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Offshore wind foes in New Jersey gathering force legally and politically

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

OCEAN CITY, N.J. (AP) — Opponents of offshore wind energy projects in New Jersey are gathering force legally and politically as they seek to snuff out the nascent industry.Within the last week, three residents groups sued New Jersey over a key approval of its first planned wind farm; the research arm of Congress agreed to investigate the impact of offshore wind on the environment and other areas; and lawmakers in two counties most heavily impacted by wind farms stepped up their efforts to block the projects.Save Long Beach Island, Defend Brigantine Beach, and Protect Our Coast NJ filed an appeal Friday in state Superior Court of New Jersey’s determination that the Ocean Wind I project is consistent with state coastal management rules.The project is New Jersey’s first, and a U.S. subsidiary of Danish wind developer Orsted could begin construction this year if remaining approvals are obtained. The appeal follows a decision by the investigative arm of Congress, the Congress...

More than 1 million people are dropped from Medicaid as states start a post-pandemic purge of rolls

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.Though the eligibility review is required by the federal government, President’s Joe Biden’s administration isn’t too pleased at how efficiently some other states are accomplishing the task. “Pushing through things and rushing it will lead to eligible people — kids and families — losing coverage for some period of time,” Daniel Tsai, a top federal Medicaid official recently told reporters.Already, about 1.5 million people have been removed from Medicaid in more than two dozen states that started the process in April or May, according to publicly available reports and data obtained by The Associated Press. Florida has dropped several hundred thousand people, by far the most among states. The drop rate also has been particularly high in other states. F...

New Jersey casinos, tracks and partners won $471M in May, up 9.4%, but in-person winnings still lag

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s casinos, horse tracks that take sports bets and the online partners of both types of gambling won nearly $471 million in May, up 9.4% from a year earlier according to figures released Monday by state gambling regulators.But the amount of money won from in-person gamblers, which the casinos consider to be their key metric, was down 2.4% from a year ago, to $227.3 million.And only three of the nine casinos — Borgata, Hard Rock and Ocean — won more money from in-person gamblers this May than they did in May 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit.Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University, which studies the Atlantic City gambling market, said that although overall in-person gambling revenue was down in May, it was still higher than it was in May 2019.“This is the continuation of a return to pre-pandemic levels, but not the amount of growth many may have hoped to see from this sector,” she said. “Traditional...

Police seek suspect in subway assault, indecent act directed at teen girl

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

Toronto police are looking for help identifying a man accused of assaulting a teen girl and performing an indecent act at Wilson Subway station last week.Police were called to the station on Monday at around 5:04 p.m. after reports that a man approached a 14-year-old girl and attempted to grab her face on a southbound Yonge-University train.Police say the man “then committed indecent acts and gestures.”The man exited the tain at Yorkdale Station.He’s described as 50 to 60 years old around five foot nine to five foot ten with a thin build.Police say he’s bald, had a dark coloured eye and wearing a black jacket, black pants and black shoes and appeared to be gesturing “sign language.”Police are seeking this man in connection to an alleged assault on a teen girl at Wilson Station on Monday, June, 12, 2023. Toronto police

Mexico’s president appoints young woman to top Cabinet post

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president announced Monday the appointment of a 35-year-old lawyer as interior secretary, considered the country’s top Cabinet post. Luisa María Alcalde previously served as secretary of labor. In that post, she oversaw the implementation of reforms meant to ensure fair and transparent voting procedures and free organizing in Mexico’s corruption-riddled union sector.Alcalde will become the second woman to be interior secretary, which is the Mexican government’s top domestic affairs position.Early in his administration, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador named Olga Sánchez Cordero to the post, but she left to return to the Senate. Alcalde was appointed to replace Adán Augusto López, who resigned as interior secretary last week in order to compete in the primary race for the 2024 presidential nomination of López Obrador’s Morena party.The Morena party required all primary candidates to resign their official posts by last week, to avoid the ap...

Singer Bebe Rexha says she’s OK after being hit in the face on stage by thrown phone

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Pop star Bebe Rexha was hit in the face and injured by a cellphone hurled from the audience at a hometown show in New York City Sunday night, and a man was arrested, police said. The Grammy-nominated, multiplatinum-selling singer-songwriter was taken to a hospital after the phone hit her, police said. A bruise and a bandage were visible above her left eye in social media posts she made Monday.“I’m good, yeah, I’m feelin’ alright,” she sang in a TikTok video, taking a line from “I’m Good (Blue),” her recent hit with DJ David Guetta. Rexha, 33, was on stage at Pier 17, a rooftop venue in Manhattan, when the phone was thrown, police said. Video posted on social media showed the phone ricocheting off the artist’s head, and then Rexha grabbing her face and sinking to her knees. A 27-year-old New Jersey man was awaiting arraignment Monday after being arrested on an assault charge. There was no immediate information on whether he had a lawyer w...

As death toll rises to 81, new accounts clash with official version of migrant disaster off Greece

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

MALAKASA, Greece (AP) — The number of confirmed victims from one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean rose to 81 Monday after three more bodies were found off southern Greece, as more survivors claimed that the battered trawler had been under tow by another vessel just before it sank with hundreds of people aboard. The new accounts raised further questions about the Greek coast guard’s response from the moment it located the ship until it went down. Officials in Athens have insisted that the metal fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy was at no point under tow, and only had a line briefly attached to it hours before it capsized and foundered.The coast guard has also been widely criticized for not trying to rescue the migrants before their vessel sank. It argued that they refused any assistance and insisted on proceeding to Italy, adding that it would have been too dangerous to try and evacuate hundreds of unwilling people off an overcrowded ship. T...

MedWatch Daily Digest: Night owls, alcohol tolerance and why food allergies discriminate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

For Monday, June 19, WGN’s Dina Bair has the latest on new information, including the following: More Coverage: WGN's Medical Watch Night owls may have shorter lifespans because of lifestyle, study suggests Morning people tend to live longer than night owls. But a new report suggests it may have less to do with sleep and more to do with what happens when you're awake. Researchers in Finland found mortality risk in night owls was mainly tied to smoking and alcohol. Deaths from alcohol-related diseases and poisonings were seen more often in the late-night group. Previous studies had suggested the reason night owls are at an increased risk for early death is lack of sleep. You can find the results of the latest sleep study in the journal "Chronobiology International." Study on the ability to handle alcohol Do heavy drinkers really know how to handle their liquor?There's a prevailing idea that the more you drink, the more you build up tolerance. But a new study out of the "Clinical Ad...

Moose dies after jumping from 2nd-story deck in Colorado

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — A moose in Steamboat Springs, Colorado has died after it jumped from a second-story deck, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. On Sunday, rangers with CPW responded to a call about a moose at the Steamboat Ski Resort, located about 160 miles northwest of Boulder. When they arrived, rangers discovered that a moose had apparently jumped off the second-story deck of a building, broken its neck and died from the injuries. CPW said they could not confirm if the moose was agitated or how close it was to people when the incident happen. Bear gets inside home and ‘hangs out’ Rangers removed the moose from the resort and donated its body. Additional details weren't immediately available.Last week, CPW found a dead mother moose near Steamboat Springs. A cause of death had not been determined, and the district wildlife manager told the Steamboat Pilot there were no obvious signs of trauma. "How we found it does indicate it found a place to lay down before it died, so pr...

Judge orders Trump not to disclose evidence in documents case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:25 GMT

A federal magistrate judge Monday agreed to a motion from the Justice Department to block former President Trump from disclosing information relating to the Mar-a-Lago case, after prosecutors said the investigation remains ongoing.The order sides with the Justice Department in allowing Trump to see evidence collected in the case — including classified documents — but only in the presence of his attorneys.It also blocks him from disseminating any information from the case with reporters or on social media, mirroring a similar order agreed to in the hush money case being prosecuted by authorities in New York.“Defendants shall only have access to Discovery Materials under the direct supervision of Defense Counsel or a member of Defense Counsel’s staff. Defendants shall not retain copies of Discovery Material,” Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the warrant to search Mar-a-Lago, wrote in the order.The Justice Department in its Friday request said that restrictions were required, as...