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Family, attorneys criticize prosecutor’s handling of case in Ralph Yarl’s shooting

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

By MARGARET STAFFORD (Associated Press)LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — The family of a Black Kansas City teenager who was shot by a white man after he mistakenly knocked on the man’s door are frustrated with the prosecutor’s handling of the case, attorneys for the family said Thursday.The complaints came after a preliminary hearing for 84-year-old Andrew Lester was set for Aug. 31-Sept. 1 and just days after a Clay County judge approved a request by Lester’s attorney to seal documents in the case.Lester has pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, who knocked on Lester’s door on April 13 while trying to pick up his young brothers, who were at a home a block away. Civil rights attorneys Benjamin Crump and Lee Merritt said in a Zoom news conference that they had previously asked Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson to step aside and let Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker be named as a special pros...

Nebraska voter ID bill passes, despite filibuster by lawmaker

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers passed a bill Thursday to comply with a voter ID requirement mandated by voters in November, with the lone vote against it coming from the lawmaker who led the effort to have it placed on the ballot.The 41-1 vote came on the last day of the 2023 legislative session and despite a filibuster effort by conservative Sen. Julie Slama, who chaired the referendum effort that saw the voter ID question put on last November’s ballot.Slama has railed against the bill, saying it fails to go far enough to protect the integrity of elections. Nebraska has no history of widespread voter fraud, but Slama and other supporters of the voter ID requirement say it’s needed to prevent possible future problems.The bill that passed, which was brought by fellow Republican Sen. Tom Brewer and the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee he chairs, allows a wide array of photo identification that voters could present at the polls. IDs would include passp...

Audit finds National Highway Traffic Safety Administration auto safety defect probes are too slow

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government agency charged with keeping the roads safe is slow to investigate automobile safety defects, limiting its ability to handle rapidly changing or severe risks, an audit made public Thursday found.In addition, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation doesn’t have an integrated computer system for its probes, and doesn’t consistently follow its own procedures for making problems a high priority, the audit found.The Department of Transportation’s Inspector General found that the office has made progress in restructuring and modernizing its data and analysis systems. But weaknesses in meeting its own goals for timely investigations increase possible delays in probing important safety issues, the audit found.“ODI’s lack of timeliness in completing investigations limits its ability to respond to rapidly evolving or severe risks to motor vehicle safety and ODI’s public accountability,” the ...

‘Shrink the room:’ How Biden and McCarthy struck a debt-limit deal and staved off a catastrophe

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was advice that Mitch McConnell had offered to Joe Biden once already: To resolve the debt-limit standoff, he needed to strike a deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — and McCarthy alone. But after a first meeting of the top four congressional leaders with the president in early May, the Senate minority leader felt the need to reemphasize his counsel.After returning from the White House that day, McConnell called the president to privately urge him to “shrink the room” – meaning no direct involvement in the talks for himself, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.That, McConnell stressed to Biden, was the only way to avert a potentially economy-rattling default. A week later, Biden and McCarthy essentially adopted that path, tapping a handful of trusted emissaries to negotiate a deal that would lift the debt limit. It was a turning point in an impasse that until then, seemed intractable. Having lived through the debacle...

As China cracks down on dissent, New York City gives refuge to exhibit remembering Tiananmen Square

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Fangsuo Zhou, now in his 50s, remembers all too well that dispiriting spring day in 1989 when tanks rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. University students and others were beaten and bloodied when communist troops swarmed in to end a pro-democracy protest. Hundreds and possibly thousands died.For years, Zhou, who left China after the crackdown and now lives in New Jersey, has been collecting what he calls “evidence” of China’s brutality.Those items — blooded towels, blood-soaked banners that had been turned into tourniquets, newspaper clippings, letters and a tent used by student protesters during their seven-week demonstration — are now the centerpiece of the “June 4 Memorial Exhibit,” housed on the fourth floor of a New York City office building.It carries on the mission of a similar exhibit in Hong Kong shuttered by the communist government two years ago.“This is the most important legacy for China,” Zhou said during a preview of the collection, which op...

Peregrine falcons protecting chicks and dive-bombing Chicago pedestrians

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A pair of peregrine falcon parents are raising three chicks along Chicago’s busy Wacker Drive, and beware to any pedestrian who ventures too closely to their nest.Just ask Chuck Valauskas, who was struck by one of the falcons. The patent attorney was leaving work one day last week, walking below the nest situated on a seventh-floor ledge when he felt a thud on his head.“I thought, ‘What was that?’ It felt like a 16-inch softball,” Valauskas told the Chicago Sun-Times.He sustained a 1 inch (2.54-centimeter) gash on his head and now avoids the path beneath the nest altogether. Has has since gotten a tetanus shot to be safe.At least one other person has been clobbered by the birds, building security guards said.Building managers have put up two signs saying, “Warning! Beware of falcons. Parents will attack to protect babies on building ledge. Take a different path.” From his window across from the nest on the 10th floor, Ruben Guardiola has been monitoring the falc...

What to stream this weekend: Foo Fighters, ‘The Idol,’ LeBron James and ‘American Gladiators’ doc

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

There’s new music from Foo Fighters, the buzzy HBO series “The Idol” starring Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd and a documentary about the breakthrough TV show “American Gladiators” among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are a LeBron James’s origin story and a TV show where contestants compete to transform nostalgia cars into life-sized Hot Wheels.NEW MOVIES TO STREAM— LeBron James’s origin story is dramatized in the new film “Shooting Stars,” debuting exclusively on Peacock on Friday. Based on the 2009 book, written by James and “Friday Night Lights” author Buzz Bissinger, the film looks at how he and his childhood friends (the self-anointed “fab four”) rose to basketball prominence on their high school team in Akron, Ohio. He and his friends would help lead their St. Vincent-St. Mary’s team to three state championships in four years. James is...

Louisiana ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill for public school classrooms advances in the legislature

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A bill that would broadly ban K-12 public school employees in Louisiana from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom is nearing final passage after securing the endorsement of a key Senate committee Thursday.Louisiana’s legislation, which already passed the House and advanced from the Senate Committee on Education to the GOP-dominated Senate floor on Thursday, is similar to a law enacted in Florida last year that critics dubbed, “Don’t Say Gay.” Florida’s law bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades unless required by existing state standards or as part of reproductive health instruction that students can choose not to take. As of March, at least 30 proposals similar to Florida’s law were filed in 16 states. At least three other states — Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky — have enacted similar “Don’t Say Gay” laws.“This is a hateful piece of legislation,” state Public Service Commissioner Deva...

Soaring rhetoric: NASA mission will carry Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s words to Jupiter

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A new work by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, written for an upcoming NASA mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, is a glance at outer space that returns back to Earth.Limón’s “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” which she read Thursday night during a ceremony at the Library of Congress, is part of NASA’s “ Message In a Bottle Campaign ” as the aeronautics and space administration prepares for a years-long journey. The Europa Clipper is expected to launch in October 2024, with “In Praise of Mystery” engraved on the spacecraft.“Writing this poem was one of the greatest honors of my life, but also one of the most difficult tasks I’ve ever been assigned,” Limón said in a statement released through the Library of Congress. “Eventually, what made the poem come together was realizing that in pointing toward other planets, stars and moons, we are also recognizing the enormous gift that is our planet Earth. To point outward is also to point inward.”During a ...

Evanston residents weigh in on slow-moving reparations plan 

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:30:25 GMT

EVANSTON, Ill. – Despite obstacles, Evanston officials say the city's reparations program is moving forward though some residents say it’s not fast enough. Anthony Swope was one of many who gave a testimonial at the Evanston Reparations Committee meeting on Thursday. The Evanston resident shared how he convinced his wife, Eleanor, to apply. Unfortunately, she’s one of several approved applicants who died before receiving benefits. The issue is another that the city's groundbreaking reparations program is facing. Yet, Swope says he is helpful. RELATED: Black Californians could receive up to $1.2 million in reparations payments, task force says"I’m exceedingly full of joy to see that there are people who are recognizing people of color," he said. Sixteen people were selected for the first round of benefits, but hundreds of others continue to wait, leaving some residents frustrated."You spend a lot of time on dinners, stale tactics, showboating, canceling meetings and ti...