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Russia blames Ukraine for strike on key Crimea bridge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

Associated PressAn attack before dawn Monday damaged a bridge linking Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea that is a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine, forcing the span’s temporary closure for a second time in less than a year. Two people were killed and their daughter was injured.Vehicle traffic on the Kerch Bridge came to a standstill, while rail traffic across the 19-kilometer (12-mile) span also was halted for about six hours.The strike was carried out by two Ukrainian maritime drones, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said.Ukrainian officials were coy about taking responsibility, as they have been in past strikes. But in what appeared to be a tacit acknowledgment, Ukrainian Security Service spokesman Artem Degtyarenko said in a statement that his agency would reveal details of how the “bang” was organized after Kyiv has won the war.The bridge previously was attacked in October, when a truck bomb blew up two of its sections a...

Why Taylor Swift has more No. 1 hits on this chart than the Beatles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

Billboard Magazine announced last week that Taylor Swift — whose song “Karma” made it to No. 1 on the Pop Airplay chart —  tied the record for the most No. 1 songs by an artist in the history of the chart.“Karma” is her 11th No. 1 hit on the chart, and that record puts her in good company, tying with Maroon 5, Katy Perry, and Rihanna who all also have 11. Just below them is Justin Bieber with 10. No other artists are in the double digits.You may be asking how that can be: What about The Beatles? The Bee Gees? Michael Jackson? Elvis?It’s not a technicality, but it has to do with what the list actually measures and how old the list goes back. In this case, it is a measure not of sales, but of how many times the song has been played by major stations across the country … and the Pop Airplay list only goes back as far as October 1992.RELATED: Students expecting a ‘fight to the death’ to get a spot in Stanford’s new Taylor Swift classIf you investigate the actual number...

Marine Protected Areas along California’s coast see success in first decade

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

California’s coastline is among the most diverse ecosystems on the planet and its protection the last 10 years through 124 separately designated areas has made the state a model and envy nationally and internationally.The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recently released its first study following the first decade since the creation of an ecologically connected network of Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs, and the results are promising, especially in Southern California’s Los Angeles and Orange counties, said Stephen Wertz, a senior scientist and manager of the wildlife agency’s Marine Protected Areas Management Project.Two paddlers pass each other in Upper Newport Bay in Newport Beach in 2021. The Upper Newport Bay State Marine Conservation Area is a marine protected area in Orange County(Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)Ochre sea stars, purple sea urchins, sea anemones, and California mussels hang out in a tide pool near Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach, C...

Man shot in East Oakland on Sunday night

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

OAKLAND — A 29-year-old man was shot Sunday night in East Oakland, authorities said.He was in stable condition at a hospital, officials said Monday.The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of Seminary Avenue outside an apartment complex. Authorities said the man was not a resident of the complex.The man got another person to take him to a hospital.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Emeryville: One shot during attempted armed robbery in Bank of America parking lot Crime and Public Safety | Three Antioch shootings leave one dead, at least three wounded Crime and Public Safety | 17-year-old boy killed in East Bay shootout Crime and Public Safety | One man killed, another injured in Pittsburg shooting Crime and Public Safety | 8-year-old boy gravely injured in I-580 shooting A motive for the shooting was under investigation. No arrests were announced.The shooting is being investig...

Veteran police official Edward Caban becomes first Latino to head the NYPD

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Edward Caban, who joined the New York Police Department as a young patrol officer in 1991 and rose through the ranks, was sworn in Monday as police commissioner, becoming the first Latino to lead the 178-year-old department.Mayor Eric Adams administered the oath of office in front of the Bronx stationhouse where Caban started his career, and praised his new police commissioner as “representative of this blue-collar city.”Caban, the son of a transit police officer who served with Adams when the now-mayor was on the transit force, said he joined the NYPD as “a young Puerto Rican kid” at a time when when “the top bosses of the police department didn’t really look like me.”His beaming father, retired Detective Juan Caban, and other family members joined Caban as he was sworn in as the city’s top police official.Caban thanked Adams for choosing him to head the 33,000-member police department.“To be the first Hispanic police commissioner is an honor of the highest me...

New drug to protect babies and toddlers from RSV gets FDA approval ahead of cold season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials on Monday approved the first long-acting drug to protect babies and toddlers against a respiratory virus that sends tens of thousands of American children to the hospital each year.RSV is a cold-like nuisance for most healthy people, but it can be life-threatening in the very young and the elderly.The Food and Drug Administration approved the injection for infants and children up to 2 years old who face increased risk of severe RSV.“Today’s approval addresses the great need for products to help reduce the impact of RSV disease on children, families and the health care system” said FDA’s Dr. John Farley in a statement. Last year, a surge in RSV cases flooded U.S. hospitals with wheezing children. There are no vaccines for babies yet, though Pfizer and other companies are working on them.AstraZeneca’s drug, to be sold under the brand name Beyfortus, is a laboratory-made version of an antibody that helps the immune system fight off RSV. Under the ...

Vanishing whale’s decline worse than previously thought, feds say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A review of the status of a vanishing species of whale found that the animal’s population is in worse shape than previously thought, federal ocean regulators said Monday.The North Atlantic right whale numbers less than 350, and it has been declining in population for several years. The federal government declared the whale’s decline an “unusual mortality event,” which means an unexpected and significant die-off, in 2017.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released new data that 114 of the whales have been documented as dead, seriously injured or sub-lethally injured or sick since the start of the mortality event. That is an increase of 16 whales since the previous estimate released earlier this year.The agency recently completed a review of the whales using photographs from researchers and surveys to create the new estimate, said Andrea Gomez, a spokesperson for NOAA.“Additional cases will continue to be reviewed, and animals will b...

GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy lists Senators Cruz, Lee as possible Supreme Court picks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

Biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday released a list of 16 people he’d nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court or federal appellate courts if he becomes president, making him the first in the party’s field to itemize his possible top judicial appointments.Ramaswamy’s list includes Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah as possible nominees for the nation’s top court, as well as elevating federal judges who struck down President Joe Biden’s airplane mask mandate and the FDA’s two-decade-long approval of the abortion pill.The direction of the Supreme Court was a powerful issue for Donald Trump in his 2016 bid. Conservative voters’ hunger to have a Republican president be the one to appoint a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in early 2016, helped land the former reality TV star in the White House. Trump in the 2016 primary released his own list of possible appointments to the high court t...

Two-vehicle wreck kills 5 in fiery crash on northeast Georgia highway

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

ALTO, Ga. (AP) — Five people are dead after a wreck on a busy northeast Georgia highway.State troopers say Avonlea Holtzclaw of Dahlonega was trying to cross U.S. 23 in a Ford Explorer Sunday afternoon when a driver going northbound hit her. The wreck happened near Alto in Habersham County.Holtzclaw, 29, died in the wreck as did two children in her SUV, ages 5 and 6. Mitchell Boggs, a 58-year-old Marietta man who was driving a Chevrolet Corvette southbound, also died, as did an unnamed passenger.Both vehicles caught fire, and all the occupants of the vehicles died before they could be taken to a hospital.The fiery crash shut down the highway, a major artery between the north Georgia mountains and Gainesville, for nearly five hours.Source

Judge strikes down law allowing Tennessee Attorney General to argue certain death penalty cases

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:24 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The appointed Tennessee Attorney General cannot argue certain capital cases on behalf of the state as in the case of a death row inmate who is seeking a second trial, a judge ruled Monday, saying that a new law violates the state Constitution.Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan said the law granting Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti authority to step into post-conviction death penalty cases is unconstitutional because it removes the power of the locally elected district attorney to argue such cases.Skahan said the state Constitution designates the district attorney as a state representative in criminal trial court proceedings, which includes death row inmate Larry McKay’s motion for another trial based on new evidence. Lawyers for the state Attorney General plan to appeal. If it stands, the ruling would affect other cases in Tennessee where death row inmates are challenging their convictions outside of the appeals process. McKay’s lawye...