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Opinion: “The Imperial Supreme Court” has a corruption and a precedent problem

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

Public trust in the Supreme Court is at an all-time low following some of the most polarizing decisions in the last 50 years, ethics issues that have erupted into a corruption crisis, and an unprecedented power grab that has turned the Court into an imperial one.Twin polls from Quinnipiac University and Gallup have recently confirmed the public’s historical disapproval numbers ratings. Gallup first started asking Americans to rate the job the court was doing in September 2000. At that point, 62% of Americans approved. Today, Gallup is at 40% and Quinnipiac is at 36%. Nearly 7 in 10 registered voters think the Court is mainly motivated by politics instead of the law.  And a whopping 63% surveyed would support limiting the number of years a justice can serve on the Court. Yes, please.Meanwhile, back in their ivory tower, we have witnessed the rise of the most activist court in the past century as the six-member ultra-conservative majority has embarked on a radical path to restructure ...

Pair arrested after failed attempt to rob elderly couple in their driveway, police say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

A pair of would-be follow-home robbers who targeted an elderly couple Wednesday afternoon has been arrested, the Upland Police Department announced.The culprits, 29-year-old Jacourie Ishlumati and 28-year-old Janelle Cunningham, followed the victims from a bank to the driveway of their home in the 2000 block of Shorewood Avenue, police said in a social media post."The suspects threatened to hurt the elderly couple if they did not give them money," police said, but the victims' neighbors came outside to help, prompting the would-be robbers to flee.Investigators identified and arrested Ishlumati and Cunningham for robbery on Thursday.They are being held at the West Valley Detention Center in lieu of $50,000 bail.The pair was due to appear in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court Tuesday morning.

Jessica Ramos Killed in Multi-Vehicle Crash on FM 60 [Burleson County, TX]

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

Justin Davis Involved in Collision on FM 60 Left Woman DeadBURLESON COUNTY, TX (September 5, 2023) – Tuesday morning, a multi-vehicle crash on FM 60 left Jessica Ramos dead.The incident occurred on August 2nd, just before 6:46 a.m., in the area of FM 60 in Burleson County.According to reports, Ramos was driving a 2016 Honda eastbound on FM 60. There, a semi-truck driver, in a 2018 Freightliner, was traveling south on FM 50. The semi-truck driver failed to yield the right-of-way and hit the Honda.The truck driver was hurt and was brought to Bryan’s CHI St. Joseph Hospital.Eventually, first responders pronounced 24-year-old Jessica Ramos dead at the scene due to the extent of her injuries.Crews closed the surrounding area for a brief time during cleanup and preliminary duties.No further information regarding the multi-vehicle crash is public at this time; however, more information will be provided once made available.The team at Sweet James sends their warm and sincerest sympath...

Additional sprayings ordered to control Santa Clara County mosquito population amid positive West Nile virus tests

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

SANTA CLARA COUNTY — Sprayings aimed to reduce the adult mosquito population are set to be performed throughout the next week after more insects tested positive for West Nile virus in Santa Clara County.The Santa Clara County Vector Control District announced sprayings around portions of San Jose, Milpitas and unincorporated county areas set for Tuesday, Thursday and Monday.Tuesday night’s spraying was centered on Quimby Road and Ruby Avenue in San Jose and a part of unincorporated Santa Clara County. The affect areas fall within ZIP codes 95121, 95135 and 95148.Thursday’s spraying, also in San Jose and unincorporated areas, will focus on Kirk Road and Tawnygate Way within ZIP codes 95124 and 95118.The district on Tuesday announced the additional measures alongside confirmation that more virus-positive mosquitos were found in portions of San Jose and Milpitas. According to the district, the affected areas fell within ZIP codes 95035 and 95132 and centered around Yellowst...

Everyone loves AMLO, but will they love who comes next?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

Carolina Millan, Maya Averbuch | (TNS) Bloomberg NewsOn a Saturday afternoon in early July, Mexico City’s vast Zócalo square was packed wall-to-wall with supporters gathered to mark the fifth anniversary of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s election to the presidency.Not many political leaders can draw on such devotion, let alone in the final year of their mandate. Still less can they expect the world to have shifted their way, from globalization toward domestic self-resilience, bolstering the economy and adding an air of validity to policy choices once dismissed as idiosyncratic.Yet that’s where López Obrador finds himself as he enters the last leg of his single, six-year term and sets about making his impact on Mexico a lasting one. For all the criticism levelled at him, from his failure to staunch Mexico’s violent crime to a focus on quixotic personal projects and an energy policy that shut out investors, the president enjoys a near-60% approval rating that lifts his Morena party goi...

Texas AG Ken Paxton’s impeachement trial gets under way

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

By Jake Bleiberg and Paul J. Weber | Associated PressAUSTIN, Texas — The impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton began Tuesday and hurtled Republicans into a reckoning over whether to oust a prominent member of their party after years of alleged corruption or stand with one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest defenders.The historic trial — the first impeachment proceedings in Texas in nearly a half-century — is the gravest threat to date for Paxton after spending nearly his entire three terms in office under felony indictment and, later, the clouds of an ongoing FBI investigation.In an era of bitter partisanship across the U.S., the trial is a rare instance of a political party seeking to hold one of its own to account for allegations of wrongdoing. For years in Texas, many Republicans have resisted criticizing or facing head-on the litany of legal troubles surrounding Paxton, who has remained popular among the hard right by aligning himself closely to Tr...

California’s wildfire smoke and climate change: 4 things to know

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

BY ALEJANDRO LAZO | CalMattersWildfires and climate change are locked in a vicious circle: Fires worsen climate change, and climate change worsens fires.Scientists, including those at the World Resources Institute, have been increasingly sounding the alarm about this feedback loop, warning that fires don’t burn in isolation — they produce greenhouse gases that, in turn, create warmer and drier conditions that ignite more frequent and intense fires.Last week, wildfire smoke prompted another round of unhealthy air quality in California. Fires in Oregon and Northern California sent smoke into Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area. And it’s a global nightmare: This summer, world temperatures hit an all-time high, the worst U.S. wildfire in more than a century devastated Maui, a deadly fire in Greece was declared Europe’s largest ever, and swaths of the Midwest and Northeast have been blanketed by smoke from Canada’s forest fires.As California’s most intense wildfire months approach,...

13-year-old boy found drowned in Las Vegas floodwaters caused by heavy rain

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

LAS VEGAS — A 13-year-old boy drowned over the weekend in floodwaters amid a series of late-summer storms that drenched Las Vegas and caused widespread flooding throughout the desert valley.The teenager was identified Monday by the Clark County coroner’s office as Ryan Taylor of Las Vegas. His death was ruled an accidental drowning.A person walks through floodwaters near a stranded car, Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)A Clark County Fire Department official searches for people in floodwaters in a flood channel Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)A Clark County Fire Department official searches for a man who was trapped in floodwaters in a flood channel Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)Clark County Fire Department officials searche for a man who was trapped in floodwaters in a flood channel Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)Show Caption of ExpandRelated ArticlesCrime and Public ...

Woody Allen fails to mention he allegedly tried to seduce teen Mariel Hemingway in new interview

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

Woody Allen is back — premiering what he said could be his last movie at the Venice Film Festival and giving a buzzy interview in which he once again denied allegations that he molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was 7 and dismissed efforts to “cancel” him as “silly.”In the interview with Variety, the 87-year-old auteur also made the case again that he could be a “poster boy” for the #MeToo movement because he’s always written great roles for women — including Diane Keaton, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Cate Blanchett — and because, he insists, he never acted inappropriately with any of the hundreds of actresses and female crew members he has employed on his productions over the past half century.Woody Allen sits with Mariel Hemingway at Yankee Stadium in New York, during the World Series Oct. 13, 1978. But in his Variety interview, Allen appeared to have forgotten that Mariel Hemingway once sai...

United ground stop lifted for U.S. and Canada

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:39 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A nationwide ground stop issued by United Airlines earlier due to an equipment outage has been lifted, according to the Federal Aviation Administration."United Airlines asked the FAA to pause the airline's departures nationwide," read a statement from the FAA. A duty manager at SFO told KRON4 that United is currently experiencing a systemwide software glitch that started around 9:15 a.m. Tourist desperate to find French bulldog stolen in San Francisco "We are experiencing a systemwide technology issue and are holding all aircraft at their departure airports," a United spokesperson told KRON4. "Flights that are already airborne are continuing to their destination as planned."The airline said it is investigating and will share more as information becomes available.Normal service is expected to resume by 11 a.m.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.