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Virginia primaries are open: Rising stakes ahead of November’s election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

In Loudoun County, WTOP's Neal Augenstein is providing updates from a polling station.(WTOP/Neal Augenstein) In Loudoun County, WTOP's Neal Augenstein is providing updates from a polling station.(WTOP/Neal Augenstein) Party primaries are in full swing throughout Virginia, with voters selecting candidates for top prosecutor, state legislature, county board and more, ahead of a potentially game-changing election this November.Polls are open throughout Virginia until 7 p.m. Tuesday. Use this tool to find out where to vote. Remember to bring a valid form of identification with you, such as a Virginia driver’s license, U.S. passport, recent utility bill or student card — head here for a list of acceptable forms o...

Pounds of Johnsonville sausage links recalled in Colorado

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Johnsonville, LLC is recalling over 42,000 pounds of pork sausage links that may be contaminated.Approximately 42,062 pounds (4,807 cases) of Johnsonville's ready-to-eat (RTE) “Beddar with Cheddar” pork sausage links may be contaminated with very thin strands of black plastic fibers, which were discovered after a customer complained, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)."Due to the small size and flexible nature of the material, FSIS (Food Safety & Inspection Service) believes it poses a very low risk for adverse health effects if consumed, but the safety of our consumer is our primary concern, which is why we’re issuing the recall," Johnsonville said in a statement.Courtesy: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection ServiceThe affected products are 14-ounce packages of Johnsonville Beddar with Cheddar Smoked Sausage links. The pork sausage has a "Best By" date of July 11, 2003...

$10,000 worth of snakes stolen from ‘Wild Things’ pet store

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (KVVU) — About 30 animals, including some very valuable snakes, worth at least $10,000 total, WERE stolen from Wild Things specialized pet store in Las Vegas early Saturday morning.“They took the money from the cash register. They used a hammer and literally smashed through our tanks, grabbed the animals,” said Wild Things co-owner Stephanie Tracy.“Aru Green Tree Pythons, a male and a female, about 3.5 to 4 feet. They stole the Emerald Tree Boa that had been here for over a year,” said Tracy while surveying the damage Saturday. “And to shatter the glass, that’s just pure maliciousness because all they had to do was unlock it.”Around 4:45 a.m. Saturday, surveillance cameras inside the store caught a person smashing through the tanks and shoving the snakes into a bag.“And they’re particularly mean, so it’s really surprising that that’s what he took was mean animals, so it’s somebody who really knew their way around the animals and knew exactly what they were go...

Macron wants to crash summit with Russia, China and allies

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

Emmanuel Macron wants to take his one-man global diplomacy to another level.The French president wishes to become the first Western leader to be invited to a BRICS summit, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said late Monday.“Having a dialogue is always positive, even when we don’t 100 percent agree on everything,” Colonna said at a press conference in Pretoria, where she had just met with her South African counterpart, Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, according to French public broadcaster RFI.“We’re thinking out loud — but it’s obviously a decision that only the relevant countries can take — about the possibility of continuing this dialogue, why not at the BRICS summit or in another format,” the French minister said.South Africa will host the next summit of BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, all of which remain close to Moscow despite the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — in Johannesburg on August...

Labour vows to ‘fix the holes in Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

LONDON — A Labour government under Keir Starmer will “fix the holes in Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal,” including on electric vehicles, the party’s trade chief said Tuesday, promising to mend ties with the U.K.’s largest trade partner.While Labour “will not go back into the EU or rejoin the customs union or restore freedom of movement,” the party’s Shadow Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told business leaders at the Trade Unlocked conference in Birmingham that it “would work to reset our trading relationships.”“That has to include fixing holes in the TCA,” he added, referring to the EU-U.K. Trade and Cooperation Agreement.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government is “putting our car manufacturers at risk,” Thomas-Symonds told POLITICO, and “very urgently” needs to address a mechanism in the Brexit deal taking effect at the end of the year that could impose 10 percent tariffs on electric vehicles traded with the EU.  “We’re in an urgent situation,” Thomas-Symonds said, emphas...

Why don’t the Chicago Bulls have any draft picks? Will Zach LaVine be traded? 7 big questions ahead of the NBA draft.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

The blockbuster 2023 NBA draft will kick off in New York City on Thursday night — and as of today, the Chicago Bulls will not have a single pick.The Bulls traded away the bulk of their draft stock in recent years, which could lead to an anticlimactic draft night. If the team doesn’t make a move to secure a draft pick, this will be the first time the franchise hasn’t participated in the NBA draft since 2005.Here’s how the Bulls got to this point.1. Where did the picks go this year?The Bulls could have had three picks in the 2023 draft — one first-rounder and two second-rounders. But all three picks have been ceded — either in trades or as a penalty — leaving the Bulls without a stake in the current action.When the Bulls traded with the Orlando Magic for center Nikola Vučević in 2021, they included a protected first-round draft pick in the package that ultimately fell to this year. The Vučević trade already cost the Bulls a...

Agganis All-Star Week festivities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

Agganis All-Star Week starts Sunday, June 25 with the Opening Ceremony and four of the nine All-Star Games that will take place over the course of four days.The Opening Ceremony, which will be held at 9 a.m. at Manning Field in Lynn, will include the presentation of 2023 Agganis Foundation Scholarships, five major awards, and the introduction of this year’s Agganis All-Stars in the following sports: girls and boys lacrosse, softball, baseball, girls and boys basketball, girls and boys soccer and football.The lacrosse doubleheader will be held June 25 at Manning Field at 11 a.m. (girls) and 1 p.m., withsoftball and baseball played at the adjacent Fraser Field that day at noon and 2 p.m. Action continues Monday, June 26 with the girls and boys basketball doubleheader at Lynn Classical High School at 5:30 and 7 p.m.The boys and girls soccer games will be June 27 at Manning Field at 5:30 (boys) and 7 p.m. The 61st Agganis All-Star Football Game will close the week on Wednesday, June 28 ...

Head of UN agency for Palestinian refugees warns of service cuts without more funding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday that without a new injection of funding, it is “likely or highly likely” that the agency will not be able to deliver some services or pay salaries by the fall.UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said at a press conference in Beirut that the agency responsible for services to Palestinian refugees has been facing a shortfall of $150 million to $200 million annually in recent years.Donors at a pledging conference earlier this month provided only $107 million in new funds, significantly less than the $300 million the agency had called for to keep its programs running through the end of the year.Those programs include health and education services and, in some cases, cash assistance to families in Syria, Lebanon, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Jordan.While he acknowledged that the agency’s funding woes have become “almost a broken record,” Lazzarini warne...

Lawyer Eastman faces disciplinary hearing over plot to keep Trump in power after 2020 election loss

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An effort to disbar conservative attorney John Eastman, who devised ways to keep President Donald Trump in the White House after his defeat in the 2020 election, will begin Tuesday in Los Angeles.Eastman is expected to spend the day testifying before the State Bar of California in a proceeding that could result in him losing his license to practice law in the state. He faces 11 disciplinary charges stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy that was aimed at helping Trump remain in power by disrupting the counting of state electoral votes.The State Bar’s counsel will seek Eastman’s disbarment during a hearing before the State Bar Court that’s expected to last at least eight days. If the court finds Eastman culpable of the alleged violations it can recommend a punishment such as suspending or revoking his law license. The California Supreme Court makes the final decision.Eastman is scheduled to testify in his own defense Tuesday. Th...

Build begins on Wyoming-to-California power line amid growing wind power concern

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:24 GMT

RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) — Portrait photographer Anne Brande shoots graduation and wedding engagement photos at scenic spots throughout southeastern Wyoming’s granite mountains and sprawling sagebrush valleys, but worries what those views will look like in a few years. Wind energy is booming here.“Dandelions in my yard, you know, when there’s four or five, it’s OK,” Brande said. “When my whole yard is dandelions, I’m just not too excited.”In a state where being able to hunt, fish and camp in gorgeous and untrammeled nature is a way of life, worries about spoiled views, killed eagles and disturbed big-game animals such as elk and mule deer have grown with the spread of wind turbines.On Tuesday, state and federal officials will break ground on TransWest Express, a transmission line that will move electricity from the $5 billion, 3,000-megawatt, 600-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farm to southern California, a place legally mandated to switch to clean energ...