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Advocates support state bill to increase support for date rape drug survivors with taskforce, testing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

State lawmakers are considering a new bill to help people who believe they’ve been drugged. Healthcare providers only test for drugs if a victim was sexually assaulted, but advocates say there shouldn’t be a requirement. One woman shared her story where she was drugged at a venue but couldn’t get tested. Testing is just one component on how state lawmakers want to tackle this issue. The State Senate also set aside $300,000 to go toward prevention and testing, including test kits to give to bars.Last fall, Ilana Katz went to a concert to watch her friend perform when the night took a terrifying turn. “I took two, maybe three tiny sips of the drink. I felt extremely drunk, and then I collapsed on the floor like a ragdoll like that,” she said.She believes someone spiked her drink, and while friends and even strangers quickly came to her aid, the venue, she said, did not. The bar eventually was sanctioned for failing to rending aid to her that night, which resulted in a one-da...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asks supporters to peacefully rally to protest vote to impeach

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

By ACACIA CORONADO, JIM VERTUNO and JAKE BLEIBERG (Associated Press)AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday urged his supporters to protest at the state Capitol when Republicans in the House of Representatives take up historic impeachment proceedings that threaten to oust him.The House has set a Saturday vote to consider impeaching Paxton and suspending him from office over allegations of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust — accusations that have trailed him for most of his three terms. Paxton, 60, decried the impeachment proceedings as “political theater” that will “inflict lasting damage on the Texas House,” adding to his earlier claims that it’s an effort to disenfranchise the voters who returned him to office in November.“I want to invite my fellow citizens and friends to peacefully come let their voices be heard at the Capitol tomorrow,” he said at a news conference, without taki...

Chicago Bears get OK to begin teardowns inside Arlington racetrack structures in preparation for stadium

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

The Chicago Bears took another step toward a stadium at the Arlington International Racecourse site when the village of Arlington Heights on Friday issued a permit for interior demolition of the grandstand, office and jockey building at the racetrack.Arlington Heights spokesperson Avis Meade confirmed that the village had approved plans for the first phase of demolition at the racetrack, marking another move toward a $5 billion NFL stadium and accompanying mixed-use residential, commercial and entertainment district the team has proposed to build on the 326-acre racetrack.“Increased truck traffic due to the interior demolition is possible in the area and the property will continue to be monitored by security 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” Meade wrote in an email to Pioneer Press.A Bears representative confirmed the team had been permitted to begin work and said they expected to start the process Tuesday. The team will not use explosives or implosion to execute the job, ...

Olivia Chow extends lead in latest Toronto mayoral race poll

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

With one month to go in the campaign to elect a new mayor for Toronto, a new poll finds Olivia Chow is solidifying her position as the front-runner. A new Mainstreet Research poll conducted May 24 and 25 shows Chow has the support of 35 per cent of decided voters, which is up five per cent from the last poll conducted a week ago. Chow’s gains appear to have come at the expense of former deputy mayor Ana Bailao, who slipped five percentage points down to 16 per cent support. Former police chief Mark Saunders sits third with 12 per cent support, up two per cent from last week while Coun. Josh Matlow slipped four percentage points and sits fourth at 10 per cent. Anthony Furey made the biggest gains among decided voters, climbing to fifth with nine per cent support. The former newspaper columnist and broadcaster was barely polling at one per cent the previous week. That moves him ahead of Coun. Brad Bradford (6 per cent) and former Liberal MPP for Scarborough-Guildwood Mitzie Hunt...

Defense secretary tells Navy graduates they are ready to serve

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told newly commissioned officers at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday that they are ready to “defend our democracy with honor, courage and commitment.”Austin, speaking during the ceremony at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium after President Joe Biden addressed graduates last year and Vice President Kamala Harris delivered remarks in 2021, acknowledged the Navy’s role in training allies, helping expand Ukraine’s maritime capabilities in its fight against Russian invasion and bringing relief to international conflict zones. “Class of 2023, wherever your career takes you, remind the world of what you stand for — and what America stands for: Honor. Courage. And commitment. Democracy. Liberty. And the rule of law,” Austin told 1,018 graduates at the academy’s commissioning ceremony.The secretary said naval officers have a special understanding of the power of teamwork, and “we need that spirit for the crucia...

New York City outlaws discrimination on the basis of weight, height

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed legislation Friday that will ban discrimination based on body size by adding weight and height to the list of protected categories such as race, sex and religion.“We all deserve the same access to employment, housing and public accommodation, regardless of our appearance, and it shouldn’t matter how tall you are or how much you weigh,” said the mayor, who joined other elected officials as well as fat-acceptance advocates at a City Hall bill-signing ceremony.Adams, a Democrat who published a book about reversing his diabetes through a plant-based diet, said the ordinance “will help level the playing field for all New Yorkers, create more inclusive workplaces and living environments, and protect against discrimination.”Exemptions under the ordinance, which the city council passed this month, include cases in which an individual’s height or weight could prevent them from performing essential functions of a job.Some busin...

X marks the spot: Yellen tells Congress US could run out of money to pay all its bills by June 5

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress on Friday that the U.S. could default on its debt obligations by June 5 — four days later than previously estimated — if lawmakers do not act in time to raise the federal debt ceiling.Yellen’s letter comes as Congress breaks for a long Memorial Day weekend, and tensions build over whether a deal between the White House and Republicans in Congress will be struck in time.The so-called “X-date” arrives when the government no longer has enough of a financial cushion to pay all its bills, having exhausted the “extraordinary measures” it has been employing since January to stretch existing funds.Yellen said in her letter that the agency used one such measure for the first time since 2015 to get the U.S. financial position to this point: a swap of roughly $2 billion in Treasury securities between the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Federal Financing Bank.“The extremely low level of remaining resources dema...

Oregon, awash in treatment funds after decriminalizing drugs, now must follow the money

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

Funding for drug treatment centers in Oregon, financed by the state’s pioneering drug decriminalization policy, stood at over a quarter-billion dollars Friday as officials called for closer monitoring of where the money goes.That need for oversight was demonstrated Wednesday when state officials terminated a $1.5 million grant agreement with a drug recovery nonprofit in Klamath Falls accused of failing to submit completed expenditure and data reports and buying a building for more than double the authorized amount.That $1.5 million is just a drop in a huge bucket — $264.6 million has been allocated to date for recovery centers — and state officials have a massive responsibility to ensure the money does what it is supposed to: combatting drug use in a state with one of the nation’s highest addiction rates.Oregon’s drug decriminalization had a rocky start after voters approved it in a 2020 ballot measure. Only a tiny number of people have accessed treatment services ...

Miami zoo apologizes for treatment of threatened kiwi bird

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Officials at a South Florida zoo have apologized and promised to end its “Kiwi Encounter” experience after a viral video showed humans petting one of the threatened birds, which are a national symbol for New Zealand.Zoo Miami spokesperson Ron Magill said in a statement Tuesday that they’re sorry for the stress caused by a video on social media of people handling Paora, the kiwi bird under the zoo’s care.“Though Paora has thrived at Zoo Miami while receiving the best care available, the development of the Kiwi Encounter was, in hindsight, not well conceived with regard to the national symbolism of this iconic animal and what it represents to the people of New Zealand, especially the Maori,” the statement said.An online petition was started after a video posted on Twitter Monday showed the flightless, nocturnal bird being handled by visitors and kept awake by artificial lighting. The online outcry got the attention of New Zealand’s Department...

Essay: A mega-fan’s appreciation for Tina Turner’s limitless energy and lessons of survival

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — When Tina Turner died at age 83, I found myself drifting back to the fourth grade, to the day I truly discovered her voice. I was on Thanksgiving break — bored — when I decided to rummage through my parents’ old cassette tapes in search of entertainment.What I found was astonishing: an album called “Private Dancer.”“I look up to the stars with my perfect memory. I look through it all and my future’s no shock to me.”“Who was this magnificent woman?” I thought as the lyrics of the song “I Might Have Been Queen (Soul Survivor),” flowed through the headphones of my Walkman. “What had she been through?”I quickly consulted an expert on the matter: my mom, who as a teenager in the ’60s, had been listening to Tina since she first made hits with her then-husband Ike. Mom, like Tina, didn’t sugarcoat the superstar’s history: Off-stage, Ike was beating her. It was something she herself — and most others — didn’t know when she and Dad first went to see her ...