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DeSantis says Florida GOP chair should resign amid rape allegation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said state Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler should resign while police investigate a rape allegation against him.Ziegler hasn’t been charged, but the investigation comes as the 2024 election heats up. DeSantis is running for president, and the state GOP is working to reelect U.S. Sen. Rick Scott. Florida was also key to Republicans winning a slim majority in the U.S. House in 2022, and the party will be defending the newly won seats.“He’s innocent till proven guilty, but we just can’t have a party chair that is under that type of scrutiny,” DeSantis told reporters Tuesday night after appearing with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Fox News, according to a transcript provided by the DeSantis campaign. “The mission is more important.”DeSantis said Ziegler and his wife Bridget, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, have been friends, but the allegations are too serious for Ziegler to stay in the position. He said he wasn...

Seattle Kraken to be without forward Jaden Schwartz for six weeks because of upper body injury

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — The Seattle Kraken will be without forward Jaden Schwartz for six weeks because of an upper body injury, the team said Friday.Schwartz was injured during Seattle’s loss at Chicago on Tuesday night. He took one shift early in the third period and did not return to the game, and did not play on Thursday night in Toronto.Schwartz is second on the team in goals with eight and has 15 points in 23 games. He is the second top forward that will miss significant time for Seattle as the Kraken have been without Andre Burakovsky for more than a month after an upper body injury in October that required surgery. Burakovsky was expected to miss six-to-eight weeks but has been skating with the team recently.Schwartz is in his third season with the Kraken after spending his first 10 seasons with St. Louis. Schwartz dealt with injuries in his first season with Seattle, but last season played in 71 games and had 21 goals.The Kraken recalled Max McCormick from Coachella Valley of the AH...

Watch: Elk herd on the move near Castle Pines

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Each winter as snow piles up in the mountains, elk migrate to lower elevations in search of a stable food source.A spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife told FOX31 that when snowpack starts to cover vegetation in higher elevations, elk move to lower elevations to access ground plants. 3 Colorado snow tubing hills named best in US "In the winter months, we typically see more elk in counties along the Front Range (Boulder, Larimer, Jefferson, Douglas) and plains areas," public information officer for CPW's Northeast Region Kara Van Hoose wrote.A FOX31 viewer spotted a herd of elk on the move in Castle Pines Tuesday, and shared a photo and video of the sight.A herd of elk is seen on the move in Castle Pines, Colorado on Nov. 28, 2023. (Photo courtesy: Steve Armstrong)Van Hoose said this particular herd can not necessarily be defined as a migrating herd, as snow has not accumulated enough in the mountains to force them elsewhere."We're still a little early...

World Cup men's downhill race canceled due to heavy snowfall at Beaver Creek

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (AP) — Heavy snowfall from the night before led to the cancellation of a men's World Cup downhill race on Friday in Beaver Creek, Colorado.This marks the third speed-race postponement by weather this season after two downhills in the area of Zermatt, Switzerland, couldn't be staged on Nov. 11 and 12 due to high wind. Ex-Colorado players were told they weren’t ready for Prime Time The Beaver Creek crew is working to prepare the Birds of Prey course for another downhill race Saturday, provided the weather holds. There's also a super-G event slated for Sunday.At first, the race Friday was delayed so the crew could work on the hill. But the amount of snow, coupled with low visibility, led to the decision to cancel.Switzerland's Niels Hintermann watches as crews inspect the course after competition was delayed during a men's World Cup downhill skiing race Friday, Dec. 1, 2023, in Beaver Creek, Colo. (AP Photo/John Locher)Crews clear snow from the course af...

Illinois appeals court affirms Jussie Smollett’s convictions for 2019 hate crime hoax

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

(CNN) — An Illinois appeals court on Friday affirmed “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s disorderly conduct convictions for making false reports to the Chicago Police Department in 2019 that he was a victim of a hate crime.Smollett can appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court.A jury found Smollett guilty in December 2021 of five out of six felony counts of disorderly conduct for making a false report to police. He was sentenced in March 2022 to 30 months of felony probation, including 150 days in jail, and ordered to pay restitution of more than $120,000 and a fine of $25,000 for making false reports to police.Smollett was released from jail less than a week later, after an Illinois appeals court granted an emergency motion by his attorneys to delay his sentence and grant him bail until their appeal is resolved.The actor filed an appeal earlier this year arguing that prosecutors violated his due process rights, in part by not e...

Nashua, NH man arrested after wrong-way crash on Everett Turnpike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

A Nashua, New Hampshire man is facing charges including driving while intoxicated after he was allegedly involved in a wrong-way crash late Thursday night, state police said. New Hampshire State police said authorities first responded to the F.E. Everett Turnpike Exit 5 northbound onramp around 11:20 p.m. after a UPS tractor-trailer driver reported being hit head-on by a sedan.The driver of the sedan was identified as Omer Landry, 45, of Nashua, according to police, and was taken to an area hospital with injuries linked to the crash. The UPS driver was identified as a man from Waterford, Maine. Police said he was able to come to a controlled stop before the crash.While Landry was taken to the hospital, authorities said neither driver in this crash suffered any serious injuries.State police in a statement Friday said F.E. Everett Turnpike remained closed for roughly two hours while crews worked to clean up the crash scene near Exit 5. Landry was subsequently arrested and is expe...

Lucas: Courage lives on in Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

It is good that the president honored seriously wounded Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall for his courageous reporting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Only it was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who did the honoring, not President Biden.It is too bad. Biden could have done himself some good.Hall, 41, is the courageous Fox reporter who returned to Ukraine last week after recovering from wounds that nearly took his life upon the Russian invasion of Ukraine 20 months ago.Hall was seriously injured when his vehicle came under a Russian missile attack in an abandoned village outside of Kyiv.Hall’s Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and local Fox assistant Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, 24, were killed along with two Ukrainian soldiers.Hall, stranded by the side of the road after he escaped from his burning vehicle, was rescued by Ukrainian soldiers who came across him after the attack.After 30 surgeries Hall survived but lost his right leg below the knee, his left foot,...

Should Venezuela invade its oil-rich neighbor? Maduro will put it to a vote Sunday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

By Jacqueline Charles and Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami HeraldVenezuelans going to the polls Sunday will be asked to answer an unusually provocative question:Should their government be given a blank check to invade neighboring Guyana, and wrest away three-quarters of its oil-rich territory?The government of Nicolás Maduro is putting the query before voters, part of a century-old territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana that is raising tensions in the region and threatening to escalate into a shooting war.The question will be on the ballot in a five-part referendum that, among other things, would grant Maduro special powers to invade Guyana and create a new Venezuelan state encompassing 74% of English-speaking Guyana’s current landmass. The new area would be called Guayana Esequiba.Some experts see the whole thing as a political ploy, though many Guyanese see the threat as real and fear, among other things, the loss of their citizenship.“Clearly Maduro has domestic constituenc...

House Republicans reiterate their demand for Hunter Biden to appear for a private deposition

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

By FARNOUSH AMIRI (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans demanded Friday that Hunter Biden appear this month for a closed-door deposition, rejecting his offer to testify publicly while pledging to release a transcript of the private interview for transparency.House Oversight Committee chair James Comer and Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan reiterated the parameters of the subpoena issued last month to Hunter Biden in a letter — obtained by The Associated Press — to his attorney. The president’s son refused their request this week for closed-door testimony, saying it could be manipulated. “The subpoenas Mr. Biden has received compel him to appear before the Committees for a deposition; they are not mere suggestions open to Mr. Biden’s interpretation or preference,” the Republican chairmen wrote in a letter to attorney Abbe Lowell. Lowell this week had called the nearly yearslong GOP investigation into his client a “fis...

‘Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé’ review: A bonafide superstar captures a very big tour, for concert movie posterity

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:22 GMT

Michael Phillips | (TNS) Chicago TribuneThey work on different planets, and they do their superstar thing in very different ways, but the recent Taylor Swift concert film was, you know, fine. Whereas “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” is really good.Beyoncé’s outrageously lavish five-month 2023 concert tour’s mixture of spectacle, spangle, video immersion and dance party has been captured, deliriously, for fans who caught the show live and those who didn’t.The movie’s generous footage — a lot of it — of the rehearsal, setup, backstage beehive and fan adoration, crystallized by one tear-stained rapturous close-up after another, reveals only (and precisely) what Beyoncé wants to reveal. She directed it, wrote the narration, produced it, ran the whole shebang. And there’s enough moviemaking going on in the results to activate the experience.Released by AMC Theatres, which made hay on Swift’s concert movie a few weeks ago, “Renaissance” opened for the public Thursday night. I caught...