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California campsite reservation bill passes State Assembly

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A bill that would make it easier for campers at California state parks to snag a campsite reservation has passed the State Assembly with nearly unanimous support.AB 618, introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-San Ramon), proposes amendments to state campsite reservation polices that aim to open up spaces to meet demand by deterring late cancellations and no-shows with added penalties.The bill also directs the California State Parks department to implement a lottery system for a handful of the most coveted campsites, as well as provide a discount to low-income park visitors through the Golden Bear pass."All Californians should have equal opportunities and access to reserve a campsite within our public parks," Bauer-Kahan wrote in a report on the bill. These California campsites among best in the Pacific US: The Dyrt California has the most state park land in the country with 279 individual parks, with nearly 7 million visitors staying in one of the state's...

Protests erupt outside Los Angeles elementary school’s Pride month assembly

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police officers separated groups of protesters and counterprotesters Friday outside a Los Angeles elementary school that has become a flashpoint for Pride month events across California.People protesting a planned Pride month assembly outside the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Saticoy Elementary School wore T-shirts emblazoned with “Leave our kids alone” — and carried signs with slogans such as “Parental Choice Matters” and “No Pride in Grooming.” Tensions at the school have been rising since last month, when a social media page was created to urge parents to keep their children home Friday, the day of the planned assembly.Los Angeles police headquarters tweeted: “LAPD is at Saticoy Elementary School this morning. We are here to support our LAUSD partners and facilitate a peaceful and lawful exercise of constitutional rights.”Los Angeles Unified School District Board Member Kelly Gonez said the assembly went on without issue. It included a reading of ...

Judge allows suspect in Indianapolis officer’s fatal shooting to seek insanity defense

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A man charged with fatally shooting an Indianapolis police officer when she responded to a domestic violence call in 2020 will be allowed to seek insanity as a defense as he tries to avoid the death penalty.A Marion Superior Court judge made the ruling Friday and will assign two psychiatrists to evaluate Elliahs Dorsey’s mental health.Attorneys for Dorsey filed a motion with the court in May saying a report prepared by a doctor states Dorsey was suffering from a mental illness when he shot Indianapolis Officer Breann Leath to death.Leath and three other officers were responding to a domestic violence call involving Dorsey when she was shot twice in the head through the door of an Indianapolis apartment, police said.Dorsey faces one count each of murder and criminal confinement, and four counts of attempted murder, one of which stems from his alleged shooting of a woman he had confined inside the apartment.A judge has ruled that prosecutors can seek the deat...

SIU investigating after ‘violent offender’ found dead in Etobicoke apartment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

The province’s police watchdog is investigating after a 39-year-old man was found dead inside an Etobicoke apartment following a domestic violence call.The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said around 2 a.m. on Friday, Peel Regional Police officers executed a search warrant at an apartment at 551 The West Mall.The SIU said responding officers breached the door as a result of a domestic violence investigation.Authorities located the body of a man and said he was pronounced dead at the scene.The victim was identified as 39-year-old Kyle Andrews. The SIU said a post-mortem is scheduled for Sunday, June 4.Last week, Peel Regional Police issued a public safety alert that labelled Andrews as a prolific violent offender known to be in the GTA.At the time, police said the 39-year-old Andrews was a federal parolee currently wanted for almost two dozen violent offences, including 15 firearms charges, assaults, uttering threats and forcible confinement.The SIU is an independent governme...

Companies reach $1.18 billion deal to resolve claims from ‘forever chemicals’ water contamination

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Three chemical companies said Friday they had reached a $1.18 billion deal to resolve complaints of polluting many U.S. drinking water systems with potentially harmful compounds known as PFAS.DuPont de Nemours Inc., The Chemours Co. and Corteva Inc. said they would establish a fund to compensate water providers for contamination with the chemicals used widely in nonstick, water- and grease-resistant products, as well as some firefighting foams.Described as “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade naturally in the environment, PFAS have been linked to a variety of health problems, including liver and immune-system damage and some cancers.The compounds have been detected at varying levels in drinking water around the nation. The Environmental Protection Agency in March proposed strict limits on two common types, PFOA and PFOS, and said it wanted to regulate four others. Water providers would be responsible for monitoring their systems for the ch...

Connecticut board votes against banning books after acrimonious debate over sexual content

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut board of education has voted two keep two books on its town’s high school shelves after weeks of acrimonious debate over book-banning that culminated in the resignation of two Republican board members.The remaining members of the Newtown Board of Education unanimously agreed Thursday night on a compromise motion that rejected banning the books “Blankets” by Craig Thompson and “Flamer” by Mike Curato, with the caveat that school administrators create a process “to support choices of individual parents and guardians” on whether their children will have access to the books.As with similar debates across the country, some parents had called for banning the books because of their sexual content. School officials in March said they received nine official complaints against “Flamer” and one against “Blankets.”“Blankets” is an autobiographical story that deals in part with sexual abuse. “Flamer,” around which much of the debate was centered, i...

7 injured in partial building collapse during concrete pouring mishap near Yale medical school

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A building under construction near the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven partially collapsed Friday when a concrete pour went awry, injuring seven people including two critically, city officials said, adding there were no fatalities.City firefighters and other authorities were called to Lafayette Street shortly after 12:30 p.m.“Our units responded immediately within minutes and found several persons in varying degrees of injury, from broken bones to three that were partially buried under the rubble,” Fire Chief John Alston Jr. said during a news conference. “Those persons that were trapped had to be lifted out.”There were 36 people at the work site at the time, and all were accounted for, officials said.“They were doing a concrete pour on this building and as they were pouring concrete a portion of the second floor collapsed onto the first floor and then into the basement,” Mayor Justin Elicker said.Workers at the site told first responders the concrete w...

REVIEW: Bones of Crows is the beginning of a hard, but necessary conversation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

Canada’s residential school system is cultural genocide, one that was administered by the church. There’s no ifs, ands or buts here, this was cultural genocide. It was an attempt to stomp out numerous Indigenous cultures by killing the culture in children, and replacing with with Christian values taught via abusive methods. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized back in 2008, as did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017 for the nation’s role in this cultural genocide. Pope Francis called it genocide back in July last year, and in October, the House of Commons passed legislation formally recognizing it as genocide.Grace Dove in Bones of Crows.Photographs by Derek RodgersBones of Crows is a film about the genocidal residential school system as seen through the perspective of a Cree woman called Aline Spears (played by Grace Dove from the Revenant and Alaska Daily). Her and her three siblings are taken to a residential school in Manitoba as children in the 19...

Statue of Queen Elizabeth repaired and reinstalled, two years after vandalism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

WINNIPEG — A bronze statue of Queen Elizabeth that was toppled and damaged by protesters two years ago was put back in its place Friday on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature after a lengthy set of repairs.The statue, almost three metres high, landed face first when it was hauled to the ground on Canada Day in 2021 by demonstrators following the discovery of suspected unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.“The face was pushed in, the arm was scraped, and the whole base was totally crooked, too,” Charles Brunet, the third-generation owner of Brunet Monuments, recalled Friday as he and a crew of workers reinstalled the statue under a sweltering sun.The repair, done in conjunction with a Saskatchewan company contracted by Brunet, also involved sandblasting and giving the statue a new protective coating.“I’m so elated. I’m so excited. She is up, she is looking good. She’s solid, too,” he said with a chuckle. “...

Denying bail OK if for a ‘just cause,’ says Charter statement on Liberal reform bill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:37 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government’s Charter statement for its proposed bail reforms says there is “just cause” to deny bail if certain requirements are met. Justice Minister David Lametti introduced a bill last month that would make it harder for some repeat violent offenders to seek pretrial release by putting the onus on them to prove why they should be granted bail.Lawyers have raised concerns the law could be subject to a challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees that anyone who is charged with a crime will not be denied reasonable bail without just cause.The legislation would introduce reverse-onus bail conditions for people charged with serious violent offences involving a weapon, in cases where the person was convicted of a similar violent offence within the last five years.Prosecutors in such cases would no longer have to show judges why an accused person should stay behind bars. Rather, the accused would have to demonstrate why bai...