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New Mexico lawmakers seek assurances amid prescribed burns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation are looking for assurances from the U.S. Forest Service that the agency is taking preventative measures to ensure that future prescribed fires don’t turn into disasters. They sent a letter this week to Forest Chief Randy Moore, pointing to the largest wildfire in state history that was sparked last year by the federal government. It charred more than 530 square miles (1,373 square kilometers) of the Rocky Mountain foothills, destroying homes and livelihoods. “A disaster of this proportion cannot happen again,” U.S. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández and Gabe Vasquez wrote.The letter comes as the agency moves ahead with a $1 billion investment to reduce the risk of wildfire across 45 million acres (182,109 kilometers) in the Western U.S. It’s a massive undertaking that involves more than 20 landscapes that are considered at highest risk. They stretch from arid New Mexico and Arizona to Idaho and Montana.T...

Jury mulls death penalty or life for man in bike path attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York jury began deliberating Wednesday whether to impose the death penalty or grant life in prison to a man convicted of killing eight individuals on a Manhattan bike path five years ago in a terrorist attack.The same jury of 12 that convicted Sayfullo Saipov in late January in the Halloween 2017 rampage began considering his fate after U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick read them the legal rules they must follow to reach a decision. After about 2 1/2 hours of deliberations, jurors were sent home and told to return Thursday.They had deliberated only 10 minutes Wednesday when the jury foreperson sent a note to the judge asking whether the panel can discuss that lethal injection is the current U.S. death penalty method and that there’s currently a moratorium on federal executions.Broderick told jurors that neither subject was proper for discussion during deliberations and told them not to consider either issue.Jurors will have to agree unanimously that...

Judge orders halt to fast releases at US border with Mexico

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge Wednesday ordered the Biden administration to end the expedited releases of migrants who enter the United States illegally from Mexico, potentially straining already stretched holding facilities.The order won’t take effect for a week to give the government time to appeal. The Homeland Security and Justice departments had no immediate comment.In declaring a key administration tool illegal, U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II offered a scathing review of President Joe Biden’s border policies in a 109-page opinion, which followed a January trial in Pensacola, Florida. The administration has “effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country,” he wrote.Wetherell, an appointee of President Donald Trump, criticized a decision to stop building a border wall, end a policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigrati...

Lawsuit against Fox shows the news behind the Trump news

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Fresh revelations flowing from a major defamation lawsuit are shedding light on what was happening inside Fox News following the 2020 presidential election. Here are some things to know about the case.THE CASEDominion Voting Systems is suing Fox for $1.6 billion, claiming the news outlet repeatedly aired allegations that the company engaged in fraud that doomed President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign while knowing they were untrue. Fox contends that it was reporting newsworthy charges made by supporters of the president and is supported legally by libel standards. The case is scheduled for trial next month.ELECTION DISCONNECTDominion has produced evidence that prominent people at Fox knew the fraud allegations were untrue, even as they and the president’s allies were given airtime to repeat them. Fox’s Sean Hannity said in a deposition that he did not believe the fraud claims “for one second,” but he wanted to give accusers the chance to produ...

Ontario Principals Council backs staff at Toronto elementary school accused of racism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

An organization representing staff accused of anti-Black racism at a Toronto elementary school is “confident” some of the allegations are false and warned against “destroying the reputations and lives of dedicated educators” before an investigation is complete.The comments from the Ontario Principals Council came a day after the Parents of Black Children advocacy group said it received reports from two parents of Black students at John Fisher Public School, which alleged the children were detained in a small “isolation room” on separate occasions.In a statement issued Wednesday, the council said it is confident evidence will show a Black student at the centre of the initial Toronto District School Board investigation was never placed or locked in a small room, as his mother alleged.“We have become increasingly concerned about deliberately false narratives aimed at destroying the reputations and lives of dedicated educators,” the counci...

Candlelight vigil to honor victims killed in Bolingbrook home invasion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — A vigil is set to honor the family killed Sunday in a Bolingbrook home invasion.The vigil, taking place at DuPage Township Levy Center, will honor the memory of 40-year-old Cartez Daniel, 17-year-old Samiyah Shelton-Tillman and 9-year-old Sanai Daniels, who were fatally shot inside of their Bolingbrook home on Lee Lane. Previous: Accused Bolingbrook shooter pleads not guilty The vigil was scheduled to being at 5:30 p.m.

Vallas, Johnson prepare for first debate before runoff election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

CHICAGO — Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson will face off in their first head-to-head televised debate before the runoff election. Before the highly anticipated matchup on Wednesday evening, the two candidates showed off their new endorsements. Vallas, Johnson campaign for allies ahead of first mayoral runoff debate Vallas has won support from pro-business, pro-law enforcement philanthropist Willie Wilson."He's the best person for the job," Wilson said. "Anybody that wants to deal with crime and not raise taxes as well, they're my guy."Wilson's endorsement could help Vallas in his effort to reach Black voters, who overwhelmingly chose incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Wilson during the Feb. 28 election.Johnson's also aggressively courting that constituency and on Wednesday, he got a boost from the powerful Service Employees International Union Local 1. He already has support from the influential Chicago Teacher's Union and United Working Families. Vallas, Johnson receive dueling ...

Man accused of fatally stabbing high school student in L.A. taken into custody

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

(KTLA) - A man who was wanted on suspicion of stabbing a high school student in California is in custody after being barricaded inside his Los Angeles-area home Wednesday morning. The man surrendered around 9:15 a.m. after an hourslong standoff in Alhambra, officials say. Aerial video from Nexstar's KTLA showed multiple officers escorting the man into the back of a squad car.Xavier Daniel Chavarin is seen in a photo provided by his family on March 8, 2023.The unidentified man is believed to have fatally stabbed 17-year-old Xavier Daniel Chavarin, a student at Woodrow Wilson High School, last Friday, authorities said.The attack happened while Chavarin was waiting for his family to pick him up after school. Police previously released surveillance video of the suspect which matched the description of the man taken into custody. Swarm of earthquakes at remote Alaska volcano signal unrest The man was seen getting out of a dark-colored SUV before walking across a parking lot and attack...

When people die crossing the border, this group IDs them

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

(NewsNation) — The four years between when Rogelio Madera Cervantes went missing after he left Jalisco, Mexico and the identification of his remains were a "nightmare" for his family. After he went missing, his family searched for him along the U.S.-Mexico border, checking detention centers and morgues in Tijuana and Nogales, Arizona, but to no avail. Somewhere along his journey across the border, he was separated from the group he was traveling with, and died in the desert near Yuma, Arizona. ‘Endangered’ milkweed could affect state’s plans to build border wall in South Texas “It's one thing to lose someone who dies along the U.S.-Mexico border… that is a traumatic experience,” said Jason De León, executive director of The Colibrí Center for Human Rights, a non-profit based in Tuscon, Arizona. “But I think it's 10 times worse to not know what has happened to that loved one. To not know whether or not they're dead or alive.”When his remains were found in the desert about three ye...

Son of deceased Murdaugh housekeeper believes no foul play

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:08 GMT

(NewsNation) — The son of a deceased housekeeper for the Murdaugh family is in support of an exhumation but believes there was no foul play in his mother's death.Tony Satterfield's mother Gloria died inside the Murdaughs South Carolina property in 2018 after she tripped and fell. Alex Murdaugh then stole millions of dollars of insurance money that was intended for the Satterfield family.Tony Satterfield said during a February court appearance that Murdaugh told him he would get his insurers to take care of him and his brother financially. Murdaugh eventually got settlements of more than $4 million, but Satterfield said his family found out after the killings and never saw any of it.When Tony Satterfield learned about the theft, he felt "betrayed, shocked," he said Tuesday on "CUOMO." Kidnapped Americans found in Mexico; 2 dead, 1 injured The Murdaugh family told Satterfield’s sons she tripped over the four family dogs and died as a result of her injuries. An autopsy was ...