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Connecticut adjourns largely bipartisan session in contrast to rancor in other states

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly passed protections for abortion providers and gave more power to libraries facing book challenges — and they did it with Republican support.All but 13 Republicans voted for the $51 billion two-year state budget and a handful even voted for a major gun control bill that’s already being challenged in court.Bucking the partisan rancor seen in other legislatures this year, Connecticut lawmakers on Wednesday night wrapped up what’s been one of the most bipartisan legislative sessions in recent memory. And they’re crediting old fashioned relationship-building, a willingness for compromise, a healthy budget surplus and a strict adjournment deadline.“ Oregon hasn’t met in a month because the senators have just left the building. Think about that,” Democratic House Speaker Matthew Ritter said hours before Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont addressed lawmakers in a traditional midnight speech, lauding them for a “...

Authorities to reveal results of investigation into how Colorado’s worst wildfire started

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Authorities say they have wrapped up their investigation into what started the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history and will announce their findings on Thursday.The blaze destroyed nearly 1,100 homes as heavy winds pushed it across the heavily populated suburbs between Denver and Boulder on Dec. 30, 2021. Two people were found dead in what is known as the Marshall Fire.The inferno erupted following months of drought amid a winter nearly devoid of snow and fed on bone-dry grassland surrounding fast-growing development in the area near the Rocky Mountain foothills. Winds gusted up to 100 mph (160 kph) in places.The fire that destroyed swaths of houses in the cities of Superior and Louisville, neighboring towns about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Denver, is blamed for the death of a 69-year-old man who lived near where investigators believed the fire started. The remains of a 91-year-old woman, who was last seen trying to rescue her dogs from her home in ...

‘Keep them alive’: More states legalize fentanyl test strips to combat surging opioid deaths

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — At Cleveland’s Urban Kutz Barbershop, customers can flip through magazines as they wait, or help themselves to drug screening tests left out in a box on a table with a somber message: “Your drugs could contain fentanyl. Please take free test strips.”Owner Waverly Willis has given out strips for years at his barbershop, hoping to protect others from unwittingly being exposed to the highly potent synthetic opioid ravaging the U.S. and often secretly laced into other illegal drugs.“When I put them out, they just fly out the door,” said Willis, who proudly hands out about 30 strips a week as part of The Urban Barber Association, a Cleveland organization that provides health education to the community via local barbershops.Nearly 18 years into his own sobriety from drugs, Willis isn’t shy about making the strips available. He figures he’d be dead if fentanyl were so widely prevalent when he was using. Fentanyl has driven overdose deaths in the U.S. since...

Biden invites thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals, singer Betty Who, to Pride Month celebration

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has invited thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals to celebrate Pride Month in a high-profile show of support at a time when the community feels under attack like never before and the White House has little recourse to beat back a flood state-level legislation against them. Biden was announcing new initiatives to protect LGBTQ+ communities from attacks, help youth with mental health resources and homelessness and counter book bans, White House officials said.The White House was closely monitoring air quality due to hazardous smoke from Canadian wildfires to determine whether to proceed with plans for a Thursday night picnic featuring food, games, face painting and photos. Queen HD the DJ was handling the music; singer Betty Who was on tap to perform. Karine Jean-Pierre, the first openly gay White House press secretary, said Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses are strong supporters of the LGBTQ+ community and think that having a celebr...

The Republican presidential field is largely set. Here are takeaways on where the contest stands.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — After a trio of new announcements this week, the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential field is all but set.A handful of stragglers may jump in later, but as of now there are at least 10 high-profile Republican candidates officially seeking their party’s nomination. And with the announcement phase of the primary campaign largely over, several leading Republican contenders will gather in North Carolina this weekend to begin a more aggressive sorting period. It will be a long road to the GOP’s national convention in Milwaukee next summer when Republican delegates across the country gather to finalize their nominee to run against President Joe Biden. Surprises are guaranteed. Fortunes will change. But as of now, every Republican White House hopeful is looking up at former President Donald Trump, who is the undisputed frontrunner in the crowded contest.Here are some takeaways on where the Republican contest stands: IT’S A LARGE FIELD AFTER ALLTrump...

Biden and Sunak to focus on Ukraine and economic security in British PM’s first White House visit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is welcoming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for wide-ranging talks on Thursday as the British leader makes his first White House visit as premier.The leaders’ Oval Office talks are expected to cover the war in Ukraine, China, economic security, international cooperation on regulating the growing field of artificial intelligence, and more. Biden and Sunak have already had four face-to-face meetings since Sunak became prime minister in October, but the talks in Washington will offer the two leaders a chance for their most sustained interaction to date.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the 15-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine will be “top of mind.” The U.S. and U.K. are the two biggest donors to the Ukraine war effort and play a central role in a long-term effort announced last month to train, and eventually equip, Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. Rishi also is looking to make the case to Biden for U.K. Defense Ministe...

Main suspect in 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway due to be extradited to US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of U.S. student Natalee Holloway is expected to be handed over to U.S. officials in Peru and flown to the United States on Thursday, roughly a month after both countries agreed on his extradition.Joran van der Sloot is wanted in the U.S. on one count each of extortion and wire fraud, the only charges to have ever linked the Dutch citizen to Holloway’s disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba. His extradition moved forward after a Peruvian judge on Tuesday affirmed the government’s decision to temporarily transfer custody to U.S. authorities.Van der Sloot has been serving a 28-year sentence for the murder of a Peruvian woman. Authorities over the weekend moved him from a maximum-security prison in the Andes to a detention facility in the capital, Lima, from which he was due to be taken to the airport at some point Thursday.It was not immediately clear when he would make his first court appearance in the U....

AP-NORC poll finds both Democrats, Republicans skeptical of US spying practices

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As it pushes to renew a cornerstone law that authorizes major surveillance programs, the Biden administration faces an American public that’s broadly skeptical of common intelligence practices and of the need to sacrifice civil liberties for security. Congress in the coming months will debate whether to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Section 702 authorizes U.S. spy agencies to collect large amounts of foreign communications for intelligence purposes ranging from stopping spies to listening in on allies and foes. Those collection programs also sweep up U.S. citizen communications that can then be searched by intelligence and law enforcement officers.The new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Democrats and Republicans have similar views on surveillance tactics, while Republicans have become substantially less likely over the last decade to say it’s at least sometimes necessar...

Haitians are dying of thirst and starvation in severely overcrowded jails

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The emaciated inmate in black shorts lay on a thin mat in Haiti’s most notorious prison, isolated from other prisoners at Port-au-Prince’s National Penitentiary because of drug-resistant tuberculosis.He slowly sat up to talk to a visiting reporter and more than 70 fellow tuberculosis patients gathered at the door of the neighboring cell to complain about their suffering while detained, many on minor charges like theft. “We don’t have water!” one cried, while his fellow inmates said their food came late or not at all. Haitian inmates are thirsty, starving and sleeping standing up because they don’t have enough enough room to lie down. The United Nations says 185 inmates died in Haiti last year — many of malnutrition-related diseases. This year, more than 20 have died so far. Human rights experts and attorneys expect the number to rise because gang violence has led to severe fuel and food shortages.“I fear that a humanitarian catastrophe is com...

As winter warms, farmers in southern US find ways to adapt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:53 GMT

When Pam Knox walked into the peach orchard at the University of Georgia horticulture farm this spring, there was nothing on the trees except leaves and a couple of brown fruits — the result of one of the state’s warmest winters ever followed by two nights of freezing weather in March.“It’s just really odd, because over the course of one night, they lost their entire crop and their entire production here,” said Knox, an agricultural climatologist with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, which shares research and expertise with farmers and others. Commercial peach farmers in the state lost as much as 95% of their yield, she estimated.Georgia, with its iconic peaches, isn’t the only place in the south where farmers have had to deal with changing conditions. Houston, Tupelo and Atlanta all had one of their top five warmest winters on record this year, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Farmers are contending with those warming winters by...