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Chinese ex-official’s wife says alleged repatriation pressure turned her life in US ‘upside-down’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A former Chinese official and his wife had left their homeland and kept their U.S. address private. Yet eight years later, two strangers were banging on their New Jersey front door and twisting the handle, the wife testified in a U.S. court Monday.When the men left and Liu Fang opened the door, she found an ominous note telling her husband that if he returned to China and served 10 years in prison, his wife and children would be OK.If the lock hadn’t held, “what happens if they were able to come in?” she wondered aloud, through a court interpreter, at the criminal trial of a man who helped post the note and two co-defendants. The co-defendants are charged with playing other roles in an alleged campaign to hound ex-official Xu Jin into returning to China. Prosecutors say the defendants and others subjected the couple, their adult daughter and various relatives to a spate of intimidating overtures at Beijing’s behest, as part of a repatriation initiative ca...

Permit-to-purchase: Oregon’s tough new gun law faces federal court test

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal trial over Oregon’s voter-approved gun control measure opened Monday in Portland, marking a critical next step for one of the toughest gun control laws in the nation after months of being tied up in the courts.The trial, which is being held before a judge and not a jury, will determine whether the law violates the U.S. Constitution. It comes after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment that has upended gun laws across the country, dividing judges and sowing confusion over what firearm restrictions can remain on the books. It changed the test that lower courts had long used for evaluating challenges to firearm restrictions, telling judges that gun laws must be consistent with the “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”The Oregon measure’s fate is being carefully watched as one of the first new gun restrictions passed since the Supreme Court ruling last June.The legal battle over in Oregon could well last beyond the trial. ...

Loss of oxygen in cabin may have led to Virginia plane crash, experts say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A loss of oxygen is a leading theory for why an unresponsive business jet flew off course and over the nation’s capital Sunday before it crashed in rural Virginia. But federal investigators are just beginning to look for answers, and experts cautioned against jumping to conclusions. The Cessna Citation took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, headed for Long Island’s MacArthur Airport. Once over Long Island, it inexplicably turned around and headed south, flying straight over Washington, D.C. before crashing in Virginia, k illing the pilot and three passengers.“By far the most likely suspect is some sort of a pressurization issue,” said William Waldock, a professor of safety science who teaches aircraft accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. “It went up to 34,000 feet and basically stayed there — all the way up, all the way back,” Waldock said. “The turn (away from New York and back south) is a little perplexing....

Rogers sends framework for TTC service deal to federal industry minister

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

TORONTO — Rogers Communications Inc. in May sent federal Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne a framework for reaching a deal with other telecom providers over wireless service in Toronto’s subway system, the company said Monday.In a post on its website Monday evening, the telecom company said it proposed a framework to reach agreements with all carriers to join the network under “commercially reasonable terms” in a timely manner. The company said it’s confident it will be able to reach deals with the other carriers. However, Rogers said it also proposed a dispute resolution process in case it’s unable to reach deals with the other carriers. It did not share details of the framework or of the dispute resolution process. In April, Champagne asked the executives of Rogers, Bell Canada, Telus Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc. to respond within 30 days detailing their status on the issue of wireless service on the Toronto subway. Rogers is buyi...

Blast of air, dust during implosion damaged some homes; repairs vowed

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

SPRINGDALE, Pa. (AP) — A blast of air and dust from the implosion of two smokestacks at a shuttered coal-fired power plant in western Pennsylvania last week felled power poles and caused damage to nearby homes. But the demolition company is vowing full repairs.The implosion at the Cheswick Generating Station in Springdale, a borough just northeast of Pittsburgh, occurred shortly after 8 a.m. Friday, bringing the stacks down with a loud crash and a huge cloud of dust. One tower stood about 550 feet (170 meters) tall and the other 750 feet (230 meters).Controlled Demolition said in a statement that the chimneys fell “exactly where they were supposed to” and noise and vibration levels were “well below” allowable state environmental protection limits, KDKA-TV reported. But, the company said, the larger chimney’s steel liner “focused air pressure as it collapsed upon impact.” Bruno Moretti, Allegheny County’s emergency management coordinator, said the air blast broke wi...

US judge yanks approval for Idaho mine after finding that federal agency violated environmental laws

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

A federal judge has yanked approval for a phosphate mining project in southeastern Idaho, saying federal land managers in the Trump administration didn’t in part properly consider the mine’s impact on sage grouse, a bird species that has seen an 80% decline in population since 1965.U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s Friday decision came five months after he found fault with the way the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the Caldwell Canyon Mine in 2019.The mine has been proposed by P4 Production LLC, a subsidiary of German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG. Three environmental groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians — sued.In January, Winmill agreed with the conservation groups that the federal agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws on several counts when it approved the mine, including failing to consider the indirect effects of processing ore at a nearby plant and the cumulative impacts on s...

Louisiana Senate passes bill banning gender-affirming car for transgender youths

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A controversial bill — that at one point had been presumed dead — banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths in Louisiana was passed by the Senate on Monday and is likely to reach the governor’s desk in the coming days.The bill, which passed in the Senate mainly along party lines, 29-10, would prohibit hormone treatments, gender-affirming surgery and puberty-blocking drugs for transgender minors in Louisiana. The measure will go back to the House, which has already overwhelmingly passed the legislation, to approve of minor amendments, including pushing back the effective date of the law to Jan. 1, 2024.If the House concurs, the legislation would be sent to the desk of Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who opposes it. Edwards has not said whether he would veto the bill. If he does, lawmakers could convene a veto session to try to override his decision. Last session, Edwards chose not to block a law banning transgender athletes from part...

Recordings shake confidence in Colombia’s leftist government, jeopardize reforms

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

BOGOTA (AP) — A corruption scandal that has shaken Colombia’s first leftist government and undermined its ability to carry out ambitious reforms grew on Monday, following the release of several voice messages featuring the nation’s former ambassador to Venezuela.In the audios, which were released by Semana Magazine, former ambassador Armando Benedetti speaks to President Gustavo Petro’s chief of staff and threatens to disclose potentially damaging details of Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign.Benedetti, who was once the president of Colombia’s senate, complains that he was not given the job of interior minister after it was vacated in April, and hurls insults at chief of staff Laura Sarabia. He says he hasn’t been given the “political space” he deserves after helping Petro win last year’s election.The former ambassador alleges that he raised almost $4 million for the campaign from donors and hints that some of the money came from drug trafficking groups.“I will not...

Marcus Stroman's strong 2023 start now includes an MLB award

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Just a day after another strong performance on the mound, Marcus Stroman was given another reason to feel good about his start to the 2023 season.This time, it was Major League baseball that gave the Cubs' starter an honor.Stroman was named the MLB's National League Player of the Week on Monday after a pair of outstanding starts for his team. In those outings, the starter allowed just one earned run over 15 innings, striking out 14 batters compared to four walks with just five total hits allowed. Last Monday, Stroman tossed a complete game shutout against the MLB-leading Rays at Wrigley Field while allowing just a single hit. It was the pitcher's second complete game of his career and first since he threw one against the Cubs in 2014. For the team, that outing was the first complete game shutout since Alec Mills' no-hitter against the Brewers in Milwaukee on September 13, 2020. On Sunday, Stroman had another quality outing in a 7-1 Cubs victory over the Padres in San Die...

Connor Bedard, likely Blackhawks 1st round pick, makes history in Canada

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:04 GMT

CHICAGO — Before he's likely to become a member of the Blackhawks, Connor Bedard made a little bit of history at the last place he played hockey.After an outstanding season with the Regina Pats of the Canadian Hockey League, the highly-touted center who will likely be the NHL Draft's No. 1 overall pick cleaned up at their annual awards this weekend.The center was the first in the history of the CHL to capture three major awards in one year at the ceremony in Kamloops, British Columbia. David Branch CHL Player of the YearCHL Top ScorerCHL Top ProspectIt is the first time since the league introduced the Top Scorer Award in 1994. Bedard filled up the scoresheet over the course of 64 overall games with Regina in the 2022-2023 season. In the regular season, the center scored 71 goals and 72 assists in 57 regular season games for the Pats. In seven playoff contests, he had ten goals and ten assists. In 2021-2022 with Regina, Bedard had 51 goals and 49 assists in 62 games. He made his debu...