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Jacksonville elects first female mayor, giving Florida Democrats a rare win in GOP-dominated state

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Democrat Donna Deegan’s decisive win over a Republican in the open Jacksonville mayor’s race will make her the first woman to hold the job in the Florida city’s history, sparking a flicker of hope for a besieged Democratic Party that has few levers of power in a state dominated by the GOP.Deegan, 62, a former television anchor who runs a breast cancer support nonprofit, earned 52% of the vote in Tuesday’s election to defeat Republican Daniel Davis, CEO of the JAX Chamber business group, according to unofficial results. About 217,000 people voted in the race, for a turnout of 33%.Alvin Brown’s victory in 2011 was the last time a Democrat won the mayor’s race, and he was defeated in 2015 by Republican Lenny Curry. Brown was the only Democratic mayor in the past 30 years. Curry could not run again this year because of term limits and Deegan will take over July 1.“We have made history tonight, folks. It’s a brand new day for Jacksonville, Flo...

DeSantis signs bills targeting drag shows, transgender kids and the use of bathrooms and pronouns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed bills Wednesday that ban gender-affirming care for minors, target drag shows, restrict discussion of personal pronouns in schools and force people to use certain bathrooms.DeSantis has made anti-LGBTQ+ legislation a large part of his agenda as he prepares to seek the Republican presidential nomination. He signed the bills in front of a cheering crowd at the evangelical Cambridge Christian School in Tampa. The ceremony had a campaign-like feel, with DeSantis tossing Sharpies to a crowd, as opposed to when he privately signed measures on abortion and gun rights.Democrats opposed the bills and LBTQ+ rallies were held at the Capitol during the session that ended two weeks ago, but Republicans have a super-majority in both chambers and easily approved the bills for DeSantis’ signature.“It’s kind of sad that we even have some of these discussions,” DeSantis told the crowd, standing behind a lectern with a sign reading “Let Ki...

Tupac Shakur to be honored with a street name in California

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The late Tupac Shakur will have a stretch of an Oakland street renamed for him after a unanimous vote by the city council Tuesday.Shakur was born in Harlem and later lived in Baltimore, Maryland; and in Marin City, California, but credited Oakland as the location where he got his “game” and launched his career, according to legislation authorizing the commemorative street renaming.A stretch of MacArthur Boulevard by Lake Merritt where Shakur once lived will keep its existing name, but also receive the additional, honorary name of Tupac Shakur Way. Commemorative plaques and signs signaling the change will be paid for by the Tupac Shakur Foundation.Oakland has honored others with street names, including Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton and rapper and record producer Too Short.Shakur was 25 when he was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996.The City Council legislation says the renamed part of the street will remind people of Sha...

Biden administration invests in carbon capture, upping pressure on industry to show results

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced $251 million for carbon capture and storage projects in seven states, aiming to reducing reduce planet-warming pollution from power plants and other industrial facilities.The announcement represents a vote of confidence by the government in the nascent technology, which proponents, often from oil and gas industries, say could have a huge role in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, many environmentalists note that the technology is far from scale and argue that focusing on it distracts from established renewable energy solutions. Between the direct investments announced Wednesday, billions more earmarked from legislation and public statements by President Biden and U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry, the government is increasing pressure on the carbon capture and storage industry to show that the technology can significantly help combat climate change. “We’re trying to get commercial lift off in the carbon management ind...

Spread of abortion restrictions in South puts pressure on Virginia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — As more Southern states pass new restrictions on abortion, Virginia is poised to become an outlier in the region for its relatively permissive laws, setting up the state as a destination for women seeking abortions and raising questions about providers’ capacity to meet demand.South Carolina is among the last bastions in the region for those seeking legal abortions, but that status could end soon. Access would be almost entirely banned after about six weeks of pregnancy — often before women know they’re pregnant — under a bill expected to come up for a vote in the House on Wednesday. The state Senate, which previously rejected a proposal to nearly outlaw abortions, could give final passage next week.And most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will be banned in North Carolina beginning July 1 after the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature successfully overrode the Democratic governor’s veto late Tuesday.Abortion is banned or severely restricted in m...

Jury begins deliberations in Danny Masterson rape retrial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors in Danny Masterson’s rape retrial began deliberations Wednesday morning in the case against the former “That ’70s Show” star. The jury of seven men and five women got the case when prosecutors finally finished their rebuttal after all-day closing arguments a day earlier. Late last year, a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case against Masterson involving rape allegations by three women, and Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo declared a mistrial. Prosecutors said in their closing argument Tuesday that Masterson drugged the women in order to assault them, then relied on his status as a prominent member in the Church of Scientology to avoid consequences for decades.“You don’t want to have sex? You don’t have a choice,” Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told the jury. “The defendant makes that choice for these victims. And he does it over and over and over again.”After closing arguments, Masterson’s attorney Philip Cohen made a moti...

State Department offers Republican lawmaker a chance to view Afghanistan dissent cable

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department offered Wednesday to allow the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to view a classified cable from U.S. diplomats in Kabul sent shortly before the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas had threatened earlier this week to make an unprecedented push to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress if he did not turn over the so-called dissent cable. It was not immediately clear whether the State Department’s offer would appease the Republican lawmaker, who also wanted to see Blinken’s response to the cable.State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Wednesday that McCaul, as well as Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the committee, would be invited to the department to view the cable “with appropriate personal information redacted.”“Chairman McCaul himself has said that this is what he is interested in,” Patel said. “And so it i...

Elizabeth Holmes will start 11-year prison sentence on May 30 after losing her bid to remain free

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes will remain free through the Memorial Day weekend before surrendering to authorities on May 30 to begin her more than 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors in a blood-testing scam.U.S. District Judge Edward Davila set Holmes’ revised prison-reporting date after her lawyers proposed it in a Wednesday filing. It came after a federal appeals court late Tuesday rejected Holmes’ bid to remain out of prison while she attempts to overturn her January 2022 conviction on four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. The punishment also includes a $452 million restitution bill that Davila ordered Holmes to pay in a separate ruling issued late Tuesday.Holmes’ lawyers asked Davila to approve the May 30 prison reporting time to her two weeks to sort out several issues, including child care for her 1-year-old son William and 3-month-old daughter Invicta. Holmes had originally been ordered to begin her prison s...

Illinois Democrats say abortion-access protections are a promise: ‘You’re safe here’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Access to abortion is essentially locked down in Illinois. But Democrats are looking for ways to further protect the practice and its availability, including to outsiders who potentially face home-state penalties for seeking treatment here. Legislation approved by both houses of the General Assembly include requiring Illinois insurers to cover abortion-inducing drugs, penalizing crisis pregnancy centers if they distribute inaccurate information and requiring colleges to offer reduced-price emergency contraception on campus. Reaching beyond the borders is a high-tech House-approved measure that would require that interstate agreements over license-plate reading technology include a promise they not be used to track people traveling to Illinois for an abortion. It has its sights set on statutes such as the recent “abortion-trafficking” law signed in Idaho. Lawmakers say they are not circling the wagons amid an increasingly hostile landscape since the U.S. Supr...

Limo service manager convicted of manslaughter in rural New York crash that killed 20 people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:32 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A limousine service manager was convicted Wednesday of manslaughter in a crash that killed 20 people in rural New York, one of the deadliest U.S. road wrecks in two decades. Jurors reached their verdict during their second day of deliberations in the trial of Nauman Hussain, who ran Prestige Limousine. He faces the possibility of up to 15 years in prison at his May 31 sentencing. Hussain looked disappointed on hearing the verdict. He was taken into custody. A message seeking comment was sent to his attorney.Applause could be heard in the audience as the jury was discharged. Packed with birthday revelers, the stretch-style SUV went off the road in 2018 after the vehicle’s brakes failed. The heavy limo hit a parked car and trees before coming to rest in a streambed in Schoharie, a village west of Albany. Seventeen passengers, the driver and two bystanders were killed.___Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News...