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Minnesota Legislature shapes budget bills as deadline looms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

ST. PAUL. Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Legislature is toiling away with only two full weeks left in a productive 2023 session.Most of the action has shifted to House-Senate conference committees that are negotiating the big budget bills of the session. Plenty of policy questions big and small are still to be decided. Gov. Tim Walz called the session on Friday “the best, most productive” one he’s been involved in, and he told reporters that his agency heads are empowered to negotiate on the details.Democrats have been using their new trifecta control of the House, Senate and the governor’s office to rush through a long list pent-up priorities ever since the very beginning of the session in January.Here’s a look at some of the most contentious issues still in play as the adjournment deadline of Monday, May 22, approaches:TAXESThe Legislature is poised to expand the number of Minnesotans who are exempt from state income taxes on their Social Security benefits, but not t...

Maryland judges question jurisdiction of digital ad tax case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Attorneys debated the proper jurisdiction for settling a legal challenge to the first-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising during arguments before Maryland’s highest court on Friday.Meanwhile, an attorney for the state appeared to surprise judges when she said Maryland has already collected some taxes from companies that voluntarily submitted revenues to the state under the tax aimed at Big Tech.Last year a lower Maryland court ruled that the tax on digital advertising violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, which prohibits discrimination against electronic commerce. The court also held that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on state interference with interstate commerce.The state comptroller is appealing the decision in a case brought by Verizon Media Inc. and Comcast.Julia Bernhardt, an assistant attorney general who is defending the law, said the plaintiffs sought to bypass administrative procedures that the state ha...

New pipeline agency rule aimed at cutting methane leaks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal agency that regulates pipelines announced new rules Friday aimed at reducing leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from a network of nearly 3 million miles of natural gas pipelines that crisscross the country.The proposal by the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration would significantly improve the detection and repair of leaks from gas pipelines, keep more product in the pipes and prevent dangerous accidents, officials said. If finalized, the rules would eliminate up to 1 million metric tons of methane emissions by 2030, equivalent to emissions from 5.6 million gasoline-powered cars, the agency said. Overall, the rule would reduce emissions from covered pipelines by up to 55%. “Quick detection of methane leaks is an important way to keep communities safe and help curb climate change,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We are proposing a long-overdue modernization of the way we identify and f...

Texas investigates hospital over care for transgender minors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas hospital’s care for transgender minors is being investigated by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who said Friday he’s seeking evidence of alleged “potentially illegal activity” but did not elaborate. Texas law does not currently ban gender-affirming care for minors, but Paxton has sought to designate it as child abuse. The hospital investigation in Austin is the latest attempt by Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, to pursue other legal avenues for restrictions. The move came against the backdrop of state Republican lawmakers trying to ban gender-affirming care for anyone under 18 in Texas. The GOP-controlled Legislature is pushing to make Texas the latest conservative state to crack down on medical care and the rights of transgender people, but a scheduled House vote on the bill Friday was delayed for at least a day.In 2022, Paxton released a non-binding legal opinion that labeled certain gender-confirming treatment as child abu...

Houston-area Shell chemical plant catches fire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) — A chemical plant in the Houston area caught fire Friday, sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky.The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the fire was at a Shell USA Inc. facility in Deer Park, a suburb east of Houston.Officers received a service call just after 3 p.m. Friday to help divert traffic around the plant, Harris County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Thomas Gilliland said. The city of Deer Park said in an advisory that there was no shelter-in-place order for residents.Fire crews from the plant and nearby plants are responding, as well as the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office, who is leading the response, Gilliland said.Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a tweet his agency was responding to calls about “some type of explosion.”The Associated Press

Man gets 14 years in 1/6 case, longest sentence imposed yet

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Kentucky man with a long criminal record was sentenced Friday to a record-setting 14 years in prison for attacking police officers with pepper spray as he stormed the U.S. Capitol with his wife.Peter Schwartz’s prison sentence is the longest so far among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The judge who sentenced Schwartz also handed down the previous longest sentence — 10 years — to a retired New York Police Department officer who assaulted a police officer outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 24 years and 6 months for Schwartz, a welder.U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Schwartz to serve 170 months in prison. Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

Trump’s video deposition in rape lawsuit made public

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A video recording of former President Donald Trump being questioned about the rape allegations against him was made public for the first time Friday, providing a glimpse of the Republican’s emphatic, often colorful denials.Jurors got to see the video of Trump’s October 2022 deposition over the past few days at the trial over a lawsuit filed against him by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. Written transcripts of Trump’s testimony had also previously been made public, but not the recording itself.The video was made available Friday to news organizations covering the proceedings.The video shows Trump answering questions in his trademark navy suit and a bright blue tie. He called Carroll’s claim that he raped her in a luxury Manhattan department store “a false, disgusting lie.”“It’s a disgrace. Frankly it’s a disgrace that something like this can be brought,” Trump said.Trump reiterated his assertion that Carroll is “not my type,” but also m...

COVID-19 is still with us even as WHO says it is no longer a global emergency: Duclos

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

OTTAWA — Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the impact of COVID-19 is still with us even after the World Health Organization declared earlier today that the illness no longer qualifies as a global emergency.The declaration made in Geneva is a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions of people worldwide.But Duclos says while it’s the end of an emergency, it’s not the end of the threat.He says Canadians need to remember that 60,000 people in this country have died of COVID-19 and that it is still killing people and putting others in hospital every day.He says it is clear that the health-care system was damaged by the last three years, and the failures of long-term care that COVID-19 exposed need to be fixed.The WHO declared the novel coronavirus an international crisis on March 11, 2020.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2023.The Canadian Press

Mississippi impeding funds for Jackson’s water, group says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi has intentionally created hurdles that prevent the majority-Black capital city of Jackson from receiving enough money to repair a long-troubled water system that nearly collapsed last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center said Friday in announcing a new civil rights complaint it filed.The center asked the U.S. Treasury Department to investigate Mississippi’s rules for distributing $450 million to water systems operated by cities, counties and rural water associations. The funds came from pandemic relief money distributed by the federal government.State officials said in November that Jackson would receive $35.6 million, and that the city would have to match that amount — a matching requirement in place for larger communities in the first round of funding.Southern Poverty Law Center said in the complaint, which it filed Tuesday, that the state’s application for the grant program failed to consider the dire need for costly improvements to the la...

Ex-college student pleads not guilty to CA murder charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

DAVIS, Calif. (AP) — A 21-year-old former university student on Friday pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one of attempted murder in connection with a series of stabbings in the college community of Davis.Yolo County Superior Court Judge Daniel Wolk also denied bail to Carlos Dominguez, citing the risk to public safety and the defendant’s own flight risk given the seriousness of the alleged crimes. Dominguez remained expressionless as the judge read out the complaint filed by prosecutors Friday. He responded in the affirmative several times to questions from the judge but did not speak otherwise. Yolo County prosecutors said Dominguez is eligible for a life prison term without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, given the multiple murders. He is accused of fatally stabbing two people, including a fellow student, and stabbing a third victim who is now recovering.Dominguez was represented by Dan Hutchinson, a deputy public defender. Hutchinson did not imm...