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Ticker: Biden backs new offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico; IRS contractor charged with leaking tax return information of Trump, wealthy people

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

President Biden’s administration on Friday proposed up to three oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, but none in Alaska, as it tries to navigate between energy companies seeking greater oil and gas production and environmental activists who want Biden to shut down new offshore drilling in the fight against climate change.The five-year plan includes proposed sales in the Gulf of Mexico — the nation’s primary offshore source of oil and gas — in 2025, 2027 and 2029. The three lease sales are the minimum number the Democratic administration could legally offer if it wants to continue expanding offshore wind development.Charges in IRS leak caseA former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service was charged Friday with leaking tax information to news outlets about thousands of the country’s wealthiest people.Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., is accused of stealing the tax return information and giving it to two different news outlets between 2018 a...

PHOTOS: Stars step out for Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

Celebrities from Austin Butler to Zoe Kravitz step out for Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2024, taking place from Sept. 25 to Oct. 3, 2023, in Paris, France.PARIS, FRANCE – SEPTEMBER 27: Honey Dijon and Taraji P. Henson attends the Acne Studios Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 27, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pierre Mouton/Getty Images for Acne Studio)PARIS, FRANCE – SEPTEMBER 27: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been digitally enhanced.) Irina Shayk is seen wearing black vinyl jacket, skirt, boots, sunglasses during a street style shoot as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 27, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images for ABA)PARIS, FRANCE – SEPTEMBER 26: Tyga attends the ETAM Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 26, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)PARIS, FRANCE – SEPTEMBER 26: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY – For No...

Workers remain on the picket line at Stellantis plant in Mansfield as UAW strike continues

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

The United Auto Workers strike has shifted into high gear with 7,000 more workers walking off the job as nearly four dozen employees at the Stellantis facility in Mansfield hit the picket line.Union President Shawn Fain, speaking Friday via Facebook Live, ordered workers to strike in Illinois and Michigan to put more pressure on Ford and General Motors, while Jeep and Ram maker Stellantis was spared from the third round of strikes.Stellantis made significant progress, Fain said, moments before his appearance on Facebook Live by agreeing to unspecified cost-of-living raises, the right not to cross a picket line and the right to strike over plant closures.Patrick Lozeau, financial secretary for the local union in Mansfield, didn’t know exactly what changed for the strike not to expand even further at Stellantis. He and his colleagues walked off the job Sept. 22, when employees at 38 plants in 20 states joined the UAW strike, which commenced Sept. 15 after contracts expired.Lozeau and ...

Orioles, Maryland officials announce nonbinding stadium agreement, but not a lease

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

The Orioles and representatives of Gov. Wes Moore said Friday they have reached agreement on a nonbinding “memorandum of understanding” — but not a lease — to keep the Orioles committed to Camden Yards for 30 years.While representatives from the governor’s office and the team proclaimed Thursday night that there was a 30-year agreement, they acknowledged during a Friday morning briefing that no lease has been signed. They said an extension of the current lease for at least a year or two may be needed because both sides have not agreed to final terms yet.Under the memorandum, the Orioles would cease paying rent to the state for Camden Yards but would assume responsibility for stadium operations and management.The memorandum, which states the term of the agreement will be for 30 years, is not a legally binding document. Rather, the memorandum says it outlines “key components” of the team’s and stadium authority’s plans and...

Trump to California GOP: 'Help is on the way' (video)

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

Former U.S. President and 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump spoke at the California Republican Party's fall convention in Anaheim on Friday, taking shots at California's political leadership, transgender athletes and his GOP primary opponents. Trump’s speech comes two days after he opted not to participate in the GOP primary debate held at Ronald Reagan's presidential library in Simi Valley, a suburb northwest of Los Angeles.This video includes the final 30 minutes of the former president's remarks, which lasted over an hour and a half.

Bail bondsman charged alongside Trump in Georgia pleads guilty, becoming first defendant to do so

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A bail bondsman charged alongside former President Donald Trump and 17 others in the Georgia election interference case pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges on Friday, becoming the first defendant to accept a plea deal with prosecutors.As part of the deal, Scott Graham Hall will receive five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings. He was also ordered to write a letter of apology to the citizens of Georgia and is forbidden from participating in polling activities.Hall, 59, pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties, all misdemeanors, at a surprise court hearing. Prosecutors had accused him of participating in a breach of election equipment in rural Coffee County and initially charged him with racketeering and six conspiracy counts, all felonies.He is one of the lower-level players in the indictment filed last month alleging a wide-ranging scheme to overturn Democrat Joe Bi...

US’ only bison roundup rustles up hundreds to maintain health of the species

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

South Dakota cowboys and cowgirls rounded up a herd of more than 1,500 bison Friday as part of an annual effort to maintain the health of the species, which has rebounded from near-extinction. Visitors from across the world cheered from behind wire fencing as whooping horseback riders chased the thundering, wooly giants across hills and grasslands in Custer State Park. Bison and their calves stopped occassionally to graze on blond grass and roll on the ground, their sharp hooves stirring up dust clouds. “How many times can you get this close to a buffalo herd?” said South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Secretary Kevin Robling, who was among 50 riders herding the animals. “You hear the grunts and the moans and (see) the calves coming and running alongside mamas.”Custer State Park holds the nation’s only Buffalo Roundup once a year to check the health of the bison and vaccinate calves, park Superintendent Matt Snyder said. As many as 60 million bison, sometimes called buffalo in th...

What do Indigenous Peoples across Canada really need and want?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

The federal Liberal government has made a lot of promises to Indigenous Peoples. But do those promises line up with what communities on the ground really want and need, or reflect their diversity?The Canadian Press spoke with Indigenous community members and leadership to get a sense of what their priorities are and what they think Canadians can do to ensure that truth and reconciliation moves beyond aspiration and into action. Dani Lanouette, Chippewas of Nawash and Algonquins of Barriere Lake: Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girlsDani Lanouette has been following the case of the remains of two women believed to be in a Winnipeg-area landfill closely.More specifically, she has been keeping an eye on what she says is a lack of action to take the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls seriously, or seriously enough to understand the importance of bringing loved ones home to their families, regardless of the cost.The remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes My...

South Carolina inmates want executions paused while new lethal injection method is studied

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lawyers for six death row inmates out of appeals in South Carolina are asking the state Supreme Court to give full consideration to the state’s new lethal injection rules as well as the electric chair and firing squad before restarting executions after an unintended 12-year pause.The inmates said judges should decide now if the state’s new lethal injection protocol using just the sedative pentobarbital as well as killing prisoners by electrocution or shots fired into the heart do not violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments.“The next set of potential plaintiffs are already in line, and more will follow. Now is the time to finally resolve these questions,” attorneys for the condemned inmates wrote in court papers filed Friday.Lawyers for the prisons and Gov. Henry McMaster asked the Supreme Court on Sept. 19, the same day they announced the lethal injection drugs were available, to toss out a lower court ruling that the e...

Dad who won appeal in college admissions bribery case gets 6 months home confinement for tax offense

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A former Staples Inc. executive whose fraud and bribery convictions in the sprawling college admissions cheating scandal were thrown out by an appeals court was sentenced on Friday to six months of home confinement for a tax offense. John Wilson, 64, of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, was sentenced in Boston’s federal appeals court months after the 1st U.S. Circut Court of Appeals threw out nearly all of his convictions in the so-called Operation Varsity Blues case. The appeals court upheld Wilson’s conviction on a charge of filing a false tax return.Wilson was sentenced to one year of probation, with the first six months to be served in home confinement, according to the Massachusetts U.S. attorney’s office. He was also ordered to complete 250 hours of community service and pay a $75,000 fine. Prosecutors alleged at trial Wilson paid $220,000 to have his son designated as a University of Southern California water polo recruit and an additional $1 million t...