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Post-GOP walkout, Oregon elections chief says lawmakers with 10 or more absences can’t run next term

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The 10 Republican state senators in Oregon who racked up more than 10 unexcused absences during a walkout in the most recent legislative session can’t run for reelection in 2024, the state’s elections chief said Tuesday.Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade made the announcement in a news release to clear up confusion over how reelection rules would affect those senators. Under Measure 113, which was approved by voters in 2022, lawmakers with more than 10 unexcused absences were supposed to be disqualified from being reelected for the following term. But some Republicans raised questions over the measure’s vague wording, sparking confusion over what the consequences of the walkout would be for boycotting senators.“My decision honors the voters’ intent by enforcing the measure the way it was commonly understood when Oregonians added it to our state constitution,” Griffin-Valade said.She has directed the Oregon Elections Division to impleme...

Mexico shutters 23 pharmacies at Caribbean coast resorts after US warned of dangerous pill sales

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico has shuttered 23 pharmacies at Caribbean coast resorts, six months after a research report warned that drug stores in Mexico were offering foreigners pills they passed off as Oxycodone, Percocet and Adderall without prescriptions, authorities said Tuesday. A four-day inspection raid targeted drugstores in Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum. In March, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning about sales of such pills, and the practice appears to be widespread. The Navy Department said Tuesday that irregular sales were found at 23 of the 55 drug stores inspected. The Navy said the pharmacies usually offered the pills only to tourists, and the drugstores advertised such pills, and even offered home delivery services for them.The Navy said it found outdated medications and some for which there was no record of the supplier, as well as blank or unsigned prescription forms.In February, the University of California, Los Angeles announced that researchers ...

Tennessee governor outlines agenda for special session in wake of Nashville school shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping list of public safety issues he wants lawmakers to address during an upcoming special session prompted by a shocking Nashville school shooting earlier this year that resulted in the deaths of three children and three adults. The proclamation includes 18 different topics the Republican governor wants lawmakers to consider, such as mental health, gun storage and school safety policies. But notably, it allows lawmakers to discuss Lee’s proposal to limit dangerous people’s access to guns. “As our nation faces evolving public safety threats, Tennessee remains vigilant and is taking continued action to protect communities while preserving the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” Lee said in a statement, adding that he has worked with the General Assembly to identify “practical measures to strengthen public safety.”Earlier this year, Tennessee’s GOP-dominated Statehouse refused...

A Texas man on a trip to spread his dad’s ashes died of heat stroke in Utah’s Arches National Park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Texas man whose body was found in Utah’s Arches National Park is believed to have died of heat stroke while on a trip to spread his father’s ashes, family members said Tuesday.James Bernard Hendricks, 66, of Austin, had been hiking in the park and likely became disoriented from a combination of heat, dehydration and high altitude, sisters Ila Hendricks and Ruth Hendricks Brough said.The victim, who went by “Jimmy,” stopped in Utah while traveling across the West to the Sierra Nevada mountains, where he planned to spread his father’s ashes on a peak located outside Reno, Nevada, the sisters said.Rangers found his vehicle at a trailhead parking lot after Hendricks was reported overdue the morning of Aug. 1, according to park officials. Hendricks’ body was found about 2 1/2 (4 kilometers) miles from the trailhead during a search off the trail later that day, the sisters said.He was an experienced hiker but his water bottle was empty, Brough said.His sister...

After a glacial dam outburst destroyed homes in Alaska, a look at the risks of melting ice masses

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — People in Alaska’s capital have lived for more than a decade with periodic glacial dam outbursts like the one that destroyed at least two homes over the weekend. But the most recent flood was surprising for how quickly the water moved as the surging Mendenhall River devoured riverbanks, undermining and damaging homes, and prompted some residents to flee. Here are some issues surrounding glaciers and the floods that result from the bursting of snow-and-ice dams.WHAT CAUSED THE FLOODING IN JUNEAU?The water came from a side basin of the spectacular but receding Mendenhall Glacier that is known as the Suicide Basin. The glacier acts as a dam for precipitation and melt from the nearby Suicide Glacier that collects in the basin during the spring and summer. Eventually the water gushes out from under the Mendenhall Glacier and into Mendenhall Lake, from which it flows down the Mendenhall River.Such glacial dam outbursts have been occurring in the area since 2011...

US vows to keep Syria’s chemical weapons program in UN spotlight over Russian and Chinese opposition

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and its allies vowed Tuesday to keep Syria’s failure to account for its chemical weapons program in the spotlight at the U.N. Security Council every month despite opposition from Russia and China.U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government “has repeatedly lied to the international community” and to investigators from the international chemical weapons watchdog, which has confirmed that it used these banned weapons on at least nine occasions.She said the Biden administration will continue to demand a full accounting from Syria as it pledged after joining the Chemical Weapons Convention in September 2013, when it was pressed by its close ally Russia following a deadly chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, which the West blamed on Damascus.For the first time, Russia and China refused to speak at the monthly meeting on the Syria chemical weapons issue, saying they are repe...

3 fishermen plucked from Atlantic waters off Nantucket by Coast Guard helicopter crew

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Three fishermen who were not wearing life jackets were plucked alive from ocean waters by the Coast Guard five miles east of Nantucket off the Cape Cod coast Saturday afternoon.At about 12:48 p.m. the First Coast Guard District command center received an alert from an emergency radio beacon registered to the 55-foot commercial fishing vessel Miss Kara.A Jayhawk helicopter crew based out of Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod and a 47-foot lifeboat crew based out of Coast Guard Station Brandt Point in Nantucket responded. Just after 2 p.m. the Jayhawk crew discovered all three fishermen clinging to a buoy. The three were safely hoisted aboard the helicopter and flown to Hyannis Airport, where they were treated by emergency medical workers.A video released by the Coast Guard show the men being pulled onto the helicopter one by one as it hovered about the Atlantic waters.The emergency beacon was crucial to the rescue, according to Lt. Cmdr. Kristi Butler, search and rescue c...

Woman in critical condition after Wicker Park hit-and-run

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

CHICAGO -- The family of a teenager is pleading for witnesses to come forward after a hit-and-run left their loved one in critical condition.17-year-old Nakari Campbell had left her home on Milwaukee Avenue just before 10:30 p.m. on Friday, and was walking to meet a friend to go to a party.Campbell reportedly crossed Division Street heading south on Ashland Avenue when she was hit by someone driving a 2008 red Mercedes Benz C-35.The teen landed on the roof of the car, then rolled off with her hair getting caught in the tire and was then dragged.Her family told WGN she is in critical condition at Stroger in the ICU in a medically induced coma and has already undergone several surgeries and skin grafts.Campbell is an incoming senior at legal prep high school in West Garfield Park. Family members tell us she is a bubbly girl who loves fashion, and hanging out with friends and cousins.Doctors telling them it will be a long road to recovery for her."She is currently suffering from broken...

CDC says new COVID subvariant now the US's dominant strain, picture remains unclear

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

(The Hill) - The COVID-19 omicron subvariant EG.5 is now the most dominant strain in the U.S. according to the latest genomic surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but lax data collection makes it hard to tell what this means for the country.The EG.5 omicron subvariant accounts for 17.3 percent of coronavirus injections in the U.S. according to the CDC data, having jumped by 5 percent in the two weeks when the proportions were last updated.The prevalence of EG.5 is relatively minor at the moment, with the second most prevalent strain XBB.1.16 accounting for 15.6 percent of cases. COVID hospitalizations jump again: Maps show where it’s worst The CDC no longer tracks national COVID-19 case rates, though hospitalization data is still updated regularly. Hospitalizations due to SARS-CoV-2 have risen slightly in the past few weeks suggesting higher levels of transmission, but it remains uncertain if this trend can be attributed to EG.5's recent gro...

Texas man on trip to spread father's ashes dies at Utah national park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:24:43 GMT

MOAB, Utah (KTVX) -- A 66-year-old man from Texas found dead Aug. 1 in Arches National Park was there to spread his father's ashes, according to his family.James Bernard Hendricks, of Austin, is believed to have died of heat stroke during a hike along the Sand Dune Arch Trail, his sister, Ruth Hendricks Brough, told the San Antonio Express-News.“He was loved by countless people because he was an unusually kind, sweet person who made friends easily," she told the outlet. "Now all these people are grieving. It was a horrible shock."Rangers from the Grand County Sheriff's Office went looking for Hendricks after he was reported overdue to return from his hike and found his car in the parking lot. Hendricks' body was found off-trail nearby, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.The quart water bottle that Hendricks brought with him was empty, Brough said, adding that rangers believe he died from a mix of heat, high altitude and dehydration. Experts warn about ‘bed ...