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New GOP-favored Georgia congressional map nears passage as the end looms for redistricting session

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia special session to redraw congressional and legislative voting district maps is likely to end Thursday after a House committee on Wednesday advanced a Republican-favored congressional map that targets Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath’s current district.However, the wrangling is unlikely to end there, with those who brought the challenges that overturned the current maps likely to argue in court that Georgia’s Republican-controlled General Assembly has violated the federal court order that directed them to produce new maps.The House Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee, with little debate, voted 9-4 on Wednesday to send the congressional map to the full House for a vote. The plan, which passed the state Senate 33-22 on Tuesday, seeks a wholesale reconfiguration of a suburban Atlanta district now represented by McBath. Lawmakers were called into special session after U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled in October that Georgia’s congression...

Opening month of mobile sports betting goes smoothly in Maine as bettors wager nearly $40 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Bettors wagered nearly $40 million in Maine during the first month online sports betting became legal, with the state’s tribes, two vendors and state government receiving benefits, officials said.All told, $37.5 million was spent in Maine on online sports bets from Nov. 3 to the end of the month, according to the Gambling Control Unit, part of the Maine Department of Public Safety.Milt Champion, director of the Gambling Control Unit, said the rollout went smoothly with only a handful of complaints and no spike in calls to a hotline for people with gambling problems.“Everybody’s behaving, and it’s really nice,” he said Wednesday.Democratic Gov. Janet Mills gave exclusives rights to online sports betting to federally recognized Native American tribes in the state, providing an olive branch after she scuttled a proposal for greater sovereignty for the tribes in 2022. Existing casinos, meanwhile, are allowed to conduct in-person betting. Most of t...

Biden’s campaign will not commit yet to participating in general election debates in 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s campaign is not yet committing to general election debates next year, the latest sign that a staple of modern White House campaigns may not be in play in 2024. Quentin Fulks, Biden’s top deputy campaign manager, told reporters Wednesday that the president’s reelection campaign would “look at the schedule” that the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates released last month but the focus for now is on assembling a national campaign footprint.“We will have those conversations,” Fulks said at a Democratic news conference at Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate site in Alabama. “But right now,” Fulks said, “our focus is on making sure we continue to build out a campaign and infrastructure that’s going to be able to be competitive in 2024.”Pressed again, Fulks shifted the focus to Trump and the GOP’s “divisive primary, where their front-runner is not attending debates,” adding that Biden’s team “is focusing on what we nee...

Gaza protests prompt California governor to hold virtual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom won’t host an in-person Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the state Capitol this year because of concerns that protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza would disrupt the annual event.Instead, the Democratic governor and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, will host the event in a pre-recorded ceremony that will be released Wednesday.“As we continue to see protests across the country impacting the safety of events of all scales -– and for the safety and security of all participating members and guests including children and families -– the ceremony this year will be virtual,” the Governor’s Office said in a statement. The tree lighting ceremony, which Newsom’s office said dates back to the 1930s, appears to have originally been scheduled for Tuesday, according to a permit posted online by the California Highway Patrol. Barriers went up around the tree this week in front of the west steps of the state Capitol....

‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ named best film of 2023 by National Board of Review

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — “Killers of the Flower Moon” was named the best film of the year by the National Board of Review, adding to the early awards-season haul of Martin Scorsese’s Osage epic. The National Board of Review, a long-running organization comprised of film enthusiasts and academics, also on Wednesday named Scorsese best director and Lily Gladstone best actress. That follows recent honors for the film and for Gladstone from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Gotham Awards. “Killers of the Flower Moon is a stunning masterpiece from one of our greatest filmmakers, Martin Scorsese. The NBR is proud to award this complex, important, and deeply resonant epic as our best film and Scorsese as our best director,” Annie Schulhof, president of the board, said in a statement. Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” was also roundly honored by the group, which named Paul Giamatti best actor, Da’Vine Joy Randolph best supporting actress and David Hemingson’s script be...

MPs to vote on sending Speaker Fergus video controversy to committee

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

OTTAWA — The House of Commons is debating whether to have a committee determine if Speaker Greg Fergus should be punished for a video message he filmed that was played at a political party convention.Fergus apologized for the video, in which he appeared in his ceremonial robes and thanked the former interim leader of the Ontario Liberals, after it was played at that party’s convention last weekend.Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer is moving to have a parliamentary committee study the issue, saying the Speaker is supposed to serve an explicitly non-partisan role.Fergus’s deputy, Chris d’Entremont, is allowing the motion to be debated in the Commons this afternoon.The Speaker has said he was asked to record a video message for an intimate gathering to honour John Fraser, who he called a long-standing friend.The Quebec MP told members of Parliament that he regrets the video was used in other ways, and said it should not be seen as partisan to recognize a colleag...

Suspect in active shooting with ‘multiple victims’ on UNLV campus is dead: LVPD

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says a suspect in an active shooting investigation with “multiple victims” on University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus is dead. In a social media post, police confirmed the suspect has been located and is deceased. UPDATE: The suspect has been located and is deceased. https://t.co/h56jaYcFwg pic.twitter.com/eeTzBIEg7O— LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 6, 2023Police earlier said there appeared to be multiple victims, after gunfire erupted near the Lee Business School and later near the student union building on campus. It’s not yet clear if any of the victims were killed. #BREAKING The suspect is contained. This is an active investigation. Please continue to avoid the area and watch for responding emergency units. https://t.co/EFVKgGyQuy— LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 6, 2023 UNLV posted that police were responding to reports of shots fired. “This is not a test” they said on X, adding an ominous “RUN-HIDE-FIG...

Proposal to create new tier for big-money college sports is just a start, NCAA president says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — NCAA president Charlie Baker said Wednesday his proposal to allow the most highly resourced schools in Division I to pay athletes through a trust fund is just a starting point as he tries to shift the association to be more proactive than reactive.“We need to be able to anticipate where conversations are going and to try to get this big, huge, diverse 180-committee with 2,000 members — like oh, my God! — to a place where they’re talking about stuff that’s common, and not just responding and reacting to other people’s agendas,” Baker said during an appearance at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletic Forum.On Monday, Baker laid forth an aggressive and potentially groundbreaking vision for a new NCAA subdivision at the very top of college sports in a letter he sent to the more than 350 Division I schools.“Some people are going to say you’re going too far and people will say but you’re not going far enough,” Baker said. “I promise you that’s...

Nevada grand jury indicts 6 fake Donald Trump electors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada grand jury indicted six Republicans who submitted certificates to Congress falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election in their state, making Nevada the third to seek charges against so-called “fake electors.”Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford began investigating the fake electors last month. He said in a statement Wednesday that he would do everything in his power to defend the institutions of the nation and the state.The announcement of the indictment represented a shift for Ford, who was quiet on whether he would investigate the fake electors before saying that state law would not allow him to do so.Ford had testified in support of a bill that would have criminalized future fake electors. That passed Nevada’s Democratic-controlled Legislature but was vetoed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who said the punishment between four and 10 years in prison was too harsh. In December 2020, six Nevada GOP members signed certi...

Authorities responding to reports of multiple victims in shooting at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:39 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police officers were responding Wednesday to a “confirmed active shooter” in a building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the university announced in a post on the social media platform X.“This is not a test,” the university wrote. “RUN-HIDE-FIGHT.”Las Vegas police said in a separate post on X that there appeared to be multiple victims.The university said the shooter was at the Beam Hall, Frank and Estella Building, home of UNLV’s Lee Business School, and that police were responding to an additional report of shots fired at the nearby student union.The shooting occurred in a city still scarred by one of the worst mass killings in U.S. history, the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas, in which 60 were killed and hundreds more wounded.The Associated Press