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LIVE BLOG: Tracking the Chicago mayor runoff election results

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

CHICAGO — It's Election Day and the race for Chicago mayor will be decided in a runoff election.The race pits former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas, a moderate Democrat endorsed by Chicago’s police union and several trade unions, against progressive Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer backed by the Chicago Teachers Union and several public sector unions. Tuesday's runoff election is due to no candidate receiving over 50% of the vote on the Feb. 28 election. On that day, Vallas, 69, was the majority frontrunner. Johnson, 46, followed and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot finished third in the polls. The soon-to-be-ousted Lightfoot was the first city mayor in 40 years to seek reelection and lose.Vallas has been endorsed by at least 20 council members, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and three of his rival candidates; Willie Wilson, Ald. Sophia King (4th Ward) and Ja’Mal Green. He has raked in big campaign cash since Feb. 28, getting nearly $10 million from bu...

Black leaders pay tribute to MLK on 55th anniversary of assassination

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was on his way to dinner in Memphis, Tenn. As he was standing on the balcony of his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel, he was fatally shot. “Today, 55 years ago my life changed forever,” Rev. Bernice A. King, CEO of The King Center and King’s daughter, tweeted on Tuesday. “At 5 years of age my father was violently taken from me and my family. Although the void persists... I choose to love anyway.” King was among many this week to honor the slain civil rights leader and to share how the work to achieve his dream is still strong.Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) said Tuesday was a day of reflection for the nation. “As we observe the 55th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we must not only remember the tragic loss of a great civil rights leader, but also reflect on the continuing struggle for justice and equality,” Green said in a statement to The Hill.“We owe it to posterity to continue...

Cruise passenger falls off balcony, dies after ship leaves Florida

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

MIAMI (WFLA) — A passenger died on a cruise ship departing Miami Sunday after falling off a balcony, according to reports.The incident happened shortly after Virgin Voyages' Valiant Lady left Miami en route to Roatan, Honduras on Sunday, a spokesperson told Insider.In a statement, the company spokesperson said the passenger fell from their balcony and landed on another person on the lower deck. Man goes overboard from Carnival cruise ship in Gulf of Mexico According to Virgin Voyages, the first passenger died of their injuries but the second one was not seriously hurt."We are deeply saddened by this loss of life and our hearts and thoughts are with this person's loved ones," the cruise line's statement said.Additional details about the incident weren't immediately available. The ship returned to Miami Monday after the deadly incident but resumed its voyage, according to NBC News.

Don't use the front passenger seat in these 140K recalled vehicles, Volkswagen says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – Volkswagen is warning not people not to sit in the front passenger seat of over 140,000 of their SUVs that are now under recall.The recall pertains to 143,053 2018-2021 Atlas and 2020 Atlas Cross Sport vehicles, according a National Health Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) release.Volkswagen warns that, because of faulty wiring, the occupant detection system might fail to recognize someone sitting in the front passenger seat and mistakenly deactivate the air bag. These seemingly ordinary things will get you sent home from the Masters "Until the free recall repair is developed and completed, owners should not allow anyone to sit in the front passenger seat," the release stated. "Volkswagen is currently developing a remedy and will notify affected owners as soon as the repair is available."If the vehicle has faulty passenger occupant detection system, or PODS, Volkswagen says it will trigger an error message and a warning sound.Volkswagen will be notifying ow...

2 APD officers cleared in use-of-force deadly March 2022 shooting, Travis County DA says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas -- A Travis County special grand jury cleared two Austin Police Department officers in a March 2022 use-of-force incident that left one man dead, according to a news release from the Travis County District Attorney's Office.On March 6, 2022, APD officers, including Britton Taylor and Charles Wesley, were near Interstate 35 and East St. John's Avenue investigating a separate shooting incident, the release said. APD releases body cam video of deadly March 6 police shooting in central Austin While on the scene, Taylor and Wesley heard three gunshots, ran to where the gunshots were heard and found Miguel Ruiz-Rivera, the release said. Ruiz-Rivera didn't comply with multiple commands from officers and shot a handgun in the direction of both officers, according to the DA.Taylor and Wesley shot at Ruiz-Rivera, hitting him multiple times, the release said. Officers attempted life-saving measures, but Ruiz-Rivera did not survive.“The District Attorney’s office takes th...

Dozens of activists head to the capitol to protest 'anti-DEI' legislation 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Dozens of activists went to the Texas Capitol Tuesday to protest several bills they posit are anti-DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – saying these bills set back progress African Americans have made in recent decades. “Make no mistake, these bills are anti-Black and anti-Latino. We’re talking about everything from the continuation of suppressing voting rights to eliminating programs in Texas colleges and universities that help recruit, retain and support African American students as well as other students of color,” said Gary Bledsoe, President of the Texas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Two bills the activists called out were HB 5140, filed by House Rep. Briscoe Cain, and HB 3164, filed by House Rep. Carl Tepper. If HB 5140 passes it will prohibit recruiters filling roles for government employment or contracting from considering race and ethnicity when hiring. It would also prohibit universities...

Mike Hastings cherishes ‘special opportunity’ at Wisconsin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

MADISON, Wis. — It was a bit of an unconventional introduction to those who wish him nothing but success, but when new Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey coach Mike Hastings met the fans and his future players on the ice at the Kohl Center, he grinned and admitted his ties to a kind of hockey underworld.Interviewed by Badgers radio voice Brian Posick after his formal introduction, to the strains of the Badger band playing “On Wisconsin,” Hastings admitted that his three greatest coaching mentors — Don Lucia, Bob Motzko and Dean Blais — are all current or former coaches or players for the Minnesota Gophers, and are collectively playfully known as the “Minnesota Mafia.”“They’ve always been there, and when I’ve needed them, they’ve answered the phone, which I’ve had to do often,” Hastings said. “I’m thankful to have the relationships I’ve had with those guys, because they’ve put me in a good spot.”Posick was quick to remind Hastings that, as the Badgers coach, one of the ...

Obituary: Vera Tanasichuk, church founder and benefactor, never took no for an answer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

After her mother had a stroke and had to be carried up 67 steps to church, Vera Tanasichuk came up with a plan.Vera Tanasichuk (Courtesy of Kristina Tanasichuk)Tanasichuk would purchase a 4.75-acre parcel of land on Highway 96 in Arden Hills and donate $1 million to replace Sts. Volodymyr and Olga Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Holly Avenue in St. Paul. The new St. Katherine’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a handicapped-accessible building that could meet her mother’s needs, opened in 1995.“My mother taught me, ‘You just don’t take no for an answer when you have to do something in life,’” Tanasichuk told the Pioneer Press in a 1995 interview.Tanasichuk died of natural causes on Wednesday at her house in St. Paul. She was 82.Family fled UkraineTanasichuk was 8 when she and her family immigrated to the United States. Her parents, Andrij and Katherine Zaslavetz, were forced to flee Ukraine after Russian soldiers shot and burned Andrij Zaslavetz’s three brothers and their f...

Gophers men’s hockey: Beautiful contradictions fuel Matthew Knies’ drive for national title, and the Hobey

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

It was a tense time in Fargo with the Minnesota Gophers and St. Cloud State Huskies trying to end each other’s season. Minnesota led 1-0 in the first period, and while the deeper Gophers had dominated the early stretches of the game, Huskies goalie Jaxon Castor had kept it close. An officiating crew from Hockey East had sent Gophers to the penalty box with regularity, and the Huskies had used that man advantage to tilt the momentum in their favor.Then Matthew Knies, the Gophers’ sophomore left winger who has become known for his amazing on-ice feats, made a play that was within inches of being etched in Gophers’ lore. Killing a penalty, he took the puck to the corner to the right of Castor with three Huskies converging on him. From that unfair 3-on-1 trap, like Jack Reacher emerging from a street fight, Knies left all three black-jerseyed opponents — Cooper Wylie, Adam Ingram and Veeti Miettinen — grasping at air, and pulled the puck out of the fracas. With Aaron Huglen ...

A look at Juan Merchan, the Manhattan jurist overseeing Trump’s business records case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:51 GMT

Tim Balk | New York Daily NewsEx-president Donald Trump’s hush money case is being overseen by a veteran Manhattan Supreme Court jurist who also heard the Trump Organization tax fraud trial that in January ended in a jail term for Trump confidant and aide Allen Weisselberg.Justice Juan Merchan, a 60-year-old former prosecutor who was born in Colombia and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, carries a reputation as a thorough and even-handed judge, and has spent more than a decade on the bench in New York.He attended Baruch College and Hofstra University School of Law and worked as an assistant attorney in the Manhattan district attorney’s office in the 1990s. From 2006 to 2009, he worked as a family court judge. He has served as an acting justice of the state Supreme Court since 2009.Brendan Tracy, a criminal defense lawyer who has appeared before Merchan as a prosecutor, said the judge is well-suited for a high-wattage case like the one against Trump.“He truly strikes me as probably ...