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CT pastor sentenced to 10 years in prison for physically assaulting infant, causing serious injuries

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

A Manchester pastor who was previously convicted of sexually abusing a boy was sentenced Wednesday to another 10 years in prison for what witnesses testified was physically assaulting an infant by slamming the baby against the floor and putting him in a sink of frigid water.Robert Nichols was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Kevin C. Doyle at Superior Court in Hartford to 20 years in prison, executed after he serves 10 years, plus another five years on probation, according to court officials.A jury found Nichols guilty of first-degree assault and two counts of risk of injury to a child in June after a 10-month-old baby living in his home suffered potentially life-threatening head trauma, according to court records and the state Division of Criminal Justice.CT pastor previously convicted of child sexual abuse found guilty of physically abusing infant living in his homeAt his trial, one witness testified that she saw Nichols wrap the baby in a tight swaddle and slam him onto the floor num...

Fires and others disasters are increasing in Hawaii, according to this AP data analysis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

KIHEI, Hawaii (AP) — Hurricane-fueled flash floods and mudslides. Lava that creeps into neighborhoods. Fierce drought that materializes in a flash and lingers. Earthquakes. And now, deadly fires that burn block after historic block.Hawaii is increasingly under siege from disasters, and what is escalating most is wildfire, according to an Associated Press analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency records. That reality can clash with the vision of Hawaii as paradise. It is, in fact, one of the riskiest states in the country.“Hawaii is at risk of the whole panoply of climate and geological disasters,” said Debarati Guha-Sapir, director of the international disasters database kept at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. She listed storms, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes.Hawaii has been in more danger lately. This month alone, the federal government declared six different fire disasters in Hawai...

Officers testify in trial of 2 white Mississippi men in shooting at Black FedEx driver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — A police dispatcher and a detective testified Wednesday in the trial of two white men in Mississippi who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home.Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Charles Case, charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle driven by D’Monterrio Gibson in January 2022, sat with their attorneys in a small courtroom full of spectators.Gibson, who was 24 at the time, was not injured. But the chase and gunfire led to complaints on social media of racism in Brookhaven, about an hour’s drive south of the state capital, Jackson. It happened as Gibson made deliveries for FedEx on the evening of Jan. 24, 2022, while driving a rental van with the Hertz logo on three sides. After he dropped off a package at a home on a dead-end road, Gregory Case used a pickup truck to try to block the van from leaving, and Brandon Case came outside with a gun, Dis...

More cadaver dogs arrive to assist in search for bodies after wildfires kill at least 106 on Maui

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Public schools on Maui have started the process of reopening in a sign of recovery a week after wildfires demolished a historic town and killed over 100 people, even as additional cadaver dogs arrived Wednesday to help teams search for more remains on Hawaii’s second-largest island. At least three schools untouched by flames in Lahaina, where entire neighborhoods were reduced to ash, were still being assessed after sustaining wind damage, said Hawaii Department of Education superintendent Keith Hayashi. The campuses will open when they’re deemed safe. “There’s still a lot of work to do, but overall the campuses and classrooms are in good condition structurally, which is encouraging,” Hayashi said in a video update. “We know the recovery effort is still in the early stages, and we continue to grieve the many lives lost.”Elsewhere on Maui, crews cleaned up ash and debris at schools, and tested air and water quality for toxins. Displaced students who ...

B.C. puts fish protection orders in place as heat, drought persists

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

BURNABY, B.C. — The British Columbia government is putting fish protection orders in place for the Thompson Okanagan region as extreme drought conditions affect river levels and threaten the local salmon populations.More than 80 per cent of the province has reached Level 4 or 5 drought conditions, the highest possible rankings, after months of little or no rain. The government says the orders aim to protect spawning chinook salmon in the lower Salmon River and Bessette Creek by temporarily restricting water use for forage crops for about 400 surface and groundwater licence holders.It says they must stop using water for forage crops, including grass for hay, alfalfa and corn to help restore water flow levels and protect the salmon runs. The government says the order may be revoked if water flows recover, but affected farmers can access programs, such as the federal-provincial AgriStability program, which helps producers with drought-related income declines.Compounding the situation i...

AP, other news organizations develop standards for use of artificial intelligence in newsrooms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Associated Press has issued guidelines on artificial intelligence, saying the tool cannot be used to create publishable content and images for the news service while encouraging staff members to become familiar with the technology.AP is one of a handful of news organizations that have begun to set rules on how to integrate fast-developing tech tools like ChatGPT into their work. The service will couple this on Thursday with a chapter in its influential Stylebook that advises journalists how to cover the story, complete with a glossary of terminology.“Our goal is to give people a good way to understand how we can do a little experimentation but also be safe,” said Amanda Barrett, vice president of news standards and inclusion at AP.The journalism think tank Poynter Institute, saying it was a “transformational moment,” urged news organizations this spring to create standards for AI’s use, and share the policies with readers and viewers.Generative AI has the a...

NDP adds to Greenbelt complaint to integrity commissioner in light of auditor report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles is asking the province’s integrity commissioner to consider within his Greenbelt investigation the premier and government staffers’ reported use of personal phones and emails.Stiles’ request comes in the wake of last week’s scathing auditor general’s report into the government’s decision to open up protected Greenbelt lands to housing development.Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk found that the process of selecting the 15 specific sites was not transparent, with all but one suggested by Housing Minister Steve Clark’s chief of staff, who was given packages at an industry event by two key developers.Lysyk also found that political staff received emails from lobbyists on their personal accounts, sometimes forwarded emails from their government accounts to personal ones, contrary to public service guidelines, and were regularly deleting emails, contrary to the rules.“These facts demonstrate the government’s...

Election workers who face frequent harassment see accountability in the latest Georgia charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Tonya Wichman has overseen elections in a rural Ohio county for eight years and hasn’t experienced any significant problems with voting or counting the ballots. But that doesn’t mean no big worries at all.What does concern her is the frequent harassment, intimidation and even physical threats she and her staff have been receiving since the 2020 election. It got so bad ahead of the 2022 midterms that her staff got police protection when leaving or coming to the office.That’s why she paid close attention this week to the indictment of former President Donald Trump and 18 others charged in an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Among many charges, the indictment names several people accused of a harassment campaign that led to death threats against two Atlanta election workers.It marks the highest-profile effort yet to hold people accountable for targeting state or local election officials, many of whom have left their jobs a...

Renata Scotto, soprano of uncommon intensity, dies at 89

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

Renata Scotto, a soprano of uncommon intensity who became a successful director after her singing career, died Wednesday in her hometown of Savona, Italy. She was 89.Scotto’s New York-based manager, Robert Lombardo, said he was called by her family and informed of her death. “I had spoken to her several weeks ago and I didn’t get any any indication that anything was going on,” he said.Scotto maintained homes in Italy and Armonk, New York.“Renata Scotto is a true artist and profound connoisseur of voice and repertoire, gifted with technique, musicality, a personality of a rare power, always at the service of the composer, and able to emotionally stir the public in all the world in every phase of her long career,’’ soprano Cecilia Gasdia, superintendent of the Fondazione Arena in Verono, said in a statement.Scotto made 314 appearances at the Metropolitan Opera from her debut in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly″ on Oct. 13, 1965, to her finale, also as Cio-Cio-San, on Jan....

Biden marks the 1-year anniversary of his signing of a major climate, health and tax law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden proclaimed Wednesday his administration is “turning things around” for Americans when it comes to the economy, with his signature climate, health care and tax package giving people “more breathing room” on prices and investing anew in clean energy jobs.“We’re leaving nobody behind,” Biden told a packed East Room filled with lawmakers, advocates and people who have benefited from his economic policies. “We’re investing in all of America — in the heartland, and coast to coast.” His remarks, delivered on the anniversary of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, came as the White House ramped up efforts to illustrate the real-world impact of Biden’s economic plans. At a White House event Wednesday afternoon to celebrate a year since he signed the bill, the president stood alongside people — from union workers to small business owners to consumers — who the White House says have been aided by the law. That sweeping package, along wi...