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Planning a trip? Oregon’s magic mushroom experiment advances

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s pioneering experiment with legalized magic mushrooms took a step closer to reality as the first “facilitators” who will accompany clients as they experience the drug received their state licenses, authorities said Tuesday.Voters approved the regulated use of psilocybin in a 2020 ballot measure, and anticipation has been building over the past 2 1/2 years for the day — expected to come later this year — when people can gain access to the drug that studies indicate has therapeutic value. Hundreds of people have invested thousands of dollars apiece in this budding industry, and some worry that the rollout is proceeding too slowly. “We thank you for your dedication to client safety and access as we move closer to opening service centers,” Oregon Psilocybin Services Manager Angie Allbee said in a statement Tuesday to three people who received the state’s first facilitator licenses.But to date, no service centers — where customers would access...

‘Be skeptical’: Toronto police warn of ongoing pizza delivery scam

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

Toronto police are warning of an ongoing pizza delivery scam following several reports of victims being frauded by fake drivers.Authorities say a dark-coloured vehicle with a Domino’s Pizza sign has been sighted in large retail store parking lots. It’s alleged a female suspect poses as a customer and a male suspect poses as the delivery driver.A female suspect approaches the victim, asking for help paying for the pizza delivery fee with a debit card, claiming the driver is not accepting cash.Police said the victim is convinced to help by letting the female suspect use their debit card to pay for the pizza in exchange for receiving cash.The target is then taken over to the fake pizza delivery vehicle, where they provide the male suspect with their debit card. A PIN will then be entered into a modified point-of-sale terminal that records the PIN and debit card information.After the successful transaction, the victim is given a different bank card that resembles theirs. The...

Missing Canadian women and girls called family from Syrian camp, lawyer says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

A lawyer for two Canadian women and three teen girls, who were set to be repatriated from northeastern Syria earlier this month, says they were mistreated by guards and are being detained in a camp primarily holding family members of individuals with alleged links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the LevantEdmonton lawyer Zachary Al-Khatib said one of the women was able to make a brief phone call to a family member in Canada early Tuesday. He said the woman indicated they were alive and had been moved to the Roj camp but had been mistreated, needed medical attention and had all their possessions taken. “It was very concerning for the family obviously to hear this after 11 days of nothing,” he said. Under an agreement with Global Affairs Canada, the group of five was set to be transported from the Al-Hol camp, where they had been detained, to the Roj camp to join four other women and 10 children.The others were returned to Canada on April 6.Al-Khatib said while those stil...

Restored Tennessee Rep. Pearson charts progressive path

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson never guessed he’d be expelled for leading a gun control protest on the House floor after a deadly school shooting. Nor did he predict that he’d be propelled into the national spotlight, placing his state at the forefront of the conversation on gun regulations.Activism had yielded results for years for the 28-year-old son of a preacher and a teacher. At age 15, he prodded a school board to get his Memphis high school more textbooks. After college, he fought a planned oil pipeline through wetlands and poor, predominantly Black neighborhoods in the city’s south. The project was canceled in 2021.The push to boot Pearson and two other Democrats has kept national attention fixed on reliably Republican Tennessee. They hope the pressure from thousands of students, parents and others who have protested at the Capitol for gun control can yield quick change. GOP Gov. Bill Lee has called for legislation to keep firearms away fro...

After Alabama birthday shooting, hope and frustration

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

DADEVILLE, Ala (AP) — Three days after gunfire at a Sweet 16 birthday party killed four young people and injured 32 more, some critically, victims’ relatives and officials expressed hope that investigators may be nearing an arrest and also frustration about police silence on the status of the case. The shootings Saturday night rocked the small town of Dadeville, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Birmingham, and families suddenly found themselves planning memorials and burial services instead of graduation parties or college move-ins. A relative of one teen killed in the shooting told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the family hopes authorities will catch someone soon. “They are working very hard and are adamant about apprehending those who are responsible for the tragic event,” said Amy Jackson, whose cousin KeKe Smith was among the dead. Dadeville Mayor Frank Goodman said police had established a new command center behind a church, but it was not immediately clear i...

Coroner: Aaron Carter drowned in tub from drug, inhalant

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Singer and rapper Aaron Carter accidentally drowned in his bathtub as a result of sedatives he’d taken and gas used in spray cleaners he had inhaled, a coroner’s report said Tuesday.Carter, the younger brother of the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, was found submerged and dead at age 34 in the bathtub of his home in Lancaster, California, on Nov. 5, the autopsy report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner said. Sheriff’s deputies had been the last people to see Carter alive when they visited his house at 2 a.m. on Nov. 4 for a welfare check after he had been seen and heard “huffing” an inhalant on an Instagram live video, according to a police report included in the autopsy findings. He asked the deputies to leave, and they did. The autopsy found that the sedative alprazolam, often sold under the brand name Xanax, was found in his system, as was the compressed gas difluoroethane, which the report says is “a gas commonly used as a propellant in air spr...

Multiple children hospitalized after being struck by car in California: authorities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

THOUSAND OAKS, Cali. (KTLA) - Multiple children were injured, one of them critically, after a traffic accident involving a vehicle that rolled over in Thousand Oaks, California on Tuesday, authorities with the Ventura County Fire Department announced. Calls about the crash outside Westlake High School, roughly 40 miles west of Los Angeles, came in at around 3:40 p.m. While details are limited, officials with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office told Nexstar's KTLA that a vehicle appeared to have plowed into a group of children. Authorities said there was a total of five patients. Among them was one child who was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Several others were transported in various conditions, officials said. It is unclear if the driver of the vehicle was injured. One killed, five injured after parking garage collapses in Lower Manhattan Aerial footage from Nexstar's KTLA showed first responders on the scene where the overturned vehicle was still in the ...

ARA no longer in-network with UnitedHealthCare

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin Radiological Association (ARA) Diagnostic Imaging is now out of network for all UnitedHealthcare plan types after the contract expired between the two sides, ARA and UnitedHealthCare confirmed in separate statements Tuesday. The move became effective Saturday, April 15.ARA said its radiologists have "served the people of Austin and Central Texas since 1954."'ARA and United have had a long-standing relationship spanning almost two decades. However, the reimbursement rate UHC has been paying does not allow our practice to recruit well-trained radiologists and provide innovative care improvements to serve our patients in the best possible way," a spokesperson for ARA said in the statement.UnitedHealthCare said in its statement ARA "demanded a price hike" that was "not affordable or sustainable for the people and employers throughout the Austin market."“ARA Diagnostic Imaging issued a notice to end our contract and demanded a 34% price hike over five years, inclu...

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter touts sales tax for roads, parks in ‘State of the City’ address

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

Shortly after assuming the St. Paul mayor’s seat in 2018, Melvin Carter doubled spending on citywide mill-and-overlay road repair in his inaugural budget.By his own admission, few people noticed.“You sort of can’t tell,” quipped the mayor on Tuesday, during his 2023 “State of the City” address at the Oxford/Jimmy Lee Recreation Center on Lexington Parkway.Rather than unveil new programs or spending priorities, Carter used the occasion to highlight the woeful state of the city’s pothole-laden roads following one of the heaviest winter snowfalls in Minnesota history. He also sought to promote a partial solution — tripling the city sales tax from 0.5% to 1.5% primarily for arterial street reconstruction. If the Legislature agrees to the 20-year sales tax increase, city voters would get final say at the ballot box this November.“We need a generation-level investment,” said the mayor, during a press briefing following his addres...

Twins teammates happy to hear news of Pablo López’s extension

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:02 GMT

BOSTON — When the Twins signed Byron Buxton to a long-term deal in the offseason ahead of the 2022 season, their intentions were clear: They planned to build around the star center fielder. They supplemented their core in a big way an offseason later, signing star shortstop Carlos Correa to the richest contract in team history.And this week, they’re set to make official the contract extension of another core piece, locking in starting pitcher Pablo López to a four-year, $73.5 million extension, a move that was met with excitement throughout the clubhouse.“It honestly made me very happy to see the news about him getting extended,” Correa said. “He’s a guy that puts in the work. He does everything. He takes care of every single facet of what you need to take care of to be great in this game. He’s young. He’s in his prime. He’s just getting better.”López is six years into his major-league career and carries himself like a seasoned veteran, so it’s easy to forget that he’s just 27. But ...