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News outlet asks court to dismiss former Mississippi governor’s defamation lawsuit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A local news outlet that helped expose a wide-reaching public corruption scandal has filed its first defense against a defamation lawsuit brought by former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, with the news outlet arguing it engaged in constitutionally protected speech. In Mississippi Today’s first legal response since Bryant sued the outlet and its CEO in the Circuit Court of Madison County on July 26 for allegedly defaming him in public comments on the misspending of $77 million of federal welfare funds, attorney Henry Laird outlined on Friday 19 legal defenses against the former governor’s claims.The attorney also requested that the ex-governor’s complaint be dismissed.“We will vigorously defend this case and ensure the people of Mississippi that the press will not be intimidated,” said Mississippi Today CEO Mary Margaret White in a statement. “We stand for press freedom and will always uphold our mission of building a more informed Mississippi.”I...

Elections NWT says legislature has delayed October election over wildfires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

INUVIK, N.W.T. — Members of the Northwest Territories legislature unanimously voted Monday to delay an election scheduled for October because of wildfires as the region saw a significant victory in the battle against a blaze that caused tens of thousands of people to flee Yellowknife.“It’s unprecedented times,” said Kevin O’Reilly, member for Frame Lake. “It’s not going to be possible for us to hold fair elections as originally planned.”O’Reilly noted about 70 per cent of the territory’s population is now under evacuation, affecting most of its constituencies. Although fire officials said Monday the fire threatening the territorial capital is now being held, it’s still not yet safe for people to return. The new date for the N.W.T. election will be Nov. 14. The territory had been scheduled to go to the polls on Oct. 3.The members of the territorial legislature made the decision in an extraordinary session held in Inuvik inst...

Infrastructure woes face B.C.’s Shuswap and Okanagan communities, hard hit by fires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

Officials in British Columbia’s Shuswap and Okanagan regions are shifting some of their attention from wildfire response to the challenges of recovery as flames abate and many evacuees begin returning home, although crews continue to fight out-of-control blazes.Major infrastructure woes will confront both regions, including hundreds of downed power poles and cables.Neighbourhoods in West Kelowna sustained extensive damage to the power grid and other key infrastructure when the McDougall Creek wildfire swept through nearly two weeks ago, the community’s Fire Chief Jason Brolund told a briefing on Monday.The damage is especially severe in the West Kelowna Estates area, he said.“The power poles have burned, the lines are on the ground, the transformers are tipped over. All of that is being removed, and it’s being rebuilt.”Crews are also assessing whether additional key infrastructure, including the water supply, drainage and roads will need repair or recon...

Guatemala’s electoral registry has suspended the party of the presidential election winner

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s electoral registry suspended the Seed Movement, the party of Bernardo Arévalo, the progressive candidate who won Guatemala’s presidential elections this month, the party’s lawyer confirmed on Monday.The elimination of the party’s registration comes after one of the most tumultuous elections in the Central American nation’s recent history, and waves of judicial efforts to knock Arévalo out of the race. The question that now stands is: what will it mean for Arévalo as he’s set to take the presidency?Associated Press, The Associated Press

Missouri law banning minors from beginning gender-affirming treatments takes effect

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Two new laws restricting the access of transgender youth in Missouri to gender-affirming health care and school sports took effect Monday.One law bans minors from beginning puberty blockers and hormones and outlaws gender-affirming surgeries for youths. The other law requires student athletes from kindergarten through college to play on sports teams that align with their sex as assigned at birth. Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed the bills in June after he and other proponents of the laws pressured the GOP-led legislature to act during this year’s session. Both laws are set to expire in 2027.LGBTQ+ advocates who sued to overturn the health care law were dealt a blow last week when a judge allowed the law to take effect as the court challenge plays out. HEALTH CARE The health care law prohibits physicians from providing gender-affirming health care to minors, but young people prescribed puberty blockers or hormones before Aug. 28 can continue to receive th...

GOP silences ‘Tennessee Three’ Democrat on House floor for day on ‘out of order’ rule; crowd erupts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican lawmakers on Monday voted to silence a Democratic member of the so-called Tennessee Three during an already tense House floor session after determining the young Black member violated newly enacted rules designed to punish disruptive members.The move was directed at Rep. Justin Jones, which prohibited him from speaking and debating on bills for the remainder of the floor session. The vote prompted loud cries and chants that drowned out proceedings for several minutes even after the House speaker ordered the gallery to be cleared out.Moments prior, Jones had been criticizing legislation that would have allowed more law enforcement officers in schools and began listing other resources that the state should be providing. House Speaker Cameron Sexton had warned Jones not to stray off topic. Under new rules adopted by the GOP-dominant chamber last week, members can be silenced anywhere from a day to the rest of the year for not sticking to the bill bein...

Former Pirates investor and newspaper group publisher G. Ogden Nutting has died at 87

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) — G. Ogden Nutting, whose 2006 investment in the Pittsburgh Pirates led to his son taking control 11 years later and helped grow his family’s newspaper business to more than 50 daily publications in 18 states, has died. He was 87.Nutting died Friday, according to The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register, which published his obituary and a separate story on his death Monday.A Wheeling resident, Nutting was the longtime publisher of Ogden Newspapers Inc. and spent more than 60 years in various roles with the private company. His grandfather, H.C. Ogden, founded The Wheeling Evening News in 1890, and it formed the basis of the newspaper chain.Nutting was a partner in the Pirates when he joined team owner Kevin McClatchy in buying out a disgruntled investor’s stake in the club in 1996. McClatchy and Nutting knew each other initially through their newspaper industry ties before McClatchy brought Nutting into his ownership group that kept the team from leaving Pit...

HBCU president lauds students, officer for stopping Jacksonville killer before racist store attack

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A campus security officer tipped off by observant students likely stopped the killer who fatally shot three people at a nearby Dollar General Store from carrying out his racist attack at Edward Waters University, the president of the historically Black institution said Monday.Students reported seeing a young, white man, pull into a campus library parking lot in Jacksonville, Florida, and begin putting on tactical gear Saturday, Edward Waters University President Zachary Faison Jr. said. They immediately flagged down a security officer who was on patrol to tell them what they saw.The officer approached the car on foot when the driver — who would later be identified as the shooter at the store — sped off, hitting a curb and narrowly avoiding a brick column, Faison said. The campus officer, who the campus president called a hero, then called the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and shared the description of the vehicle. Minutes later, the gunman made his way to a...

Denver to pay $4.7 million to settle claims it targeted George Floyd protesters for violating curfew

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Denver will pay $4.7 million to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged that protesters were unjustly targeted for violating the city’s curfew during demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd in 2020. City councilors unanimously agreed to the deal Monday without any debate.The lawsuit alleged that the city directed police to only enforce the emergency 8 p.m. curfew against protesters, violating their free speech rights, even though the curfew applied to all people in any public place. It also said that over 300 protesters were taken to jail in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic rather than just being issued tickets for violating the curfew.“The First Amendment does not allow police to clear the streets of protestors simply because they do not agree with their message,” the lead attorney for the protesters, Elizabeth Wang, said in a statement.The city denied having an official policy of using the curfew against protesters but decided that continuing ...

Two adults, two young children found fatally stabbed inside New York City apartment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Four people, including a 3-year-old girl and 1-year-old boy, were found fatally stabbed inside a New York City apartment Monday, police said.Officers who were called for a wellness check on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at about 3 p.m. found the bodies of the children and two adults, a 41-year-old man and 40-year-old woman. The adults had trauma to the neck and the children had trauma to their bodies, a police spokesperson said.Emergency officials pronounced all of them dead at the scene. Additional information was not immediately available. The investigation is ongoing. The Associated Press