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An old car tire, burnt trees and a utility pole may be key in finding how the Maui wildfire spread

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

Melted remains of an old car tire. Heavily burned trees. A charred stump of an abandoned utility pole.Investigators are examining these and other pieces of evidence as they seek to solve the mystery of last month’s deadly Maui wildfire: How did a small, wind-whipped fire sparked by downed power lines and declared extinguished flare up again hours later into a devastating inferno? The answer may lie in an overgrown gully beneath Hawaiian Electric Co. power lines and something that harbored smoldering embers from the initial fire before rekindling in high winds into a wall of flame that quickly overtook the town of Lahaina, destroying thousands of structures and killing at least 97 people.But as investigators sift through blackened debris to explain the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, one fact has become clear: Hawaiian Electric’s right-of-way was untrimmed and unkempt for years, despite being in an area classified as being at high risk for wildfires.Aerial and s...

Powerball jackpot up to $850 million after months without a big winner

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An estimated $850 million Powerball jackpot will be up for grabs Wednesday night for players willing to risk a couple dollars and brave incredibly long odds.The jackpot is the world’s ninth-largest lottery prize of all time, behind earlier prizes in the Powerball and Mega Millions games that all topped $1 billion.The jackpot has grown so large because there have been 29 consecutive drawings without a big winner, dating back to July 19. Powerball’s terrible odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes becoming ever larger as they repeatedly roll over when no one wins.The largest jackpot was a $2.04 billion Powerball prize hit by a player in California in November 2022.In most states, a Powerball ticket costs $2 and players can select their own numbers or leave that task to a computer.The $850 million jackpot is for a sole winner who opts for payment through an annuity, doled out over 30 years. Winners almost always ...

Witness at Peter Nygard’s sexual-assault trial describes bedroom suite at Toronto HQ

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

TORONTO — Jurors at the sexual-assault trial of former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard are hearing more about the layout of his Toronto office building, which housed a private bedroom suite where he allegedly forced himself on women.Nygard, the founder of a now-defunct international women’s clothing company, is being accused by the Crown of using his position in the fashion industry to lure women and girls. The 82-year-old has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement in alleged incidents ranging from the ’80s to mid-2000s.David Gauthier, who used to work for Nygard doing construction and design work, testified today that one door inside Nygard’s private bedroom suite could only be opened by pushing a button next to it, while anther could only be unlocked by a control panel near a large bed.The Crown has said in its opening arguments at trial that all five complainants in the case are expected to allege that they ...

Michigan fake elector defendants want case dropped due to attorney general’s comments

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A second defendant accused in a fake elector scheme in Michigan is looking for criminal charges to be thrown out after the state attorney general said that the group of 16 Republicans “genuinely” believed former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. The 16 Michigan Republicans are facing eight criminal charges, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. Investigators say the group met following the 2020 election and signed a document falsely stating they were Michigan’s “duly elected and qualified electors.”President Joe Biden won the state by nearly 155,000 votes, a result that was confirmed by a GOP-led state Senate investigation in 2021.Two defendants in the case are now asking for charges to be thrown out after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told a liberal group during a Sept. 18 virtual event that the false electors had been “brainwashed” and “genuinely” believed Trump won in Michigan.“They legit believe that,” said Nessel,...

Man serving sentence for attacking parents fails to return to halfway house and considered escapee

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

MOUNT LAUEL, N.J. (AP) — A man serving a prison sentence for attacking and seriously injuring his parents more than two decades ago remains missing Wednesday, several days after he failed to return to the halfway house where he was living.Edward Berbon, 54, was assigned to a halfway house in Camden County and had been working in Mount Laurel since March, state corrections officials said. He failed to return to the halfway house on Saturday and is now considered an escapee.Authorities said they had no information about whether he poses a threat to the community.Berbon, who had previously served prison sentences for theft and robbery, attacked his parents at their home in Hamilton Township, Mercer County in July 2004, just hours after he had been released from prison. It remains unclear what spurred those attacks.Both parents survived.The Associated Press

Michigan State fires coach Mel Tucker for bringing ridicule to school, breaching his contract

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

Michigan State fired Mel Tucker on Wednesday, saying the suspended football coach failed to present adequate reasons why he should not be fired for cause after having what he described as phone sex with an activist and rape survivor.The school said it terminated what’s left of Tucker’s $95 million, 10-year contract for acknowledging actions that subjected the institution to ridicule, breaching his contract and moral turpitude.Michigan State informed the 51-year-old Tucker that it planned to fire him on Sept. 18 and gave him a week to respond, which he did on Monday.“Simply put, Mr. Tucker’s response does not provide any information that refutes or undermines the multiple grounds for termination for cause set forth in the notice,” athletic director Alan Haller said. “Instead, his 25-page response, which includes a 12-page letter from his attorney and a 13-page ‘expert report,’ provides a litany of excuses for his inappropriate behavior while expressly admitting to the pro...

Biden vetoes two Republican-led bills to undo protections for the prairie bird and northern bat

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has vetoed Republican-sponsored bills intended to undo federal protections for two endangered species that have seen their populations plummet over the years: the lesser prairie chicken and northern long-eared bat.The two GOP measures would overturn “science-based rulemaking” that offers important protections for the once-abundant species and would undermine the Endangered Species Act, Biden said. “The lesser prairie-chicken serves as an indicator for healthy grasslands and prairies, making the species an important measure of the overall health of America’s grasslands,” the White House wrote late Tuesday in a veto statement about the prairie bird. It’s a member of the grouse family found in parts of the Midwest and Southwest, including the oil-rich Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas. The bird’s range also extends into parts of Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas.Environmentalists have long sought stronger federal protections for t...

Immigration drives massive Canadian population increase: StatCan

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says immigration is almost solely responsible for the largest annual population boom Canada has seen since 1957.The newly released data shows Canada’s population grew by more than a million people between from July 2022 to July 2023, which represents an increase of about three per cent. Canada also saw a massive 46 per cent increase in the number of temporary residents in Canada over the same period.The Liberal government has set record-breaking targets for immigration over the last several years, but doesn’t set specific goals or caps for the number of people who come to Canada on temporary visas.The estimated number of temporary residents in Canada now outnumbers the Indigenous population accounted for in the 2021 census.The increase in temporary residents was mostly due to people with work visas, rather than international students. In terms of actual numbers, the population growth over the last year is more than double the increase seen in 1...

Bruce Springsteen postpones all 2023 tour dates until 2024 as he recovers from peptic ulcer disease

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s 2023 tour will be postponed until 2024, citing doctor’s advice. The Boss, who last week celebrated his 74th birthday, is “steadily recovering” from peptic ulcer disease, a press release read. “Out of an abundance of caution,” the remainder of this year’s tour has been pushed to next year.Earlier this month, Springsteen announced that he would be postponing all of his September 2023 dates while he was treated for symptoms related to the disease, which causes ulcers to form in the stomach or small intestine that can cause heartburn, nausea and stomach pain.Those postponed shows included stops in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Albany and Syracuse in New York, Pittsburgh, Washington, and shows in Connecticut and Ohio.The newly postponed shows include Canadian dates and a West Coast run of Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.Rescheduled concerts will be announced this week and will take place at...

6 Palestinian citizens of Israel are killed in crime-related shootings in the country’s north

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:43:21 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Five family members were killed in a mass shooting Wednesday in an Arab town in northern Israel, police and advocates said, the latest victims of a recent surge of gun violence within the country’s Arab communities. Another Arab citizen of Israel was killed in a separate shooting earlier Wednesday. Israeli police said that three men and two women were shot and killed at a house in the northern Bedouin town of Basmat Tab’un. They said they were treating the incident as criminal and hunting down suspected assailants. Israeli medics said that a sixth man was shot and wounded in the rampage.The Abraham Initiatives, a Jewish-Arab advocacy and monitoring group in Israel, identified the victims as an Arab couple and their three children. The police declined to provide further details on the shooting or the victims due to the ongoing investigation, which they said involved several national units “diligently pursuing all leads using advanced technological resources.” P...