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New Alabama congressional district draws sprawling field as Democrats eye flip

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

MONTGMERY, Ala. (AP) — The creation of a Democratic-leaning congressional district in Alabama has drawn a sprawling field of candidates as Democrats eye a rare opportunity in the deep red state to flip a Republican seat in the battle for control of the House of Representatives. The new district, created by court order, is viewed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Democrats looking to win higher office in a state where Republicans currently dominate statewide positions. The outcome of the Alabama race, with control of the U.S. House of Representatives on the line, will be closely watched. And with ongoing court challenges to congressional maps in Georgia, Louisiana and elsewhere, some hope the Alabama race will be a harbinger of Democrats making inroads in the Deep South.Federal judges last month selected new congressional lines for Alabama after ruling the state had illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents. The revamped Congressional District 2, which was designe...

‘Thanksgiving Grandma’ teams up with Airbnb to welcome strangers for the holiday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona woman who shared her Thanksgiving table seven years ago with a stranger she accidentally texted will be opening up her home again this year to two new strangers. Wanda Dench is teaming up with Airbnb to expand the festivities, and the company said it will make a donation to the relief organization Feeding America. Dench’s tradition began in 2016 with a mistaken text to then-teen Jamal Hinton. She was trying to invite her grandson but didn’t realize he had changed his phone number. Hinton jokingly replied he would like to come and Dench said he was welcome. They forged a relationship that still holds strong. Hinton had tweeted screenshots of their initial exchange and subsequent meeting. Since then, their continuing joint celebration has turned into a tradition that social media users have come to expect every Thanksgiving. Dench has been dubbed “Thanksgiving Grandma” on the internet.Airbnb guests can sign up for the chance to eat a catered early holiday din...

South Carolina education board deciding whether to limit books and other ‘age appropriate’ materials

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The State Board of Education is considering a universal definition of “age appropriate” educational materials in South Carolina schools and libraries that would bar descriptions or visual depictions of what it deems sexual conduct, and items that are “obscene” or “indecent.”The regulation is the latest effort from conservative policymakers to restrict public school students’ access to books covering topics of race, gender identity and sexual orientation.A vote Tuesday to advance the policy is just the beginning of the process. Final approval is expected to be decided next year before the Republican-led state Legislature can then take up the proposal. A similar bill currently sits in a conference committee of state lawmakers.People packed into a conference room in Columbia, South Carolina, on Tuesday afternoon. Some wore shirts for Moms for Liberty, a conservative group behind many book bans nationwide, while others donned buttons supporting local organiza...

Two have died in a Utah mountain plane crash and a third who was injured got flown out by helicopter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Two people were killed and a third injured when a small plane crashed in the mountains south of Salt Lake City.The two apparently died on impact and the third was walking around when rescuers arrived in the area east of Provo around midday Tuesday, Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon said at a news conference.The plane went down for unknown reasons in a rugged, treed area partly covered in light snow. Rescuers in a helicopter hauled the injured person out on a litter and flew them to a hospital, Cannon said.“The fact that they’re walking around is at least an initial good sign,” Cannon said. “That person was still moving and talking.”Where the plane had taken off and was headed wasn’t immediately known. The type of plane and victims’ identities weren’t released.The crash wasn’t listed yet on a Federal Aviation Administration website of recent U.S. aviation incidents.Provo is a city of about 100,000 people 45 miles (70 kilometers) sout...

A small Maui wildfire is fully contained during a warning about gusty winds and low humidity

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — A small wildfire on Maui was fully contained Tuesday during a warning that gusty winds and low humidity posed a risk that fires could spread rapidly in the western parts of each Hawaiian island. Firefighters were able to quickly contain the fire limited to about an acre in the south Maui community of Kihei, said Darryl Oliveira, interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency. The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for leeward sides of the islands through Tuesday evening, warning of winds 20-30 mph (32-48 kph) and winds with gusts up to 50 mph (80 kph).“We’re going to act aggressively with any fire during a Red Flag Warning,” Oliveira said. A deadly blaze tore through the coastal Maui town of Lahaina during a similar warning in August. “Although an area of showers is moving over the islands this morning, it has not brought significant rainfall to leeward areas,” the latest weather service warning said. “Additionally, a drier air m...

Lease of Gulf waters delayed by whale protection debate must continue, court rules

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An auction of federal Gulf of Mexico leases for oil and gas drilling must be held in 37 days, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, rejecting environmentalists’ arguments against the sale and throwing out plans by the Biden administration to scale back the sale to protect an endangered species of whale. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling means the lease sale — once set for September, but postponed multiple times amid legal fights — will be held in December. And it must cover 73 million acres (30 million hectares), as originally planned when the administration announced the sale in the spring.The administration later scaled back the area covered by the lease sale to 67 million acres (27 million hectares) as part of an agreement to protect the endangered Rice’s whale. But the state of Louisiana joined oil and gas companies in opposing the changes. A federal judge in southwest Louisiana ordered the sale to go on without the whale protections, which a...

A Detroit officer to stand trial after photojournalists were shot with pellets during a 2020 protest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit police corporal accused of shooting three photojournalists with rubber pellets while they covered protests against police brutality has been ordered to stand trial.Daniel Debono is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 28 in Wayne County Circuit Court on felonious assault charges, the county prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.Shortly after midnight on May 31, 2020, in downtown Detroit, MLive.com photojournalist Nicole Hester and two independent photojournalists, Seth Herald and Matthew Hatcher, encountered Debono and two other officers.Each of the photojournalists was wearing press credentials, identified themselves as news media and raised their hands as they asked to cross the street, Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at the time.Debono, dressed in riot gear, struck all three with rubber pellets that inflicted bruises and other injuries.The photojournalists were covering the protest in downtown Detroit, which was sparked by the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd in...

Work resumes at Montana mine where 24-year-old worker was killed in machinery accident

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

NYE, Montana (AP) — Work has resumed at a precious metals mine in south-central Montana a day after a 24-year-old worker died in an underground machinery accident, mine officials said.Noah Dinger of Post Falls, Idaho, died just before 1:30 a.m. Monday when he was operating a machine that bolts wire panels onto the stone walls of an underground area to prevent falling rock during future mining, said Heather McDowell, a vice president with Sibanye Stillwater, the owner of the Stillwater Mine near Nye.“His dad was working in the area and actually was the one that found him,” McDowell said. No one witnessed the accident, but Dinger apparently got caught in the rotating shaft on the bolter, she said.McDowell confirmed Dinger’s name after a family friend posted an online fundraiser for his wife Kaylei and their two sons, ages 3 and 1.Work was halted Monday at the only platinum and palladium mine in the U.S. and resumed Tuesday. Each shift of workers will be instructed about the risk...

Dispute involving student unions at York University reignites long-standing tensions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

A student group issues a statement condemning Israel and defending the Palestinian right to resistance, and the university administration pushes back, accusing the students of being out of step with the institution’s values. It’s a tension that has surfaced on many campuses – in Canada and abroad – since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, but at York University, the friction has stirred up long-standing issues on a campus that has for decades faced criticism from Jewish and pro-Israel groups over its messaging on the Middle East conflict.The standoff between three student unions representing all graduates and undergraduates at York has also triggered debate about the limits of free speech on campus. The latest tensions began simmering with an Oct. 12 statement from the unions, expressing “solidarity with Palestine.”The statement — which came less than a week after Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli communities in a brutal rampage that ...

Education 'grows on trees' at 137-year-old one room school house

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

WILLOW SPRINGS, Ill. — Daniel Burnham’s celebrated Plan of Chicago envisioned a string of greenspaces, filled with trees, plants, and gardens – known as the city’s “emerald necklace.” Today, the most expansive stretch of preserved nature is in the Southwest suburbs – a swath of emerald green, with an important splash of ruby red.The Little Red Schoolhouse in Willow Springs is located less than 20 miles from downtown Chicago.Little Red SchoolhouseBuilt in 1886 as the first grammar school in the area, it served the children of farmers. In the 1940s, modern schools were built, and development consumed much of the farmland.By 1948, just two students attended the class in the white one room schoolhouse, but it was such a community cornerstone, it was preserved, and moved rather than demolished.  “(It was moved) with horses and log rollers to take that schoolhouse that was closer to maple lake, move it across this, to where it was at Camp Kiwanis, and then move it again,” said Debora...