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Miami Seaquarium Orca Lolita could be released to sanctuary

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

After more than 50 years, it looks like Lolita the orca whale will be heading back home to the Pacific Northwest.The arguably dangerous move from Virginia Key to a sanctuary off the Washington State Coast came after the killer whale showed a decline in her health last year, which led her to stop performing. A scathing federal report alleged Lolita was in inhumane conditions at the Miami Seaquarium.“Regardless of how many decades she’s been in that tank, for millions of years, her species has evolved to have these needs, and those needs being met is critical for her to thrive,” said General Counsel for PETA Jared Goodman. Now that her health is reportedly stable, a homecoming is possible for Lolita, also known as Toki. The killer whale was captured in the 1970s and has lived in a small enclosure at the seaquarium ever since. She is the second oldest orca to be held in captivity. “The takeover of the facility by the Dolphin Company, which has been willing to wo...

Catalan separatist MEP Clara Ponsatí released after arrest in Spain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

Clara Ponsatí, a Catalan separatist and MEP, was released after being detained for several hours Tuesday in Barcelona, following years of evading an arrest warrant from the Spanish Supreme Court over a failed independence push.Ponsatí, 66, was the education minister in the Catalan government when the region declared independence from Spain following a 2017 referendum for secession, which Spanish judges deemed to be illegal. She has been living in exile in Scotland and Belgium ever since, after Spain’s top court issued an arrest warrant accusing her of the crime of disobedience for her role in organizing the referendum. She was arrested by Catalonia’s autonomous police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, while wearing her European Parliament badge, after traveling to Spain for the first time since fleeing the country. The MEP tweeted that she was “illegally” arrested in Barcelona. The supreme court had withdrawn the charge of “sedition” that carrie...

One dead, three hurt in crash in East Kingston, NH

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

One person was killed and three others were hurt in a crash in East Kingston, N.H. Tuesday, according to the New Hampshire State Police. Police said the crash happened around 1:40 p.m. when a car with four people inside crashed on Burnt Swamp Road. Police said the car’s driver, described as an adult male, was pronounced dead at the scene. An adult female passenger was airlifted to a hospital in Boston. Police said a 9-month-old child and a 3-year-old were seriously injured. SKY7 over the crash site showed debris scattered around a grassy area near the crash site on Tuesday afternoon. Crews were still on scene around 5:30 p.m. after finding the transmission from the car involved in this crash roughly 100 feet from the spot where the car appeared to have crashed into a tree.Police said a preliminary investigation indicated that excessive speed was likely a factor in this crash. Other aspects of the crash remained under investigation as of Tuesday afternoon.Thi...

Father of Harmony Montgomery facing new charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

A New Hampshire man accused of killing his daughter in 2019 has had new charges brought against him.Adam Montgomery, 32, was recently indicted on two firearm charges, after prosecutors said he was in possession of a pistol and a rifle between 2009 and 2014 while having several felony convictions on his record. Montgomery was arrested and charged with charges including murder in October of last year in connection with the death of his five-year-old daughter, Harmony. Harmony disappeared in 2019 but wasn’t reported missing until 2021. Over the course of their investigation, detectives returned to places Harmony had lived, digging up yards and removing furniture, including a refrigerator at one residence. Despite not finding a body, police announced over the summer in 2022 that they believed the girl had been murdered.Investigators last fall said that Adam Montgomery allegedly destroyed his daughter’s body between December 2019 and March 2020.

AP sources: Two groups formally submit bids for Commanders

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

By ROB MAADDI and STEPHEN WHYNO (AP Sports Writers)PHOENIX (AP) — Dan Synder’s departure from the NFL is moving closer to reality.A group led by Josh Harris and Mitchell Rales and another group led by Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos have formally submitted fully financed bids for the NFL’s Washington Commanders, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.Two people confirmed the bid from Harris. Both spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because details of the bid have not been publicly announced.The Harris/Rales group includes basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson. Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta also has been in the running.ESPN reported both bids came in at Snyder’s $6 billion asking price. Snyder had yet to accept an offer when the league’s finance committee met Monday so his future wasn’t openly discussed.“The information is very little to none in terms of the 31 of us (owners), and ...

That’s a woolly meatball!

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

AMSTERDAM — Throw another mammoth on the barbie?An Australian company on Tuesday lifted the glass cloche on a meatball made of lab-grown cultured meat using the genetic sequence from the long-extinct pachyderm, saying it was meant to fire up public debate about the hi-tech treat.The launch in an Amsterdam science museum came just days before April 1 so there was an elephant in the room: Is this for real?“This is not an April Fools joke,” said Tim Noakesmith, founder of Australian startup Vow. “This is a real innovation.”Cultivated meat — also called cultured or cell-based meat — is made from animal cells.Livestock doesn’t need to be killed to produce it, which advocates say is better not just for the animals but also for the environment.Vow used publicly available genetic information from the mammoth, filled missing parts with genetic data from its closest living relative, the African elephant, and inserted it into a sheep cell, Noakesmith said. Given t...

Nasty Boston redistricting fight is back — now in federal court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

The City Council’s dirty laundry is back flapping in the wind, this time in federal court, as what will be a multi-day hearing kicked off over whether a judge should step in and scrap the new Boston redistricting map.City Councilor Michael Flaherty on Tuesday spent around three hours on the stand as a witness for the plaintiffs — who are technically suing him in the case of Walters et al v the Boston City Council in an effort to scuttle the map the body passed in November.“Basically all the rules were out the door,” said Flaherty of the stretch run of the redistricting process.The redistricting cycle that will never die continues, for now, in the arguments in this case.Basically, the plaintiffs — a handful of people who live in the districts around which the two sides are at odds — are arguing that in the deliberations, the council focused on racial makeups in the South Boston, Dorchester and Mattapan districts in a way that was inappropriate and that there were some procedural viol...

Their stories were lost to slavery. Now DNA is writing them

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — In the 1700s, a boy was born into slavery in Colonial America. He spent his life working in the coastal city of Charleston, South Carolina. And when he died in middle age, he was buried alongside 35 other slaves.That’s the likely history that researchers have uncovered for the man — there’s no written record for him or the others buried at the long-forgotten site. Their names have been lost, along with any details of their lives. But their stories are now being told through what was left behind: bones, teeth and, especially, DNA.In recent decades, advances in DNA research have allowed scientists to use ancient remains and peer into the lives of long-dead people. In Charleston, that’s meant tracing some of the African roots that were cut off by slavery. “We’re bringing their memory back to life,” said Raquel Fleskes, an anthropologist at the University of Connecticut who studied the remains. “This is a way of restoring dignity to individuals ...

3 dead, 13 missing in Caribbean sinking; 14 Africans saved

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — At least 14 people from the African nation of Cameroon were rescued from waters in the eastern Caribbean early Tuesday after their boat capsized, but three people were dead and 13 others missing, authorities on Antigua said.The group had departed Antigua early Tuesday aboard a boat carrying 32 passengers that apparently was en route to the U.S. Virgin Islands when it sank near the island of St. Kitts, authorities said at a news conference. They said the group had been staying on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, but left there a week ago for Antigua.“My government has been making every effort to be helpful to these brothers and sisters from Africa who were marooned on Antigua, including by granting them residence and the opportunity to work,” Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.He said the Cameroonians apparently arrived in Antigua as tourists but intended to migrate to other countries. Browne said his administration has contacted the U.N....

McConnell opposes as Senate nears repeal of Iraq war powers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:27 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says he opposes repeal of the 2002 and 1991 authorizations of force against Iraq, arguing that that authority “bears directly on the threats we face today in Iraq and Syria from Iran-backed terrorists.” McConnell, who is home recovering from a fall earlier this month, is weighing in for the first time as the Senate is poised, as soon as Wednesday, to repeal the decades-old authority for the Iraq war. While supporters say the repeal would reinforce today’s strategic partnership between Iraq and the United States, McConnell and other Republican opponents say a withdrawal of those war powers would project U.S. weakness in the Middle East and embolden Iran and other terrorist groups. “I am opposed to Congress sunsetting any military force authorizations in the Middle East,” McConnell said. “Our terrorist enemies aren’t sunsetting their war against us. And when we deploy our servicemembers in harm’s way, we need to supply them wi...