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Amazon’s internal plans to advance its interests in California are laid bare in leaked memo

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

By HALELUYA HADERO (AP Business Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — An internal Amazon memo has provided a stark look at the company’s carefully laid out plans to grow its influence in Southern California through a plethora of efforts that include burnishing its reputation through charity work and pushing back against “labor agitation” from the Teamsters and other groups.The eight-page document — titled “community engagement plan” for 2024 — provides a rare glimpse into how one of American’s biggest companies executes on its public relations objectives and attempts to curtail reputational harm stemming from criticisms of its business. It also illustrates how Amazon aims to methodically court local politicians and community groups in order to push its interests in a region where it could be hampered by local moratoriums on warehouse development, and it is facing resistance from environmental and labor activists. The memo was leaked to the nonp...

Nevada grand jury indicts six Republicans who falsely certified that Trump won the state in 2020

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

By GABE STERN (Associated Press/Report for America)RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada grand jury on Wednesday indicted six Republicans who submitted certificates to Congress falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election in their state, making Nevada the third to seek charges against so-called “fake electors.”“We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a statement Wednesday. “Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”The fake electors — involved in the state GOP or Clark County GOP — have been charged with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument. Those two categories of felonies have penalties that range from one year up to either four or five years in prison.In December 2020, the six Re...

At least 3 victims, 'No further threat,' Sheriff says after massive police response to shooting at UNLV, campus being evacuated

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- Las Vegas police are reporting a suspect in the UNLV campus shooting Wednesday is dead and police are evacuating one building at a time. Sheriff Kevin McMahill said there is no further threat to campus. A post from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officials confirmed that there were at least three victims, although the extent of those victims' injuries is unknown. Officials say the number of victims could change.Metropolitan police responded to reports of an active shooter at the UNLV campus at around 11:45 a.m. and said "There appears to be multiple victims at this time." Law enforcement responds to active shooter at UNLV campus on Dec. 6, 2023. (KLAS)Law enforcement responds to active shooter at UNLV campus on Dec. 6, 2023. (KLAS)Law enforcement responds to active shooter at UNLV campus on Dec. 6, 2023. (KLAS)Law enforcement responds to active shooter at UNLV campus on Dec. 6, 2023. (KLAS)The off-ramp on I-15 at Tropicana to go eastbound toward the Stri...

Jonathan Majors’ ex describes “substantial” pain caused by actor as defense questions her drinking

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Jonathan Majors’ former girlfriend testified Wednesday about the “substantial” pain she suffered after he allegedly assaulted her in the backseat of a cab this spring, as photos of the woman’s injuries were shared with a Manhattan jury for the first time.In her second day on the witness stand, Grace Jabbari wiped away tears as she recounted the alleged attack by Majors that left her hair caked with blood, her ear swollen, and middle finger “more or less black.” “When I was trying to sleep, I was very aware that I couldn’t lie on the right side of my head,” she said. “It was an everything hurts situation.”Jabbari, a 30-year-old British choreographer, documented her bruised finger and reddened ear in text messages she sent to a friend, which were presented in the courtroom on Wednesday. Majors sat stoically throughout the proceeding, looking at Jabbari at times, but appeared to avert his gaze from the photos.The actor was arrested last March following a dispute with hi...

Senators tackle gun violence anew while Feinstein’s ban on assault weapons fades into history

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a new senator, one of the first votes Democrat Martin Heinrich cast was against legislation from Sen. Dianne Feinstein to reinstate an assault weapons ban in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting.In the decade since, as mass shootings have touched almost every corner of the United States, the New Mexico senator, an avid hunter once endorsed by the NRA, has been considering what it would take to draft legislation that avoids banning guns that Americans use for legitimate purposes while still saving lives.The New Mexico Democrat has also watched his two sons grow up learning how to hunt as well as how to duck and cover in mass-shooter drills that bring him to tears. “I think there’s a generational shift happening,” Heinrich said in an interview with The Associated Press.“It really made those of us who grew up inside gun culture reevaluate our views and think hard about, like, this is not a black and white issue,” he said. “You can accept the fact that gu...

Political shift underway in B.C., says confident Conservative Leader John Rustad

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

VICTORIA — B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad says Premier David Eby and Opposition BC United Leader Kevin Falcon are both looking over their shoulders at the political gains being made by the new kid on the block.Rustad says the presence of his two-member Conservative caucus has stirred debate and changed dialogue at the legislature and the party appears to be gaining momentum with voters as British Columbia’s scheduled fall election approaches.Some recent public opinion polls suggest the Conservatives, who received less than two per cent of the vote in the 2020 election and did not win a seat, would finish in second place if an election were held today.Rustad told a news conference Wednesday that the Conservatives have caused Eby to express anxiety about the party and forced Falcon to change policy, especially with regards to the province’s carbon tax.He says the Conservatives are pulling together a broad coalition of voters, and the party will serve as an alternativ...

CN announces deal to acquire Iowa Northern Railway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

MONTREAL — CN says it’s acquiring Iowa Northern Railway, pending regulatory review. In a press release Thursday evening, CN says it has signed and closed an agreement to acquire the railway, which serves upper Midwest agricultural and industrial markets. The Iowa railway operates approximately 275 track miles in Iowa connecting to CN’s U.S. rail network. CN says the transaction “represents a meaningful opportunity to support the growth of local business by creating single-line service to North American destinations.” Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. CN says a decision from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board regarding the decision is expected in the new year.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:CNR)The Canadian Press

Norfolk Southern to end relocation aid right after one-year anniversary of its fiery Ohio derailment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

Norfolk Southern railroad plans to stop paying relocation aid to people displaced by last February’s fiery derailment in eastern Ohio right after the one-year anniversary of the crash.Railroad officials announced the change this week as they reiterated their long-term commitment to helping the town of East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding area near the Pennsylvania border recover. Norfolk Southern has committed more than $103 million in aid to the area, including nearly $21 million paid out directly to residents whose lives were upended by the derailment.When the train careened off the tracks on the night of Feb. 3, several tank cars filled with hazardous chemicals ruptured and their contents caught fire. Then a few days later officials blew open five more tank cars to keep them from exploding. The chemical spill left residents with lingering health worries about potential long-term effects.With the completion of soil removal from the derailment site in October, the Atlant...

House backs GOP bill to block EPA rule on tailpipe pollution; slams plan as electric-vehicle mandate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans approved a bill Wednesday to block strict new tailpipe pollution limits proposed by the Biden administration, calling the plan a back-door mandate for electric vehicles.A rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would require that up to two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. are electric by 2032, a nearly tenfold increase over current EV sales. The proposed regulation, announced in April, would set tailpipe emissions limits for the 2027 through 2032 model years that are the strictest ever imposed — and call for far more new EV sales than the auto industry agreed to less than two years ago.The EPA says it is not imposing an EV mandate, but Republicans say the plan favors EVs and punishes gas engines, forcing Americans into cars and trucks they can’t afford. “Americans should have the right to decide what products and appliances work best for their family, not the federal government,” said Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Minn., the ...

‘This was not going to end well’: Correctional officer testifies at Soleiman Faqiri inquest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:45 GMT

A former correctional officer testifying at a coroner’s inquest into the death of a mentally ill man at an Ontario jail on Wednesday recalled getting an “incredibly bad sinking feeling” as soon as he saw the man in his segregation cell.Clark Moss was a sergeant at the Central East Correctional Centre when Soleiman Faqiri was in custody in December 2016. He told the inquest he was first called up to the segregation unit where Faqiri was held on Dec. 11 because some of the officers were considering refusing to work there on health and safety grounds due to the overpowering smell coming from Faqiri’s cell. Moss said the smell hit him “like a slap in the face” as soon as he came onto the unit. The stench, and Faqiri’s state of crisis, were affecting everyone on the unit, from correctional staff to other inmates, he said.“It was upsetting to see the conditions and know that he’d been there for days,” Moss told jurors. He grew even more upset...