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Maine man sentenced to 15 years for mosque attack plot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A 19-year-old from Maine who the FBI says built homemade explosives and plotted to attack a mosque in the name of the Islamic State group was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison.Xavier Pelkey, of Waterville, entered an agreement with prosecutors in April in which he pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists while a second charge was dropped. Pelkey planned to contribute firearms, ammunition and explosives for a mass shooting at a Shiite mosque in the Chicago area and possibly other houses of worship, and he was in communication with a pair of juveniles, one in Canada and one Chicago, about the plot, law enforcement officials said.Pelkey was 18 when he was arrested by FBI agents who found three homemade explosives in his home. The devices were made of fireworks bundled with staples, pins and thumb tacks to create shrapnel, the FBI said. Investigators also found a handwritten document about the planned mosque attack, claiming it in the name of ...

A processing glitch has held up a ‘small percentage’ of bank deposits since Thursday, overseer says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A processing glitch in the network that processes electronic transfers between nearly all U.S. bank accounts led to delays in settling deposits, some of which remain stalled, according to the private company that operates the system. The Clearing House Payments Co. said Monday that a technical error on Thursday resulted in some payment information sent to banks with account numbers and customer names masked, preventing them from being processed immediately. TCH, as the company is known, is owned by a group of 22 major banks, including Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase.Many customers have complained about the problem on social media, noting that delayed paycheck deposits have imperiled important automatic payments such as mortgage payments, rent and credit-card bills.TCH apologized for the error and emphasized that individual banks were not responsible for the situation. It also noted that the issue affected only a “very small percentag...

Senate Republicans outline border security measures they want as a condition for aiding Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans have released a sweeping set of U.S. border security proposals as a condition for sending more aid to Ukraine, laying out a draft plan to resume construction on parts of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, curtail humanitarian parole for people who cross into the United States and make it more difficult for migrants to qualify for asylum. President Joe Biden last month sent Congress a $105 billion request for aid to Ukraine and Israel that also sought $14 billion for managing the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. But Republicans have said the White House proposals do not have enough teeth, and have pushed border policy changes to be linked with the aid for the two countries’ conflicts.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has not said whether he supports the proposal released Monday by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jim Lankford of Oklahoma. But he told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that he has been di...

Nearly 1M chickens will be killed on a Minnesota farm because of bird flu

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

Nearly 1 million chickens on a Minnesota egg farm will be slaughtered to help limit the spread of the highly contagious bird flu after it was confirmed there, officials said Monday.The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the virus was found at a farm in Wright County, Minnesota, as well as in three smaller flocks in South Dakota and Iowa. Whenever the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus is detected on a farm, the entire flock is killed as to keep it from spreading to other farms.In addition to the Minnesota case, the USDA said some 26,800 turkeys will be killed on a farm in McPherson County in South Dakota and nearly 17,000 birds will be slaughtered on two farms in Iowa’s Clay County.The egg and poultry industry has been dealing with a bird flu outbreak since last year. In 2022, nearly 58 million birds — mostly chicken and turkeys — were slaughtered to deal with the virus, contributing significantly higher egg and turkey prices. The Minnesota farm is the first egg-layi...

New Mexico St lawsuit alleges guns were often present in locker room

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

Two former New Mexico State basketball players and a student manager filed a lawsuit Monday saying their teammates frequently brought guns into the locker room where they sexually assaulted players as a way of ensuring everyone on the team remained “humble.”Kyle Feit, along with a teammate and student manager who did not want their names used, filed the lawsuit in district court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, against the school, its athletic director, Mario Moccia, and former coaches and players. All but Moccia were fired or left last season; Moccia received a contract extension and a raise.The lawsuit was filed the same day as the Aggies’ 2023-24 season opener, at Kentucky.Feit revealed his name, the lawsuit says, because “his interest in speaking out and holding all of the defendants accountable outweighs his desire to protect his personal privacy interests.”Some of the allegations — that players would sexually assault teammates after forcing them to pull their pants down — were...

A 17-year-old boy wanted in the killing of a passenger resting on a Seattle bus turns himself in

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — A 17-year-old boy wanted in the fatal and apparently random shooting of a passenger who was resting on a Seattle bus last month has turned himself in, police said Monday.Miguel Rivera Dominguez, of the south suburb of Burien, faces charges of first-degree murder and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm in what prosecutors called “the senseless execution of a total stranger.”The King County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that Rivera Dominguez turned himself in without incident Monday morning. King County Superior Court records did not list an attorney who might comment on his behalf. He is being charged as an adult.According to charging documents filed last week, Rivera Dominguez was riding on a King County Metro bus in White Center, an unincorporated neighborhood south of Seattle, on Oct. 3 when he pulled a cord to request a stop and then shot Marcel Da’jon Wagner, 21, who appeared to be sleeping.A friend who was with Rivera Dominguez at the t...

Backstage with the Fugees: Pras on his hip-hop legacy as he awaits sentencing in conspiracy case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s Sunday night, backstage ahead of the second Los Angeles show of Lauryn Hill and the Fugees’ anniversary tour. It will be a few hours yet before Hill opens the concert with a solo set of “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” 25 years after its release. The seats in the arena are slowly starting to fill.Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a founding member of the Fugees, is sitting in his dressing room at the Kia Forum, watching the Buffalo Bills play the Cincinnati Bengals. Tonight is a celebration — of his landmark group, of all of the generations who have loved their music — and of his freedom, however much remains. In April, the rapper accused in multimillion-dollar political conspiracies spanning two presidencies was convicted of 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, after a trial in Washington, D.C., federal court that saw testimony from the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio.“Some of the lyrics, this art, is i...

Stellantis workers vote in favour of collective agreement: Unifor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

TORONTO — Unifor says Stellantis production workers voted 60 per cent in favour of a new three-year contract with the automaker.The deal covers workers at the company’s Windsor and Brampton, Ont. assembly plants and Etobicoke Casting Plant.Approval for smaller agreements covering Stellantis workers in other units ranged from 85 to 100 per cent. The union reached the tentative deal with the automaker, which mirrored deals already in place with Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co., after a brief strike on Oct. 30.Unifor members at Ford had voted 54 per cent in favour of the contract, while GM members voted 81 per cent in favour.The Stellantis contract, which will cover around 8,200 workers, will see general wages rise by 10 per cent in the first year, two per cent in the second and three per cent in the third.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2023.The Canadian Press

Youngkin and NAACP spar over felony voting rights ahead of decisive Virginia elections

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia NAACP said Monday that Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration lacks clear standards for restoring voting rights to convicted felons who served their sentences, leaving many frustrated and unable to vote in Tuesday’s nationally watched state elections. The group’s assertion followed the administration’s release Friday of more records related to how the state makes its decisions. The documents include emails between state officials and people whose requests were denied. “The Governor has deemed you ineligible for rights restoration at this time,” the emails state, while telling applicants they can reapply in a year.Applicants received no explanation or justification for their denials, while the state has provided no stated standards for who is eligible or ineligible for restored voting rights, the NAACP said in a statement Monday. In a late August email released by the state, someone who was clearly upset by the rejection pressed for m...

Florida dentist convicted of murder in 2014 slaying of his ex-brother-in-law, a law professor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:12 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A jury on Monday convicted a Florida dentist of murder in the 2014 shooting death of his former brother-in-law, a prominent law professor slain outside his Tallahassee home in the wake of a bitter custody battle with the dentist’s sister. The jurors signaled Monday in returning a verdict that they believed the prosecutors’ contentions that the defendant, Charles Adelson, paid to have Florida State University professor Dan Markel killed that year.Adelson was convicted of first-degree murder along with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder, The Tallahassee Democrat reported after jurors returned with their verdict Monday afternoon.Adelson’s sister Wendi Adelson had divorced from Markel and shared custody of their two kids. She wanted to move from Tallahassee in the north of the state to South Florida to be closer to her family. However, a judge at the time ruled Wendi Adelson couldn’t relocate without Markel’s c...