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Mexico’s president visits city where fire killed 39 migrants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president on Friday visited the border city where 39 migrants died in a fire at a detention center, expressing pain over the disaster but probably not bringing any changes in tough immigration policies. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he was personally devastated by Monday’s tragedy in Ciudad Juarez, which is across from El Paso, Texas. “I confess it hurt me a lot, it damaged me,” López Obrador said before starting out on his trip to Juarez. “It ripped my soul apart.” The president said the fire was the second most painful moment of his administration, exceeded only by a 2019 pipeline fire in the central Mexico town of Tlahuelilpan that killed about 135 people.However, it hasn’t cost him much politically. Many residents of Mexican border cities mourned the death of the migrants in the smoky mattress fire, which was set by some migrants to protest perceived moves to deport them. But in Ciudad Juarez, many peope were fed up with migrants la...

To conserve, Nevada may try to buy back groundwater rights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Marty Plaskett upgraded his farming equipment and spent $60,000 on new sprinklers to conserve water, even before the rural Nevada valley where he farms alfalfa began more strictly managing groundwater.Now, Plaskett is weighing another adjustment: selling off part of his legal right to use water that lies under his land to the state. Even after a wet winter, Nevada and much of the West are still dealing with the effects of a prolonged drought that depleted groundwater supplies. Lawmakers in Nevada are considering a bill to allow the state to buy groundwater rights in diminished basins so nobody could use them again.In the area where Plaskett farms, the state severely overestimated decades ago just how much water was available from wells sunk deep into fractured rock and gravel. The Legislature hasn’t determined how much farmers would be paid to give up some rights to groundwater.“It would mainly come down to, number one, the price,” said Plaskett, 57.St...

Vancouver asks artist, vigil keepers to end Indigenous children’s shoe memorial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

VANCOUVER — Officials in Vancouver said they plan to meet with the artist and volunteers who are keeping vigil on a children’s shoe memorial on the steps of the city’s art gallery in an effort to end the tribute to children who didn’t return from residential schools. The city said in a statement it notified the artist in November that the growing memorial needed to come down ahead of the two-year anniversary of the announcement of the Kamloops discovery this May. It said the decision is supported by the local Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations. “The City acknowledges there is still a need for healing and mourning spaces,” the statement said. “While the temporary memorial cannot remain on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the City will continue to work with (Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and Urban Indigenous communities to create a more permanent and culturally appropriate memorial.”In the meantime, the city ...

Chinese businessman seeks bail in $1 billion fraud case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for a wealthy self-exiled Chinese businessman who developed ties to Trump administration figures including Steve Bannon are seeking bail for him two weeks after his arrest, saying other defendants accused of massive frauds like Bernard Madoff and Sam Bankman-Fried were freed on bail.The lawyers submitted papers in Manhattan federal court, saying Guo Wengui is entitled to bail just as other wealthy defendants have been given the chance to post bail in the past. They also challenged claims by prosecutors that he is a risk to flee, saying he would not leave his wife of 38 years and his daughter as all three seek asylum.Madoff was free for several months in late 2008 and early 2009 before he was jailed after he pleaded guilty in a multibillion-dollar fraud. He was later sentenced to 150 years in prison and died behind bars.Bankman-Fried, 31, was arrested in the Bahamas in December in what a prosecutor called one of biggest frauds in American history. He agreed to...

UN food chief: Billions needed to avert unrest, starvation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Without billions of dollars more to feed millions of hungry people, the world will see mass migration, destabilized countries, and starving children and adults in the next 12 to 18 months, the head of the Nobel prize-winning U.N. World Food Program warned Friday.David Beasley praised increased funding from the United States and Germany last year, and urged China, Gulf nations, billionaires and other countries “to step up big time.”In an interview before he hands the reins of the world’s largest humanitarian organization to U.S. ambassador Cindy McCain next week, the former South Carolina governor said he’s “extremely worried” that WFP won’t raise about $23 billion it needs this year to help an estimated 350 million people in 49 countries who desperately need food, “Right at this stage, I’ll be surprised if we get 40% of it, quite frankly,” he said.WFP was in a similar crisis last year, he said, but fortunately he was able to convince the United States to increa...

Video of Colorado nightclub attack kept out of public view

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Surveillance footage capturing the attack at a Colorado gay nightclub that left five people dead and 17 others wounded will not be made public until it is presented at trial, a judge ruled Friday.Prosecutors and defense attorneys had argued that releasing the gruesome video could make it difficult to seat an impartial jury and would further traumatize the survivors while disrespecting those who were killed in the Nov. 19, 2022, shooting. “Those individuals deserve the respect of not having the last moments or the most traumatic moments of their lives broadcast and downloadable from a State of Colorado web site,” Anderson Lee Aldrich’s public defenders wrote in a March 2 motion. They also argued that, unlike printed court documents, it would be too difficult to redact the video, which shows “moments of death and severe injury to several people.”Judge Michael McHenry agreed not to make the footage public because attorneys on both sides ...

Hit TV series ‘The Last of Us’ to film Season 2 in Vancouver, mayor says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says he’s looking forward to seeing a post-apocalyptic version of city hall after announcing that hit HBO TV series “The Last of Us” will film Season 2 in the city, moving from Alberta.Sim says the filming will provide Vancouver with more “swagger,” as well as hundreds of jobs and significant contributions to the local economy.Sim told a news conference that he and Vancouver film commissioner Geoff Teoli were in Los Angeles a few weeks ago to show that Vancouver is “open for business,” and the process unfolded from there.The wildly popular show stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as their characters traverse the United States 20 years after a fungal pandemic collapses society.The show, based on a video game franchise of the same name, has proved to be a boon for Alberta’s film and travel sectors.Travel Alberta has a map on its website listing 180 filming locations and an itinerary for visiting fans of the show.This report by The Canadi...

Live Chicago severe weather: Tornado watch, timeline for storms Friday night

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

The Chicago area is under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. Friday. Two rounds of storms are forecasted between the hours of 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. The first round is set to move into the Chicago area around 4 p.m. as super cell thunderstorms. These storms pose a tornado threat and a golf-ball sized hail threat. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here A cold front then moves through around 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., bringing another round of very quickly moving severe weather. These storms also pose the threat of tornadoes. The storms are likely to move through at a rate of 50-60 mph so any tornado warnings will be quick and offer not much time. It's advised that residents be prepared in advanced and stay tuned to WGNTV and the weather app for alerts and updates. Tom Skilling also suggests anyone with any porch furniture or outdoor items susceptible to strong wings should bring them inside. These storms are set to bring potentially dangerous and destructive wi...

VIDEO: Hail, thunderstorms tear through Illinois

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

CHICAGO -- The National Weather Service has issued many levels of severe weather alerts Friday across the country. What is causing this severe weather system? Tornado sirens were triggered downstate in the Peoria area Friday afternoon, according to Nexstar affiliate WMBD-TV.Strong winds or a possible tornado struck a farm in Tazewell County, just west of Peoria. Seven cows were in barn at the farm when it collapsed. Live Chicago severe weather: Tornado watch, timeline for storms Friday night Central Illinois residents said they found hail the size of golf balls and baseballs falling from the sky Friday.The National Weather Service does have majority of the state of Illinois, including the Chicagoland area, under a severe weather watch until Saturday morning.Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Jasper, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, LaSalle, Lake, McHenry, Newton, Porter, and Will County are all under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. Friday, as of 6:46 p.m. on Friday.Flas...

Uprising Bakery Café to remain open after planned drag show almost forced closure

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:59:07 GMT

LAKE IN THE HILLS, Ill. — A suburban bakery that had planned to close its doors on Friday will remain open after all. Uprising Bakery and Café in Lake in the Hills posted on Facebook that customers have made it clear they want the business to keep going. A GoFundMe page started by a customer has raised more than $23,000.The bakery had planned to close due to attacks of vandalism and harassment after the bakery announced plans to host a drag show.