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Backpage founder faces 2nd trial over what prosecutors say was a scheme to sell sex through ad sales

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — A founder of the lucrative classified site Backpage.com will face his second trial on charges of facilitating prostitution and laundering money in what authorities say was a scheme to knowingly sell ads for sex on the site.Jury selection for Michael Lacey and four former Backpage employees is scheduled to begin Tuesday in federal court. Their first trial ended in a mistrial in September 2021 when a judge concluded prosecutors had too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no one faced such a charge.Lacey had founded the Phoenix New Times weekly newspaper with James Larkin, who was charged in the case and died by suicide in July. Lacey and Larkin held ownership interests in other weeklies such as The Village Voice and ultimately sold their newspapers in 2013. But they held onto Backpage, which authorities say generated $500 million in prostitution-related revenue from its inception in 2004 until 2018, when it was shut down by the government.In all, fi...

Guatemala progressive’s presidential victory certified, but his party is suspended

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo was confirmed the winner of Guatemala’s presidential election by the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal on Monday, but the same day another government body ordered his political party suspended.Arévalo has faced a slew of legal challenges and allegations of irregularities since his unexpected victory over a candidate favored by the country’s conservative elite.Arévalo appears certain to take office as president on Jan. 14, but it was not clear whether his Seed Movement lawmakers would be able to take their seats in the country’s Congress.Arévalo called the suspension ruling legally void and said his party would appeal it. “As of this moment, no one can stop me from taking office on Jan. 14,” he told a news conference. The electoral registry’s ruling arose from an investigation into the Seed Movement by Guatemala’s attorney general’s office for alleged irregularities in the gathering of signa...

Typhoon Saola to bring heavy rain and strong winds to southern Taiwan on its way to China’s coast

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s weather authorities warned residents of heavy rain and strong winds starting Wednesday as Typhoon Saola skirts by the island’s southern coast on its way to China’s southern coast. The typhoon is moving northwest with sustained winds of 162 kph (101 mph) and gusts of up to 198 kph (123 mph), according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. The typhoon’s eye won’t hit Taiwan’s mainland, but is expected to graze the island’s southern cities with its outer bands.The weather bureau also warned late Monday night that high waves and swells are expected to make any boat journeys dangerous.Heavy rain is expected in Taiwan’s eastern and southern areas Wednesday going into Thursday. Taiwan’s weather bureau has so far categorized the storm as a mid-strength typhoon, and said there’s a slight chance the storm could strengthen.The typhoon is then expected to hit southern Fujian and Guangdong provinces in China’s south. Saola caused flooding in the northern ...

Barack and Michelle Obama saw Coco Gauff’s US Open win and met with her afterward

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were in the Arthur Ashe Stadium stands to watch Coco Gauff’s first-round victory at the U.S. Open on Monday night. Afterward, Gauff met the Obamas — and even received some advice.“I wasn’t sure they were here or not. I saw the Secret Service. I didn’t know if it was Mr. Biden and Mrs. Biden. I knew it was somebody. Then I heard that maybe Mr. Clinton was coming. I didn’t know who exactly it was. So I didn’t know until after the match,” Gauff, a 19-year-old from Florida, said after a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Laura Siegemund that grew contentious over Siegemund’s delay tactics between points.“I didn’t see them in the presidential box,” Gauff said about the Obamas. “I was obviously looking at that, but they weren’t, I guess, in my eyeline. But afterward, they told me they wanted to say hi.”Initially, Gauff explained, word came that she would have some time with Michelle Obama.“Then Mr. Obama was there in th...

‘Opus,’ the farewell of Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, will premiere at Venice Film Festival

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Sitting alone before a grand piano in a stark studio, Ryuichi Sakamoto takes the listener on a journey of his life, playing 20 of his compositions. Shot entirely in black and white, on three 4K cameras, the film “Opus,” directed by Neo Sora, is the Japanese composer’s farewell, poetic yet bold, and deeply heartfelt.Its world premiere is set for the Venice International Film Festival next month. The filming took place over several days, just a half year before his death on March 28 at 71.Sakamoto had been battling cancer since 2014, and could no longer do concert performances, and so he turned to film. He plays pieces he had never performed on solo piano. He delivers a striking, new slow-tempo arrangement of “Tong Poo,” a composition from his early days with techno-pop Yellow Magic Orchestra that catapulted him to stardom in the late 1970s when Asian musicians still tended to be marginal in the West.“I felt utterly hollow afterward, and my condition worsened for about a ...

President Joe Biden is hosting Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves at the White House

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is hosting Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves at the White House Tuesday, following an agreement between the two nations on possible legal pathways for migrants.The two leaders are expected to discuss how the two nations can work together to strengthen economic ties through new jobs, advance democracy and promote orderly migration. The Central American nation has emerged as an immigration hotspot, as migrants increasingly travel through the dangerous Darien Gap from Colombia into Central America and north into Costa Rica. In June, Costa Rica and the U.S. agreed to open potential legal pathways to the United States for some of the Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants who are among the 240,000 asylum seekers in the Central American nation. Last year, Nicaraguans accounted for nine out of 10 applicants.The agreement was aimed at reducing the pressure on Costa Rica’s overwhelmed asylum system and heading off asylum seekers who could give up on the s...

Judge could decide whether prosecution of man charged in Colorado supermarket shooting can resume

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

DENVER (AP) — A judge could decide Tuesday whether the prosecution of a mentally ill man charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 can resume now that the state mental hospital says he is mentally competent, at least for now.Judge Ingrid Bakke is set to hold an afternoon hearing to discuss the status of the case against Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who has schizophrenia. Alissa is charged with murder and multiple attempted murder counts in the shooting at a crowded King Soopers store on March 22, 2021, in Boulder, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Denver. He has not yet been asked to enter a plea.The case against him has been on hold for about two years after his attorneys raised concerns about his mental competency — whether he is able to understand court proceedings and communicate with his lawyers to help his own defense.Last week, prosecutors announced that the state hospital reported that Alissa is now considered competent after consistently taking hi...

Biden administration to target drugs for price negotiations to lower Medicare costs

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration will announce on Tuesday the first prescription drugs being targeted by the U.S. government for price negotiations as part of an effort to lower Medicare costs. The announcement is a significant step under the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed by Biden last year. The law requires the federal government for the first time to start negotiating directly with companies about the prices they charge for some of Medicare’s most expensive drugs. The process has drawn legal challenges from drugmakers and heavy criticism from Republicans in Congress. It’s also a centerpiece of Biden’s reelection pitch as he seeks a second term in office by touting his work to lower costs for Americans at a time when the country has struggled with inflation. Biden plans to deliver a speech on health care costs from the White House after the announcement. He’ll be joined by Vice President Kamala Harris. More than 52 million p...

As Idalia churns toward Florida, residents urged to wrap up storm preparations

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Florida residents loaded up on sandbags and evacuated from homes in low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Idalia intensified Monday and forecasters predicted it would hit in days as a major hurricane with potentially life-threatening storm surges.“You should be wrapping up your preparation for #TropicalStormIdalia tonight and Tues morning at the latest,” the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said Monday on X, formerly known as Twitter. As the state prepared, Idalia thrashed Cuba with heavy rain, especially in the westernmost part of the island, where the tobacco-producing province of Pinar del Rio is still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian almost a year ago. Authorities in the province issued a state of alert, and residents were evacuated to friends’ and relatives’ homes as authorities monitored the Cuyaguateje river for possible flooding. As much as 10 centimeters (4 inches) of rain fell in Cuba on Sunday, meteorological...

Recruiting is underway for Trump-like ‘wrecking ball’ to shrink government and fire federal workers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump, recruiting thousands of Americans to come to Washington on a mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with a vision closer to his own.Led by the long-established Heritage Foundation think tank and fueled by former Trump administration officials, the far-reaching effort is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s second term — or any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat President Joe Biden in 2024.With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers.“We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” said Paul Dan...