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Attorney general appoints a special counsel in Hunter Biden probe, deepening investigation

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and LISA MASCARO Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday he has appointed a special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe, deepening the investigation of the president’s son ahead of the 2024 election.Garland noted the “extraordinary circumstances” of the matter as he named David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware who had already been probing the financial dealings of President Joe Biden’s son, as special counsel after plea talks in the case broke down.The sudden turn of events raises fresh questions about a case that was all but closed last month, reviving the probe into Hunter Biden on tax evasion and gun charges and giving Weiss broad authority to investigate and report out his findings.It comes as the Justice Department has taken the unprecedented step of indicting former President Donald Trump, who’s Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s election, in two separate cases. It also puts questions about Bid...

Missing artifacts flagged by auditor recovered by Canadian Museum of History

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

OTTAWA — Five historically significant artifacts that were deemed missing from the Canadian Museum of History during a recent investigation by the auditor general have been recovered, the museum said Friday.The Crown corporation is responsible for both the museum of the same name and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. In a report published Thursday, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada said the corporation does not have a robust way of keeping tabs on the four million items in the museums’ collections.The audit said the museums had no plan to address a list of 800 items documented as missing between 2012 and 2022, at least five of them with significant historical value. In a statement Friday, the museum said those five items have been found in their vaults since the auditor’s investigation wrapped up.The missing items included three masks, a pair of moccasins and a backrest.The Canadian Museum of History sits across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill and its co...

Woman fatally shot at Home Depot store in Florida, suspect is in custody

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A man opened fire inside a Home Depot store in the Florida Panhandle on Friday, killing a woman, authorities said.Deputies and police officers responding to the store in Pensacola found the woman fatally shot, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post.The suspect was taken into custody a short time later, according to the sheriff’s office.A spokeswoman for Home Depot said the woman was a third-party contractor.No further details were immediately provided.___This story has been corrected to show that the victim was a third-party contractor and not a Home Depot employee.The Associated Press

Wife of accused Long Island serial killer battling cancer; could sue investigators who searched home

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The wife of Rex Heuermann, the man charged with killing at least three women and burying their bodies on a remote coastal highway, is living in a “waking surreal nightmare,” her attorney said Friday, struggling to pay for cancer treatment while living in a house trashed by investigators.At a press conference on Long Island, attorneys for Heuermann’s estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, and his two adult children, announced the family planned to follow a notice of claim, a move that would allow them to eventually sue police for “leaving their home in shambles” while searching for possible evidence.“Their valuables were shattered, their places were destroyed, the places they laid their heads no longer exists,” said Vess Mitev, an attorney who is also representing Heuermann’s 26-year-old daughter, Victoria, and 34-year-old stepson, Christopher Sheridan. “They’re going through a horrific emotional time that none of us can imagine.”Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney has...

TTC rolling out new accessibility features

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

The TTC is rolling out new technologies in hopes of making the transit system more accessible to all customers.On new hybrid-electric buses, there will be a subway-style, rear-door exit chime which helps customers who experience low vision with an audible clue that the doors are going to close.This is expected to go into effect this month as the TTC’s transitions to a zero-emissions fleet. After testing its effectiveness and performance, it will become a standard feature on all future vehicles.“Having that additional chime, will give them a sense, a better sense of timing for their exit,” said TTC spokesperson Stuart Green. “You can imagine that if you have vision impairment, you don’t know when the doors are closing without that audible chime, and that’s what they were for on the subway system originally.“So, it’s really just giving people more comfort when they’re riding the system based on their needs,” he added.”We’re trying to ser...

Brazil’s Lula unveils $200 billion infrastructure plan as skeptics caution about spending spree

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday unveiled a plan to spend 1 trillion reais (nearly $200 billion) on infrastructure, energy and transportation over the next four years, part of a larger effort to boost economic growth and employment in Latin America’s largest nation.The Growth Acceleration Program, known under its Portuguese acronym PAC, has been met with skepticism from analysts and investors, who say previous, similarly ambitious programs have included projects that never saw the light of day and opened the door to vast corruption schemes.Funding included in this year’s PAC is expected to go towards infrastructure projects including new highways and ports as well as energy efficiency and urbanization programs in slums.“More than a public investment portfolio, the new PAC is a collective compromise (…) born out of many conversations with governors and mayors,” Lula said at an event in Rio de Janeiro attended by governmen...

Chicagoland residents work to help impacted family members in Maui

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

CHICAGO — Wildfires on Maui have now killed at least 55 people and wiped out the historic town of Lahaina in the state’s deadliest natural disaster since the 1960s.The devastation on the island is impacting people here in the Chicagoland area and how they’re working to help.As Hawaii’s governor announced residents can return to their homes following the evacuations many don’t have a place to go home to. Latest on deadly wildfires on Maui As wildfires rage across Maui, many lost their homes and personal belongings, including Juliet Amano’s family.“It’s not only my family, it’s the whole community,” Amano said.The impact so significant, it’s almost impossible to put into words. “My mom – it was so good to hear her voice,” Amano said. “She said, ‘We lost everything. But I said, ‘You didn’t lose your hope.”It’s hope, they’re hanging on to as they work to navigate where they go from here.Amano grew up in historic Lahaina but has lived in the Chicagoland area for around 20 years. ...

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at gun safety conference in Chicago

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris was back in Chicago on Friday to speak at a conference on gun safety.The Vice President was the headline speaker at the Everytown for Gun Safety’s annual training conference.At the conference, Harris discussed how leaders are working together in the fight against gun violence."Gun violence is the leading cause of death of the children in America. It's the number one cause of death, not some kind of disease," Vice President Harris said.Speaking to thousands of gun violence survivors, volunteers and student leaders, Harris spoke about what she described as the need for more common-sense gun safety laws and told the crowd that the activist work they do is making a difference."You are putting the pressure on the folks who are on the inside to act, it matters,” Harris said.Many of those who attended the conference were Moms Demand Action members and Students Demand Action volunteers from across the country.Audience members asked the vice president q...

Video shows postal carrier robbed at gunpoint on West Side

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

CHICAGO — Chicago police are investigating after a postal service worker was robbed at gunpoint in the city’s Austin neighborhood.The 53-year-old carrier was in the 1500 block of North Long around 1:15 p.m. Thursday when two people got out of a parked car and robbed the carrier of personal items and post office property.The carrier was not injured.Home surveillance videos captured the incident and shows two people getting out of the car and displaying firearms.Police and postal inspectors noticed on the video what sounds like an adult voice coming from the car directing the two robbers what to do. $100K reward offered for information on USPS mail carrier shooting suspect On Thursday, U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects involved in an armed robberies of mail carriers earlier this monthThe armed robbery and shooting took place on the 3200 block of North Kildare Avenue in C...

Skilling: 80s, but possible showers this weekend

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:50:10 GMT

The showers which swept through the area earlier Friday (during the morning hours) "worked over" the atmosphere generating a more stable environment which has thwarted t-storm development. The storm-suppressing atmospheric CAP left in the wake of the morning rains, has defeated major thunderstorm development despite the day's 86-deg high and mid 60-deg dew points indicating "moderate" humidity levels.  An isolated t-storm may still "pop" as the cap weakens this evening and early tonight---but it's in the predawn hours—the hours beyond midnight, particularly the period from 2am to 8am time frame—that modeling suggests some gusty 40% coverage t-storms may develop.These storms will form beyond the period of peak heating, which is the time of each day most likely to render the atmosphere MOST buoyant and therefore MOST prone to develop t-storms. But ,moderately high humidities and somewhat elevated atmospheric energy (CAPE) levels plus the fact ANY storms that DO develop will ...