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Judicial overhaul: Cracks appear in Israel’s military

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

By Tia Goldenberg | Associated PressJERUSALEM — Cracks are emerging in Israel’s military.The Middle East’s best equipped and most powerful force is under one of the worst assaults it has encountered — a battle within its own ranks.A contentious government plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary has cleaved deep rifts within Israeli society. Those rifts have infiltrated the military, where reservists in key units have pledged not to show up for duty if the legislative changes are pushed through.The letters, signed by thousands of reservists over the last seven months, have up to now mostly remained threats. But this week, 161 critical air force personnel announced they will stop their service, raising concerns about the military’s readiness in the face of similar refusals at a time of heightened violence and tensions on several fronts. On Wednesday, hundreds of reservists from various units joined a rally in Tel Aviv, declaring they would not report for duty ...

North Korea silent on fate of border-crossing US soldier

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

By Hyung-Jin Kim, Kim Tong-Hyung and Lolita C. Baldor | Associated PressSEOUL, South Korea — North Korea stayed silent Wednesday about the detention of an American soldier who sprinted across the Koreas’ heavily fortified border as members of his tour group looked on in shock. Some observers said heightened tensions between the two countries made it unlikely that he would be sent back any time soon.Pvt. Travis King bolted into North Korea while on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone on Tuesday, a day after he was supposed to travel to a base in the U.S. He was released from a South Korean prison July 10 after serving two months for assault and was scheduled to return to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced additional military discipline and discharge.King is the first known American held in North Korea in nearly five years. Each detention has set off complicated diplomatic wrangling, and this one comes at a time of elevated animosity. On Wednesday, North Korea test-fired ...

Pac-12 football: Five storylines to watch Friday at the summer media showcase

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

The most anticipated Pac-12 football season in recent memory begins Friday (unofficially, at least) with the annual media showcase.Here are five storylines to watch in Las Vegas.1. The main eventWe know what commissioner George Kliavkoff won’t say during his state-of-the-conference address. He won’t say the Pac-12 has signed a media rights deal and secured its future. That colossal issue has not yet been resolved (and could take another month, at least).Instead, Kliavkoff will focus on the upcoming football season and the star-studded lineup of players and coaches in attendance on Friday.That won’t be easy.The question-and-answer session with the media that follows his opening remarks undoubtedly will focus on the contract saga and the potential for schools to leave for the Big 12.Kliavkoff hasn’t commented publicly on the negotiations since December and has never provided a timeline for resolution.Will he offer any details? A series of non-answers would mere...

San Jose teen makes triumphant homecoming in starring role of hit musical

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

Isabella Esler is going back home.And she’s doing it in a very cool way.The San Jose teen, who graduated from Archbishop Mitty High School in 2022, makes her way back to the 4-0-8 as one of the stars of the hit Broadway musical “Beetlejuice.”Esler plays Lydia — the role that Winona Ryder made famous in the 1988 film version of “Beetlejuice” —  in this touring production, which checks into San Jose’s Center for the Performing Arts for six nights, Aug. 1-6. Tickets are $33 – $153, broadwaysanjose.com.It’s a huge achievement for Esler, who honed her acting and singing skills in numerous Children’s Musical Theater San Jose (CMTSJ) productions over the years. And it’s certainly not something that she expected to be doing so soon out of high school.“In my head, I was convinced I was going to college,” she says. “Then this whole thing happened.”Yet, her success certainly hasn’t surprised those who’ve known ...

Judge denies motion to move Pelosi hammer attack trial outside of San Francisco

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A federal attempted murder trial for David DePape will be held in San Francisco after a judge denied defense attorneys' motions Wednesday.DePape was arrested on October 28 for allegedly attacking then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer inside Pelosi's Pacific Heights house. DePape confessed to San Francisco police detectives that he broke into the house in the middle of the night because he wanted to break Nancy Pelosi's kneecaps. But the Democratic politician wasn't home that night, so DePape attacked Paul Pelosi instead, he told police. Two SFPD officers' body cameras recorded the assailant striking Paul Pelosi in the head with the hammer. The hammer attack captured national headlines. On Wednesday DePape's defense attorney argued that the only way to ensure a fair trial and find untainted jurors was to move the trial out of the Bay Area. Defense attorneys requested for the upcoming trial to be held in Eureka, where prospective juror...

Teenage woman injured in shooting near SF's Pier 39, teen boy arrested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- An 18-year-old woman was shot in the leg near San Francisco's Pier 39 on Tuesday night and a teenage boy was arrested in connection, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The shooting took place around 8 p.m. and officers from SFPD's Central Division responded. 3 pedestrians struck by car, infant dies in San Jose The woman was getting out of a vehicle when she heard multiple shots ring out, police said. She felt pain in her leg and realized she'd been shot. The woman's friends transported her to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.A suspect in the shooting, described as a 17-year-old male, was arrested, police said. No further information was provided.The incident follows another shooting in the Pier 39 area last month. Six people were injured in that incident, which involved two vehicles exchanging gunfire along the Embarcadero.KRON On is streaming live news now.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0...

SF County Jail giving away free Narcan to visitors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Visitors to the San Francisco County Jail will now be able to help themselves to free Narcan nasal spray, according to a tweet from the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Naloxone, which is sold under the brand name of Narcan, is an antidote to opioid overdoses that is commonly used in treating someone who is suffering from an accidental fentanyl overdose. Teenage woman injured in shooting near SF’s Pier 39, teen boy arrested The SF Department of Public Health is making the drug available to "people at risk of overdose and/or people who want to be prepared to save a life," the tweet said. SFDPH is also providing free fentanyl test strips at the main jail, which is located on Seventh Street in SoMa.Deaths from fentanyl overdoses have seen a spike in San Francisco this year. The city has already seized more of the drug from street dealers than it did in all of 2022. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said recent coordinated actions have led to the seizu...

Ex-Venezuelan spy chief is extradited from Spain to US on drug trafficking charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

MADRID (AP) — A former Venezuelan spymaster close to the country’s late leader Hugo Chávez has been extradited to New York from Spain on Wednesday to face decade-old drug trafficking charges.Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal will enter a not guilty plea at his initial appearance Thursday in Manhattan federal court, his lawyer, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, told The Associated Press.Nicknamed “El Pollo” (The Chicken), Carvajal advised Chávez for more than a decade. He later broke with Chávez’s handpicked successor, Nicolás Maduro, and threw his support behind his U.S. backed opponents. He did so in dramatic fashion: releasing a videotaped speech from an undisclosed location calling on his former cohorts in the military to rebel against their commander in chief a month into mass protests seeking to replace Maduro with lawmaker Juan Guaido, who the U.S. recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate leader because of his role as head of the democratically elected National Assembly.In ...

How the death penalty phase of the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman’s trial might play out

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The federal trial of a 50-year-old truck driver convicted of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history is in its third and final phase, in which jurors must decide whether to sentence him to death.The jury convicted Robert Bowers in June after three weeks of testimony about how he stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018 and shot anyone he saw. He killed members of three congregations that were sharing the building, and wounded two worshippers and five police officers.During the second phase of the trial, it took jurors only two hours to decide that Bowers was legally eligible for the death penalty. That led to the final phase, which is more emotionally taxing for jurors as they weigh whether sentence the man across the courtroom to die.Here is a look at the final phase:IS THERE ANY WAY TO PREDICT THE OUTCOME?Given the overwhelming evidence, everyone including Bowers’ lawyers knew a conviction was a...

IRS whistleblowers airing claims to Congress about ‘slow-walking’ of the Hunter Biden case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Wednesday held a public hearing raising unsubstantiated allegations against President Joe Biden over his family’s finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers for their first open testimony about claims the Justice Department improperly interfered with a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter.“We will continue to follow the money trail,” said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.The top Democrat on the committee, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, called the hearing “a theater of the absurd.”The Justice Department has denied the whistleblowers’ allegations.Lawmakers were hearing from the two IRS agents assigned to Hunter Biden case, which focused on tax and gun charges. The second agent, whose name was withheld in closed-door interview transcripts released earlier by Republicans and who was referred to by the committee as “whistleblower X,” was disclosed at the hearing as Joe Ziegler. The other IRS em...