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Maui County’s mayor calls fast-moving wildfire an ‘impossible situation.’ Follow live updates

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

By REBECCA BOONE (Associated Press)Follow live updates about wildfires that have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii this week, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters.Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said Friday he couldn’t comment on a report by The Associated Press that the state’s emergency management records showed no indication that warning sirens sounded off before people were forced to flee. “I think this was an impossible situation,” Bissen told NBC’s Today show. “The fires came up so quickly and they spread so fast.” Meanwhile, the county said residents with identification and visitors with proof of hotel reservations could return to parts of Lahaina starting at noon Friday. They will not be allowed int...

Battenfeld: GOP assails Hunter Biden special counsel as attempt to ‘whitewash’ case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

The appointment of an independent counsel to investigate Hunter Biden could be yet another move by the Biden administration to keep the scandal from imperiling his presidency.Or it could be a move that signals a new aggressiveness by the Justice Department against Hunter Biden.But putting the same prosecutor, David Weiss, who arranged the much-criticized plea deal for Hunter Biden in charge of the independent probe smacks of an optical political maneuver which will also give Democrats cover to keep charging Donald Trump.Even the liberal New York Times called it “cosmetic gesture” at best.“This action by Biden’s DOJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on X, previously known as Twitter.The move also insulates Weiss, from Biden’s home state of Delaware, from having to answer questions before Congress about his original plea deal with Hunter which was thrown out by a federal judge.Weiss is t...

Republicans blast Hunter Biden, lukewarm on special counsel probe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

A special counsel being named to probe the Hunter Biden mess had Republicans quickly calling out the DOJ — and former VP Mike Pence knocking the president’s son for his boozing and dealing ways.“To be honest, I can’t relate to what Joe Biden’s son was doing when he was Vice President.  When I was Vice President, my son was flying an F-35 for the Marine Corp defending this country,” Pence said in a campaign statement.Former President Donald Trump wasn’t as restrained.“Crooked Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the entire Biden Crime Family have been protected by the Justice Department for decades even though there is overwhelming evidence and credible testimony detailing their wrongdoing of lying to the American people and selling out the country to foreign enemies,” a Trump spokesman said Friday.Attorney General Merrick Garland announced earlier that he’s appointed a special counsel — David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware — ...

Brush fire near I-15 in Bonsall closes lanes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A brush fire broke out Friday afternoon near Interstate 15 in Bonsall, prompting the closure of several roads in the area.The fire started near southbound I-15 and Old Highway 395, North County Fire Protection said. Northbound I-15 lanes in the area were briefly closed. The state Route 76 onramp for southbound I-15 is closed. What caused the Maui wildfires? Old Highway 395 was also closed between state Route 76 and Lilac Road.By 3:30 p.m., the fire had been stopped at between three and five acres, fire officials said, adding that there was no damage to any structures in the area.

'A new window on stars': Rare two-faced star found at Palomar Observatory

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

SAN DIEGO – Astronomers have discovered a rare star at Palomar Observatory that could be the first documented instance of a long-standing theory about what happens to the core of a star as it burns out.The newfound celestial object is a rare kind of dwarf star, which are the scalding “corpses” of stars after they die, that appears to have two faces on its surface – one side is entirely made up of hydrogen, while the other is composed of helium.Named Janus after the two-faced Roman god of transition, researchers believe that the star could be the first discovery within a class of rare white dwarfs that could shed light on a theory about the evolution of the objects at large.“It’s something that has been predicted for a long time, but we’ve never actually seen a white dwarf going through this,” said Ilaria Caiazzo, a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech who studied the star for the last two years. “We might be seeing one (at) this moment.” This weekend’s Perseid meteor shower will pea...

USS Mobile Bay decommissioned at Naval Base San Diego

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The USS Mobile Bay was decommissioned Thursday at Naval Base San Diego after over three decades of service to the U.S. Navy.The ship will now be towed to the Navy's inactive ship facility in Bremerton, Washington.The guided-missile cruiser got its name from the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, the Civil War naval battle. Built in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the ship was commissioned in 1987 in Mobile, Alabama. It was part of the 1989 evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon and launched Tomahawk missiles during Desert Storm. Navy sailor accused of espionage had mother’s support, prosecutor says The ship's crew was made up of 30 officers and 300 enlisted members.“The Sailors of USS Mobile Bay demonstrated time and time again the resolve and readiness the Surface Force provides around the clock in support of our nation’s interests," Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, commander, Naval Surface Forces, said during the decommissioning ceremony. “Everywhere this ship...

Family shelter opens at former Barrio Logan motel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

SAN DIEGO — A new shelter for families is now open at the site of a former Barrio Logan motel, officials announced Friday.Mayor Todd Gloria and the San Diego Housing Commission held a news conference to announce the shelter opening. The first group of families to move in will be relocated from the Golden Hall shelter, which the city is in the process of shuttering as a homeless shelter.“The opening of this shelter for families experiencing homelessness is an important part of our comprehensive shelter strategy and the latest step in our wide-ranging approach toward addressing homelessness in San Diego,” Gloria said. “This facility is a major upgrade over the congregate shelter at Golden Hall. Forty-two unhoused families will now have private rooms -- a far better living environment, especially for children.” What caused the Maui wildfires? The 42-room shelter will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with residents receiving onsite supportive services like case man...

Former Tennessee state senator gets 21-month prison sentence for campaign finance cash scheme

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A former Tennessee state senator on Friday was sentenced to 21 months in prison after he unsuccessfully tried to take back his guilty plea on federal campaign finance charges and initially described the case as a “political witch hunt.”Former Republican Sen. Brian Kelsey received his sentence in U.S. District Court in Nashville in the case centering on his attempts to funnel campaign money from his legislative seat toward supporting his failed 2016 congressional bid. He won’t have to begin his prison time until October.“I do think there’s a need to sentence you that sends a message for general deterrence,” U.S. Judge Waverly Crenshaw said Friday.Crenshaw handed down the punishment after the former Memphis-area lawmaker argued in March that he should be allowed to go back on his November 2022 guilty plea because he entered it with an “unsure heart and a confused mind” due to events in his personal life — his father had terminal pancreatic cancer, t...

Michigan police detained a Black child who was in the ‘wrong place, wrong time,’ department says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A white police officer handcuffed a Black child outside his Michigan home in an “unfortunate case of ‘wrong place, wrong time,’” the Lansing Police Department said Friday. The department posted the explanation on Facebook after cellphone video circulated on social media showing the officer leading the boy — whose hands are cuffed behind his back — through the parking lot of an apartment complex on Thursday. The officer had been searching for a suspect in a string of car thefts when he spotted the child. The “kid” was “bringing out his trash to the Dumpster,” a voice said on the video. A man who identified the boy as his son then approached the officer, who walked the child toward his father before another officer walked him to a patrol vehicle and put him in the rear seat.The father pressed both hands to his own head and continued to speak with the first officer while pacing along a sidewalk. He later walked toward the person recording the video and said:...

3 former GOP operatives to pay $50K for roles in a fake charity tied to E. Palestine derailment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:05:50 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Three men who have worked as Republican political operatives agreed to pay more than $50,000 in restitution and penalties in Ohio for their roles in operating a phony charity that collected cash purportedly to help victims of the East Palestine train derailment.The settlement, announced Thursday by Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, requires Isaiah Wartman and Luke Mahoney of WAMA Strategies to pay more than $22,000 to a local food bank, plus $3,000 in investigative costs and fees. Under the deal, Michael Peppel, co-founder of the fraudulent charity, Ohio Clean Water Fund, must pay a $25,000 civil penalty and agree to a lifetime ban on starting, running or soliciting for any charity in the state, Yost announced. Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer reports that Wartman worked as campaign manager and senior adviser to Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia. Mahoney worked as a campaign staffer for Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, of New Y...