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South Dakota vanity plate restrictions were unconstitutional, lawsuit settlement says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

South Dakota officials will no longer deny applications for personalized license plates based on whether the plate’s message is deemed to be “offensive to good taste and decency,” following the state’s admission that the language is an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights.The change is part of a settlement state officials reached in a lawsuit filed last month by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Lyndon Hart. His 2022 application to the Motor Vehicle Division for a vanity plate reading “REZWEED” was denied after state officials called it “in bad taste.”Hart runs a business called Rez Weed Indeed, which he uses to support the legal selling and use of marijuana on Native American reservations. Hart intended for the personalized license plate to refer to his business and its mission of promoting tribal sovereignty, the ACLU said. The section of the law allowing for denial of personalized plates based on the decency clause is “unconstitutional ...

Colorado cattle industry sues over wolf reintroduction on the cusp of the animals’ release

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Just weeks before the deadline for Colorado to begin reintroducing gray wolves under a voter-approved initiative, representatives of the cattle industry association are suing state and federal agencies in litigation that could delay the predators’ release.The Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association and Colorado Cattlemen’s Association say in the lawsuit filed Monday that U.S. Fish and Wildlife failed to adequately review the environmental effects of the plan to reintroduce up to 50 wolves over the next several years. The predators’ release in Colorado, voted for in a 2020 ballot measure, has already stirred controversy and sharpened divides between rural and urban residents. City dwellers largely voted for the measures that would most affect rural areas, where wolves can prey on livestock that help drive local economies. U.S. Fish and Wildlife did perform an environmental review in part on what is called the 10(j) rule, which would permit the killing of w...

Video game expo E3 gets permanently canceled

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One of the highest-profile video game conventions is being shut down permanently, its organizers said Tuesday.The Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E3, had been held annually in Los Angeles since 1995 and was a popular spot for game companies to tease their latest creations before they hit store shelves.The event hosted by a trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, had already been on hiatus since the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation in June 2020. But E3 was facing trouble before the pandemic, with a host of companies either skipping the fair or staging their own events nearby.It held a virtual-only event in 2021 and planned a comeback this year that was canceled after reports that industry giants Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo would not attend.“After more than two decades of serving as a central showcase for the video game industry, ESA has decided to end E3,” the ESA said Tuesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The group said its...

Florida dentist gets life in prison in death of his ex-brother-in-law, a prominent professor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A judge sentenced a South Florida dentist to life in prison on Tuesday in the shooting death of his former brother-in-law, a prominent professor at Florida State University, following a bitter custody battle.Charlie Adelson, 47, was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation last month in the 2014 killing of Dan Markel, who was gunned down in his car outside his Tallahassee home. Prosecutors contended that Adelson paid to have Markel killed, and jurors took just three hours to find him guilty.“I would just like to say that I maintain my innocence,” a stoic Adelson told the judge, who also sentenced him to 30 consecutive years on the lesser counts. Prosecutors laid out a case of wire taps and secretly recorded conversations that implicated Adelson during the eight-day trial. Markel’s father, Phil Markel, said he and his family have “suffered tremendously” adding that he not only lost his son, but also lost a relationship with his grandso...

Ukrainian president in U.S. capital pushing gridlocked lawmakers to advance aid funds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

WASHINGTON — There’s little evidence Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy has managed to change any minds on Capitol Hill.Zelenskyy is in the U.S. capital in an effort to convince Republican lawmakers to advance additional military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. But Republicans are refusing to approve more funding without a clear U.S. strategy on Ukraine, as well as measures to confront the migration crisis at the Mexico-U.S. border. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the White House has yet to provide more clarity on how U.S. aid will help bring an end to Ukraine’s war with Russia. Johnson says it’s up to the Senate to approve legislation already passed by the House that would restrict asylum claims and buttress border security. Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet later Tuesday with U.S. President Joe Biden.“They have not provided us the clarity and the detail that we’ve requested over and over,” Johnson said after members of Congress met with the U...

Auto union boss urges New Jersey lawmakers to pass casino smoking ban

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Shawn Fain, the international president of the United Auto Workers union who recently won large raises for his workers, is taking aim at a new target: New Jersey lawmakers who are delaying votes on a bill to ban smoking in Atlantic City’s casinos.The head of the powerful union, which represents workers at three casinos here, is urging legislators to move the bill forward in a scheduled hearing Thursday, warning that the union will “monitor and track” their votes.Many casino workers have been pushing for three years to close a loophole in the state’s public smoking law that specifically exempts casinos from a ban. Despite overwhelming bipartisan support from lawmakers, and a promise from the state’s Democratic governor to sign the measure, it has been bottled up in state government committees without a vote to move it forward.The same state Senate committee that failed to vote on the bill last month is due to try again on Thursday. Fain’s ...

CN resignations show firms need to take Indigenous reconciliation seriously: Experts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

Experts say corporate Canada has some soul-searching to do in the wake of the resignation of Canadian National Railway Co.’s Indigenous advisory council.The panel of prominent Indigenous leaders appointed by CN collectively announced their resignations Monday. They said the railway has failed to acknowledge past wrongs or follow the panel’s recommendations for reconciliation.A number of large Canadian corporations have appointed Indigenous advisory councils in the last few years in response to a call to action by the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The committee called on corporate Canada to commit to meaningful consultation and respectful relationships with Indigenous people, and ensure they have equitable access to jobs, training, and education opportunities in the corporate sector.But experts say appointing an Indigenous advisory council will backfire on companies that aren’t genuinely willing to implement the advice they receive.This report by The ...

Rights group says security services in Belarus raid apartments and detain election observers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Security services in Belarus are breaking into apartments and detaining people in their workplaces across the country as they carry out hundreds of searches among election observers ahead of next year’s vote, the Belarusian human rights center Viasna said Tuesday.It’s the latest crackdown against human rights and democracy figures ahead of parliamentary and local elections scheduled for February. Activists’ phones are reportedly being checked and they are forced to sign warnings against “promoting extremist activities.” The charge has previously been levelled at democracy activists and carries up to seven years in prison.Representatives from the main intelligence service, the KGB, which has retained its Soviet name, are forcing activists who were observers in the last presidential election to record “repentance videos.”There was no comment from authorities.Belarus was rocked by protests during President Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed re-election ...

Young Thug trial on pause until January after co-defendant is stabbed in jail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — The trial for rapper Young Thug and five other people is on pause until early next year after one of the defendants was stabbed in the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta.Shannon Stillwell, 31, was stabbed multiple times Sunday evening during a fight with another man housed in the same part of the jail, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said. Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville sent jurors home Monday morning, telling them one of the defendants had a “medical issue” but told them to return the next morning.On Tuesday, he told them the “medical issue still exists” and, given the time that it may take to deal with it, “I’m going to recess you for the holidays today.” He had previously told the jury they would have a break starting at the end of the proceedings this Friday and continuing through the new year.Glanville told the jurors they are to return to court Jan. 2 at 9 a.m. and instructed them not to read anything about the trial or talk to anyone about ...

Rights boss starts inquiry into Vancouver police media restrictions at camp removal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:00 GMT

VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s Human Rights Commissioner has launched an inquiry into police restrictions on media covering the decampment in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in April.Kasari Govender says in a news release that reports of Vancouver Police denying access to some journalists covering the decampment “raise serious red flags and merit investigation.”Govender says it is crucial for media to be able to gather information on possible human rights violations when police are conducting operations where they may come into contact with marginalized people.She says there were “multiple reports” of journalists encountering blockades or not having access to parts of the Downtown Eastside during the police operation where police were pulling down tents and disposing of campers belongings. Vancouver Police said last month there were no media exclusion zones during the tent-clearing operation, but reporters were gathered at a “muster point̶...