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DeSantis plays up his personal side – and swipes at Trump – during campaign blitz across Iowa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

SALIX, Iowa (AP) — Ron DeSantis blitzed through Iowa during his first full day of presidential campaigning on Wednesday, aiming for the kind of personal connections with voters that critics say have long eluded him while stepping up his verbal swipes at former President Donald Trump. The Florida governor packed in four appearances that took him to cities, rural locales and the conservative heartland following his glitch-filled online campaign kickoff last week. The first was to the floor of Port Neal Welding in Salix, a rural town near Sioux City, where the nearby highway was lined with metal structures including a towering Jesus, a version of the Statue of Liberty and the Minions. DeSantis also hit Council Bluffs and Pella before concluding his day in Cedar Rapids. All that came after a Tuesday night appearance in the state capital, Des Moines. He didn’t take audience questions — usually a staple at Iowa presidential campaign events — during the five stops in front of more than 2,0...

Reports: Prosecutors have tape of Trump discussing holding onto classified doc after leaving office

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of former President Donald Trump from after he left office in which he talks about holding onto a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran, according to media reports.CNN first reported that Trump suggested on the recording that he wanted to share with others information from the document but that he knew there were limitations about his ability to declassify records after he left office. The comments on the recording, made in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, undercut the former president’s repeated claims that he declassified the documents he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, after leaving office. The recording could also be a key aid for prosecutors looking to prove Trump knew his ability to possess classified documents was limited. The recording has been provided to special counsel Jack Smith, whose team of pros...

Grand jury charges ex-GOP candidate with election interference in shootings on lawmakers’ homes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A failed political candidate has been indicted on federal charges including election interference in connection with a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque, according to a grand jury indictment that was unsealed Wednesday.The indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque takes aim at former Republican candidate Solomon Peña and two alleged accomplices with additional conspiracy and weapons-related charges in connection with the shootings in December 2022 and January of this year on the homes of four Democratic officials, including the current state House speaker.The attacks came amid a surge of threats and acts of intimidation against election workers and public officials across the country after former President Donald Trump and his allies spread false claims about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez highlighted that the shootings targeted the homes of two count...

Amputation frees woman from collapsed Iowa building debris

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — One moment Lexus Berry and her wife were rushing toward the door of their fourth-floor apartment, and the next, Quanishia “Peach” Berry was gone.Their apartment had disappeared into a heap of bricks and steel far below, leaving Lexis Berry running by herself to a stairwell in the teetering building, panicked that she might never see her wife again.“The moment that we hit the door, it started to shake and rattle and literally — it all just happened in the blink of a second – the floors caved in, like collapsed,” Lexus Berry said Wednesday. “So as the floors were falling, and she was falling four stories down, there were still two stories above her falling and two stories falling above me. It was all crumbling.”The six-story building in downtown Davenport partially collapsed just before 5 p.m. Sunday, but it took hours before rescuers found Peach Berry trapped in the rubble and then determined one of her legs would need to be amputated to pull her free. Lexus Be...

Judge dismisses criminal charges against California energy company in 2020 fatal wildfire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

REDDING, Calif. (AP) — A California judge on Wednesday dismissed all charges against Pacific Gas & Electric in connection to a 2020 fatal wildfire sparked by its equipment that destroyed hundreds of homes and killed four people, including an 8-year-old.The utility also reached a $50 million settlement agreement with the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office, officials from both announced in separate statements. The wind-whipped blaze began on Sept. 27, 2020, and raged through rugged terrain and small communities west of Redding, killing four people, burning about 200 homes and blackening about 87 square miles (225 square kilometers) of land in Shasta and Tehama counties.In 2021, state fire investigators concluded the fire was sparked by a gray pine tree that fell onto a PG&E distribution line. Shasta and Tehama counties sued the utility, alleging negligence. They said PG&E failed to remove the tree even though it had been marked for removal two years earlier. Th...

UN chief implicitly criticizes Cambodia’s upcoming elections after top opposition party ban

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres implicitly criticized Cambodia’s upcoming elections Wednesday for failing to be inclusive, after the top opposition party was not allowed to register. The Candlelight Party would have been the sole credible challenger to the governing Cambodian People’s Party in the July elections, but the country’s Constitutional Council last week refused to overturn a ban on its registration in a decision that cannot be appealed.“The secretary-general reiterates that inclusive elections, in which a plurality of views and voter choices is represented, are important to engender confidence in the electoral process and underpin the ability of Cambodia’s people to exercise their democratic rights,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.“As (Guterres) said during his visit to Cambodia last year, it is vital that civic space be open, for human rights defenders to be protected, and for civil society to play a wider role in socie...

3 in critical condition after crash, 2 possibly shot, in Garfield Park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

CHICAGO — Three people are in critical condition after a crash and a possible shooting Wednesday evening in Garfield Park.The crash happened near North Homan Avenue and West Fulton Boulevard. Teen riding bike critically injured after driver hits him in Batavia According to the Chicago Fire Department, two people were taken to Stroger Hospital and one person was taken to Mt. Sinani Hospital. They are all believed to be men, the fire department said. It appears two of them were shot.Video from Skycam 9 shows a large tree and street sign that appears to have been knocked over during the crash. Additional details haven't been released yet.

Amazon charged with privacy violations over Alexa and Ring cameras: FTC

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon will pay more than $30 million to settle alleged privacy violations involving its voice assistant Alexa and its doorbell camera Ring.The Federal Trade Commission voted to file charges in two separate cases Wednesday that could also force the company to delete certain data collected by its popular internet-connected devices.In the Alexa case, the FTC said Amazon had deceived users of the voice assistance service for years. It retained children’s recordings indefinitely unless a parent requested the information be deleted, the agency said, and even when it deleted those recordings, Amazon often kept the transcripts.The FTC ordered the company to delete inactive child accounts as well as certain voice information and geolocation data. Check your phone: Popular Android app reportedly started spying on users, making recordings In imposing a $25 million fine, the agency said Amazon had violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and FTC Consumer Protec...

May review: Twins conclude month leading AL Central, pitching well and not hitting much

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

HOUSTON — The Twins have reached the one-third mark of their season in first place in the American League Central, but far from playing their best baseball. They’re hovering around .500 for the season and were under that mark in the month of May.No other team in the division is above .500, which has helped the Twins maintain their hold on first place since the very beginning of the season.“I would say we’re playing fine, but I don’t think we’ve hit our stride yet as a group,” manager Rocco Baldelli said over the weekend.As the calendar flips to June, here are five Twins observations from the month of May:Lineup hasn’t produced as expectedThe Twins played a lot of similar-looking games in May, a fact that Baldelli pointed out at one point during the month. What’d that look like?There were a lot of games where the starting staff, which has continued to be one of the best in the majors, certainly threw well enough to keep the Twins in the game, but Twins batters were unable to co...

St. Paul mayor, lawmakers tout big wins for Capital City — and a possible sales tax for roads

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:36 GMT

Elected officials from in and around St. Paul gathered Wednesday to celebrate a legislative session that delivered hundreds of millions of dollars for a wide range of local projects.St. Paul will get $25 million to spend the next three years replacing the deteriorating Third Street Bridge that connects downtown’s Kellogg Boulevard to the East Side.Two of the city’s homeless service centers — Listening House and Ain Dah Yung — will receive nearly $2 million each for needed improvements.And the Walker West Music Academy on Selby Avenue can expect $4 million for a new facility, while other community spaces, such as a Latino economic development center, the Mississippi River Learning Center, Playwrights Center and North End Community Center will benefit, too, from the priciest and arguably most productive state legislative session in history.“We are giving this city an extreme makeover,” said Mayor Melvin Carter, flanked by the city’s elected st...