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Editorial: Kamala Harris gets it wrong on immigration

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

Vice President Kamala took her anti-GOP act on the road with a Monday visit to a Latino conference in Chicago – unfortunately, she forgot to pack all her facts.Harris told the UnidosUS 2023 Annual Conference that “extremist so-called leaders have a blueprint to attack hard-won freedoms and rights and to do it state by state as part of their national agenda.”“Across our nation, extremist so-called leaders demonize, target and attack immigrants,” she said.As The Hill reported, Harris pointed to a new law in Florida that requires companies to determine an employee’s immigration status and puts penalties on hiring undocumented immigrants. The vice president called it “a law designed to make people live in fear.”In a word, no.The legislation signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis makes using E-Verify mandatory for any employer with 25 or more employees, imposes enforceable penalties for those employing illegal immigrants, and enhances penalties for human smuggling.DeSantis did n...

Rustic fruit galette brings bright summer flavor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

Summer desserts should look and taste exactly like the season: bursting with color and full of fresh, sunny flavor. The best ones are also super easy to make, with ingredients that are easy to find in either the supermarket or farmers market, and not wickedly expensive.My go-to when it’s warm outside is always a galette, a rustic, free-form pie that’s basically just pastry dough folded over a filling of fresh fruit mixed with sugar and a little cornstarch to thicken it. Not only is it a beautiful dessert, with the colorful filling peaking through the golden, buttery crust, but it’s super-forgiving for folks who wouldn’t normally attempt a double-crust pie, yet want something more elegant than a crumble.I used last-of-the-season strawberries and new-to-the-season peaches for this first galette of summer, along with fresh blueberries. But you can pretty much use any fruit that strikes your fancy — stone fruits like plums, cherries, nectarines, and apricots work...

HBO’s ‘After the Bite’ spotlights Cape Cod’s shark scene

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

Great White sharks and North Atlantic gray seals highlight HBO’s Cape Cod-centric documentary “After the Bite,” streaming Wednesday.“It’s about a community grappling with massive changes to the environment. Issues they are so intertwined with,” director Ivy Meeropol said in a Zoom interview about her sprawling canvas.Those issues include commercial fishing where sharks hunting seals is one threat. There are newly imposed precautions for swimming, scientific research on the seal population, community meetings to diminish the seals’ protected status.“The focus is on the Outer Cape, Provincetown, Wellfleet and Truro. It also stretches to Chatham, which is where the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy ,is based, and where the boat goes out to tag sharks for study.“It’s really a small community with a lot of diverse voices from different sides of issues,” she said. “Not all communities are so tied to the natural environment when massive change is happening. How is the community grappl...

Dear Abby: Boyfriend is great, but only when sober

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

Dear Abby: There is a man, “Gus,” I am completely, madly in love with. The issue is, he likes to drink — a lot. The only thing he wants to do when he’s not sleeping or working is drink. His health is rapidly deteriorating, and he lost his license for 10 years because of drinking and driving.Last weekend, he picked me up and we went to the gas station. When we got there, he was so drunk he couldn’t even pull up to the pump but just parked in the middle. When I told him he was too drunk to be driving, he drove off and left me standing at the gas station and hasn’t spoken to me since. I guess that’s how he decided to end our relationship.He needs to get help, and that’s why I’m writing you. He reads your column every single day and never, ever misses it. I love him. He is my He-Man and the best man I have ever met when he’s not drinking. I’m asking you to please let him know he will always have my heart, that my love for...

Michael Jackson sexual abuse lawsuits on verge of revival by appeals court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court on Wednesday will consider reviving the dismissed lawsuits of two men who allege Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children for years, a move the court appears likely to make after a tentative decision that would order the cases back to a lower court for trial. The suits were filed after Jackson’s 2009 death by Wade Robson in 2013 and James Safechuck the following year. The two men became more widely known for telling their stories in the 2019 HBO documentary, “ Leaving Neverland.”Both sued MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc., two corporations for which Jackson was the sole owner and lone shareholder.In 2021, Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young ruled that the two corporations and their employees had no legal duty to protect Robson and Safechuck from Jackson and threw out the suits. But in a tentative decision last month, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed that judge and ordered the cases back to trial.La...

Heirloom corn in a rainbow of colors makes a comeback in Mexico, where white corn has long been king

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

IXTENCO, Mexico (AP) — On the slopes of the Malinche volcano, Juan Vargas starts the dawn routine he’s had since childhood, carefully checking stalks of colorful native corn. For years, Vargas worried that these heirloom varieties — running from deep red to pale pink, from golden yellow to dark blue — passed down from his parents and grandparents would disappear. White corn long ago came to dominate the market and became the foundation of Mexicans’ diet. But now, the heirloom corn Vargas grows is in vogue. It accounts for 20 of the 50 acres on his farm in Ixtenco, in the central state of Tlaxcala. Vargas, 53, remembers just one acre reserved for it 2010, when demand was virtually zero and prices low. Fueled largely by foreign demand, the corn in its rainbow of colors has become more profitable for him than the white variety. Vargas is among farmers in Mexico who’ve been holding on to heirloom strains for generations, against a flood of industrially produced white corn. They...

Water at tip of Florida hits hot tub level, may have set world record for warmest seawater

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

The water temperature on the tip of Florida hit hot tub levels, exceeding 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) two days in a row. And meteorologists say that could potentially be the hottest seawater ever measured, although there are some issues with the reading. Just 26 miles (40 kilometers) away, scientists saw devastating effects from prolonged hot water surrounding Florida — devastating coral bleaching and even some death in what had been one of the Florida Keys’ most resilient reefs. Climate change has been setting temperature records across the globe this month.Weather records for sea water temperature are unofficial, and there are certain conditions in this reading that could disqualify it for a top mark, meteorologists said. But the initial reading on a buoy at Manatee Bay hit 101.1 degrees (38.4 Celsius) Monday evening, according to National Weather Service meteorologist George Rizzuto. On Sunday night the same buoy showed an online reading of 100.2 (37.9 Celsius) degre...

‘It was like a heartbeat’: Residents at a loss after newspaper shutters in declining coal county

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

WELCH, W.Va. (AP) — Months after Missy Nester ended The Welch News’ 100-year run, she can barely stand to walk through the office doors of the newspaper her mother taught her to read with growing up in West Virginia’s southern coalfields. It’s too painful.The Welch News owner and publisher’s desk is covered with unpaid bills and her own paychecks — a year’s worth — she never cashed. Phones that used to ring throughout the day are silent. Tables covered with typewriters, awards and a century’s worth of other long-abandoned artifacts are reminders that her beloved paper has become an artifact, too.Wiping away tears, Nester said she wishes people understood why she fought so hard to protect her county’s last remaining news outlet, and why it feels like communities left behind by the journalism industry are often the ones who need it most.“Our people here have nothing,” said Nester, 57. “Like, can any of y’all hear us out here screaming?”In March, the McDowell County weekly became...

An alliance of Indian opposition parties – called INDIA – joins forces to take on Modi

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s popular but polarizing prime minister, Narendra Modi, has a fondness for abbreviations that create buzz around his government schemes and dress down his rivals. Last week, Modi’s political opponents did exactly that. They announced a new alliance — called INDIA — to unseat Modi and defeat his ruling party’s electoral juggernaut. The acronym, which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, comprises India’s previously fractured opposition parties that are aiming to keep the Modi government’s increasingly powerful sway at bay. At stake, the alliance says, is the future of India’s multiparty democracy and secular foundations that critics say have seen assaults from Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party.The opposition alliance is playing on its acronym, saying it will be Modi versus the country in 2024 polls.Modi will seek reelection to a third consecutive term in a national vote next year at a time when India’s global diplomati...

Stock market today: Asian markets decline ahead of what traders hope will be final Fed rate hike

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:56 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets retreated Wednesday after Wall Street hit a 15-month high ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting that traders hope will end with the final increase in this interest rate cycle.Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul declined. Oil prices retreated.Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.3% on Tuesday after companies reported bigger profits than expected.Investors expect the Fed to raise its key lending rate on Wednesday by 0.25 percentage points to a 22-year high. They hope the U.S. central bank can manage a “soft landing,” extinguishing inflation while avoiding a recession.“This could be the last rate hike for the Fed” as inflation pressures ease, said Brad Bernstein of UBS Wealth Management in a report. Bernstein said central banks in Europe and Japan also are “near their pivot points” on their own rate hike cycles.Meanwhile, traders waited to see how China’s ruling Communist Party will carry out its promise to shore up sluggish econ...