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Sen. Bob Menendez’s co-defendants, including his wife, plead not guilty to revised bribery charges

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Four defendants in the criminal bribery case against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez pleaded not guilty Wednesday in New York City to a revised indictment alleging that the senator, his wife and a third defendant conspired to use him as an agent of the Egyptian government.The senator, who gave up his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after his arrest last month, was excused from the Manhattan federal court proceeding until Monday because of Senate business.The defendants entering the pleas included his wife, Nadine Menendez, and a businessman, Wael Hana.The senator, his wife and Hana were charged in the rewritten indictment last week with a new charge of conspiring to utilize the senator as an agent of the Egyptian government even though he was prohibited from acting as one as a member of Congress.The earlier indictment charged Menendez and his wife with participating in a bribery conspiracy by accepting bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car fro...

From hospital, to shelter, to deadly inferno: Fleeing Palestinians lose another sanctuary in Gaza

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The courtyard of al-Ahli hospital, where thousands of Palestinians had sought shelter or medical treatment, is now a blackened expanse of charred cars, stretchers coated in ash and shredded dolls.That’s all that remains after an explosion on Tuesday turned it into an inferno, tearing apart men, women and children, and burning people alive. Images of the aftermath ignited protests across the region, threatening to broaden the war between Israel and Hamas.Mohammed al-Hayek had stepped away to fetch some coffee, making his way through the crowd of displaced people who were singing, praying or sleeping after fleeing to the Gaza City hospital in fear of Israeli airstrikes. Seeking the warm drink on a cold night saved his life.“I returned to find them torn in pieces,” al-Hayek said of his five cousins. He pointed to the mound of debris where they had been sitting, to their blood on the walls.“This is where Shahir was. This is where Mutasim was,” he said of the young men i...

Starbucks sues Workers United union, saying pro-Palestinian post damaged its reputation

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

Starbucks sued the union organizing its workers Wednesday, saying a pro-Palestine social media post from a union account early in the Israel-Hamas war angered hundreds of customers and damaged its reputation.Starbucks is suing for trademark infringement, demanding that Workers United stop using the name Starbucks Workers United for the branch that is organizing the coffee company’s workers. Starbucks also wants the group to stop using a circular green logo that resembles Starbucks’ logo.On Oct. 9, two days after Hamas militants rampaged across communities in southern Israel, Starbucks Workers United posted “Solidarity with Palestine!” on X, formerly known as Twitter. Workers United — a Philadelphia-based affiliate of the Service Employees International Union — has said the post was up for no more than 40 minutes before it was deleted.But posts and retweets from local Starbucks Workers United branches supporting Palestinians and condemning Israel were still visible on X Wednesd...

Florida GameStop employee fatally shot a fleeing shoplifter stealing Pokemon cards, police say

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. (AP) — A GameStop clerk who police say fatally shot a fleeing shoplifter has been charged with manslaughter. Derrick Guerrero, 33, was working at the video game retailer’s store in a suburban Fort Lauderdale strip mall Tuesday night when a man grabbed five boxes of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet “ultra-premium” trading cards and ran toward the door, Pembroke Pines police said in a report released Wednesday. The cards retail for $120 a box. Guerrero pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired one shot, hitting the man in the side, police said. The shoplifter dropped the cards and ran outside to a waiting pickup truck, where a woman called police. He died three hours later at a hospital. Police said store security cameras show the shoplifter never threatened Guerrero nor displayed any weapons. The man’s name has not been released. Florida, under its “stand your ground” law, lets someone use deadly force if there is a threat of death or great bodily har...

Man faces over a dozen charges for homophobic messaging, imagery of swastikas in Oakville

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

A 28-year-old Oakville man faces over a dozen charges in a series of hate-motivated offences that involved homophobic messaging and anti-semitic imagery.Halton Regional Police said officers were investigating for months after several anti-2SLGBTQI+ messages and slurs were spray painted onto buildings and imagery such as swastikas were carved into windows and mirrors.Police said the locations damaged included two churches, a public library, a public school, and a local business in Oakville. Related: Pickering man facing possible hate-crime charges after Palestinian flag damaged On Tuesday, authorities arrested 28-year-old Neil Jensen of Oakville. He faces numerous offences, including six counts of mischief over $5,000, uttering death threats and eight counts of failing to comply with a release order.Jensen was held in custody pending a bail hearing.A police spokesperson said that investigators believe the incidents were motivated by bias, prejudice, or hate and are ...

Keeneland plans new paddock and improved saddling paddock, estimated to cost nearly $93 million

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Keeneland has announced plans to build a paddock and enhance the saddling paddock to expand viewing and improve safety for horses and spectators.The project, estimated at nearly $93 million, has already received preliminary approval for incentives up to $23.2 million from the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority, a Wednesday news release from the historic track stated. It will be Keeneland’s largest capital project since its 1936 opening and the first since the library was built in 2002.Keeneland president and CEO Shannon Arvin said the saddling improvements will provide more space for horses and horsemen along with offering clearer views “to showcase the beauty and pageantry of our equine and human athletes.”“This project is central to our mission because it will allow us to welcome more fans and give them a variety of world-class experiences during our race meets and beyond,” Arvin added.Construction on the three-level paddock building will begin in...

Illinois Gov. Pritzker takes his fight for abortion access national with a new dark-money group

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is taking his abortion-rights advocacy nationwide, introducing on Wednesday a political organization to fund similar efforts outside Illinois, a state that legalized abortion by statute even before the Supreme Court invalidated the right to undergo the procedure.Think Big America has already funded support for constitutional amendments favoring abortion access in Ohio, Arizona and Nevada. The effort also enhances the profile of the Democratic governor and multibillionaire equity investor and philanthropist. Pritzker has said he’s focused on serving as a Midwest governor, but speculation is rampant that he harbors presidential ambitions. Fourteen states now ban abortion and debate elsewhere rages since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to upend the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade opinion that legalized abortion.“My commitment to protecting and expanding reproductive rights has been lifelong,” Pritzker, who has often r...

Chicago’s top cop says using police stations as short-term migrant housing is burden for department

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago’s new police chief said the city’s use of police stations as temporary housing for the growing population of migrants seeking asylum has been a “burden” on the nation’s second-largest police department. Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that among his main concerns is the toll the city’s approach has taken on officers’ well being because it is unfolding in their workplace. “We were the first to open our doors to the migrants and they’re still coming. And we have not turned them away,” Snelling said. “But what we need are other people to step up in these situations because the burden has been on the police department to house people.”Currently, over 3,000 new arrivals are sleeping at police stations with hundreds more at airports. Some stay a few days — others months — while they await longer-term placement at shelters set up throughout the city, including small hotels, a park fi...

Woman becomes Israeli folk hero for plying Hamas militants with snacks until rescue mission arrives

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — When Hamas militants toting grenades appeared in her living room, Rachel Edri served them tea and Moroccan cookies until police stormed in and killed the attackers.Edri’s tale of quick-witted survival during the Israel-Hamas war has turned the 65-year old woman into an unlikely folk hero in Israel. For many, she has come to symbolize the ingenuity of everyday Israelis left to fend for themselves as militants turned sleeping southern communities into bloodbaths on Oct. 7. After an early-morning air-raid siren, Edri returned from a bomb shelter in her hometown of Ofakim to find a band of Hamas militants in her living room. As gunfire raged outside, Edri’s home saw a 20-hour tete-a-tete between hospitality and brutality. “One of the terrorists said to me: ‘You remind me of my mother.'”“I told him, ‘I am really like your mother. I will help you, I will take care of you. What do you need?’” Edri told Ynet.After one of the grenade-toting gunmen str...

Impact assessment law ruling could ‘reset’ Canadian energy policy landscape: CAPP

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:51:37 GMT

CALGARY — The head of an oil and gas lobby group says last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada against large portions of the federal government’s impact assessment law could reset the policy landscape in this country in favour of energy development.Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers CEO Lisa Baiton said in a panel discussion in Calgary on Wednesday that Canada’s oil and gas industry has been subjected to layer upon layer of federal regulation in recent years.She said federal policies such as the promised emissions cap for the oil and gas sector and the proposed clean electricity regulations have scared away investment and harmed the industry.Baiton said the federal impact assessment law, formerly known as Bill C-69, contributed to what she called a “pancake-ing” of regulation on industry.But last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that legislation, which lays out the process for federal assessment of the environmental impacts of major pro...