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A white couple who burned a cross in their yard facing Black neighbors’ home is investigated by FBI

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

The FBI is investigating a white South Carolina couple for racial discrimination after they set a cross on fire in their yard last month facing toward their Black neighbors’ home.Federal civil rights investigators searched the white couple’s home in Conway on Wednesday, according to FBI spokesperson Kevin Wheeler. The retired Black couple also recorded video of the cross being burned on Thanksgiving weekend and described days of repeated threats from their neighbors. The next week, Worden Evander Butler, 28, and Alexis Paige Hartnett, 27, were arrested on state charges of harassment and later released on bond.Cross burnings in the U.S. are “symbols of hate” that are “inextricably intertwined with the history of the Ku Klux Klan,” according to a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision written by the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. The justices ruled that the First Amendment allows bans on cross burnings only when they are intended to intimidate because the action “is a particu...

North Korea’s Kim again threatens use of nukes as he praises troops for long-range missile launch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country has a policy of not hesitating to launch a nuclear strike on a rival if provoked, as he praised troops involved in its recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, state media reported Thursday. Since adopting an escalatory nuclear doctrine last year, Kim has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively. But many foreign experts say North Korea has yet to obtain functioning nuclear missiles and is also unlikely to use its nukes first because it’s outgunned by the U.S. and its allied forces.North Korea on Monday conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test in five months, calling the drill a warning over confrontational U.S. and South Korean moves. North Korea cited a recent U.S.-South Korean meeting on boosting their nuclear deterrence plans.The North’s Korean Central News Agency said Kim met troops at the General Missile Bureau on Wednesday to congratulate them on the launch of...

In federal challenge to Mississippi law, arguments focus on racial discrimination and public safety

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge will consider arguments over racial discrimination, public safety and local democracy as he decides whether to block appointments to a state-run court set to be created on Jan. 1 in part of Mississippi’s majority-Black capital city. Attorneys for Mississippi and the NAACP, who represent Jackson residents suing the state, each laid out their arguments Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate. The federal judge will decide whether to grant the NAACP’s motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the appointment of judges and prosecutors to the new court in part of Jackson. Brenden Cline, an attorney representing the NAACP, said the court was created by a discriminatory law that violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The appointment rather than election of judges and prosecutors deprives Hinds County residents of exercising local control over the criminal justice system that other communities enjoy, he said. “The 14th ...

Wisconsin man sentenced for causing creation and distribution of video showing monkey being tortured

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A southwestern Wisconsin man was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in prison for causing the creation and distribution of a video of a monkey being tortured.U.S. District Judge William M. Conley also fined Kenneth Herrera, 40, of Soldiers Grove $5,000 and ordered him to serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.Herrera was cited under the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which makes it illegal to cause the creation or distribution of depictions of “animal crushing.” Animal crushing includes burning, suffocating, impaling or causing the serious bodily injury of animals, prosecutors said. Herrera pleaded guilty to the charge on Sept. 15. His attorney, Richard Coad, issued a statement saying his client “is terribly sorry for his wrongdoing, and for putting his family and community through this ordeal.”Agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the FBI found evidence that Herrera in December 2021 sent money to a vi...

'Screening at Speed': DHS to rollout tech that screens 1 traveler every 12 seconds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

Can you imagine walking through TSA security checkpoints at O'Hare without having to take off your coat or shoes, or even remove items from your carry-on? That experience is something the United States Department of Homeland Security is close to making a reality through their "Screening at Speed" program.According to aviation officials, through the Screening at Speed Program, work is being done on developing technology that would allow for airport checkpoints to screen 300 airplane passengers and their carry-on luggage per lane, per hour, which boils down to roughly five passengers screened per minute, or one passenger screened every 12 seconds.Future airport screening concept design from 2015. Photo credit: DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T)Although there is not yet a timetable for implementation at O'Hare or Midway International Airports in Chicago, DHS officials said a rollout at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas is planned to begin in Jan. 2024. Aviation of...

Suburban driver suspected in deadly head-on crash was allegedly high on cocaine, deputies say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. — A Crystal Lake man suspected of being under the influence of drugs amid a deadly head-on collision last February now faces multiple felonies in connection with the crash, the Lake County Sheriff's Office announced on Wednesday.Traffic crash investigators conclude that Craig B. Muzard, 74, was under the influence of cocaine while driving on Route 59 south of Route 132 in unincorporated Lake Villa the night of Friday, Feb. 3. Investigators said the influence of drugs played a "direct role" in the crash and death of George V. Giannakakis, who was 73 years old at the time. Man, 55, hit by 2 different vehicles while crossing street on Northwest Side Muzard was arrested on Wednesday and charged with aggravated driving under the influence of drugs, resulting in death and reckless homicide.Deputies say Muzard was driving a GMC Acadia northbound on Route 59 when, for unknown reasons, the vehicle veered into the southbound lanes. The GMC struck a Kia driven by Giannaka...

Drug-sniffing dog revived after choking on ball in Ohio

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

LORAIN COUNTY, Ohio (WJW) — Officers are being hailed life savers for helping a K-9 choking on a ball earlier this month, the Lorain County Sheriff's Office reported. Robie, the canine partner of correction officer Scott Holbrook was rewarded with the ball attached to a pull string after working through some light obedience training at the Lorain County Jail in the early hours of Saturday, Dec. 9. Security guard shot, killed in Chatham Despite having no trouble before, on this day, the ball was lodged in Robie's throat. Holbrook attempted to help Robie, but the ball wouldn't budge, the sheriff's office reported. Officer Angela Bzdak arrived on scene to help. The dog eventually went into cardiac arrest and his throat muscles relaxed allowing the ball to come out. The officers administered CPR, and Robie eventually woke up, could breathe and stand. Despite some lethargy, he was given a good bill of health. Driver carjacked while pumping gas at subu...

Family accidentally buys $10,000 worth of Disney+ gift cards while planning vacation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A couple made a pricey mistake while planning a trip to Disney World.In a now-viral TikTok video, Andie Coston explained that her parents purchased $10,000 worth of gift cards, hoping to use them at the Orlando resort. A week before Coston and her 16 relatives were scheduled to leave for their vacation, they realized the gift cards were for Disney+, the online streaming service, not Disney World. This is the safest town in Illinois: report Coston said her family was supposed to go to Disney in 2020, but the pandemic upended their plans. So they moved their vacation to Christmas 2023. "We leave in 6 days and the parks are selling out of tickets because it's Christmas. My mom is distraught, Dad frustrated, and the kids worried we won't get into Disney," Coston wrote in the Dec. 18 video, which amassed more than 2.9 million views.A family was left scrambling after they were given $10,000 in Disney+ gift cards rather than $10,000 in gift cards for a Disney theme ...

'Humpty Kareem': NBA legend gives update after fall

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

(KTLA) — NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar let fans know he "just stumbled" before he broke his hip at Disney Hall on Friday.Abdul-Jabbar was at Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles to honor the Manhattan Transfer's final show with a letter from Vice President Kamala Harris and his own remarks when "Humpty Kareem had a great fall," he wrote on Substack."I’d like to say I fell while trying to save a child from plunging over a balcony, but I just tripped," Abdul-Jabbar wrote. "Hard for me to accept that a once world-class athlete just stumbled. But age is the great equalizer and humbles us all." Guy Fieri’s sons won’t inherit his empire unless they achieve 2 things The basketball Hall of Famer had surgery Sunday “with no complications,” his business partner and spokeswoman, Deborah Morales, told The Associated Press on Monday.“He will be in recovery for the next three months,” she wrote via text.After thanking the Los Angeles Fire Department and the medical staff at UCLA Hospital for tre...

Supporters, naysayers weigh in on push to phase out school choice in Chicago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:30:30 GMT

CHICAGO — Chicago's public education politics could explode in the coming months and years. People on both sides of the school choice battle are digging in. In 2023, the movement for public education flexed its muscles. First, a Chicago Teachers Union organizer, Brandon Johnson, was elected Chicago's mayor.Then, last week, the Board of Education expressed strong support for neighborhood schools, passing a resolution calling to transition away from policies supporting charter, magnet, and selective enrollment schools.LATEST FROM TAHMAN BRADLEY: Johnson says migrants are being dropped off in Chicago without coordinationIt was a victory for public education advocates who’ve long complained that the choice system leaves children competing against each other for limited resources.The Chicago Teachers Union celebrated in a statement, saying, “Though selective enrollment was originally designed to desegregate the school district,  instead it has contributed to more segregati...