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Celebrate Earth Day everyday with a few small changes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

This Saturday is Earth Day, and communities across the country are mobilizing to clean up their shared green spaces and waterways, plant air-cleaning trees and bring more attention to climate change.This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest in Our Planet.” EarthDay.org, which works with more than 150,000 partners in 192 countries, is inviting people to pledge online to take actions like growing more trees, supporting sustainable fashion, or helping end plastic pollution.When is Earth Day?Earth Day is observed every year on April 22.WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 23: A park bench sits in floodwaters during high tide across the Washington Channel from The Wharf amid cherry blossoms in peak bloom near the Tidal Basin on March 23, 2023 in Washington, DC. According to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), climate change and rising sea levels are expected to threaten the root systems of cherry trees near the Tidal Basin. The National Park Service predict...

Attorneys: Charges to be dropped against Alec Baldwin in fatal 'Rust' shooting case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – According to Alec Baldwin’s legal team, the involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor will be dropped soon. However, we don’t know if prosecutors could refile charges against him.Baldwin's attorneys issued the following statement: “We are pleased with the decision to dismiss the case against Alec Baldwin and we encourage a proper investigation into the facts and circumstances of this tragic accident.” Attorneys for Alec Baldwin, Luke Nikas & Alex SpiroBaldwin was facing involuntary manslaughter charges. In February, prosecutors downgraded certain charges against him, removing a firearm enhancement penalty. The enhancement charge would have added an additional five-year minimum sentence on top of everything else. Alec Baldwin’s ‘Rust’ movie to resume filming in spring Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust” in October 2021. The actor was rehearsing a scene in front of a camera when a gun he was handlin...

Suspect sought in multiple sexual assaults at Vaughan bus shelters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

York Regional Police have released images of a suspect believed to be behind multiple sexual assaults at bus shelters in Vaughan.Police said on March 27, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., a 17-year-old woman was sitting on a bench at a bus shelter in the Fisherman’s Way and Edgeley Boulevard area when a man sat beside her and touched her inappropriately.After the assault, the female victim left on a bus, and the male suspect fled the scene on foot.On April 10, just before 3 p.m., police said a 23-year-old woman was sitting on a bench at a bus shelter in the Weston Road and Rutherford Road area when a man touched her inappropriately when he walked past her.Investigators believe the same man is responsible for both incidents.The suspect is described as 20 to 30 years old, Black, with a tall and heavy build.He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt (with Glow written across the front), olive track pants, a white Toronto Raptors ball cap and white running shoes.

Former N.S. med student who killed 22-year-old will be eligible for parole in 2030

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia judge has ruled that a former medical student who killed another student during a drug deal — and then disposed of his body — will be eligible for parole in about seven-and-a-half years.Justice Jamie Chipman ruled in Nova Scotia Supreme Court that William Sandeson should spend at least 15 years in prison for firing a single bullet into the head of 22-year-old physics student Taylor Samson. Both men attended Dalhousie University in Halifax.“(Sandeson) made a reprehensible and incomprehensible choice,” Chipman said in his oral decision. “Instead of entering medical school, Mr. Sandeson entered jail in the summer of 2015.”The judge said that since the 30-year-old murderer had already spent seven years and eight months in jail, Sandeson can apply to the parole board for conditional release in 2030.“If he is released at that time or some future time, he has the potential to be a contributing member of society,” Chipman said.Sandeson testified dur...

Strike thwarted prisoners advocate from entering Edmonton facility

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

OTTAWA — An organization that helps women in the justice system says it is concerned about an ongoing strike by Canada’s largest public-service union after one of its advocates was unable to access an Edmonton prison.Emilie Coyle, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, says she is worried about further restrictions at a time when some correctional institutions are already dealing with staffing shortages.Coyle says Correctional Service of Canada staff are accommodating Elizabeth Fry advocates entering prisons, but a picket line in Edmonton on Thursday prevented one of them from going into the facility.“There were a large number of people picketing, and so one of our regional advocates was not able to get in,” she said. “She wasn’t even able to get close to the doors to talk to someone to say, ‘Hey, I’m here to monitor conditions of confinement. I’m not crossing the picket line for any other reason.'&#...

Negligence led to Mississippi grain bin death, officials say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — A South African teenage farm worker who suffocated to death after falling into a grain storage bin would still be alive had a Mississippi soybean farm followed federal workplace safety standards, inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined.Bare Bones Farms, located in the Mississippi Delta town of Greenwood, violated federal law by failing to ensure workers wore full-body harnesses connected to a lifeline before four of them were engulfed by soybeans inside a storage bin in an October 2022 incident, the labor department said Wednesday. A 19-year-old South African farmworker, whose body wasn’t recovered for five hours, suffocated.“Well-known safety standards that protect people from the grave dangers of working in grain bins have been in place for decades, and yet Bare Bones Farms jeopardized the lives of its employees by ignoring federal regulations,” said OSHA Area Director Courtney Bohannon i...

Panelists: New York casinos could see Atlantic City closures

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Panelists at a major casino industry conference said the construction of three new casinos in New York could cost Atlantic City 20% to 30% of its casino revenue, a development that could possibly return the resort to the days of casino closures.While not predicting that it will definitely happen, Jim Allen, chairman of the global Hard Rock casino, entertainment and hospitality company, on Thursday said that such a revenue drop could lead at least one Atlantic City casino to close. Hard Rock, which owns a casino in Atlantic City, is among the bidders for a New York casino.Speaking at the East Coast Gaming Congress, Allen warned that New York’s coming casinos will have a big effect on Atlantic City.“It could happen,” Allen told The Associated Press in an interview after his speech. “Atlantic City receives 20, 30-plus percent of its revenue from upstate New Jersey and downstate New York, and there’s no doubt it is going to have an impact on this p...

California could protect sex assault victims facing lawsuits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers voted Thursday to protect sexual assault survivors from retaliatory lawsuits, years after a former state lawmaker sued a woman over her sexual misconduct allegations against him.Supporters of the legislation hope it will counteract efforts to silence victims.The bill, which passed overwhelmingly in the Assembly with bipartisan support, would make it clear that a victim’s comments about sexual assault or harassment are protected against defamation lawsuits if the allegation is not knowingly false or made recklessly. It would also help a victim who successfully defends themselves in a defamation lawsuit to recover attorney’s fees and damages.Pamela Lopez, a lobbyist who accused a lawmaker of sexual assault in 2017, said a defamation lawsuit used as a retaliation tactic goes beyond trying to disempower survivors.“It is also an attempt to take away the power of every person who wants to be part of a conversation with survivors a...

Biden, Colombia’s Petro meet amid growing policy differences

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden hosted Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Thursday for talks at the White House amid deep differences on U.S. drug policy and Venezuela but a shared desire to deepen cooperation on climate change, migration and energy policy. The leaders, in remarks before reporters at the start of the Oval Office meeting, tried to keep the focus on areas of agreement, including strengthening their democracies and building economies less dependent on carbon sources.“We are going down the same river, a river that leads us to ever-greater democracy and ever-greater freedom,” Petro said. He added: “We have a common agenda and a lot of work to do.”Biden said the countries shared a goal to build a “united, equal, democratic and economically prosperous” Western Hemisphere. “Colombia is the key to the hemisphere,” he said.The two even joked about their ages; Petro turned 63 on Wednesday and Biden, at 80, is the oldest U.S. president in history. But their ...

14-year-old shot while inside vehicle on South Side

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

CHICAGO — A 14-year-old was shot in the chest while inside a vehicle on the city's South Side, Chicago police said Thursday.The shooting occurred just before 1 p.m. in the 2300 block of E. 80th St. in South Chicago.The teen was rushed to South Shore Hospital. His condition is unknown. Man hit by vehicle, then robbed at gunpoint and shot on West Side No one is in custody. Anyone with information may leave an anonymous tip at cpdtip.com.