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Supreme Court to review South Carolina congressional map for discrimination against Black voters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether South Carolina’s congressional districts need to be redrawn because they discriminate against Black voters.The justices said Monday they would review a lower-court ruling that found a coastal district running from Charleston to Hilton Head was intentionally redrawn to reduce the number of Democratic-leaning Black voters and to make it more likely Republican candidates would win. The case probably will be argued in the fall, and decided in the run up to the 2024 elections, when all the seats in the closely divided House of Representatives, now under Republican control, will be on the ballot. The three-judge court that ruled in favor of civil rights groups that challenged the congressional map said in its opinion in January that the districts violated the federal Voting Rights Act by unfairly diluting the power of Black voters.The Supreme Court has cut back on the reach of the landmark voting rights law, and is now...

NATO mulls future security guarantees for Ukraine but wary of igniting a wider war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO leaders are discussing ways to ensure that Ukraine does not come under attack from Russia again once the war is over, but they are concerned about doing anything that might drag the organization into a wider conflict, the head of the military alliance said Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seeking “security guarantees” from the 31-nation alliance to ward off any future attack from Ukraine’s neighbor. Some countries are weighing what could be done to avoid a repeat of the war. Russia already annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.“There are consultations that are going on,” ahead of a summit involving U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts in Lithuania on July 11-12, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during an interview with his predecessor, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, at a conference in Copenhagen.Stoltenberg declined to provide details about those talks.NATO allies benefit from a collective security guarantee — so called Article 5 o...

Philadelphia Democratic mayoral primary pits moderates against progressives

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

A Democratic primary that will likely determine who becomes Philadelphia’s next mayor could boost a progressive cause struggling to make a comeback after national setbacks, but with no clear front-runner it’s just as likely to fortify the city’s existing Democratic machine. Not one of the five top candidates has emerged as a clear favorite in Tuesday’s primary, a digression from mayoral races in recent history, said Richardson Dilworth, author of the book “Reforming Philadelphia,” which examines the city’s government over the course of 350 years.“The political structure of the city is in a moment that is somewhat unprecedented,” he said. “It’s ideologically incredibly cohesive. But … there’s nothing taking that cohesive ideology and converting it into a unified governance for the city.”The progressive movement — which has focused on local races to counter national setbacks — has its sights on the Philadelphia race after being energized by Chicago Mayor Brando...

April’s national home sales up 11.3% from March: CREA

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

OTTAWA — The Canadian Real Estate Association says national home sales jumped by 11.3 per cent between March and April as the real estate market picked up again.The association says seasonally-adjusted sales for the month totalled 38,164 compared with 34,277 in March.The actual number of homes sold last month amounted to 44,059, down 19.5 per cent from a year prior. The association says the year-over-year sales decline was markedly smaller than the drops reported in recent months.The seasonally-adjusted number of new listings edged up 1.6 per cent to 54,355 in April from March, but supply remains at a 20-year low.The actual average home price reached roughly $716,000 in April, down 3.9 per cent from April 2022, but up $103,500 from January 2023.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2023.The Canadian Press

Statistics Canada says wholesale sales excluding petroleum down 0.1 per cent in March

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says wholesale sales excluding petroleum fell 0.1 per cent to $85.6 billion in March, led by a drop in the miscellaneous subsector and the machinery equipment and supplies subsector. Overall, sales fell in four of the seven subsectors tracked by the agency. Statistics Canada says sales in the miscellaneous subsector fell 6.1 per cent to $11.4 billion as sales in the agricultural supplies industry group fell 15.5 per cent to $4.1 billion.The machinery, equipment and supplies subsector dropped 2.0 per cent to $18.0 billion in March as the computer and communications equipment and supplies industry group fell 9.2 per cent to $4.9 billion,Sales from the farm product subsector rose 19.1 per cent to $4.7 billion.Constant dollar sales excluding petroleum fell 0.3 per cent in March.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2023.The Canadian Press

Body found near train tracks in Morton Grove overnight

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

MORTON GROVE, Ill. — A body was discovered near train tracks in Morton Grove overnight. A Metra spokesperson said the body was discovered near Beckwith Road and Lehigh Avenue overnight. A train personnel spotted the body and alerted authorities but were not involved in the incident. Chicago off-duty officer, 33, found dead inside her home on West Side A freight train passed through the area before the body was discovered but its involvement has not been confirmed yet. There is no other information and the incident is under investigation.

One of Kenya's oldest lions, Loonkiito, among 10 killed by herders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — One of Kenya’s oldest wild lions was killed by herders and the government has expressed concern as six more lions were speared at another village on Saturday, bringing to 10 the number killed last week alone.The male lion named Loonkiito was 19 years old and was described as frail by Kenya Wildlife Service spokesperson Paul Jinaro, who said it wandered out of the Amboseli national park into a village in search of food on Thursday night.This photo provided by Lion Guardians shows the male lion named "Loonkiito" in Amboseli National Park, in southern Kenya on Feb. 20, 2023. One of Kenya's oldest wild lions, Loonkiito, 19, was killed by herders and the government has expressed concern as six more lions were speared at another village on Saturday, May 13, 2023, bringing to 10 the number killed the previous week alone. (Philip J. Briggs/Lion Guardians via AP)Six other lions from the same national park were speared by herders after they killed 11 goats in Mbirikani a...

Dean's A-List Interviews: Michael J. Fox on his life and Parkinson's awareness in new film

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

Dean sits down with Michael J. Foxx and discusses his new movie "Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,' where he navigates his life story as he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at 29. Get Dean's reviews and A-List interviews delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for Dean's Downloads weekly newsletter. You'll also get his Dean Cooks recipes too!

Mother of two survives severe heart condition

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — This weekend, many celebrated Mother’s Day.One local mother was thankful to enjoy the holiday with her two children after surviving a severe heart condition.Just ten weeks after childbirth, Kuan-hsien ‘Milly’ Lee started feeling intense pressure in her chest and having difficulty breathing.“I would just find it really hard to go back to sleep,” she said. “When I tried to lie down, I would have a lot of pressure in my chest, where it felt hard to breathe.”A local cardiologist diagnosed her with mitral valve prolapse — a heart condition that affects the valve between the left heart chamber — which can lead to heart failure if left untreated.“We were very surprised,” Lee said. “It's a diagnosis that you typically you hear about happening with older people.”The 36-year-old was also diagnosed with severe mitral regurgitation — a leaky valve that was enlarging her heart and accumulating fluid within her lungs.Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons, or CTVS, board-certified c...

Mayorkas: Border Patrol sees 50 percent decrease in migration after Title 42 ends

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:24:52 GMT

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that the Border Patrol has seen a 50 percent drop in encounters at the southern border in the days following the expiration of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allowed the rapid expulsions of asylum-seekers. "In fact, over the past two days, the United States Border Patrol has seen an approximately 50 percent drop in the number of people encountered at our southern border as compared to the numbers earlier this week before Title 42 came to an end midnight on Thursday," Mayorkas told ABC's Jonathan Karl on "This Week." End of Title 42 has not led to ‘substantial increase’ at border, Biden officials say Title 42 ended last week, sparking concerns among lawmakers and officials that a surge of migrants would try to cross the U.S. border. Officials were expecting a heavy influx of migrants, but officials said they had yet to see a change in migrant levels in the immediate hours after the rule expired. In preparation for ...