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TSA crowns 3-year-old German Shorthair Pointer as cutest canine of 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (WSVN) — A 3-year-old German Shorthair Pointer has made her mark as the cutest Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent in 2023. “Paws” for dramatic effect … Meet Dina! She was announced TSA’s cutest canine of the year after the agency hosted a nationwide competition on social media last week. Dina works as an explosives detection canine at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. As part of her well-deserved win, Dina is expected to be featured on the cover of TSA’s 2024 Canine Calendar set to be released later this year. The annual contest was held on Saturday in honor of National Dog Day. Dina’s victory carries a special significance, as she follows in the pawprints of her fellow Harry Reid International Airport alum, Alona. In 2021, Alona, a charismatic 4-year-old golden retriever, clinched the title of TSA’s cutest canine.The competition was fierce this year, with three other remarkable canines vying f...

Search underway after suspect escapes custody during arrest in Miami

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

A man managed to escape from police custody in the city of Miami, triggering a large-scale search operation. Although few details have been divulged thus far, law enforcement authorities have revealed that the escapee was initially being apprehended for battery and was wearing an ankle monitor when they escaped on Tuesday.The escape prompted an immediate response from the police, who established a perimeter in the vicinity of Northwest 10th Avenue, near 62nd Street. The area was cordoned off as law enforcement officers embarked on a search effort to locate and apprehend the individual who managed to evade custody.The circumstances surrounding the escape and the methods employed by the escapee remain unknown at this time. Authorities have been contacted for updates on the incident as they continue their investigation.

Spain’s Feijóo asks Sánchez to let him be prime minister for two years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

Some dates are doomed from the start.Alberto Núñez Feijóo, head of Spain’s center-right Popular Party, on Tuesday met with with his main political rival, caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, to ask for the Socialist Party’s support for his bid to be prime minister.As expected, Sánchez scoffed at the proposal.During the meeting, held one week after Spain’s King Felipe VI invited Feijóo to attempt to form a government, the conservative leader asked to be allowed to govern on his own for a two-year term. During that time he proposed the Popular Party and the Socialists could work together to pass major bipartisan legislation, at the end of which new elections would be called.“We have the opportunity to overcome obstacles and reset our democracy,” Feijóo said in a press conference after the meeting.The conservative leader argued the two parties could forge six “state pacts” on Spain’s territorial organization, democratic regeneration, s...

Europe’s climate activists face ‘repressive tide’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

MUNICH, Germany — Before Wolfgang Metzeler-Kick answers any questions, he makes sure to switch off his phone. “Per court order, they can tap it,” he says. Over the past year, Metzeler-Kick, 49, has spent several weeks in jail and racked up tens of thousands of euros in fines. His crime? Taking part in climate protests. The Bavarian activist has delivered manure to Germany’s agriculture minister, dug up the lawn in front of Olaf Scholz’s chancellery and tried to disrupt flights at Berlin airport to draw attention to the dangers of global warming. Mainly, he glues himself to roads to “disrupt our fossil-fueled routines,” as he puts it. “We have to stop doing business as usual,” he adds. “We’re hurtling toward disaster.” As a wave of similar protests sweeps Europe — targeting key infrastructure, causing travel chaos and sparking widespread public outrage — governments are getting tough on activists. Too tough, say human rights advocates. United Nations exp...

US economic growth for last quarter is revised down to a 2.1% annual rate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.1% annual pace from April through June, showing continued resilience in the face of higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, the government said Wednesday in a downgrade from its initial estimate.The government had previously estimated that the economy expanded at a 2.4% annual rate last quarter.The Commerce Department’s second estimate of growth last quarter marked a slight acceleration from a 2% annual growth rate from January through March. Though the economy has been slowed by the Federal Reserve’s strenuous drive to tame inflation with interest rate hikes, it has managed to keep expanding, with employers still hiring and consumers still spending.Wednesday’s report on the nation’s gross domestic product — the total output of goods and services — showed that growth last quarter was driven by upticks in consumer spending and business investment.The American economy — the world’s largest — has proved surp...

Column: 2 mysteries of the strangest week in Chicago White Sox history could have answers soon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

The two biggest mysteries of the strangest week in Chicago White Sox history might have been answered.How did two women get shot in the left-field bleachers at Guaranteed Rate Field? And who will replace fired executives Ken Williams and Rick Hahn?The two mysteries are unrelated, though they share some of the usual attributes of a Sox news story, which typically are more ridiculous than what meets the eye.We’ll start with the shooting, a serious issue that became comical thanks to a wild theory emanating from the Sox front office that the bullet that hit the two women might have come from outside the ballpark. Chicago police interim Supt. Fred Waller basically dismissed that theory Monday, saying investigators had “almost completely dispelled” the idea that a bullet from outside somehow hit the two women.That meant someone inside the park apparently smuggled in a gun past security, resulting in the shot that grazed one woman in the abdomen and went into the right t...

Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López among 6 players reportedly put on waivers by Los Angeles Angels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

Lucas Giolito found out on X he could become an ex-Angel.ESPN reported Tuesday that Los Angeles has placed Giolito, relievers Dominic Leone, Matt Moore and Reynaldo López, and outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers. Teams have until 2 p.m. EDT Thursday to claim the players.Giolito said he read the news on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.“I’d say, surprised,” Giolito said after a 12-7 loss to Philadelphia. “But at the end of the day, it’s a business. It can be a very strange business sometimes. You just roll with it.”Los Angeles, 63-70 and headed to its eighth straight losing season, would get some salary relief if the players are claimed and their contracts assumed.Giolito allowed three homers in a loss Monday.ESPN cited unidentified sources confirming the waiver placements.“Thursday is when it all goes down,” Giolito said. “Until then, I’m here. We’ll see what happens aft...

Live updates | Hurricane Idalia makes landfall in Florida as Category 3 storm

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

CEDAR KEY, Fla. (AP) — Follow live updates about Hurricane Idalia, which has made landfall in Florida as a dangerous Category 3 storm, unleashing life-threatening storm surges and rainfall.— Feeding on some of the hottest water on the planet, Hurricane Idalia is rapidly strengthening as it bears down on Florida — A rare blue supermoon could play a role in an unfolding disaster as Hurricane Idalia takes aim at Florida’s west coast — Florida’s Big Bend is one of the last truly natural places in the state. Now it’s in the bull’s-eye of a major hurricane Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s west coast as a dangerous Category 3 storm on Wednesday, unleashing life-threatening storm surges and rainfall.Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. The result could be a big blow to a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian....

Howie Carr: Police reform report arresting for lack of detail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

It’s great to be a cop – at least a politically connected cop.Of course, if you’re a cop who’s not wired, you might as well be wearing a red MAGA cap, because they’re going to throw the book at you, or at least try to make your life miserable for a while.That’s my first takeaway from reading the 318-page report from the new MA Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission.It details more than 3000 disciplinary proceedings against cops, and once again, the old saying seems to apply:“In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.”First thing that’s obvious: the Mass. State Police motto should be “Omerta” – silence.I heard this spring from a guy who’s been all tangled up in a family domestic dispute with a state cop. He complained to what is called the Office of Professional Integrity and Accountability (don’t laugh; not a joke!) claiming that this trooper had been running his family’s license plates, compulsively.The guy showed me the official letter he got years ...

Palestinians clash with own security forces in a West Bank refugee camp, leaving 1 dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Fighting erupted in a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank Wednesday between Palestinians and their own security forces, Palestinian authorities said, leaving a 25-year-old Palestinian dead. The unrest underscored the challenges facing Palestinian police trying to impose order in the restive territory.Elsewhere in the occupied territory, Israeli security forces shot a Palestinian man who they said tried to ram his car into soldiers at a military checkpoint, hitting and lightly wounding a soldier, authorities said. It was the latest incident in one of the West Bank’s most violent phases in years.Palestinian police entered the refugee camp in Tulkarem after residents appealed to the Palestinian Authority to remove metal street barriers set up by local militants that were blocking access to homes and schools, Palestinian security spokesperson Talal Dweikat said. The angled metal barricades are a staple in the militarized refugee camps of the northern W...