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Man charged with first degree murder in shooting death of B.C. RCMP officer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

A 25-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of an RCMP officer in Coquitlam, B.C.Police allege Nicholas Bellemare fatally shot Ridge Meadows RCMP Const. Rick O’Brien on Friday during a drug investigation originating in Maple Ridge, B.C.The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team and the Coquitlam and Ridge Meadows RCMP detachments issued a joint statement saying Mounties were executing a warrant when an altercation began between Bellemare and police at around 10 a.m.The incident resulted in O’Brien and another officer being shot, with a third officer also sustaining unspecified injuries. O’Brien died at the scene.Bellemare, who police say was also shot and wounded in the altercation, has been charged with one count each of first-degree murder and attempted murder with a firearm.O’Brien’s death in Coquitlam comes less than a year after another RCMP officer, Const. Shaelyn Yang, was stabbed to death while accompanying ...

California bill to have human drivers ride in autonomous trucks is vetoed by governor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill to require human drivers on board self-driving trucks, a measure that union leaders and truck drivers said would save hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state.The legislation vetoed Friday night would have banned self-driving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms) — ranging from UPS delivery vans to massive big rigs — from operating on public roads unless a human driver is on board. Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation, said driverless trucks are dangerous and called Newsom’s veto shocking. She estimates that removing drivers would cost a quarter million jobs in the state. “We will not sit by as bureaucrats side with tech companies, trading our safety and jobs for increased corporate profits. We will continue to fight to make sure that robots do not replace human drivers and that technology is not used to destroy good jobs,” Fletcher said in a statement la...

Minnesota’s would-be head of cannabis regulation quits amid reports she sold illegal products

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The recently appointed director of Minnesota’s new marijuana regulatory agency Erin Dupree has resigned amid reports that she sold illegal cannabis products in the state.Dupree ran a business that sold products exceeding state limits on THC potency, owed money to former associates and accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in tax liens, Minnesota Public Radio reported.Loonacy Cannabis Co. — the business Dupree founded in Apple Valley, Minnesota, last year — posted on its now-deactivated TikTok account about its edible products containing 10 milligrams of THC per serving and 150 milligrams per package, although state law only allows hemp-derived edibles to contain up to 5 milligrams of THC per serving and 50 milligrams per package, the Star Tribune reported.“I have never knowingly sold any noncompliant product, and when I became aware of them I removed the products from inventory,” Dupree said in a statement Friday. “However, it has become clear that I have b...

'He was a community man': 86-year-old killed in shooting in Auburn Gresham

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

CHICAGO — Police are investigating after an elderly man died after a shooting in the city's Auburn Gresham neighborhood on Saturday morning.Family members identified the victim as 86-year-old Charles Hobson and say he was a pillar in his South Side community. "He was retired, he was living his best life," Kimberly Hobson-Gary, a daughter-in-law of the victim, said. Family and friends rushed to the 8100 block of South Throop on Saturday morning after getting word that Hobson had been shot while coming out of his home to get his cell phone from his car. Family members say Hobson, who was a former entrepreneur and a long-time Auburn Gresham resident, was well-loved in the community. "He was first and foremost a man of god and he belonged to St. Mark United Methodist Church. He was a community man," Hobson-Gary said.  Police: 2 teens killed in Palatine shooting were victims of targeted, gang-related incident A neighbor in the area told WGN TV News that the sus...

3 injured after fire breaks out at Edgewater apartment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

CHICAGO — An overnight fire at an apartment building in Edgewater left three people injured on Saturday.According to fire officials, the blaze broke out at an apartment building in the 5700 block of North Sheridan Road just before 12:30 a.m.Laura Churio, a resident in the building, says she was still awake at the time and was startled when the fire alarms went off in the middle of the night."When we opened the door, all the smoke coming in the hallway. It was pretty scary," Churio said.The commotion also woke up sleeping residents of the building next door."They were spraying this window. Smoke was billowing from the window," Scott Domek, who lives in the building next door, said. "The entire interior of this apartment right here was just smoke coming out very powerfully."Fire officials say two women were transported to the hospital in critical condition and a man was transported in serious condition following the fire. Currently, it is unclear what sparked the fire, but investigato...

One last time: No. 3 Texas, Baylor clash in Big 12 opener before Longhorns bolt to SEC

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — It's game day Saturday between No. 3 Texas and Baylor at McLane Stadium in Waco to kick off the final Big 12 Conference opener for the Longhorns.The Longhorns opened as a 14-point favorite in most sportsbooks, and throughout the week moved to 17-point favorites in some of them. Baylor will be without its No. 1 quarterback Blake Shapen who is still recovering from an MCL sprain, so backup Sawyer Robertson will get the start.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newslettersTexas freshman running back CJ Baxter will be available, head coach Steve Sarkisian said earlier in the week. He was held out of last week's 31-10 win over Wyoming with a foot injury, but Sarkisian said Baxter "looked great" in practice.This game is the 113th time the schools will face off dating back to 1901, and as the Longhorns leave for the Southeastern Conference with Oklahoma next season, this is ...

State of Texas: 'We did it right,' Lt. Gov. Patrick defends Paxton trial process

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

AUSTIN (Nexstar) - The man who put the gag order in place for the impeachment trial against Attorney General Ken Paxton is speaking freely now that the gag order is over. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is defending the Texas Senate's process as "unbiased" while slamming the House's initial decision to impeach in late May.In a one-on-one interview with Nexstar, Patrick responded to claims that Republican senators' decision to acquit their former colleague was influenced by politics and money. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal said "the fix was in from the start." "Anyone that criticizes that process, well, that's on them because we did it right," Patrick told Nexstar in a one-on-one interview. He said presiding over the trial was "the most interesting and most challenging thing I've ever done." RELATED: State audit requested for ‘total cost’ of Ken Paxton impeachment trial Senators voted to find Paxton not guilty on every charge, mostly on a 14-16 vote. Patrick said after hearing the...

Austin Energy says extreme heat caused increased energy use in August

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

Austin (KXAN) — Austin Energy said customers used 15-20% more energy in the month of August compared to last year. The agency said the extreme heat is the largest reason behind that jump in usage.Matt Mitchell, public information officer for Austin Energy, said the agency compiled energy usage data from this summer. It ultimately found that customers used about the same amount of energy in June and July of 2023 compared to those same months in 2022.Mitchell said the increase in energy demand in late August was directly tied to the immense heat wave."I don't think that will come as much of a surprise. We saw those temperatures really elevated through the end of August. Several days in a row we had those calls for conservation from ERCOT. That really indicated to us that demand was surging," Mitchell said.Mitchell said now that the hottest months of the year have passed, Austin Energy is preparing for the cooler months still ahead.According to a report this week from ERCOT, the state ...

Severe thunderstorms possible Sunday and Monday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Well, fall officially started at 1:49 a.m., but the weather didn't cooperate. Highs at both Austin's Camp Mabry and at Austin - Bergstrom International Airport reached 101º, which broke the record and tied the record respectively.Amazingly...it could be ever hotter tomorrow!Tonight should be quiet with mostly clear skies giving way to patchy low clouds to begin Sunday morning. BLOG: October forecast Most of Sunday looks hot and dry with sunshine and scattered clouds. We're now forecasting a high of 102º on Sunday, which would smash the previous record high of 99º while making it our 80th triple digit day of 2023.Forecast highs on SundayAfter 5 p.m. Sunday isolated to scattered thunderstorms will try to develop and drop into the Hill Country and possibly move into the Austin Metro and our eastern counties. There are still significant differences in rain and storm coverage amongst some of our best computer models. Some bring widespread rain on Sunday and keep Monday...

New Wild wing Pat Maroon: Winning a Stanley Cup ‘starts now’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:50 GMT

Pat Maroon was a long player with the Anaheim Ducks when he advanced to his first conference championship game. The Ducks lost to eventual-champion Chicago at Honda Center — and it still irks him.“I thought we should have won, to be honest with you,” he said.But, the veteran winger said Saturday, that experience helped him become a three-time Stanley Cup champion, once with St. Louis in 2019, then with Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021.“That (loss to Chicago) was kind of devastating, but when you go that far, you kind of know what it takes,” Maroon said. “And you can maybe bring that experience to different teams and players that have never been to the playoffs or past the first round, so you can really help them out.”Maroon has come to the right place. The Wild are a perennial playoff team that has been past the first round only three times, and past the second round only once, in 2003. Despite having strong teams the past three seasons — they were second in the Western Conference in 2021...