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San Diego transit agencies to celebrate Free Ride Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Riders taking public transit in San Diego County Wednesday will be able to travel for free in honor of California Clean Air Day, officials said. The offer is valid on all Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) buses and trolleys, as well as North County Transit District (NCTD) Coaster and Sprinter trains, Mark Olson with MTS said in a news release Monday.“Conserving our planet is a priority for all of us. Initiatives like Free Ride Day provide an opportunity for residents to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainability by riding clean transportation options,” said Stephen Whitburn, MTS Board Chair and City of San Diego Councilmember, District 3. “And with record-high gas prices, taking transit not only helps the environment, it can help your wallet too.” Two San Diego-area restaurants among best in the country: Tripadvisor SANDAG also offers free rides with Circuit, BCycle (unlock a BCycle Day Pass for free with code CLEANAIR23) and Bird (unlock two free rides with c...

Stock market today: Asian markets sink, with Hong Kong down 3% on heavy selling of property stocks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian markets declined Tuesday following a mixed session on Wall Street, where buying was pressured by rising bond yields. U.S. futures fell and oil prices also were lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped more than 3% as investors unloaded property shares. However, China Evergrande was up nearly 16%, resuming trading after its shares were suspended last week as the troubled real estate developer announced that its chairman was under investigation. Earlier in the session it’s shares soared more than 60%.By midday, the Hang Seng was down 3% at 17,278.37. Markets in mainland China and South Korea remained closed for holidays. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.5% to 31,282.32, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 skidded 1.1% to 6,953.60. India’s Sensex declined 0.7% to 65,408.18.Bangkok’s SET was down 1.5% and Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.3%. On Monday, the S&P 500 ended little changed at 4,288.39, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped ...

Panda Diplomacy: The departure of DC’s beloved pandas may signal a wider Chinese pullback

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wearing a “I Love Pandas” t-shirt and clutching a panda-covered diary, Kelsey Lambert bubbled with excitement as she glimpsed the real thing. She and her mother, Alison, had made a special trip from San Antonio, Texas, just to watch the National Zoo’s furry rock stars casually munching bamboo and rolling around on the grass. “It felt completely amazing,” Kelsey, age 10, said Friday. “My mom has always promised she would take me one day. So we had to do it now that they’re going away.”The National Zoo’s three giant pandas — Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji — are set to return to China in early December with no public signs that the 50-year old exchange agreement struck by former President Richard Nixon will continue. National Zoo officials have remained tight-lipped about the prospects of renewing or extending the agreement, and repeated attempts to gain comment on the state of the negotiations did not receive a response. However, the ...

Things to know about the Vatican’s big meeting on the future of the Catholic Church

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Wednesday is opening a global gathering of bishops and laypeople to discuss the future of the Catholic Church, including some hot-button issues that have previously been considered off-limits for discussion.For the first time, women and laypeople can vote on specific proposals alongside bishops, a radical change that is evidence of Francis’ belief that the church is more about its flock than its shepherds.Here is some background on the Oct. 4-29 Synod of Bishops, which will be followed by a second session this time next year. That session is expected to put forward specific proposals for Francis to consider in a future document.WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA?The working document for the meeting was compiled by a committee after an unprecedented two-year canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics around the globe.The final product is meant to stimulate debate and poses agenda items in the form of questions. But some of the questions also make clear a certai...

Court reviews gun-carry restrictions under health order in New Mexico, as states explore options

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Restrictions on carrying guns in public that are tied to an emergency public health order are going under the legal microscope Tuesday in New Mexico, where the Democratic governor is testing the boundaries of her authority and constitutional law in response to violent crime in the state’s largest metro area.The standoff is one of many in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year expanding gun rights, as leaders in politically liberal-leaning states explore new avenues for restrictions.A court hearing is scheduled for the morning on legal challenges to the public health order from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that suspends the right to carry firearms in most public parks and playgrounds in and around Albuquerque. Advocates for gun rights have filed a barrage of challenges to the 30-day health order, which originally included broad restrictions on carrying guns in public. The governor will reissue orders on gun violence and drug abuse for an additio...

Columbia Journalism Review editor leaving to encourage news outlets to devote more time to climate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Saying that journalism isn’t showing enough urgency in covering climate change, the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review is leaving his job to devote his time to try and change that.Kyle Pope, who has been editor and publisher of the magazine and website for journalists since 2016, said Tuesday that he is leaving to join Covering Climate Now, an organization he helped launch with Mark Hertsgaard, environment correspondent for The Nation.Covering Climate Now works with newsrooms to prioritize coverage and train reporters, and is trying to convince more meteorologists to make the connection between climate change and their weather reports.Pope said journalists need to bring the same focus to covering climate that they did to COVID-19 in the early days of that pandemic — perhaps not in the volume of stories but the sense that reporters on various beats need to be mindful of how climate change affects what they’re following.“Journalism still isn’t d...

China Evergrande soars after property developer’s stocks resume trading

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Shares of debt-laden property developer China Evergrande Group soared Tuesday after they resumed trading in Hong Kong following a suspension last week. By midday, Evergrande’s shares were up nearly 16% after jumping more than 60% early in the session. Evergrande is the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer and is at the center of a property market crisis that is dragging on China’s economic growth.The company’s stock was suspended from trading last week as it confirmed Chinese police were investigating its chairman, Hui Ka Yan, on “suspicion of illegal crimes.”An affiliate, Evergrande Property Services, also resumed trading Tuesday, according to a notice on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.However, trading of shares in China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group remained suspended “pending the release of an announcement in relation to inside information” of the firm, a notice to the Hong Kong exchange said. Both units halted trading last week.China Evergrand...

Jury selection to begin in trial of fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried, a tech wunderkind who once promoted his FTX digital coin exchange as a safe way for regular people to get into cryptocurrency, faces the start of a criminal trial over allegations that he cheated thousands of customers.Jury selection begins Tuesday in New York in a case in which the 31-year-old crypto mogul, once a billionaire, faces the possibility of a long prison term.Prosecutors say he defrauded thousands of people who deposited cryptocurrency on the FTX exchange by illegally diverting massive sums of their money for his personal use, including making risky trades at his cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research. He’s also accused of using customer money to buy real estate and make big political contributions as he tried to influence government regulation of cryptocurrency.U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who is overseeing the prosecution, has called it one of the biggest frauds in the country’s history.In interviews and social medi...

DeSantis said he would support a 15-week abortion ban, after avoiding a direct answer for months

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

When Ron DeSantis seemed to say during last week’s Republican presidential debate that he would support a federal ban on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy, some anti-abortion activists called it the news they had been waiting months to hear. The president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading anti-abortion advocacy group, issued a statement thanking DeSantis “for his commitment to support minimum federal protections for babies.”But DeSantis’ campaign insisted his comment, which was the candidate’s most direct answer regarding an abortion ban, wasn’t anything new. And millions of voters probably missed the moment entirely. DeSantis’ pledge came during one of many chaotic exchanges on the debate stage, when Sen. Tim Scott — who has made a nationwide ban on abortion at 15 weeks a central focus of his campaign — shouted a question, asking if the Florida governor also would support it. In a bit of barely audible crosstalk, DeSantis responded: “Yes, I wi...

Florida man who murdered women he met in bars set to die by lethal injection

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:06 GMT

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man is scheduled to die by lethal injection over 25 years after he killed women het met in north Florida bars during a dayslong spate of crimes.Michael Zack III is set to die at 6 p.m. Tuesday for the murder of Ravonne Smith, a bar employee he befriended and later beat and stabbed with an oyster knife in June 1996. He was also convicted and separately sentenced to life in prison for murdering Laura Rosillo, who he met at a bar in a nearby county. Zack’s nine-day crime run began in Tallahassee, where he was a regular at a bar. When Zack’s girlfriend called and said he was being evicted, the bartender offered to loan him her pickup truck. Zack left with it and never returned, according to court records.Zack drove to a Niceville bar in the Florida Panhandle, where he befriended a construction company owner. The man learned Zack was living in the pickup truck and offered to let him stay at his home. Zack later stole two guns and $42. He pawned the guns,...