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Late-night shows go dark as writers strike

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

NEW YORK — The first Hollywood strike in 15 years began Tuesday as the economic pressures of the streaming era prompted unionized TV and film writers to picket for better pay outside major studios, a work stoppage that already is leading most late-night shows to air reruns.“No contracts, no content!” sign-carrying members of the Writers Guild of America chanted outside the Manhattan building where NBCUniversal was touting its Peacock streaming service to advertisers.Some 11,500 film and television writers represented by the union put down their pens and laptops after failing to reach a new contract with the trade association that represents Hollywood studios and production companies.The union is seeking higher minimum pay, more writers per show and shorter exclusive contracts, among other demands — all conditions it says have been diminished in the content boom driven by streaming.“There’s too much work and not enough pay,” said demonstrator Sean Crespo...

Happy birthday Frank Bellotti!

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

Frank Bellotti still won’t divulge the harrowing secret missions the Scouts & Raiders went on during World War II.They became the Navy SEALs and Bellotti, who turns 100 Wednesday, was a leader of those brave men.“We did guerrilla stuff,” he said. “I can’t talk about it. It’s still Top Secret. I have to keep it secret, I’m the only one left.”That loyalty personifies Francis X. Bellotti. He remains a mentor to so many in Massachusetts, but his roots go deep in the Bay State.The former three-term attorney general — and onetime lieutenant governor — was raised in Dorchester and became an icon from Quincy.Bellotti transformed the attorney general’s office from a backwater political Democratic Party hangout to a non-partisan first-class law office. That’s what he will be remembered for.But back to his loyalty.Bellotti comes from the age of handshakes and looking everyone in the eye.“I’ve always felt I had a responsibili...

Navy commander pulled from job after SEAL candidate death

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The commander of the Naval Special Warfare Center who was reprimanded in connection with the death last year of a Navy SEAL candidate has been pulled out of his job about two months early, U.S. officials said Tuesday.Navy Capt. Brian Drechsler is being moved to another job as Navy officials seek new leadership for the Center, more than a year after SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen collapsed and died of acute pneumonia just hours after completing the grueling Hell Week test.Drechsler was one of three Navy officers who received administrative “non-punitive” letters as a result of Mullen's death. They were not directly blamed for his death and Drechsler has not been formally relieved of duty, although such an investigation is likely a career-ender. His transfer is the first step in an ongoing review to determine if any additional punishment is warranted. Officials said Drechsler will be serving as a special assistant at Naval Special Warfare Command, and had been planning t...

Officials move inmate stuck on US death row for years

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Prison officials this week moved a former drug dealer convicted of killing a 16-year-old Texas girl off federal death row to serve a life sentence in another prison amid criticism he should have been moved years ago after a judge deemed him intellectually disabled and vacated his death sentence. The transfer comes two weeks after The Associated Press first highlighted Bruce Webster’s case, reporting that chronic bureaucracy and jurisdictional obstacles left him stuck in solitary confinement on death row at a U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, since the judge’s 2019 ruling. Webster, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was in a solitary, 12-by-7-foot cell, 23 hours a day, while on death row, but has been transferred to a less restrictive U.S. prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, according to his lawyers, who say the prison informed them Tuesday that Webster had been transferred overnight.“Obviously, we are delighted he is off death row. That should have happened ...

Election denier Jim Marchant running for US Senate in Nevada

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jim Marchant, a Nevada Republican who led a movement of candidates who promoted Donald Trump’s lies of a stolen 2020 election, announced Tuesday that he will run for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen in the swing state.The entrance of Marchant, who lost last year’s race for Nevada secretary of state, may be another headache for national Republicans who are trying to prevent a repeat of the midterms, when voters in Nevada and other battleground states rejected candidates who ran on election conspiracies, allowing Democrats to increase their hold on the Senate.Democrats face an even tougher environment to keep their slim majority in 2024. Nevada is likely to be one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races after hosting the closest contest of 2022. Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto eked out a narrow victory over another high-profile election denier, Adam Laxalt.Marchant, 66, has been a fierce supporter of Trump an...

Securities Commission alleges fraud committed by B.C. crypto firm

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

VANCOUVER — The B.C. Securities Commission alleges a now-defunct cryptocurrency platform based in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island committed a multimillion-dollar securities fraud by diverting customer assets to online cryptocurrency gambling sites. In a notice of hearing issued last month, the commission says David Smillie and his numbered company, which did business as ezBtc, lied to customers about its crypto asset trading platform. The commission alleges Smillie and the company diverted about $13 million worth of bitcoin and ether, another cryptocurrency, to two online gambling sites without authorization from customers.  The regulator says the company was dissolved in October 2022, but between 2016 and 2019 customers transferred 2,300 bitcoin and 600 ether tokens into wallets hosted by the platform. Smillie and the firm allegedly told customers their digital assets were mostly held off-line in so-called “cold storage,” but they never truly maintained enough to cover user...

Judge rejects Zooey Zephyr effort to return to Montana House

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the transgender Montana lawmaker who was silenced after telling Republicans they would have blood on their hands for opposing gender-affirming health care for kids, cannot yet return to the statehouse House floor and participate in debate, a judge ruled Tuesday.The ruling came after attorneys for the state of Montana asked the judge to reject transgender Zephyr’s attempt to return after she was silenced and then banished for admonishing Republican lawmakers and encouraging a raucous statehouse protest.Lawyers working under Attorney General Austin Knudsen cautioned that any intervention by the courts on Zephyr’s behalf would be a blatant violation of the separation of powers. They wrote in a court filing that the Montana House of Representatives retains “exclusive constitutional authority” to discipline its own members.Attorneys for Zephyr and several of her Missoula constituents on Monday filed court papers seeking an emergency ord...

Texas man suing over abortion accused of abuse in court docs

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A man who filed a lawsuit in Texas against three women he said helped his now-ex-wife obtain medication for an abortion is accused in a new court filing of using the lawsuit as an extension of the manipulative, controlling and emotionally abusive behavior he displayed toward her during their marriage.Marcus Silva had found the first pill that begins a medication abortion while secretly going through his then-wife’s purse last summer but instead of talking to her about it or throwing it away, he took photos of text messages on her phone between her and two of her friends, according to a document filed Monday on behalf of those friends, who are two of the defendants in Silva’s lawsuit.The filing, which asks for Silva’s claims to be dismissed, says Silva broke the law by accessing his wife’s phone without her consent, and invaded her friends’ privacy by reading her text exchanges with them.“He wasn’t interested in stopping her from terminating ...

California hotline to provide legal help related to abortion

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has joined with law firms and advocacy groups to create a hotline that provides access to information and pro bono services for people who need legal help related to abortion, as the state seeks to become a safe haven for reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned.State Attorney General Rob Bonta and officials with the Southern California Legal Alliance for Reproductive Justice made the announcement Tuesday, one year since the U.S. Supreme Court draft decision reversing Roe was leaked. Calling it a “dark anniversary,” Bonta said that in the ensuing year the national legal landscape surrounding abortion has become “confusing, and frankly, scary.” He said the new coalition seeks to put patients and care providers at ease by providing a wide range of legal services to people in places where abortion is restricted — including pro bono representation for anyone facing civil or criminal penalties for seeking, providing or assisting in re...

Man arrested outside Buckingham Palace with suspected weapon

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:15:43 GMT

LONDON (AP) — London police said a controlled explosion was carried out as a precaution outside Buckingham Palace late Tuesday after a man was arrested there on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon.The Metropolitan Police said officers arrested the man after he approached the palace gates and threw items suspected to be shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds. A bag that police deemed suspicious was found in the suspect’s possession, the police force said.Police said the incident was not being treated as terrorism-related. “Officers worked immediately to detain the man and he has been taken into police custody,” Chief Superintendent Joseph McDonald said in a statement. “There have been no reports of any shots fired, or any injuries to officers or members of the public.”King Charles III and Camilla, the queen consort, were not at Buckingham Palace at the time of the arrest. Palace officials declined to comment, saying the incident was a police matter. Cord...