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Federal lawsuit in Massachusetts raises thorny questions about taking children from parents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

By STEVE LeBLANC (Associated Press)BOSTON (AP) — When child welfare workers and police knocked on Sarah Perkins’ and Joshua Sabey’s front door well past midnight one weekend last summer, the parents were shocked to learn the state of Massachusetts had come to take their two young sons.It’s the kind of harrowing scene that plays out daily across the country as social workers motivated by a desire to protect children run up against confused and concerned parents.What followed was emotional anguish, a bureaucratic battle, vindication for the parents and a lawsuit filed earlier this month by a legal advocacy group. The couple hopes for a favorable ruling that will increase oversight of child removals nationwide.The children were taken in Massachusetts because of a child abuse report stemming from a hospital visit. On July 13, 2022, Perkins whisked their 3-month-old son Cal to an emergency room. He had a 103-degree fever.An X-ray checking for pneumonia found a rib fracture the couple had...

Pedestrian hit, killed in City Heights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A pedestrian was fatally struck by a vehicle in the City Heights neighborhood Wednesday morning, authorities said.The San Diego Police Department says a call came in at 4:53 a.m. reporting an individual down on the 4100 block of Home Avenue. Gunman robs Mission Hills restaurant Responding officers found a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian who police described as a man in his 60s. According to authorities, the man was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity has not been released.SDPD says the driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and is cooperating with police. There are no further details on the circumstances leading up to the crash at this time.Traffic in the area may be impacted as authorities investigate the scene.This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Approaching 'June Gloom' is leaving San Diegans desperate for 'Sunny San Diego'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The "May Gray" sky is impacting the mental health of San Diegans across the county. In fact, we've seen cloudy weather and cooler temperatures for a big chunk of 2023, leaving some eager for the return of "Sunny San Diego."The sun is shy, the coast is cool and the clouds are stubborn, leaving tourists and locals ditching the board shorts for sweatshirts. Loveland Reservoir reopens in Alpine "It's freezing, "it's too cold for me" and "I was prepared for warmer weather" were just some of the many repeated phrases shared with FOX 5 as we asked how locals and tourists were coping. Overcast conditions are standard procedure for this time of year, but the figurative and quite literal low clouds hanging over our heads has begun to put a newfound emphasis on the approaching "June Gloom."“You have to acknowledge too that everything we’ve been through over the past years: social unrest. Our bodies are still feeling a hangover from some of those events. We're still not back to...

Filipino American chefs come into their own with multiple James Beard award nods

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

Like a lot of chefs, Aaron Verzosa has been hustling the past three years to get Archipelago, his Filipino restaurant in Seattle, through the pandemic and its ripple effects. Getting a James Beard Award nomination was a validating moment.“Being able to amplify and showcase stories about the Filipino American culture, the communities here, specifically in the Northwest, and really the immigrant story that my parents came with … I was just very humbled to be able to have the opportunity to showcase what the sacrifice was and be able to represent the region in that way,” said Verzosa, who is up for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific.In the culinary world, the awards are the equivalent of the Oscars. Three Filipino restaurants will be represented at the James Beard Foundation’s annual awards ceremony, on June 5 in Chicago.Abacá, in San Francisco, scored an Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker nod for Vince Bugtong. And Kasama, in Chicago, earned a joint Best Chef: Great Lake...

Canada to start printing health warnings directly on individual cigarettes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

Canada will become the first country to print health warnings directly on individual cigarettes.Carolyn Bennett, the Minister for Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, says the move will be part of the government’s efforts to help adults quit smoking while protecting youth and non-tobacco users from nicotine addiction.Labelling the tipping paper of individual cigarettes, little cigars, tubes, and other tobacco products will make it virtually impossible to avoid health warnings altogether, Health Canada said in a release.The move builds on Canada’s mandate to include graphic photo warnings on tobacco products’ packaging — a groundbreaking policy that started an international trend when it was introduced two decades ago.Canada has required photo warnings since the turn of the millennium, but the images haven’t been updated in a decade.While the exact messaging printed on cigarettes hasn’t been revealed, Bennett said last June that one of the phrase...

Ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie planning to launch GOP presidential campaign next week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to launch a Republican presidential campaign next week in New Hampshire.Christie, who also ran in 2016, is planning to make the announcement at a town hall Tuesday evening at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm Christie’s plans.The timing, which was first reported by Axios, comes after several longtime Christie advisers started a super political action committee to support his expected candidacy.The Associated Press had previously reported that Christie was expected to enter the race “imminently.”Christie has cast himself as the only potential candidate willing to aggressively take on former President Donald Trump, the current front-runner for the nomination. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, was a longtime friend and adviser to Trump, but broke with Trump over his refusal to accept ...

Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa sets election date as Aug. 23

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s national elections will take place on Aug. 23, the country’s president announced Wednesday. The vote is expected to be another closely watched affair in a country with a history of violent and disputed elections.The announcement through a government gazette also set Oct. 2 for a presidential runoff vote if required.Opposition parties have already made allegations of violence and intimidation against their supporters in the buildup to the elections, and human rights groups have said President Emmerson Mnangagwa is silencing criticism.The southern African nation has only had two leaders since it gained independence from white minority rule in 1980. Robert Mugabe led Zimbabwe for 37 years until he was removed and replaced by Mnangagwa in a coup in 2017. Mnangagwa had served as a vice president under Mugabe.The last general election was held in 2018, nearly a year after the coup.Once a close ally of Mugabe, Mnangagwa, 80, has tried to prese...

Stock market today: Wall Street joins worldwide slump

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are slipping on Wall Street as a frenzy around artificial intelligence runs out of steam and worries rise about the strength of the global economy. The S&P 500 was 0.3% lower in early trading Wednesday. The Dow and the Nasdaq composite had similar declines. Markets in Asia fell even more following discouraging data on manufacturing from China. The world’s second-largest economy has not been rebounding as strongly as many investors had hoped. Wall Street has been able to weather such concerns recently, largely because of big gains for big tech companies and others getting swept up in the buzz around AI.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street dipped early Wednesday along with global stock markets ahead of a vote by the U.S. Congress to avert a government debt default, while a downturn in Chinese factory activity deepened, another indication that the global economy is slowing. Futures for the benchmark S&P 500 fell 0.4...

Ex-UN head Ban calls for more diplomatic pressure on Myanmar’s military leaders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that he was communicating with authorities in military-run Myanmar as well as members of the armed resistance following a surprise visit to the country last month, and called for more diplomatic pressure on the ruling generals to end the violence. Ban did not specify the nature of those communications and declined to disclose the details of his conversations with military leaders during their April meetings. He was speaking at a Seoul news conference along with other members of The Elders, a group of senior statesmen engaging in peacemaking and human rights initiatives around the world.“I am in close contact with all those people to do as much as we can do to help them democratize Myanmar,” Ban said.He said he was still communicating with Myanmar authorities, the president of Indonesia — who holds the rotating chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations — and Myanmar’s National...

Unprecedented string of Nova Scotia wildfires still burning after four days

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:09 GMT

HALIFAX — As an unprecedented string of wildfires in Nova Scotia continued to burn out of control for a fourth day, fire officials were hoping for a break in the dry, windy weather.But that probably won’t happen until Friday night at the earliest, according to the latest forecast.And while municipal officials had talks Tuesday about allowing some of the 16,000 people evacuated from their Halifax-area residences to return home, deputy fire Chief David Meldrum made it clear today that wasn’t about to happen.He says the fire northwest of the port city’s downtown could flare up again because of the weather.Wind gusts today from the southwest were expected to reach 25 kilometres per hour, and the temperature was forecast to rise to about 25 C, with the humidity remaining very low at around 20 per cent.Meldrum says that under those conditions, the fire could quickly grow and spread, which is why the 100-square-kilometre evacuation zone will remain in place.The deputy chief say...