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Astronaut Frank Borman, commander of the first Apollo mission to the moon, has died at age 95

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Astronaut Frank Borman, who commanded Apollo 8’s historic Christmas 1968 flight that circled the moon 10 times and paved the way for the lunar landing the next year, has died. He was 95.Borman died Tuesday in Billings, Montana, according to NASA.Borman also led troubled Eastern Airlines in the 1970s and early ’80s after leaving the astronaut corps.But he was best known for his NASA duties. He and his crew, James Lovell and William Anders, were the first Apollo mission to fly to the moon — and to see Earth as a distant sphere in space.“Today we remember one of NASA’s best. Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement Thursday. “His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan.”Launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Dec. 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 trio spent three days traveling to the moon, and maneuvered into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. Af...

First-of-a-kind nuclear project is terminated in a blow to Biden’s clean energy agenda

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A project to build a first-of-a-kind small modular nuclear reactor power plant was terminated Wednesday, another blow to the Biden administration’s clean energy agenda following cancellations last week of two major offshore wind projects. Oregon-based NuScale Power has the only small modular nuclear reactor design certified for use in the United States. For its first project, the company was working with a group of Utah utilities to demonstrate a six-reactor plant at the Idaho National Laboratory, generating enough electricity to power more than 300,000 homes. The project was to come online starting in 2029 and was supposed to replace electricity from coal plants that are closing. When combined with wind and solar, the advanced nuclear technology was intended to help municipalities and public power utilities in several western states eliminate planet-warming greenhouse gas emission from the power sector.Instead, NuScale and the Utah utilities announced Wednes...

Expensive judicial races might be here to stay in Pennsylvania after record high court campaign

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The race for an open seat on Pennsylvania’s highest court initially resembled the sleepy contests that had played out for decades: low turnout, little media coverage and just enough spending to afford some biographical TV ads on cable.Then attack fliers began hitting mail boxes.“Once that happened, it opened the flood gates up, because people were prepared to respond,” said Democrat Dan McCaffery, who ultimately beat Republican Carolyn Carluccio on Tuesday. “I think people came out of the woodwork ready to fight back.”What happened next was a state Supreme Court election in Pennsylvania unlike any other. There was record-breaking spending, national media coverage and the highest turnout for an odd-year election in at least a quarter-century.Such high-stakes, high-spending partisan campaigns could become standard for judicial elections in Pennsylvania, a premier presidential battleground state where the state Supreme Court has issued piv...

Ava DuVernay says ‘deeply meaningful’ to mark end to Hollywood strikes in Toronto

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

TORONTO — Trailblazing director Ava DuVernay said Thursday she was “overjoyed” to learn the Hollywood actors’ strike had ended while she was in Toronto to help salute Viola Desmond, calling the news “deeply meaningful” to happen while christening a new theatre in the Canadian civil rights hero’s name.Her comments followed an eventful Wednesday evening at TIFF Bell Lightbox, where the Viola Desmond Cinema opened with a special presentation of DuVernay’s upcoming film, “Origin.” During the screening, news broke that unionized Hollywood actors reached a tentative deal with the major studios and streamers, ending a historic, months-long labour dispute that has shaken the entertainment industry on both sides of the border. In a post-film Q&A with DuVernay, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey began by remarking, “Congratulations on this incredible film, and it’s a big night for another reason: The strike is over!”The cinephiles in the audience erupted in applause. On Thursday, DuVernay said she l...

Virginia school system says ongoing claim of sex assaults on school grounds was fabricated

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Allegations that a northern Virginia seventh-grader was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted at her school more than a decade ago were totally fabricated, lawyers for the school system contend in a court filing seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit she filed.The onetime student, who is now 24, stands by her claims.The allegations surfaced in 2011 and have been the subject of legal proceedings for more than a decade, including a lawsuit the onetime student first filed against the school district in 2019. They were also the basis for a 2014 settlement that Fairfax County Public Schools — the state’s largest school system — reached with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights over accusations the district failed to adequately investigate the student’s complaint.In a motion filed late Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria, though, the school system’s lawyers ask that the former student’s lawsuit be dismissed as ...

Saputo sees earnings rise to $156 million in second quarter

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

MONTREAL — Saputo Inc. says it earned $156 million in its second quarter, up from $145 million a year earlier. The Montreal-based company says revenues for the quarter ended Sept. 30 were $4.3 billion, down from 4.5 billion during the same quarter last year. Earnings per diluted share were 37 cents, up from 35 cents a year earlier. Saputo says overall sales volumes were stable in its second quarter despite continued softening of global demand for dairy products, with higher domestic sales volumes more than offsetting lower volumes on the export side. The company says during the rest of the financial year it expects to benefit from the carryover impact of price increases as well as other initiatives. It also expects near-term inflation on its overall input costs to moderate, but remain elevated. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:SAP)The Canadian Press

Former New York comptroller Alan Hevesi, tarnished by public scandals, dies at 83

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Alan Hevesi, a longtime elected official from New York City who resigned as state comptroller amid one scandal and later served prison time after a “pay-to-play” corruption probe, died Thursday. He was 83.A release from his family said he passed away peacefully surrounded by his children and loved ones. He died of Lewy body dementia, according to a spokesperson.Though his two-part downfall made him a symbol of corruption in New York politics, he was a respected state lawmaker for much of his career.The former Queens College professor won a state Assembly seat in 1971 and served more than two decades in the chamber, gaining a reputation as an impressive debater with an interest in health care issues.He won the New York City comptroller’s job in 1993, though he fell short in a 2001 bid for the Democratic nomination for mayor. He won the state comptroller’s election the next year.As Hevesi ran for reelection in 2006, a state ethics commission found he had violated the l...

California man who’s spent 25 years in prison for murder he didn’t commit has conviction overturned

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man who has spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit was exonerated and ordered released by a judge on Thursday after prosecutors agreed he had been wrongly convicted.Miguel Solorio, 44, was arrested in 1998 for a fatal drive-by shooting in Whittier, southeast of Los Angeles, and eventually sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Superior Court Judge William Ryan overturned Solorio’s conviction during a Los Angeles court hearing that Solorio attended remotely. Attorneys with the California Innocence Project petitioned for Solorio’s release, arguing that his conviction was based on faulty eyewitness identification practices. In a letter last month, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said it had “confidently and definitively” concluded that Solorio is entitled to be released. The Innocence Project said the case against Solorio relied heavily on a now-debunked method of identifying a suspect that resul...

Taylor Swift’s Argentina concert takes political turn as presidential election nears

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — As thousands of Taylor Swift fans eagerly lined up Thursday for the superstar’s first-ever concert in Argentina, they saw themselves surrounded by posters urging them to not vote in favor of right-wing populist Javier Milei in next week’s presidential election.“A Swiftie Doesn’t Vote Milei,” read one of the posters, using the term commonly used to describe fans of the 12-time Grammy winner.Some Swifties agreed. “Taylor defends lots of positions and things that Milei doesn’t represent,” said 17-year-old Julieta Bracamontes. “That sign is right and I agree with it.”At the bottom of the poster a hashtag read “Milei Is Trump.”Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who holds lots of socially conservative positions including opposition to abortion, has often been described as Argentina’s Donald Trump. “I think Trump is very similar to Milei,” said Constanza Trunsky, a psychology student, noting the points in common between Argentina’s current polit...

Abortion providers seek to broaden access to the procedure in Indiana

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:20:29 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Abortion providers and a pregnancy resource center sought a preliminary injunction Thursday to broaden the scope of a health or life exception to Indiana’s near-total abortion ban and to expand the sites where the procedures can be performed. The ban outlaws abortion even in cases presenting a serious health risk and threatens providers with criminal and licensing penalties for providing care in such circumstances, the plaintiffs argued in an amended complaint filed in Monroe County, south of Indianapolis.The plaintiffs seek to expand the medical exception to the law and block its requirement that any abortions that do occur be provided at a hospital. That requirement makes abortion even more inaccessible because only a few hospitals, concentrated in the Indianapolis area, provide abortions and typically do so at higher costs than at abortion clinics, the plaintiffs argue.The plaintiffs include the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Planned Parenthood Grea...