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Republican presidential candidates court Iowa’s evangelicals in hopes of edge over Donald Trump

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa — Some of Donald Trump’s top rivals for the Republican presidential nomination will address a gathering of influential Iowa evangelical Christians on Saturday night, hoping to woo them away from the former president at an event he is skipping.Former Vice President Mike Pence planned to attend the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual banquet and town hall in Des Moines along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Also on the schedule of speakers were Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, as well as Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd.Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican who has not endorsed a candidate, was attending, too.The crowd will largely consist of devout and well-connected social conservatives whose ranks are large enough to play a decisive role in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Re...

Howie Carr: An en masse goodbye to Boston’s biggest hacks of today and yesterday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

Is it too late now for Shannon O’Brien to save her latest hack job by finally showing us her tattoo the way she promised back in 2002?The state weed czar walked the plank Friday in a pre-Hurricane Lee news dump.Ironically, she got whacked a day after the guy who defeated her in that 2002 governor’s fight, Mitt Romney, cashed in his chips before his new voters in Utah could give him the same bum’s rush down the steps.All in all, it was a very bad week for the political protected classes in Boston. Seriously, who could have ever dreamed that Kendra Lara and Ricky Ricardo Arroyo would get fired before Chaim Bloom?You ask, what did all these pampered pukes have in common, other than a breathtaking sense of entitlement?They were all creations of the Boston Globe, Mitt perhaps less so than the others. But still, he always groveled before them, hoping to overcome his original sin of being a straight white male Republican who went to church on Sundays.That’s why Willard marched in those pho...

Cambridge City Council asked to oppose ‘Cop City’ in Atlanta, 1 thousand miles away

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

Though it may be a thousand miles away, Cambridge community members are calling on the City Council to oppose supporting the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center “or any similar facilities, in any way.”A policy order in front of the City Council would put it on record in opposition to the Cambridge Police Department sending trainees to, or participating in any collaborations with, the facility being built to primarily serve Atlanta public safety personnel.Several Cambridge community members, in emails to councilors and at a meeting last week, have voiced concerns over how the new facility, dubbed by critics as ‘Cop City,’ would lead to environmental harm and make officers trained there “more violent.”The $90 million center, being constructed on 85 acres in Atlanta’s South River Forest, has drawn wide criticism from environmental, racial and safety justice advocates.“Any officers sent to the proposed Cop City would be trained to be more violent, more militaristic...

Texas AG Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial is over. Here’s what led to his acquittal and what’s next

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The GOP-dominated Texas Senate acquitted fellow Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday, putting him back in office and showing no political damage after a two-week impeachment trial on allegations of corruption. The impeachment charges centered on allegations that Paxton improperly used the powers of his office to protect Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, who was indicted in June on federal charges of making false statements to banks.The trial reached its final stages Friday after closing arguments from the bipartisan group of House managers prosecuting Paxton and the attorney general’s defense lawyers.“We discovered unprecedented abuse in the Texas attorney general’s office by Mr. Paxton,” said state Rep. Andrew Murr, a Republican. “He has betrayed us, and the people of Texas.”In a fiery defense, Paxton attorney Tony Buzbee insisted the House had not proved their case and called the impeachment a “political witch hunt.”“There is sh...

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli is going on leave to be with his wife for the birth of twins

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli spends most of his life around a bunch of Twins.His future is going to be a little different.Baldelli is going on paternity leave after Saturday’s game against the Chicago White Sox. His wife, Allie, is expecting twin boys in the coming days.“We’re excited. It’s twins, and we didn’t know what to expect and we didn’t know or even anticipate making it this far,” Rocco Baldelli said. “So we’ve made it basically to the end of kind of the term that they laid out for us, so that’s exciting and I think good for the babies. Allie’s still feeling pretty good, so I mean we’re lucky.”Rocco and Allie got married during the All-Star break in 2021. They welcomed a daughter, Louisa, on Sept. 6, 2021.After Sunday’s series finale against the White Sox, the AL Central-leading Twins visit Cincinnati for a three-game series and then begin a six-game homestand on Friday night against the Los Angel...

Atlantic storm Lee makes landfall in Canada with winds of 70 miles per hour, 1 man killed in Maine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) — Storm Lee made landfall late Saturday afternoon in Nova Scotia, Canada, at near-hurricane strength, but not before it brought high winds, rough surf and torrential rains to a large swath of New England and Maritime Canada, toppling trees, swamping coastlines, cutting power to tens of thousands and claiming one life. With sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), the center of the post-tropical cyclone came ashore about 135 miles (215 kilometers) west of Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. That’s about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Eastport, Maine, U.S. weather officials said.The storm was expected to weaken as it moves into New Brunswick and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, forecasters said.In the United States, a tropical storm warning was in effect for a 230-mile (370-kilometer) stretch from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to the eastern end of Maine. That included Bar Harbor, the touristy gateway to Acadia National...

Lee leaves flooded roads, downed trees and power outages in path through Maritimes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

A powerful cyclone brought flooded roadways, toppled trees and downed power lines to parts of the Maritimes Saturday as it swept past the western tip of Nova Scotia and headed toward New Brunswick.But as post-tropical storm Lee left some coastal areas with a considerable cleanup, particularly in the region surrounding Nova Scotia’s famed Peggy’s Cove lighthouse, it left others virtually unscathed.“I feel a whole lot better than I thought I would,” said Pam Mood, the mayor of Yarmouth, N.S., where forecasters previously anticipated Lee might have the strongest impact. But aside from a few fallen trees, the town had escaped significant damage as of late Saturday afternoon.“We’ve gotten a lot less harm than we anticipated,” Mood said in an interview. “I’m not sure what happened with the (storm’s) track.”It was a similar story in St. Andrews, N.B., where mayor Brad Henderson said gusty conditions early in the day had largely subsided as the afternoon progressed. ...

Alberta’s top doctor says more sites will be closed, sanitized after E. coli outbreak

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

CALGARY — Alberta’s chief medical officer of health says he has been made aware of additional daycare sites in Calgary where children have tested positive for E. coli.Dr. Mark Joffe issued a statement late Friday night saying the additional facilities will be closed out of an abundance of caution.He said the sites will be required to be cleaned and sanitized, and all children will be tested to confirm their negative status before returning to the centres.All facility operators have been contacted, and Joffe said parents with kids at these facilities will be directly notified as soon as possible by the operators working with Alberta Health Services.The statement noted some of the children who have tested positive at the added centres are connected to daycares from the original outbreak.“What appears to have happened is that some parents who were at the affected facilities moved their children over to other daycares,” Premier Danielle Smith explained during her provi...

Texas impeachment: Here's why Ken Paxton was acquitted

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

(The Hill) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) was acquitted on 16 articles of impeachment in a Texas State Senate trial Saturday.Paxton was impeached by the Texas State House of Representatives for alleged inappropriate favors done for donors, interference in federal investigations and retaliation against whistleblowers. The Texas state House also unveiled new evidence against Paxton last month,  including a fake Uber account he used with a real estate investor whose connections to Paxton had already been scrutinized in the earlier impeachment. If a conviction occurred on just one of the articles Paxton faced, he would have been ousted. After eight days of witness testimony and another day of closing arguments, jurors cast their votes on each article on the Senate floor Saturday.Why was Ken Paxton acquitted?Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)It’s not fully clear why he was acquitt...

Woman found dead in Maywood identified by family as mother of former NFL player

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:38:09 GMT

MAYWOOD, Ill. — Police in the western suburbs are investigating the death of a woman who is the mother of a former NFL player, family members say.Family members say the Melrose Park and Maywood Police departments are investigating the death of Myrtle Simmons-Brown, the mother of former NFL player Sergio Brown.Loved ones say Myrtle had just celebrated her 73rd birthday on Sept. 8th. 14-year-old boy fatally shot after Hillcrest HS football game ID’d: Police Sheila Simmons, the sister of Myrtle Simmons-brown told WGN TV News that she last talked to Myrtle on Thursday, Sept. 14.According to Sheila Simmons, early Saturday morning around 3 a.m. she received a phone call informing her that Myrtle and her nephew Sergio were missing. Sheila Simmons says she then went to her sister and nephew’s house in Maywood and noticed things around the house were out of the ordinary.Sheila says she searched the creek behind the house with police and initially didn’t find anything, but later in the day,...