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From urchin crushing to lab-grown kelp, efforts to save Northern California’s kelp forests show promise

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

By JULIE WATSON | Associated PressCASPAR BEACH — A welding hammer strapped to her wrist, Joy Hollenback slipped on blue fins and swam into the churning, chilly Pacific surf one fall morning to do her part to save Northern California’s vanishing kelp forests.Hollenback floated on the swaying surface to regulate her breathing before free diving into the murky depths toward the seafloor. There, she spotted her target: voracious, kelp-devouring purple urchins.Within seconds she smashed 20 to smithereens. “If you’re angry, it’s a cathartic way to get it all out,” Hollenback joked. “It’s ecologically sanctioned mayhem.”The veterinarian who lives in Berkeley, California is part of a crew of volunteers who swim, snorkel and dive armed with pick axes and hammers on a sole mission: To crush purple urchins that largely destroyed 96% of California’s iconic bull kelp forests between 2014 and 2020, and with it harmed red abalone and other sea life they supported.The pilot project off the Mendocin...

Trial date reset for Bay Area attorney charged with child sex crimes

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

A Solano County Superior Court judge has rescheduled the jury trial from January to February for a former Vacaville attorney accused in a felony child sex assault case.James Glenn Haskell, 41 (Solano County Sheriff’s Office) Defendant James Glenn Haskell, 41, appeared Friday in Department 23 for a trial confirmation, and Judge John B. Ellis ordered him to return for the trial at 9 a.m. Feb. 13 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.Haskell – who has entered not-guilty pleas to all allegations – enhancements and prior offenses, also must return for a trial management conference at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 9, court records show.He is represented by Fairfield criminal defense attorney Thomas Maas. Deputy District Attorney Shelly Moore leads the prosecution.The latest development in the case comes after a two-day April preliminary hearing and Haskell’s held-to-answer arraignment. He faces 16 counts, felonies and misdemeanors.As previously reported, before the second day of the preliminary hearin...

Widow blames suicide of LA County sheriff’s deputy on excessive overtime

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

The widow of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who killed himself last month has filed a $20 million claim alleging her husband suffered from deep depression after he was forced to work exhaustive, mandatory overtime for a dozen years at a jail facility.The claim, filed Friday, Dec. 8, against the county, blames the Sheriff’s Department for the death of Deputy Arturo Atilano-Valadez, who died from a gunshot wound at his home on Nov. 7. He is among eight current or former Sheriff’s Department employees to die by suicide this year, according to the agency, the largest sheriff’s department in the nation.“What has happened to my family is going to continue to happen to any other deputies forced to work (in the jail) all the time,” Michele Atilano said at a news conference. “My husband is just one of many, many who are sick and are being forced to work in the jail all of the time.”As of Friday, the Sheriff’s Department had not received a copy of the claim, which is a precursor to a f...

60-year-old arrested in fatal stabbing of 71-year-old in Southeast DC

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

A 60-year-old woman from Southeast D.C. was arrested for the fatal stabbing of a 71-year-old man on Tuesday.D.C. police say they arrested and charged Linda Archie with assault with intent to kill.She was charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of Charmaine Smith.According to police, officers were responding to the 900 block of 5th Street SE at around 3:45 p.m. when they found Smith suffering from stab wounds.He was taken to a local hospital. He died on Saturday.According to a police release, detectives are working with the United States Attorney’s Office to upgrade the charges.Source

Woodbridge centenarian keeps breaking running records — with no plans to stop

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

Roy Englert Sr. fought in World War II, practiced law for decades — and then picked up running the 400-meter dash at 61.He has retired from the military and his law practice, but at 101 years old he has no plans to quit running.“I’ve retired every year for the last five or six years but then something comes up and then I go try it,” he told WTOP. “I’ll keep going as long as I can.”Back in July, he won the gold medal in the men’s 400-meter dash at the National Senior Games in the over-100 age bracket. Englert has won many races. In 2018, he set a world record at the USA Track and Field Masters Outdoor Championship in the 95-99 age group.When he runs, he’s on the track with other runners in different age brackets. They are not his competition, he said. He races against records.“There are not many people my age running around a track,” Englert said.Englert picked up running in the early 1980s after reading a book called “Aerobics” by Dr. Kenneth Cooper.“He said that one needed to exerc...

Children of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi to accept Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — The children of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi are set to accept this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf in a ceremony Sunday in the Norwegian capital. Mohammadi is renowned for campaigning for women’s rights and democracy in her country, as well as fighting against the death penalty.Ali and Kiana Rahmani, Mohammadi’s twin 17-year-old children who live in exile in Paris with their father, will be given the prestigious award at Oslo City Hall, after which they will give the Nobel Peace Prize lecture in their mother’s name. Mohammadi, 51, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in October for her decades of activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. She is currently detained in a prison in Tehran.At a news conference in Oslo on Saturday, Kiana Rahmani read out a message from her mother, in which the imprisoned activist praised the role international media played in “conveying the voice of dissen...

Bayern Munich forward Serge Gnabry gets injured again, just 5 minutes after going on as a substitute

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

MUNICH (AP) — Bayern Munich forward Serge Gnabry faces another spell on the sidelines with a thigh injury sustained less than five minutes after coming on as a substitute.The Bavarian powerhouse said Sunday that Gnabry “suffered a muscle tendon injury in his left adductor area” during the team’s 5-1 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga on Saturday.Bayern said Gnabry is ruled out for “the coming games” but did not give a specific timeframe for his absence. He’s likely to miss the rest of the year – Bayern visits Manchester United in the Champions League on Tuesday in the first of only three games before the winter break.Gnabry has endured a season to forget so far. The Germany forward fractured his arm in a German Cup game at Preußen Münster in September and has made only five Bundesliga appearances, including Saturday’s.Gnabry’s brief substitute appearance was not the shortest to be cut short by injury in the Bundesliga. Hertha Berlin forward Prince Boateng had to go ...

Trump defends dictator comments amid NYC soiree filled with MAGA diehards

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

NEW YORK — The chairman of an Austrian political party founded by ex-Nazis, the conservative Twitter star behind the anti-trans Bud Light backlash and former President Donald Trump all walked into a bar.Seriously.On Saturday night in Manhattan, amid butler-delivered bellinis, sequined ball gowns and a five-course French service meal, characters from all corners of the Republican Party’s MAGA faction gathered for “a night of dinner, drinking, and love of country.”Donald Trump, the club’s 111th Annual Gala Keynote speaker, delivered.“We want to liberate America because we’re in a country that’s in a lot of pain right now, a lot of hurt,” Trump told the crowd, during his 80-minute long speech. “This campaign is on a righteous crusade to rescue our nation from a very corrupt political class.”On the heels of a reaffirmed gag order, a debate of largely deferential Republican opponents and near slam-dunk poll numbers for the Iowa caucuses just weeks away,...

Biden is making a big push for more mining in US. Here’s how it could disrupt health care.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

CARLIN, Nevada — As a mining family, the Paweleks worried little about their health care. Mike’s job as a gold miner provided the family with good insurance, and the medical clinic in town run by the mines was affordable. When Mike and Patty needed surgeries for bad knees, the mine paid for travel and lodging in Salt Lake City, 250 miles from their home.That was before Mike, 64, was diagnosed with cervical dystonia, a rare neurological condition that causes violent tremors, ending his 32-year career with Newmont Mining Corp. in 2019.The Paweleks lost their primary income. They also lost their health insurance — and the robust health care access it afforded. In other parts of the country, Mike’s disability insurance and Patty’s Obamacare plan could have easily gotten them a primary care doctor. But in mining communities like Elko County in northeastern Nevada, mine insurance is so important to the local health care infrastructure that many without it have to fight for basic care.“We ...

Austria signals softer stance on Romania, Bulgaria over air traffic

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:13 GMT

Austria’s interior minister indicated that the country’s objection to Romania and Bulgaria joining the Schengen area could be softened when it comes to air traffic. Multiple Austrian media outlets have reported that Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner is willing to remove barriers to intra-EU travel for Romanians and Bulgarians, while remaining against the two countries joining the Schengen area due to illegal migration concerns.Under his offer, passengers from Romania and Bulgaria wouldn’t need to go through passport control when flying within the EU. However, there are also a set of conditions for this to be allowed, including Bulgaria needing to agree to more Frontex operations and increased border controls in Romania and Bulgaria. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu wrote on Facebook that the ice had been broken, saying the development means that “Romanians will no longer stand in endless queues when they fly within the European Union.” “After years of waiting, we ...