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Florida expands ‘Don’t Say Gay’; House OKs anti-LGBTQ bills

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and BRENDAN FARRINGTON (Associated Press)TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis added more wins to his agenda targeting the LGBTQ+ community as a state board approved an expansion of what critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” law Wednesday, and the House passed bills on gender-transition treatments, bathroom use and keeping children out of drag shows.The Board of Education approved a ban on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades, expanding the law that bans those lesson up to grade 3 at the request of DeSantis as he gears up for an expected presidential run.The rule change would ban lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity from grades 4-12, unless required by existing state standards or as part of reproductive health instruction that students can choose not to take. That’s the time when students are becoming aware of their sexuality.The proposal will take effect af...

Chicago White Sox suffer another series loss, falling to the Philadelphia Phillies 5-2: ‘It will turn around’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

Jake Burger hit a liner to center field, but Brandon Marsh was there for the final out to keep the Chicago White Sox trending in the wrong direction.A 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday in front of 10,149 at Guaranteed Rate Field extended a number of not-so-pleasant numbers for the Sox.They’ve lost six of eight and nine of 13.After going 2-4 on the homestand, the Sox are 7-12 and in fourth place in the American League Central — four games in back of the first-place Minnesota Twins entering Wednesday evening. Only the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals have more losses in the AL.Not only have the Sox yet to win a series (0-5-1), they haven’t won back-to-back games.“It’s the sentiment throughout this clubhouse with everyone, the passion we have in here, to win and compete, it’s through the roof,” Sox starter Mike Clevinger said. “It’s just putting it all together. I still believe in every person in this clubho...

Red Sox notebook: Call-up a dream come true for Red Sox rookie Enmanuel Valdez

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

Enmanuel Valdez’s flight was delayed when he got the call that changed his life.Held back an extra day in Worcester, the Red Sox prospect was trying to rejoin his WooSox teammates on their road trip to Lehigh Valley when he was told he’d be needed at Fenway Park in Boston instead.“The first person I called was my dad,” Valdez said via translator Carlos Villoria Benítez. “I got to tell him the news that finally today my dream is going to come true and I’m going to be able to play a major league game for the Boston Red Sox.”Valdez, the No. 17 prospect in the Red Sox organization according to MLB Pipeline, made his MLB debut for the Red Sox on Wednesday night against the Minnesota Twins. The 24-year-old slugger batted ninth and played second base, filling in while Christian Arroyo continued recovering from hamstring tightness and while Yu Chang was out on paternity leave.Originally acquired in exchange for Christian Vazquez at last summer’...

Police pursuit ends on freeway after crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

SAN DIEGO — A police pursuit Wednesday ended in Mission Valley after a suspect crashed into multiple vehicles on Interstate 805, the California Highway Patrol said.The chase began on Interstate 5 near Manchester Avenue when the suspect was reportedly involved in a hit-and-run collision, CHP Public Information Officer Jesse Matias told FOX 5.Officers with CHP Oceanside pursued the drive south on I-5, before the suspect transitioned to I-805. Fiery crash delays traffic on SR-163 The pursuit ended when the driver crashed into multiple vehicles, including a motorcycle on southbound I-805 in Mission Valley near the Interstate 8 off-ramp, Matias said.Two lanes of southbound I-805 were closed due to police activity, per Caltrans.According to CHP, minor injuries were reported at the scene, but it was not immediately known how many people were injured and what parties involved were injured.It was not immediately known if the suspect had been arrested.This is a developing story, check back ...

Alleged drunk driver found slumped over wheel near Canada’s Wonderland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

York Regional Police are praising the recognition of a concerned citizen after they called 9-1-1 when they discovered a man slumped over his steering wheel in a ditch near Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan.Officers were called just after 6:30 a.m. on Monday, with the citizen reporting a vehicle in a ditch in the Jane Street and Canada’s Wonderland Drive area.Police quickly arrived at the scene and found the driver of an SUV driving erratically in the area. It’s alleged that an officer approached the suspect, told him he was under arrest and asked him to shut off the vehicle.As a second officer arrived, the male suspect drove out of the ditch and fled the scene.After the responding officers attempted to block off the driver from swerving into traffic on Jane Street, investigators said two officers were assaulted and suffered minor injuries when the suspect was taken into custody.“Impaired driving continues to be an unacceptable and avoidable problem on our roads,...

Stampede in Yemen’s capital kills at least 78, official says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — People stampeded at an event to distribute financial aid in Yemen’s capital late Wednesday, and at least 78 people were killed and dozens more suffered injuries, a Houthi official said.The crush took place in the Old City in the center of Sanaa when hundreds of poor people gathered at an event organized by merchants, according to the Houthi-run Interior Ministry.The ministry’s spokesman, Brig. Abdel-Khaleq al-Aghri, blamed the disaster on the “random distribution” of funds without coordination with local authorities.Dozens of casualties were taken to nearby hospitals. Motaher al-Marouni, a senior health official in Sanaa, gave the death tally and said at least 13 were seriously injured, according the Houthi’s Al-Masirah satellite TV channel.The rebels quickly sealed off the school where the event was organized and barred people, including journalists, from approaching. Eyewitnesses, Abdel-Rahman Ahmed and Yahia Mohsen, said armed Houthis shot in the air in ...

Vancouver police officer tells inquest he punched Myles Gray as hard as he could

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

BURNABY, B.C. — A Vancouver police officer told a British Columbia coroner’s jury that he punched Myles Gray in the head as hard as he could several times because he didn’t think anything else would work to subdue the man, other than shooting him.Const. Kory Folkestad testified on the third day of the inquest into Gray’s death in August 2015 following a beating by several officers that left him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and a ruptured testicle.Folkestad’s partner, Const. Eric Birzneck, later testified that he had initially talked to Gray in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, but Gray’s demeanour changed.Gray put his head down and “he started coming at me,” Birzneck told the inquest.That’s when Birzneck deployed pepper spray, he said, and the struggle to wrestle Gray to the ground and apply handcuffs ensued.Gray displayed “surges of incredible strength” as the officers tried to...

Mexico finds 8 sacrificial victims at Gulf coast pyramid

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Archaeologists in Mexico said Wednesday they have found 13 buried sets of human remains, eight of which appear to be young men who were apparently decapitated as part of a ceremony to consecrate a temple. Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said the skeletal remains may be as much as 2,000 years old. Ceremonial offerings of hundreds of beads, arrowheads and rings made of shells were with the remains. They were found at a Mayan ruin site known as Moral-Reforma in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco. The site apparently functioned as a stop on a river trade route connecting the Mayan kingdoms of the Yucatan and Central America with other cultures on the Gulf coast. The institute said the remains of the eight sacrificial victims appear to have been hacked up and dispersed in an area at the foot of the pyramidal temple, because the bones were found scattered.Another group of bones was found at the same site that might come from hundreds of years later....

Teen admits guilt to felonies in Vegas school teacher attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas teenager pleaded guilty as an adult Wednesday to felony charges that a prosecutor said could get him decades in prison for attacking a high school teacher and leaving her unconscious in a classroom a year ago. The incident, which included allegations of sexual assault, left the teacher hospitalized with multiple injuries and focused attention on a sharp rise in violence at the time in the sprawling Clark County School District, the nation’s fifth-largest.The Associated Press is not naming the defendant due to his age. Now 17, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder, attempted sexual assault and battery with a deadly weapon causing substantial bodily harm. His pleas avoided trial in Clark County District Court.Public defenders who represented the boy did not immediately respond to email messages form AP.The prosecutor, Chief Deputy Clark County District Attorney William Rowles, confirmed the plea agreement. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he inten...

Trump likely won’t attend trial over rape claim, lawyer says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:41 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is unlikely to attend a civil trial next week over columnist E. Jean Carroll’s claim that he raped her in a department store dressing room, the former president’s lawyer signaled Wednesday.While not completely ruling out Trump’s presence at the trial, attorney Joe Tacopina asked the presiding judge to tell jurors that the Republican’s absence from the courtroom was intended to avoid logistical burdens that New York City and the court system would face if Trump were present.Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday. Tacopina said jurors should be told that Trump’s “presence is excused unless and until he is called by either party to testify.”Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had instructed attorneys for both Trump and Carroll to say by Thursday whether their clients would be present for the trial.Carroll, who said in a 2019 memoir that Trump raped her in the 1990s during a chance encounter at Manhattan’s luxury Bergdorf Goodman ...