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Takeaways from AP report on racial disparities in states’ victim compensation programs

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

Thousands of Americans each year turn to state-run programs that provide financial assistance to victims of violent crime. The money is used to help with funeral expenses, physical and emotional therapy, lost wages, crime-scene cleanup and more.While interviewing people for a story on gun violence in Philadelphia, The Associated Press heard from victim after victim that they had received a form letter denying them access to the funds. In many cases, the state said they or their loved one had contributed to their own victimization. The AP sought to find out from the Pennsylvania program — and then programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia — who was being denied aid, and why. While the programs hand out millions of dollars each year nationwide, the AP found that Black victims were disproportionately denied in many of the states that provided racial data — and often for subjective reasons rooted in implicit biases that are felt across the criminal justice system.A look at ...

Military aims for October to begin draining Hawaii fuel tanks that poisoned water

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. military on Tuesday proposed an October start date for a plan to drain a World War II-era fuel tank facility that poisoned 6,000 people when it leaked jet fuel into Pearl Harbor’s drinking water 18 months ago.Fuel from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility leaked into a U.S. Navy drinking water well supplying water to 93,000 people in 2021. The episode poisoned about 6,000 people — mostly military personnel and their families — on and around the Hawaii naval base. It also prompted Honolulu’s water utility to shut down nearby wells that provided about 20% of the city’s water supply.After the spill, the state of Hawaii ordered the military to drain and close the tanks. Last year, the military said it expected to remove fuel from Red Hill in July 2024 after it finished repairs to prevent leaks.The military said it a news release that it would begin removing 104 million gallons (394 million liters) of fuel from the facility on Oct. 16 and fin...

Black victims of violent crime disproportionately denied aid in many states

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

The cold formality of the letter is seared in Debra Long’s memory.It began “Dear Claimant,” and said her 24-year-old son, Randy, who was fatally shot in April 2006, was not an “innocent” victim. Without further explanation, the New York state agency that assists violent-crime victims and their families refused to help pay for his funeral.Randy was a father, engaged to be married and studying to become a juvenile probation officer when his life was cut short during a visit to Brooklyn with friends. His mother, angry and bewildered by the letter, wondered: What did authorities see — or fail to see — in Randy?“It felt racial. It felt like they saw a young African American man who was shot and killed and assumed he must have been doing something wrong,” Long said. “But believe me when I say, not my son.”Debra Long had bumped up against a well-intentioned corner of the criminal justice system that is often perceived as unfair. Every state has a program to reimburse victims for lost wages...

Arizona Coyotes’ bid for new arena appears to be rejected by voters

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

The Arizona Coyotes’ bid for a new arena appears to be dead.In the first release of results from Tuesday’s referendum, voters in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe were strongly against three propositions to build a $2.3 billion entertainment district that would include a new arena for the Coyotes.Opposition to the three propositions had a double-digit lead over those in favor, with only ballots dropped off Tuesday left to count.“The National Hockey League is terribly disappointed by the results of the public referendum regarding the Coyotes’ arena project in Tempe,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “We are going to review with the Coyotes what the options might be going forward.”The vote took place after the city of Phoenix and Sky Harbor International Airport expressed concerns about residences that were part of the project in a high-noise area under the airport’s flight path.The Coyotes had hoped a new arena in Tempe would finally allow the franchise to settle down ...

Democrat McCaffery, Republican Carluccio win primaries for Pennsylvania Supreme Court seat

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrat Dan McCaffery and Republican Carolyn Carluccio won their parties’ primaries for a vacant seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday, setting up a fall contest to join a high court that is at the center of cases on guns, abortion and elections in a presidential battleground state.Each nominee won a two-way primary race. McCaffery defeated Deborah Kunselman, a colleague on the Superior Court, and Carluccio defeated Patricia McCullough, a Commonwealth Court judge who lost a primary for a high court seat in 2021. Party allies reported spending nearly $1 million to help her beat McCullough.On the campaign trail, McCullough repeatedly boasted of being the “only judge in 2020 in the presidential election in the entire country” to order a halt to her state’s election certification.McCullough was ruling in a Republican-backed post-election legal challenge that sought to tilt victory to Donald Trump in the presidential battleground state. The state’s hig...

Abortion pill case moves to appeals court, on track for Supreme Court

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Legal arguments over women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion move to a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday, in a case challenging a Food and Drug Administration decision made more than two decades ago.The closely watched case is likely to wind up at the Supreme Court, which already has intervened to keep the drug, mifepristone, available while the legal fight winds through the courts. Three 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges with a history of supporting abortion restrictions are set to hear arguments. At issue are the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone in 2000, and FDA actions making the drug more accessible in later years. The judges won’t rule immediately. Judges nominated to the district court and appeals court by former President Donald Trump are playing major roles in the case, which is being argued almost a year after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling that had established...

Trial begins over Kari Lake’s last challenge to loss in Arizona governor’s race

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

A three-day trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday over the only remaining legal claim in Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat six months ago to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the Arizona governor’s race.The former TV anchor was among the most vocal of last year’s Republican candidates promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign. While most other election deniers around the country conceded after losing their races in November, Lake did not. She lost to Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes.Courts have dismissed most of her lawsuit, but the Arizona Supreme Court revived one claim that challenges the implementation of signature verification procedures on early ballots in Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of the state’s voters.Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson said in a ruling Monday that Lake alleges Maricopa County officials failed to perform any higher level signature verifications on mail-in ballots that had been fl...

Danny Masterson rape retrial jury to begin deliberations

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors in Danny Masterson’s rape retrial are expected to begin deliberations Wednesday morning after lawyers wrap up closing arguments in the case against the former “That ’70s Show” star. Late last year, a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case against Masterson involving rape allegations by three women, and Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo declared a mistrial. Prosecutors said during all-day closing arguments Tuesday that Masterson drugged the women in order to assault them, then relied on his status as a prominent member in the Church of Scientology to avoid consequences for years. “You don’t want to have sex? You don’t have a choice,” Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told the jury of seven men and five women. “The defendant makes that choice for these victims. And he does it over and over and over again.”Masterson, 47, has pleaded not guilty to raping three women at his home between 2001 and 2003. His attorney, Philip Cohen, told juro...

Jacksonville voters elect Florida city’s first female mayor

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Voter’s in Jacksonville, Florida, elected the city’s first female mayor on Tuesday.Democrat Donna Deegan earned 52% of vote, beating Republican Daniel Davis, according to unofficial results. About 217,000 people voted in the race, for a turnout of 33%.“Love won tonight, and we made history,” Deegan said in a statement. “We have a new day in Jacksonville because people chose unity over division—creating a broad coalition of people across the political spectrum that want a unified city.”Davis conceded in a speech to supporters Tuesday night.Deegan said she plans to focus on upgrading infrastructure, building an economy that works for everyone and improving access to healthcare.Deegan is replacing Republican Lenny Curry, who was first elected in 2015 and couldn’t run again because of term limits.Jacksonville is Florida’s most populous city, with about 950,000 residents.The Associated Press

Criminal cases for killing eagles decline as wind turbine dangers grow

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:25 GMT

ROLLING HILLS, Wyo. (AP) — Criminal cases brought by U.S. wildlife officials for killing or harming protected bald and golden eagles dropped sharply in recent years, even as officials ramped up issuing permits that will allow wind energy companies to kill thousands of eagles without legal consequence.The falloff in enforcement of eagle protection laws — which accelerated in the Trump administration and has continued under President Joe Biden — was revealed in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data obtained by The Associated Press.It comes amid growing concern that a proliferation of wind turbines to feed a growing demand for renewable energy is jeopardizing golden eagle populations already believed to be declining in some areas. Dozens of permits approved or pending would allow roughly 6,000 eagles to be killed in coming decades, government documents show. Most permits are for wind farms, and more than half the killed birds would be golden eagles.The AP’s findings — that significant nu...