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Parties running in Poland’s election hold final campaign rallies as polls suggest a close race

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The main party leaders facing off in Poland’s upcoming parliamentary election called on voters to give their respective parties winning support as they held final campaign rallies Friday. Opinion polls suggested a close race.The election Sunday will decide whether the ruling conservative, Euro-skeptic Law and Justice party will win a third straight term or whether the liberal, pro-European Civic Coalition and its partners will take power. The Civic Coalition aims to improve Poland’s democratic standards and international standing that have suffered under eight years of a conservative government.Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is Poland’s de-facto ruler, met voters in southeastern Poland, where his party has a small edge over the opposition. His closing rally was held in the central market of the picturesque town of Sandomierz, the location of popular TV series “The Reverend Mateusz,” about an investigative priest. A majority of Law and Just...

Man, two teens charged after threats made against Jewish high school students

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

Two teens and a man in his 20s are facing charges as part of a hate-crime investigation after threats were directed towards a Jewish high school in North York on Thursday.Police were called to the Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto on Wilmington Avenue just after 12:30 p.m. after reports circulated online regarding threats.Investigators say three males were at the school and were told by security to leave the property. As they were leaving, they passed a group of Jewish students and one of the suspects allegedly made threatening remarks.Officers were able to track the three individuals down and arrested them a short time later. Related: 3 men arrested for allegedly threatening Jewish high school, community All three – 20-year-old Enes Boydak of Toronto, a 17-year-old male and a 14-year-old male – have been charged with uttering threats/property damages, uttering threats/death of bodily harm, intimidation by threats of violence and mischief int...

Louise Glück, Nobel-winning poet of terse and candid lyricism, dies at 80

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Nobel laureate Louise Glück, a poet of unblinking candor and perception who wove classical allusions, philosophical reveries, bittersweet memories and humorous asides into indelible portraits of a fallen and heartrending world, has died at 80.Glück’s death was confirmed Friday by Jonathan Galassi, her editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.Over more than 60 years of published work, Glück forged a narrative of trauma, disillusion, stasis and longing, spelled by moments — but only moments — of ecstasy and contentment. In awarding her the literature prize in 2020, the first time an American poet had been honored since T.S. Eliot in 1948, Nobel judges praised “her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”Glück’s poems were often brief, a page or less in length, exemplars of her attachment to “the unsaid, to suggestion, to eloquent, deliberate silence.” Influenced by Shakespeare, Greek mythology and Eliot among others, ...

Advocacy group says a migrant has died on US border after medical issue in outdoor waiting area

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A migrant in a waiting area between two border walls has died this week after a medical emergency, a migrant advocacy group said. U.S. authorities confirmed Friday that someone died but gave few details.The migrant was a 29-year-old woman from Guinea who died Wednesday after encountering medical problems at an “open-air detention site” near the San Ysidro border crossing, according to the American Friends Service Committee’s US-Mexico Border Program.The site is an enclosed area on U.S. soil where migrants wait outdoors to be processed while under the watch of Border Patrol agents. Human rights organizations have expressed concerns about the use of outdoor detention.U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that Border Patrol agents “were approached by an individual in medical distress” about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) west of the port of entry.“Shortly thereafter, the person experienced a medical emergency. First aid was immediately initiated, and th...

North Dakota lawmakers must take ‘painful way’ as they try to fix budget wiped out by court

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota lawmakers were already scrambling to fill a giant hole in state government operations left by a surprising state Supreme Court ruling that voided a major budget bill, and their job got even tougher this week when the court issued a new ruling rejecting a request to give officials more time to deal with the budget mess.Lawmakers might be back at the state Capitol as soon as the week of Oct. 23 for a three- to five-day session, Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue told The Associated Press on Friday.After the court’s Sept. 28 decision put funding for parts of the state government in jeopardy, the justices on Thursday issued a subsequent opinion denying the Republican-controlled Legislature’s requested delay of the court’s decision. The court also rescinded a previous stay that a majority of the justices had apparently granted until Oct. 28.The upcoming session is likely to pull Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, who is running for president, off t...

US cities boost security as fears spread over Israel-Hamas war despite lack of credible threats

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Police in New York, Los Angeles, and other U.S. cities increased patrols, authorities put up fencing around the U.S. Capitol and some schools closed Friday amid fears of violence inspired by the Israel-Hamas war. But law enforcement officials stressed there were no credible threats in the U.S.A former Hamas leader’s call for a day of rage put American Jewish communities on edge, and sparked heightened security around houses of worship, schools and cultural institutions. The jitters were a sign of just how much the war between Israel and Hamas is reverberating around the world, striking fear in communities even in the absence of a credible threat.Law enforcement officials said they were on high alert for violence driven by antisemitic or Islamophobic sentiments in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel. Jewish and Muslim groups have reported an increase of hateful and threatening rhetoric on social media. “We cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas o...

Man admits stealing ‘Wizard of Oz’ ruby slippers from museum in 2005, but details remain a mystery

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man charged in the museum heist of a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in the “The Wizard of Oz” pleaded guilty Friday in a deal that could keep him out of prison due to his failing health, but only cleared up some of the mystery that dates back 18 years.Terry Jon Martin, 76, pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of a major artwork. The shoes were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and recovered by the FBI in 2018. No one was arrested until Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, was charged this year. During his change-of-plea hearing in federal court in Duluth, Martin said he used a hammer to smash the glass of the museum door and display case to take the slippers. He said he thought the slippers had real rubies and that he had hoped to sell the gems. But when a fence told him the rubies were glass, he said he got rid of the slippers.Martin did not say how he got rid of them or...

1 of 2 former DCFS workers found guilty in connection to death of 5-year-old AJ Freund

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

MCHENRY COUNTY, Ill. -- A McHenry County judge found one of the two former DCFS workers guilty of ignoring signs of child abuse in the case of 5-year-old A.J. Freund. Carlos Acosta was found guilty. Andrew Polovin was found not guilty.The State's attorney said A.J. should be getting ready to celebrate his 10th birthday which would have been Saturday had Acosta and Polovin made any effort to protect the child. They are accused of ignoring signs of abuse and failing to remove 5-year-old A.J. Freund from his Crystal Lake home despite multiple police reports indicating the situation. "At the end of the day, this and I'm speaking right now to Mr. Acosta, is a refusal to investigate. I therefore find you guilty of neglecting and endangering the welfare of a child. Counts one and two," Judge George Strickland said. "Regarding you, Mr. Polovin, you have been somewhat of a phantom in this case. And I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, as I suspect it's a bad thing."Both Polovin and...

Chicago officer who threatened to kill ex-lover suspended, not fired

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer in the midst of a messy break-up threatened the lives of a former romantic partner and that person’s family; but the department says that’s not enough to fire him.  City inspector general Deborah Witzburg made the revelation in her quarterly report documenting cases her office has investigated.“While the former partner was moving out of the apartment they shared... [the officer] told them to ‘call everyone they loved and tell them goodbye,’” the IG’s investigation determined.  More Coverage: WGN Investigates The officer then threatened to kill his former lover and the person’s entire family if they showed-up at the apartment that evening, according to the IG’s findings.The Chicago inspector general recommended the firing of the officer and placement on the city’s “do not hire” list. However, police brass refused. Instead, they suspended the officer for 60 days.CPD defended the decision not to seek termination by claiming the officer did not viol...

Man admits stealing 'Wizard of Oz' ruby slippers from museum in 2005, but details remain a mystery

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man charged in the museum heist of a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in the “The Wizard of Oz” pleaded guilty Friday in a deal that could keep him out of prison due to his failing health, but only cleared up some of the mystery that dates back 18 years.Terry Jon Martin, 76, pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of a major artwork. The shoes were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor's hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and recovered by the FBI in 2018. No one was arrested until Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, was charged this year. During his change-of-plea hearing in federal court in Duluth, Martin said he used a hammer to smash the glass of the museum door and display case to take the slippers. He said he thought the slippers had real rubies and that he had hoped to sell the gems. But when a fence told him the rubies were glass, he said he got rid of the slippers.Martin did not say how he got rid of them or to wh...