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Three years after a foiled plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor, the final trial is set to begin

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

BELLAIRE, Mich. (AP) — Nearly three years after authorities foiled a bizarre plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the last defendants accused of taking part go on trial Monday.Eric Molitor and brothers William Null and Michael Null were among 14 men, described by prosecutors as anti-government extremists, charged in the scheme weeks before the November 2020 election. They were angered by Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies, which shut down schools and restricted the economy, investigators said in court filings.The plotters were members of paramilitary groups and spoke of attacking the state Capitol and police to ignite civil war, the documents said.Nine men so far have been convicted in state or federal court, including four who pleaded guilty. Two others were acquitted at trial.Jury selection in the final case is set to begin Monday. Opening arguments are scheduled for Wednesday in rural Antrim County, a tourist haven known for cherry and apple orchards, sparkling lakes and...

Immigrant workers’ lives, livelihoods and documents in limbo after the Hawaii fire

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Freddy Tomas was working in his yard in Lahaina when the fire advanced with stunning speed right up to his fence. He rushed to save valuables from a safe inside his house but realized he didn’t have time and fled, his face blackened with soot.Days after fleeing in his pickup truck, amid smoke so thick he could only follow the red taillights of the vehicle in front of him and pray they were going the right way, the retired hotel worker from the Philippines returned to his destroyed home with his son to look for the safe. Tomas, 65, said it had contained passports, naturalization papers, other important documents and $35,000. After sifting through the ashes, father and son found the safe, but it had popped open in the fire, whipped by hurricane-force winds, and its contents were incinerated.For immigrants like Tomas, Lahaina was an oasis, with nearly double the foreign-born population of the U.S. mainland. Now, those workers are trying to piece their lives...

Trump and his allies double down on election lies after indictments for trying to undo 2020 results

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal indictment and one in Georgia charging Donald Trump with lying about the 2020 election to overturn President Joe Biden’s win have done nothing to slow the geyser of election falsehoods flowing from the former president and his supporters.Just two days after the Georgia indictment, one of Trump’s most enthusiastic backers took the stage at a conference in Missouri to again spread election misinformation. Mike Lindell, the owner of MyPillow who is a vocal promoter of the myth that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, kicked off an event on purported election crimes with a video about fraud.It included footage from November 2020 that purported to show a Fulton County, Georgia, election worker pulling a briefcase of ballots from under a desk to surreptitiously add them to the tally.As evidence has since shown, the worker, Ruby Freeman, was simply doing her job — pulling out a standard government container full of real ballots that had to be counted. Thr...

Global food security is at crossroads as rice shortages and surging prices hit the most vulnerable

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

Francis Ndege isn’t sure if his customers in Africa’s largest slum can afford to keep buying rice from him.Prices for rice grown in Kenya soared a while ago because of higher fertilizer prices and a yearslong drought in the Horn of Africa that has reduced production. Cheap rice imported from India had filled the gap, feeding many of the hundreds of thousands of residents in Nairobi’s Kibera slum who survive on less than $2 a day.But that is changing. The price of a 25-kilogram (55-pound) bag of rice has risen by a fifth since June. Wholesalers are yet to receive new stocks since India, the world’s largest exporter of rice by far, said last month that it would ban some rice shipments. It’s an effort by the world’s most populous nation to control domestic prices ahead of a key election year — but it’s left a yawning gap of around 9.5 million metric tons (10.4 tons) of rice that people around the world need, roughly a fifth of global exports.“I’m really hoping the imp...

A Republican lawsuit threatens a Biden immigration policy thousands have used to come to the US

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Valerie Laveus remembers when she first heard about an immigration program designed to allow people to come to the U.S. from four countries, including her native Haiti. “I said, ‘Whoa! This seems like it would work well for bringing my nephew and my brother into the country,’” said the Florida teacher, who received a WhatsApp message in January and verified with an immigration lawyer that the program was real. After years of trying to get a green card, her brother arrived with her nephew in early August, ready to start a new life. They are two of the roughly 181,000 people who have entered the U.S. under the humanitarian parole program since President Joe Biden launched the initiative.But 21 Republican-leaning states threaten to end the program through a lawsuit to determine its legality, which is set to be heard in a Texas court beginning Thursday, with a decision coming later.If the Biden administration loses, it would undercut a broader policy seeking to encoura...

GOP presidential debate puts spotlight on Wisconsin, one of the few remaining swing states

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — When Republican candidates for president gather for their first debate Wednesday in Milwaukee, the spotlight will not only be on them, but Wisconsin’s role as one of a shrinking handful of genuine battleground states.Republicans chose Milwaukee not just for the first debate but the national convention in just 11 months largely because of Wisconsin’s well-earned status as a swing state. Four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by less than a percentage point here, with Donald Trump winning narrowly in 2016 before losing by a similar margin in 2020.“Everybody needs to be prepared for all-out war as usual,” said longtime Republican strategist Stephan Thompson. To participate in Wednesday’s debate, the Republican National Committee required candidates to meet donor and polling thresholds and sign a pledge to support the GOP candidate in the general election. Trump, the frontrunner who faces criminal charges in four separate cases, sa...

Rights group says Saudi Arabia border guards fired on and killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Border guards in Saudi Arabia have fired machine guns and launched mortars at Ethiopians trying to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, likely killing hundreds of the unarmed migrants in recent years, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday.The rights group cited eyewitness reports of attacks by troops and images that showed dead bodies and burial sites on migrant routes, saying the death toll could even be “possibly thousands.”The United Nations has already questioned Saudi Arabia about its troops opening fire on the migrants in an escalating pattern of attacks along its southern border with war-torn Yemen. Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press, but has previously denied its troops killed migrants. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who allegedly make tens of thousands of dollars a week smuggling migrants over the border, also did not respond to requests for comment.Some 750,000 Ethiopians live in Saudi Ar...

Cars caught on camera spinning out at high speeds on 5 Freeway

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

The dangerous driving conditions brought on by Tropical Storm Hilary caused multiple drivers on a section of the 5 Freeway in Castaic to lose control of their vehicles and, in some cases, crash.  As the drivers sped down the northbound 5 Freeway near Hasley Canyon, video shows the slippery conditions take over as vehicles begin to sway back and forth at high speeds, some coming very close to crashing into a nearby motorist.  Video captured cars spinning out of control during wet conditions on the 5 Freeway on Aug. 20, 2023. (RMG News)Several cars can be seen on the shoulder of the roadway, with at least one of those vehicles caught on camera getting struck by a driver as they lost control of their vehicle.  It is unclear if anyone was injured during any of the incidents.  

Rain from Tropical Storm Hilary lashes California, swamping roads and trapping cars

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

Tropical Storm Hilary inundated streets across Mexico’s arid Baja California Peninsula with deadly floodwaters Sunday before moving over Southern California, where it swamped roads and downed trees, as concerns mounted that flash floods could strike in places as far north as Idaho.Forecasters said Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, bringing floods, mudslides, high winds, power outages and the potential for isolated tornadoes. The storm already dumped more than 6 inches (15.24 centimeters) of rain in some mountain communities and threatened more than an average year's worth of rain in inland desert areas.A city employee retrieves a propane tank from a flooded bridge as tropical storm Hilary makes landfall in Rancho Mirage on Aug. 20, 2023. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)Hilary made landfall along the Mexican coast in a sparsely populated area about 150 miles (250 kilometers) south of Ensenada Sunday, then moved through mudslide-prone Tijua...

What to stream this week: Adam Sandler, ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka,’ Tim McGraw and ‘Honor Among Thieves’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:53 GMT

Tim McGraw roars back with “Standing Room Only” and the “Mandalorian” spin-off “Star Wars: Ahsoka” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near youAmong the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are “The Eight Mountains,” a soul-stirring Italian epic of male friendship, and the return of Adam Sandler in “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.”NEW MOVIES TO STREAM— It would have been easy to dismiss “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” as another tired Hollywood effort to parlay whatever unused IP it had lying around. Yet directors and co-writers Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who helmed one of the better comedies in recent years (“Game Night”), turn “Honor Among Thieves” into a remarkably funny and refreshingly unserious fantasy adventure, led by comic performances by Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Hugh Grant. After playing in theaters this spring, “Honor Amon...