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Harris is welcoming Las Vegas Aces to the White House to celebrate team’s 2022 WNBA championship

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will take center court in the East Room of the White House on Friday to welcome the 2022 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces. The Aces defeated the Connecticut Sun 78-71 at home in Game Four of last year’s finals to win the championship trophy, 3-1. The team was lifted to its first championship title by Finals MVP Chelsea Gray, who scored a game-high 20 points; regular season MVP A’ja Wilson, who added 11 points, and shooting by Riquna Williams, who came off the bench to score 17 points.Coach Becky Hammon became the first in WNBA history to win a championship in their first season as head coach. She previously was an assistant coach for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.The WNBA title is the first for one of the league’s original eight franchises. The Aces began as the Utah Starzz from 1997-2002, and relocated to San Antonio as the Silver Stars (and later just the Stars) from 2003-2017. The team moved to Las Vegas before the ...

Prominent Lebanese journalist Talal Salman dies at age 85 after long illness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Journalist Talal Salman, who founded one of Lebanon’s largest Arabic-language independent newspapers, died Friday after a long illness, the state-run National News Agency said. He was 85.An Arab nationalist whose role model was late Egyptian President Gamal Abdul-Nasser, Salman devoted much of his writing to the Palestinian cause and calls for Arab unity.Salman worked for several publications before founding the daily As-Safir in March 1974. The newspaper, which quickly became one of the country’s largest, identified itself as “Lebanon’s newspaper in the Arab World and the Arab World’s newspaper in Lebanon” and published under the slogan “Voice of the Voiceless.”Prominent journalists and writers from Lebanon and the region wrote for As-Safir and Salman was editor-in-chief until the paper closed down on Dec. 31, 2016, because of financial difficulties. After the newspaper ceased publication, Salman continued to write on a website that carried his name.An ear...

Protest this way, not that way: In statehouses, varied rules restrict public voices

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Shaking violently between sobs, parent Sarah Shoop Neumann could only manage a whisper as state troopers escorted her out of a Tennessee legislative hearing where she was waiting to testify against a bill that would let teachers carry guns.“I was supposed to speak. I was supposed to testify,” said Neumann, whose son still attends an elementary school where six people — including three 9-year-old children — were fatally shot this year.Moments earlier, a Republican subcommittee chairman ordered law enforcement to clear the public out of the room after the crowd erupted into applause and others defied a new ban on holding signs during committee proceedings. Only after troopers cleared the room was Neumann allowed to return to testify.While acts of protest big and small are common in legislatures, states often have rules in place to limit disruptions to government proceedings, with authorities given wide latitude to remove people who jeer, chant or are otherwise ...

Missouri death row inmate who claims innocence sues governor for dissolving inquiry board

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri death row inmate is suing Gov. Mike Parson over the governor’s decision to dissolve a board of inquiry that was convened to investigate the man’s innocence claim.The lawsuit on behalf of Marcellus Williams asks a state judge to invalidate Parson’s June order that did away with the inquiry board. Parson also lifted a stay of execution. The next day, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date, though no date has been set. Bailey also is named in the lawsuit filed Wednesday.Williams, 54, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1998 death of Lisha Gayle during a robbery of her home in the St. Louis suburb of University City. Gayle worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from 1981 to 1992 before leaving to do social work.Williams was hours away from execution in 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens halted the process and ordered an investigation. His decision followed the release of new DNA t...

Canada Post loses more than $250 million in second quarter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada Post continued to bleed cash last quarter, as losses ballooned by 59 per cent.In a release Friday, the Crown corporation reported a before-tax loss of $254 million for its second quarter versus $160 million in losses a year earlier.The country’s main postal operator says revenue dropped by $78 million, or six per cent, year-over-year due to declines across all lines of business.Canada Post says an increasingly competitive market for parcel delivery continued to dent revenues throughout the first half of 2023, while transaction mail and direct marketing deliveries also fell amid businesses’ strained promotional budgets.The cost of operations at Canada Post rose by 1.7 per cent, or $31 million, in the quarter ended June 30 compared to the same period a year earlier, due mainly to higher non-capital investments in technology and operations.Canada Post, which last reported a full-year profit in 2017, announced a transformation plan in June that targeted the e...

Trump and all 18 others charged in Georgia election case meet the deadline to surrender at jail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and the 18 people indicted along with him in Georgia on charges that they participated in a wide-ranging illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election have all turned themselves in to a jail in Atlanta before the deadline at noon Friday.After Trump was booked Thursday evening — scowling at the camera for the first-ever mug shot of a former president — seven co-defendants who had not yet surrendered did so Friday morning. All but one of those charged had agreed to a bond amount and conditions with Fulton County District Fani Willis ahead of time, and they were free to go after booking.Harrison William Prescott Floyd, who is accused of harassing a Fulton County election worker, did not negotiate a bond ahead of time and remained in the jail after turning himself in Thursday. Federal court records from Maryland show Floyd, identified as a former U.S. Marine who’s active with the group Black Voices for Trump, was also arrested t...

Zimbabweans anxiously wait for election results as African observer missions note voter intimidation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabweans waited anxiously Friday for the outcome of general elections as dozens of armed police with water cannons guarded the national results center, the scene of deadly violence after the previous vote five years ago. African election observer missions criticized this week’s balloting, alleging that a group linked to the ruling ZANU-PF party had engaged in voter intimidation, while Zimbabwe authorities took dozens of local election monitors to court on allegations of subversion that government critics said were trumped-up charges.Early results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission indicated that ZANU-PF was winning in its traditional rural strongholds, while the Citizens Coalition for Change was taking major urban areas that have traditionally voted for the opposition. Results in the presidential balloting are not expected for several days.Zimbabwe’s long history of disputed elections has left many wary of official results.Voting closed Thursday ...

North American grassland birds in peril, spurring all-out effort to save birds and their habitat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

POTTER, Neb. (AP) — When Reed Cammack hears the first meadowlark of spring, he knows his family has made it through another cold, snowy winter on the western South Dakota prairie. Nothing’s better, he says, than getting up at sunrise as the birds light up the area with song.“It’s part of the flora and fauna of our Great Plains and it’s beautiful to hear,” says Cammack, 42, a sixth-generation rancher who raises cattle on 10,000 acres (4,047 hectares) of mostly unaltered native grasslands.But the number of returning birds has dropped steeply, despite seemingly ideal habitat. “There are quite a few I don’t see any more and I don’t know for sure why,” says Cammack’s 92-year-old grandfather, Floyd. whose family has allowed conservation groups to install a high-tech tracking tower and to conduct bird surveys.North America’s grassland birds are deeply in trouble 50 years after adoption of the Endangered Species Act, with numbers plunging as habitat loss, land degradation and climate ...

Rent increases in Illinois, surrounding states among highest in the nation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

(STACKER) — While rental rate increases are slowing down following a post-pandemic surge, some states are still well above the 2.6% national average for the first seven months of 2023.Among the top ten states which have seen the largest rent increases of the year are Iowa (#8) at 2.6%, Indiana (#7) at 2.8%, Wisconsin (#5) at 3.2%, and Illinois (#4) at 3.4%. The #1 spot goes to North Dakota which has seen a 7.0% average increase in rent so far this year. See the full list below. More than 66,000 Illinoisans can expect a check from the state’s Unclaimed Property program In the last five years, renters have felt the pressure on their budgets, but most of the pain has come since the pandemic. Although average rent prices fell for a few months at the onset of the pandemic as people left major cities, demand rebounded as the price of homes soared, putting homeownership out of reach for many. According to Apartment List, the overall median rent in the U.S. has risen 22.4% to $1,372 ...

Sec. of State announces over $27M in grants for libraries, adult literacy programs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:20 GMT

CHICAGO — Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced Friday that he awarded over $27 million in grants aimed at helping libraries and adult literacy programs.More than 140 recipients will receive parts of $21.4 million for library services and $5.7 million to support adult literacy programs.“As State Librarian, it’s a privilege to provide these resources to support and enhance local library services and adult literacy programs across Illinois,” said Giannoulias. “Without properly funding programs, staff and educators, learning is difficult. These grants have the ability to position individuals for success and change lives by serving the unique needs of local communities.” Beverly’s ‘Bike Whisperer’ teaching kids how to ride bicycles According to the release, the grants project the following.Support educational mentoring programs that engage students in active learning.Fund online catalogs and provide resources aimed at narrowing the digital divide.Provide educational ...