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In Nicaragua, Holy week celebrations limited by government

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Roman Catholics in had to hold traditional “Stations of the Cross” and other Holy Week processions on church grounds or inside churches Friday amid a ban on public demonstrations.Relations between autocratic President Daniel Ortega and the church have frayed to near non-existence since Nicaragua’s government proposed severing relations and sentenced a bishop to 26 years in prison.Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes told The Associated Press that celebrations were held throughout the country “near the churches.”“In absolutely every parish there were celebrations,” Brenes said, though he added they went off “not with all the intensity” of years past.Germán Miranda, one of hundreds of faithful who showed up for the procession at the Managua Cathedral, was one of those who found it less inspiring this year.He said Holy Week celebrations were better in the past when they wound through the streets of the capital. “It was better before, because it was freer.”Miranda sai...

Judge halts FDA approval of abortion pill mifepristone

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge in Texas on Friday ordered a hold on U.S. approval of the abortion medication mifepristone, throwing into question access to the nation’s most common method of abortion in a ruling that waved aside decades of scientific approval.The immediate impact of the ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, which does not go into immediate effect, was unclear. The abortion drug has been widely used in the U.S. since 2000 and there is essentially no precedent for a lone judge overruling the medical decisions of the Food and Drug Administration. Mifepristone is one of two drugs used for medication abortion in the United States, along with misoprostol, which is also used to treat other medical conditions.Kacsmaryk, a Trump administration appointee in Amarillo, Texas, signed an injunction directing the FDA to stay mifepristone’s approval while a lawsuit challenging the safety and approval of the drug continues. His 67-page order gave the government s...

Finger cut to keep Celtics’ Brown out for final 2 games

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown says he will miss the final two regular-season games but expects to be ready to go in time for the start of the playoffs after cutting a finger on his shooting hand.Brown told reporters Friday night before a game against Toronto that he cut his hand on some glass Thursday night and had to get five stitches. He was wearing a protective wrap and expects to be restricted for at least the next two days. Marcus Smart (neck spasms) and Malcolm Brogdon (back) also sat out Friday.Coach Joe Mazzulla said he doesn’t expect any of the injuries to be anything that lingers heading into the postseason.Boston, which is locked into the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, hosts Atlanta on Sunday in its regular-season finale. ___AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Associated Press

California hostage shooting suspect sought in other crime

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

ROSEVILLE, Calif. (AP) — The gunman who shot a California Highway Patrol officer and two hostages, killing one, in a public park was initially wanted for questioning in connection with a freeway shooting, police said Friday.The violence unfolded Thursday afternoon as CHP officers tried to serve a search warrant on Eric Abril in Roseville while families played nearby at baseball fields and children attended camp. Amid the chaos, Abril took two hostages — identified Friday as a married couple — in the city of about 150,000 northeast of Sacramento. James MacEgan was killed in the shooting and his spouse was injured, Roseville police said.The injured CHP officer, whose name was also not disclosed, has since been released from medical care. Abril, however, remained hospitalized Friday with a gunshot wound, Roseville police said.Although investigators believe Abril was the gunman in an earlier freeway shooting in Sacramento County, CHP Officer Ricardo Ortiz said Friday that there was no w...

City of Chicago sued over Invest South/West project

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

CHICAGO — The City of Chicago is being sued and accused of mishandling an Invest South/West Project in Humboldt Park.Many people want to see the landmark building at North and Pulaski become the cultural hub it once was. Inside Mayor Lightfoot’s INVEST South/West Program A plan is in the works but a lawsuit questions how the city is going about it.The Historic Pioneer Bank Building has sat vacant for many years. "The more we got information from the city, the more outrageous it looked," Paul Roldan with the Hispanic Housing Development Corp. said. INVEST South/West marks three years with dual groundbreaking ceremony Invest South/West is one of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's signature programs to revitalize neglected neighborhoods on the South and West sides.Team Pioneros is a $54 million project that would turn the dilapidated building on the corner of North Avenue and Pulaski into a cultural hub complete with office and residential space. "I think Invest South/West is a terrif...

Before Masters, a few Chicago area golfers picked up awards at Augusta National

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

The "Random Hawlight" - a weekly segment on WGN News Now that spotlights achievements by Chicago area athletes and teams.AUGUSTA, GA — The stage now belongs to the best golfers in the world, but the week at August National began with some of the brightest young players in America.That included a few talented golfers from the Chicago area who were able to finish as finalists in the competition held before the Masters Tournament. Four young athletes from Chicagoland placed in the Top 10 of the 2023 Drive, Chip, and Putt Championships that were held last weekend in Augusta. That included a champion - Martha Kuwahara of Northbrook - who won the girl's 14-15 division of the competition. She scored 24 points, which was one better than second place finisher Saydie Wagner to win the title.Kuwahara was presented with her trophy by Nick Faldo, the 1989, 1990, and 1996 Masters champion.Three other golfers from the Chicago area also finished in the Top 10 in the competition, all coming in the b...

Federal judge issues stay, pausing FDA approval of abortion pill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

AMARILLO, Texas (KXAN) -- U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a ruling on Friday in a lawsuit brought by Christian activist group Alliance Defending Freedom against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, declaring a stay or hold on the FDA's approval of the medication mifepristone. PREVIOUS: Texas judge will make a ruling that could ban abortion pills nationwide The order is itself stayed "for seven days to allow the federal government to seek emergency relief from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit" or the Supreme Court of the United States.Kacsmaryk, the former deputy general counsel Christian nonprofit First Liberty Institute, laid out his thoughts on the case in a 67-page Memorandum Order and Ruling."If the Fifth Circuit reverses this Court’s Section 705 analysis, the Court clarifies that it alternatively would have ordered Defendants to suspend the chemical abortion approval and all subsequent challenged actions related to that approval un...

The Texas House passed a $300B budget. Here are some highlights.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- After months of deliberations and hours of debate on the House floor, the Texas House of Representatives on Thursday night passed a $302.7 billion budget to fund the state of the next two years.Of that sum, about $137 billion comes from the state's general revenue. Much of the rest comes from federal funding. This biennium, Texas has a record budget surplus of $33 billion left over from the last budget.The House budget allocates almost half of the state's general revenue to public education, with a record $60.3 billion. That's a $5 billion increase and gives the state responsibility for more than half of all public education funding."If you vote against this budget, you are voting against the largest increase in state funding for the Foundation School Program in Texas history," House Appropriations Committee Chair Greg Bonnen said.The House also sets aside $17.3 billion to slow the rise of property taxes. The budget bill includes provisions to cap the appraisal v...

UT social work students to protest unpaid field placements

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – University of Texas at Austin social work students are planning a demonstration Tuesday to protest unpaid field placements. The students will hold the rally on the front steps of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. They hope this rally will encourage school administrators to find a solution where students can be compensated for their work during field placements, according to a press release. The demonstration was set up by UT FED UP,  an organization fighting for universal fair-pay internship stipends.“Paying tuition to work for free is a structurally unjust model that discriminates against low-income students and, disproportionately, students of color,” Beth Wagner, student body president and FED UP organizer, said in a press release. “Saddling social work students with crushing debt and dangerous stress undermines the educational process, depresses wages, and ultimately hurts our clients. There are stacks of literature on the harms of unpaid inte...

Former Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson fired from Metro Transit police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:35 GMT

Dave Hutchinson, the disgraced former sheriff of Hennepin County, has been fired from his old job as a sergeant with Metro Transit police because of his 2021 drunken driving crash and for creating a poor work environment while he was sheriff.Dave Hutchinson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County sheriff’s office)Hutchinson was reinstated to his job with Metro Transit police after his term as sheriff ended in January, when he was then put on leave pending an internal affairs investigation. The reinstatement fell under a state law that allows public employees to return to their former job after taking a leave of absence for an elected office.The internal investigation found that Hutchinson violated police department’s policies by being arrested for driving drunk after totaling his sheriff-issued SUV in Alexandria, Minn., on Dec. 8, 2021, and for violating the county’s non-discrimination and respectful workplace policy following racist, sexist and bullying behavior.Metro Transit Police C...