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South Carolina ready to renew abortion ban around 6 weeks of pregnancy after Senate vote

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

By JAMES POLLARD (Associated Press/Report for America)COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy — before most people know they are pregnant – and sent it to the governor who has promised to sign it.The proposal restores a ban South Carolina had in place when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year — a ban that, once it took effect, was overturned by the state’s highest court because it violated the state Constitution’s right to privacy.Republicans have been searching for an answer to that ruling because it left abortion legal through 22 weeks of pregnancy and sharply increased the number of abortions taking place in South Carolina as most other Southern states enacted stricter laws.The bill includes exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies, the patient’s life and health, and rape or incest up to 12 weeks. Doctors could face felony char...

Nikki Haley hits New Hampshire as Republican field grows

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

Nikki Haley is back in the Granite State just as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to announce he’s joining her in the GOP presidential field.Haley announced she would make a requisite yet traditional campaign stop for breakfast in New Hampshire.Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump, will be in Goffstown Wednesday morning at the Saint Anselm College for the “Politics and Eggs” speaker series.Presented by The New England Council and The New Hampshire Institute of Politics & Political Library at Saint Anselm College, the morning event is a pre-presidential “must stop” and has been since its start in 1995.Though Haley is the first declared candidate to take the stage in Goffstown, she isn’t the only presidential prospect to stop for scrambled eggs and bacon this cycle.The event has already hosted Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, though before he announced his campaign, as well as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ...

BC tops Virginia Tech 11-7 in ACC tournament opener

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

Boston College kicked off the ACC baseball tournament with an 11-7 victory over Virginia Tech in Pool C play on Tuesday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C.The No. 6 seed Eagles improved to 35-17 and will take engage the No. 3 seed Clemson Tigers on Friday morning (11) with a trip to the semifinals on the line. BC is 3-1 against Virginia Tech this season.Down 3-0 in the third, BC got a pair of two-run doubles by Joe Vetrano and Nick Wang to take a 4-3 lead. The Hokies responded with three runs in the top of the fourth to go up 6-4.BC center fielder Barry Walsh opened the bottom of the sixth with a solo 400-foot home run. Wang followed with a three-run single down the third base line to put the Eagles up 8-6. BC added two more in the seventh on a two-run single by Vetrano and scored one in the eighth. Wang drove in five or more runs in a game for the third time this season.Henry Leake threw 2.1 innings of scoreless middle relief to pick up his fourth win. Andrew Roman came o...

Ticker: Father and son duo jailed in lottery scheme; Medicaid to audit high price drugs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

A father and son from Watertown have both been sent to prison for running an elaborate lottery fraud scheme designed to enrich themselves and help prize winners avoid paying taxes on their windfall, prosecutors said.Ali Jaafar, 63, and Yousef Jaafar, 29, both of Watertown, cashed in 14,000 winning lottery tickets over a roughly 10-year period, laundered more than $20 million in proceeds, and then lied on their tax returns to cheat the IRS out of about $6 million, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston announced Monday.The Jaafars purchased winning lottery tickets at a discount from people who wanted to avoid identification by the state lottery commission, which withholds taxes and outstanding child support payments from payouts.Medicaid to audit high price drugsThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Tuesday it is planning to conduct a yearly audit to verify the prices drug makers charge on a handful of the costliest prescriptions covered by Medicaid.Drugs that cost ...

Racial abuse against Vinícius Júnior brings arrests and partial closure of Valencia stadium

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spanish police took action Tuesday after the latest case of abuse against Vinícius Júnior, arresting seven people accused of racially insulting the Real Madrid player.Spanish soccer officials also acted, fining Valencia 45,000 euros ($48,500) and closing part of the team’s stadium for the next five games.Three people were detained in Valencia for alleged abuse against Vinícius in Sunday’s match between Valencia and Madrid. Four were arrested in Madrid for allegedly hanging an effigy of the player off a highway bridge in January.The arrests came after an outpouring of support for Vinícius after he said he was abused in Valencia. The case prompted widespread reaction from sports figures and government officials in Spain and worldwide.The section of Mestalla Stadium that will be closed is where the insults against Vinícius came from, behind one of the goals. It’s also where the club’s more hardcore fans usually are located.The Spanish federation...

Wes Anderson on his new ’50s-set film ‘Asteroid City,’ AI and all those TikTok videos

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

CANNES, France (AP) — When Wes Anderson comes down from Paris for the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France, he and his actors don’t stay in one of Cannes’ luxury hotels but more than an hour down the coast and well outside the frenzy of the festival.“When we arrived here yesterday, we arrived at a calm, peaceful hotel,” Anderson said in a interview. “We’re one hour away, but it’s a total normal life.”Normal life can mean something different in a Wes Anderson film, and that may be doubly so in his latest, “Asteroid City.” It’s among Anderson’s most charmingly chock-full creations, a much-layered, ’50s-set fusion of science fiction, midcentury theater and about a hundred other influences ranging from Looney Tunes to “Bad Day at Black Rock.”“Asteroid City,” which Focus Features will release June 16, premiered Tuesday in Cannes. Anderson and his starry cast — including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, ...

Maine’s top gambling regulator on paid leave following tweets

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine’s top gambling regulator has been placed on paid administrative leave following tweets posted from his personal account about women and a white nationalist group, spokesperson for the state’s Department of Public Safety said Tuesday.Milt Champion, executive director of the Gambling Control Unit, was placed on leave May 17 because of the tweets, Lt. Thomas Pickering, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety, wrote in an email to The Associated Press.Champion’s case is “pending a review that is being conducted by the Bureau of Human Resources,” Pickering wrote. “Given that this is an ongoing, personnel-related matter, the department is unable to comment further.”Messages sent to Champion and members of the Gambling Control Unit were not immediately returned Tuesday. The tweets were sent May 6 and May 14, and had been removed by Tuesday. In one of them, Champion tweeted about being told it was inappropriate to refer to women as “lad...

Drag performers sue southern Utah city over permit denial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) — A Utah-based group that organizes drag performances is suing the small, conservative city of St. George for blocking an event marketed as a show for all ages.Southern Utah Drag Stars and its CEO Mitski Avalōx accuse St. George of “flagrant and ongoing violations of their free speech, due process, and equal protection rights,” said the lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court. They argue that the city invoked an ordinance that had never been enforced in a manner that was selective and discriminatory toward the LGBTQ+ community.“The City has employed its unfettered discretion under the ordinances to discriminatorily enforce them,” the performers and the ACLU argue in the complaint.Drag has been the target of new scrutiny from Republicans throughout the country, including in statehouses where lawmakers have sought bans. The city of St. George said it had not been served with the lawsuit as of Tuesday afternoon and did not have any comment.The Associated Press

Montana first to ban people dressed in drag from reading to children in schools, libraries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana has become the first state to specifically ban people dressed in drag from reading books to children at public schools and libraries, part of a host of legislation aimed at the rights the LGBTQ+ community in Montana and other states.“It’s just constitutionally suspect on all levels,” said Sasha Buchert, an attorney with Lambda Legal, a national organization that seeks to protect the civil rights of the LGBTQ+ community and those diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. Buchert said on Tuesday that the bill limits free speech and seeks to chill an effort that helps transgender youth know they are not alone. It’s the first bill the organization knows of that directly bans drag reading events.The bill, which was co-sponsored by more than half of the Republican-controlled legislature, took immediate effect after Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed it on Monday.The bill initially sought to ban minors from attending drag performances, which were defined as s...

Boycotting Oregon GOP senators vow to stay away until last day of session

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:42 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Republican senators whose walkout of the Oregon Senate has prevented a quorum for almost three weeks said Tuesday they’re not coming back until the very last day of the legislative session next month.The walkout, which began on May 3 ostensibly because bill summaries weren’t written at an eighth grade level as required by a long-forgotten law, has derailed progress on hundreds of bills, including a sweeping measure on abortion rights and gender-affirming care that the conservatives particularly object to.An email from Republican leader Sen. Tim Knopp’s office said the Republicans and Independent Sen. Brian Boquist would return on June 25, the end of the legislative session, to pass “bipartisan” budgets and bills.“We are the last line of defense to hold the majority accountable,” Knopp said.The crisis in Oregon’s statehouse is a microcosm of the deeply partisan politics playing out nationwide, including recently in Tennessee and in Montana.R...