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Barring Speakers Under U.S. Sanctions Puts Ideas Off-Limits, Say Free Speech Advocates

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

A lawsuit filed Wednesday says the U.S. government violated the First Amendment when it prevented a U.S.-based organization from hosting people sanctioned by the U.S. as speakers at a conference earlier this year. The suit, if successful, could have far-reaching implications for placing federal limits on freedom of speech when sanctioned or otherwise designated people or groups are involved.The complaint, filed by Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, argues that the decision made by the Office of Foreign Assets Control could have consequences for public discourse, including whether news outlets could publish interviews with individuals designated under U.S. sanctions law.For the lawyers bringing the suit, the current curtailment of speech based on sanctions amounts to the policing of thought. “The question at the core of the case is what control the U.S. government has over the American mind and whether it can effectively insulate Americans from ideas and peo...

Industrial Killing of Civilians in Gaza Won’t Defeat the Armed Insurgency

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

An aerial view of a mass burial of Palestinians who were killed by Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Nov. 22, 2023.Photo: Mohammad Fayq/Anadolu via Getty ImagesConfronted with an endless list of well-documented Israeli war crimes, the Biden administration has responded with overwhelming support for a genocidal war of annihilation against the Palestinians of Gaza. For more than two months, the White House has engaged in a public campaign of gaslighting as it has feigned concern over the fate of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents while simultaneously maintaining the flow of weapons, intelligence, and political cover to an Israeli regime that has made clear its intent to “flatten” Gaza and force its intentionally dehumanized survivors into an ever-shrinking killing cage.President Joe Biden, facing historically low popularity heading into the 2024 election, reportedly now wants Israel to move to a “less kinetic” phase of its war by early next year. This is simply the latest effort by t...

News helicopter crashes in New Jersey forest, killing pilot and photographer

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Investigators were looking for evidence Wednesday of what caused a news helicopter to crash in the New Jersey Pinelands the night before, killing the pilot and photographer on board.Chopper 6 from WPVI-TV in Philadelphia was returning from an assignment at the Jersey Shore when it went down Tuesday night in a section of Wharton State Forest in Washington Township, Burlington County, authorities said.The TV station said the crash occurred around 8 p.m. The New Jersey State Park Police said they were notified of a helicopter that had gone missing shortly before 11 p.m.The station did not identify the workers, saying family members were still being notified.But during a live report in which she choked up with emotion, reporter Maggie Kent told of speaking with colleagues of the crew members at Northeast Philadelphia Airport, where the chopper was based.“They are described as the best guys that you would want to know, on the job for decades,” she said. “...

Conoce a los enemigos de Aurelio Casillas en la nueva temporada de “El Señor de los Cielos”

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

La novena temporada de “El Señor de los Cielos” que se estrenará en febrero por Telemundo, promete una descarga de acción cuando el notorio Aurelio Casillas, protagonizado por Rafael Amaya, deba enfrentar a dos persistentes adversarios en su novena temporada: El Cabo, interpretado por Robinson Díaz, y Belén San Román, a cargo de la icónica actriz mexicana Itatí Cantoral.  Se soltó la bestia: nuevo tráiler de la novena temporada de El Señor de los Cielos Video: el primer adelanto de la nueva temporada de El Señor de los Cielos Ambos personajes inyectarán una nueva dosis de intriga y complejidad a la historia en la que se desatará la bestia que Aurelio Casillas lleva en la sangre. “EL CABO” (ROBINSON DÍAZ):Uno de los favoritos de la audiencia, el infame Cabo regresa para demostrar una vez más por qué es considerado el enemigo más despiadado de Aurelio Casillas. Tras su último ataque contra el clan Casillas, El Cabo ...

Poland’s new Cabinet moves to free state media from previous government’s political control

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new pro-European Union government has begun to wrestle control of the country’s state media and some other state agencies from the conservative party that consolidated its grip on them during eight years in power.The Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which took office last week, said Wednesday it had fired the directors of the state television and radio outlets and the government-run news agency. It seeks to reestablish independent media in Poland in a legally binding and lasting way. Tusk’s government has made it a priority to restore objectivity and free expression in state media, which the previous government, under the Law and Justice party, used as aggressive propaganda tools, attacking Tusk and the opposition and spreading its euroskeptic views. During its rule, Law and Justice cut corners and ignored some procedures to gain control of the media supervisory bodies and of the key appointments as it tightened its grip.The new government...

Denver restaurant recognized nationally for having one of best dishes in US

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — There are an endless number of restaurants in the U.S. and even more delicious dishes, and yet, a Denver dish was named one of the best of 2023.The New York Times put together a list of "23 of the Best American Dishes of 2023." Every year, they send reporters and editors across the country to search for the best restaurants, and during their travels, they find one-of-a-kind dishes. 2 Denver restaurants make The New York Times’ best restaurant list "Each year as we travel the country to scout out candidates for our many best-restaurant lists — whether the big national listing in the early fall or the new 'best of' city lists we’ve begun rolling out — our reporters and editors eat hundreds of meals in dozens of states. Inevitably we come across that one dish that we almost wish we’d ordered two of, and wish we could find closer to home," said the New York Times.Hearth bread at BrutøThe New York Times said one dish at Denver's B...

President Biden denounces Trump as 'doubling down' on support for insurrection

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — President Joe Biden said it's “self-evident” that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss but stopped short of commenting on a Colorado legal case that would bar him from the state's ballot.The Democratic president made the comments about his likely Republican opponent in next year's election shortly after landing in Milwaukee for an event focused on the economy.“Whether the 14th Amendment applies or not, we’ll let the court make that decision," Biden told reporters on the tarmac after stepping off Air Force One. "But he certainly supported an insurrection. There’s no question about it. None. Zero. And he seems to be doubling down on it.” Trump banned from Colorado ballot in historic ruling by state Supreme Court The Colorado Supreme Court issued a decision on Tuesday declaring that Trump is ineligible to serve as president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It's the first time in the country's history that the provisio...

Closing arguments set in final trial of first responders charged in Eljah McClain's death

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Closing arguments are scheduled for Wednesday in the final trial of first responders prosecuted in the death of Elijah McClain.The 23-year-old Black man died in 2019 after being stopped and forcibly restrained by police officers in the Denver suburb of Aurora and then injected with an overdose of ketamine, a sedative, by paramedics.The officers already have gone to trial and two were acquitted, including one who has since returned to work for the Aurora Police Department. The third officer was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault.Aurora Fire Department paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec are being tried for manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault. Defense rests in paramedics’ trial over Elijah McClain’s death The defense has argued that Cooper and Cichuniec followed their training in giving ketamine to McClain after diagnosing him with “excited delirium,” a disputed condition some say is unscientific and has...

Estrangement in the family can be hard during the holidays. How to manage expectations

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

Darcel Rockett | Chicago Tribune (TNS)CHICAGO — Since the end of 2019, Arlette Martin has not spoken to her daughter, who lives less than a 10-minute drive from her. In that time, her only child missed celebrating Martin’s 50th birthday and Martin wasn’t invited to her daughter’s wedding.“I’ve never spoken to my daughter, hugged or touched her since New Year’s Eve 2019,” said Martin, of Peru, Illinois. “My ex-husband’s side of the family, she’s still in a relationship with them. It’s just my side of the family, she’s not.”Over the years, Martin said, she attempted unsuccessfully to talk with her 29-year-old child through letters, emails and texts and by showing up at her residence.Martin says she and other parents in similar situations with their adult children are falling apart because of estrangement, the voluntary act of having no contact or limited contact with a family member, or intentionally distancing oneself because of a negative relationship.According to studies, par...

The Chicago Bears have played 8 times on Christmas Eve and twice on Christmas Day. Here’s how they’ve done since 1989.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:26:34 GMT

Playing on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day has only been a possibility for the Chicago Bears since the 1980s.Why? From the league’s start in 1920, the NFL season required fewer regular-season games and its championship usually concluded before or avoided altogether the December holidays.That changed in April 1971, when it was announced four playoff games would take place on Dec. 25-26. This arrangement — with two games each day — meant all four games could be broadcast nationally.As the holidays drew nearer, however, fans became vocal.“I enjoy football, but is it really necessary to play on Christmas Day?” an angry caller told Joe McGuff, then the sports editor for the Kansas City Star. “This is a religious day, a family day. But apparently it makes no difference to the people who run professional football.”When NFL executive director Jim Kensil was asked in early December 1971 why the two games scheduled for Christmas Day couldn’t be p...