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Judge blocks Biden administration’s policy limiting asylum for migrants but delays enforcement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a rule that allows immigration authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through. But the judge delayed his ruling from taking effect immediately to give President Joe Biden's administration time to appeal.The order from U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of the Northern District of California takes away a key enforcement tool set in place by the Biden administration as coronavirus-based restrictions on asylum expired in May. The use of a rule known as Title 42 allowed the U.S. to expel millions of people starting in early 2020 on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.“The Rule — which has been in effect for two months — cannot remain in place,” Tigar wrote in an order that will not take effect for two weeks.The new rule imposes severe limitations on migrants seeking asylum but includes room for exceptions and does ...

Block on Iowa’s strict abortion law can be appealed, state Supreme Court says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds can proceed with an appeal on a temporary block on the state’s new, restrictive abortion law, the Iowa Supreme Court said Tuesday.Reynolds announced her intentions to appeal last week and said it was “just a matter of time” before lawyers for the state filed the request, which they did Friday. The Iowa Supreme Court had to say whether the request could move forward.The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the measure to ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy during a July 11 special session, and the law went into effect days later, immediately after Reynolds signed it. The ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic launched a legal challenge and Judge Joseph Seidlin on July 17 granted their request to pause the law as the courts assess its constitutionality. Abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy while the new law is on hold.Reynolds is asking the state Supreme C...

Pete Davidson to do 50 hours community service after charge of driving into Beverly Hills house

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

Pete Davidson has entered a diversion program to resolve a reckless driving charge for crashing into a Beverly Hills home and will perform 50 hours community service, authorities said Tuesday. The 29-year-old “Saturday Night Live” and “King of Staten Island” actor and comedian will likely do his community service with the New York Fire Department, where his late father worked, Los Angeles County prosecutors said. Davidson was seven years old when his father, Scott, a New York firefighter, died responding to the 9/11 attacks.Davidson pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor and was put in an 18-month diversion that also includes 12 hours of traffic school, an order to obey all laws and restitution that was not specified.When Davidson was charged on June 16, prosecutors called the March 4 crash a “serious collision.” No one was reported injured.Davidson’s latest show, “Bupkis,” debuted on Peacock in May, and he stars in the forthcoming film “ Dumb Money.”The Associated Press

Hugh Carter Jr., the cousin who helped organize Jimmy Carter’s ‘Peanut Brigade,’ has died

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Hugh “Sonny” Carter Jr., who helped organize the “Peanut Brigade” that helped elect his cousin Jimmy to the White House and later enforced the president’s frugal ways in the West Wing, has died. He was 80.The Carter Center, the 39th president’s post-White House organization for advocating democracy and fighting disease in the developing world, did not release a cause of death. Hugh Carter was among the many extended family members who campaigned alongside Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and their children early in the 1976 presidential campaign, when the Georgia Democrat was considered a longshot candidate. After Jimmy Carter won, he assigned Hugh Carter the task of curtailing waste among White House staffers. The job earned him the nickname “Cousin Cheap.” Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson and chairman of The Carter Center’s governing board, called Hugh Carter “crucial in my grandfather’s election” and, without referencing his old nickname, said his cousi...

Ohio marijuana legalization question falls short on signatures for fall ballot, gets 10 more days

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A proposal to legalize adult use of marijuana in Ohio fell short Tuesday of the signatures it needed to make the fall statewide ballot. Backers will have 10 days, or until Aug. 4, to gather more.Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose determined the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol was short by 679 signatures of the 124,046 signatures required to put the question before voters on Nov. 7. His declaration marks just the latest twist in the proposal’s long fight to become law. LaRose first submitted petitions to the Ohio General Assembly on behalf of the coalition in January 2022, triggering a four-month countdown for lawmakers to act. Republican legislative leaders didn’t, and lawmakers asserted that the group’s petitions had arrived too late for 2022 ballots. A lawsuit and settlement ensued under which the group agreed to wait until this year.The ballot measure proposes allowing adults 21 and over to buy and possess up to 2.5 oun...

Abortion rights amendment cleared for Ohio’s November ballot, promising expensive fight this fall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing access to abortion made Ohio’s fall ballot Tuesday, setting up what promises to be a volatile and expensive fight rife with emotional messaging and competing factual claims.The ballot measure would establish “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” with “reasonable limits.” In language similar to a constitutional amendment that Michigan voters approved last November, it would require restrictions imposed past a fetus’ viability outside the womb, which is typically around the 24th week of pregnancy and was the standard under Roe v. Wade, to be based on evidence of patient health and safety benefits.“Every person deserves respect, dignity, and the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including those related to their own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion free from government interference,” Lauren Blauvelt and Dr. Lauren Beene, executive committee members for Ohioans United for Reproductive ...

Gynecologist accused of sexually abusing over 200 patients is sentenced to 20 years in prison

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A gynecologist who sexually abused vulnerable and trusting patients for over two decades at prestigious New York hospitals cried before he was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison by a federal judge who called his crimes unprecedented.The sentence for Robert Hadden, 64, was a measure of vindication for hundreds of former patients who accused the doctor of molesting them during examinations but saw an earlier prosecution end with a plea bargain that spared him from jail.Given his chance to speak Tuesday, Hadden stood with his hands folded before him to say that there was “much I’d like to say” but that he had been advised by his lawyers to keep his statement brief.“I’m very sorry for all the pain that I have caused,” a sobbing Hadden said before dropping his head down as he sat again. He then took off his glasses and wiped tears from his eyes. In statements over the past two days, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said the case was like none he’d seen before an...

Women in Poland protest alleged police hostility against patient who took abortion pill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Hundreds of women in Poland protested outside police stations Tuesday to oppose the allegedly ruthless way officers treated a woman who had taken an abortion pill. The protests in Krakow, Warsaw and some other cities were intended to show solidarity with the woman and to condemn police shaming practices. The woman, identified publicly only as Joanna, has told Polish media outlets that police surrounded her and searched her belongings as she was preparing for an obstetrician to examine her at a Krakow hospital. The woman’s doctor had notified the ambulance service and police after the stressed-out patient had called to report she was feeling unwell at home after having taken the pill to end her pregnancy. Officers were there when the medics were transporting the woman and also during her visit to the hospital. The woman says she felt humiliated, which added to her stress and poor condition.Police officials insist that having the officers on hand was requir...

NASA power outage temporarily halts contact with space station

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA power outage disrupted communication between Mission Control and the International Space Station on Tuesday. Mission Control couldn’t send commands to the station and talk with the seven astronauts in orbit. The power outage hit as upgrade work was underway in the building at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.Space station program manager Joel Montelbano said neither the astronauts nor station were ever in any danger and that backup control systems took over within 90 minutes. The crew was notified of the problem through Russian communication systems, within 20 minutes of the outage.It’s the first time NASA has had to fire up these backup systems to take control, according to Montelbano. He said NASA hoped to resolve the issue and be back to normal operations by the end of the day.NASA maintains a backup control center miles from Houston in the event a hurricane or other disaster requiring evacuations. But in Tuesday’s case, the flig...

What are cloudbursts and is climate change making them more frequent?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Last Saturday, Mohammed Aslam was working in his kitchen garden when he heard his fellow villagers shouting that water was coming from the nearby foothills in southern Kulgam area in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Within moments, the farmer said, mud and muck from gushing water swept through the village, damaging scores of homes.“It was sudden and swift,” Aslam said. A cloudburst followed by flashfloods hit nearly a dozen villages in Kulgam, filling homes with mud and washing away some cattle.A day before, on Friday night, another cloudburst in the neighboring arid, cold desert region of Ladakh triggered flashfloods and inundated parts of its major town, Leh. The floodwaters entered the town’s main market, damaging shops, sweeping away vehicles and leaving its streets a muddy mess.Intense rainfall in the Himalayan regions of India’s Kashmir state and the adjacent mountainous cold desert of Ladakh last week destroyed roads and caused flooding of dozens of villages...