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Republicans confront Tuberville over military holds in extraordinary showdown on Senate floor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators angrily challenged Sen. Tommy Tuberville on his blockade of almost 400 military officers Wednesday evening, taking over the Senate floor for hours to call for individual confirmation votes after a monthslong stalemate on the issue. Tuberville, R-Ala., stood and objected over and over again, extending his holds on the military confirmations and promotions with no immediate resolution in sight. But the extraordinary confrontation between Republicans, boiling over almost ten months after Tuberville first announced the holds over a Pentagon abortion policy, escalated the standoff into new territory as Defense Department officials have repeatedly said the backlog of confirmed officials could endanger national security. “Why are we putting holds on war heroes?” asked Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, himself a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. “I don’t understand.” Sullivan said that if the standoff continues and officers lea...

Biden touts investment in rural areas in Minnesota, the home state of his primary challenger

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

NORTHFIELD, Minn. (AP) — President Joe Biden visited a family-run farm in Minnesota on Wednesday and held a fundraiser featuring many of the state’s top Democrats, championing his administration’s investments in rural America while flexing political muscle on the home turf of his new 2024 primary challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips. The president announced more than $5 billion in spending, largely in rural areas. It will go toward better adapting agriculture to climate change, as well as expanding high-speed internet access and improving local infrastructure. The funding comes from infrastructure and inflation reduction laws which Biden helped champion through Congress. “Instead of exporting jobs overseas for cheaper labor, now we’re creating jobs here and expanding American products and selling them overseas,” Biden told a cheering crowd inside a barn at Dutch Creek Farms in Northfield, about 40 miles south of Minneapolis. “We’re not only transforming rural...

Goaltender Hart leaves Flyers game early with “mid-body” injury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart left Wednesday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres midway through the first period with what the club called a “mid-body injury.”Hart — who was 4-3 with a 2.30 goals against average in seven previous starts as Philadelphia’s primary goaltender — appeared to be in discomfort after a scramble in front of the net seven minutes into a tie game with Sabres forward Kyle Okposo. More than two minutes later, after Brandon Biro scored Buffalo’s second goal on a sliding puck in the crease, a member of the Flyers’ training staff came out and escorted Hart off the ice under his own power.Sam Ersson replaced Hart in net for the Flyers. ___AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHLSource

Maluma, Pink and Travis Scott among high-profile acts coming to SoFlo in concert in November

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

It’s November 1st, so you know what that means: Christmas music is about to take over the airwaves. But if you’re not ready to jingle those bells or rock around the Christmas tree, Deco’s got a look at who’ll be hitting the high notes in SoFlo this month.Maluma (singing): “A ti te gusta cuando te canto a capella, Mucho sudor, mucho alcohol y poca cela. Es que este ritmo lo bailamos flow favela.”Get ready to dance the night away with Maluma, baby! The Latin superstar is bringing his Don Juan Tour to the Kaseya Center on Nov. 4.He’s not the only big name performing at the iconic Magic City arena this month…Enrique Iglesias (singing): “Baby, I like it, I-I-I like it. Baby, I like it.”The ultimate SoFlo trio is hitting the stage together: Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull and their pal Ricky Martin.Ricky Martin (singing): “Livin’ la vida loca. She’ll push and pull you down, livin’ la vida loca.”They’re pla...

Police arrest 18-year-old in connection with deadly shooting of Salem State University student

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

An 18-year-old has been arrested in connection with the deadly shooting of a Salem State University student early Wednesday morning, officials announced. The Essex District Attorney’s Office said Carl Hens Beliard, 18, was found inside a vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds around 1:30 a.m. after officers were called to a scene on Forest Avenue for a report of a shooting. Officials said Beliard was pronounced dead after he was taken to Salem Hospital.Speaking shortly after 9 p.m., authorities announced investigators had taken Missael Pena Canela of Salem into custody. Pena Canela is expected to be arraigned on one charge of murder on Thursday in Salem District Court.“He just graduated high school this year and he’s at Salem State University, so this morning, police came here and they told me that he got shot and he was dead – I couldn’t believe it,” Altagrace Beliard, the victim’s mother, told 7NEWS.Emergency crews spent hours at the scene W...

High school football rivals in Maine come together in emotional game after mass shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — The city of Lewiston took another tentative step in its recovery from Maine’s deadliest mass shooting as a storied high school football rivalry resumed Wednesday night.Known as the Battle of the Bridge, the game featured cross-river rivals Lewiston High School and Edward Little High School of Auburn. Lewiston won 34-18.Last Friday’s game between the Blue Devils and the Red Eddies was postponed after the communities were locked down while police searched for 40-year-old Robert Card.He was found dead Friday, days after shooting and killing 18 people and injuring 13 others at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston. Residents in both Lewiston and Auburn lost family and friends in the Oct. 25 shooting.Singer James Taylor performed an acoustic version of the national anthem ahead of kickoff. There was a moment of silence.“Words cannot express the tremendous grief our communities are experiencing over the tragedy of this past ...

Celtics ride another hot start, crush Pacers in 155-104 victory

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

There was an understandable expectation that the Celtics’ new-look starting five would need a little time to jell this season. Even with all this talent, it wasn’t entirely realistic for the chemistry to be built right away.They’re starting to debunk that theory.While their first two victories of the season required some grit and toughness, the Celtics and their stacked talent have begun to exert their will on opponents, showing how scary good they can be. For a second consecutive game, they took care of an inferior team with extreme ease. Sparked by another hot start, the Celtics dominated the Pacers – who were without All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton – with a 155-104 victory at TD Garden that was never in doubt from the opening tip.The 155 points mark the second-most the Celtics have scored ever in a regular-season game, only behind the 173 they scored in a win over the Minneapolis Lakers on Feb. 27, 1959Jayson Tatum scored 30 points with 12 rebounds, Derrick White had 18 points a...

Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles is ‘really confident’ he can sign Montez Sweat to a long-term contract. What will it take?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

Montez Sweat hadn’t even visited his Chicago Bears locker at Halas Hall when he stepped in front of reporters Wednesday afternoon. He didn’t know yet that he was going to wear jersey No. 98.“I’m still trying to figure out where I’m going to lay my head at tonight,” Sweat said.So the new Bears defensive end will have to be excused for still figuring out what it’s going to take for the Bears to sign him to a contract extension.It’s one of the most relevant questions for the Bears after general manager Ryan Poles traded a 2024 second-round draft pick to the Washington Commanders on Tuesday to acquire Sweat, who is in the final year of his rookie contract. In order to make that investment in draft capital worth it, the Bears obviously want Sweat for more than nine games.Poles said the Bears are working to make a deal with Sweat. He didn’t have a timeline for when it might be completed but said he was hopeful “it won’t tak...

Uruguay’s foreign minister resigns following leak of audios related to a passport scandal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo resigned late Wednesday, shortly after audio messages were published in which he appears to ask a former official to not hand over evidence in an ongoing investigation over a passport issued to an accused drug trafficker.Bustillo said in a news release that he had submitted his resignation “to dispel any suspicion that, as an authority figure, I might exert undue influence over third parties, protected by the privileges of my position.”He resigned from his post after audios were revealed in which he appears to call on former deputy Foreign Minister Carolina Ache to not hand over her phone to investigators.According to the audios, Bustillo was trying to make sure investigators wouldn’t see conversations Ache had with another official relating to the granting of a passport to Sebastian Marset while he was detained in Dubai in 2021.Ache resigned last year.Bustillo claims Ache “decontextualized conversations an...

Officer charged in Elijah McClain’s death says he feared for his life after disputed gun grab

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:37:10 GMT

DENVER (AP) — A police officer charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain testified Wednesday that he put the 23-year-old Black man in a neck hold because he feared for his life after another officer said McClain grabbed for one of their guns.Prosecutors have refuted that McClain ever tried to grab an officer’s gun, and it can’t be seen in body camera footage, which is shaky and dark before all the cameras fall off during the ensuing struggle. Lawyers for two other officers tried earlier in McClain’s death also raised the alleged gun grab as part of their defense. “I was expecting to get shot, and I thought I’d never see my wife again,” Aurora officer Nathan Woodyard said on the stand, his voice shaking a bit, in his trial in McClain’s death. His death became a rallying cry at social justice protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Lawyers for Woodyard have argued he had to react to what he ...