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Ukraine says its drones damaged a Russian warship, showing Kyiv’s growing naval capabilities

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

By HANNA ARHIROVA and EMMA BURROWS (Associated Press)KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine said its sea drones struck a major Russian port Friday and damaged a warship in an attack that underlined Kyiv’s growing naval capabilities as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war.The strike on Novorossiysk halted maritime traffic for a few hours and marked the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the nearly 18-month-old conflict. The port has a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal, and is key for exports. It lies about 110 kilometers (about 60 miles) east of Crimea, where Russia’s Defense Ministry said it thwarted another attack.The Security Service of Ukraine and the country’s navy carried out the attack that damaged the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a landing vessel of the Russian navy, according to an official with the security service. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized...

California judge arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

California judge Jeffrey Ferguson was arrested Thursday night, Aug. 3, by Anaheim police on suspicion of murdering his wife, a department spokesman said.Officers responded to a call of a shooting around 8 p.m. at a home in the 8500 block of East Canyon Vista Drive and found Sheryl Ferguson, 65, inside with at least one fatal gunshot wound, Sgt. Jon McClintock said.She was pronounced dead at their two-story, Anaheim Hills home.A college-age son was in the home at the time, multiple sources said, and made the 911 call.Investigators remove firearms from a house in the 8500 block of E. Canyon Vista Dr. in Anaheim, CA on Friday, August 4, 2023. Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson was arrested late Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023 after police received reports of a shooting in an Anaheim home and found the judge’s wife, Sheryl Ferguson, inside with at least one fatal gunshot wound, Anaheim Police said. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)Officials investigate a sho...

Padres Joe Musgrove placed on 15-day IL

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Padres star pitcher Joe Musgrove will be placed on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his right shoulder capsule, the team announced Friday.The El Cajon native, who missed his scheduled start Wednesday in Colorado, was expected to pitch Tuesday against Seattle.The IL stint is retroactive to Aug. 1, the Padres tweeted. ‘We the San Diego Padres,’ verses hip hopper to rally the Friar Faithful Infielder Eguy Rosario will be reinstated from the 60-day IL, optioning him to Triple-A El Paso, according to the Padres, while pitcher Rich Hill, who was acquired via trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Major League Baseball trade deadline on Tuesday, has been added to the ML roster.Musgrove's record this season is 10 wins and 3 losses with a 3.05 ERA. He has pitched 97.1 innings and recorded 97 strikeouts. In 2021, Musgrove recorded the first no-hitter in Padres history on April 9 against the Texas Rangers.

New liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court majority moves to weaken conservative chief justice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Liberals who gained majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court this week voted Friday to reduce powers of the conservative chief justice and make a series of other changes to how the court operates, moves that the chief justice derided as an overreach by “rogue justices.”It marked the second time in three days that Chief Justice Annette Ziegler accused her liberal colleagues of a “raw exercise of overreaching power.” Liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet said their moves were designed to make the court “more accessible and more accountable to the people of Wisconsin.”The public airing of conflicts on the court set the stage for deep divisions in the battleground state on major cases that could determine the legality of abortions and voting rules, as well as legislative boundary lines. Conservatives controlled the court for 15 years until Tuesday. Liberals will have the majority for at least the next two years.Under conservative control, the court upheld Repu...

Thousands overwhelm New York’s Union Square for streamer giveaway, tossing chairs and pounding cars

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A crowd of thousands that packed Manhattan’s Union Square for a popular livestreamer’s hyped giveaway got out of hand Friday afternoon, with some in the crowd clambering on vehicles, hurling chairs and throwing punches, leaving police struggling to rein in the chaos. Aerial TV news footage showed a surging, tightly packed crowd running through the streets, scaling structures in the park and snarling traffic. Shouting teenagers swung objects at car windows, and some people climbed on top of a moving vehicle, falling off as it sped away. Others pounded on or climbed atop city buses. By 5:30 p.m., police officers in growing numbers had regained control of much of the area, but small skirmishes were still breaking out, with young people knocking over barricades and tossing bottles and even a flower pot at officers. Police were seen wrestling people to the ground and chasing them down the street.There were some arrests and some injuries, including to officers,...

Ontario police services begin 2023 Civic Holiday long weekend enforcement blitz

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

As Ontario residents head into the Civic Holiday long weekend, police officers say they’ll be out in greater numbers across the province to crack down on impaired driving and other traffic-related offences.Near Newmarket Friday afternoon, York Regional Police officers began a series of rotate RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) spot checks. Officers were checking for signs of alcohol- or cannabis-related impairment among drivers.“It baffles my mind as to why we keep seeing this,” Chief Jim MacSween told CityNews during an interview.“The numbers are consistently going up … about a quarter of the calls that we take turn into a valid call of an impaired driver.”York Regional Police statistics have regularly shown year-over-year increases in the number of impaired driving-related instances.“The more people call and tell us, or report to us, the fact that there are people that they suspect are impaired on the roads, the more we locate those...

Big Ten pulls Oregon, Washington from Pac-12, dealing another crushing blow to West Coast conference

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

The Big Ten Conference announced Friday it will accept Oregon and Washington as new members next August, dealing another crushing blow to the Pac-12.The Big Ten earlier in the day cleared the way for the Pacific Northwest rivals to join the league next year, and the Ducks were first to make it official with a brief video call that ended in a unanimous vote by its 13 trustees. The Big Ten a short time later said its presidents’ council had voted to accept the Ducks along with Washington.A little more than a year after the Big Ten poached Southern California and UCLA away from the Pac-12, it swiped away two more high-profile athletic programs from the storied West Coast conference.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.In a crushing blow to the Pac-12, the Big Ten has cleared the way for Oregon and Washington to apply for membership and join the conference, four people with familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday.The Ducks and...

Compensation for New Mexico wildfire victims tops $14 million and is climbing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — More victims of a devastating wildfire sparked last year by the U.S. Forest Service in northern New Mexico are getting compensated, with payouts to landowners totaling more than $14 million as of early next week, federal emergency managers said.Congress set aside nearly $4 billion at the end of last year to pay claims resulting from the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. Officials have acknowledged that the recovery process would be long and challenging, but many residents and some lawmakers have been frustrated with the pace.Angela Gladwell, the director of the claims office, said more than 1,600 notices of loss have been filed so far and that her office has around $50 million worth of claims that are currently being processed. She estimated her office would be operational for the next five to six years to ensure that “everyone gets every penny that they are due.”“We’re excited because this funding will begin to provide some much needed relief to our claimants ...

3 new offshore wind power projects proposed for New Jersey Shore; 2 would be far out to sea

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey would see the number of wind power projects built off its coast double if three new projects proposed Friday are approved by regulators.Two of them are more than twice as far out to sea than others that have drawn the ire of residents who don’t want to see windmills on the horizon. These two would not be visible from the beach, the companies proposing them say.They would join three wind farms already approved by New Jersey regulators as the state races to become the East Coast capital of the fast-growing offshore wind industry.The deadline for applications was 5 p.m. EST on Friday, and it was not immediately clear whether any additional applications were received by the state Board of Public Utilities before then.In the first project to be made public Friday by the companies proposing it, Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid applied for permission to build a wind farm in the waters off Long Beach Island. Their joint ve...

Swimmers warned about risks of floaties on open water as long weekend looms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:54 GMT

Anyone heading out on the water this long weekend is being urged to leave their floaties on the shore. The Ontario chapter of the Lifesaving Society said floaties, or inflatables that come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, pose a risk when taken out by swimmers in waterways. Stephanie Bakalar, spokesperson for the organization that works to prevent drowning, said inflatables may be popular but are meant for pools or to be secured firmly to a dock. “They’ve really done a good job marketing these floaties and creating them to look fun, and that’s fine for a pool environment,” Bakalar said. “But what people don’t realize is that when you take those into an open water environment you’re going to get pulled by the wind very quickly.”The majority of drownings in Ontario happen in open water settings and people can overestimate their ability to swim to safety, she said.Based on the most recent data from the office of Ontario’s Chief Coroner, the Lifesaving ...