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Man who killed 2 South Carolina officers and wounded 5 others in ambush prepares for sentencing

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

A 79-year-old South Carolina man is set to be sentenced Thursday for killing two police officers and wounding five more in an October 2018 ambush he set up after detectives told him they were coming to serve a search warrant on his son.When the three Florence County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, Frederick Hopkins was waiting in a sniper’s nest he made in a second story room in his upscale Florence neighborhood. He didn’t stop shooting for 30 minutes.Hopkins pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder last week in an unannounced hearing more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from where the shootings took place. His attorney said prosecutors agreed to take the possibility of the death penalty off the table in exchange for the plea.When Hopkins is sentenced at noon Thursday, he is almost certain to get life in prison without parole.Deputies investigating Hopkins’ adult son for possible sexual abuse called ahead on Oct. 3, 2018, to let ...

Spain’s leader mulls granting amnesty to thousands of Catalan separatists in order to stay in power

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona accountant Oriol Calvo ran afoul of the law when he was arrested in 2019 during a mass protest by supporters of Catalonia’s independence from Spain that turned violent. A court found him guilty of public disorder and of aggressive behavior toward a police officer — offenses he denies. The 25-year-old is among several thousand ordinary citizens who faced legal trouble for their often tiny part in Catalonia’s illegal secession bid that brought Spain to the brink of rupture six years ago.Now Calvo hopes his conviction and those of many others will be wiped clean if Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, follows through and issues a sweeping amnesty for the separatists in exchange for their movement’s political parties helping him form a new government in Madrid.Calvo’s sentence of 18 months was suspended since it was his first offense, but it is still a stain on his record and has affected his willingness to participate in poli...

The trees arrived with Polynesian voyagers. After Maui wildfire, there’s a chance to restore them

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — For people around the world, the green leaves that sprouted from a scorched, 150-year-old banyan tree in the heart of devastated Lahaina symbolized hope following Maui’s deadly wildfire this summer. Teams rushed to flood its roots with water, hoping to save a magnificent tree that had provided shade for community events, a picturesque wedding venue and a popular backdrop for posing tourists.But the fire also nearly wiped out another set of trees, one with a much longer history in Lahaina and a greater significance in Hawaiian culture: breadfruit, or ulu, which had given sustenance since Polynesian voyagers introduced it to the islands many centuries ago. Before colonialism, commercial agriculture and tourism, thousands of breadfruit trees dotted Lahaina; the fire charred all but two of the dozen or so that remained.Now, as Maui recovers from the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, one that left at least 98 people dead, a band of arborists, farmers ...

The House speaker’s race hits an impasse as defeated GOP Rep. Jim Jordan wants to try again

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Refusing to drop out, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan has brought the House speaker’s race to a stalemate — the hard-fighting ally of Donald Trump has been unable to win the gavel but he and his far-right allies won’t step aside for a more viable GOP nominee.The House is tentatively set to convene sometime Thursday afternoon for Jordan to try again. But there’s a sinking realization that the House could remain endlessly stuck, out of service and without a leader for the foreseeable future as the Republican majority spirals deeper into dysfunction. The impasse has left some Republican lawmakers settling in for a protracted stretch without a House speaker. “I think clearly Nov. 17 is a real date,” said Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., who leads a large conservative caucus, referring to the next deadline for Congress to approve funding or risk a federal government shutdown.Next steps were highly uncertain as angry, frustrated Republicans looked at other options....

Trump’s campaign cash overwhelms his GOP rivals. Here are key third-quarter fundraising takeaways

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is crushing his Republican presidential rivals in the contest to raise campaign cash, putting the other White House hopefuls in an unenviable position before the first votes are cast in January. Those who have amassed a nest egg will have the resources to last for the foreseeable future, while those without will face hard choices in the coming days, weeks and months. Here are some takeaways from the recently released campaign finance disclosures that cover the third quarter: LET’S BE REALTrump’s political operation has splurged at least $20 million this year on legal expenses arising from a sprawling set of court cases and lawsuits faced by the former president and his allies. It’s an enormous outlay of cash, big enough to sink even a generously financed campaign. Yet as the GOP presidential primary enters a crucial make-or-break phase before voting begins early next year, the latest campaign finance disclosures show Trump still has m...

Most in the US see Mexico as a partner despite border problems, AP-NORC/Pearson poll shows

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Most people in the U.S. see Mexico as an essential partner to stop drug trafficking and illegal border crossings, even as they express mixed views of Mexico’s government, according to a new poll.The poll from the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about two-thirds of Americans see their southern neighbor as having at least a friendly relationship with the U.S. Relatively few within that group, or 16%, consider Mexico a close ally. Meanwhile, U.S. adults are more likely to have an unfavorable (38%) view of Mexico’s leadership than a favorable (12%) one. The remaining responded they did not have an unfavorable or favorable view or were not sure.The poll captures the different perceptions Americans have of Mexico, its leadership and the estimated 10 million immigrants living in the U.S. Mexico is the largest trade partner of the U.S. and both countries have deep dipl...

The pope’s absolute power, and the problems it can cause, are on display in 2 Vatican trials

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Two Vatican trials are coming to a head this week and posing uncomfortable questions for the Holy See, given they both underscore Pope Francis’ power as an absolute monarch and the legal, financial and reputational problems that can arise when he wields it.On Wednesday, the Vatican’s former in-house auditor was in court for a hearing in his 9.3 million euro wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the Holy See. Libero Milone says Vatican police forced his resignation in 2017 under the threat of arrest, after he was told Francis had “lost faith” in him over his zealous attempts to audit Vatican monsignors.The Vatican secretariat of state has objected to being named as a defendant in the suit, arguing it had nothing to do with Milone’s hiring or resignation and that the city state’s tribunal had no place getting involved.The rationale: The pope hired Milone and then wanted him out, and the court has no right to judge his decisions.On Thursday, the Vatican’s long-ru...

After rainy season that wasn’t, parched Mexico City starts restricting water

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — On a bank of Villa Victoria reservoir, where in other years boats might have used them to anchor, 10 concrete blocks lie exposed to the sun. They should be under water, but that was before severe drought dropped the reservoir to the lowest level that Gabriel Bejarano has seen since he moved back to his grandfather’s farm a decade ago.“The water is supposed to come up to here,” Bejarano, a veterinarian, said as he pointed toward a fence a hundred yards back from the reservoir’s edge on a recent morning.The dipping level on the north shore of this lake near Toluca is a major problem for Mexico City, about 77 miles (125 kilometers) to the west. Villa Victoria — about one-third its usual level this time of year — and two other drought-depleted reservoirs make up most of the Cutzamala system, which serves more than 20 million people and is at a historical low for this time of year.Even more worrisome: Mexico’s rainy season is just about over, and its ...

Racial gaps in math have grown. A school tried closing theirs by teaching all kids the same classes

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

Hope Reed was seeing stark disparities a decade ago at her high school in the suburbs of Columbia, South Carolina.Nearly half the school’s students were white, but the freshman remedial math classes were made up of almost all students of color. Reed, then chair of the math department at Blythewood High School, intervened with an experiment. She taught a ninth-grade remedial class and used the regular Algebra 1 curriculum with nearly 50 students. They were honors students, and they were going to do honors work, she recalled telling them. At the end of the year, about 90% of the students passed. The experiment convinced Reed that detracking — or getting rid of classes that separate students by achievement level — could be a key to narrowing gaps in math performance. The school then tried going a step further, enrolling all ninth-graders in the same level of math class. ___The Education Reporting Collaborative, a coalition of eight newsrooms, is documenting the math crisis facing...

Havana’s once stately homes crumble as their residents live in fear of an imminent collapse

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:34:04 GMT

HAVANA (AP) — The house on Villegas Street, in the heart of Old Havana, looks nothing like the stately two-story home it used to be a century ago, with its high ceilings, wrought iron railings, semicircular arches and stairs covered in white marble. Its former elegance is such that local lore says it used to belong to a marquise.Today, everything inside the six-family unit is chaos.The roots of a tree protrude through the wall of a makeshift toilet where birds have made their nests. The roofs of the first and second floors are propped up. There is rubble and fresh sand scattered everywhere. The walls seem to tilt and the façade has completely disappeared, exposing a patio where one can see freshly washed clothes hanging.The structure is one of many once luxurious houses in the island nation that in recent years have partially collapsed — or suffer visible damage. Barely 100 meters (yards) away, also on Villegas Street, a similar building fell in earlier this month, causing three dea...