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Ballots sent, early voting begins for Nov. 7 special election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Voters in some areas of San Diego County will soon start receiving ballots ahead of the Nov. 7 special election.Almost 600,000 ballots were sent to voters in the Fourth Supervisorial District, in Chula Vista, in the Fallbrook Public Utility District and in the Rainbow Municipal Water District, the County of San Diego said Monday.Voters in the Fourth Supervisorial District will decide who will serve the rest of the current term, which ends in January 2027. California campsite reservation bill signed by governor. Here’s what changes it makes In Chula Vista, voters will choose who should fill the open seat for city attorney through December 2026, when the current term ends.Voters in the Fallbrook Public Utility District and Rainbow Municipal Water District will vote on a ballot measure regarding the detachment of those districts from San Diego County Water Authority.Voters can return their ballot by mail or to an official ballot drop box starting Tuesday, Oct. 10 through...

Eastbound I-8 lanes near Alpine closed due to pileup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A stretch of eastbound Interstate 8 near Alpine was closed during rush hour Tuesday morning due to a pileup.The crash happened around 7:15 a.m., a California Highway Patrol online incident log shows. All freeway lanes were blocked west of Tavern Road, Caltrans San Diego said before 8 a.m. The left shoulder was open to traffic. California campsite reservation bill signed by governor. Here’s what changes it makes In the westbound lanes, vehicles were being detoured to Dunbar Lane, Caltrans said.Check back for updates on this developing story.

Pennsylvania universities are still waiting for state subsidies. It won’t make them more affordable

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Four of Pennsylvania’s universities are plugging budget gaps while they await hundreds of millions of dollars in aid that has been snarled in a partisan dispute among lawmakers in a state that has one of the nation’s most abysmal records for funding higher education.Education advocates argue that even a proposed increase in aid won’t make a dent in the underfunding of Pennsylvania’s higher education.The University of Pittsburgh, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln are in line to receive about $623 million, a 7% increase proposed by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro “to keep them whole as federal aid shrinks.” The universities, referred to as state-related universities, are not state owned, but receive subsidies. The funding levels for higher education, however, lag behind those from decades ago.Lawmakers approved funds to go out to the state-owned higher education system, community colleges and state financial aid. If the Legislature doesn’t send any money to the ...

Russia is defeated in its bid to regain a seat on the UN’s top human rights body

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia was defeated in its bid to regain a seat in the U.N.’s premiere human rights body by a significant majority in Tuesday’s election in the General Assembly, which voted last year to suspend Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.Russia was competing against Albania and Bulgaria for two seats on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council representing the East European regional group.In the secret ballot vote, Bulgaria got 160 votes, Albania got 123 votes and Russia just 83 votes.In Tuesday’s election, the only other competitive race was in the Latin America and Caribbean group where Cuba, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Peru were competing for three seats. Peru was the loser.The other regional races were not competitive. China, Japan, Kuwait and Indonesia were elected to represent the Asia group. Burundi, Malawi, Ghana and Ivory Coast were elected to hold four African seats. And France and the Netherlands will take two Western seats.——Russia faces a tough fight...

NHL bans use of hockey Pride tape, issues updated theme night guidance

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

The NHL sent a memo to teams last week clarifying what players can and cannot do as part of theme celebrations this season, including a ban on using rainbow-coloured stick tape for Pride nights.The updated guidance reaffirms that on-ice player uniforms and gear for warm-ups and official team practices cannot be altered to reflect theme nights, including Pride, Hockey Fights Cancer or military appreciation.Players can voluntarily participate in themed celebrations off the ice.Previously, the NHL had decided not to allow teams to wear any theme jerseys for warm-ups after a handful of players opted out last season.Several Russian players decided against wearing the Pride night warm-up jersey as Russian anti-gay laws escalated.Russian players, including Buffalo Sabres defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin, did not wear the jersey. Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Ivan Provorov, then on the Philadelphia Flyers, sat out of warm-ups entirely. Some teams, like the St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks, ...

NATO equips peacekeeping force in Kosovo with heavier armament to have “combat power”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — A NATO top commander said Tuesday the alliance equipped its peacekeeping force in Kosovo with weapons of “combat power” following a recent shootout between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region.Adm. Stuart B. Munsch of the Allied Joint Force Command Naples, Italy said that a battalion of some 200 troops from the United Kingdom and 100 others from Romania “is bringing heavier armament in order to have combat power to” the NATO-led Kosovo Force, or KFOR, but didn’t elaborate further.The KFOR peacekeepers — made up of around 4,500 troops from 27 nations — have been in Kosovo since June 1999, basically with light armament and vehicles. The 1998-1999 war between Serbia and Kosovo ended after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian forces to withdraw from Kosovo. More than 10,000 people died, mostly Kosovo Albanians.On Sept. 24, around 30 Serb gunmen killed a Kosovar police of...

WATCH LIVE: NASA, SpaceX prepare for launch: Psyche mission aims to land on a metal-rich asteroid

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

(NEXSTAR) — The launch of NASA's first mission to study an asteroid that has more metal than rock or ice is in its final countdown.The team behind the mission is providing a mission and science update today, Tuesday Oct. 10. Watch it live in the player above at approximately 12 p.m. ET.The space agency is targeting Thursday, Oct. 12 to send its Psyche spacecraft up toward the stars aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. If all goes well, the van-sized craft will spend nearly six years traveling to one of the largest asteroids in the solar system, also named Psyche, according to NASA.Nexstar Media also plans to livestream Thursday's launch. Watch your local site for live coverage.The current mission timeline aims to put NASA's craft into orbit around the asteroid in late July 2029. At that point the actual mission will begin: two years of photo taking, surface mapping, and data collection to determine Psyche's composition. Russia reports coolant leak in backup line at space station a...

A 'Seinfeld' reunion? Comedian teases 'something is going to happen'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

(NEXSTAR) — It's been 25 years since we saw Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer be sentenced to prison in the show finale, dubbed "The Finale," of the hit television series "Seinfeld." (Sure, maybe we should've put a spoiler alert at the start of that sentence, but it has been over two decades.)If you weren't a fan of the ending, or wanted something more from the show, you may be in luck. While fielding questions from the audience during a performance at the Wang Theatre in Boston over the weekend, Jerry Seinfeld himself hinted that he and fellow show creator Larry David are working on some sort of project regarding the finale. "Well, I have a little secret for you about the ending," Seinfeld can be heard saying in a video posted to Instagram by Linda Henry, the CEO of Boston Globe Media. He goes on, saying he "can't really tell it, because it is a secret." This is the wealthiest person in your state, Forbes report shows "Here's what I'll tell you," he says. "Something is going to h...

Climate crisis costs $143 billion annually, study finds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

(NewsNation) — A recent study has revealed that extreme weather events, which can be directly attributed to human-caused global warming, cost an estimated $143 billion annually.  These climate crisis-related damages have averaged $16 million per hour over the past two decades, and the Guardian reported that the damage caused by the climate crisis has cost $16 million an hour for the past 20 years. Over the period from 2000 to 2019, the total human-caused climate change-attributed costs for extreme weather events reached $2.86 trillion, averaging $143 billion annually. Approximately 63% of these costs are due to the loss of human life.  Climate change made July hotter for 4 of 5 humans on Earth: Scientists This yearly cost is divided into nearly $90 billion attributed to human loss of life and $53 billion in economic damages, according to the study.“The headline number is $140bn a year and, first of all, that’s already a big number,” said Prof Ilan Noy, at the Victoria Un...

Americans have lost $2.7 billion to social media scams since 2021, report finds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:51 GMT

(NewsNation) — Americans have lost around $2.7 billion from scams originating on social media, a new report from the Federal Trade Commission shows. That's more than any other contact method — phone calls, emails, texts, or regular mail —according to the FTC. In a Data Spotlight, Emma Fletcher, a senior data researcher for the FTC, wrote that scammers are often "hiding in plain sight on social media platforms.""Social media gives scammers an edge in several ways. They can easily manufacture a fake persona, or hack into your profile, pretend to be you and con your friends," Fletcher wrote. "They can learn to tailor their approach from what you share on social media, and scammers who place ads can even use tools available to advertisers to methodically target you based on personal details, such as your age, interests or past purchases. All of this costs them next to nothing to reach billions of people from anywhere in the world."Online shopping scams, especially ones where people boug...