Tag Archives: General news

Faced with wave of hostile bills, transgender rights leaders are playing \”a defense game\”

For decades, the plotline for LGBTQ+ activism in the U.S. was one of advances — often slow-paced and hard-fought but inexorably moving forward. Now, faced with unprecedented attacks in state legislatures, transgender rights leaders acknowledge they are playing defense — and two of the biggest groups are joining forces to counter the onslaught. “This is going to be a defense …

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CIA terminates whistleblower who prompted flood of sexual misconduct complaints

The CIA this week terminated a woman whose whistleblower account of being assaulted in a stairwell at the spy agency’s headquarters prompted a flood of colleagues to come forward with their own complaints of sexual misconduct. The woman’s attorney called the action a brazen retaliation. While the CIA said that accusation was “factually inaccurate,” it wouldn’t comment further on the …

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Jury awards climate scientist Michael Mann $1 million in defamation lawsuit

WASHINGTON (AP) — A jury on Thursday awarded $1 million to climate scientist Michael Mann who sued a pair of conservative writers 12 years ago after they compared his depictions of global warming to a convicted child molester. Mann, a professor of climate science at the University of Pennsylvania, rose to fame for a graph first published in 1998 in …

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Haiti’s prime minister calls for calm as violent protests seek his ouster

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry urged calm in a public address early Thursday following three days of violent protests that have paralyzed the country as thousands of protesters demand his resignation. The brief speech in the pre-dawn hours did little to appease people who are angry and frustrated over unrelenting gang violence, deepening poverty and the …

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Finland extends Russia border closure until April 14 saying Moscow hasn’t stopped sending migrants

HELSINKI (AP) — Finland’s government said Thursday that it would extend the closure of its long border with Russia for another two months until April 14, because it sees no signs that Moscow was stopping its “hybrid operation” of funneling migrants toward the frontier with the Nordic nation. Finland closed the 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) land border late last year after about …

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A prosecutor says man killed, disposed of daughter like ‘trash.’ His lawyer says he didn’t kill her

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire man brutally beat his 5-year-old daughter to death and spent months moving her body around before disposing of it “like yesterday’s trash,” a prosecutor said Thursday. But the man’s lawyer said he didn’t harm the child and the last person who saw her alive — the man’s estranged wife — won’t say what …

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US applications for unemployment benefits fall again despite recent layoff announcements

The number of Americans filing for jobless claims fell last week despite more layoff announcements from high-profile companies recently. Applications for unemployment benefits fell by 9,000 to 218,000 for the week ending Feb. 3, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, increased by 3,750 to 212,250. Weekly unemployment claims …

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Audit of $19,000 lectern purchase for Arkansas governor almost done

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas auditors are nearly done looking into the purchase of a $19,000 lectern for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and expect to issue a report on it by the end of March, a state official told lawmakers on Thursday. Legislative Auditor Roger Norman told a panel that his office has interviewed 20 people about the lectern, …

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