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A small group of Lahaina residents returns to homes destroyed by deadly wildfire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — A small group of Lahaina residents returned to their devastated properties Monday for the first time since the Hawaii town was destroyed by wildfire nearly seven weeks ago.Some families who came back stopped for a moment of reflection and others looked for mementos they might want to collect, said Darryl Oliveira, interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency. By midmorning, about 16 vehicles carrying residents had entered the burned area, he said.“They’re very appreciative to get in here, something they’ve all been waiting anxiously for,” Oliveira said. “People who haven’t been here since the fire are taken aback by the amount of and extent of the destruction.”The prospect of returning has stirred strong emotions in residents who fled in vehicles or on foot as wind-whipped flames raced across Lahaina, the historic capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom, and overcame people stuck in traffic trying to escape. The Aug. 8 wildfire killed at least ...

Flag raising at B.C. legislature honours residential school survivors, lost children

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

VICTORIA — A brisk wind helped mark a flag-raising ceremony Monday at the British Columbia legislature honouring residential school survivors and remembering children who never came home.The orange and white Survivors’ flag will be flown on a pole at the front lawn of the legislature until sundown on Saturday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.Indigenous leaders and politicians representing B.C.’s New Democrats, BC United and Greens participated in the flag-raising ceremony ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation when the flag will be flown at federal, provincial and municipal buildings across Canada.Raj Chouhan, Speaker of the legislature, said Monday he is committed to ensuring the legislature is a welcoming, inclusive place for everybody and the flag is a symbol of that. “The parliament buildings are a physical symbol of colonialism. Politicians have enacted laws that have done serious harm to Indigenous people of B.C.,” he said....

Ford pausing construction of Michigan battery plant amid contract talks with auto workers union

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. said Monday that it’s pausing construction of a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan until it is confident it can run the factory competitively.The move comes as the company is in the midst of national contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, which wants to represent workers at battery factories and win them top wages.The UAW went on strike against Ford and the other two Detroit automakers, General Motors and Stellantis, on Sept. 15. The union at first targeted one vehicle assembly plant from each automaker, and last week expanded it to parts warehouses. But Ford was spared from the expansion because the union said progress was being made in negotiations.In February, Ford announced plans to build the plant in Marshall, Michigan, employing about 2,500 workers to make lower-cost batteries for a variety of new and existing vehicles. Marshall is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Detroit and is near two major interst...

Regulator rules in favour of Trans Mountain route deviation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

CALGARY — The Canada Energy Regulator has approved Trans Mountain Corp.’s application to modify the pipeline’s route, a decision that could spare the government-owned pipeline project from an additional nine-month delay.The regulator made the ruling Tuesday, just one week after hearing oral arguments from Trans Mountain and a B.C. First Nation that opposes the route change. It didn’t release the reasons for its decision Tuesday, saying those will be publicized in the coming weeks.By siding with Trans Mountain Corp., the regulator is allowing the pipeline company to alter the route slightly for a 1.3-kilometre stretch of pipe in the Jacko Lake area near Kamloops, B.C., as well as the construction method for that section.Trans Mountain Corp. had said it ran into engineering difficulties in the area related to the construction of a tunnel, and warned that sticking to the original route could result in up to a nine-month delay in the pipeline’s completion, as wel...

Indictment with hate crime allegations says Hells Angels attacked three Black men in San Diego

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Seventeen people have been indicted on various charges involving an attack on three Black men by members of the Hells Angels biker gang in San Diego this year, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said Monday.The victims, ages 19, 20 and 21, were suddenly chased and attacked in San Diego’s Ocean Beach neighborhood on June 6, subjected to a racial epithet and told they didn’t belong there, prosecutors said in a news release. One escaped injury by running, another was punched, kicked and knocked unconscious, and the third was stabbed in the chest by a Hells Angels leader after being beaten by other bikers but survived, prosecutors said.On Sept. 5, a grand jury indicted 14 people for allegedly taking part in the assault, including an allegation that it was carried out in association with a criminal street gang. The grand jury included hate crime allegations against 11 of the defendants.The most serious charge, attempted murder, was brought ...

Third person charged in suspected fentanyl poisoning death of 1-year-old at New York City day care

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A third person has been charged in the death of a toddler apparently poisoned by fentanyl inside a New York City day care center, authorities said as the search continued for the alleged ringleader of the drug peddling operation. Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, was charged with narcotics distribution resulting in death on Monday, ten days after authorities discovered four young children showing signs of opioid exposure at a Bronx day care center. One of those children, 1-year-old Nicholas Dominci, was pronounced dead last Friday. Federal prosecutors said Paredes, who also went by “El Gallo,” played an “instrumental role” in selling large quantities of fentanyl and other drugs that were packaged and stored inside the day care facility – including on mats used by children for sleeping. “Today’s arrest is one more step toward obtaining justice for the child-victims of this heinous offense and their families,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said in a statement....

Kari Lake’s trial to review signed ballot envelopes from Arizona election wraps

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — The trial in a lawsuit brought by Kari Lake, the defeated Arizona Republican nominee for governor, to get access to 1.3 million voters’ signed ballot envelopes is now in the hands of a judge after wrapping up midday Monday.Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah said he would issue a ruling as soon as possible after closing arguments in the two-day bench trial.Lake was not in attendance after appearing Thursday. Maricopa County election officials argue state law mandates the signatures on the envelopes remain confidential.Lake’s lawyer counters she has a right to look into how the county runs its election operations and that people’s signatures are public in other places, such as property deeds. This is Lake’s third trial related to her election loss. Lake previously lost two trials that challenged her competitor Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ win by more than 17,000 votes. In the second trial, a judge rejected a misconduct claim L...

3 teenagers were fatally shot in South Carolina, and two schoolmates have been arrested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Two people showed up at an abandoned house where four teenagers were hanging out and opened fire, killing three of them and wounding the fourth in an escalation of an old quibble over a burglary, authorities said Monday in Columbia, South Carolina.Two 17-year-old Eau Claire High School students were both arrested on three counts of murder, one of attempted murder and possessing a weapon during a violent crime, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. An investigation is ongoing, and more arrests could be made, Deputy Veronica Hill, a public information officer, told The Associated Press Monday afternoon.The teenagers who were killed also attended Eau Claire High School, according to a statement from Craig Witherspoon, the district superintendent. The lone survivor attended a nearby middle school.The district provided additional counseling and security at the high school Monday in response to the “unimaginable tragedy,” which Witherspoon decr...

New book alleges Trump’s ex-chief of staff’s suits smelled ‘like a bonfire’ from burning papers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A former aide in Donald Trump’s White House says chief of staff Mark Meadows burned papers so often after the 2020 election that it left his office smoky and even prompted his wife to complain that his suits smelled “like a bonfire.”Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a prominent congressional witness against former President Trump before the House Jan. 6 committee, described the burning papers in a new book set to be released Tuesday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book, “Enough.”Hutchinson was a White House staffer in her 20s who worked for Meadows and testified for two hours on national television about the White House’s inner workings leading up to and including the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Trump and Meadows tried to challenge the former president’s election loss in several states. Both are under indictment in Georgia for what prosecutors have called an illegal conspiracy to overturn the results. In her book, Hutchinson wri...

New immigration minister says one-click citizenship oath still worth considering

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:20 GMT

OTTAWA — The new immigration minister is still considering a controversial option to allow new Canadians to take their oath of citizenship with the click of a button, but there are no immediate plans to implement it, he said Monday.The government asked for public feedback in February about the idea to allow new Canadians to skip a virtual or in-person ceremony and opt instead to take the oath with the click of a mouse.Consultation documents posted online say the new regulations were expected to come into force in June 2023, but the government has been mum about its plans since then.The department is still mulling it over, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Monday, and he thinks it’s a good idea.“You don’t want to take these moments lightly, but we do need technological options,” Miller said on his way into Question Period. “The department has been criticized, rightly, for not being adjusted to the 21st century and that option is one I think that we s...