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Justice Dept. accuses 2 political operatives of hiding foreign lobbying during Trump administration

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two well-connected political consultants provided false information about lobbying work on behalf of a wealthy Persian Gulf country during the Trump administration, according to Justice Department court records unsealed Tuesday.Charging documents filed in federal court in Washington allege that Barry P. Bennett, an adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, spearheaded a covert and lucrative lobbying campaign aimed at advancing the interests of a foreign country, including by denigrating a rival nation.The country for whom the work was done is not named in the documents but it matches the description of Qatar, which in 2017 paid Bennett’s company $2.1 million for lobbying work, and was identified in a 2020 Justice Department subpoena that was earlier obtained by The Associated Press and that sought records related to Bennett’s foreign lobbying.Federal prosecutors filed two criminal counts against Bennett in a charging document known as ...

New Mexico regulators revoke the licenses of 2 marijuana grow operations and levies $2M in fines

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico marijuana regulators on Tuesday revoked the licenses of two growing operations in a rural county for numerous violations and have levied a $1 million fine against each business. One of the businesses — Native American Agricultural Development Co. — is connected to a Navajo businessman whose cannabis farming operations in northwestern New Mexico were raided by federal authorities in 2020. The Navajo Department of Justice also sued Dineh Benally, leading to a court order halting those operations.A group of Chinese immigrant workers sued Benally and his associates — and claimed they were lured to northern New Mexico and forced to work long hours illegally trimming marijuana on the Navajo Nation, where growing the plant is illegal.In the notice made public Tuesday by New Mexico’s Cannabis Control Division, Native American Agricultural Development was accused of exceeding the state’s plant count limits, of not tracking and tracing its inven...

Souvenir sellers have flooded the Brooklyn Bridge. Now the city is banning them

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Visitors to New York City hoping to take home a souvenir from the Brooklyn Bridge will now have to settle for a photograph, as vendors are about to be banned from the iconic span.The new rule, which goes into effect Wednesday, aims to ease overcrowding on the bridge’s heavily trafficked pedestrian walkway, where dozens of trinket sellers currently compete for space with tourists and city commuters.As crowds flocked to the bridge over the holiday season, the situation turned dangerous, according to New York City Mayor Eric Adams. He pointed to videos that showed pedestrians leaping from the elevated walkway onto a bike lane several feet below in order to bypass a human traffic jam.“It’s not only a sanitary issue, it’s a public safety issue,” Adams said on Tuesday. “People would’ve trampled over each other. We need order in this city. That is one of our major landmarks.”The new rules will apply to all of the city’s bridges — though none have close to as many vend...

Court rules absentee ballots with minor problems OK to count

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin election clerks can accept absentee ballots that contain minor errors such as missing portions of witness addresses, a court ruled Tuesday in a legal fight that has pitted conservatives against liberals in the battleground state.Dane County Circuit Court ruled in favor of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin in its lawsuit to clarify voting rights protections for voters whose absentee ballots have minor errors in listing their witnesses’ addresses. The ruling means that absentee ballots with certain technical witness address defects will not be rejected in future elections, the league said.A Waukesha County Circuit Court, siding with Republicans, barred the Wisconsin Elections Commission in 2022 from using longstanding guidance for fixing minor witness address problems on absentee ballots without contacting the voter. That ruling left absentee voters at risk of having their ballots rejected due to technical omissions or errors with no guarantee that...

Arizona border crossing with Mexico to reopen a month after migrant influx forced closure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

LUKEVILLE, Ariz. (AP) — A border crossing on the most direct route from Phoenix to the nearest beaches will reopen Thursday, authorities said, one month after it closed in response to a large migrant influx.U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it was also reopening a pedestrian border crossing in San Diego on Thursday and resuming full operations at a bridge in Eagle Pass, Texas, and a crossing in Nogales, Arizona.The moves reflect a drop in illegal crossings from December highs, authorities said. Troy Miller, acting CBP commissioner, said last month that crossings had reached “unprecedented” heights, topping 10,000 on several days.The Lukeville closure on Dec. 4 brought heavy pressure on CBP from Arizona’s top elected officials. While remote, it is used to travel to Puerto Peñasco, or Rocky Point, a resort area on Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. Americans also visit the border community of Sonoyta to eat, shop and get dental and medical care.Cargo rail crossings in the Texas...

Gypsy Rose Blanchard is free and reflecting on prison term for conspiring to kill her abusive mother

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

Gypsy Rose Blanchard said she has found a way to forgive her mother — and herself. But it has been a long journey from years of abuse and the darkest parts of her life splashed across tabloids to living in prison.Blanchard, now 32, was paroled last week from a Missouri women’s prison. Her release came 8 1/2 years after she persuaded her boyfriend at the time to kill her abusive mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard — in a desperate bid to be free of her. For years, her mother forced her to pretend that she was suffering from leukemia, muscular dystrophy and other serious illnesses.“At first I was really angry with her, very confused. And I’m still confused,” Blanchard told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday. “But I understand that she had a lot of mental issues. And so I think that’s brought me to a place of forgiveness by just trying to understand where she was coming from. I don’t believe that she was evil.“I know, that she was very sick,” she cont...

9 hospitalized after train derailed, caught fire near San Francisco

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

ORINDA, Calif. (KRON) -- Bay Area Rapid Transit train service on the Yellow Line in the Antioch and San Francisco International Airport directions was halted after a train derailed and caught fire between Orinda and Lafayette stations Monday morning.BART will be running normal train service on Tuesday between Rockridge and Walnut Creek stations following overnight repairs and safety inspections in the area. Mickey Mouse becomes horror’s newest villain A Yellow Line train heading eastbound was derailed outside of the Orinda Station around 9 a.m. Monday. The passengers self-evacuated and were escorted to Orinda Station by BART personnel, according to the BART Police Department.As of 4 p.m. Monday, two lanes of eastbound Highway 24 were closed and a crane was enroute for placement. Around 7:10 p.m., both of the impacted cars were re-railed and were being towed away to the yard. According to BART, two train cars were on fire. Orinda-Maraga Fire District ...

Earthquake confirmed in NYC, but shock felt most away from epicenter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

ROOSEVELT ISLAND (PIX11) -- It’s now confirmed by federal seismologists that there was an earthquake in New York City on Tuesday morning. Even though it was not a high magnitude temblor, its effects were felt strongly, nonetheless.  “I kept hearing, like thuds, coming from above,” said Yasmin Clark, a Roosevelt Island resident, who’d been in bed when the episode happened around 5:45 a.m. “My mother said she definitely felt the walls shaking. She was up,” Clark said. “I just saw all the firetrucks and stuff,” she continued, “and heard the helicopters, but I didn't know what happened.”What happened was what the United States Geological Survey determined mid-morning — that there was an earthquake, measuring 1.7 in magnitude.  5 recent earthquakes that shook New York City, according to USGS It’s a far lower intensity than the 7.6 magnitude quake this week in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, which took the lives of at least 55 people. Nonetheless, as pointed out by Roose...

MedWatch Digest: Childhood obesity linked to early kidney disease — and more

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

For Jan. 2, WGN’s Dina Bair has the latest on new medical information, including: More Coverage: WGN's Medical Watch Childhood obesity and early kidney diseaseWhen adolescents have a high body mass index, it can wreak havoc on the kidneys. A study in JAMA Pediatrics reveals the impact of excess weight on kidney function. Doctors found overweight and obese children experience kidney disease in their early adult life. Researchers have long known weight is a problem for young people, but this is the first time they linked the issue to chronic and irreversible kidney damage.  Experts collaborated from major medical institutions around the world, studying half a million adolescents. New P.E.T. scan cancer gene tracerA new additive to a pet scan could help cancer patients find and eliminate their cancer more easily. A novel pet tracer called 18F-PFPMD identifies cancer gene mutations allowing for more precise diagnosis. The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging reports ...

Speaker Johnson to tour Eagle Pass amid surge at the border

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:34 GMT

EAGLE PASS, Texas (Nexstar) — As migrant encounters at the southern border continue to hit record levels, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson is leading a Congressional delegation to Eagle Pass on Tuesday.The trip comes after a record-breaking number of encounters at the southern border last month. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents encountered more than 300,000 migrants in December. The Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, registered more than 71,000 migrant encounters-- the majority of them came from Venezuela. Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told NewsNation he wants the congressional delegates to meet with border patrol agents to get a solid understanding of the problems and solutions."[Johnson] needs to understand from them, what are the what are the tools that they need to do their job? And what are the policies in place that they have seen to be effective over their career," Wolf said. "I think if he does that, and the other members of the delegation d...