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Tennessee Republican lawmaker resigns after ethics violation

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A state lawmaker in Tennessee resigned suddenly for an ethics violation that became public Thursday, two weeks after he joined fellow Republicans in expelling two Black Democratic legislators for protesting in support of gun control on the state House floor.Rep. Scotty Campbell, vice chair of the House Republican Caucus, violated the Legislature’s workplace discrimination and harassment policy. The brief Ethics Subcommittee findings document from late March did not provide specifics and said no more information would be released.Campbell’s resignation came hours after a Nashville TV station confronted him about sexual harassment allegations involving legislative interns.Campbell declined to provide a detailed account of what happened. Asked by WTVF-TV on Thursday about the ethics panel’s decision, Campbell said, “I had consensual, adult conversations with two adults off property.”“If I choose to talk to any intern in the future, it will be recorded,” Ca...

Transgender lawmaker silenced by Montana House speaker

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s House speaker on Thursday refused to allow a transgender lawmaker to speak about bills on the House floor until she apologizes for saying lawmakers would have “blood on their hands” if they supported a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, the lawmaker said.Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who was deliberately misgendered by a conservative group of lawmakers demanding her censure after Tuesday’s comments, said she will not apologize, creating a standoff between the first-term state lawmaker and Republican legislative leaders.Speaker Matt Regier refused to acknowledge Zephyr on Thursday when she wanted to comment on a bill seeking to put a binary definition of male and female into state code.“It is up to me to maintain decorum here on the House floor, to protect the dignity and integrity,” Regier said Thursday. “And any representative that I don’t feel can do that will not be recognized.”Regier said the decision came after “mult...

California to meet 100% of water requests thanks to storms

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California will provide 100% of the water requested by cities and farms for the first time in years thanks to winter storms that filled reservoirs and runoff from a record snowpack, regulators announced Thursday.The State Water Project will provide full allocations to 29 water agencies supplying about 27 million customers and 750,000 acres of farmland, the Department of Water Resources said.As late as March, the agency was only expecting to provide 75% of requested water supplies.The last time the state agency fully met water requests was in 2006. Meanwhile, the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced it was increasing water allocations for the Central Valley Project to 100% for the first time since 2017.The move was cheered by contractors who supply the federal water to the state’s agricultural heartland. It will provide much-needed water to communities, farms and families in the San Joaquin Valley, said a statement from Jose Gutierrez, interim gener...

Family wants federal investigation after man’s death in jail

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — The family of a man who died in a bedbug-infested cell in a Georgia jail’s psychiatric wing is calling for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the facility.Lashawn Thompson, 35, died in September, three months after being booked into the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Thompson’s family, called for those responsible for his death to be held accountable.“What you’re looking at, I think, is not just a deplorable jail cell, but this is a crime scene. This is criminal,” Crump said as he held up a photo of Thompson’s dirty, trash-strewn cell during a news conference and rally Thursday in front of the jail.Photos of the cell and of Thompson’s face and body covered in insects sparked outrage last week when they spread on social media after his family’s local attorney, Michael Harper, released them to news outlets. The medical examiner’s report lists Thompson’s cause of death a...

Kansas governor vetoes 4 anti-trans bills as overrides loom

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ Democratic governor on Thursday vetoed a sweeping set of anti-transgender measures, including a ban on gender-affirming care for children and teens, but Republican lawmakers who pushed them appeared to have the votes to override most of her actions. Gov. Laura Kelly rejected restrictions for transgender people in using restrooms, locker rooms and other public facilities; limits on where they are housed in state prisons and county jails; and even restrictions on rooming arrangements for transgender youth on overnight school trips.Her actions highlighted how her Republican-leaning state has become a fiercely contested battleground as GOP lawmakers across the U.S. target LGBTQ+ rights through several hundred proposals. Kelly narrowly won reelection in November, but the the Legislature has GOP supermajorities and conservative leaders who’ve made rolling back transgender rights a priority. The measures on bathrooms, jails and overnight school trips passe...

DePaul student journalists say university employees got rid of papers covering budget woes

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

CHICAGO — DePaul University student journalists said university employees got rid of a number of newspapers after a recent article about the university's budget woes. The university's student paper, The DePaulia, comes out every Monday. But when it hit papers stands around campus last week, student journalists said the paper came off the stands in a way they weren't prepared for. Cause of death released for missing Navy sailor found in Lake Michigan The front-page story on April 10's paper put the spotlight on the university's $56.5 million budget gap for the 2024 fiscal year.Shortly after the story went public, DePaulia's Editor-in-Chief Nadia Carolina Hernandez said one of her editors reached out and said they saw DePaul employees on the Lincoln Park campus taking papers from the stands and putting them in a recycling bin. "We're just getting a bunch of other reports of front pages being ripped off of the paper and left in the stands completely empty," Carolina Hernandez said. ...

Illinois firefighters get hands-on training with electric vehicles

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

WHEELING, Ill. — When it comes to fighting a vehicle fire these days, the how-to manual is changing. Gas and diesel-driven motors are now sharing the road with millions of electric vehicles and the batteries that power them. The best electric vehicles on the market At the MABAS Training Center in Wheeling, first responders are training on the do's and don'ts of extinguishing a fire on an EV. MABAS stands for the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, which offers a statewide mutual aid response system for firefighters and paramedics.The event was sponsored by General Motors in partnership with the Illinois Fire Service Institute. It is teaching firefighters how to approach and fight a fire on a high-voltage vehicle, from stabilization to venting flames and neutralizing the power. Joe McClain led the training and said the goal is to go across the country and provide key information. How do electric cars work? The training is a mix of classroom training and hands-on run-throughs of EVs.It ...

Colorado 20 year-old killed after rock thrown at car

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — Police say they've found a pickup truck and identified its owner in connection to a string of crimes Wednesday night that resulted in the death of a 20 year-old after she was struck and killed by a large rock while driving.The crimes happened Wednesday night starting at 10 p.m.According to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, 20 year-old Alexa Bartell, of Arvada, was driving when one of the suspects threw a large rock either from a vehicle or the side of the road at her car. Fourth Marine recruit dies at Parris Island boot camp in two years Investigators say the rock hit Bartell and she was killed. Moments earlier, Bartell was on the phone with a friend when the call went silent. "Her friend was worried. So her friend used an app to track her phone, drove to the location where it looked like Alexa's phone was just sitting, just sitting still," JSCO Public Information Officer Jacki Kelley said. "She discovered that Alexa's car had gone off the ro...

Fourth Marine recruit dies at Parris Island boot camp in two years

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

(The Hill) – A Marine Corps recruit died earlier this week during a physical fitness test at boot camp in South Carolina, according to the service. Pfc. Noah Evans, 21, of Decatur, Ga., died Tuesday at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, the Marine Corps said in a statement on Wednesday. Evans had been assigned to Mike Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment. His cause of death is currently under investigation. The military branch provided no additional details, including whether Evans had any prior medical conditions or the specific events around his death.  It’s finally happening. Twitter users bid farewell to blue checkmarks He is now the fourth Marine recruit to die at the base in two years, with 10 total deaths since 2000, the Hilton Head Island Packet first reported. In June 2021, Pfc. Dalton Beals, 19, of Pennsville, N.J., died as a result of extreme ov...

Texas man fired at police before surrendering to FBI for Jan. 6 charges: officials

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:42 GMT

A Texas man charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol allegedly shot at law enforcement ahead of his first court appearance and has been hit with an additional federal firearm charge, officials said. Nathan Pelham, of Greenville, Texas, has now been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, in addition to the four misdemeanor counts related to his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas said in a release. According to the attorney’s office, Pelham, 40, is a previously convicted felon.The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia charged Pelham with the Jan. 6 misdemeanors earlier this month. An FBI agent notified him of the charges on April 12 and told him to self-surrender five days later, which he agreed to do, according to the release. But on the night of the April 12, local law enforcement went to Pelham’s residence for a welfare check “in response to...