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Timeline of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and controversy over COVID court cases

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been accused of interference in the province’s justice system. Here is a timeline of events:Feb. 3, 2022 — Calgary street pastor Artur Pawlowski gives a speech to COVID-19 protesters at a blockade at the Canada-United States border crossing at Coutts, Alta. He is later charged with breaching a release order and mischief for allegedly inciting people to block public property at Coutts. He is also charged under the Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act with wilfully damaging or destroying essential infrastructure.Oct. 6, 2022 — Smith, long critical of COVID-19 masking, gathering and vaccine mandate rules, wins the leadership of the United Conservative Party and becomes premier.Early January 2023 – Smith tells Pawlowski in a leaked phone call that charges in his criminal case were politically motivated. She shares his concern that the Crown is trying to damage his defence with late-stage “document dump” tactics. She promises to ...

Judges block Tennessee move to cut Nashville council in half

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Democratic-leaning city of Nashville’s Metropolitan Council will get to keep all 40 of its seats for now, under a temporary decision issued Monday by three state judges. The ruling stymies an effort by state Republican lawmakers to cut the council in half after it blocked the the 2024 Republican National Convention from coming to the Music City.Nashville has operated under a combined city-county government system with 40 council members since 1963, when leaders were wrestling with consolidating the city and surrounding county as advocates worked to ensure Black leaders maintained strong representation there.The new statute at issue would require Nashville to craft new council districts by May 1, a deadline city officials say is unreasonable.Three state court trial judges — one from Nashville, one from Shelby County and one in Athens, Tennessee — agreed, saying there is a “compelling public interest in preserving the integrity of the Metro election p...

Poll: Chicagoans support policies to address the root causes of crime

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

CHICAGO -- Many pundits framed the mayor runoff election as a choice between a candidate who promised to bolster law enforcement verses someone who is the past supported defunding the police. But Chicagoans voters looked deeper.In a city plagued by fears of crime, the progressive triumphed over the tough-on-crime candidate.Brandon Johnson’s win over Paul Vallas defied conventional wisdom but a closer examination of voters’ views offers clues about the upset election. Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson details plan heading into inauguration A survey conducted by GQR and Vera Action on the eve of the election found that Chicagoans overwhelming support policies to address the root causes of crime. Six in 10 voters chose prevention compared to four in 10 who back a tough on crime strategy."Voters have a very nuanced perception about public safety and about what gets us to public safety in every community across a city as complex as Chicago," ACLU of Illinois’ Communications Chief Ed Yoh...

Mother creates GoFundMe for teen son who was fatally shot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

CHICAGO — A teenager who was shot and killed on the city's Northwest Side Saturday morning has been identified by police. According to police, 17-year-old Daniel Rios was in a physical altercation with a known offender near the 6700 block of West Belmont Avenue around 7:00 p.m. Friday night when the individual produced a handgun and shot Rios before fleeing the scene. 2 men die after Garfield Park shooting, succumbed to injuries Police say Rios was shot in the lower left abdomen and was transported to Loyola Hospital in critical condition. He was pronounced dead a short time after.There was a GoFundMe page created by his mother to pay for funeral expenses. "Please help me raise money for my baby boy he didn’t deserve this," Jennifer Rios wrote. "He was a 17-year-old boy names Daniel Rios and he saw life though a bright lens," Rios stated in the GoFundMe post. There is currently no one in custody and police are investigating the incident.

'Incredibly sad': Video purportedly shows baby born 'in public view' in San Francisco

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) - Two days after the San Francisco Fire Department confirmed a baby had been born "in public view," a video of a child born on a city sidewalk began circulating on social media."Public view" is considered "an area viewable by the public like a sidewalk," a department spokesperson told local reporters. Authorities said the baby was born Thursday. Two days later, a graphic video was posted to Twitter showing a woman with a newly born baby lying on the sidewalk. A blanket covers the baby, who appears to still be attached via the umbilical cord, while the mother is partially blurred. The baby cries out as its face rests on the sidewalk. ‘Like a bomb going off’: Explosion at Kansas home caught on camera A man can be heard saying, "You're gonna be OK, just relax OK?" as he holds the blanket up to get a look at the baby. The mother seems worried that someone may try to take or hurt her baby as onlookers reassure her repeatedly that everything will be fine. One perso...

Tom Skilling's explainer: We're off to a warm start in April, folks!

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

Steady warming over recent days and in the days ahead is to deliver Chicago its warmest weather to date in 2023. April 2023’s opening 10 days are running an impressive 7-degrees warmer than the same period a year ago.Chicago high temperatures have gone from 49 Friday to 62 Saturday, 68 Easter Sunday and may reach 71 today in the remaining hours of the afternoon. That’s a 22-degree increase in just 3 days.The week as a whole is likely to come in 14-degrees warmer than last week and an eye-catching 18-degrees above normal.Significantly, a tightening pressure gradient will lead to a well developed “SW” flow which will overcome lake cooling. "SW" winds will pick up each late morning and afternoon gusting at times as high as 31 mph Tuesday, 36 mph Wednesday and 25 mph Thursday according to current modeling.The sun will filter through some mixed clouds Tuesday. But, cloud coverage is to decrease Wednesday and Thursday, allowing the full intensity of the April sun to go to work on the air ...

APD: Weekend Rainey St. patrols helped find missing man

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Austin Police Department (APD) upped patrols on Rainey Street over the weekend - and we sat down with one of the department's assistant chiefs to see how it went. The increased safety measures were prompted by two drowning deaths that occurred this year, according to a press release about the initiative. Both cases are still under investigation, but police said there is currently no evidence of foul play. Jason John’s death prompts Council committee meeting on Rainey St. trail safety The patrols "have been met with a great deal of positivity coming from the bar patrons in the area," APD Asst. Chief Jeff Greenwalt said. He said officers performed standard downtown duties like breaking up fights, and in one instance over the weekend, patrons asked officers to help them find their friend they hadn't been able to find for a couple of hours."They were flagged down by some concerned citizens about a missing person," Greenwalt said. "They had a friend who went missin...

Gregg Popovich calls out politicians for 'cowardice and selfishness' regarding gun control laws, names Texas lawmaker

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

DALLAS (KXAN) — San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has used his platform to talk about politics and social issues throughout his coaching career, and before Sunday's game against the Dallas Mavericks, he used the time to call out Tennessee and Texas lawmakers following another school shooting.Popovich referenced what police said was, "an elaborately planned" shooting March 27 at a private school in Nashville where three children and three adults were killed. He said, among other things, legislators are showing "cowardice and selfishness," by not taking any action on passing gun control laws.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newsletters"They are so scared to death about being primaried, about losing their job, losing their power, their salary," he said. "You'd like to get each of them in a room, one by one, and say, 'What's more important to you? If you could vote for some ...

Democratic governors are stockpiling abortion pills in the wake of Texas ruling

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

Democratic governors are stockpiling abortion medications as the future of reproductive health is potentially fought out in federal court.On Monday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) announced the state has already acquired enough doses of mifepristone to last for a year. Healey said the University of Massachusetts Amherst last week purchased 15,000 doses, which could arrive as soon as this week.Healey said the state will also spend $1 million to reimburse health care providers to buy the drug."Mifepristone has been used safely for more than 20 years and is the gold standard. Here in Massachusetts, we are not going to let one extremist judge in Texas turn back the clock on this proven medication and restrict access to care in our state,” Healey said in a statement.Her announcement follows a similar move last week in Washington, where Gov. Jay Inslee (D) purchased a three-year supply of the drug.Inslee said he ordered the state Department of Corrections to purchase 30,000 doses of ...

Goldman slams Jim Jordan over planned NYC hearing: 'not welcome in my district'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:19:52 GMT

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) slammed Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) over the House Judiciary Committee’s planned hearing in New York City next week, telling the GOP chairman he is “not welcome” in Goldman's district, where the event is taking place.“Instead of focusing on improving the lives of the American people, Jim Jordan has decided to come to my district at the behest of Donald Trump to continue to weaponize Congress to obstruct an ongoing, non-federal criminal prosecution,” Goldman said in a statement. “If Jordan truly cared about public safety, he’d be having a field hearing in Nashville, Tennessee or Louisville, Kentucky, where the most recent of the daily mass shootings have killed more innocent Americans.”Three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at a Nashville school late last month, and at least four people were fatally shot at a bank in Louisville on Monday.“Chairman Jordan is not welcome in my district for this political stunt that is simply a further waste of ...