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Romney faces first potential challenge in Utah Senate race

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

FARMINGTON, Utah (AP) — A potential primary challenger to Republican first-term Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah took a major step Thursday toward jumping into next year’s race, expected to be one of the GOP’s hardest-fought contests in 2024.With memories of Romney’s two votes to impeach former President Donald Trump stillfresh, Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson announced he was forming an exploratory committee for the primary race, which all but formalizes his entry and allows him to raise money and campaign statewide. In an interview at his real estate office in northern Utah, Wilson said Utah needs a “conservative fighter” who represents its values and blamed “professional career politicians” in Washington for inflation and higher gas prices.“I don’t have any illusions that as speaker of the house, I’m a household name. But that’s really not what this is about,” Wilson told The Associated Press. “What this is about is me going out and understanding what people care about.” Romne...

Threats to dictionary publisher land man a year in prison

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

A California man who made violent anti-LGBTQ-related threats against dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster Inc. over its updated gender definitions was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison.The sentence imposed on Jeremy Hanson, 35, by a federal court in Massachusetts also included 30 days of home confinement, three years of probation and mental health treatment.Hanson pleaded guilty last year to interstate transmission of threatening communications in connection with threats made to the Springfield, Massachusetts-based dictionary publisher and to the president of the University of North Texas.In court documents, prosecutors said the Rossmoor, California, man has a history of making “threatening communications, nearly all of which were motivated by … biases based upon race, gender, gender identity, and/or sexual orientation.”Those other communications were directed at the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Land O’ Lakes Inc., Hasbro, a nonbinary rabbi and o...

Supreme Court won’t block $6B student debt relief settlement

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a roughly $6 billion legal settlement to go forward that will cancel student loans for hundreds of thousands of borrowers who say they were misled by their schools.The justices did not comment in rejecting an emergency plea from Everglades College, Lincoln Educational Services Corp. and American National University. The schools had argued that they were unfairly included on a list of more than 150 institutions, most of them for-profit, linked with alleged misconduct. Lincoln and American are for-profit institutions; Everglades is a not-for-profit.The justices’ action comes as the high court is weighing what to do with the Biden administration’s plan to wipe away $400 billion in student debt held by more than 40 million people. A decision on that plan is expected by late June.The legal challenges have some similarities but the administration is relying on different laws in the two programs.The class-action settlement...

Florida GOP passes 6-week abortion ban; DeSantis supports it

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on Thursday approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a proposal supported by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares for an expected presidential run. DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks.A six-week ban would give DeSantis a key political victory among Republican primary voters as he prepares to launch a presidential candidacy built on his national brand as a conservative standard bearer. The policy would also have wider implications for abortion access throughout the South in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving decisions about abortion access to states. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, while Georgia forbids the procedure after cardiac activity can be detected, which is around six weeks. “We have the opportunity to lead the na...

Hexagon political comedy revue returns from pandemic hiatus at new location in Silver Spring

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

toggle audio on and off change volume download audio WTOP's Jason Fraley previews Hexagon (Part 1) $(function () { $('.wtop-audio-container .fa-play').on('click', function(){ var audio_filename = $('div.wtop-audio-file').data("mp3-url"); ga('send', 'event', 'Audio', 'play', audio_filename); }); }); The Hexagon political comedy troupe has been a D.C. staple for decades, but it unfortunately shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the group lost President Joe Kaplan to the disease in 2020.Next week, the show hopes to launch a new era with eight live performances from April 21 to April 29.“Spring of 2019 was the la...

Man arrested after posting video threatening to shoot school

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

A 25-year-old man who posted a Snapchat video threatening to shoot up a New Hampshire high school has been arrested, police said Thursday.Portsmouth Police said the suspect, 25-year-old Kyle Hendrickson, was charged with criminal threatening with a firearm. In the video posted Wednesday afternoon, he is in a vehicle with a gun outside Portsmouth High School and says “Imma gonna shoot up the school.” The incident, police said, was caught by Snapchat, which relayed it to the FBI who then contacted the local police around 6 p.m. They would not release the video.“People should know better,” Portsmouth Police Capt. Dave Keaveny told The Associated Press. “If he thought it was funny or he did it to gain popularity on social media, then he should make better choices. We take those threats very seriously.”The police and the school district released a joint statement Thursday, after deciding to close the school as a precaution. They said it was unclear why Hendrickson targeted the school, th...

Abortion providers scramble as courts restrict pills

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

Doctors, clinics and telehealth providers across the country are scrambling to figure out how they will continue to provide the most common type of abortion after a federal appeals court imposed new restrictions on a key abortion medication.One telehealth provider would have to shut down for two weeks. Some abortion clinics in Ohio are considering ditching the drug altogether. Meanwhile, other doctors are looking for legal loopholes to dispense the drug, called mifepristone.People who live far from abortion clinics will be particularly hard hit, abortion rights advocates say. The restrictions could force people to travel hundreds of miles for care and stay for days, said Kirsten Moore, director of the Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project. “This is going to have a severe, severe impact on access,” she said, adding that it will be “devastating” for underserved rural populations.This is the second time in less than a week that the legal sands have shifted around medication abor...

Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog out for Stanley Cup playoffs

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- After sitting the entire season with an injury, Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog will now miss the team's run at becoming back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.Landeskog injured his knee last year and had surgery before this season. When this season began in October, coach Jared Bednar said he would miss 12 weeks. This set the table for a return in January, but that never happened. How to get Avalanche playoff pom poms He did get time skating in February, but it seems the recovery has not gone as expected.Landeskog is one of several key players who have been injured this season, but everyone else has made a return and the team is otherwise at full strength as they start this season's playoffs.The schedule for Stanley Cup playoffs games hasn't been released, but they are scheduled to begin on Monday, April 17. As things stand on April 13, with the season not yet complete, The Avs will face the Minnesota Wild in the first round with home ice advantage as th...

FBI searches for bank robber in Fort Lauderdale

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

The FBI needs help finding a person involved in a cash crime. According to agents, a man robbed a Bank of America in Fort Lauderdale, Thursday morning. They said that he took off with cash from the branch near Southeast 17 Street and 10th Avenue. If you recognize the suspect, you urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or go to fbi.gov/tips.

Judge who sentenced Parkland shooter removed from other case

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:26:22 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The judge who oversaw the sentencing of the Parkland massacre gunman was removed from another death penalty murder case Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court, which agreed she showed unfair sympathy for prosecutors in the Parkland school shooting case.The court removed Judge Elizabeth Scherer from overseeing any post-conviction proceedings for Randy Tundidor, who was sentenced to death for the 2019 murder of his Broward County landlord and is appealing his case.Justices cited Scherer’s chummy interactions with prosecutors who were seeking the death penalty against shooter Nikolas Cruz during sentencing.“Immediately after sentencing Cruz, Judge Scherer left the bench and, while still in her judicial robe, exchanged hugs with the victims’ families and members of the prosecution team,” the justices’ said in their unanimous decision.Judges are supposed to remain neutral during trials and sentencing.One of the prosecutors in Tundidor’s cas...