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Man arrested in Texas hookah lounge shooting that killed 2

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A 19-year-old was arrested in a January shooting at a hookah lounge in Austin that left two high school students dead and three other people seriously wounded, police said Monday.Christijan Stevens was arrested Wednesday in Killeen, north of Austin, and is charged with capital murder, police said. Jail records did not list an attorney for him who could comment about the allegations.Police have said that the shooter left the lounge after opening fire on Jan. 28. They have said he “had prior history with one of the victims” but haven’t said which one. Police on Monday did not provide any additional information on what led to the shooting. Brayden Bolyard, 17, died at the lounge, and Jaitron Tatum, 18, died on Feb. 1. The school district in Jarrell, located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Austin, has said that both of them were students there. The Associated Press

Signature Bank seized to send banks a message, director says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

A regulatory takeover of a New York-based bank was intended to send a message to U.S. banks to stay away from the cryptocurrency business, a former member of Congress who was on the bank’s board says.Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that he believes the state officials behind the action were trying to make an example of Signature Bank.“This was just a way to tell people, ‘We don’t want you dealing with crypto,’” Frank told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.Frank, a Democrat who served in Congress from 1981 until 2013, coauthored the Dodd-Frank act that boosted government oversight of banks following the 2008 financial crisis.He was a director at Signature Bank until the New York Division of Financial Services took it over Sunday and gave control of it to the FDIC, the federal agency that insures bank deposits, until the bank can be sold.Signature’s takeover came two days after regulators seized California-based Silicon Valley Bank. Both followed a rush of ...

Police: Woman fatally stabbed near train named the attacker

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A 26-year-old woman who was stabbed at a downtown Chicago train platform uttered the name of her attacker before dying, police said Monday.Police announced a murder charge against a 31-year-old man who was arrested Saturday, roughly 13 hours after the early morning stabbing.Samantha Maldonado was attacked as a train approached at an elevated platform in the Loop and stabbed repeatedly around 1:30 a.m. She ran down stairs to street level and collapsed.“The key piece of evidence in this case came from the victim herself,” said Eric Carter, police first deputy superintendent. “She named … the offender before she succumbed to her injuries.”They had a prior relationship, Carter said.The man was denied bond during a court appearance Monday.The Associated Press

Audience for 95th Oscars rebounds slightly to 18.7 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Whether it was the lingering drama of The Slap or the prominence of blockbusters in the best picture race, a bigger audience was lured back to the Oscars this year. The 95th Academy Awards, which aired Sunday night on ABC, was viewed by an estimated 18.7 million, according to preliminary Fast National Live+Same Day numbers released Monday by ABC. That’s up 12% from last year’s show, but still low compared to most years.The evening’s main counterprogramming, the season finale of “The Last of Us” pulled in 8.2 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max. The show began at 9 p.m. EST, an hour after the Oscars started.A frequent criticism of the Oscars is that the show celebrates films that don’t have wide appeal. This year was markedly different, however, with two billion-dollar blockbuster sequels in the mix: “Top: Gun Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” were both nominated for best picture. Angela Bassett was nominated for a Marvel movie, a first. Even ...

For Asian Americans, Yeoh, Quan’s Oscar wins are theirs too

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Edward Dion Farinas watches the Academy Awards every year but the Filipino American didn’t expect to have such a visceral reaction when hearing Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh’s awards announced.“I had a squeal come out that I was not expecting,” said Farinas, who was watching Sunday from his Austin, Texas, home, complete with “Everything Everywhere All at Once” themed pastries from a local Asian American-owned bakery. “I was surprised by how heavily invested I got. It’s not even about the acting. It really just kind of lets us feel like we can accomplish things that normally are not in our lane.” Quan’s best supporting actor win and comeback story from childhood star of ‘80s flicks, coupled with Yeoh’s historic win as the first Asian best actress winner ever had viewers of Asian descent shedding tears of happiness — and grinning. The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” co-stars bring the total number of Asians who have earned acting Oscars to just...

Do-not-eat listing draws lawsuit from Maine lobster industry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A coalition representing the Maine lobster industry is suing an aquarium on the other side of the country for recommending that seafood customers avoid buying a variety of lobster mostly harvested in their state.Industry groups including Maine Lobstermen’s Association are suing the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California for defamation, arguing in a lawsuit filed Monday that their prized catch shouldn’t be on a “red list” published by Seafood Watch, a conservation program it operates.Last year, Seafood Watch put lobster from the U.S. and Canada on its list of seafood to avoid due to the threat posed to rare whales by entanglement in fishing gear used to harvest American lobster, the species that makes up most of the U.S. lobster market.Endangered North American right whales number only about 340 and they’ve declined in recent years.But the lobster industry is arguing to the U.S. District Court in Maine that the aquarium’s recommendation relies on...

Peel Region police find missing Nipissing First Nation headdress

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

A headdress belonging to the chief of a northeastern Ontario First Nation has been located after a car it was in was allegedly taken from a hotel parking lot west of Toronto.Nipissing First Nation Chief Scott McLeod says he received a call from Peel Regional Police telling him his car and its contents were found.McLeod says he is grateful to everyone who helped find his vehicle and the headdress that was in it.Peel Regional Police had said on Sunday that the headdress has significant sentimental value and was of historic importance to the Nipissing First Nation, located about 30 kilometres from North Bay, Ont.We are pleased to advise that the @Nipissing_FN Community Chief Headdress has been located & returned to Chief Scott McLeod. Thank you to our @PeelPolice officers for their diligence and for the public assistance in ensuring its safe return. pic.twitter.com/vADQDc1G10— Chief Nishan Duraiappah (@ChiefNish) March 13, 2023Police had said the vehicle that was taken was parked a...

Abortion pill hearing made public after transparency concern

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge is set to hear arguments this week in a lawsuit that poses a threat to the nationwide availability of medication abortion. The upcoming hearing became public Monday after reporting raised concerns that the case with major implications could unfold with little public oversight. The intensely watched lawsuit challenges the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug mifepristone in 2000 and was filed by a group that helped challenge Roe v. Wade. It’s been assigned to a Texas judge who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and is known for conservative views.The ruling could affect states regardless of whether abortion is legal and comes as medication accounts for over half of abortions. The impacts of a ruling against the Food and Drug Administration could take years to play out.The hearing set for Wednesday was first revealed by the Washington Post, which reported that U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk would delay putting it on the publi...

Texas Republicans propose state immigration police force

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas lawmakers are proposing legislation that makes it a state felony to cross the border from Mexico illegally and create a new border police force that could deputize private citizens, the latest in the state’s continued push to test the limits of the federal government’s authority over immigration. Civil rights organizations, immigration advocates and Democrats immediately decried the efforts that began drawing attention after Friday’s deadline for filing bills in Texas’ ongoing biennial legislative session. “Trying to solve what is fundamentally a humanitarian crisis with a full frontal military response shows a reckless disregard for the safety of the people in our state and a fundamental misunderstanding of the root causes of the issues at our border,” Roberto Lopez, senior advocacy manager for the Beyond Borders program at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement.Since President Joe Biden took office, illegal crossings ...

Federal indictment says suburban man stole over $83 million in COVID-19 testing scheme

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:36 GMT

CHICAGO — A man from the Northwest suburbs has been indicted by a federal grand jury after allegedly submitting fraudulent claims to be reimbursed for COVID-19 tests, some of which never happened.Eleven counts are included in the indictment, including ten counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government funds.According to a press release from the US Department of Justice, Zishan Alvi, a 44-year-old man from Inverness, co-owned and operated a lab based in Chicago that allegedly performed PCR and antigen tests to detect the COVID-19 variant SARS-CoV-2, while also offering a service where individuals and companies could pay a fee to receive COVID-19 PCR test results in an expedited fashion. However — from around Feb. 2021 through Feb. 2022 — the indictment alleges Alvi along with others, knowingly and intentionally devised a scheme to defraud the government by causing the lab to submit fraudulent claims and deliver inaccurate and unreliable test results to the public.Governmen...