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Houston-area Shell chemical plant catches fire

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

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) — A chemical plant in the Houston area caught fire Friday, sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky.The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the fire was at a Shell USA Inc. facility in Deer Park, a suburb east of Houston.Officers received a service call just after 3 p.m. Friday to help divert traffic around the plant, Harris County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Thomas Gilliland said. The city of Deer Park said in an advisory that there was no shelter-in-place order for residents.Fire crews from the plant and nearby plants are responding, as well as the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office, who is leading the response, Gilliland said.Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a tweet his agency was responding to calls about “some type of explosion.”The Associated Press

Man gets 14 years in 1/6 case, longest sentence imposed yet

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

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Kentucky man with a long criminal record was sentenced Friday to a record-setting 14 years in prison for attacking police officers with pepper spray as he stormed the U.S. Capitol with his wife.Peter Schwartz’s prison sentence is the longest so far among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The judge who sentenced Schwartz also handed down the previous longest sentence — 10 years — to a retired New York Police Department officer who assaulted a police officer outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 24 years and 6 months for Schwartz, a welder.U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Schwartz to serve 170 months in prison. Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

Trump’s video deposition in rape lawsuit made public

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

NEW YORK (AP) — A video recording of former President Donald Trump being questioned about the rape allegations against him was made public for the first time Friday, providing a glimpse of the Republican’s emphatic, often colorful denials.Jurors got to see the video of Trump’s October 2022 deposition over the past few days at the trial over a lawsuit filed against him by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. Written transcripts of Trump’s testimony had also previously been made public, but not the recording itself.The video was made available Friday to news organizations covering the proceedings.The video shows Trump answering questions in his trademark navy suit and a bright blue tie. He called Carroll’s claim that he raped her in a luxury Manhattan department store “a false, disgusting lie.”“It’s a disgrace. Frankly it’s a disgrace that something like this can be brought,” Trump said.Trump reiterated his assertion that Carroll is “not my type,” but also m...

COVID-19 is still with us even as WHO says it is no longer a global emergency: Duclos

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

OTTAWA — Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the impact of COVID-19 is still with us even after the World Health Organization declared earlier today that the illness no longer qualifies as a global emergency.The declaration made in Geneva is a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions of people worldwide.But Duclos says while it’s the end of an emergency, it’s not the end of the threat.He says Canadians need to remember that 60,000 people in this country have died of COVID-19 and that it is still killing people and putting others in hospital every day.He says it is clear that the health-care system was damaged by the last three years, and the failures of long-term care that COVID-19 exposed need to be fixed.The WHO declared the novel coronavirus an international crisis on March 11, 2020.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2023.The Canadian Press

Mississippi impeding funds for Jackson’s water, group says

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

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi has intentionally created hurdles that prevent the majority-Black capital city of Jackson from receiving enough money to repair a long-troubled water system that nearly collapsed last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center said Friday in announcing a new civil rights complaint it filed.The center asked the U.S. Treasury Department to investigate Mississippi’s rules for distributing $450 million to water systems operated by cities, counties and rural water associations. The funds came from pandemic relief money distributed by the federal government.State officials said in November that Jackson would receive $35.6 million, and that the city would have to match that amount — a matching requirement in place for larger communities in the first round of funding.Southern Poverty Law Center said in the complaint, which it filed Tuesday, that the state’s application for the grant program failed to consider the dire need for costly improvements to the la...

Ex-college student pleads not guilty to CA murder charges

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

DAVIS, Calif. (AP) — A 21-year-old former university student on Friday pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one of attempted murder in connection with a series of stabbings in the college community of Davis.Yolo County Superior Court Judge Daniel Wolk also denied bail to Carlos Dominguez, citing the risk to public safety and the defendant’s own flight risk given the seriousness of the alleged crimes. Dominguez remained expressionless as the judge read out the complaint filed by prosecutors Friday. He responded in the affirmative several times to questions from the judge but did not speak otherwise. Yolo County prosecutors said Dominguez is eligible for a life prison term without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, given the multiple murders. He is accused of fatally stabbing two people, including a fellow student, and stabbing a third victim who is now recovering.Dominguez was represented by Dan Hutchinson, a deputy public defender. Hutchinson did not imm...

Ottawa aims to add new limits to controversial use of dry cells in prisons

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

OTTAWA — The federal government says it is changing prison regulations to limit the use of dry cells and improve the process for the search and seizure of contraband in correctional institutions.Dry cells, in which there is no access to running water, are used to closely monitor inmates under bright lighting on the expectation they will eventually pass whatever they might be concealing in their bodies.The proposed regulations would require officials to use body scanner technology more often to identify contraband, and set a 72-hour maximum for detention in a dry cell, with special authorization required for any extension.Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger has said the practice, in which people are sometimes held for several days in what is essentially solitary confinement, is the most degrading practice in federal corrections.Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office issued a ministerial directive last year that required the Correctional Service of Canada to provide a...

Great Britain to donate $100 million to Brazil’s Amazon Fund

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

SAO PAULO (AP) — Britain pledged Friday to give about $100 million to the Brazilian government’s fund to protect the Amazon rainforest, as the South American country beefs up protection of the environment under its new leadership.British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office in January, announced the contribution to the Amazon Fund on Friday after meeting in London ahead of Saturday’s coronation of King Charles III.The fund was launched in 2009 to fight against deforestation and build sustainable initiatives in the Brazilian rainforest, a vital natural reserve soaking up fumes from oil, natural gas and coal in South America. The committee that governs it was partially dismantled when rightist President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019, and rebooted by the leftist Lula this year. “President Lula has exhibited great leadership on climate change,” Sunak said on Twitter, adding that he was pleased that Britain would contribute 80 ...

Chicago celebrates Cinco de Mayo with return of Mexico Week

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

CHICAGO — Cinco de Mayo celebrations are underway across Chicago, highlighting the impact Mexican culture has had on the city. Warm weather helped the city start its second annual 'Mexico Week,' which runs through May 14. In honor of the celebration, a ribbon-cutting at Navy Pier was held with the presence of state and local leaders.    Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexican culture, not independence The festivities are based on a partnership with the Mexican consulate of Chicago and the government of Jalisco to bring a taste of the culture to the city through dishes, traditional dances, workshops, music and much more.   A mural design was also unveiled on Michigan Avenue to earmark the occasion. The piece, 'The Mexico of the North,' was completed by Chicago artist Robert Valadez.   The large-scale mural inside Michigan Avenue’s Artisan Mexican Goods Store, De Colores, now honor’s the city’s Mexican Americans who call Chicago home. It's part of a group effort between kids in Pilsen...

Skilling: Showers may interrupt sunshine this weekend

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

What a day! Temps surged to June levels today reaching 78 at O'Hare—which equals the "normal" temp a month from now (on June 7-8). It was the warmest official temp in the city in 15 days!Today's warm temps were effectively equivalent to those we'd see a month from now.The 70+/- degree temps Friday marked the 10th time in 2023 at O'Hare we've managed a reading topping 70. The reading was 11-deg above normal.Temps were cooler on the lakeshore—having only made it to 52 at Waukegan Harbor versus a few 80-deg highs well inland. That amounts to a near 30 degree temp spread across the area—though warmth prevailed over most of the area. The same east/west spread in temps is likely Saturday with cooler temps on the immediate shoreline than over inland areas. Southwest winds will pump temps up----even at the lakefront Sunday—some some late day lakeside cooling could occur then.Chicago is on the way to its warmest weekend of 2023 and a potential record-tying high temp on Sunday—a weekend which...