of the state. The justices said in 2019 that the Legislature had complied with their directives, but they kept the case open to ensure that lawmakers fulfilled their promises.The...

Judge scolds prosecutors as she delays hearing for co-defendant in Trump classified documents case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A judge on Thursday scolded federal prosecutors in the classified documents case against Donald Trump as she abruptly postponed a hearing to determine if the lawyer for one of the former president’s co-defendants had a conflict of interest.“I admonish the government for wasting the court’s time,” U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon told prosecutors, saying they had presented arguments during Thursday’s hearing that had not been properly raised in earlier court filings.She said she would set a hearing for a later date for Walt Nauta, a Trump valet charged with conspiring with Trump to conceal classified documents from investigators.Special counsel Jack Smith’s team had asked for hearings to ensure that Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira were aware of potential conflicts because their lawyers have represented other key figures in the case. Both men were charged alongside Trump with obstructing government efforts to recover classified documents hoarde...

TSX declines Thursday, Wall Street also falls following U.S. inflation report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index declined Thursday, led by losses in utilities, base metals and telecom, while U.S. markets also fell after the latest report on inflation south of the border. Headline inflation in the U.S. was slightly higher in September than expected on a year-over-year basis, remaining unchanged from August’s report, though it continued to slowly moderate on a monthly basis. But it’s core inflation that the U.S. Federal Reserve is really looking at for its monetary policy decisions, said Ian Chong, portfolio manager for First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc.That figure, which excludes food and fuel, was in line with expectations as it continued to decelerate, he said. Core prices were up 4.1 per cent from a year earlier, the smallest increase in two years, compared with a 4.3 per cent increase in August. Inflation is still too hot for the Fed to loosen its grip, said Chong, but expectations are still that it won’t raise rates again in November, or perhaps...

Man pleads guilty, gets 7 years in prison on charges related to Chicago officer’s killing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A man pleaded guilty to charges Thursday in connection with the fatal 2021 shooting of Chicago police officer Ella French and was sentenced to seven years in prison.Eric Morgan, 25, entered the plea to charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, battery and obstruction of justice.French, 29, was slain and her partner, Carlos Yanez Jr., was wounded in August 2021 after they had stopped an SUV with expired tags on Chicago’s South Side. Eric Morgan allegedly drove the SUV. His brother Emonte Morgan is accused of fatally shooting French and faces a first-degree murder charge. Emonte Morgan’s trial currently is scheduled for early next year.A third man, Jamel Danzy of Hammond, Indiana, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison last December after pleading guilty to a federal firearms charge for making an illegal straw purchase of the handgun used to kill French.The Associated Press

News media lobby group says Google concerns about Online News Act are valid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

TORONTO — A lobby group for Canada’s newspapers and magazines says it agrees with many of the issues raised by Google about a law that will force the tech giant to compensate those same publishers for use of their work.Paul Deegan, head of News Media Canada, says in a statement that the concerns Google publicly outlined last week about the Online News Act are welcome, constructive and legitimate. He says that News Media Canada, which represents hundreds of publications, agrees with Google that there should be a cap on how much it would have to pay under the law, that compensation could go beyond direct payments to also include things like training and that there need to be incentives to make sure Google and publishers come together to reach deals.The Online News Act, set to come into effect in December, will force digital giants to negotiate deals with news publishers to compensate them for work that is shared or otherwise repurposed on their platforms.Google said in its submi...

Ex-IRS contractor pleads guilty in leak of tax return information of Trump, wealthy people

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about former President Donald Trump and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people pleaded guilty to a federal charge Thursday in an agreement with prosecutors. The Justice Department charged Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., with stealing tax return information and giving it to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she was deeply troubled by his actions that affected Trump and thousands of other people. “When we have people, for whatever reason, take the law into their own hands society doesn’t function,” she said. “Make no mistake, this was not acceptable. If anyone tells you the ends justify the means, they’re wrong.” Littlejohn pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. The count carries up to five years in prison, but the ultimate se...

17 Florida sheriff’s deputies accused of stealing about $500,000 in pandemic relief funds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Seventeen Florida sheriff’s deputies appeared in court Thursday on charges that they stole about half a million dollars in pandemic relief funds.The Broward County deputies, who are charged separately, are accused of a range of crimes, according to court records. Most are charged with wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, though one deputy is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which has a maximum sentence of five years.The eight law enforcement deputies and nine detention deputies have been suspended, Sheriff Gregory Tony said during a news conference. He said his office is going through the legal process of firing them.“At the end of the day, they will be gone,” Tony said.The deputies collectively defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program out of about $500,000, said Markenzy Lapointe, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida.“No matter the amou...

Hornets’ Miles Bridges faces more domestic allegations, clouding his future on and off the court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:40 GMT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Hornets forward Miles Bridges’ latest legal issues have clouded his future on and off the basketball court.A criminal summons that was issued Wednesday for Bridges accuses him of violating a protection order stemming from a domestic violence case that derailed his career last year. The summons also includes accusations of misdemeanor child abuse and injury to personal property. In addition, a warrant for a protection order violation was issued for Bridges in January, although it has not yet been served, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office told The Associated Press.Bridges is currently serving three years of probation after pleading no contest in exchange for no jail time in the June 2022 domestic violence case involving the mother of his two children, who accused Bridges of assaulting her in front of the children.Bridges also must adhere to a 10-year criminal protection order for the woman, weekly narcotics and marijuana testing, and restitution, according...