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In a nod to Oppenheimer’s legacy, US officials vow to prioritize cleanup at nuclear lab

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The price tag for cleaning up waste from the once top-secret Manhattan Project and subsequent Cold War-era nuclear research at Los Alamos National Laboratory has more than doubled in the last seven years, and independent federal investigators say federal officials will have to do better to track costs and progress.The Government Accountability Office in a report issued Wednesday said while some improvements have been made, the U.S. Energy Department hasn’t taken a comprehensive approach to prioritizing cleanup activities at the New Mexico lab.The report came as federal officials hosted a forum Thursday in Los Alamos to talk about cleaning up contaminated soil and groundwater and handling hazardous waste generated by decades of research that started with development of the atomic bomb during the 1940s.Ike White, who heads DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, said the release this week of the “Oppenheimer” film makes it a good time to talk about the...

Australian castaway gives detailed account of his time at sea

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

MANZANILLO, Mexico (AP) — He quit his corporate job and moved to Mexico to pursue his dream of sailing solo across the ocean.Australian Timothy Shaddock, 54, bought his 30-foot catamaran two years ago in the Mexican Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta. He needed a place to live and he liked the isolation.“Of course, living on a boat and sailing on a boat is two different things and that was more of a challenge,” Shaddock told The Associated Press after stepping onto land for the first time in months.As his training ground Shaddock chose the Sea of Cortez, a narrow finger of water between the Baja California Peninsula and the Mexican mainland. “I was aware and the only preparation that you can really do is take the boat out to sea and test the boat at sea,” Shaddock said. He would take short journeys, noting what was working on the boat and what wasn’t, but was conscious that, in late April, hurricane season was coming. “It was either now or I could not really wait one more year,” he s...

See how an Alaska paddleboarder escaped a close encounter with a humpback whale

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska man on a paddleboard escaped a close encounter with a humpback whale, not even getting wet during a tense few seconds caught on camera by friends and family as the giant creature surfaced right in front of him then glided under his board.“It’s just so massive. You’re puny against this whale,” Kevin Williams of Anchorage said Thursday, a week after his adventure with an adult humpback whale in Prince William Sound. Adult females can weigh up to 70,000 pounds (31,700 kilograms) and average about 49 feet (15 meters) in length, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Males are a little smaller.Williams said anyone who claims they wouldn’t be afraid in that situation is crazy.“If you have a whale that doesn’t know you were there and is that close, that’s not a good situation,” he said. One flick of the animal’s fin “or anything it does could be the end of my life.”Williams, his son Brian and a couple other friends were paddleboa...

Toronto and GTA under severe thunderstorm watch, tornadoes possible near Barrie

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

Toronto and much of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are under a severe thunderstorm watch, with Environment Canada cautioning for possible tornadoes near Barrie.Strong winds and heavy downpours are possible in Toronto this evening, with thunderstorms forming later tonight. Halton-Peel, York-Durham and the City of Hamilton are also under a severe thunderstorm watch this hour.Severe thunderstorm warnings are issued when imminent or occurring thunderstorms are likely to produce or are producing one or more of large hail, damaging winds, and torrential rainfall.A tornado warning is in place for Barrie that includes Collingwood and Hillsdale.“Environment Canada meteorologists are tracking a severe thunderstorm that is possibly producing a tornado. Damaging winds, large hail and locally intense rainfall, are also possible,” Canada’s weather agency said.“This severe thunderstorm is located near Stayner, moving east at 45 km/h.”Barrie is now under a Tornado warn...

Police say DNA technology has identified the killer in the unsolved death of a woman in 1981

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — More than four decades after a young New Hampshire woman was killed, law enforcement officials have solved the crime through DNA analysis and the use of forensic genealogy technology, the state attorney general said Thursday. But solving the case doesn’t bring with it the satisfaction of seeing justice: The man responsible for killing 23-year-old Laura Kempton died from an overdose in 2005, Attorney General John Formella said.Formella told reporters at a news conference in Portsmouth, where the killing took place in September 1981, that the investigators’ conclusion was “bittersweet” but underscored their resolve.The conclusion of the investigation after so many years should “send a message to anyone who has been affected by a case that has gone cold in this state that we will never stop working these cases,” he said. “We will never forget about these victims.”A police officer found Kempton dead in her apartment after attempting to serve a cour...

Synagogue gunman had traumatic childhood and couldn’t function as an adult, defense expert testifies

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The perpetrator of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre has led a deeply unstable life dominated by serious mental illness and family dysfunction, and has attempted suicide several times, a clinical psychologist testified Thursday.“This was a person who from the beginning had a childhood that was just laden with trauma, neglect and abuse from before he was born,” Katherine Porterfield testified for the defense during the sentencing phase of Robert Bowers’ trial. Bowers, 50, of suburban Baldwin, killed 11 worshippers from three congregations and wounded other worshippers and police officers on Oct. 27, 2018, when he opened fire inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. He was convicted last month on 63 counts and could face the death penalty in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.Porterfield’s second day of testimony focused on Bowers’ teen and adult years. He showed some improvement around age 13 after an extended hospitalization in a ju...

Ottawa’s new round of sanctions on Russians includes celebrities, Wagner Group heads

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada is sanctioning more Russians whom Ottawa accuses of supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and mercenary violence in Africa.Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has announced new sanctions against 38 individuals and 25 entities.The list has a focus on the paramilitary Wagner Group, which has sent combatants to Ukraine and across Africa.The sanctions also target Russia’s nuclear, drone and cultural industries, in response to that country’s attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear and cultural sites.The people sanctioned cannot have business dealings with Canadians or travel to Canada. Those added to the list Monday include pop singer Zara and actress Maria Shukshina, as well as the media outlet Readovka, Russia’s cultural ministry and mobile-network operators.French MPs have asked the European Union to add the Wagner Group to its terror listing, after countries such as Lithuania applied their own domestic labels to the group. The Conservatives have...

NFL owners unanimously approve the $6.05B sale of the Commanders from Snyder to Harris group

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — NFL owners unanimously approved the sale of the Washington Commanders on Thursday from Dan Snyder to a group led by Josh Harris and including Magic Johnson for a record $6.05 billion.All 32 team owners voted for the sale, which is the highest price paid for a North American professional sports team. After the finance committee approved the agreement with the new ownership group, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, a special league meeting was called to consider and vote on it before the 2023 season begins.Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones beamed as he walked off an escalator and headed toward the meeting room, granting a brief interview with reporters about the impending sale of his team’s division rival.“It’s a hallmark day,” Jones said. “I’m excited about the prospects of going into Washington and giving them some capital punishment.”Snyder had owned his favorite boyhood team since 1999, when he bought it for $800 million. Success was flee...

Oil and gas companies would pay more to drill on public lands under new Biden rule

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Energy companies would have to pay more to drill on public lands and satisfy stronger requirements to clean up old or abandoned wells under a new rule announced Thursday by the Biden administration.A rule proposed by the Interior Department raises royalty rates for oil drilling by more than one-third, to 16.67%, in accordance with the sweeping climate law approved by Congress last year. The previous rate of 12.5% paid by oil and gas companies for federal drilling rights had remained unchanged for a century. The federal rate was significantly lower than what many states and private landowners charge for drilling leases on state or private lands.The new rule does not go so far as to prohibit new oil and gas leasing on public lands, as many environmental groups have urged and as President Joe Biden promised during the 2020 campaign. But officials said the proposal would lead to a more responsible leasing process that provides a better return to U.S. taxpayers.The plan...

Texas is largest state to leave bipartisan national effort to prevent voter fraud

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:32:51 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The state of Texas resigned Thursday from a national, bipartisan effort to prevent voter fraud, becoming the largest state and ninth GOP-led state to leave the initiative since 2022.The exit from the Electronic Registration Information Center, commonly known as ERIC, comes after Texas Republicans began showing a willingness this year to leave the group, which has been targeted by conspiracy theories about its funding and purpose. Republicans elsewhere have cited other reasons for leaving the initiative and said they have been working on an alternate system. On Thursday, Texas submitted a letter to ERIC giving notice that the state would withdraw from the program, effective in 91 days, according to a Secretary of State spokesperson.As fewer states participate in the effort, which allows states to share government data to maintain accurate voter lists, the costs for participating states are set to increase, spokesperson Alicia Phillips Pierce said. There is no imm...