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California may end travel ban to states with anti-LGBTQ laws

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — When North Carolina in 2016 banned transgender people from using the bathroom of their gender identity in public buildings, California retaliated by banning state-funded travel to that state and any other state with laws it deemed discriminatory against LGBTQ people.But seven years later, California now bans state-funded travel to nearly half of the country following a surge of anti-LGBTQ legislation in mostly Republican-led states. The prohibition means sports teams at public colleges and universities have had to find other ways to pay for road games in states like Arizona and Utah. And it has complicated some of the state’s other policy goals, like using state money to pay for people who live in other states to travel to California for abortions.Wednesday, state Senate leader Toni Atkins announced legislation that would end the ban and replace it with an advertising campaign in those states that promotes acceptance and inclusion for the LGBTQ community.“I...

Syria says Israeli strikes near Damascus wound 2 soldiers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian state media said Israel staged airstrikes in the Damascus area early Thursday, wounding two soldiers and causing material damage.Loud explosions were heard over the Syrian capital around 1:30 a.m., and the SANA state news agency said Syrian air defenses were “confronting hostile targets.” SANA, quoting an unidentifed military official, said some missiles were shot down by the air defenses. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including attacks on the Damascus and Aleppo airports, but it rarely acknowledges specific operations.Israel says it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.An Israeli airstrike last week targeting the airport at the northern city of Aleppo put it out of commission for two days.Along with airports, Israel has also targeted seaports in ...

Social issues dominate in Women’s Hall of Fame’s new class

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

SENECA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — A new group of National Women’s Hall of Fame inductees includes social justice pioneers, groundbreaking physicians and women who have championed Jewish feminist theology and the financial well-being of Native Americans, the institute announced Wednesday.“When I was a young girl, I wanted above all to be popular. By the time I was 35, I decided I would rather be useful than popular,” inductee Peggy McIntosh, an activist known for her explorations of privilege, said by email after the honorees were announced.She and the other living inductees — Kimberlé Crenshaw, Judith Plaskow, Loretta Ross and Allucquére Rosanne “Sandy” Stone — have helped drive issues of white privilege, systemic racism, reproductive justice, transgender studies and feminist theology into the public discourse. Three women will be inducted posthumously: Dr. Patricia Bath (1942-2019), an early pioneer of laser cataract surgery and the first Black woman physician to receive a medi...

TikTok ban pushed by Missouri’s Hawley blocked in Senate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley tried to force a Senate vote Wednesday on legislation that would ban TikTok from operating in the United States, but he was blocked by a fellow Republican as lawmakers in both chambers are still trying to figure out what action, if any, is appropriate against the social media app.In trying to force a vote — a move that rarely works in the Senate, since one senator’s objection can block it — Hawley called TikTok “digital fentanyl” and argued it could give the Chinese government access to data from 150 million American users. His bill would block and prohibit U.S. transactions with TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., within 30 days.The bill “sends the message to Communist China that you cannot buy us,” Hawley said. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky objected to Hawley’s motion, arguing that trying to ban an app would violate the Constitution and anger the millions of voters who use it. “Speech is protected whether you l...

Suit tossed in active shooter drill woman believed was real

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an employee of Catholic Charities of Omaha who said she suffered physical and emotional injuries during an active shooter drill involving actors smeared in fake blood and a man firing blanks from a semiautomatic handgun.Douglas County District Court Judge Timothy Burns ruled that Workers’ Compensation Court should decide Sandra Lopez’s claims against Catholic Charities over the drill last year at the organization’s headquarters, the Omaha World-Herald reported Wednesday.Lopez said in the lawsuit that administrators did not warn employees that a drill was planned on May 19, 2022. One administrator who knew it was staged told her, “It is a shooting” as they ran out of the building together, according to the lawsuit. Lopez said she hurt her back while fleeing and also has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.Catholic Charities sought to have the lawsuit dismissed, contending it should be decided...

Jury awards nearly $5M verdict in Chicago police chase crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A Cook County jury awarded nearly $5 million Wednesday to the family of an 84-year-old retired teacher who was killed when a police cruiser crashed into a police van and careened into a car in which she was a passenger.The jury awarded $4.75 million to the estate of Verona Gunn and $180,000 to be divided among three other people in the car with her when the collision happened, for their physical injuries and emotional suffering, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a statement.The verdict is one of the highest in the state of Illinois for the death of someone in their eighties, it added.“Today, this jury honored their oath and made the City of Chicago accountable for the tragic and untimely death of Mrs. Verona Gunn,” plaintiff’s attorney Andrew Stroth said.Gunn was being driven home after a family cookout when the crash occurred on May 25, 2019, and she died hours later on an operating table.Her daughter, a family friend in the passenger seat and the friend’s 9-ye...

North Dakota aims at school curriculum to deter abortions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

North Dakota schools would be required to show students high-quality video of how a human fetus develops in each week of pregnancy under a bill Senate lawmakers approved during a vote Wednesday. The 37-9 vote comes on the heels of the North Dakota Supreme Court’s ruling this month that a state abortion ban will remain blocked while a lawsuit over its constitutionality proceeds.“If young people see the beauty of these beginnings, then hopefully they’ll think twice before running to the abortion clinic,” Sen. Janne Myrdal, a Republican of Edinburg who helped introduce the bill, said in an interview with The Associated Press.The bill would mandate schools to show middle and high school students a high-definition ultrasound video, at least three minutes long, on the development of the brain, heart and other vital organs in early fetal development — along with a high-quality animation of the fertilization and human development process inside the uterus, “noting significant ma...

Angry migrants head toward border crossing after deadly fire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — The death toll from a fire inside a migrant detention center rose to 39 Wednesday as hundreds of migrants began walking toward a U.S. border crossing in the belief that American authorities would let them through.The situation in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez was a mix of emotions. There was anger over the deaths of migrants trapped in their cells during a smoky fire that sent guards fleeing, and there was a tearful wait for information on the condition of the nearly 30 injured in the blaze.Santiago de la Peña, the Chihuahua state interior secretary, increased the death count to 39. Added to that was the pent-up frustration of migrants who have spent weeks trying to make appointments on a U.S. cellphone app to file asylum claims. Hundreds of migrants joined in the procession toward a border gate leading into El Paso, Texas, as rumors spread that they might be let through.Jorman Colón, a 30-year-old Venezuelan migrant, walked hand-in-hand with ...

Melissa Joan Hart says she helped ‘tiny kids’ flee shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Actor Melissa Joan Hart said she and her husband helped a class of kindergartners that was fleeing the Nashville school shooting earlier this week. Hart said in a video posted on Instagram Tuesday that her children attend a school next to the private Christian Covenant School. She said she and her husband had been headed to her kids’ school conferences Monday when they helped some students get away from the shooting that killed six people.“We helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway,” she said, her voice breaking, “that were climbing out of the woods — that were trying to, um, escape the shooter situation at their school. So we helped all these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there, and we helped a mom reunite with her children.”Hart said she had moved to Nashville from Connecticut and that her kids had attended a school near Sandy Hook Elementary when 26 children were shot and killed there in 2012.“...

Man seriously injured in York University stabbing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:27 GMT

A man has suffered serious injuries after being stabbed on the grounds of York University.Police say they were called to the university, located at 4700 Keele Street, for reports a large group of people were fighting on campus grounds. When they arrived they found one man suffering from stab wounds. He was taken by paramedics to a nearby hospital in serious condition.Police say the suspects fled the scene and have not provided a description at this time.