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Wisconsin Supreme Court orders new legislative maps in redistricting case brought by Democrats

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

By SCOTT BAUER (Associated Press)MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Republican-drawn legislative maps on Friday and ordered that new district boundary lines be drawn as Democrats had urged in a redistricting case they hope will weaken GOP majorities. The ruling comes less than a year before the 2024 election in a battleground state where four of the six past presidential elections have been decided by fewer than 23,000 votes, and Republicans have built large majorities in the Legislature under maps they drew over a decade ago.The court ruled 4-3in favor of Democrats who argued that the legislative maps are unconstitutional because districts drawn aren’t contiguous. They also argued that the Supreme Court violated the separation of powers doctrine.The lawsuit was filed a day after the court’s majority flipped to 4-3 liberal control in August. That’s when Justice Janet Protasiewicz joined the court after her April ele...

Will ‘revenge travel’ end in 2024?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

By Sean Cudahy | NerdWalletOver the past two years, travelers have packed airports, hotels and destinations with a fervor that earned the post-pandemic trend a label: “revenge travel.”Demand from leisure travelers soared at hotels in 2022 as travel restrictions subsided. This year, Americans flocked to popular European cities faster than they did in 2019. From June to October 2023, TSA recorded seven of its 10 busiest days ever at U.S. airport checkpoints — and then the all-time single-day record for passenger traffic was set on Nov. 26.Now, there’s a lingering question as 2024 approaches: Might revenge travel finally end?Industry leaders split on the future of revenge travelAsk 10 people in the travel industry, and you may get 10 different opinions.At one end of the spectrum, some airlines continue to report that travelers are more than willing to pay for high-end business class seats, especially on long-haul overseas flights.“Our core customer base is in a healthy financial positi...

Friday Bill Belichick comes out for possibly last time in Patriots tenure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

FOXBORO — With reports swirling about Bill Belichick’s future as Patriots head coach, it’s certainly possible we’re experiencing some lasts as part of his historic 24-season tenure.Belichick was known for going long on special teams, football history and other topics during some of his lesser-attended Friday morning news conferences through his head coaching career, though “Friday Bill” hasn’t shown up as often in recent years.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Bill Belichick details challenges Sean Payton presents with Broncos for Patriots New England Patriots | Bill Belichick confirms kicking balls were underinflated in Patriots-Chiefs game, NFL declines to comment New England Patriots | Patriots wide receiver newly absent at Friday practice before Broncos game New England Patriots | Patriots mailbag: What’s Trent Brown’s future with Patriots? New England Patri...

Supreme Court won’t fast-track ruling on whether Trump can be prosecuted in election subversion case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

By MARK SHERMAN and ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Friday it will not immediately take up a plea by special counsel Jack Smith to rule on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the 2020 election results.The ruling is a win for Trump and his lawyers, who have sought repeatedly to delay this and other criminal cases against him as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024. It averts a swift ruling from the nation’s highest court that could have definitively turned aside his claims of immunity and pushed the case toward a trial scheduled to start on March 4.The issue will now be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which has signaled it will act quickly to decide the case. Special counsel Jack Smith had cautioned that even a rapid appellate decision might not get to the Supreme Court in time for review and final word before the court’s tradition...

Authorities knew Maine shooter was a threat but felt confronting him was unsafe, video shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

By PATRICK WHITTLE and HOLLY RAMER (Associated Press)PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Police who declined to confront an Army reservist in the weeks before he killed 18 people in the state’s deadliest mass shooting feared that doing so would “throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gas,” according to video released Friday by law enforcement.The video, which was released to the Portland Press Herald and then sent to The Associated Press, documents a Sept. 16 call between Sagadoc County Sheriff’s Sgt. Aaron Skolfield and Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer. Skolfield was following up with Reamer about the potential threat posed by Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist who carried out the Oct. 25 attacks at a bowling alley and a restaurant. He was found dead two days later of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.Military officials alerted police in September that Card had been hospitalized in July after exhibiting erratic behavior while training, that he still had access ...

Gaza war’s staggering toll reaches a grim milestone: 20,000 dead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

By NAJIB JOBAIN and SAM MAGDY (Associated Press)RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s war to destroy Hamas has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, health officials in Gaza said Friday, as Israel expanded its offensive and ordered tens of thousands more people to leave their homes.The deaths in Gaza amount to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population — the latest indication of the 11-week-old conflict’s staggering human toll.Israel’s aerial and ground offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in modern history, displacing nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and leveling wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report Thursday from the United Nations and other agencies.Israel declared war after Hamas terrorists stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages. Israel has vowed to keep up the fight unt...

Supreme Court won't fast-track ruling on whether Trump can be prosecuted in election subversion case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Friday it will not immediately take up a plea by special counsel Jack Smith to rule on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the 2020 election results.The ruling is a win for Trump and his lawyers, who have sought repeatedly to delay this and other criminal cases against him as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024. It averts a swift ruling from the nation's highest court that could have definitively turned aside his claims of immunity and pushed the case toward a trial scheduled to start on March 4.The issue will now be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which has signaled it will act quickly to decide the case. Special counsel Jack Smith had cautioned that even a rapid appellate decision might not get to the Supreme Court in time for review and final word before the court’s traditional summer break.Smith had pressed the Supreme Court to intervene, ci...

Second suspect in Scarborough carjacking arrested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

Police have arrested a second man in connection with an early-morning carjacking and robbery in Scarborough earlier this month.Investigators say a man was driving his car in the area of Victoria Park Avenue and Consumers Road on Dec. 15 when around 3 a.m. he was bumped from behind by another vehicle. When the man pulled over, four masked suspects emerged and approached his vehicle. One of the suspects forced open the car’s door and demanded his car while assaulting the driver. He was then physically removed from the vehicle and robbed of personal items. Two of the suspects then drove off in the man’s car while the other two fled in another vehicle.Later that same day the Provincial Car Jacking Task Force (PCJTF) was able to track down both vehicles in Brampton and officers conducted a high-risk takedown around 3:30 p.m. The driver of the stolen vehicle managed to escape while the other suspect was arrested following a foot chase. The stolen vehicle was later recovered in...

Column: Florida State always seemed out of place in the ACC. Now the Seminoles want out

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

Florida State always seemed out of place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.A football school in a league long renowned for its basketball prowess.Now, the Seminoles want out. Divorce is inevitable, but the split figures to be anything but amicable.The salvos fired Friday, when the Florida State board of trustees voted to begin legal proceedings to escape the ACC without having to pay a staggering departure fee, showed just how nasty this fight is likely to be.Not surprising, since the stakes are enormous for both sides.The ACC is vowing to hold Florida State to its end of the bargain over television rights, which would force the Seminoles to come up with a staggering pile of cash — the school’s legal counsel put the figure at $572 million — just to head for the exit ramp.But if the Seminoles do find a more realistic pathway, perhaps through a sympathetic court ruling, it could send the ACC tumbling into the same death spiral that quickly erased the storied Pac-12 from the major...

1 still missing a week after St. Louis’ largest nursing home closed abrubtly

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:32 GMT

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — One person is still missing a week after the abrupt closure of St. Louis’ largest nursing home left roughly 170 residents scattered at new facilities throughout the city, a state health department spokeswoman confirmed Friday. Many patients left with nothing but the clothes they were wearing when Northview Village Nursing Home shuttered without warning last week, creating confusion and spurring outrage among residents and their families. St. Louis police have been alerted about the final resident who remains unaccounted for, Health and Senior Services Department spokesperson Lisa Cox said in a Friday email. Cox said Northview Village also has surrendered its license to operate, which will end the company’s contracts with Medicare and Medicaid.A person answering the phone said staff of Healthcare Accounting Services, which owns Northview Village and several other St. Louis residential homes, are gone for the holidays and declined to provide email addr...