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SeaWorld San Diego rescue team discusses beached whale death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A community came together Thursday during a rescue attempt to help a beached whale in North County. Sadly, SeaWorld San Diego reported the adult pygmy whale died on the way to their rescue facility.“When we realized not a respiration rate for quite some time, and the heart rate was getting slower and slower,” said Jeni Smith, the SeaWorld San Diego rescue team supervisor. “We gave it life saving-measures but unfortunately the animal didn’t make it.”The rescue team showed gratitude for the dozens of people who helped along the way.Around 4 p.m., the rescue crew got a call for a beached whale at Carlsbad State Beach. When the team arrived, they were met with a community ready to go.“Hands flew up, they said they would help,” Smith said.Dozens helped carry the roughly 900-pound whale on a stretcher, one mile up the beach to the SeaWorld rescue team truck. Bluff collapses in North County “There was a lot of communication. OK, does anyone need a break? Who needs to switch ...

Westbound SR-78 closure extended to next week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The closure of all westbound lanes on State Route 78 has been extended to next week as crews continue to make emergency repairs.Westbound SR-78 lanes from College Boulevard to El Camino Real will be closed until sometime next week as Caltrans crews work to repair a sinkhole that formed due to heavy flooding, Caltrans said in a news release. The day on when it will be completed is uncertain at this time, the traffic agency told FOX 5.On Thursday, Caltrans said the westbound closure was expected to last until Saturday, but the expected closure time has now been extended.Drivers will be detoured to the College Blvd./ Vista Way off-ramp, then go west on Vista Way and then to the SR-78 on-ramp at El Camino Real.The closure began Thursday, following a storm that brought significant rain to the region, causing heavy flooding in the area. Initially one westbound lane was closed, but it was later extended to all lanes for the impacted area. Bluff collapses in North Coun...

Wyoming governor signs measure prohibiting abortion pills

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill Friday night prohibiting abortion pills in the state and also allowed a separate measure restricting abortion to become law without his signature. In a statement, Gordon expressed concern that the latter law, dubbed the Life is a Human Right Act would result in a lawsuit that will “delay any resolution to the constitutionality of the abortion ban in Wyoming.” He noted that earlier in the day, plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit filed a challenge to the new law in the event he did not issue a veto.“I believe this question needs to be decided as soon as possible so that the issue of abortion in Wyoming can be finally resolved, and that is best done with a vote of the people,” Gordon, a Republican, said in a statement.The Wyoming governor’s decision on abortion pills comes after they took center stage this week in Texas, where a federal judge raised questions about a Christian group’s effort to overturn the decades-old U.S...

West spotlights North Korea rights abuses; China opposes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States, its Western allies and experts shone a spotlight on the dire human rights situation and increasing repression in North Korea at a U.N. meeting Friday that China and Russia denounced as a politicized move likely to further escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula.China blocked the U.S. from broadcasting the informal Security Council meeting globally on the internet, a decision criticized by U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield as an attempt to hide North Korea’s “atrocities from the world.” Webcasting requires agreement by all 15 council members. But the U.S. envoy said Beijing’s effort was in vain because the meeting will be made public, and the U.S. and many others will continue to speak out against Pyongyang’s human rights abuses and threats to international peace.James Turpin, a senior official in the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the ongoing tensions on the Korean peninsula pose a threat to regional and i...

Election conspiracy movement grinds on as 2024 approaches

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) — One by one, the presenters inside the crowded hotel ballroom shared their computer screens and promised to show how easy it is to hack into voting systems across the U.S.Drawing gasps from the crowd, they highlighted theoretical vulnerabilities and problems from past elections. But instead of tailoring their efforts to improve election security, they argued that all voting machines should be eliminated — a message that was wrapped in conspiracies about elections being rigged to favor certain candidates.“We are at war. The only thing that’s not flying right now is bullets,” said Mark Finchem, a Republican candidate for secretary of state in Arizona last year who continues to contest his loss and was the final speaker of the daylong conference.Finchem was among a group of Republican candidates running for governor, secretary of state or state attorney who disputed the outcome of the 2020 election and who lost in a clean sweep last November in important pol...

Mexican migrant killed in California capsize left daughter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Yecenia Lazcano Soriano left behind a 4-year-old daughter in her home town of Tehuacan, Mexico, when she set out almost in secret to reach the United States.The last message she sent to relatives was a heart emoji. Days later, on the California coast, two small boats carrying her and other migrants capsized in rough surf off a beach in San Diego.The 22-year-old’s body was one of eight recovered shortly after the accident last Sunday at Black’s Beach, one of the deadliest maritime smuggling events near U.S. shores.A single mother, Lazcano Soriano’s story was almost a microcosm of the desperation that drives many migrants to the United States. Nearly 129,000 migrants were stopped trying to cross the U.S. border in February.At age 15, Lazcano Soriano went to live with the father of her child, but he was abducted and disappeared, like over 112,000 other Mexicans who have vanished since drug cartel violence picked up in 2006.Lazcano Soriano dreamed of opening her own s...

AP News in Brief at 12:09 a.m. EDT

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

How a warrant for Putin puts new spin on Xi visit to RussiaWASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week highlighted China’s aspirations for a greater role on the world stage. But they also revealed the perils of global diplomacy: Hours after Friday’s announcement of the trip, an international arrest warrant was issued for Putin on war crimes charges, taking at least some wind out of the sails of China’s big reveal.The flurry of developments — which followed China’s brokering of an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic relations and its release of what it calls a “peace plan” for Ukraine — came as the Biden administration watches warily Beijing’s moves to assert itself more forcefully in international affairs.U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday he believes the decision by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to charge Putin was “justified.” Speaking to ...

Texas Longhorns face dangerous No. 10 seed in Penn State for spot in Sweet 16

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (KXAN) — The Texas men's basketball team shined in its opening-round showdown of the NCAA Tournament, winning 81-61 over Colgate.The second-seeded Longhorns are now one win away from making the second weekend for the first time since 2008. Bracket data: Will Texas reach the Final Four? Making the Sweet 16 would be a meaningful feat for Texas as the previous five times they reached March Madness, the Longhorns fell in the first or second round. "It would be a surreal moment," Longhorns senior forward Timmy Allen said about potentially reaching the Sweet 16. "It would be exactly what we envisioned since the day we got here. We came here with a plan."MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newslettersReaching that coveted second weekend will be no easy feat having to face one of the hottest teams in the country, Penn State. The Nittany Lions were seemingly fighting to eve...

Regulators, scientists insist leak of radioactive water at Xcel nuclear power plant posed no danger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

Minnesota regulators knew four months ago that radioactive water had leaked from a nuclear power plant in Monticello — but they didn’t announce anything about the leak until this week.The delay in notifying the public about the November leak raised questions about public safety and transparency, but industry experts said Friday there was never a public health threat. They said Xcel Energy voluntarily notified state agencies and reported the leak of tritium to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission soon after it was confirmed and that the leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water never reached a threshold that would have required public notification.“This is something that we struggle with because there is such concern with anything that is nuclear,” said Victoria Mitlyng, a spokesperson with the NRC. “The concern is very, very understandable. That is why I want to make extra clear the fact that the public in Minnesota, the people, the community near the plant, was not and is not in da...

More rainfall headed to Southern California

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:30:12 GMT

After a break from the last storm system, more rainfall is on the way for Southern California next week.The heaviest rainfall period is expected to arrive early next Tuesday morning and will last through Wednesday.“This will be a soggy first half of the week, with many hours of light to moderate steady rain,” said the National Weather Service. “Expect plenty of water, rocks, mud on roads, and minor urban and creek flooding.”Chances of scattered showers and drizzling could begin as early as Monday for some areas.In Los Angeles and Ventura counties, rainfall is expected to begin Tuesday morning and continue through early Wednesday, NWS said.Total rainfall is expected to hit around 1-2 inches from Monday through Wednesday and up to 3 inches in the mountains.Forecasted rainfall totals for Southern California. (National Weather Service)Forecasted snow totals for Southern California. (National Weather Service)“The next storm is forecasted to be colder than the last one, so snow levels wil...