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Court affirms sex abuse conviction of ex-friar who worked at a Catholic school in Mississippi

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Court of Appeals has affirmed the 2022 conviction of a former Franciscan friar in the 1990s sexual abuse of a student at a Catholic school.In a split decision Tuesday, a majority of the court found “no reversible error” in the conviction of Paul West, 63, who is Central Mississippi Correctional Facility.Leflore County jurors in April 2022 found West guilty of one count of sexual battery and one count of gratification of lust. A judge sentenced him to 30 years on the first count and 15 years on the second count, to be served at the same time.As first reported by The Associated Press in 2019, La Jarvis Love and his cousin, Joshua Love, had accused West of numerous instances of sexual abuse while they were students at St. Francis of Assisi School in Greenwood. The AP usually does not identify victims of sexual abuse, but the cousins agreed to be identified.West’s attorneys argued on appeal that prosecutors failed to prove La Jarvis Love was y...

Striking Metro workers say they face challenges affording the very food they sell

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

TORONTO — Metro grocery store workers on strike in the Greater Toronto Area say they are fighting for their wages to keep up with the cost of living, as the rapid pace of food inflation in recent years has caused struggles in affording the same groceries they sell.Last week, nearly 3,700 frontline store employees at 27 Metro grocery stores rejected a tentative agreement that had been reached by their union bargaining committee just after a strike deadline. Workers walked off the job Saturday instead of accepting the deal.Many stationed on the picket line Wednesday said higher pay is essential to any potential agreement reached.Jason Sylvester, a Metro meat department manager who had been at the grocer’s Gould Street location next to Toronto Metropolitan University’s campus, said he and a dozen other strikers present were “just trying to keep up wages with inflation.”“We can’t afford to buy the groceries that we put up on shelves ourselves,” he said.“We just want to keep up with the ...

Invasive fruit flies have been found near Los Angeles, prompting a produce quarantine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The discovery of nearly 30 invasive fruit flies has prompted a produce quarantine affecting over 79 square miles (204.6 square kilometers) of Los Angeles County as state and local officials try to stop the fly from spreading and hurting California’s fruit and vegetable industry.It’s the first quarantine ever in the Western Hemisphere for the Tau fruit fly, which is native to Asia, agriculture officials said. The fly was discovered on June 6 in the unincorporated area of Stevenson Ranch, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of downtown Los Angeles, and was likely brought by a traveler bringing uninspected produce into California, officials said.The California Department of Food and Agriculture announced the quarantine last week.“We’re a big conduit in terms of shipping and trade,” said Ken Pellman, spokesperson for Los Angeles County’s Agricultural Commission. “We want to keep an eye out and prevent stuff from coming here in the first place, and if it c...

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy leaving vacation early after death of lieutenant governor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is cutting his Italy vacation short and returning to the state Thursday after the death this week of Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, his spokesperson said Wednesday. Murphy, a Democrat, will depart Italy Thursday morning and is expected back in New Jersey by the afternoon, spokesperson Mahen Gunaratna said in a phone call. He was set to be in the country, where he owns a home, until Aug. 13. Oliver died after a short stay at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, for an undisclosed medical issue. She had been serving as acting governor when her hospitalization was announced. She died the next day. No cause was given, and her family has asked for privacy. Oliver was the first Black woman to hold statewide elected office in New Jersey, winning the vote alongside Murphy in 2017 and again in 2021. She was a well-known figure in state government and made history in 2010 by becoming the first Black woman to lead the state Asse...

Editorial Roundup: South Dakota

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

Yankton Press & Dakotan. July 31, 2023. Editorial: Could South Dakota Repeal Its Medical Cannabis Law?A proposed ballot initiative has materialized that would scuttle South Dakota’s new medicinal marijuana law.To be clear, this is only a proposed measure and has a long way to go to get to a vote, and if it should get on the ballot, it would theoretically have a lot of momentum working against it.Still, the prospect is there and must be treated with a degree of seriousness.The ballot measure proposes to repeal 2020’s Initiated Measure 26 (IM26), which established the legalization of medicinal cannabis in South Dakota. IM26 passed with nearly 70% of the vote.Despite that outcome, a Newell man, Travis Ismay, is preparing a petition drive to get a repeal measure on the 2024 ballot, according to the office of Attorney General Marty Jackley, which released a draft ballot explanation last week.This can be viewed as frustrating on several fronts.First, the proposed measure is trying to ...

Man whose body was found in a barrel in Malibu is identified by authorities

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities on Wednesday have identified the man whose naked body was found inside a barrel in Malibu, California.The man was identified by the coroner’s office as 32-year-old Javonnta Marshann Murphy, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.No additional information was immediately provided.Murphy’s body was found inside a black plastic 55-gallon drum on Monday and homicide detectives are investigating.The barrel was first spotted over the weekend floating in a Malibu lagoon and brought in with a kayak by a maintenance worker, but was not opened.The Sheriff’s Department said the barrel was opened Monday morning by a lifeguard at Malibu Lagoon State Beach, who had retrieved it after it washed back into the lagoon.It was not immediately known how long the body had been in the drum.The Associated Press

Investigators recall surreal moments during years-long investigation in Mexico’s missing students

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Independent investigators leaving Mexico after eight years searching for answers to the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from a teachers’ college say they experienced a “double reality” unlike anything they ever encountered in other international missions.“It’s like you’re in a movie, things are happening and you say, ‘This isn’t real,’” said Spanish physician Carlos Beristain. He said they had to figure out together what was true and what wasn’t to make quick decisions and avoid being fooled.“It was a constant exercise, very tiring, very stressful,” he said, adding that often the most documented purported details in the case ended up being false.Beristain and former Colombian prosecutor Ángela Buitrago, who were interviewed by The Associated Press just before they left Mexico on Monday, were two members of the team sent by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2015 to help clear up the so-called Ayotzinapa case. On Sept. 26, 2014, the 43 students in t...

Conservatives ran on similar media policy as Liberals, but now claim it’s censorship

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Liberal legislation aimed at social media platforms is ushering in censorship, despite his party running on similar policy in the last federal election. The Online News Act will require tech giants to enter into agreements that compensate Canadian news outlets for content shared or otherwise repurposed on their platforms. Poilievre claims the new law will make news disappear from the internet, and ban people from seeing news.The Opposition leader’s remarks come after Meta announced it will permanently remove all news in Canada from its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, in the coming weeks in response to the law. However, the Conservatives’ 2021 campaign platform proposed a similar policy, calling on tech giants to fairly compensate media for the content they create through an arbitration process. Meta has collaborated with a digital literacy expert on a guide to teach Canadians about other ways they can get...

Pope Francis blasts ‘scandal’ of clergy abuse in Portugal as he arrives for World Youth Day

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Pope Francis blasted Portugal’s Catholic Church leaders for the “scandal” of clergy sex abuse Wednesday as he kicked off a trip to the European country, saying their actions had helped drive the faithful away and ordering members of the Catholic hierarchy to change their ways and treat victims better.Francis waded head-on into the scandal roiling the Portuguese church upon his arrival in Lisbon, where he is spending five days for the first World Youth Day Catholic festival since the COVID-19 pandemic. A panel of experts hired by the Portuguese church reported in February that priests and other church personnel may have abused at least 4,815 boys and girls since 1950. The report represented the latest reckoning by a European church with its legacy of abuse and cover-up.Prior to the report, Portuguese church officials had insisted there had only been a handful of cases. After its release, they initially refused to remove named abusers from ministry or to compen...

ATCEMS: Body found near south Austin dog park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin-Travis County EMS medics responded to a call Wednesday morning of a body near Edgecliff Terrace in south Austin, ATCEMS said.An adult was pronounced dead at the scene near the Norwood Estate Dog Park, ATCEMS said. That's in the 1000 block of Edgecliffe Terrace, near Interstate 35 and Riverside Drive.The Austin Police Department received a call to check in on someone there at 9:50 a.m. Officers found someone who had died. APD said it is not investigating it as a homicide.The Medical Examiner's Office will determine the cause of death, APD added.