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New Washington law keeps drugs illegal, boosts resources for housing and treatment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington lawmakers approved and Gov. Jay Inslee quickly signed a major new drug policy Tuesday that keeps controlled substances illegal while boosting resources to help those struggling with addiction.A compromise reached a day earlier by Democratic and Republican leaders sought to bridge a gap between liberals who believe drugs should be decriminalized and conservatives who insist the threat of jail is necessary to force people into treatment.The law retains criminal penalties for drug possession, making it a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail for the first two offenses and up to a year after that. But police and prosecutors would be encouraged to divert cases for treatment or other services, and the measure provides millions of additional dollars for diversion programs and to provide short-term housing for people with substance- use disorders.The Senate voted 43-6 in favor; the House 83-13 in favor. Lawmakers said the bill struck a bal...

Missouri terminates emergency rule to limit trans care for minors, some adults

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri officials terminated the Republican attorney general’s emergency rule that would have placed limits on transgender care for minors and some adults.The move was announced Tuesday without explanation on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website. The website says: “This emergency rule terminated effective May 16, 2023.”The rule would have required adults and children to undergo more than a year of therapy and fulfill other requirements before they could receive gender-affirming treatments such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgery.Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment.Margaret Stafford, The Associated Press

‘Evil is not going to win,’ survivor of Texas mall shooting says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — Irvin Walker was looking for a parking place after dropping his girlfriend off at a Dallas-area mall just over a week ago when he felt the gunfire.The 46-year-old from Lafayette, Louisiana, who was hit with bullet fragments in his head, chest, neck and arm, spoke Tuesday at Medical City McKinney in Texas about his recovery from the May 6 shooting at Allen Premium Outlets, where eight people were killed.He said he’s drawn strength from his faith, family, friends and the hospital staff.“I think this event was just evidence of evil not winning,” Walker said, sitting in a wheelchair during a news conference, wounds visible on his arm. “The power of God just showed brightly and gave me an opportunity to fight through this process, and evil is not going to win.”Hundreds of shoppers were sent scrambling for cover when a gunman stepped out of a sedan and began shooting people, cars and glass storefronts at the mall in Allen, a multicultural suburb of 105,000 loc...

More than a dozen people rescued from apartment fire in downtown Portland, Oregon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Firefighters rescued over a dozen people and at least two dogs from a dramatic apartment building fire Tuesday in downtown Portland, Oregon.Portland Fire & Rescue tweeted about 10:45 a.m. that they had responded to the blaze and shortly after said rescues were underway. Fire officials said before noon that firefighters had been for a time told to pull back because of the fire’s growth. Crews then did one of several checks to make sure all the firefighters were accounted for, officials said.Rick Graves, spokesman for the department, told The Oregonian/OregonLive later Tuesday that the department was confident everyone got out of the building, which had about 50 units and was built in 1910.Photos and video posted by the fire agency showed black smoke pouring out of the four-story building and firefighters helping residents and even a dog down ladders to safety.Several times, windows exploded as the fire ripped through the structure. Authorities were concerned...

Hundreds of B.C. firefighters dig in for Fort St. John battle amid weather reprieve

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Hundreds of firefighters are taking advantage of a weather break to prepare for a potential worsening of conditions near the wildfire-threatened city of Fort St. John in northeastern British Columbia, as the community of 21,000 remains on evacuation alert.Hannah Swift, an information officer with the BC Wildfire Service, said 400 fire personnel, 22 pieces of heavy equipment and 22 helicopters were in the vicinity of four blazes close to the city.“We have more resources arriving by the hour,” she told a news briefing. She said a break in the weather, in which winds dropped and shifted direction, had been “a bit of a reprieve” for Fort St. John and crews had used the opportunity to reassess and position themselves ahead of a warm front.That new weather change, bringing hotter conditions and a potentially problematic wind shift, could arrive as soon as Wednesday evening, she said. The calmer winds Tuesday had helped crews hold off the wildf...

Vaccine authorized for emergency use in California condors amid bird flu outbreak

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California condors will receive a vaccine for a deadly strain of avian influenza that threatens to wipe out the already critically endangered vulture species, federal officials said Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service granted emergency approval for use of the vaccine after more than a dozen condors recently died from the bird flu, known as H5N1. There are fewer than 350 California condors in the wild, in flocks that span from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California, Mexico. A pilot safety study will begin this month in North American vultures, a similar species, allowing investigators to check for any adverse effects before they give vaccines to the endangered condors, according to an agriculture department statement.The department approved the emergency vaccination “because these birds are critically endangered, closely monitored, and their population is very small which allows close monitoring of the vaccine,...

Lawmakers warn leaky, crumbling UK Parliament at risk of ‘catastrophic’ event

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Parliament building is an architectural masterpiece, a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited by 1 million people a year. It’s also a crumbling, leaky, asbestos-riddled building at “real and rising” risk of destruction, lawmakers said Wednesday.In a hair-raising report, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said the seat of British democracy is “leaking, dropping masonry and at constant risk of fire,” as well as riddled with asbestos.“There is a real and rising risk that a catastrophic event will destroy” the building before long-delayed restoration work is done, the committee said.In the most urgent in a series of warnings stretching back years, the committee said renewal work had been painfully slow and mostly amounted to “patching up” the 19th-century building, at a cost of about 2 million pounds ($2.5 million) a week.The committee slammed “years of procrastination” over the building’s future. In 2018, after years of dithering, lawmakers voted t...

Musk says he’s not stepping down as Tesla CEO, tells shareholders the company will advertise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

Elon Musk on Tuesday dismissed speculation that he might step down as Tesla’s CEO and told the company’s annual shareholders meeting that the the electric car and solar panel company would start doing some advertising.“Say it ain’t so,” one shareholder asked Musk about stepping down as Tesla’s leader. “It ain’t so,” he replied without further discussion.When another shareholder suggested that Tesla try advertising, Musk said he is open to it. “This has some merit,” he said to the shareholder at the meeting at Tesla’s factory site near Austin, Texas. “We’ll try a little advertising and see how it goes.”Tesla famously has avoided paying for advertising like its competitors, relying a lot on Musk’s ability to generate free publicity — he has 140 million followers on Twitter, the social media company bought for $44 billion last fall. Musk told shareholders that the company’s “Full Self-Driving” software is getting close to where it’s safer than ...

Firefighters battling blaze at abandoned lumber yard near The Stockyards

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

Toronto firefighters are on scene of a fire at an abandoned lumber yard in the Stockyards area.Emergency crews were called to Weston Road and Gunns Road near Keele Street and St. Clair West just after 6:30 p.m.Firefighters are actively fighting the fire at this location and residents are asked to avoid the area as there are road closures near the blaze.Weston Road is blocked in both directions from St. Clair Avenue to McCormack Street.

Father 'overjoyed' after reuniting with child abducted in South Elgin; mom charged

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:47 GMT

SOUTH ELGIN, Ill. — A girl who was allegedly abducted in South Elgin in 2017 by her noncustodial mother has been found safe in North Carolina after she was spotted at a business, authorities said.Officers found a woman and a minor child at the business in Asheville, North Carolina, and were able to confirm their identities, police said. They said the woman, Heather Unbehaun, 40, was wanted on an extradition warrant out of Illinois for child abduction.Unbehaun posted a $25,000 bond Tuesday and was released from custody, the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office said. Unbehaun declined to waive extradition, the office said.PREVIOUS COVERAGE: South Elgin dad asks for public’s help on anniversary of 10-year-old’s abductionIt wasn’t clear whether Unbehaun has an attorney who might comment on the allegations against her."I'm very pleased to find out the little girl is safe," said Amy Schaff, who lives nearby.South Elgin, Illinois, police said they were notified Saturday by police in Ashev...