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Brittney Griner makes appearance at Rev. Al Sharpton event

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner made a surprise appearance Thursday at a women’s empowerment luncheon held during the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network event in New York City.Griner, who this week announced that she would write a book about her nearly 10-month detainment in Russia, thanked those gathered at the luncheon for the advocacy that contributed to her release in last December.“Everyone in this room that came together, that sent up every prayer, it reached me while I was there,” Griner, 32, told a packed hotel banquet hall in midtown Manhattan.“I want to continue to fight to bring home every American detained overseas,” she said.For months during her detainment, Sharpton, Black clergy and racial justice activists across the U.S. pushed U. S. officials to secure the basketball star’s release. She was freed in December in exchange for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.Sharpton presented Griner with an award, saluting the strength she exhibite...

Police: After shootings, man threatened California Capitol

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The suspect who made “credible threats” against California’s Capitol on Thursday shot a gun from his vehicle while driving through two Sacramento suburbs on Wednesday night, lodging bullets in the wall of a hospital but injuring no one, authorities said.The suspect remains on the loose, the California Highway Patrol said just before noon.The threat forced California’s Assembly to cancel its Thursday session. Senators evacuated to work in a new location. The Capitol is open to the public.The two prior shootings were in Roseville and Citrus Heights, two cities northeast of Sacramento. The Roseville Police Department said in a statement it received a call late Wednesday about someone shooting a gun from a vehicle while driving through Citrus Heights and, later, a suspect shooting toward a hospital in Roseville from the parking lot. Two bullets were lodged in the exterior of the building, the department said.“At this time, we believe this suspect ma...

Suspect in leak probe talked about God, guns and war secrets

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The suspect was relatively easy to find.In a social media world that produces traceable digital fingerprints, it didn’t take long for federal authorities and open-source investigators adept at sifting through data to land on the name of Jack Teixeira.Teixeira, 21, who served in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested Thursday in connection with the far-reaching leak of classified documents that have shaken capitals from Washington to Kyiv to Seoul with revelations of U.S. spying on allies and foes alike and the disclosure of sensitive military intelligence about the war in Ukraine.Attorney General Merrick Garland said Teixeira would be charged with the unauthorized removal of classified national defense information.There were clues in messages posted in a chatroom on Discord, a social media platform where Teixeira is believed to have posted for years about guns, games and his favorite memes — and, according to some others chatting with him, closely...

Poilievre’s pitch to defund CBC, keep French services would require change in law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

OTTAWA — If Pierre Poilievre wants to “defund the CBC” while maintaining its French-language programming, he’ll have to overhaul the country’s broadcasting law in order to do it. That’s according to the corporation, which has found itself in a back-and-forth with the Opposition leader over his pledge to cut the roughly $1-billion in taxpayer dollars it receives annually.Past Conservative leaders have also taken aim at the Crown corporation, which receives its share of public money through Parliament when MPs vote on its federal budget. Poilievre’s pitch to strip the CBC of its public funding is widely popular among Conservatives and earned loud cheers from the crowds who packed rooms to see him during last year’s leadership campaign. But he has also suggested he supports Radio-Canada’s French services, and when asked for comment on how he reconciles that, his office pointed to a media interviewfrom March 22 in which he suggested mainta...

Northwestern criticizes its own response to deadly shooting steps from campus

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern University criticized their own response to a deadly triple shooting steps away from campus Wednesday night.Just before 8:30 p.m., shots were fired at Clark Street Beach, located near the 1800 block of Sheridan. Evanston police found an 18-year-old man, later identified as Jacquis Irby, and two 15-year-old boys suffering from gunshot wounds.Irby died of his injuries and one of the boys was transported in critical condition. The other suffered minor injuries.Several students took to social media to express dismay on having to wait around a half hour for the university to acknowledge the shooting.On Thursday afternoon, Northwestern said "we agree" that the alert should have went out earlier. 1 killed, 3 injured in an off-campus shooting near Northwestern University: police "We have received messages from community members expressing frustration with the length of time it took for the University to inform the community of the shooting and to shelter in p...

Pregnant woman shot by Walgreens employee who alleged she was shoplifting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – A self-defense claim is under investigation in Nashville after a pregnant woman was shot in a Walgreens parking lot on the city's east side, forcing doctors to perform an emergency cesarean section and deliver her premature baby.The shooting took place around 8 p.m. Wednesday on the city's east side.Police said an employee at the Walgreens location was notified by another employee that two women were stealing items from the store. The employee told police he saw the women putting items into a store cart and a large over-the-shoulder bag. He said he then began recording the women with his cellphone and followed them as they left the store without paying for the items. ‘Do you have Apple Pay?’: Shooting suspect tries to bribe officer He followed the women to their car, where they were putting the items in the trunk investigators said. That's when he said one of the women pulled a can of mace and began spraying him.The employee then pulled his semi-automatic...

Meaningless game for Wild is anything but for Nick Swaney and Damien Giroux

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Though the final game of the regular season has no impact on where the Wild finish — they are locked into the No. 3 spot in the Central Division no matter what — it still has a lot of meaning to prospects Nick Swaney and Damien Giroux.Both players were recently called up from the minors and will make their NHL debuts on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville when the Wild play the Predators.Asked about their emotions leading up to the game, Swaney and Giroux both called it a dream come true. They were penciled in to play together on the same line.“They’re ready,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “They’re up (with the big-league club) because we want to have a good look at them.”The paths to get to this point for Swaney and Giroux are rather different.After starring for Lakeville South High School, Swaney was selected by the Wild in the seventh round of the 2017 NHL Draft. He played collegiate at Minnesota Duluth, helping the Bulldogs ...

Nicholas Firkus gets life sentence for wife Heidi’s murder he blamed on intruder

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

Nearly 13 years since Heidi Firkus was shot in her St. Paul home, her husband was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for premeditated murder.Heidi Firkus (Courtesy of Erickson family)A jury found Nicholas Firkus, now 40, guilty of first-degree murder. The conviction carried the mandatory sentence he received Thursday from Ramsey County Chief Judge Leonardo Castro.Heidi Firkus, 25, called 911 the morning of April 25, 2010, and reported someone was breaking into their home in the Hamline-Midway area.Nicholas Firkus, then 27, told police he and Heidi were in their upstairs bedroom when he heard someone trying to break in the front door. He said he told Heidi to call 911, armed himself with a shotgun and they went down the stairs in the 1700 block of West Minnehaha Avenue.Firkus told police that an intruder burst in and he and the unknown man struggled over Firkus’ shotgun. He said the gun went off twice, striking Heidi in the back and wounding ...

Salvation Army of the Twin Cities exceeds 2 million lbs food donation goal during ‘It Takes an Army’ campaign

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

The Twin Cities Salvation Army received 2.14 million pounds in March — well in excess of its goal of 2 million pounds. The food will provide about 1.3 million meals for families across the Twin Cities, according to Salvation Army officials.With more than 5.5 million visits made to food shelters in Minnesota last year, the need for food security is high, according to the Twin Cities Salvation Army. Inflation has driven the costs of groceries high and squeezed family budgets.The Twin Cities Salvation Army collected more than 2 million pounds of food during its recent 2023 food drive to help restock the shelves of the nine metro area pantries. Salvation Army officials say demand for food has gone up 30 to 50 percent since the start of the COVID pandemic. (Courtesy of the Salvation Army Northern Division)The nine Salvation Army food shelters in the Twin Cities will be restocked with the donated food, according to Salvation Army officials.The Twin Cities Salvation Army is still acc...

Summit Avenue bike trail legal case to move forward

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

A Ramsey County District Court judge has given the city of St. Paul until noon on April 26 to provide an opponent of the proposed Summit Avenue bike trail with public documents requested under the state’s Data Practices Act.Judge Patrick Diamond issued his order in the civil case, filed last month by attorney Robert Cattanach, on Wednesday afternoon. Diamond has allowed another bike trail opponent, the Summit Avenue Residential Preservation Association, to join Cattanach as an intervenor in the lawsuit against the city.The judge ordered representatives of the city of St. Paul to appear in court on April 27 to defend their handling of multiple data requests against likely cross-examination by Cattanach and SARPA’s attorneys. Cattanach’s request for a temporary injunction against the city, which would delay the bike trail hearing process from moving forward, will be heard at that time.In legal filings, the city has argued that it had attempted to comply with Cattanac...