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Workers noticed beam hanging off railcar days before fatal accident but didn’t tell the railroad

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Several days before a Norfolk Southern conductor trainee was killed by a metal beam protruding from a parked railcar on the next track, workers at a U.S. Pipe facility noticed the beam was hanging off the top of the car but never told the railroad about it, federal investigators say.The National Transportation Safety Board released those details this week in a report on the interviews it conducted after Walter James Griffin was killed near Bessemer, Alabama, on Dec. 13. Investigators won’t release their final report on the death until later. The accident happened as Griffin’s train was passing another train that was in the process of picking up several cars that had been parked on a siding, including ones loaded with scrap metal from U.S. Pipe’s nearby facility. The beam struck Griffin in the head as it smashed into the locomotive he was riding in and injured the conductor sitting behind him with broken glass.The death was one of the incidents th...

Escalating theft and violence aside, London Drugs not considering closures: president

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

VANCOUVER — London Drugs president Clint Mahlman says the company has no plans to close stores due to escalating violence and theft, though the issue has reached a “crisis point” for Canadian retailers. Mahlman says the company was disappointed to learn that a Vancouver city councillor said on social media that London Drugs was considering closing one of its main stores in the city, at the intersection of Granville and Georgia streets, due to crime. He says there’s no truth to the statement and it needlessly worried staff and customers at the store, which he says remains a safe place to both shop and work. Mahlman says the company has invested “significant resources” in safety measures and closing any locations would be a last resort, and a matter between London Drugs and its landlords and employees. He says retail theft and escalating violence has been an issue for many years, and working with police and government to combat the rise in organized theft...

Mountie testifies to serving DNA warrant of man accused in B.C. of murder

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

VANCOUVER — A Mountie with British Columbia’s integrated homicide team testified she was the officer who served a warrant to obtain DNA from the man accused of killing a 13-year-old girl in a Metro Vancouver park six years ago. Sgt-Maj. Heather Lew told a B.C. Supreme Court murder trial that she collected a few drops of blood from Ibrahim Ali’s finger on Sept. 9, 2018, two days after his arrest and almost 14 months after the girl’s body was found. Ali has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of the teen.The body of the girl, who can’t be named because of a publication ban, was found in Burnaby’s Central Park early on July 19, 2017, just hours after her mother reported her missing.Crown witness and RCMP forensic biologist Christine Crossman testified last month that police obtained a DNA sample from Ali from a discarded cigarette in August 2018 and matched it to an unknown male’s genetic material found on the girl’s body.The...

Hundreds of Palestinian protesters rally in downtown Chicago

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

CHICAGO -- Hundreds of protesters from the Palestinian American community called an emergency protest in Chicago after Tuesday's hospital explosion in Gaza.Just after 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of downtown Chicago after meeting at Federal Plaza and began walking towards the Israeli Consulate. For more coverage of the Israel and Hamas Conflict, click here The organizers of the rally said they don't believe Israel when it says it didn’t strike the hospital, even though the current U.S. intelligence assessment is that Israel was not responsible.Israel claims the Islamic Jihad militant group misfired a rocket within Gaza and caused the blast that killed hundreds of innocent people.Roughly 2,800 Palestinians have been reported killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. An additional 1,200 people are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said. Those numbers predate the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday.Many p...

Illinois Congressman rips Texas governor for 'man-made crisis' amid migrant bus influx in Chicago

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

CHICAGO — As Democratic cities deal with a flood of migrants thanks to Republican Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star bussing program, one Democratic Congressman is calling for a Justice Department probe of the Texas governor.On Wednesday came a new effort to stop Texas Governor Greg Abbott from bussing migrants and asylum seekers to sanctuary cities.Congressman Jonathan Jackson, who represents Chicago’s South Side, wants the Justice Department and Homeland Security to investigate what he calls "alien smuggling," being carried out under the direction of Governor Abbott. As Chicago migrant crisis strains resources, Johnson seeks additional support "Republican Governor Abbott in Texas who is politically exploiting and commercially manipulating this vulnerable population," Jackson said. "He’s sending these asylum-seekers outside of the normal immigration processing channel."In a letter to the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security, Jackson writes, “Simply put, the migrant ...

FBI crime statistics show anti-LGBTQ hate crimes on the rise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

(The Hill) — Anti-LGBTQ hate crimes rose sharply in 2022, jumping more than 19 percent over 2021, according to the FBI’s annual crime report released Monday.More than 11,600 hate crime incidents were reported to the FBI in 2022, the highest number recorded since the agency began tracking them in 1991. A majority of hate crimes recorded last year targeted Black people, according to the report.Hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people were up significantly compared to 2021, with 622 reported single-bias anti-LGBTQ hate crimes. Hate crimes motivated by an anti-transgender bias rose more than 35 percent year-over-year, reaching 338 incidents.Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ civil rights group, described the increase in hate crimes as “both shocking and heartbreaking, yet sadly, not unexpected.” Is crime going up in America? Some types are, new FBI data shows “The constant stream of hostile rhetoric from fringe anti-equality figures, alongsid...

Man chokes county attorney at town hall meeting in Virginia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

GLOUCESTER COURTHOUSE, Va. (WAVY) — Leaders in Gloucester County, Virginia, say meetings can sometimes get a little heated, but not like this. Video shows the county attorney being choked by a resident at an Oct. 4 town hall meeting."This town hall meeting was for all the citizens that wanted to come out and voice their opinions, and that's just not what happened," Chris Hutson, chairman of the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors, said. "It just escalated."Deputies were called to the meeting at Page Middle School around 8:40 p.m.Through a Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Nexstar's WAVY obtained cell phone video that shows Gloucester County resident Lawrence Cohen choking Gloucester County Attorney Edwin N. "Ted" Wilmot. With one hand around Wilmot's throat and the other still holding onto the microphone, you can hear Cohen say, "You've had enough. Let go of me. You are attacking me." Another person intervenes and breaks it up.It began when Cohen got his turn to...

Elgin ISD adds required armed security guards to district schools

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

ELGIN, Texas (KXAN) — Elgin ISD schools now have armed security guards, after a Texas law required districts across the state to improve security. The law, House Bill 3, mandates the presence of at least one armed security officer on every school campus during regular school hours. The exact number is left up to the districts. KXAN INVESTIGATES: Multiple Texas school districts claim exemption to armed officer requirement The Elgin ISD Board of Trustees contracted with security firm Texas Public Safety and Investigations (TXPSI) on Sept. 18. The guards began their work in Elgin schools on Tuesday.“We appreciate our school board’s support and work to ensure our schools are safe,” said Bridgette Cornelius, Elgin ISD's executive director of safety and risk management, in a press release.That press release also states that the guards "hold non-commissioned and commissioned security licenses with Texas Department of Public Safety, and are certified in CPR, first aid, and AED (Automate...

Search warrant: Couple suspected of selling meth before 5 officers shot in Benton County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

Drug task force officers suspected a central Minnesota couple of selling methamphetamine when they raided their house in an operation that left five officers and one resident wounded last week, according to a search warrant released Wednesday.Gunfire broke out last Thursday when Sherburne County Drug Task Force officers attempted to execute the search warrant at the home of Karl Thomas Holmberg, 64. He was charged the next day with six counts of attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer and six counts of first-degree assault of a peace officer.It wasn’t immediately clear from the documents available Wednesday whether investigators found any drugs at the home, but at least one more warrant had not been released as of Wednesday evening.Karl Thomas Holmberg, 64, is charged with shooting five law enforcement officers serving a drug-related search warrant at his rural Benton County, Minn., home on Oct. 12, 2023. (Forum News Service)A second warrant released showed that polic...

Here are four films worth checking out at the Twin Cities Film Festival

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:10 GMT

The Twin Cities Film Festival, which runs through Oct. 28, offers a slate of more than 140 films, 30 percent of which have a Minnesota connection. And more than 50 films are also available for streaming.Single tickets as well as passes for both online and in-person screenings are available via twincitiesfilmfest.org. The festival takes place at the Showplace ICON Theaters at The Shops at West End in St. Louis Park.Here’s a look at four films worth catching:“The Holdovers”: Writer/director Alexander Payne made his name through a series of widely acclaimed films, including “Election” (1999), “About Schmidt” (2002), “Sideways” (2004) and “The Descendants” (2011). He also won best adapted screenplay Oscars for the latter two. But his career slumped for much of the past decade, when several projects fell apart and the one movie he released, 2017’s “Downsizing,” earned scathing reviews. But the warm reception given to “The Holdovers” on the festival circuit suggests Payne is b...