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Texas Senate is voting on whether to remove Republican AG Ken Paxton over corruption charges

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Senate on Saturday ended deliberations over whether Attorney General Ken Paxton should be removed from office, putting the Republican’s historic impeachment trial on the brink of a verdict.The jury of 30 senators, most of whom are Republicans, spent about eight hours deliberating behind closed doors. A two-thirds majority is required to convict Paxton on any of 16 articles of impeachment that accuse Paxton of bribery, corruption and unfitness for office. As voting got underway, Paxton was acquitted on the first six articles of impeachment. Paxton was not in the chamber during the vote.About 50 members of the public took seats in the gallery as the Senate chamber reopened for the vote shortly after 11 a.m. CT. Among those who staked out an early seat for the impeachment vote were three of Paxton’s former deputies who reported him to the FBI in 2020 and were key witnesses during the trial for House impeachment managers.Paxton did not attend the majority ...

Enormous storm Lee lashes New England and Canada with wind, heavy rain, pounding surf

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) — No longer bearing the title of hurricane but as strong as one, Lee toppled trees, swamped boats and streets, and cut power to tens of thousands Saturday as it lashed an enormous swath of New England and eastern Canada with high winds, storm surge and torrential rains even with its center still offshore.The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to make landfall at or just below hurricane strength around the Maine-New Brunswick border Saturday afternoon, then turn to the northeast and move across Atlantic Canada on Saturday night and Sunday.It flooded coastal roads in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and inundated boats along the harbor in St. Margarets Bay, fanning anxiety in a region still reeling from severe flooding this summer, said Pam Lovelace, a councilor in Halifax, the capital.“People are exhausted. … It’s so much in such a small time period,” Lovelace said. “From a mental health perspective, we’re asking people to ch...

The Latest on post-tropical storm Lee’s impact on Atlantic Canada

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

Post-tropical storm Lee is churning towards Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, bringing high winds, heavy rains and power outages in its wake. Here are the latest developments. All times Atlantic unless otherwise noted:1:40 p.m. Nova Scotia Power’s outage map is showing 125,871 customers without power across the province.Most of the outages appear to be concentrated in the Halifax region and along the province’s South Shore.NB Power is reporting more than 31, 287 customers without electricity, mostly in the western part of the province.—1:30 p.m.An Environment Canada meteorologist says post-tropical storm Lee may make landfall farther west than initially anticipated.Jill Maepea says the storm’s centre was expected to hit somewhere along southwestern Nova Scotia later this afternoon.But she says there is some speculation that its path may arc further west and the storm may cross the Bay of Fundy to land in southern New Brunswick.Maepea says that as of about noon Atlanti...

Italian air force aircraft crashes during an acrobatic exercise. A girl on the ground was killed

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

MILAN (AP) — An aircraft of the Italian acrobatic air team the Frecce Tricolori crashed on Saturday during a practice run outside the northern city of Turin, killing a child on the ground, Italian media reported. The plane or parts of the plane reportedly struck a car carrying a family, killing a 5-year-old girl. A 9-year-old and the parents were being treated for burns, according to Italian news agency ANSA. The pilot ejected and also reportedly suffered burns.Video of the crash shows nine aircraft in two tight V-formations, before one of the aircraft drops below the others and crashes, sending a fireball into the air. In the video, the pilot can be seen ejecting with a parachute shortly before impact.The crash reportedly happened after takeoff from the Turin Caselle airport, near the industrial northern city. There was no immediate word on the pilot’s condition or the reason for the crash.The Frecce Tricolori is Italy’s premier team of acrobatic pilots, part of the Italian air for...

Louisiana prisoner suit claims they’re forced to endure dangerous conditions at Angola prison farm

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Men incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary filed a class-action lawsuit Saturday, contending they have been forced to work in the prison’s fields for little or no pay, even when temperatures soar past 100 degrees. They described the conditions as cruel, degrading and often dangerous.The men, most of whom are Black, work on the farm of the 18,000-acre maximum-security prison known as Angola — the site of a former slave plantation — hoeing, weeding and picking crops by hand, often surrounded by armed guards, the suit said. If they refuse to work or fail to meet quotas, they can be sent to solitary confinement or otherwise punished, according to disciplinary guidelines.“This labor serves no legitimate penological or institutional purpose,” the suit said. “It’s purely punitive, designed to ‘break’ incarcerated men and ensure their submission.”It names as defendants Angola’s warden, Timothy Hooper, and officials with Louisiana’s department of cor...

Woman and father charged with murder, incest after 3 dead infants found in cellar in Poland

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Police discovered the bodies of three newborns in the basement of a house in northern Poland, and have detained and charged a 54-year-old man and his 20-year-old daughter with murder and incest, Polish media reported Saturday.The body of a newborn, identified as the child of the 20-year-old woman, was found Friday in the village of Czerniki south of Gdansk. A further search of the premises revealed another body in an advanced state of decomposition on Friday followed by a third on Saturday, according to Polish media reports.Prosecutor Mariusz Duszynski from the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdansk, told the all-news broadcaster TVN24 that the woman was charged with two counts of murder and one of incest.The woman’s 54-year-old father was also brought to the prosecutor’s office. In the afternoon, prosecutor Duszynski announced that the man had been charged with three counts of murder in the case of the newborns and two of incest.Polish media suggested that was...

Trump skips Iowa gathering of evangelical Christians. His rivals hope for a chance to gain ground

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — 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 expected.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 R...

Cyclist struck near Jane and Finch

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

A cyclist has been injured after they were struck by a vehicle near Jane and Finch.Toronto police were called to Yorkwoods Gate and Driftwood Avenue just before 12 p.m. to reports of a collision.The cyclist was taken to hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries. The driver involved remained on the scene.Driftwood is closed at Yorkwoods as police investigate.

Trial by social media: Court struggles under weight of ‘Freedom Convoy’ evidence

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

OTTAWA — As thousands of demonstrators clogged the streets around Parliament Hill in early 2022, many of them had phones in hand, taking video of the different scenes around them for almost three weeks. For some participants, the “Freedom Convoy” protests had a festival-like atmosphere. For those who weren’t part of the fun, it felt more like an occupation. And for millions watching online, the massive demonstration played out online, often in real time, through social media posts, videos and livestreams. More than a year later, lawyers are trying to use those loud and sometimes chaotic digital posts in a courtroom that was very much designed in the analog era. The second week of the criminal trial for two of the convoy’s most prominent organizers has been slow-rolled by issues related to social media evidence, both from a legal perspective and a practical one.The disconnect is emblematic of some of the problems with trying cases in the social media age.There...

Winemakers, NDP call for removal of Ontario retail winery tax

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:57:09 GMT

Jakub Lipinski recounts a long-running joke in Ontario’s Niagara Region: if you want to make a small fortune in wine, you start with a big fortune.Lipinski, whose family runs Big Head Wines, was recently at the Ontario legislature to show support for a private member’s bill local New Democrat representative Wayne Gates plans to introduce in the fall to eliminate a tax on wineries.Ontario winemakers have long raised concerns about the province’s tax regime. Lipinski says 65 per cent of the price of a bottle is taxes and especially after the challenges that COVID-19 brought, it would help the industry to have one of them cut.“Especially after the last few very difficult years, it would be nice to have a little bit more relief from the government,” he said at a press conference with Gates.Gates’ bill, which he also introduced in 2020 but which did not go anywhere before the legislature prorogued a year later, would eliminate a 6.1-per-cent basic tax on all on-si...