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Pittsburgh synagogue shooter sentenced to death for killing 11 worshippers in 2018 massacre

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

(CNN) — Robert Bowers, the gunman who killed 11 worshippers and wounded six others at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, was unanimously sentenced to death by a federal jury on Wednesday.It’s the first federal death penalty imposed under the Biden administration.The decision to sentence the gunman to death had to be unanimous. Otherwise, he would have been sentenced to life in prison without parole.Live updates: Jury reaches verdictJurors spent just over 10 hours deliberating over the past two days. They asked two questions of the court: one to examine the guns used in the shooting, and another to ask for a copy of documents in evidence about the gunman’s family history.Bowers, 50, was convicted on June 16 of all 63 charges against him for the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018, the deadliest ever attack on Jewish people in the US. Twenty-two of those counts were capital offenses.The jury further found he was eligible for the death penalty on Ju...

Don’t let your credit scores retire

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

By Liz Weston | NerdWalletGetting rid of debt before retirement is often a good idea. Getting rid of your credit scores? Not so much.People who stop using credit also stop generating enough data to produce credit scores, the three-digit numbers used to gauge creditworthiness. Not having scores can make it harder and more expensive to get loans. Even if you’re sure you’ll never borrow again, lacking credit scores also can make insurance, cell phone plans and security deposits more expensive.Fortunately, you don’t have to be in debt to have good credit scores. You do have to use credit, however.More have debt, but millions are ‘credit retired’Older people are more likely to have mortgages, car loans, credit card balances and other debt in retirement compared with a generation ago, according to Federal Reserve statistics. Seventy percent of households headed by someone age 65 to 74 had debt in 2019, the latest year available from the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances. That compares wit...

Chicago White Sox make ‘very difficult decision’ to trade Jake Burger, while also dealing Keynan Middleton at deadline

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

The Chicago White Sox pulled off a “Burger Bomb” ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline, sending hard-hitting infielder Jake Burger to the Miami Marlins.It was one of three trades the team announced on the day of the deadline.In return for Burger, who is tied for third in the American League with 25 home runs, the Sox acquired minor-league left-handed pitcher Jake Eder.“It’s been a long journey with the organization,” Burger said Tuesday at Globe Life Field. “A lot of good memories, a lot of bad memories. I’m grateful to the White Sox organization for believing in me when it didn’t seem like a lot of other people believed in me. Fans believed in me coming back from injury. A lot of good memories here. My son got to see me put on a White Sox jersey.“But on the flip side of that, I’m going to Miami and I got to make a push for the playoffs in the wild-card hunt.”The Sox also traded reliever Keynan Middleton to the New ...

Pittsburgh synagogue shooter sentenced to death for deadliest antisemetic attack in U.S. history

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

The gunman who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers will be sentenced to death for perpetrating the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.Robert Bowers spewed hatred of Jews and espoused white supremacist beliefs online before methodically planning and carrying out the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, where members of three congregations had gathered for Sabbath worship and study. Bowers, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, also wounded two worshippers and five responding police officers.The same federal jury that convicted the 50-year-old Bowers on 63 criminal counts recommended Wednesday that he be put to death for an attack whose impacts continue to reverberate nearly five years later. A judge will formally impose the sentence later.The verdict came after a lengthy trial in which jurors heard in chilling detail how Bowers reloaded at least twice, stepped over the bloodied bodies of his victims to look for...

American fugitive who faked his death can be extradited to Utah to face a rape charge, UK judge says

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

LONDON (AP) — An American fugitive accused of faking his own death to avoid a rape charge in Utah can be extradited to the U.S., a judge in Scotland ruled Wednesday, calling the man “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.” The wanted man known in Scotland as Nicholas Rossi fought his return since being arrested in December 2021 at a Glasgow hospital, where he was being treated for COVID-19. He repeatedly appeared in court — and in several television interviews — in a wheelchair using an oxygen mask and speaking in a British accent insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never set foot on American soil. But judge Norman McFadyen of Edinburgh Sheriff Court had previously dismissed the fugitive’s claims of mistaken identity as “implausible” and “fanciful” after the man said he had been framed by authorities who tattooed him and surreptitiously took his fingerprints while he was in a coma so they could connect him to Rossi.“I conclude tha...

Marta leaves Women’s World Cup with Brazil’s group-stage exit, but her legacy lives on

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

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Before leaving the Women’s World Cup as a player for the sixth and last time, Marta embraced Jamaica captain Khadija “Bunny” Shaw. The Reggae Girlz had just sent Brazil and Marta home by holding them to a 0-0 draw Wednesday night, and Shaw shared emotional words with one hand resting over her heart and the other holding Marta’s hand.“I just told her that she’s not just an inspiration for me, but for a lot of young girls in the Caribbean and around the world,” Shaw said.With the win, Jamaica became the first Caribbean nation to advance to the Women’s World Cup knockout rounds.“She just said that she’s watched our journey, ever since we qualified,” Shaw said, “and she credits us because every time we got knocked down, we still get up and keep pushing.”Marta, 37, holds the record for the most World Cup goals scored, women or men, with 17. She was the first player to score in five consecutive Women’s World Cups, debuting at the 2003 tournament. “Her leg...

Queen Elizabeth statue coming to Ontario legislature, government pays $1.5M

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

A statue of Queen Elizabeth is coming to the grounds of Ontario’s legislature, ending a years-long delay and reigniting a conversation about the commemoration of historical figures.The Ontario government says it has allocated $1.5 million to complete the project, which it hopes to see finished this fall — contractors broke ground on the statue’s foundation late last month.The statue was originally intended to go up in 2017 to mark the queen’s Sapphire Jubilee and the 150th anniversary of Confederation, but the government says a fundraising effort spearheaded by a private heritage trust faltered.Minister of Legislative Affairs Paul Calandra says when he learned about the stalled project last year, the government allocated the money to get it over the finish line.He says the statue will commemorate Canada’s longest-serving head of state, who reigned at a time when the country established itself as a major global power.Ontario NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa says the ...

Wisconsin lawsuit asks new liberal-controlled Supreme Court to toss Republican-drawn maps

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

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A lawsuit filed Wednesday asks Wisconsin’s newly liberal-controlled state Supreme Court to throw out Republican-drawn legislative maps as unconstitutional, the latest legal challenge of many nationwide that could upset political boundary lines before the 2024 election.The long-promised action from a coalition of law firms and voting rights advocacy groups comes the day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court flipped from a conservative to liberal majority, with the start of the term of a justice who said that the Republican maps were “rigged” and should be reviewed.The Wisconsin lawsuit is just one of many expected or pending court challenges that could force lawmakers or special commissions to draw yet another set of maps before the 2024 election. In one of the most recent examples, Alabama lawmakers passed new congressional districts last month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that its districts violated federal law by diluting the voting strength of...

Pence fought an order to testify but now is a central figure in his former boss’s indictment

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

NEW YORK (AP) — Mike Pence fought the Department of Justice in court to try to avoid testifying against his former boss. But in Tuesday’s federal indictment, the former vice president plays a central role in the first criminal charges against Donald Trump that deal with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.The 45-page indictment is informed, in part, by contemporaneous notes that Pence kept of their conversations in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as Trump tried to pressure Pence to go along with his desperate — and prosecutors say illegal — scheme to keep the two men in power.Among the discussions: An episode in which Trump is alleged to have told Pence that he was “too honest” for rejecting Trump’s false claims that Pence had the power to overturn the vote. “Bottom line – won every state by 100,000s of votes,” Trump said in another conversation, according to the indictment.Pence, who is among a crowded field of Republicans...

Toronto couples left scrambling after weddings cancelled as Berkeley Events goes into receivership

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

Couples expected to get married at one of Berkeley Events’ three venues in the east end of downtown Toronto were devastated to hear the events company has gone into receivership.Tyrelle Hunt was devastated to discover her wedding at her dream venue of Berkeley Field House in just 10 days won’t be happening.Hunt’s original wedding was scheduled for May of 2020, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it was cancelled. The family physician said due to the stress of working in health care during the pandemic, they decided to delay their wedding until August 12, 2023. Hunt said she didn’t receive a call from anyone from the venue but found out about the closure through a screenshot from a former VP with the company.Michael Sherman, the former VP of Berkeley Events, posted on LinkedIn that he was deeply upset and sad to hear about the sudden closure. He told CityNews he was terminated immediately like everyone else at the company.“Berkeley Events was operating e...