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Trump and DeSantis court Moms for Liberty in a sign of the group’s rising influence over the GOP

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

By ALI SWENSON and JILL COLVIN (Associated Press)PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday cast the 2024 election as the year that parents “finally fight back” as he kicked off the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a group that has fiercely opposed instruction related to race and gender identity in the nation’s classrooms.The two-year-old group, which was founded in Florida in 2021 to fight local COVID school mask mandates and quarantine requirements, has quickly become a force in conservative politics as an advocate for “parental rights” in education. But it has also been accused of preaching hate, with the Southern Poverty Law Center recently labeling it an “extremist” group for allegedly harassing community members, advancing anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and fighting to scrub diverse and inclusive material from lesson plans. The conference has nonetheless drawn leading Republican presidential candidates, including De...

Bankrate: Why is it harder to get a car loan in 2023?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

Rebecca Betterton | Bankrate.com (TNS)When the time comes to purchase your next vehicle, you want to focus on finding your dream car, not fighting for affordable financing. But since the pandemic’s early days, the car market has shifted. Inflation made finding competitive rates challenging, and supply chain issues pushed average car prices above MSRP.Before setting out to find summer deals on new wheels, consider how the state of our economy will impact your price.Economic outlook makes lenders cautiousSecuring vehicle financing is a challenge for borrowers right now due to one primary issue.“It’s harder to get a car loan now because it’s hard to get a car,” shares Satyan Merchant, SVP and Head of TransUnion’s Auto Finance Business.The current state of the economy has shifted the lending environment to make buying a challenge, even for those drivers who’ve found their perfect set of wheels.Lenders have tightened their standards, leading to a decrease in vehicle loan originations. An...

UN votes to end its peacekeeping mission in Mali as demanded by the country’s military junta

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to immediately end its peacekeeping mission in Mali as demanded by the country’s military junta, which has brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to help fight an Islamic insurgency. Mali, a landlocked country in West Africa, has grappled with the insurgency for over a decade. It has seen its relations with the international community become strained in part because the ruling junta brought in the Wagner mercenaries, who also have been engaged in Moscow’s war in Ukraine and were part of a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military last week. The French-drafted resolution was adopted unanimously and terminates the mandate of the peacekeeping mission known as MINUSMA as of Friday. It orders the mission to start the withdrawal Saturday of more than 15,000 personnel, to be completed by the end of the year.The U.S. deputy ambassador, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, expressed regret at the military government’s dec...

California bacon law takes effect but pork from farms using cages will still be on shelves

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A California law approved by voters that promises to get breeding pigs out of narrow cages that prevent them from standing or turning will finally take effect Saturday, after years of delays and warnings that the rules could lead to price spikes and pork shortages.But it will be six months before California grocery shoppers can be sure that pork chops they buy under the new law will be from a pig whose mother wasn’t confined in a so-called gestation crate.That’s because while the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law, the state recently agreed to allow pork slaughtered before July 1 to be sold in California markets and restaurants for the rest of the year. That decision gives farmers and grocery stores time to adjust. But it’s exasperating to supporters of the new rules that the effective implementation of the law would again be delayed — four years after voters approved it.“This development compounds the instability and confusion in the marketplace, while ...

Florida’s new DeSantis-backed laws address immigration, guns and more

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Employers who hire immigrants in the country illegally will face tough punishments and gun owners will have more freedoms when more than 200 new Florida laws take effect Saturday, many of which Gov. Ron DeSantis will highlight as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination.DeSantis has taken a hard line on illegal immigration as he campaigns, saying he’ll finish the Mexican border wall his one-time supporter, Donald Trump, promised to build. He’s also carried out political gimmicks like flying immigrants from Texas to blue states, supposedly before they can get to Florida.The new employer penalties are a chance for DeSantis to show he doesn’t just talk tough on illegal immigration, but he’s put in place what some critics say the harshest state law in the country. DeSantis has largely echoed the border policy of Trump, whose endorsement propelled DeSantis to the governor’s office in 2018. DeSantis is now the former president&...

Opponents of Serbia’s populist leader block main highway to keep up pressure after weeks of protests

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Opponents of Serbia’s populist government blocked the country’s main highway on Friday as part of weeks-long protests that first started after mass shootings in early May, including the first ever school carnage in the Balkan country.The protesters are demanding the resignations of top Serbian security officials and the revoking of broadcasting licenses for pro-government media and tabloids that regularly air violent content and host crime figures and war criminals.Opposition politicians and their supporters drove up slowly to Belgrade in some few dozen cars along the north-south motorway before stopping and parking in the country’s capital, thus halting traffic in both directions. No incidents were reported.The highway blockade was the latest in a series of street demonstrations that started after two mass shootings on May 3 and May 4 that left 18 people dead and 20 others wounded, many of them pupils from a Belgrade elementary school.A sim...

Senators say they’re just learning of a probe into mishandled sexual assaults at Coast Guard Academy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) — A previously undisclosed investigation reveals the U.S. Coast Guard failed to appropriately review, prosecute and report cases of sexual assault at the service’s Connecticut academy for years while some of the accused rose up the ranks, according to two U.S. Senators who on Friday demanded documents and records concerning the probe.The Coast Guard informally briefed Senate staff this month on “Operation Fouled Anchor,” an internal investigation that ran from 2014 to 2020. It had identified 62 substantiated incidents of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment from 1988 and 2006 which occurred at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, or by academy cadets.Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin said the investigation was not previously disclosed to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which has oversight of the Coast Guard. “This information is disturbing,” they wrote in a letter dat...

Federal board approves $12.7 billion budget for Puerto Rico as island shakes off bankruptcy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances on Friday approved a $12.7 billion general fund budget that contains increases for teachers, judicial employees and the U.S. territory’s public university.It is the largest budget approved in the island’s history.The bulk of the funds, $2.6 billion, will go toward education, followed by $1.2 billion for public safety, $600 million for the University of Puerto Rico and $555 million for the island’s health department.The approval comes after last-minute debates threatened to derail the proposed budget, which is slightly bigger than last year’s $12.4 billion budget.The new budget was previously approved by Puerto Rico’s legislature and governor on Thursday and goes into effect on July 1.It is the third balanced budget for Puerto Rico, which officials say helps the island return to the capital markets after emerging last year from the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history.If a fourth balance...

Man faces impaired driving charges following ‘fiery crash’ last month in Vaughan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

A 30-year-old man is facing impaired driving charges following a violent head-on crash that was captured on video by another motorist.York Regional Police say the crash happened in the early morning hours of May 28 in Vaughan.Dashcam video shows a white SUV approaching a curve in the road at what police say was a “high rate of speed” before crossing over the dividing line and into an oncoming vehicle. The force of the crash caused one of the vehicles to catch fire. Firefighters can be seen putting out the blaze.This fiery crash could have been deadly.A 30-year-old man faces charges for driving impaired and failing to stop at the scene of this crash May 28.Let's keep the explosions in the sky this #CanadaDay weekend – not on our roads. Don't drink and drive.#SafeRoadsYourCall pic.twitter.com/9si9gwULd1— York Regional Police (@YRP) June 30, 2023The driver of the car that was hit suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries, according to police.Pol...

French Montana chronicles mom’s sacrifice after emigrating from Morocco in doc film ‘For Khadija’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — If French Montana’s father never abandoned him as a teenager, the rapper believes he would not have grown into a popular figure who has earned three Grammy nominations.Montana and his family left Morocco more than two decades ago in hopes of a better life in the U.S., but when times got tough, his father returned to their native country. Montana turned to New York City’s street life in the South Bronx for manly guidance while his mother served as the faithful backbone. It was his mother’s sacrifice to raise her sons as a single parent that inspired him to become a better man. The “Pop That” rapper is telling that story in the documentary film “For Khadija,” a project named after his mother that recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The project touches on his rise as a successful recording artist and the plight of his single immigrant mother raising three sons. “This is a story about the grind, the losses and the sacrifices,” said Montana abo...