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Federal agency blames ‘poor safety culture’ for 2021 DC Metro train derailment

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top federal transportation safety official on Thursday harshly criticized Washington’s regional transit agency, saying a “poor safety culture” led to an October 2021 derailment that caused hundreds of new Metro railcars to be pulled from service.A final National Transportation Safety Board report on the incident concluded that the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority had been aware for years of a safety issue that caused the wheels on the new 7000-series Metro cars to expand wider than the tracks. However, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said that information was poorly communicated within the organization and not acted upon with the proper urgency. “This incident was 100% preventable,” Homendy said at a news conference. “We’re absolutely lucky that this did not end in a tragedy.” On Oct. 12, 2021, an eight-car train slipped off the tracks on the Metro’s Blue Line near Arlington National Cemetery. Some passengers were trapped in a tunnel in a dark tra...

The AP Top 25 remains a college basketball mainstay after 75 years of evolution

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

When he first moved from coaching into broadcasting in the early 1980s, Dick Vitale would keep track of what was happening across the college basketball landscape by picking up the newspaper every morning.Just about every score would be listed there. Important games might have box scores, giving Vitale a little more information. And the biggest games of the day might have full stories, providing a more rounded picture of what had transpired.“People stayed up late to publish that stuff for the next morning,” Vitale recalled.These days, just about every Division I men’s college basketball game is available to watch somewhere, whether broadcast on television or streamed on an app. Highlights rip across social media the minute they happen, and forums provide fans a chance to not only rehash what happened but discuss the finer points of their favorite teams.All of which makes voting for the AP men’s college basketball poll easier. And at times harder.The Top 25 is celebrating...

New York City suing charter bus companies for transporting migrants from Texas

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

New York (AP) — New York City is suing more than a dozen charter bus companies for their role in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s operation to send tens of thousands of migrants to urban areas. The lawsuit claims the 17 bus companies “knowingly implemented” Abbott’s busing plan in violation of a New York law that sets limits on transferring “needy persons” across state lines. It seeks more than $700 million in damages to recoup the cost of caring for an estimated 33,000 migrants that have arrived in the city on charter buses since April 2022. Filed in state court Thursday, the lawsuit marked the latest effort by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat, to turn back the busloads of migrants sent from Texas each day. Abbott, a Republican, has said his goal is to draw attention to President Joe Biden’s border policy. After 14 buses arrived in the city last month, Adams announced an executive order restricting when the buses could drop-off passengers and requiring advanced notice of...

Canadian safety watchdog pitching in on probe into fatal Japan Airlines crash

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

GATINEAU, Que. — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says it is taking part in an investigation by Japanese authorities into a fatal crash on a Tokyo runway that involved two airplanes, including one made in Canada.In an email, the safety watchdog says a representative along with technical advisers from Transport Canada, De Havilland Canada and Pratt & Whitney Canada will offer up information on the destroyed Dash 8 aircraft and its engines.A Japan Airlines jet caught fire after slamming into the Bombardier-made coast guard aircraft Tuesday evening as the passenger plane was landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. An orange fireball erupted as Japan Airlines Flight 516 tore down the runway, swathed in flames and spewing grey smoke.Within 20 minutes, all 379 passengers and crew members slid down the Airbus A350 jetliner’s emergency chutes and survived.The pilot of the coast guard plane — a Dash 8 turboprop that had not yet received permission to use the runway — evac...

Neo-Nazi podcasters sent to prison on terror charges for targeting Prince Harry and his young son

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A neo-Nazi podcaster who called for the deaths of Prince Harry and his young son received a prison sentence Thursday along with his co-host Thursday. The sentencing judge in London called the duo “dedicated and unapologetic white supremacists” who encouraged terrorism. Christopher Gibbons and Tyrone Patten-Walsh espoused racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, homophobic and misogynistic views and encouraged listeners of their “Lone Wolf Radio” podcast to commit violent acts against ethnic minorities, authorities said. Using aliases on their show, the pair said “the white race was likely to be ‘genocided’ unless steps were taken to fight back.” They approved of a day when so-called race traitors would be hanged, particularly those in interracial relationships. Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan, is biracial. On one episode, Gibbons said the Duke of Sussex should be “prosecuted and judicially killed for treason” and called Harry’s son, Archie, who is now 4, a “cre...

Liberals pick candidate for O’Toole byelection who first tried running for Tories

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

OTTAWA — A man who initially sought the Conservative nomination for a Greater Toronto Area riding has instead become the Liberal candidate in an upcoming byelection. The Liberal party announced today that Robert Rock, a councillor in Scugog, Ont., will be its candidate in the election to replace former Tory leader Erin O’Toole in Durham. Rock says he decided to run for the Liberals because the Conservative party no longer speaks to his values, and he believes they will cut services and bring American-style politics to Canada if they are elected.He had praised Pierre Poilievre’s leadership less than a year ago when expressing interest in the Tory nomination contest that lawyer Jamil Jivani ultimately won.Conservative spokesperson Sarah Fischer says Rock purchased a party membership last April but failed to meet the requirements to run under its banner.The byelection must be called by the end of the month. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2024....

‘Fat Leonard’ seeks new attorneys ahead of sentencing in Navy bribery case, causing another delay

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis, who fled to South America weeks before he was scheduled to be sentenced in one of the biggest bribery schemes in U.S. military history, said Thursday that he wants new attorneys now that he is back in U.S. custody after a Venezuelan prisoner swap.An enigmatic figure who was 6-foot-3 and weighed 350 pounds at one time, Francis was visibly thinner at the hearing in U.S. District Court. He told the judge he has agreed to end his relationship with Warren & Burstein, the law firm that has represented him during much of the decadelong salacious saga involving dozens of American Navy officers. The change was initially requested by the firm, which made the decision with a “heavy heart,” attorney Jeremey Warren said. “We have a loyalty to our clients. We don’t like to step away.”Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Sheppard objected to the change, saying it would set back Francis’ sentencing yet again because it would...

Arbitrator blasts Mayor Johnson, City Council for 'big lie' about cop discipline

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

CHICAGO — An independent arbitrator who oversaw months of negotiations between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police is now accusing the mayor and city council members of engaging in “Chicago’s version of ‘The Big Lie.’”The arbitrator said the mayor and 33 alderpersons violated their oaths to the Illinois constitution by attempting to strip officers accused of the most serious wrongdoing of their right to arbitration as prescribed in state law. WGN Investigates: Investigating public corruption, crime & fraud In December, Mayor Brandon Johnson led the fight to have cases that could result in suspensions of one year or longer decided by the Police Board rather than an independent arbitrator.The Police Board is a nine-member civilian body appointed by the mayor.“Misinformation, un-truths and half-truths about the arbitration process have been fed to the public and have been repeated over and over to the point...[they] have now become fact,” wrote arbitrator Edwin Benn. ...

Actress Glynis Johns, 'Mary Poppins' star, dies at 100

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie “Mary Poppins” and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100.Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood,” Clem said. “She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.”Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated. The roles she took had to be multi-faceted. Anything less was giving less than her all.“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level,” she told The Associated Press in 1990. “The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it. To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real."Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree...

Clash over border security funding set to be first conflict for Congress in 2024

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:00:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – A political fight four decades in the making is coming to a head in the New Year. House Republicans are vowing to play hard ball to ensure Trump era immigration policies are part of a deal to secure the border.During a visit to the Texas-Mexico border Wednesday they demanded the final text include changes to the country's asylum laws and renewed construction of the border wall."We know what works, it's not rocket science," said newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La).After border crossings spiked in recent weeks, Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) compared the situation at the border to war times and threatened extreme consequences if Republican demands are ignored."If that means having to shut down the government…do it" said Van Duyne.The visit comes as bipartisan negotiations between senators and the White House resumed this week in Washington. The same group tried but failed to strike a deal before the holidays."We think those negotiations are hea...