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Jesse Jackson is stepping down as head of civil rights organization Rainbow PUSH

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson plans to step down from leading the Chicago civil rights organization Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded in 1971, his son’s congressional office said Friday. A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson confirmed the long-time civil rights leader would be retiring from the organization.The elder Jackson, a civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, plans to announce his plan on Sunday during the organization’s annual convention, Rep. Jackson told the Chicago Sun-Times.Jonathan Jackson, an Illinois Democrat, said his father “has forever been on the scene of justice and has never stopped fighting for civil rights” and that will be “his mark upon history.”The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who will turn 82 in October, has remained active in civil rights in recent years despite health setbacks. He announced in 2017 that he had begun outpatient care for Parkinson’s disease two years earlier. In early 2021, he had gallbladder surgery and late...

Police investigate road shooting in Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

BLADENSBURG, Md. (AP) — Police are investigating a shooting Friday in a Maryland suburb of the nation’s capital that shut down area roads. Images from the scene showed a heavy police presence on a bridge that crosses the Anacostia River in Bladensburg, about a mile east of the Maryland line with Washington, D.C. Bladensburg police announced plans for an afternoon news conference to discuss the shooting, But authorities did not release any details about how many people were shot, the seriousness of their injuries or the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Officials with the neighboring Edmonston Police Department said they were assisting with the investigation. They said the shooting was an isolated incident and didn’t pose an ongoing threat to public safety.The Associated Press

Vermonters rush to dry out flooded homes and businesses with more storms on the horizon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

Vermonters worked Friday to dry out homes and businesses damaged by historic flooding but kept a wary eye on the horizon, with another round of storms forecast for the weekend.Parts of the state got more rain on Thursday and about 14,000 customers at the height of the storm. More rain is expected on Sunday, and further out, next Tuesday.“We don’t know the extent of some of these storms,” Gov. Phil Scott said at a news conference. Storms dumped up to two months’ worth of rain in a couple of days in parts of the region this week, surpassing the amount that fell when Tropical Storm Irene blew through in 2011 and caused major flooding. Officials called this week’s flooding the state’s worst natural disaster since floods in 1927. The flooding has been blamed for one death — a man who drowned in his home in Barre, a city of about 8,500 people in central Vermont. Stephen Davoll, 63, died Wednesday, said Vermont Emergency Management spokesman Mark Bosma, who urged Vermonte...

Security Council gives UN chief 30 days to come up with options on how to fight Haiti’s armed gangs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council asked the secretary-general on Friday to come up with options to help combat Haiti’s armed gangs, including a possible U.N. peacekeeping force and a non-U.N. multinational force.A resolution adopted unanimously by the council asks U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report back on “a full range” of options within 30 days to improve the security situation, including additional training for the Haitian National Police and providing support to combat illegal arms trafficking to the impoverished Caribbean nation. It also authorizes up to 70 U.N. police and corrections advisers to scale up support and training for Haiti’s understaffed and underfunded national police force. And it “encourages” countries, especially in the Caribbean region, to respond to appeals from Haiti’s prime minister and from Guterres for the deployment of an international specialized force.Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry sent an urgent appeal last October for...

UPS to train nonunion employees as talks stall with union for 340,000 workers and deadline nears

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

A little more than a week after contract talks between UPS and the union representing 340,000 of its workers broke down, UPS said it will begin training nonunion employees in the U.S. to step in should there be a strike, which the union has vowed to do if no agreement is reached by the end of this month.UPS said Friday that the training is a temporary plan that has no impact on current operations.“While we have made great progress and are close to reaching an agreement, we have a responsibility as an essential service provider to take steps to help ensure we can deliver our customers’ packages if the Teamsters choose to strike,” UPS said. Last week both sides blamed the other for walking away from talks, which now appear to be at a stalemate with a July 31 deadline approaching fast. Teamster-represented UPS workers voted for a strike authorization last month and union chief Sean O’Brien previously said that a strike was imminent. On Friday, O’Brien joined union workers in a pi...

Hollywood strikes bring uncertainty to local businesses as TIFF nears

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

TORONTO — The Toronto International Film Festival is still more than a month away, but a pair of U.S. entertainment worker strikes have Hollywood North worried the annual event won’t offer the usual boost for local businesses.When the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists walked off the job at midnight Thursday, joining the Writers Guild of America on the picket line, the labour action halted scores of international productions and immediately stopped the promotional work actors carry out for already completed films.That means TIFF, which is scheduled from Sept. 7 to 17, could see bare red carpets and far fewer stars as SAG members skip premieres, panels and press junkets while they seekbetter wages and protections from artificial intelligence.But the strikes could also spell potential trouble for local businesses, which help ferry, feed and fete the bevy of stars that fly in for TIFF and often count on the event to carry their companies throu...

AP Was There: NY suburb deals with latest notorious murder case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

OAK BEACH, N.Y. (AP) — EDITOR’S NOTE — Authorities in New York have arrested a man in connection with some of the killings on Long Island known as the Gilgo Beach murders. Rex Heuermann, an architect who lives across the bay from where the bodies were found, was charged on Friday with murder in the killings of three women, and authorities said he’s the prime suspect in the killing of another. The deaths of 11 people whose remains were found in 2010 and 2011 along a New York Beach Highway, portrayed in the 2020 Netflix film “Lost Girls,” long stumped investigators. The Associated Press is republishing a story by Frank Eltman, filed on Dec. 10, 2011, from Oak Beach, New York, detailing where the case stood then. ____It’s the largest murder investigation ever on New York’s Long Island — 10 people slain and strewn along a remote beach highway over 15 years, possibly all victims of the same serial killer. But it’s not the first time the New York suburbs have been in the national sp...

Toxic workplace? Nearly a fifth of workers say yes: poll

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

(The Hill) -- Nearly one out of five employees say their place of work is very or somewhat toxic, according to a new poll by the American Psychological Association (APA).“The number of individuals who report experiencing a toxic workplace without protection from harm is troubling,” said Arthur C. Evans, chief executive officer at the America Psychological Association, in a statement.  “No one should feel fear at work. It is clear there is much work to be done to foster a positive work environment for all workers in the nation.” The poll also found that those who reported working in a toxic environment were more than three times as likely as their counterparts in healthy workplaces to say that they “have experienced harm to their mental health” at work.  The APA’s poll found that 52 percent of people with toxic workplaces said they have experienced harm to their mental health at work, while 15 percent of those with healthy work environments said the same.  In...

YMCA pushes back against claims teenager was kicked off swim team for opposing locker room rules

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

Over 100 people gather for rally to support 16-year-old Abbigail WheelerSPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) -- A large group gathered near the Springfield Kerasotes YMCA on Thursday. They were there to support 16-year-old Abbigail Wheeler. For months, Wheeler and her family have been protesting rules at the YMCA regarding the organizations locker room policy. Wheeler, who was a member of the swim team at the YMCA, took issue with the fact that the YMCA allows transgender people to use the locker room that aligns with their gender identity. Wheeler complained about an incident in late April, where she says a transgender women was changing in the locker room while the swim team was practicing. Wheeler said at the rally she only saw a person changing in the locker room. "To be clear, I did not see the man naked and no male genitalia was exposed, however, I did see the man changing in the women's locker room. After seeing the man, I was scared and upset. I decided to leave immediately because I...

Chicago man gets 30 years in prison for sexual exploitation of girls

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:59 GMT

CHICAGO — A Chicago man was sentenced to three decades behind bars after admitting to enticing several girls in the Phillippines to produce and send sexually explicit content. Karl Quilter pleaded guilty to a federal charge of sexual exploitation of children after admitting to communicating with underage girls via Facebook, Viber, and Skype from 2017 to 2020.  SEE ALSO: Man charged after Mariano’s employee shot, killed inside Evergreen Park storeAccording to prosecutors, Quilter referred to the minor victims as his “girlfriends” and manipulated them into sending graphic photos and videos that he demanded. Quilter also used the victims’ financial difficulties as a means to get the girls to record and send sexually explicit images. According to prosecutors, Quilter promised to send money to a 16-year-old victim in 2020 to her family for medicine and food if she did as he asked. “If u do what I tell you…I will make sure u can buy food for 2 weeks and your medication,” Quilter said in t...