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With transition to new stadium authority chair, Orioles’ future in Baltimore takes center stage for Gov. Wes Moore

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

When Gov. Wes Moore took his first out-of-town trip on behalf of the state, he wasn’t wooing a Fortune 500 company to move to Maryland or plumping up his resume with an overseas trade trip — the kind of trips typical for an ambitious state executive.Instead, he was talking baseball.Moore’s tour Thursday of the Atlanta Braves stadium complex signaled a priority of his seven-week-old administration: furthering its partnership with the Orioles during a critical period as the state seeks a new lease that would commit the team to Baltimore for many years.And his partner on the trip, new Maryland Stadium Authority chair Craig Thompson, highlighted one of the key transitions in Moore’s takeover of state government after eight years under former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. The stadium authority manages the state-owned Orioles and Ravens stadiums downtown. Thompson (who had been Moore’s campaign chairman) replaced Thomas Kelso (a former Hogan chairman) in the u...

Spring forward into daylight saving time this Sunday

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

Get ready to spring forward on March 12, at least one more time.Most of the U.S. will move the clocks forward by one hour on Sunday at 2 a.m. for daylight saving time, which will end on Nov. 5 of this year.The question is: Will this be the final time most Americans feel aggrieved over losing an hour of sleep?Daylight saving time is the result of a federal law applying to most of the United States; Hawaii, most of Arizona and U.S. territories in the Pacific and Caribbean do not follow daylight saving time. In March 2022, the Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent, removing the need to change clocks twice per year. The bill stalled in the House of Representatives but remains alive.With permanent daylight saving time, there is more sun in the evening hours. The trade-off is less daylight in the mornings, especially in the winter months.I wish the daylight saving time was permanent, I hate when it gets dark super early&mdas...

Multiple dead in Jehovah’s Witness hall shooting in Germany

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Shots were fired inside a building used by Jehovah’s Witnesses in the northern German city of Hamburg on Thursday evening, and several people were killed or wounded, police said.The shooting took place in the Gross Borstel district, a few kilometers (miles) north of the downtown area of Germany’s second-biggest city.“We only know that several people died here; several people are wounded, they were taken to hospitals,” police spokesman Holger Vehren said.He said he had no information on the severity of the injuries suffered by the wounded.Police did not confirm German media reports, which named no sources, of six or seven dead.The scene of the shooting was the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Kingdom Hall, a modern and boxy three-story building next door to an auto repair shop.Vehren said police were alerted to the shooting about 9:15 p.m. and were on the scene quickly.He said that after officers arrived and found people with apparent gunshot wounds on the g...

'Teacher of the Year' re-arrested

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

NATIONAL CITY, Calif. -- A National City teacher suspected of having an inappropriate relationship with a former student was re-arrested Thursday, two days after bailing out of jail, authorities said.Jacqueline Ma, a 34-year-old sixth-grade teacher at Lincoln Acres Elementary School, posted bail Tuesday night and was released from Las Colinas Detention Facility. National School District pressed to address teacher’s arrest Since that time, detectives "developed probable cause to re-arrest Jacqueline Ma on additional felony charges," National City police stated in a news release Thursday.Ma was re-arrested in the 3300 block of National Avenue in San Diego after detectives conducted a surveillance operation, police said.Ma was initially arrested Tuesday after a parent suspicious that her 13-year-old child was possibly having an inappropriate relationship with a former teacher contacted authorities, police said. Ma was booked into jail on suspicion of six felony counts, including lewd...

Vermont’s largest city votes to allow noncitizen voting

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Vermont’s largest city has voted to allow noncitizens who are in the country legally to vote in local elections. The proposed charter change for Burlington now must be considered by the Legislature and the Republican governor. Burlington would be the third city in the state to make the change. Noncitizen residents are currently allowed to vote in municipal elections in Vermont’s capital city of Montpelier, and Winooski, the most diverse community in the state. The Republican National Committee filed lawsuits against Montpelier and Winooski asking judges to declare noncitizen voting unconstitutional and lost those challenges. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, including races for president, vice president, Senate or House of Representatives.In January, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that such voting in local elections in Montpelier doesn’t violate the state constitution. A new complaint was filed in court Thursday against...

Robert Blake, actor acquitted in wife’s killing, dies at 89

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robert Blake, the Emmy award-winning performer who went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted in the killing of his wife, died Thursday at age 89.A statement released on behalf of his niece, Noreen Austin, said Blake died from heart disease, surrounded by family at home in Los Angeles.Blake, star of the 1970s TV show, “Baretta,” had once hoped for a comeback, but he never recovered from the long ordeal which began with the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001. The story of their strange marriage, the child it produced and its violent end was a Hollywood tragedy played out in court.Once hailed as among the finest actors of his generation, Blake became better known as the defendant in a real-life murder trial, a story more bizarre than any in which he acted.In a 2002 interview with The Associated Press while he was jailed awaiting trial, he bemoaned the change in ...

Oregon looking at allowing people in prison to vote

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A bill that would allow inmates of prisons and jails in Oregon to vote in elections moved on Thursday toward a Senate floor vote with the approval of the judiciary committee, with Republican members voting against.The action on the bill in the Democratic-dominated Oregon Legislature underscores how blue states are taking steps to expand voter access while red states are moving in the opposite direction.Only two other states — Maine and Vermont — and Washington, D.C., allow convicted people to vote while still incarcerated, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.According to the NCSL, felons lose their voting rights in 22 states only while incarcerated and receive automatic restoration upon release. Felons in 15 states lose their voting rights during incarceration and typically also while on parole or probation. In 11 states, felons lose their voting rights indefinitely for some crimes, require a governor’s pardon for the rights to be restored o...

CP NewsAlert: ‘Historic’ $2.8B class-action Indigenous court settlement approved

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

VANCOUVER — A Federal Court judge has approved a $2.8 billion settlement agreement between the Canadian government and plaintiffs representing 325 First Nations. More coming. The Canadian Press

Report: Trump invited to testify before NY grand jury

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has been invited to testify next week before a New York grand jury that has been investigating hush money payments made on his behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign, according to a news report.The New York Times cited “ four people with knowledge of the matter ” in reporting that the invitation was made by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Such an invitation often indicates a decision on indictments is near.The district attorney’s office declined to comment. A Trump spokesperson issued a statement that disparaged the investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, as politically motivated.Any indictment would mark the first time any former U.S. president has been charged with a crime. It would come as Trump is ramping up a run to regain the White House in 2024 while simultaneously battling legal problems on multiple fronts.The district attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, has said decisions are “...

Attorneys appeal Alex Murdaugh’s convictions, life sentence

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:05:11 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh on Thursday filed a notice to appeal his convictions for the murder of his wife and son along with his life sentence. The trial in rural South Carolina lasted six weeks and included more than 75 witnesses, but culminated in a jury taking less than three hours to find the 54-year-old Murdaugh guilty last week.Murdaugh called 911 on the evening of June 7, 2021, saying he found his son and wife dead when he returned home from a one-hour visit with his mother, who has dementia.Authorities said Paul Murdaugh, 22, was shot twice with a shotgun, each round loaded with different sized shot, while Maggie Murdaugh, 52, was struck with four or five bullets from a rifle. A crime scene report suggested that both victims were shot in the head after initially being wounded near dog kennels on the Murdaughs’ sprawling rural property.Prosecutors took more than a year to charge the disgraced lawyer with murder but decided not to pursue the death penal...