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One of Derek Chauvin’s lead prosecutors named to Hennepin County judgeship

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

One of the state’s lead prosecutors who helped convict Derek Chauvin of murder in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd has been appointed as a judge in Hennepin County, Minnesota’s governor announced Tuesday.Gov. Tim Walz said Matthew Frank “will be a remarkable judge who will approach this position with the understanding that justice is a process, not a result.”Frank is an experienced attorney with the state Attorney General’s Office, and he helped lead the state’s prosecution of Chauvin and three other former Minneapolis police officers who were charged in Floyd’s killing.Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 22½ years in prison. He later pleaded guilty to a federal count of violating Floyd’s rights and was sentenced to 21 years on that count, to be served concurrently.Frank also helped broker guilty pleas for two other former officers on charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter. A fourth former officer has decided...

Minnesota sports TV host Marney Gellner reveals breast cancer diagnosis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

Marney Gellner went in for her annual mammogram Feb. 20. The Bally Sports North studio host took a photo that morning that she planned to post on social media to promote breast health, but decided against it because of the poor lighting.Bally Sports North studio host Marney Gellner (courtesy of Gellner’s twitter account)But Gellner did end up posting that photo a month later, along with the news: “2 mammograms and 1 biopsy later, I received a diagnosis: breast cancer.”Gellner first revealed the diagnosis during her regular appearance on the Power Trip Morning Show on KFXN-100.3 before posting the news on her Twitter account.“Thankfully, it was detected very early and my treatment plan is to have a lumpectomy, followed by 3 weeks of radiation,” Gellner said. “I am SO thankful and blessed to have this option. Without early detection, I would be going down a much different road.”Gellner used her situation as an opportunity to continue to promot...

Sniper rifle falls off roof during Buffalo St. Patrick's Day Parade

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A sniper rifle fell off the roof of a building during Sunday's St. Patrick's Day Parade, Buffalo Police confirmed. The incident occurred at 560 Delaware Avenue at the corner of Allen Street. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia says the security plan for the parade was thorough, but the department is investigating to make sure something like this never happens again. "This is something that doesn't happen. I don't ever recall hearing something like this ever happening," Commissioner Gramaglia said. The following photos of the ordeal were captured by Andrew Mavrogeorgis.Courtesy: Andrew MavrogeorgisCourtesy: Andrew MavrogeorgisCourtesy: Andrew MavrogeorgisCourtesy: Andrew MavrogeorgisCourtesy: Andrew MavrogeorgisPhotos of the incident show an officer looking over the edge of the building at a gun on the ground, which narrowly missed parade goers and a hotdog stand. "If protocol was followed and yet that still happened then we have to look into other pol...

Albany launches employee recruitment campaign

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- City leaders in Albany took new steps to address worker shortages. Officials launched the Join Albany campaign on Tuesday.The campaign is meant to make the job application process easier and encourage more people to work for the city. The goal of the campaign is to highlight how city workers make a difference. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! "The unsung heroes is everyone who makes sure you're safe when you walk, you're preventing a fire, and you maintain a park," Albany Department of General Services Commissioner Sergio Panunzio said. "It's important for us to understand what a community government is about. It's about people. It's about helping each other. It's building a community."The program is being funded through the American Rescue Plan.

Red Cross Blood Battle encourages donations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

COLONIE, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Lia Auto Group took part in the American Red Cross Blood Battle on Tuesday. The blood battle is a friendly competition between local businesses to encourage blood donations.According to the American Red Cross, 1 in 7 patients entering a hospital will need a blood transfusion. Those with Lia Toyota said they were excited to take part in such a good cause. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! "We've done these in the past. We've worked with the American Red Cross, and with the desperate need for blood at this time, we wanted to participate," Lia Toyota General Manager Andy Rainone said. Donors of all blood types, particularly Type O blood, are needed by hospitals, and platelets are still needed daily to meet demand.

Top Missouri lawmaker moves to strip library funding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A powerful Missouri state lawmaker on Tuesday moved to strip state funding for public libraries over a fight about books.Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith's budget proposal, unveiled Tuesday, would cut all $4.5 million in state funding that libraries were slated to get next fiscal year.Smith said he's upset that state and school libraries are suing to overturn a new Missouri law that bans sexually explicit material in school libraries. He said the state shouldn't subsidize the lawsuit with funding. Top story: Missing St. Charles woman found dead; 1 man in custody The ACLU, the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association in February asked the Circuit Court in Kansas City to find the law unconstitutional or clarify how and when it applies.The law does not apply to written descriptions of sex or sexual acts; only photos, drawings, videos and other visual depictions are prohibited.Librarians and other sc...

Attorney seen on video groping clients avoids disbarment in Missouri

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court decided Tuesday not to disbar a defense attorney, who was caught on video groping six clients in a jail interview room, in a courthouse and while behind the wheel.The 4-3 ruling to indefinitely suspend 86-year-old Dan Purdy will allow him to apply for reinstatement after a year, The Kansas City Star reports. A disciplinary hearing panel had recommended disbarment for the attorney, and Judge Zel Fischer blasted the majority's decision in his dissent.“There may have been a time when a temporary suspension was an adequate punishment for sexually assaulting or harassing a client, vulnerable or otherwise," Fischer wrote. “But," he added, "in my view, that time is long gone.”In the majority ruling, Judge George Draper acknowledged Purdy, who is based in Osceola, Missouri, had committed the assaults and severely faulted him for his conduct.Video provided by the Vernon County Sheriff’s Office showed Purdy making sexual advances in S...

In a league of their own: Baseball player Toni Stone and Lady Macbeth take center stage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

“Toni Stone” encourages its titular baseball phenom to aim for the fences, and actor Kenya Mahogany Fashaw does just that in the Aurora Fox production running through April 2. And she decidedly connects.Playwright Lydia R. Diamond (and could a name resonate any better with a play about baseball?) pays homage to the first woman to play ball on a professional men’s team.Fictional pitching ace Max Chapman in Amazon’s reboot of “A League of Their Own” is modeled on Stone, as well as Black ballplayers Mamie Johnson and Connie Morgan (and softball great Billie Harris). Diamond based the play on journalist and female-achievement chronicler Martha Ackmann’s biography “Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone, the First Woman to Play Professional Baseball in the Negro League.”Toni cautions at the play’s start that she’s not one to tell a linear tale. “I’m prone to ramblin.’ Never could tell a story from beginning to end all nice and neat. My brain don’t work like that,” she confesses af...

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, a ‘careful lawyer,’ poised to bring charges against Trump

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

Weeks into his new job as Manhattan district attorney last year, Alvin Bragg faced a firestorm: Two senior prosecutors heading the office’s four-year investigation of Donald Trump wanted an immediate indictment of the former president.Bragg told them the case wasn’t ready. The men quit in frustration, and it quickly spread that Bragg was abandoning the Trump investigation. It was a disastrous start to Bragg’s tenure at One Hogan Place.A year after that momentous decision, the 49-year-old Harlem native is poised to become the first prosecutor to file criminal charges against Trump, which will turn him into a hero for the former president’s foes and a target of hatred for millions of Trump supporters.Trump has already decried the investigation as a political witch hunt, labeling Bragg, who is Black, a “racist” and urging his supporters to protest any attempt to arrest and prosecute him. New York City is already bracing for what would be an unprecede...

California's all-time snowpack record within reach

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:11:54 GMT

Climatologists will be talking about California’s 2022-2023 snow year for decades.With less than two weeks remaining in the traditional “wet season,” data collected by California’s Department of Water Resources on Tuesday showed statewide snowpack at an astounding 225% of average for this date (March 21), and 219% of a full year’s average.The Southern Sierra, which has the deepest snow, reached 277% of the average. Snowpack in the Central Sierra is 227% and the Northern Sierra/Trinity region is 182% of average, according to DWR. California snowpack measurements for March 21, 2023 (California Department of Water Resources)The Southern Sierra region is pacing well above the previous record year of 1982-1983 and the Central Sierra is not far behind.“There is more snow water equivalent in the Southern Sierra than at any point at least since the 1950s … and likely longer than that,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California Los Angeles. April 1 is typically...