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George Floyd killing: Appeals court upholds Derek Chauvin’s murder conviction

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

By Steve Karnowski | Associated PressMINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday upheld former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s second-degree murder conviction in the killing of George Floyd, and let his 22½-year sentence remain in place.Chauvin’s attorney had asked the appeals court to throw out the ex-officer’s convictions for a long list of reasons, including the massive pretrial publicity. He also argued that legal and procedural errors deprived Chauvin of a fair trial. But the three-judge panel sided with prosecutors who said Chauvin got a fair trial and just sentence.Floyd died May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, used his knee to pin the Black man’s neck to the ground for 9½ minutes. A bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s death touched off protests around the world, some of which turned violent, and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racis...

San Jose recreation center owner strikes deal to sell complex to developer

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

SAN JOSE — A tennis and swimming center that’s been a familiar presence in San Jose’s Willow Glen district for decades is slated to be bought by a real estate firm and replaced by housing, public documents show.TTLC Management, which is affiliated with The True Life Cos., has struck a deal to purchase a property at 1170 Pedro Street in San Jose, which at present is the site of San Jose Swim & Racquet Club.The Norman A. Lariviere Trust has reached an agreement with TTLC Management to sell the 3.3-acre site in San Jose, documents filed on March 1 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show.True Life Cos. has filed documents with San Jose city planners whereby the developer would bulldoze the recreation complex and build 85 “attached homes” on the site.The residences are expected to be townhomes, sources familiar with the city documents say.Carolyn Lund acted as the trustee and conservator for the Norman A. Lariviere Trust in the contract ...

Bay Area concerts: Berkeley Bluegrass, Backseat Lovers, Steven Curtis Chapman

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

Here are three upcoming music events worth catching in the Bay Area and surrounding regions:Berkeley Bluegrass FestivalThe three-night event, set for April 21-23 at the legendary Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, features Peter Rowan, Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands, Larry & Joe, Tray Wellington and other talented artists. Showtime is 7 p.m. Tickets are $25-$55 per concert or $125 for a three-night pass; thefreight.org.Steven Curtis ChapmanThe multi-Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, who has also won dozens upon dozens of Dove Awards, will bring smiles to the faces of fans during two Northern California shows. Chapman, who has reportedly sold more than 10 million albums during a career that stretches back to the late ’80s, performs April 22 at the Golden State Theatre in Monterey (7 p.m.; $22.75-$88) and April 23 at the Uptown Theatre in Napa (7 p.m.; $34 and up). See stevencurtischapman.com for details.Backseat LoversThe alt-rock act from Provo, Utah checks into the Fox ...

More racist Antioch police text messages released by District Attorney

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

ANTIOCH, Calif. (KRON) -- More racist text messages exchanged between Antioch police officers came to light on Monday when the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office released a second investigative report to the media.The egregiously racist text messages and images were sent and received by certain Antioch Police Department officers in 2020 and 2021. A judge ordered the District Attorney's Office to disclose redacted investigative reports to defense attorneys whose clients were arrested by police officers named in the reports. The first 21-page report was released on April 13, followed by the second 14-page report on Monday. The texts were described by Police Chief Steve Ford as "racially abhorrent." Officers used language containing racial slurs, and referred to Black people as "zoo" and "circus" animals. "Bro the circus is in town… but it seems they only brought monkeys," Officer Aaron Hughes wrote on May 4, 2020, according to the report. Officer Jonathan Adams wrote on Ma...

Leaked Pentagon Doc Gives Unprecedented U.S. Intel View Into Secret Yemen War Talks

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

A highly classified Pentagon document sheds light on what the United Nations has deemed the worst humanitarian crisis in the world: war-torn Yemen. Pitting Saudi Arabia, the richest country in the Middle East, against Yemen, the poorest, the conflict has seen some 85,000 Yemeni children under age 5 die of starvation since the conflict began.The assessment is a window into the strategic calculus of Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, Yemen’s de facto ruling tribe, in the final weeks before the Chinese government brokered a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which backs the Houthi movement.Since the détente, the Saudis have reportedly agreed to much more significant concessions than were on offer in mid-February, demonstrating that a more direct path to peace was available given the right diplomatic maneuvering. If successful, the ceasefire bid would put an end to a grinding war that has brought Yemen to the brink of famine.At the time the classified Pentagon memo was written, how...

Families displaced from California neighborhood seek $2B

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — As a child, Lawrance W. McFarland lived on a small piece of land on a Native American reservation in Palm Springs he described as a “little world of its own,” surrounded by the parts of the city that were tourist magnets and depicted in movies.The retiree, who now lives in Mississippi, recently recalled seeing houses of the diverse, tight-knit community being torn and burned down in the square-mile area known as Section 14. “We thought they were just cleaning up some of the old houses,” he said. But eventually his family was told to vacate their home, and McFarland, his mother and his younger brother hopped around from house to house before leaving the area altogether and moving to Cabazon, a small town about 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of Palm Springs. Decades later, Palm Springs’ city council is reckoning with those actions, voting in 2021 to issue a formal apology to former residents for the city’s role in displacing them from the neighborhood that m...

Arlington to allow students to carry naloxone in schools as part of opioid prevention efforts

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

Arlington Public Schools in Virginia is moving forward with a plan that will enable students to carry naloxone — the generic form of the overdose-reversing drug Narcan — in school by the end of May.At Thursday’s board meeting, Superintendent Francisco Duran said the county is aiming for students to be able to carry naloxone by May 26.Schools in Arlington, Virginia, detail plans to allow students to carry naloxone in schools. (Courtesy Arlington Public Schools)The announcement comes after the Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan as an over-the-counter medication last month.The county has reported a rise in youth overdoses this year, and has hosted community conversations and sessions on how to use the potentially life-saving drug. Several D.C.-area school systems, including Montgomery County, Maryland, have done the same.A school system spokesman said the county won’t be providing it to all students to carry, but it will remain available in emergency boxes in seco...

Judge ends Hartford police consent decree despite concerns

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A judge has ended the nearly 50 years of federal oversight of police in Hartford, Connecticut, despite continued concerns the department still has not hired enough minority officers to reflect the city’s large Black and Hispanic populations.U.S. District Judge Kari Dooley in Bridgeport issued a 10-page ruling late Friday saying the plaintiffs failed to prove the police department was violating any part of the original 1973 consent decree agreement or revisions made to it in 2010. Dooley approved the city’s request to dissolve the consent decree, which was to have ended four years after the 2010 revisions but was later extended.The consent decree was one of the longest in the country and resulted from a 1969 civil rights lawsuit against city police by several Hartford residents. The lawsuit accused police of inflicting numerous acts of violence, intimidation and humiliation upon Hartford citizens based on their race and ethnicity. Sydney Schulman, a...

Review: ‘Koresh’ drills down on dark chapter in US history

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — “Koresh: The True story of David Koresh and the Tragedy at Waco,” by Stephan Talty (Mariner Books)Thirty years ago, on April 19, 1993, after a 51-day siege by federal agents, the Branch Davidian complex in Waco erupted in flames, leading to the deaths of 76 people.The murky circumstances and conflicting accounts about the siege and how it ended have led to decades of lore and misinformation. Several projects timed around the 30th anniversary aim to revisit the events of the seige, including a Netflix documentary “Waco: American Apocolypse” and a Showtime dramatized series “Waco: The Aftermath.” In his book, Talty goes further back to trace the Branch Davidian movement from the beginning and examine the life of Koresh himself.Born Vernon Wayne Howell in 1959, Koresh was an unhappy and abused child who became obsessed with the bible and thought he heard the voice of God. As an adult, he increasingly took control of an existing sect of the Seventh Day Adventists called ...

Burrow, Bengals begin offseason workouts

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:34:07 GMT

CINCINNATI (AP) — Joe Burrow walked through the Cincinnati Bengals locker room on Monday with the same confident stroll he often displays on game day.Burrow, sporting a headband, smiled and joked with his teammates. The two-time defending AFC North champion Bengals were officially back to work.Cincinnati held its first day of offseason workouts on Monday, and Burrow led the way.Less than three months after a 2022 season that included setting single-season franchise records for completed passes (414), pass attempts (606) and passing touchdowns (35), the 2021 AP Comeback Player of the Year looked primed to pick up where he left off a season ago.“I feel good about Joe,” fifth-year Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “I see him around the building often times. I think he’s got a great process that he goes through in spring time.”To help with that process and to better equip Burrow and the Bengals to get over the hump and capture the franchise’s first Super Bowl win, Taylor and the Cincinnati...