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Former Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson announces White House bid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

(CNN) — Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has announced that he’s running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, launching a challenge to former President Donald Trump, who remains the front-runner despite his looming criminal indictment.“I’m convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts,” Hutchinson, 72, said in an interview on ABC New that aired Sunday, noting that a formal announcement would come later this month in his hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.The GOP primary field is still in its early stages. Trump announced a third presidential campaign last year, while Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations, became the first major rival to challenge him when she announced her bid in February. A number of other Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, have...

With Bam Adebayo out, Heat may have found their next big things

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

No, the Miami Heat were not the big story in South Florida basketball on Saturday night, not with the emotional ends of the season for the University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University at the NCAA Final Four.But there still was a big story for the Heat in a season that now is assured of rolling on beyond the April 9 end of the NBA regular season.On a night center Bam Adebayo was unable to go because of a hip contusion, the Heat found salvation and redemption by alternate means in their power mix in their victory over the Dallas Mavericks, steps forward that could yet solidify the team’s rotation going into the postseason.With Adebayo out, amid uncertainty of where he stands for the team’s final four regular-season games, veteran journeyman Cody Zeller moved into the starting lineup and produced a 20-point, eight- rebound game.In addition, Kevin Love then stepped back into the reserve role in which he thrived last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers and led the Heat...

As Oceanside hospital reconsiders women and newborn services, nurses demand it stay open

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- Registered nurses at Tri-City Medical Center gathered outside the Oceanside hospital on Friday to demand that women and newborn services remain open, as the Board of Directors reconsiders the recently underutilized department.This comes as the department has seen a decline in referrals of pregnant patients to Tri-City, prompting the board to re-evaluate the department's financial viability. At the rally and board meeting Friday, nurses who work in the department -- which is made up of the neonatal intensive care, labor and delivery and postpartum units -- voiced their concerns about shuttering these crucial services to hospital management. EPA gives green-light to phase out diesel-powered semi-trucks in California “Save our unit, we are important,” said NICU nurse, Marinnee Schompe. “We are not just a part that we can be replaced easily. I feel like we are important enough to maintain us."But with decreased deliveries over the last few years, Tri-City Interim ...

More Ecuadorians move to US, spared many others’ hurdles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

SPRING VALLEY, New York (AP) — Kléver Ortega and Cristina Lema had a good life until COVID-19 crippled Ecuador’s economy.Ortega was a house-painting contractor and there was work until demand dried up in the pandemic. The entrepreneurial couple launched a pair of food stands. “Then the pandemic hit those, too,” Lema said. With unemployment, instability and crime rising, they decided to leave for the U.S., following many friends, family and acquaintances.“We used to hear it in the street: ‘They left. Look who else abandoned their business and took off,’” Lema said. “That’s when we, too, told ourselves, ‘We aren’t earning enough to survive or pay debts.’”Ecuador — long known for remarkably low rates of crime, despite sitting in South America’s cocaine heartland — is earthquake-prone and has been struggling economically, fighting higher violence and losing its people in record numbers. Like Ortega and Lema, many are headed to the U.S.; the number of Ecuadorians detained near the border...

Christian faithful mark Palm Sunday in Jerusalem

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Christian pilgrims participated in Palm Sunday celebrations in Jerusalem at the start of the Holy Week.Worshipers carried palm fronds and olive branches and marched from the top of the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem’s historic Old City, home to holy sites of the three Abrahamic monotheistic faiths.Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa and other Catholic clergy took part in the traditional procession, and handed out palm fronds to believers before leading them in a procession inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where tradition holds that Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and is the start of the church’s most solemn week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Jesus’ crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter.The procession made its way from the Mount of Olives past the Garden of Gethsemane where, according to biblical tradition, Jesus was betrayed, t...

Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto dies at 71

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Ryuichi Sakamoto, a Japanese musician who scored for Hollywood movies such as “The Last Emperor” and “The Revenant,” has died. He was 71.Japan’s recording company Avex said in a statement that Sakamoto died on March 28.Sakamoto, who had suffered from cancer in recent years, had also acted in films, including playing a Japanese soldier in “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.” He was a pioneer in electronics music of the late 1970s, founding the Yellow Magic Orchestra with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. He has been nominated several times for the Grammy Award, and won for his work in “The Last Emperor.” The Associated Press

Man converts Tesla into film studio for journey to recount love story in the North

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

A man making a film based on his experiences living in Northern Canada in the early 1970s has found an unusual way to work on his project while travelling in the region.Johnathan Zoesman converted a Tesla into a travelling film studio and drove the electric vehicle from his home in Petersburgh, N.Y., all the way to the Arctic Ocean in the middle of winter. He had taken photos where the story took place five decades ago and spoke to people along the journey.“The Tesla seemed like the perfect thing to do it in,” he said. “I wasn’t going to arrive into the world as a great filmmaker in an old beater. If I was going to arrive it would be in a self-driving car.”Zoesman said his film centres on the “very intense and tragic love story” between himself and his late partner, Maggie Goldberg, after they moved to the North from Quebec.“This was the late ’60s, early ’70s, and we were just so disappointed in the world that we lived in,&...

Banks face rising shareholder pressure through climate resolutions as AGMs loom

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

TORONTO — It was only after his flight landed in Toronto last year that Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief Na’Moks learned that Royal Bank of Canada had cancelled its in-person annual general meeting with less than a day’s notice.The bank cited COVID-19 as the reason it moved the event entirely online, but those assembled to protest the bank’s climate record were left wondering if there was more to it andNa’Moks says he was insulted that executives weren’t willing to face him.Undeterred, he is trying again this year. Na’Moks will head to Saskatoon for the bank’s April 5 meeting, where he plans to share his concerns about its fossil fuel funding and encourage the assembled shareholders to support a resolution related to respecting Indigenous rights. “Dave McKay, he’s the CEO, but he has to listen to the people that do business with him,” said Na’Moks.The resolution he’s pushing, put forth by the B.C. General Employees’ Union with the support of the Unio...

Police reform divides community where cop killed Black man

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

The Rev. James Stokes remembers Grand Rapids following the slaying of George Floyd, when demonstrations devolved into rioting that left businesses damaged and scores of people arrested.Stokes and other leaders in the western Michigan city desperately wanted to avoid a similar outbreak of violence when a white Grand Rapids police officer fatally shot Patrick Lyoya, a Black motorist, last April. After video of that shooting was publicly released, outrage in the community grew, and some feared a violent response. But the protests — while loud and angry — were peaceful. No buildings were burned. No shops were looted.City leaders say policing reforms and outreach to Grand Rapids’ Black community, including the clergy, helped to keep the peace after Lyoya’s slaying. Others believe the reform efforts have been slow and their impact superficial at best.“We knew what potentially could have happened,” said Stokes, pastor of New Life Tabernacle church. “As pastors, we g...

One in four college applicants avoids entire states for political reasons

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

(The Hill) – A new survey, drawing notice in academia, shows that 1 in 4 applicants decided against applying to a college this year solely because of the politics in its state. The finding, long rumored in college admissions circles, has dire implications for some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions. Tulane University in Louisiana, Stanford in California, Rice in Texas, Columbia in New York and the University of Miami all pride themselves on assembling a class from large pools of applicants drawn from every state. In the public sector, the University of Alabama counts on out-of-state admissions for revenue, enrolling nearly three-fifths of its students from outside its borders. Yet, large numbers of conservative and liberal applicants ruled out those schools, along with their states, because of partisan politics.  “When you’re making a decision about a school, it’s really about choosing a community to live in,” said Chloe Chaffin, 20, a junior...