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Chess official calls for more research as decision to block transgender women from events draws fire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — A top global chess official Friday called for more research into whether factors such as hormone levels and physical endurance might have an impact on players’ abilities at the male-dominated game. Her comments came after the world chess federation was heavily criticized for its decision to block transgender women from official women’s events. The Switzerland-based federation FIDE said the decision, set to take place Monday, would stay in effect until the federation does an assessment of the issue. Critics, including advocacy groups and some European players and federations, have derided what they call an unnecessary and discriminatory policy that appears to foster “trans panic,” with one former British women’s champion calling for the world federation to reverse its decision.Dana Reizniece-Ozola, the deputy chair of the chess federation’s management board, insisted the goal of the new regulations was “actually to increase the rights of the tran...

Impeachment case alleges Texas AG Ken Paxton used multiple phones and an alias to conceal an affair

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton used multiple cellphones and an alias on a ride-sharing app to conceal an affair, and pressured top aides to help a donor now facing criminal charges, according to new documents made public by investigators leading the impeachment of the embattled Republican. More than 4,000 pages of documents, most of which were publicly filed late Thursday and include emails and text messages, are the foundation of House Republicans’ case that Paxton abused his office and should be ousted at the end of a historic impeachment trial that begins Sept. 5 in the Texas Capitol. “It’s a complicated story,” Mark Penley, one of Paxton’s former deputies, told investigators during a deposition in March. “But if you understand what was going on, this was outrageous conduct by an Attorney General that’s supposed to be the chief law enforcement officer for the State of Texas, not the chief lawbreaking officer.”Paxton, who has been suspended from...

11 nations of West Africa commit to a military deployment to restore the ousted president of Niger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Eleven West African nations have agreed to commit troops to a military deployment aimed at restoring Niger’s democratically elected president following last month’s coup, an official for the regional bloc said Friday after a defense ministers meeting.The ECOWAS bloc previously announced its intention to deploy a force to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been under house arrest since he was overthrown by members of the presidential guard July 26. But the 15-member bloc had not detailed which countries would join, nor has it said when the force might enter Niger. On Friday, the ECOWAS commissioner for peace and security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, said 11 countries have committed to the deployment. “We are ready to go anytime the order is given,” Musah said in the Ghana capital, Accra, following two days of meetings there. “Our troops are ready to respond to the call of duty of the region.” The 11 countries don’t include Niger itself and the b...

Canada wildfire evacuees can’t get news media on Facebook and Instagram. Some find workarounds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

Before fleeing about 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) south of Yellowknife by car, Agnes Grandejambe looked to social media to find out almost everything she needed to know about escaping the encroaching wildfires.Some from official government accounts. Mostly from friends and family, including an offer of help from her First Nation band.But not from news media sites. That’s because Canadian news outlets — including the only one she trusts — have been blocked on Facebook and Instagram as a result of a dispute with the national government.“People were posting how close the fires were. And we knew the highway kept opening and closing, so we said, ‘OK, we’ll just go,’” said the 65-year-old who is a longtime resident of the capital city of Canada’s Northwest Territories.Her preferred media site, Yellowknife-based Cabin Radio, has been doing its best to get around the ban with help from the station’s audience members who have been taking news from the Cabin Radio website — filled...

Dealer gets 10 years in prison in death of actor Michael K. Williams

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City drug dealer was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for providing “The Wire” actor Michael K. Williams with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his death.Irvin Cartagena, 40, of Aibonito, Puerto Rico, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams. Cartagena had pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to distribute drugs.Williams overdosed in his Brooklyn penthouse apartment in September 2021. He died hours after authorities said he bought the heroin from Cartagena on a sidewalk in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood in a deal recorded by a security camera.Williams famously portrayed Omar Little, the rogue robber of drug dealers, in HBO’s “The Wire,” which ran from 2002 to 2008. In addition to his work on the critically acclaimed drama, Williams also starred in films and other TV series such as “Boardwalk Empire.”Cartagena faced a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and could have faced up to 40 years behind bars.“I am very sorry fo...

Appeals court strikes down Utah oil railroad approval, siding with environmentalists

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A U.S. Appeals Court on Friday struck down a critical approval for a railroad project that would have allowed oil businesses in eastern Utah to significantly expand fossil fuel production and exports.The ruling is the latest development in the fight over the proposed Uinta Basin Railway, an 88-mile (142-kilometer) railroad line that would connect oil and gas producers in rural Utah to the broader rail network, allowing them to access larger markets and ultimately sell to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. The railroad would let producers, currently limited to tanker trucks, ship an additional 350,000 barrels of crude daily on trains extending for up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers).The Washington, D.C.-based appeals court ruled that a 2021 environmental impact statement and biological opinion from the federal Surface Transportation Board were rushed and violated federal laws. It sided with environmental groups and Colorado’s Eagle County, which had sued to ch...

Suburban Detroit police fatally shoot motorist awakened from sleep inside car

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Suburban Detroit police fatally shot a motorist they awoke from sleep in a running car when he accelerated with an officer beside him in the vehicle and crashed into a patrol car Friday.The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched shortly before 6 a.m. to a complaint that a vehicle was blocking a driveway and they found the driver asleep with a gun beside him.One deputy removed the gun from inside the car while another entered it from the passenger’s side, the office said in a chronology. When the motorist resisted arrest and accelerated, crashing into a patrol car, a curb and a street sign, the deputy who was partially inside the car fired a single shot striking the motorist, the sheriff’s office said.The motorist was pronounced dead at a hospital, the office said.The deputy who was partially inside the car and partially hanging outside it was treated at a hospital for unspecified injuries, it said.The names of the deputi...

‘It’s been an exciting journey’: Mayor Johnson approaches first 100 days in office

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

Approaching 100 days in office, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he’s confident that he has laid a firm foundation, though he says it is clear that there is a lot of work to do.This week, Mayor Johnson announced one of his biggest decisions yet, his pick for Chicago Police Superintendent. Johnson says he remains focused on investing in constitutional policing and tackling the root causes of crime. Critics becoming impatient with Mayor Johnson’s approach towards crime prevention in Chicago “Everyone knows it’s going to take all of us to solve the violence happening in the City of Chicago,” Johnson said. “I’m fully aware of what I inherited.”In highlighting his first months in office, Johnson points to his efforts to boost youth summer employment.“Success for me is making sure we are investing in people. We can do that immediately, and we’ve done that,” Johnson said.The mayor continues to sidestep questions on the firing of Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s top do...

Skilling: Beautiful, warm for the Chicago Air and Water Show weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

THE WEEK ENDS on a lovely note! The day's high comes in at 78 with dew points LOW—at 49-deg. That means the air is incredibly comfortable.  There's been a haziness to the sky. That's the produce of smoke off Western U.S. and Canadian wildfires coming in aloft. The density of that smoke is to thin according to forecast models Saturday.  But just as we had a colorful sunrise thanks to the presence of the smoke aloft which screens the "blues" on the electromagnetic spectrum leaving the sunlight with a decidedly orange-hue, we should see a colorful sunset this evening and weekend sunrises and sunsets look colorful as well.THE WEATHER LOOKS GREAT for the big weekend CHICAGO AIR & WATER SHOW.  Generous sunshine and a well developed "SSW" flow Saturday begins a day and a half of warming,  There will be NO lake cooling Saturday. It should be a great beach day with warmth extending right up to and out over the lakeshore areas. Lake water temps have been holding steady this week...

2 charged in connection to dog attack in Highland

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:49 GMT

Highland, Ind. — Police in Highland, Indiana have filed charges against two people after a dog attack left a woman injured and her husky dead.According to Highland Police, Adrien Sheldon and Luz Adorno are facing several charges after their loose dogs allegedly attacked a woman and her dog in the 3500 block of Jewett Street around 9:20 p.m. on Tuesday, August 8. Dog mauled, woman injured after pack of dogs escape yard Police charged Sheldon with Cruelty to Animals, and four counts of Dog Bite Liability, misdemeanors. Adorno was also charged with four misdemeanor counts of Dog Bite Liability.Police say 28-year-old Amber Neyhart had been walking her dog in the area when they were both attacked by the group of dogs that escaped from a nearby yard. Neyhart tried to shield her dog but was bitten by one of the adult dogs in the group. Witnesses to the attack attempted to step in to help Neyhart but were also bitten. More news from Northwest Indiana According to police, Neyhart suffere...