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Narrowing Republican presidential field prepares to debate with just six weeks before Iowa caucuses

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — The shrinking field of Republican presidential hopefuls will gather on a debate stage Wednesday for the fourth time this year, running out of time to shake up a race that’s been dominated by former President Donald Trump.Four candidates will be on stage at the University of Alabama for their last scheduled meeting before the Iowa caucuses kick off the presidential nominating season next month. Trump, the race’s clear front-runner, will not be among them. Trump, who has staged public appearances to compete for attention during the three prior GOP debates, will this time spend the evening at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida.Six weeks before voters in Iowa start making their choices, the debate offers a fresh opportunity for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to assert themselves as the be...

Baker touts proposal to pay top tier NCAA athletes

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

LAS VEGAS — NCAA president Charlie Baker said Wednesday his proposal to allow the most highly resourced schools in Division I to pay athletes through a trust fund is just a starting point as he tries to shift the association to be more proactive than reactive.“We need to be able to anticipate where conversations are going and to try to get this big, huge, diverse 180-committee with 2,000 members — like oh, my God! — to a place where they’re talking about stuff that’s common, and not just responding and reacting to other people’s agendas,” Baker said during an appearance at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletic Forum.On Monday, Baker laid forth an aggressive and potentially groundbreaking vision for a new NCAA subdivision at the very top of college sports in a letter he sent to the more than 350 Division I schools.“Some people are going to say you’re going too far and people will say but you’re not going far enoug...

MIAA: Fall statewide tournament a huge success across the board

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

FRANKLIN — Whenever there’s too many cooks in the kitchen, chances are something will go wrong.Be it in the back of a restaurant or the halls of 33 Forge Parkway, organized structure is always needed. That’s what the MIAA preached when its board of directors convened Wednesday.During a meeting that took nearly two hours, the association recapped its fiscal year, and measures to prevent miscommunication between its primary channels from top to bottom.For years, coaches, players and parents have grappled with the questions that come with exclusion and endowment games. Do they count? Why is my rating lower?A key question to be answered: How can the MIAA work with its subcommittees on the topic?“I think what we’re trying to do here, in all of our discussions and with those two topics, is to bring light to the situations that we experience and administer each and every day in the office,” said MIAA Associate Director Richard Pearson. “But who can help us manage the overall ex...

Awareness campaign targets illegal voucher-based housing discrimination

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

A coalition of housing advocates launched a $500,000 state-funded awareness campaign Wednesday that looks to fight back against illegal voucher-based housing discrimination.The Fair Housing Alliance of Massachusetts, an umbrella organization for four non-profit organizations, said it is looking to educate people about on their voucher-related rights, housing laws, and free services available to those facing discrimination.Housing Secretary Ed Augustus said there are more than 100,000 rental assistance vouchers in Massachusetts.“Rental vouchers are not only among the most effective and evidence-based interventions to end family homelessness, rental vouchers keep people housed,” Augustus said. “Vouchers ensure that low income families, seniors and people with disabilities can afford a home in Massachusetts.”A study from Suffolk University Law School and The Boston Foundation found people using a voucher for Section 8 housing had a low chance of touring an apart...

Amazon’s internal plans to advance its interests in California are laid bare in leaked memo

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

By HALELUYA HADERO (AP Business Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — An internal Amazon memo has provided a stark look at the company’s carefully laid out plans to grow its influence in Southern California through a plethora of efforts that include burnishing its reputation through charity work and pushing back against “labor agitation” from the Teamsters and other groups.The eight-page document — titled “community engagement plan” for 2024 — provides a rare glimpse into how one of American’s biggest companies executes on its public relations objectives and attempts to curtail reputational harm stemming from criticisms of its business. It also illustrates how Amazon aims to methodically court local politicians and community groups in order to push its interests in a region where it could be hampered by local moratoriums on warehouse development, and it is facing resistance from environmental and labor activists. The memo was leaked to the nonp...

Nevada grand jury indicts six Republicans who falsely certified that Trump won the state in 2020

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

By GABE STERN (Associated Press/Report for America)RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada grand jury on Wednesday indicted six Republicans who submitted certificates to Congress falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election in their state, making Nevada the third to seek charges against so-called “fake electors.”“We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a statement Wednesday. “Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”The fake electors — involved in the state GOP or Clark County GOP — have been charged with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument. Those two categories of felonies have penalties that range from one year up to either four or five years in prison.In December 2020, the six Re...

At least 3 victims, 'No further threat,' Sheriff says after massive police response to shooting at UNLV, campus being evacuated

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- Las Vegas police are reporting a suspect in the UNLV campus shooting Wednesday is dead and police are evacuating one building at a time. Sheriff Kevin McMahill said there is no further threat to campus. A post from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officials confirmed that there were at least three victims, although the extent of those victims' injuries is unknown. Officials say the number of victims could change.Metropolitan police responded to reports of an active shooter at the UNLV campus at around 11:45 a.m. and said "There appears to be multiple victims at this time." Law enforcement responds to active shooter at UNLV campus on Dec. 6, 2023. (KLAS)Law enforcement responds to active shooter at UNLV campus on Dec. 6, 2023. (KLAS)Law enforcement responds to active shooter at UNLV campus on Dec. 6, 2023. (KLAS)Law enforcement responds to active shooter at UNLV campus on Dec. 6, 2023. (KLAS)The off-ramp on I-15 at Tropicana to go eastbound toward the Stri...

Jonathan Majors’ ex describes “substantial” pain caused by actor as defense questions her drinking

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Jonathan Majors’ former girlfriend testified Wednesday about the “substantial” pain she suffered after he allegedly assaulted her in the backseat of a cab this spring, as photos of the woman’s injuries were shared with a Manhattan jury for the first time.In her second day on the witness stand, Grace Jabbari wiped away tears as she recounted the alleged attack by Majors that left her hair caked with blood, her ear swollen, and middle finger “more or less black.” “When I was trying to sleep, I was very aware that I couldn’t lie on the right side of my head,” she said. “It was an everything hurts situation.”Jabbari, a 30-year-old British choreographer, documented her bruised finger and reddened ear in text messages she sent to a friend, which were presented in the courtroom on Wednesday. Majors sat stoically throughout the proceeding, looking at Jabbari at times, but appeared to avert his gaze from the photos.The actor was arrested last March following a dispute with hi...

Senators tackle gun violence anew while Feinstein’s ban on assault weapons fades into history

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a new senator, one of the first votes Democrat Martin Heinrich cast was against legislation from Sen. Dianne Feinstein to reinstate an assault weapons ban in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting.In the decade since, as mass shootings have touched almost every corner of the United States, the New Mexico senator, an avid hunter once endorsed by the NRA, has been considering what it would take to draft legislation that avoids banning guns that Americans use for legitimate purposes while still saving lives.The New Mexico Democrat has also watched his two sons grow up learning how to hunt as well as how to duck and cover in mass-shooter drills that bring him to tears. “I think there’s a generational shift happening,” Heinrich said in an interview with The Associated Press.“It really made those of us who grew up inside gun culture reevaluate our views and think hard about, like, this is not a black and white issue,” he said. “You can accept the fact that gu...

Political shift underway in B.C., says confident Conservative Leader John Rustad

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:11:16 GMT

VICTORIA — B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad says Premier David Eby and Opposition BC United Leader Kevin Falcon are both looking over their shoulders at the political gains being made by the new kid on the block.Rustad says the presence of his two-member Conservative caucus has stirred debate and changed dialogue at the legislature and the party appears to be gaining momentum with voters as British Columbia’s scheduled fall election approaches.Some recent public opinion polls suggest the Conservatives, who received less than two per cent of the vote in the 2020 election and did not win a seat, would finish in second place if an election were held today.Rustad told a news conference Wednesday that the Conservatives have caused Eby to express anxiety about the party and forced Falcon to change policy, especially with regards to the province’s carbon tax.He says the Conservatives are pulling together a broad coalition of voters, and the party will serve as an alternativ...