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Take a trip to fight climate change? Group meets in Miami to tout psychedelic solutions
MIAMI — In South Florida, innovative ideas are being employed every day to deal with climate change threats. Start-up tech companies are 3D-printing sea walls, turning seaweed into fertilizer and even building houses out of recycled plastic.
One group that gathered recently in Miami has a more unorthodox idea for coping with what may well be ...Read more
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Study finds strong link between illegal drug use and homelessness -- and unmet need for treatment
LOS ANGELES — Illegal drug use is deeply intertwined with homelessness, both increasing the risk of losing housing and arising or worsening when people find themselves on the streets, a new study has found. But it also found that a large majority of people living on the streets are not drug users.
The study, published in the medical journal ...Read more
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What are the rules of an ICE raid? Here's what you should know.
DENVER — Recent large-scale immigration raids in Colorado — and the potential for more under the new Trump administration — have left Coloradans with questions about how such raids work and what their rights are.
Immigrant rights advocates and lawyers have sounded alarms about potential legal violations in the aftermath of Feb. 5, when ...Read more
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Freshman Rep. Shomari Figures of Alabama on opportunity: 'Take advantage of every moment we've got'
WASHINGTON — Shomari Figures is the newest member of Alabama’s delegation, and one of two Democrats — the most the House has had from his state in nearly 15 years.
Figures ran for Congress after a federal court ordered Alabama to redraw congressional boundaries to include a second Black-majority district “or something quite close to it,...Read more
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Nonprofit leader says Feeding Our Future taught him how to defraud the government in exchange for $30K in monthly kickbacks
With federal prosecutors just days from wrapping up their case against Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and one of her alleged accomplices, they finally unveiled a witness Thursday who put Bock in the middle of the criminal conspiracy.
Mohamed Hussein, who in 2023 pleaded guilty to using his Faribault nonprofit to steal more than $3 ...Read more
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Trump piles pressure on Xi with latest threat to raise tariffs
President Donald Trump unveiled additional tariffs on Chinese imports, raising the risk of Beijing ramping up its retaliation and a spiraling of tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Trump said Thursday in a social media post that China will be charged an additional 10% tariff on March 4, citing continued drug flows from North ...Read more
National Weather Service Boston meteorologist reportedly axed in NOAA cuts: 'Honor of a lifetime'
A new meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office is reportedly among the hundreds of NOAA staff members who have been axed by the Trump administration.
Francis Tarasiewicz — who has been tracking snowstorms, damaging winds and other local weather at NWS Boston’s Norton office in the last month — has reportedly been ...Read more
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J&J talc settlement blasted by ex-FDA head over asbestos testing
A Johnson & Johnson unit working to resolve massive cancer litigation in bankruptcy court was accused by a former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of making misleading claims that the company’s baby powder never contained asbestos.
David Kessler, who led the FDA for more than six years starting in 1990, took the stand at a trial ...Read more
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Tesla sets sights on Waymo, Uber in California ride-hail bid
Tesla Inc. is seeking approval to offer ride-hailing services in California, a key step by Elon Musk’s company to begin carrying paying customers while its traditional car-selling business falters.
The electric vehicle manufacturer applied late last year for what’s known as a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the California ...Read more
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Could putting swamp rat on your dinner plate help save California marshland?
They look like a cross between an otter and a gopher but they taste something like a rabbit or dark meat from turkey. And conservation officials want you to eat as many of them as you can.
The nutria, an invasive swamp-dwelling rodent, is wreaking havoc on California ecosystems, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. They ...Read more
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Nations back $200 billion-a-year plan to reverse nature losses
More than 140 countries adopted a strategy to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars a year to help reverse dramatic losses in biodiversity, though failed to decide on establishing a new global nature fund — a key demand of developing economies.
Nations attending the 16th United Nations Biodiversity Conference, known as COP16, in Rome ...Read more
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Mass firings across NOAA and National Weather Service ignite fury from scientists worldwide
As federal job eliminations struck the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service on Thursday, scientists and environmental advocates denounced the cuts, saying they could cause real harm to Americans.
The full extent of the layoffs across NOAA were not immediately clear, but Democratic legislators said ...Read more
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Group targeting 'woke culture' sues Fresno Unified over programs helping Black students
A group targeting “woke culture” and diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public education is suing Fresno Unified over its programs that aim to close its yawning African American student achievement gap.
The lawsuit by the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation targets the district’s Office of African American Academic ...Read more
News briefs
Task force on government secrets hopes to interview doctors who treated JFK in Dallas
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., says her congressional task force on declassifying government secrets hopes to interview doctors who were at the Dallas hospital where President John F. Kennedy was taken after being fatally shot.
“We ...Read more
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Study estimates up to $8.9 billion in lost economic output from Palisades, Eaton fires
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County could lose $4.6 billion to $8.9 billion in economic output over the next five years from the Palisades and Eaton fires, a Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. study released Thursday predicts.
Federal, state and local governments are estimated to miss out on up to $1.4 billion in tax revenue from 2025...Read more
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DOJ releases Epstein documents it says mostly 'leaked' before
The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it officially released information related to deceased financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that was mostly “previously leaked.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi authorized the release of the documents, some of which were heavily redacted, following mounting pressure from congressional...Read more
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National Weather Service, NOAA layoffs hit hundreds of federal workers
Hundreds of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service employees were laid off Thursday in the latest round of federal workforce cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration.
The layoffs were confirmed in a statement from California U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat, and reported by Axios and The Hill...Read more
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Massachusetts pushes back on Trump anti-DEI policies, will keep education initiatives in place
The Bay State will play by its own rules when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, a defiant governor and AG stated.
A letter from the Trump Administration sent earlier this month to the heads of education in every state and instructing them to do away with DEI policies can be ignored by institutions operating in ...Read more
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'A powder keg': Lawsuit claims Texas company knowingly built dangerous battery plant at California's Moss Landing, leading to major toxic fire
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Texas company that built a huge battery storage plant at Moss Landing that burned in a major fire last month, causing the evacuation of 1,200 people and the closure of Highway 1 for three days, rushed to build the plant and cut corners resulting in unsafe conditions, a lawsuit filed Thursday alleges.
One of the largest ...Read more
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Former LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley appeals her dismissal
LOS ANGELES — Former Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley took the extraordinary step Thursday of appealing Mayor Karen Bass’ decision to dismiss her, in part, for her performance during a catastrophic wildfire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades.
The appeal, which would require the approval of 10 of 15 City Council members, is ...Read more
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- Nonprofit leader says Feeding Our Future taught him how to defraud the government in exchange for $30K in monthly kickbacks