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School bus strike ‘isn’t a great situation’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

School bus drivers took to picket lines in Marlboro Monday morning, after negotiators failed to agree on a contract through the weekend.“Many students walking,” big road signs read throughout the town Monday. “Drive with caution.”Kids took to the sidewalks in packs around bell time Monday afternoon, as volunteers and police guided traffic around Marlboro High School and groups of drivers picketing elicited mixed reactions on the corners.The strike comes about four months of negotiations between the transportation company for the schools, North Reading Transportation, and Teamsters Local 170 union representing the drivers.“Some parents are angry because it’s a disruption,” said Ken Bergen, a Teamsters business agent on the picket line. “We understand, and we did the best we could. Teamsters Local 170 has been negotiating with this company, with the various contracts, for over 50 sessions. That’s ridiculous.”Similar strikes w...

Biden uses humor to try to defuse concerns about his age

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden served in the Senate for 270 years. He used to be three years older than his sister Valerie, but now has 20 years on her. And the fourth U.S. president — whom Biden affectionally calls “Jimmy” Madison — is a good friend.All kidding aside, the 80-year-old Biden will tell you, he is at the end of his career, not the beginning. He’s been doing this for a long time. And he’s gotten a “hell of a lot of wisdom” over those years, making him deserving of a second term.As Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, embarks on his reelection campaign, he is increasingly musing aloud about his advanced age, cracking self-deprecating jokes and framing his decades in public life as a plus, hoping to convince voters his age is an asset rather than a vulnerability.In short, he’s trying to own it. “I stand here humbled being the first sitting president of the United States to have an opportunity to speak at Ebenezer Sunday service,” Biden said in January at ...

Stalled gun bill advances in Texas after new mass shootings

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Facing new pressure over gun violence in Texas after two more mass shootings, Republicans on Monday unexpectedly allowed a bill that would raise the purchase age for semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21 to advance out of a House committee — even though the proposal has almost no chance of becoming law.The surprise move revealed faint momentum for gun control advocates after a weekend mass shooting at an outdoor mall near Dallas, but at the same time underscored how Texas Republicans are so resistant to gun restrictions that even clearing a small legislative hurdle caused supporters to celebrate.Two Republicans joined Democrats in an 8-5 vote on the House Select Committee on Community Safety to advance the bill, which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has previously spoken against. It is unclear when or if the proposal would get a full vote in the Texas House with just a few weeks left to pass any new laws. “It doesn’t have the support of the Legislature,R...

Comedian Hannah Gadsby returns with a stand-up ‘love letter’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Hannah Gadsby’s new Netflix special illustrates a different side of the comedian that fans may not expect — a happier one. “It’s a lighter show,” Gadsby tells The Associated Press ahead of “Something Special” airing on Tuesday. “It’s more positive. It’s expressing a happiness I don’t think I had done in earlier Netflix specials.”The comedian kicks it off with good news — “I got married. I know! It’s nice” — and then promises viewers a change of pace from previous sets: “This is going to be a feel-good show because I believe I owe you one.”Gadsby, who uses the pronoun they, is in many ways going back to the style of comedy they employed before exploding to fame with the special “Nanette” in 2018, which had deeply affecting stories of violence, homophobia, misogyny and shame.“It’s much more difficult to do comedy around a positive theme. Nobody is really that pleased watching someone be happy,” they said. “It’s a real risky show. I’d say this is riskier than ‘Nan...

B.C. flood risk enters period of stabilization, but more snowmelt anticipated

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

GRAND FORKS, B.C. — The flooding situation in British Columbia has entered a “period of stabilization” after at-risk regions received less rain than expected, but forecasters say warm weather will likely trigger further threats later this week.Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said Monday that communities such as Grand Forks, about 520 kilometres east of Vancouver, saw less precipitation than was originally forecasted for the weekend.The result is the provincial river forecast centre downgrading flood warnings to flood advisories, including in the entire Boundary Region where sandbagging has been at full speed for days. As many as 41 properties in the area were under evacuation orders at one time on Sunday.Ma warned, however, that diminished risk does not mean no risk, and devastated communities such as Cache Creek, 350 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, remains under flood warnings.“Communities that face challenges last week, such as Cache Creek, Okanagan In...

Abortion clinics in 3 states sue to protect pill access

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

Abortion providers in three states filed a lawsuit Monday aimed at preserving access to the abortion pill mifepristone, even as the drug is threatened by a separate Texas lawsuit winding its way through U.S. court system.The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Virginia on behalf of clinics in Virginia, Montana and Kansas, is the latest legal action over the decades-old pill, which is part of the two-drug regimen used in most U.S. abortions.A federal judge in Texas issued a ruling last month that would have revoked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s longstanding approval of the pill, an unprecedented challenge to the federal drug regulator. But the Supreme Court blocked that decision and other limits from a lower court from taking effect while the lawsuit continues. Abortion-rights advocates and their opponents continue jostling for a legal foothold on the issue across the country.The clinics in Virginia, Montana and Kansas sued the FDA on Monday in federal court to force t...

2 set for trial in shooting at FedEx driver in Mississippi

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — An August trial has been set for two white men in Mississippi who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home.Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Charles Case, were indicted in November on charges of attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle of D’Monterrio Gibson in January 2022. On Monday, Lincoln County Circuit Court Judge David Strong set Aug. 8 as the starting date for their trial, the Daily Leader reported.Gibson, who was 24 at the time, was not injured. But the chase and gunfire sparked social media complaints of racism in Brookhaven, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of the state capital, Jackson.During a news conference days after the incident, Gibson said he was wearing a FedEx uniform and was driving an unmarked van that FedEx had rented when he dropped off a package at a house. He said as he was leaving, he noticed a white pickup truck pulling away from anoth...

North Dakota governor outlaws pronoun policies in schools

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum has signed a bill that prohibits public schools and government entities from requiring teachers and employees to refer to transgender people by the pronouns they use, the governor’s office announced Monday.The new law also requires teachers to tell a parent or legal guardian if the student identifies as transgender. It prohibits transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice without prior approval from a parent or guardian.It is effective immediately.Burgum said in a statement that the new law “largely codifies existing practices while reaffirming the First Amendment right to free speech … balancing the rights and interests of students, parents and teachers.”Opponents countered that the state’s Republican leaders are violating the constitutional rights of students and teachers by compelling the speech of adults and potentially exposing children to dangerous repercussions if an abusive parent doesn’t...

Mexico plans expedition to find endangered porpoises

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican officials and the conservation group Sea Shepherd said Monday that experts will set out in two ships in a bid to locate the few remaining vaquita marina, the world’s most endangered marine mammal. Mexico environment secretary said experts from the United States, Canada and Mexico will use binoculars, sighting devices and acoustic monitors to try to pinpoint the location of the tiny, elusive porpoises. The species cannot be captured, held or bred in captivity.The trip will run from May 10 to May 26 in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, the only place the vaquita lives. The group will travel in a Sea Shepherd vessel and a Mexican boat to try and sight vaquitas; as few as eight of the creatures are believed to remain.Illegal gillnet fishing traps and kills the vaquita. Fishermen set the nets to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China and can fetch thousands of dollars per pound (kilogram). Sea Shepherd ...

Biden would veto House GOP bill on border enforcement

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:12:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden would veto a House GOP bill that aims to restrict asylum, build more border wall and cut a program that allows migrants a chance to stay in the U.S., including Ukrainian refugees, the White House said Monday. Republicans are looking to capitalize as immigration trouble surges into a national spotlight this week with the ending of COVID-19 restrictions that allowed border authorities to quickly return many migrants who crossed the border illegally.GOP lawmkers aim to vote on their Secure the Border Act on Thursday — the same day the emergency expulsion powers expire. Officials have already seen an increase of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and are bracing for more.The legislation represents the GOP’s first major immigration policy proposal since the Trump era, when immigration opponents controlled the White House. The 213-page bill resurrects a slew of former President Donald Trump’s policies, such as building barriers along hundreds of miles...