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Los Angeles Tries to Claw Back Public Records After Police Invent New Definition of “Undercover”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

Last week, the city of Los Angeles filed a lawsuit against Ben Camacho, a local journalist, as well as the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a community watchdog group that opposes police surveillance, in an attempt to censor a database of Los Angeles Police Department officer headshot photos. The lawsuit alleges that Camacho and the watchdog group are in “wrongful possession” of 9,310 headshots, which the city itself released to Camacho as part of a settlement in response to a public records lawsuit.The city’s lawsuit was denounced as meritless by First Amendment experts. “Once the government gives you information in good faith, you have the right to publish it under the First Amendment,” David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, told The Intercept. “This is not even a close case.”The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition launched a website called Watch the Watchers that includes the LAPD headshots. The dataset has also been published by Distributed Denial of Secrets, or DDoSecret...

Confident Rays not surprised by excellent start to season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The streaking Tampa Bay Rays are running out of superlatives to describe baseball’s best start in more than three decades.Remarkable, incredible, unbelievable — even crazy — are words players have used to describe the dominant, all-around team effort that’s carried them to a 10-0 record that’s the toast of the big leagues two weeks into the season.The Rays, who have made the playoffs each of the past four years, expected to be good.But no one could have envisioned them joining the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers, 1982 Atlanta Braves, 1981 Oakland Athletics, 1966 Cleveland Indians, 1962 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers as the only clubs to begin seasons with double-digit winning streaks. Of those teams, only the Dodgers won the World Series.“Pretty exciting. Doing it the way we have, every facet of our game is really performing, producing and contributing,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Normally it doesn’t work out that way.”Entering Tuesday night’s home ga...

Virginia lawmakers to weigh Youngkin’s changes to hemp bill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed a rewrite of a bill that aimed to ban the recreational sales of intoxicating hemp-derived products, seeking to ensure the continued availability of certain therapeutic CBD formulations. Youngkin’s proposed changes came after hemp industry advocates and parents of patients who benefit from nonintoxicating CBD products pressed him to reconsider the impact of the legislation as it recently passed. Lawmakers will weigh the Republican governor’s proposals to amend that measure and dozens of other bills during a one-day session Wednesday. Youngkin’s substitute hemp bill continues “his efforts to crack down on dangerous THC intoxicants, including synthetic products” such as delta-8 THC, a psychoactive chemical often synthesized from hemp-derived CBD, his spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in a statement, noting it contains “a narrowly tailored exemption” for therapeutic CBD products. “Governor Youngkin’s substit...

Guards at burned Mexican detention center didn’t have keys

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two guards who fled a fire that killed 40 migrants in a locked Mexican detention center did not have keys to the cell door, Mexico’s president said Tuesday.The comments by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came on the same day that the bodies of 17 Guatemala migrants killed in the fire were scheduled to be flown back to their home country. It was unclear what effect López Obrador’s comments might have on the trial of the guards.“The door was closed, because the person who had the keys wasn’t there,” López Obrador said.A video from a security camera inside the facility shows guards walking away when the fire started in late March inside the cell holding migrants. The guards are seen hurrying away as smoke fills the facility, and they did not appear to make any effort to release the migrants.Three Mexican immigration officials, a guard and a Venezuelan migrant are being held for investigation in connection with the fire. They face homicide charges.Th...

Colorado schools see hundreds of suicide threats each month

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Suicide threats are inching up in Colorado schools, according to the state's anonymous reporting system, Safe2Tell. There were 2,630 reports sent to Safe2Tell's system in March, 11% more than in February and the most reported in the last two years. Threats of planned school attacks common in Colorado, most recently in Loveland About one in every eight of these reports, 11.5%, were reports of suicide threats. Historically, suicide threats are the most common report to Safe2Tell, next to bullying or complaints about the school itself. Suicide threats have not been consistently this high since before the pandemic. There have been around 300 such threats per month reported to Safe2Tell this winter. Prior to school closures beginning in March 2020, there were closer to 400 per month.Most of these reports were judged valid, meaning they required some kind of real-life response and intended to protect, help or prevent harm.

Should you turn on your sprinkler in the spring heat?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) --Record-high heat in Denver may be tempting many people to turn on their sprinkler systems.Mark Overton with NationScapes sprinkler repair service in Denver says the safest choice is to wait until May. "It's a little early in the year here in Colorado. We can get freezing weather all the way up until Mother's Day," Overton said.However, if residents choose to turn it on, Overton says to wrap the exposed pipes and pay close attention to the weather. "If it's going to get cold enough to freeze that backflow preventer, your best bet is to shut the water off and drain your backflow preventer," he said. April heat wave: Denver breaks temperature record from 41 years ago If a backflow preventer freezes and breaks, it can cost more than a thousand dollars to repair.Experts agree that heat and wind can affect grass. "It will dry out a little bit more and you may even see some death of the grass," said David Rhine, an arborist with SavATree, tree, shrub and la...

FWC officials caught on camera mistakenly killing pet boa at reptile breeders’ warehouse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

WARNING: Video and audio in this story may be disturbing to some viewers.Wildlife officers euthanize dozens of invasive snakes, but the owner of a snake at a reptile warehouse said some of those officers made a “snake mistake.”Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers went to the warehouse last week to euthanize 30 illegal pythons.A bang caught on camera is the sound the owner of these snakes could not bear to hear, so he left the room without his cellphone so it could capture the officers on video as they went to work.On the video, you can hear a penetrating bolt gun used to kill pythons with a shot to the head.“I really didn’t know what to expect,” said snake breeder Chris Coffee.Coffee is a partner in a reptile breeding company, and after a long legal battle with the FWC, he agreed to allow officers to visit his Broward County facility.“So I basically had to do whatever they said,” he said. “I just wanted to comply ...

Car crash sends boat on trailer off the road in Fort Lauderdale

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

A crash sent a truck and a boat that it was hauling completely off the road in Fort Lauderdale.Florida Highway Patrol and Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, responded to the scene Tuesday after two cars slammed into each other just south of Oakland Park Boulevard in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95.The boat veered into the bushes off the highway.No one was hurt in the crash.

Authorities in Louisville release bodycam video of police response to shooting at bank that left 5 people dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

Editor’s note: If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. You can also reach a crisis counselor by messaging the Crisis Text Line at 741741.    (CNN) — The Louisville Metro Police Department has released dramatic bodycam video of officers responding to the Monday bank shooting where five people were killed and an officer kills the gunman.The bodycam video shows the tense moments between police officers and the shooter, Connor Sturgeon. It begins with video from Officer Nickolas Wilt who drives up to the scene with his training officer, identified as Cory “CJ” Galloway.Wilt, police say, was shot in the head as he ran toward the gunshots police were facing as they arrived. He is listed in critical condition. Wilt’s camera shows him following Galloway up the outside steps to the bank, his service pistol in his two hands. The video cuts off before he is shot.Bodycam fo...

Officials warn about ‘juice jacking’ threat involving public phone charging ports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:10:47 GMT

Federal officials recently shared a warning about a practice known as “Juice Jacking” that officials said allows hackers to access data on phones using some public power outlets or public charging stations.In the wake of this warning, officials have also shared ways individuals can protect themselves. “They download your information, or make a copy of it, or infect your iPhone, where they can do damage to other systems or shut down your iPhone completely,” cybersecurity expert Kevin Powers told 7NEWS. The dangerous trend takes advantage of free charging stations in public places, such as airports, hotels and shopping centers. The FBI posted a message about the trend earlier this month, writing on Twitter that “Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices.” “When you put in your USB and you plug in what happens to you, unbeknownst to you, is that there is a third party ...