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Top Missouri lawmaker repays travel reimbursements wrongly taken from state

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri's House speaker has repaid more than $3,300 in taxpayer dollars that he inappropriately received as reimbursements for travel and other expenses dating back to 2018.Speaker Dean Plocher so far has repaid the state House $3,379, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday.The Missouri Independent on Monday first reported years of expenses that Plocher received state reimbursement for, even though he paid for the expenses out of his campaign fund and not out of his own pocket.Missouri law allows elected officials to use money from their political campaigns for some government-related expenses. But it's unlawful to use taxpayer dollars to reimburse campaigns or for political expenses.In a Monday email to fellow Republican House members, Plocher wrote that his campaign treasurer, his wife, early last week told him he “had received reimbursement from the House for an extra hotel night during a conference I attended that I should not have been reimburs...

Metro Denver letter carriers rally as assaults, robberies increase five times this year over 2022

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

U.S. Postal Service letter carriers from across Metro Denver rallied at the Aurora Main Post Office on Tuesday to raise awareness for increasing assaults and robberies and to call for more federal prosecution of the crimes.About 30 letter carriers stood outside the post office Tuesday night, listening to state and national union leaders and chanting “Enough is enough!”The Colorado State Association of Letter Carriers has tracked 10 assaults and robberies on metro-area letter carriers in 2023, President Richard Byrne said Tuesday, up from two cases reported to the group in 2022.Byrne, a letter carrier in Greeley, said people who commit crimes against federal employees should face federal charges.“We need the Postal Service and (U.S.) Postal Inspection Service to work with federal prosecutors,” Byrne said. “Maybe we need some legislation with some teeth in it to hold these suspects accountable.”Denver letter carrier Ken Deuel worked for the Postal Service for 30 years befo...

Football: CU Buffs begin post-bye stretch run

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

Deion Sanders would have preferred to coach a game last week.Instead, the Colorado head football coach bought a couple of ATVs for his property and got more sleep than he’s had in weeks.“I had a good time and got some rest,” he said Tuesday at his weekly news conference.And now, it’s go time.Related ArticlesCollege Sports | CU Buffs coach Deion Sanders on sign-stealing in college football: “Everyone’s trying to get an edge” College Sports | CU Buffs announce Oregon State game time, channel College Sports | AP college football poll, Week 9: Air Force climbs after win over Navy, Georgia is No. 1 for 19th straight poll College Sports | Keeping receipts: From “Saturday Night Live” to Will Ferrell and Time magazine, how Deion Sanders transformed CU Buffs football in just seven weeks College Sports | Top-ranked Colorado Mines football surges past Black Hills State in second half to mov...

Murder charges filed against driver of vehicle that hit, killed 4 women in Malibu

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

The driver of a vehicle that hit and killed four Pepperdine University students on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu last week has been charged with murder.Fraser Bohm, 22, was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with four counts of murder for the deaths of Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams.The crash happened on Oct. 17, when the four college seniors were hit by a vehicle allegedly driven by Bohm.Authorities on Oct. 18, 2023, investigate a fatal crash in Malibu that occurred one day earlier. (KTLA)Bohm was arrested at the scene for gross vehicular manslaughter, but was released from custody while authorities investigated the circumstances of the crash.Officials for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said much of the evidence needed to keep him in custody was pending at the time, meaning Bohm needed to be released until there was enough to present to the District Attorney's Office for charges."Our detectives worked diligently to compile all th...

Ventura County Sheriff's Office reopens 2012 murder case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

An unsolved murder of a 42-year-old man in El Rio more than a decade ago has been reopened by the Ventura County Sheriff's Office with hope that new technological advances will lead to an arrest.On the evening of Oct. 26, 2012, Edward Velasquez was found shot dead at the intersection of Cortez Street and Salem Avenue.Edward Velasquez, pictured in this undated photo provided by the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, was murdered on Oct. 26, 2012. No arrests have been made. Velasquez was shot once in the upper body and was pronounced dead at the scene.After his killing, deputies collected evidence from the scene and interviewed witnesses who described the killer as a Hispanic man with a light complexion in his early 20s with a "clean cut" appearance.A vehicle described as a beige four-door sedan was also identified as the shooter's vehicle.But despite a thorough investigation and those critical pieces of information, the case went cold in 2013 with no arrests made.Now, almost 11 years t...

Warriors announce Draymond Green starting lineup replacement for Opening Night

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Chris Paul will be in the starting lineup for the Warriors’ opening night against the Phoenix Suns in place of an injured Draymond Green.The full starting lineup includes Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Kevon Looney and Paul. Green was ruled out as he recovers from a left ankle sprain. It marks the second time in his 12-year career that Green will miss the season opener and first time since the 2020-21 season when the Warriors opened against the Brooklyn Nets.Paul, 38, will start his 1,215th straight NBA regular season game and make his Warriors’ regular season debut.“It’s going to be exciting,” head coach Steve Kerr said before Tuesday’s game. “Obviously our fans know Chris so well, nice to have him on our side instead of the opponent’s side. We’ve always had so much respect for him and we’ve had so many battles.”Related ArticlesGolden State Warriors | How Steph Curry used...

Israeli airstrikes surge in Gaza, killing dozens at a time in destroyed homes, witnesses say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel escalated airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, crushing families in the rubble of residential buildings, as health officials said hundreds of Palestinians were killed in the past day and medical facilities were shut down because of bomb damage and lack of power.The soaring death toll from the bombardment is unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It augurs an even greater loss of life in Gaza once Israeli forces backed by tanks and artillery launch an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas militants.Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the devastating Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on towns in southern Israel.The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 704 people over the past day, mostly women and children. The Associated Press could not independently verify the death tolls cited by Ham...

Miners from a rival union are holding hundreds of colleagues underground in South Africa, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A group of miners from an unregistered, rival union are holding hundreds of their colleagues underground for a second day at a gold mine in South Africa over a union dispute, police and mine officials said Tuesday. Some 15 miners have been injured in scuffles, the head of the mine said.Details were sketchy and there were conflicting statements over what happened, with the unregistered union asserting it represents the majority of employees at the mine and it wants to be formally recognized. It said the workers underground were staging a protest and there was no hostage situation.According to Jon Hericourt, CEO of New Kleinfontein Gold Mine company, which manages the mine, the incident erupted early Monday when miners from the AMCU union prevented hundreds of others from leaving after their night shift ended at the Modder East mine in Springs, east of Johannesburg.Hericourt said there were 562 mineworkers underground, and the company had estimated that between 110...

Matthews scores his 7th of the season, Leafs beat the Capitals 4-1 despite Ovechkin’s goal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Auston Matthews scored his seventh goal of the season, Joseph Woll made 36 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs handed the Washington Capitals their fourth loss in five games, 4-1 on Tuesday night.Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal this season and 823rd of his NHL career, moving 71 back of Wayne Gretzky’s record. Ovechkin, who would have tied a career-long season-opening goal drought if he hadn’t scored, had a game-high 14 shots, including a failed penalty shot.Ovechkin’s offensive contribution on the power play came too late, well after an early goal was disallowed because the league ruled he interfered with Woll and with the Capitals trailing 4-0. Darcy Kuemper allowed four goals on the first 12 shots he faced and 17 overall.Washington’s only win so far came in a shootout last week at home against Calgary. This loss came against the team new coach Spencer Carbery spent the past two seasons with as an assistant.Matthews’ goal was his fi...

Nicaragua is ‘weaponizing’ US-bound migrants as Haitians pour in on charter flights, observers say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:50 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — More than 260 charter flights believed to be carrying migrants from Haiti have touched down in Nicaragua in recent months, according to flight data and experts in the region, adding to a historic crush of migration by people hoping to reach the U.S.The flow of migrants has left the Biden administration and Latin American leaders scrambling for solutions, and experts say it’s also being used as leverage by governments like Nicaragua’s to get concessions from the U.S. amid tightening sanctions.“The Ortega government knows they have few important policy tools at hand to confront the United States, … so they have armed migration as a way to attack,” said Manuel Orozco, director of the migration, remittances and development program at the Inter-American Dialogue. “This is definitely a concrete example of weaponizing migration as a foreign policy.”Nicaragua has long been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing struggling Caribbean nati...