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A man spent 29 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. The survivor just helped free him

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

(CNN) — After spending 29 years in prison for the rape of his stepdaughter, a New Orleans man is free thanks to the help of the local district attorney’s office and testimony from the victim herself, who has insisted for 20 years that he is not the man who raped her.Patrick Brown was convicted of raping his 6-year-old stepdaughter in 1994 after pleading not guilty in a trial in which the victim did not testify — instead, adults testified “to what they believed she had said,” according to a release from the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.Since 2002, the stepdaughter had repeatedly asked the DA’s office under former administrations to review the case and prosecute the actual perpetrator, the release said.The office’s civil rights division opened an investigation into the victim’s case, found that the evidence corroborated her account and asked the court to rectify the case, according to the release.“The a...

Car bursts into flames in Fort Lauderdale due to mechanical issues; no injuries reported

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

A car burst into flames Tuesday morning on Southeast 15th Avenue and Fourth Street in Fort Lauderdale.According to officials, the driver was behind the wheel when a mechanical issue caused the car to catch fire. The incident caused a major disruption, and the road was closed for several hours as firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze.Thankfully, no one was hurt in the incident.Firefighters battled the blaze for several hours, finally bringing it under control later in the morning. The cause of the mechanical issue is still under investigation.The Fort Lauderdale Police Department is conducting an investigation into the cause of the incident.

Florida rejects 35% of social studies textbooks for inaccuracies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

The state of Florida has rejected 35% of all social studies textbooks submitted for approval due to inaccuracies, according to state officials. The decision has left publishers scrambling to revise their material to comply with state standards.The move comes as Governor Ron DeSantis has been openly critical of teaching America’s racial history in the classroom. DeSantis has expressed concerns that such teachings could lead to the indoctrination of students, causing them to “hate” the United States.Critics have accused DeSantis of attempting to whitewash history and ignore the country’s past wrongdoings. However, the Governor has defended his stance, stating that students should learn about America’s accomplishments and triumphs, not just its mistakes.State officials say they are working with publishers to update or change the material in some books to comply with state standards. The rejected textbooks are expected to be resubmitted for approval once re...

Tearful Tarabella considers Parliament comeback

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

LIÈGE, Belgium — His entrance was silent, verging on theatrical.With a dark suit and the face of an opera singer who had lost his voice, Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella entered the curtain-framed stage at his press conference to only sound of the clicking of cameras.The once-prominent socialist, who remains charged with corruption in a probe that has come to be known as Qatargate, emerged at his lawyer’s office in Liège to speak publicly for the first time since his arrest three months ago. This came just one day after authorities released him from wearing an electronic bracelet and allowing him to leave house arrest under certain conditions. While he had decided already not to stand again for European Parliament elections in 2024, he does plan to return for the last year of his mandate to the very same institution he was charged with corrupting by the end of May, announced his lawyer Maxime Töller and parliamentary assistant Emmanuel Foulon. On this rainy Wednesday, emotions surfac...

UK Labour MPs call for action over party aide harassment case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

LONDON — Senior women in the Labour Party have demanded extra protection for staff after an adviser who sexually harassed a young intern was allowed to keep his job. POLITICO reported Wednesday that a party aide will remain in post despite a groping complaint against him being upheld twice — by parliamentary investigators and, separately, by Labour after a probe which ran for three years.The case again shines a spotlight on the way misconduct allegations are handled in Westminster, following a series of episodes in which complainants expressed dissatisfaction with the process.The outcome of the parliamentary investigation involving the aide was made known to his employer, who is a member of Keir Starmer’s front bench team, according to two people close to the process. Labour declined to say whether the aide’s boss was informed that its own internal investigation had also upheld the complaint, and the employer’s office declined to comment.MP Stella Creasy, a prominent...

Woman hit by utility box at Harvard station describes moment she was struck, plans to sue MBTA

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

The woman hit by a utility box at the Harvard Red Line station plans to sue the MBTA.28-year-old Joycelyn Johnson, a Harvard University PhD. student, suffered serious injuries, including a detached clavicle, when she was struck by an approximately 200 pound piece of equipment that fell on the station’s Red Line inbound platform on May 1.The victim, who was on her way home to Quincy at the time, said her injuries will require long-term medical treatment and impact her studies. “I walked over to the pillar – I stood there and suddenly, something came crashing down and there was a resounding thud that I felt in my body. I staggered a bit and I didn’t fall, but I could feeling a numbing sensation coursing throughout my arm, my shoulder and back,” Johnson said on Wednesday..Speaking with news reporters in front of Harvard Station with her arm in a sling, she said she has not felt comfortable going into a T station since the incidentThe equipment itself had been su...

Record $100M gift to Brigham and Women’s Hospital to be used for immunology, inflammation research

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital plans to use a $100 million gift to establish a new institute to study immunology and inflammation, hospital officials announced Wednesday.The gift from biotechnology entrepreneur Gene Lay, though his Laygend Foundation, is the largest in the history of the hospital, which traces its roots to 1832.Lay, the founder and CEO of San Diego-based BioLegend Inc., said he has always been fascinated by the immune system’s ability to heal the body.“With this gift, I am bringing together the best scientific minds I know to translate research discoveries into therapies for immune-mediated diseases rooted in chronic inflammation,” he said.The Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation’s primary areas of research will include basic understanding of immune-mediated diseases, aging and cancer, with the goal of developing new immunotherapies, the hospital said.Dr. Vijay Kuchroo, an immunologist and principal investigator at...

Authorities recover body of missing Massachusetts man from Bow Lake in Strafford, NH

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

The body of a man from Plymouth, Mass., was recovered in New Hampshire a day after authorities said he was reported missing.Officials with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department Law Enforcement Division said a dive team located the body of Allan Schuh around 10 a.m. on Tuesday while searching Bow Lake in Strafford.According to authorities, Schuh had been reported missing the day before by his wife after he did not return home from fishing.A search operation was launched soon afterwards on Monday and went on until late at night, before being called off until the following morning.“The cause of the accident is under investigation, unfortunately Schuh was not wearing a life jacket,” the agency said in a statement. “New Hampshire Fish and Game and Marine Patrol would like to remind all boaters that water temperatures are still cold and state law requires each boater to have a wearable life jacket with them whenever recreating on New Hampshire’s waterbodies.”A...

Connecticut seeks to rein in high TCH marijuana products

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — After discovering cannabis products are being sold in convenience and CBD stores across Connecticut with higher levels of THC than regulated dispensaries, legislators moved Tuesday to impose new restrictions on the amount of marijuana’s main intoxicating component in these products.The bipartisan legislation, which cleared the state House on a nearly unanimous vote, marks the first major update of the state’s fledgling recreational marijuana program that kicked off in January.“All we’re trying to do is make sure that any products that are sold with a significant amount of THC in Connecticut are sold in our regulated marketplace through the dispensaries, where there’s labeling requirements, there’s per package requirements, there’s per container requirements,” said Rep. Mike D’Agostino, D-Hamden, who held out a handful of large, colorful THC gummies that were being sold legally at an unregulated store due to a “loophole” in federal law concerning CBD...

Prince Harry’s lawyer says British tabloid spied on ‘industrial scale’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:42:20 GMT

By BRIAN MELLEY (Associated Press)LONDON (AP) — The British publisher of the Daily Mirror apologized for one instance of snooping on Prince Harry, but denied his other claims as his first phone hacking trial began Wednesday with his lawyer accusing the newspaper of unlawfully gathering information on “an industrial scale.”While the admission that the publisher employed a private investigator for a 2004 article headlined “Sex on the beach with Harry” may have marked a tiny victory for the Duke of Sussex, the story in question wasn’t one of the nearly 150 that Harry alleges were the result of skulduggery.The seven-week trial that opened in London is Harry’s biggest test yet in his legal battle against the British media. He and three others, including two soap opera actors, are suing Mirror Group Newspapers for alleged misuse of private information between 1991 and 2011.Harry wasn’t in court as his attorney, David Sherborne, began his opening statement, saying unlawful acts were “wides...