NEWPORT, Vt. (AP) — Plunging into a frozen lake and swimming laps may not be everyone’s good time but for winter swimmers who return year after year to a northern Vermont lake near the Canadian border, there’s nothing better. The 10th annual Memphremagog Winter Swimming Festival kicked off Friday with the 200-meter (218-yard) freestyle race in a narrow pool cut …
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Trump’s lawyers seek to suspend $83M defamation verdict, citing ‘strong probability’ it won’t stand
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers asked a New York judge Friday to suspend an $83.3 million defamation verdict against the former president, saying there was a “strong probability” that it would be reduced on appeal, if not eliminated. The lawyers made the request in Manhattan federal court, where a civil jury in late January awarded the sum to …
Read More »Georgia bill aims to protect religious liberty. Opponents say it’s a license to discriminate
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia lawmakers are revisiting a nearly decade-old fight over whether the state needs to protect religious rights from being trampled by state and local governments in a measure opponents say would provide a legal shield for people and groups to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in the name of religion. That religious protection bill resurfaced Thursday eight years …
Read More »Two Navy SEALs drowned in the Arabian Sea. How the US charged foreign crew with smuggling weapons
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two Navy SEALs drowned last month while trying to board a vessel that was intercepted by U.S. naval forces in the Arabian Sea. On Thursday, federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint against four foreign nationals they say were transporting suspected Iranian-made missile components on the vessel. The four sailors were later taken to Virginia where they …
Read More »2 National Guard members die in northeast Mississippi helicopter crash
BALDWYN, Miss. (AP) — Two National Guard members died after a helicopter crashed Friday afternoon during a training flight in northeast Mississippi, officials said. The aircraft went down in a wooded area near Baldwyn, Prentiss County Sheriff Randy Tolar told WTVA-TV. The site is about 115 miles (185 kilometers) southeast of Memphis, Tennessee. The helicopter was AH-64 Apache “flying a …
Read More »EEUU promete nuevas sanciones contra Irán por su apoyo a Rusia en Ucrania y posible venta de misiles
WASHINGTON (AP) — La Casa Blanca prometió dar a conocer nuevas sanciones contra Irán en los próximos días en represalia por sus ventas de armas que han reforzado la invasión de Rusia a Ucrania, y amenazó con una respuesta “veloz” y “severa” si Teherán sigue adelante con su venta de misiles balísticos a Moscú. El vocero del Consejo de Seguridad …
Read More »New Hampshire House rejects allowing voluntary waiver of gun ownership rights
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire House on Thursday narrowly rejected creating a process by which people could voluntarily prohibit themselves from buying guns. Three other states — Utah, Virginia and Washington — already allow people to voluntarily waive their rights to own firearms and add themselves to the federal database of prohibited purchasers, said Rep. David Meuse, a …
Read More »Kentucky Senate panel advances bill to encourage cutting-edge research
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky lawmakers on Thursday started advancing an ambitious measure aimed at stimulating cutting-edge research while promoting teamwork among the state’s public universities. The Senate Education Committee quickly advanced the bill that would create a framework for cross-campus projects pairing up researchers at various schools. The measure is sponsored by Republican Senate President Robert Stivers and is …
Read More »Texas school legally punished Black student over hairstyle, judge says
ANAHUAC, Texas (AP) — A Black high school student’s monthslong punishment by his Texas school district for refusing to change his hairstyle does not violate a new state law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination, a judge ruled on Thursday. Darryl George, 18, has not been in his regular Houston-area high school classes since Aug. 31 because the district, Barbers Hill, …
Read More »DeSantis calls takeover of Disney government a ‘success’ despite worker exodus, litigation
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Almost a year after state lawmakers passed a law giving Florida’s governor control over Walt Disney World’s governing district, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday called the takeover a success, despite an exodus of workers, ongoing litigation and scandal surrounding one of his appointees. DeSantis made a victory lap of sorts during a news conference at Disney …
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