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Alabama asks US Supreme Court again to intervene in redistricting case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let it keep Republican-drawn congressional lines in place as the state continues to fight a court order to create a second district where Black voters constitute a majority or close to it. Despite losing at the Supreme Court earlier this year in the long-running redistricting case, Alabama is pursuing another appeal, hoping for a different result with the most recent GOP version of the map. Alabama asked the justices to stay a ruling issued last week by a three-judge panel that that blocked use of the latest GOP-drawn districts in upcoming elections and directed a court-appointed special master to propose new lines for the state. The judges, in their ruling, said Alabama lawmakers deliberately defied their directive to create a second majority-Black district or something close to it. The Alabama attorney general’s office asked justices to put the order on hold while the state appeals “so that millions of Alaba...

Teenager dead, man injured after Rhode Island Row shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

Police cars blocking Rhode Island Row after a shooting that killed a teenage boy and injured a man in Northeast D.C. (WTOP/Terik King) Police cars blocking Rhode Island Row after a shooting that killed a teenage boy and injured a man in Northeast D.C. (WTOP/Terik King) A teenage boy is dead and a man is in the hospital after a shooting in Northeast D.C. on Monday afternoon, according to D.C. police.An officer heard gunshots while on patrol at the 2300 block on Washington Place at around 4:34 p.m., according to a statement. The officer found two people suffering from gunshot wounds, a man and teenage boy.Detectives said the teenager was “a victim in an altercation” and the man had tried to intervene whe...

Sweeping California bill to make big businesses disclose climate emissions passes state Assembly, clearing a key hurdle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Sweeping California bill to make big businesses disclose climate emissions passes state Assembly, clearing a key hurdle.Source

How much could Prop HH save you in property taxes? Try this calculator

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — If you're wondering how much Proposition HH could lower property taxes in Colorado, a new calculator gives an estimate.Prop HH will go before voters in November. The measure would lower property taxes for the next 10 years and increase the state's revenue cap to help fund local governments — meaning lower and sometimes nonexistent refund checks under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Have things become more expensive in Denver? While Prop HH requires an initial vote of the people, it could be extended without voter approval.Prop HH property tax estimatesThe 2023 ballot information booklet was published by the nonpartisan Legislative Council of the Colorado legislature, which also published a tool to help estimate property taxes under Prop HH.The ballot book shows estimated property tax reductions for both residential and nonresidential properties.Residential property value2023: Average change in property tax2024: Average change in property tax$100,000-$167 to -$177-$2...

Neighbors fed up: Crashes continue on problem Denver streets

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Another crash on 13th Avenue has residents fed up and wanting more to be done by Denver.The Problem Solvers, along with Denver residents and their city council representative, have been pressing the city about their plans to slow drivers in the area. How to calculate your property taxes under Prop HH FOX31 first reported this story back in September 2021 and has followed it since. The city's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure has implemented measures to slow drivers, but residents say they’re not working.'Nice little streets are now highways'Last Friday, another crash happened on 13th Avenue at Ivanhoe Street. A driver crashed through a fence, leaving behind significant damage.Ellen Becker lives down the street and came out to the crash."It was 8:30 on Friday morning and I heard a huge thud, and I came outside to see there was a Mazda in the yard, the fence was down, the traffic sign was down," Becker said.Eric Haglund surveys the damage at his 13th Av...

Excited after amputation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

She had cancer and a tumor in her foot. Her insurance company refused to pay for it to be amputated. Then she contacted Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser and got the surgery she desperately needed. Tina arrived home with a smile, not thinking about what she had been through, wondering about us.Tina Bakr: “How have you guys been?”Patrick Fraser: “Forget us. How have you been?”Tina Bakr: “I’m all right. I’m hanging in there.”Twenty-two days ago, Tina went into the hospital where her leg was amputated.Tina Bakr: “The pain was like nothing I ever felt. It was excruciating.”But Tina doesn’t dwell on the negatives, just the positives.Tina Bakr: “I’m very fortunate. I’ve had pain in the stump, of course, and the other things, other pains that I was having before. But I’m doing much better now.”However, she should never should have lost her leg from the knee down.Tina Bakr: “And I was info...

Shock and recriminations as Chinese spy scandal rocks UK parliament

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

LONDON — Rishi Sunak has spent most of his brief premiership treading a delicate balance on relations with China. So the last thing the British prime minister needed as he enters a careful autumn of diplomacy was a Chinese spy scandal erupting in his midst.Westminster is this week reeling from the news that a British citizen working as a parliamentary researcher for MPs is under arrest on suspicion of spying for Beijing. Two men, one in his 20s and another in his 30s, were arrested under the Official Secrets Act in March, police confirmed, after the news was reported in the Sunday Times. One of the men is a well-known figure at Westminster who was involved in international affairs and had close links to senior Conservatives.One parliamentary aide who knows the man — granted anonymity to speak freely for this article — said: “Everyone who had come into contact with him is feeling angry and exposed.”Another person involved in Westminster’s China policy circle added: “It’s ...

Macron’s slow but bold U-turn on Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron missed the boat on Ukraine.Faced with Russia’s military build-up and subsequent invasion of its neighbor, Macron dove down a rabbit hole of fruitless talks with Vladimir Putin. At a moment when he could have taken the helm as the leader of Europe, he miscalculated and failed to seize the political initiative. Instead, in Europe, it was the likes of the Euroskeptic British premier Boris Johnson who took the lead on rallying support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and providing arms. While Johnson was a hero in Kyiv, Macron infuriated the Ukrainians by insisting that Putin should not be humiliated and suggesting that Moscow deserved “security guarantees.” Ukraine, the French president said, was “in all likelihood decades” from joining the EU. But a sea change has taken place in Paris since. The French president has now picked up the mantle as one of Ukraine’s strongest allies, pledging support “until...

Grand bargain for Bretton Woods

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

Rabah Arezki is the former vice president and chief economist at the African Development Bank and former chief economist for the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa region. He is currently a director of research at the French National Center for Scientific Research, and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.The Bretton Woods system arose out of the ashes of World War II.Emerging from the famous Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, the agreement set out rules and institutions to govern the modern monetary system, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and what is now known as the World Bank Group — two institutions that have become mainstays of the global system of economic governance.Historically, this system has been centered on the United States and Europe giving weight to economic power. An informal and enduring arrangement between them ensures the head of the IMF is Eur...

Von der Leyen’s non-campaign kicks off

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:50:23 GMT

BRUSSELS — Make no mistake about it: Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union speech is the kickoff of her campaign to lead the next European Commission. On Wednesday, von der Leyen will bask in the trappings of incumbency in the Strasbourg Parliament hemicycle when she delivers her annual address. She’s already been boasting that her Commission has implemented 92 percent of its pledges. Yet the reality is that her topsy-turvy coalition of frenemies could easily crumble.An accidental Commission president who lucked into the job through rounds of horse-trading, von der Leyen has been mum on her plans about running for real this time. But no one really believes she’s ruled it out, and she now has less than a year before the next European election to convince power brokers on both the left and the right that sticking with her is better than gambling on an alternative who might be a better ideological fit.“There will be different ears from different political famili...