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Editorial: First Amendment under siege from all sides

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

Hostility to the First Amendment is a bipartisan endeavor. Too many elected officials take an oath to uphold the Constitution without having bothered to read the document.The Orlando Sentinel reported this week that a Florida lawmaker of Republican persuasion has offered a bill to require bloggers to register with the government or face fines. The proposal excludes print journalists but mandates that all others who write about the governor, state officials or lawmakers provide information to the state about whether they are being paid and who is paying them.The sponsor, state Sen. Jason Brodeur, who represents a district near Orlando, argues the bill is “an electioneering issue, not a free speech issue” and will provide voters with information about who is attempting to influence public policy.That’s weak tea. It may be news to Brodeur, but electioneering enjoys free speech protections.“The idea that bloggers criticizing a politician should register with the government is insane,” N...

Moore: America’s $100B climate change flop

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

For at least the last 20 years, politicians in Washington, at the behest of green energy groups, have spent some $100 billion of taxpayer money to fight climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. How is that going for us so far?A recent Associated Press story, based on the latest data on global carbon emissions, provides a pretty accurate report card: “Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reached a Record High in 2022.”The article tells us: “Communities around the world emitted more carbon dioxide in 2022 than in any other year on records dating to 1900, a result of air travel rebounding from the pandemic and more cities turning to coal as a low-cost source of power. Emissions of the climate-warming gas that were caused by energy production grew 0.9% to reach 36.8 gigatons in 2022, the International Energy Agency reported Thursday. (The mass of one gigaton is equivalent to about 10,000 fully loaded aircraft carriers, according to NASA.)”You’ve got to almos...

Stavridis: U.S. military needs to create a Cyber Force

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

Two disturbing incidents roiled the cyber seas recently, one foreign and one domestic. They both strengthen the case — which was already convincing, and which I have been making for almost a decade now — for the creation of a U.S. Cyber Force.The first incident was yet another cyberattack on a NATO member, Albania, by Iran. The attacks have included zeroing out personal bank accounts, unmasking government and police informants, and degrading command-and-control networks. Iran conducts the attacks because Albania is not prosecuting an anti-Iranian group, the Mujahedeen Khaleq, that has a large presence in Albania.The second incident involved a ransomware attack on the U.S. Marshals Service. A huge amount of sensitive data was compromised, including information on fugitives, high-security individuals and law-enforcement operations. The attack has been designated a “major incident” requiring significant interagency investigation and remediation.Ironically, that was also when Jen Easter...

Pedestrian hit, killed by trash recycling truck in North County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

SAN MARCOS, Calif. -- A pedestrian died Friday when they were struck by a trash recycling truck in the San Marcos area, according to law enforcement.The crash occurred around 11:58 a.m. in the 200 block of South Las Posas Road at the EDCO Recycling Buyback Center, Sgt. Charles Morreale with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department stated in a news release. ‘Teacher of the Year’ re-arrested Authorities say the driver of the EDCO recycling truck was backing into the scales at the facility when his vehicle hit the pedestrian. When deputies arrived on scene, the pedestrian, whose identity is unknown at this time, was pronounced dead, Morreale said. The truck driver stayed at the location and is cooperating with investigators.

No winning ticket sold for Friday’s $24 million Lotto Max jackpot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

There was no winning ticket sold in Friday’s Lotto Max $24 million draw.The jackpot for the next draw on March 14 will be an estimated $29 million.The Canadian Press

Records in Fox defamation case show pressures on reporters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — It wasn’t critics, political foes or their bosses that united Fox News stars Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham when they gathered via text message for a gripe session shortly after the 2020 election.It was their own network’s news division.“They’re pathetic,” Carlson wrote.“THEY AREN’T SMART,” Ingraham emphasized.“What news have they broken the last four years?” Hannity asked.The Nov. 13, 2020, conversation was included among thousands of pages of recently released documents related to Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox for its post-election reporting. Like much of what was uncovered, the exchange ultimately may have little bearing on whether Fox will be judged guilty of libel.Instead, the material offers insight into how Fox’s stars and leadership responded at a time of high anxiety and how giving its audience what it wanted to hear took precedence over reporting uncomfortable truths...

West Virginia Senate passes modified transgender care ban

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s Republican supermajority Senate passed a bill Friday that would ban certain health care for transgender youth after approving a significant change to add exceptions for young people at risk for self harm or suicide. “These kids struggle, they have incredible difficulties,” said Majority Leader Tom Takubo, a pulmonologist, who urged support for mental health protections.The bill would outlaw those under 18 from being prescribed hormone therapy and fully reversible medication suspending the physical changes of puberty, buying patients and parents time to make future decisions about hormones.The rate of suicide ideation for transgender youth in Virginia is three times higher than the rate for all youth in the state, according to research and data complied by WVU Medicine physicians using the West Virginia Youth Risk Behavior Survey.During a speech on the Senate floor, Takubo referenced 17 peer-reviewed studies showing a significant decreas...

Class 2A state boys hockey semifinal: Minnetonka takes down Andover to set up Lake Conference final

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

It’ll be a Lake Conference battle for the Class 2A state boys hockey championship.Minnetonka earned its spot in high school hockey’s biggest game by beating defending champion Andover 4-1 in a Friday semifinal at Xcel Energy Center.Gavin Garry scored twice, Henry Burrows and Sam Scheetz netted a goal apiece, and Kaizer Nelson made 17 saves for the top-seeded Skippers, who’ll take a 19-game winning streak into Saturday’s game with Edina.Two of these were against the Hornets: 4-0 Jan. 19 and 1-0 Feb. 11.“The biggest thing is just playing our game. We’ve proven that we can beat them. We just need to keep doing what we do,” Garry said.A storyline entering the semifinal was Minnetonka’s depth vs. Andover’s top line: the trio of Mr. Hockey finalists in Gavyn Thoreson, Cayden Casey and Austin Westman, who’ve scored 105 goals and tallied 148 assists. Each has at least 75 points; no other Huskies player has more than 28.But chances were at a premium for fourth-seeded Andover (22-7-1), held t...

All Los Angeles County beaches under high contamination warning from rainfall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

Those heading to the beach this week are advised to stay out of the water as all Los Angeles County beaches are under advisory for excessive contamination from rainfall.The advisory is in effect starting Friday and will remain until Monday, March 13 at 10 a.m. and could be extended depending on further rain activity, officials said.The public is advised to stay out of the water due to heightened levels of “bacteria, chemicals, debris, trash, and other public health hazards from city streets and mountain areas likely to contaminate ocean waters at and around discharging storm drains, creeks, and rivers,” said the L.A. County Department of Public Health.People who enter the ocean water during this period could become ill, officials warned. Those especially at risk include people with weakened immune systems, children and the elderly.Rainfall arrived in the L.A. area on Thursday night, with periods of moderate to heavy rain expected to continue through Saturday, according to the N...

East Bay man who killed friend, shot cop is now a suspect in fatal prison yard attack

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:33:42 GMT

COALINGA — A 39-year-old man was killed on a prison yard here, and the suspect is a Contra Costa County man serving life for killing his friend, then attempting to murder a BART officer in 2015, authorities said.Charles Goetting, 34, allegedly used an “inmate manufactured weapon” to kill Richard Derderian, an Orange County native. The attack occurred around 10:45 a.m. Friday at Pleasant Valley State Prison, according to a news release by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.Goetting was the suspect in a gruesome 2015 killing that led to a shootout with police on Christmas Day of that year. It started when he shot and killed 40-year-old Colin Anderson, but precisely when or where the shooting happened is not known. Goetting stuck Anderson’s body in a rented moving truck and was en route to bury it, when he stopped at the Hayward BART station.There, BART Officers Timothy Eads and Carlos Dazhan stumbled upon the truck and told Goetting the...