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Felony convictions vacated for 4 Navy officers in sprawling 'Fat Leonard' bribery scandal

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The felony convictions of four Navy officers in one of the worst bribery cases in the maritime branch's history were vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct Wednesday, the latest misstep in the government's yearslong efforts in going after dozens of military officials tied to a defense contractor nicknamed Fat Leonard.U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino called the misconduct “outrageous” and agreed to allow the four men to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a $100 fine each. The surprising turn of events occurred at a sentencing hearing in federal court in San Diego for the former officers.Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Ko, who was brought on after the officers were tried last year, admitted to “serious issues” with prosecutorial misconduct and asked the judge to vacate the men's convictions. He said his office does not agree with all of the allegations of misconduct but some were true. “There were pretty obviously serious issues that affect our ability to go for...

Las Jefas Market coming to Otay Ranch Town Center

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- An afternoon of live music, food, cultural performances and shopping is coming Otay Ranch Town Center to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month this weekend.From noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, the open-air shopping mall, located at 2015 Birch Rd. in Chula Vista, will be celebrating the occasion with family-friendly fun and a brand new marketplace.The Las Jefas Market, a pop-up market that has gained popularity throughout San Diego County in the last two years, will display with more than 40 different artisans, food vendors and creatives. First-ever Del Mar Wine & Food Festival set to take over parts of San Diego County Businesswoman Rocky Bello, the co-creator of Las Jefas Market, said she and her business partner were having difficulty getting into certain markets in the region, so they decided to start their own. Now, two years after their idea came to fruition, Bellos says "here we are supporting other Latina entrepreneurs and just giving back."On Saturday, visito...

MLB places Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías on administrative leave after domestic violence arrest

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

Editor's note: This article has been edited to clarify Urías' status.Major League Baseball has placed Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías on administrative leave after he was arrested Sunday evening on a domestic violence charge, the team announced on Wednesday.Urías, 27, was taken into custody by officers with the Exposition Park Department of Public Safety and booked for an alleged violation of Penal Code 273.5 which involves “corporal injury” to a spouse or domestic partner.Exposition Park is the site of BMO Stadium, where Lionel Messi and Inter Miami played LAFC Sunday evening in a Major League Soccer match that was attended by countless celebrities.The Culiacan, Mexico native posted a $50,000 bond and was released from jail early Monday.His initial court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 27.“The Dodgers take all allegations of the kind in this case very seriously, and we do not condone or excuse any acts of domestic violence,” the Dodgers said in a statement announcing...

Pence rails against Trump’s ‘siren song of populism’ as he tries to energize his 2024 campaign

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence cast the 2024 election as a fight for the future of conservatism and his party as he called on fellow Republicans to reject the “siren song of populism” championed by former President Donald Trump and his followers.“Should the new populism of the right seize and guide our party, the Republican Party we’ve long known will cease to exist and the fate of American freedom would be in doubt,” Pence said Wednesday afternoon in what his campaign plugged as a major speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.Pence’s plea comes at a critical time for his campaign, which has been struggling to build momentum since its launch. Four months ahead of Iowa’s kickoff caucuses, Trump remains the race’s undisputed front-runner, while Pence still polls in single digits. Pence, who served four years as Trump’s loyal second-in-command, has tried to paint himself as the most conserva...

A judge orders Texas to move a floating barrier that’s used to deter migrants between US and Mexico

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas must move a large floating barrier that Gov. Greg Abbott placed on the river between the U.S. and Mexico this summer as part of the Republican’s escalating attempts to stop migrants from crossing America’s southern border, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.U.S. District Judge David Ezra stopped short of ordering Texas to dismantle the wrecking-ball sized buoys on the Rio Grande but called them a threat to safety and relationships between the neighboring countries. His preliminary injunction instructs Texas, for now, to move the barrier out of the water and onto the riverbank by Sept. 15. Ezra also cast doubt on Texas’ rationale for the barrier, writing that the state produced no “credible evidence that the buoy barrier as installed has significantly curtailed illegal immigration.”The lawsuit was brought by the Justice Department in a rare instance of President Joe Biden’s administration going to court to challenge Texas’ border polici...

On emotional bus tours, residents return to West Kelowna, B.C., to view the ashes

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

Annick deGooyer knew that her family’s home of more than 20 years had been destroyed by the McDougall Creek wildfire that consumed scores of properties in West Kelowna, B.C., about three weeks ago.But she expected more to remain than the pile of “ashy dust” atop the foundations that she and her firefighter husband Rob Baker viewed last Friday while on a bus tour of the devastated neighbourhood of Trader’s Cove, on the west side of Okanagan Lake.“You would think a whole house, when it burns, it would take up more space,” said deGooyer.The Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre has been taking homeowners on the bus trips since last week, allowing residents to see the ruin of their homes firsthand. The tours have been shocking for some, and a counsellor has joined the trips. But homeowners say they have also given communities and neighbours a chance to reconnect and discuss what comes next.Pilot Stephen Fuhr, who is also the former MP for Kelow...

Deb Haaland, first Indigenous member of U.S. cabinet, meets counterparts in Ottawa

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

WASHINGTON — Canada and the United States are working together through “a period of healing” from the open wounds of residential schools and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland says. Haaland, from Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico and the first-ever Native American member of the U.S. cabinet, made the comments Wednesday during a multi-day visit to Ottawa, her first since taking on the job in 2021. She has championed efforts south of the border to investigate the tragic heritage of residential schools, known as boarding schools in the U.S., and to confront the issue of persistent and unsolved violence against Indigenous people. Canada has been wrestling with these issues for years, but they got little attention in the U.S. before 2018, when Haaland and Sharice Davids from Kansas became the first Native American women to be elected to the House of Representatives.“I think this is a period of healing,” said Haaland, who...

Mexico’s Supreme Court throws out all federal criminal penalties against abortion

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Supreme Court threw out all federal criminal penalties for abortion Wednesday, ruling that national laws prohibiting the procedure are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights in a sweeping decision that extended Latin American’s trend of widening abortion access.The high court ordered that abortion be removed from the federal penal code, and a reproduction rights group said the decision would require the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it.“No woman or pregnant person, nor any health worker, will be able to be punished for abortion,” the Information Group for Chosen Reproduction, known by its Spanish initials GIRE, said in a statement.Celebration soon spilled out on social media.“Today is a day of victory and justice for Mexican women!” Mexico’s National Institute for Women wrote in a message on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The government organization ...

Health agency probing Air Canada vomit incident that echoes broader customer woes

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

MONTREAL — The outrage sparked by a passenger incident involving a vomit-smeared airplane seat reflects a broader frustration with flight operations in Canada, travel specialists say.Meanwhile, the country’s public health agency says it’s investigating the recent episode.On Tuesday, Air Canada said it apologized to two passengers who were escorted off the plane by security after protesting that their seats were soiled — and still damp — ahead of an Aug. 26 flight from Las Vegas to Montreal.“They clearly did not receive the standard of care to which they were entitled,” the airline said in a statement emailed to The Canadian Press. “Our operating procedures were not followed correctly in this instance.”The Public Health Agency of Canada said it is in contact with Air Canada. It cited its mandate to ensure that anything brought into the country on conveyances ranging from planes to trains does not risk transmission of illnesses that can be spread vi...

CO2 pipeline project denied key permit in South Dakota; another seeks second chance in North Dakota

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:24:36 GMT

South Dakota regulators on Wednesday denied a construction permit for a carbon dioxide pipeline project, one month after a North Dakota panel did the same to a similar project by another company.Navigator CO2 Ventures wants to build a 1,300-mile (2,092 kilometers) pipeline network across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, to carry planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from more than 20 industrial plants to be buried over a mile underground in Illinois.The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to deny Navigator’s application for its Heartland Greenway pipeline. Chair Kristie Fiegen cited myriad reasons in her motion to deny, including the company’s lack of promptness and several objections to commission staff questions as well as struggles to notify landowners of routes and meetings. She detailed concerns related to safety, community growth, landowners and emergency responders, among other issues.The proposed South Dakota route en...