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Hunter Biden judge agrees to drop old gun count after indictment replaces scuttled plea deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — A gun count that had been part of a collapsed plea deal in the Hunter Biden case was dismissed Wednesday as a judge signed off on a prosecution request. The order from U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika formally removes a gun-possession charge that has now been replaced by an unrelated three-count indictment filed after the agreement imploded in July. The president’s son is charged with violating measures against drug users having guns when he bought and kept a revolver for about 11 days in 2018, a period where he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. He pleaded not guilty, earlier this month as the case moved toward a potential trial with the 2024 election looming. His lawyers have said he did not break the law and they planned to push for dismissal of the indictment. Hunter Biden, 53, was originally expected to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax counts in an agreement with prosecutors and avoid prosecutio...

Powerball jackpot spikes to estimated $1.73 billion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Just when you thought it couldn’t get any bigger, the Powerball jackpot has spiked to an estimated $1.73 billion.The California Lottery has now updated it’s electronic sign to reflect jackpots in the billions.FOX 5 went inside the 7-Eleven at 8th and Highland in National City Wednesday morning, which is a popular stor because it’s known to sell winning tickets worth a lot of money. There’s a dog-friendly speakeasy hidden in this Carlsbad corn maze The last big one was worth $28 million.Store clerks have been nonstop ringing up Powerball purchases.Locals are also coming in to check their tickets from the last drawing.Wednesday‘s drawing is the first time in Powerball history that back-to-back jackpot cycles have generated billion-dollar grand prizes. San Diego restaurant ranks among Yelp’s top 100 US taco spots The largest Powerball jackpot ever won in California was $2.04 billion, and that was in November of last year.The cut off time to buy your Powerball ticket is...

Man who found bag of cash and claimed finders-keepers pays back town, felony charge dropped

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

A Connecticut man who found a bag containing nearly $5,000 in cash outside a bank and claimed “finders-keepers” had a criminal charge against him dropped Wednesday after he gave the money back.Robert Withington, 57, went to Bridgeport Superior Court for a scheduled court hearing, and a state prosecutor informed Withington’s lawyer the felony larceny charge was being dropped.Withington found the bank bag containing $4,761 on May 30 outside a bank in his hometown of Trumbull, near Bridgeport. It turned out the money belonged to the Trumbull tax collector’s office, and a town employee had dropped the bag while walking to the bank to deposit the money, police said.Police said the bag had the bank’s name on the outside, and there were deposit slips inside indicating the money belonged to the town, authorities said. A police officer had escorted the town employee to the bank, but neither one noticed the bag being dropped, police said.Withington, a dog trainer, happened t...

Nashville sues over Tennessee law letting state pick 6 of 13 on local pro sports facility board

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville officials filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging a new Tennessee law that reconfigures the panel overseeing professional sports facilities in the city by letting state leaders pick six of its 13 board members.The lawsuit over the changes to the Nashville Sports Authority is the latest legal fight over laws passed by Republican legislators this year that dilute Democratic-leaning Nashville’s control in various ways — ranging from oversight of the international airport, to the size of the combined city-county metro council. Judges have stepped in to block some of the new requirements.Established by city officials under a corporate charter in 1995, the Nashville Sports Authority has 13 board members picked by the city’s mayor and approved by the metro council. The new law lets the mayor retain a slim controlling majority with seven appointments, while splitting the other six picks among the House and Senate speakers and the governor. The law...

Transgender residents in North Carolina, Montana file lawsuits challenging new state restrictions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Transgender residents of North Carolina and Montana added Wednesday to a growing list of lawsuits challenging the recent onslaught of Republican state laws aimed at transgender individuals.The family of a transgender boy in North Carolina is suing state health officials to block implementation of gender-affirming care restrictions that they say will force their son to undergo a traumatic wrong-gender puberty.A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court alleges the new North Carolina law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by denying treatment access to transgender youths and undercuts parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their children. In Montana state court, transgender, nonbinary, intersex and other plaintiffs are challenging a new state law defining the term “sex” as meaning only male or female, which they argue denies legal recognition and protections to people who are gender-nonconforming.The complaint argu...

Banker says Trump’s financial statements were key to loan approvals, but there were ‘sanity checks’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in loans using financial statements that a court has since deemed fraudulent, a retired bank official testified Wednesday at the former president’s New York civil fraud trial.Trump’s “statements of financial condition” were key to his approval for a $125 million loan in 2011 for his golf resort in Doral, Florida, and a $107 million loan in 2012 for his Chicago hotel and condo skyscraper, former Deutsche Bank risk management officer Nicholas Haigh testified.But although the bank didn’t conduct its own full appraisals of Trump’s properties, it sometimes gave sizable “haircuts” to the values he’d placed on such holdings as Trump Tower and his golf courses, Haigh said. “I think the phrase we used might have been ‘sanity checks’ on the numbers,” he said. Those numbers helped Trump secure bigger loans and lower interest rates, said Haigh, who headed the risk group for the bank’s private wealth management uni...

‘Addictive’ social media feeds that keep children online targeted by New York lawmakers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

New York would restrict the way online platforms like Instagram and YouTube can collect and share children’s personal information and let parents keep their kids from being bombarded by “addictive” feeds from accounts they don’t follow, under legislation proposed Wednesday. The bills offered by state leaders are aimed at protecting young people from features designed to keep them endlessly scrolling, endangering their mental health and development, Attorney General Letitia James said. “Young New Yorkers are struggling with record levels of anxiety and depression, and social media companies that use addictive features to keep minors on their platforms longer are largely to blame,” James said. “This legislation will help tackle the risks of social media affecting our children and protect their privacy.”The regulations sought by James and Gov. Kathy Hochul, both Democrats, are similar to rules already in place in Europe, where violations could incur fines worth a percentage of revenue,...

Vermont police release sketch of a person of interest in the killing of a retired college dean

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

CASTLETON, Vt. (AP) — Vermont State Police on Wednesday released a sketch of a person of interest in the killing of a retired college dean who was shot dead last week while walking on her favorite trail near the Vermont State University campus.The crime has shaken the small college town of Castleton as police warn the public to remain vigilant and said they don’t yet know if the shooting was random or targeted. The composite sketch was created from witnesses’ accounts of a man they saw on the trail before they came across Honoree Fleming’s body, said Capt. Scott Dunlap, commander of the Vermont State Police major crime unit. Fleming died of a gunshot wound to the head while walking along the trail that follows a former railroad bed, police said.The man was described as 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) white male with short, red hair, who appeared to be in his 20s. He was wearing a dark gray T-shirt and carrying a black backpack, and is considered armed and dangerous, police said. Witnes...

His parents shielded him from gunfire as Hamas attacked. He survived. They did not

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

An Israeli-American teenager survived a siege on his home by Hamas attackers over the weekend after his parents shielded him from the gunfire but were killed themselves. The family lived on a kibbutz in southern Israel near the border with Gaza. They had less than a minute to seek safety after being alerted to the attack.As the fighters invaded their home, they scrambled into a tiny room meant to protect them from rocket attacks. Shlomi Mathias had his arm blown off trying to keep the fighters out of the room, relatives said. As fighters peppered the room with gunfire, Debbie Mathias yelled at her son, Rotem, to get down. Then she was shot dead; the bullet traveled through her and hit him in the stomach.Rotem Mathias, 16, stayed underneath his mother and played dead for about 30 minutes before running for shelter under a bed and eventually hiding under a blanket in adjacent laundry room, relatives told The Associated Press. Twice, Rotem Mathias managed to elude the fighters — some o...

Liberals extend amnesty order for ‘assault-style’ firearms until after next election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:52 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government has given itself an extra two years to establish a long-promised buyback program for firearms it banned in the wake of the deadly 2020 Nova Scotia shooting rampage. An amnesty period that was set to expire at the end of the month will now remain in place until Oct. 30, 2025 — after the next federal election is scheduled to take place. On Wednesday, staff quietly added that update to Public Safety Canada’s website, prompting concern from gun-control advocates and, on the other hand, relief for those representing firearms owners and retailers. The amnesty applies to those who own one of the more than 1,500 models and variants of “assault-style” firearms that Ottawa banned, saying guns such as the AR-15 have no place in Canadian communities. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the ban in May 2020, within days of a gunman in Nova Scotia committing the deadliest mass shooting in modern Canadian history. The Liberals promised t...