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California sues district that requires parents be notified if their kids change gender ID

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — California’s attorney general sued a Southern California school district Monday over its new policy requiring schools to notify parents if their children change their gender identification or pronouns, the latest blow in an intensifying battle between a handful of school districts and the state about the rights of trans kids and their parents.Attorney General Rob Bonta said policies like the one adopted by Chino Valley Unified School District will forcibly out transgender students and threaten their well-being. But the district’s board president and supporters say parents have a right to know the decisions their children are making in schools.Bonta is seeking a court order to immediately block the policy in Chino Valley, a district about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, which requires schools to notify parents within three days if employees become aware a student is asking to be treated as a gender other than the one listed on offici...

Biden says action needed against ‘hate-fueled violence’ after racist shooting in Florida

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden called Monday for action to end the type of “hate-fueled violence” that authorities said motivated a white man to fatally shoot three Black people at a Florida store over the weekend. Biden said people must speak out about injustice. “We can’t let hate prevail, and it’s on the rise. It’s not diminishing,” Biden said at the White House as he met with civil rights advocates and the children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. “Silence, I believe, we’ve all said many times, silence is complicity,” Biden said. “We’re not going to remain silent and, so, we have to act against this hate-fueled violence.” Biden’s meeting with the King family and other civil rights advocates came two days after Saturday’s racist attack in Jacksonville, Florida. Three Black people were shot to death by a white man wearing a mask and firing a weapon emblazoned with a swastika. The shooter, who had also posted ...

After lots of hype, West Point treasure box opening yields no bombshells, just silt

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — Excitement and anticipation dissolved into disappointment at West Point when a lead box believed to have been placed by cadets in the base of a monument almost two centuries ago was opened Monday during a livestreamed event and revealed to contain little more than gray dust.An audience at the U.S. Military Academy hoped to see military relics or historical documents pulled from the box. Instead, they let out a groan after experts pried open the top and pointed a camera inside to show just a layer of sediment on the bottom.West Point archeologist Paul Hudson and West Point Museum curator Michael Diaz gingerly lifted out a few gray clumps and dusted them with a brush, only to have them crumble into powder.“A little disappointed. We built up to this quite a bit,” Hudson said after the event. “And I’ll tell you the truth, that was the last outcome that I expected with all the trouble that they went to create that box, put it in the monument.”The box, which ...

S&P/TSX composite up almost 200 points Monday, U.S. stock markets also rise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

TORONTO — Strength in energy stocks as the price of oil once again topped US$80 per barrel helped lead a broad rally on the Toronto Stock Exchange Monday, lifting Canada’s main stock index almost 200 points, while U.S. stock markets also climbed.Materials, energy and commodities helped the TSX outperform its U.S. counterparts as news of more economic stimulus in China provided some hope, said Stephen Duench, vice-president and portfolio manager for AGF Investments Inc.The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 189.39 points at 20,025.14.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 213.08 at 34,559.98. The S&P 500 index was up 27.60 points at 4,433.31,while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.48 points at 13,705.13.It’s been an overall weak, choppy month of August, with Monday marking the first time the S&P 500 has ended the day positive back-to-back, Duench said. “We’ve had a lot of consolidation in this market in August,” said Duench. “Sometimes after those c...

MUST-WATCH: A real life love of video games racing into cinemas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

One of the strangest video game adaptations has entered the MUST-WATCH this week! But will it take the top spot, or could it go to the newest Star Wars show? Perhaps another vacation with friends you don’t want to travel with will take the top spot? You’ll have to keep reading to find out!Vacation Friends 2Where to watch: Disney+First up this week, it’s time for a vacation!Vacation Friends 2 sees the whole gang back returning for a new drug and booze-fueled trip. Marcus (played by Lil Rey Howery from Get Out) and Emily (played by Yvonne Orji from Insecure) take another trip with Ron (played by John Cena from Peacemaker) and Kyla (played by Meredith Hagner from Search Party). They’re hoping things won’t get too crazy, especially because Marcus is hoping to get some work done as well. But that all changes when Kyla’s father (played by Steve Buscemi from Boardwalk Empire) arrives as well, recently freed from jail. This film also stars Ronny Chieng (f...

NYPD warns it has zero tolerance for drones at the US Open

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Beware: The U.S. Open is a no-drone zone.The New York Police Department warned Monday on the Grand Slam event’s opening day that it has a zero-tolerance policy toward drones buzzing the tournament, and any seen hovering over Flushing Meadows will be taken out immediately.Exactly how was not specified, with NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner saying only that the department “will be deploying our counter-drone capabilities.” In the past, police have taken out problem drones by jamming their radio signals.In 2015, a drone buzzed the court during a nighttime women’s match at Louis Armstrong Stadium and crashed into an empty section of seats. No one was injured.Weiner warned that anyone caught flying drones this year risks possible arrest and having their equipment confiscated.___AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennisThe Associated Press

Florida football team alters its travel plans with Tropical Storm Idalia approaching the state

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida is altering its travel plans for the team’s season opener at No. 14 Utah on Thursday night, hoping to avoid Tropical Storm Idalia.A team spokesman said Monday that the Gators will fly to Dallas on Tuesday, practice and spend the night there, and then travel to Salt Lake City on Wednesday. Coach Billy Napier’s team had initially planned to fly from Gainesville to Utah on Wednesday.Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to start affecting Florida with hurricane-force winds as soon as late Tuesday and arrive on the state’s west coast by Wednesday. It is the first storm to hit Florida this hurricane season and a potentially big blow to the state, which is also dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian.Idalia intensified Monday, and forecasters predicted it would hit in days as a major hurricane with potentially life-threatening storm surges.Idalia thrashed Cuba with heavy rain, especially on the westernmost part of the isl...

Google to invest another $1.7 billion into Ohio data centers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

NEW ALBANY, Ohio (AP) — Google will invest an additional $1.7 billion to support three data center campuses in central Ohio, the company announced Monday.The tech giant now operates a center in New Albany and announced in May that it would build additional centers in Columbus and Lancaster to help power its artificial intelligence technology and other tools, Mark Isakowitz, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, said the additional money will be used to complete the Columbus and Lancaster centers and expand the New Albany facility, but did not disclose more specific details.Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who participated in Google’s announcement, said no tax credits or other public incentives were offered to Google for the data-center expansion.Data centers have proliferated across the U.S. and become a welcome revenue source for local governments. They also require a large amount of electricity and high-voltage transmission lines.The Associated Press

Amazon is raising free-shipping minimums for some customers who don’t have Prime memberships

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon has been quietly raising the amount some customers must spend on its site to get free shipping. To qualify for no-cost deliveries, some Amazon customers who don’t have Prime memberships now need to spend $35, up from $25 previously. Amazon spokesperson Kristina Pressentin confirmed the company is testing the new qualification, which was first reported by the blog eCommerce Bytes. The change doesn’t impact Prime members who pay $14.99 per month, or $139 a year, for free shipping and other perks. “We continually evaluate our offerings and make adjustments based on those assessments,” Pressentin said.For now, the new $35 minimum seems to apply to customers based on where they live, the consumer education website Consumer World said Monday. Among other cities, it noted Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered, has a $25 minimum, while non-Prime customers in nearby Bellevue have to pay $35 for free shipping. The move comes as the online retail giant works to cut cost...

Fiona Ferro, a tennis player who accused her ex-coach of sexual assault, returned to the US Open

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:14:19 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Shortly after losing in U.S. Open qualifying a year ago, tennis player Fiona Ferro accused her former coach, Pierre Bouteyre, of rape. That case is still pending, and Ferro took a few months off from the tour after going public with her story, but she returned to Flushing Meadows on Monday to play in the Grand Slam tournament’s main draw for the first time since 2021.Ferro, a wild-card entry from France who lost to two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-2 in the first round, said she has not hired a new personal coach. Instead, she is working as part of a collection of about a half-dozen players with a coach from the French tennis federation, Eric Winogradsky.“I wasn’t feeling really ready to get into a new project with a coach, 1-to-1,” Ferro said Monday. “I think I needed to be in a group with other players, because it was tough for me to be alone with only one coach.”After her hiatus from the sport through the end of last season, Ferro began pl...