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Today: January 21, 2025
Today: January 21, 2025
The Los Angeles Post

The Los Angeles Post

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Health

North Carolina measure limiting LGBTQ+ curriculum heading to governor's desk

North Carolina lawmakers on Thursday finalized legislation touted by Republicans as giving parents greater authority over their children’s public school education and health care, with limits on LGBTQ+ instruction in early grades a key provision. The Senate, which passed the measure the day after the House pushed through some alterations, now heads to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is expected to veto it. The bill also would require public school teachers in most circumstances to alert parents before they call a student by a different name or pronoun. The provision prohibiting instruction about gender identity and

North Carolina measure limiting LGBTQ+ curriculum heading to governor's desk
Arts

National Geographic will end newsstand sales of magazine next year, focus on subscriptions, digital

The familiar yellow-bordered cover of the monthly National Geographic will no longer be for sale on newsstands starting next year, part of cutbacks affecting the venerable magazine. The company’s focus is turning to its digital product and it will offer special editions on newsstands, a spokesman said on Thursday. Subscribers will still get a printed copy each month. Newsstand sales account for a small percentage of the magazine’s monthly circulation of just below 1.8 million copies, the magazine said. Even a magazine that started publishing in 1888 isn’t immune to financial headwinds affecting the media. Known

National Geographic will end newsstand sales of magazine next year, focus on subscriptions, digital
World

Anti-gang community defense activist Hipólito Mora slain in Mexico

The leader of an armed civilian movement that once drove a drug cartel out of the western Mexico state of Michoacan has been killed, authorities confirmed Thursday. Tributes quickly rolled in for slain “self defense” leader Hipólito Mora. He was one of the last surviving leaders of Michoacan’s armed vigilante movement, in which farmers and ranchers banded together to expel the Knights Templar cartel from the state between 2013 and 2014. Mora was one of the few fighters to reman in his hometown after the struggle, tending to his lime groves. But Mora complained in recent

Anti-gang community defense activist Hipólito Mora slain in Mexico
World

Affirmative action is out in higher education. What comes next for college admissions?

Colleges across the country will be forced to stop considering race in admissions under Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, ending affirmative action policies that date back decades. Schools that have relied on race-conscious admissions policies to build diversity will have to rethink how they admit students. It’s expected to result in campuses that have more white and Asian American students and fewer Black and Hispanic students. The impact of the decision will be felt most strongly at the nation’s most selective colleges, which have been more likely to consider race as one of many factors in admissions. But some less selective

Affirmative action is out in higher education. What comes next for college admissions?
Arts

Rapper Travis Scott will not face criminal charges in deadly crowd surge at Texas festival

A Texas grand jury declined to indict rap superstar Travis Scott in a criminal investigation of a deadly crowd surge at the 2021 Astroworld festival, where some spectators were packed so tightly they could not move their arms or even breathe, his attorney and prosecutors said Thursday. Lawyer Kent Schaffer confirmed that the Harris County grand jury had met and decided not to indict his client on any criminal charges stemming from the concert. “He never encouraged people to do anything that resulted in other people being hurt,” Schaffer said, adding that the decision is “a great

Rapper Travis Scott will not face criminal charges in deadly crowd surge at Texas festival
Political

In the Supreme Court chamber, the subject was race, the mood was somber, the criticism harsh

Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the Supreme Court ruling striking down race-based admissions in higher education, but it was the three justices who make the court the most diverse in its 233-year history who marked the stark, embittered battle lines over affirmative action. It was a moment heavy with history and emotion. Clarence Thomas, the longest serving justice and the court’s second Black justice, read a concurring opinion from the bench, pointedly rejecting the validity of using race as the basis for preferential consideration. He was followed by Sonia Sotomayor, its first Latina, whose dissenting opinion took

In the Supreme Court chamber, the subject was race, the mood was somber, the criticism harsh
Health

Here's how to keep cool and stay safe during a heat wave

Scorching heat across the U.S. already has caused more than a dozen deaths in Texas alone and led to mounting misery for millions of people from the Pacific Northwest to the South. And the official end of summer is still months away. Here’s a guide on how to keep cool and stay safe in the punishing temperatures as the latest heat wave ravaging the country spreads east. WHY IS EXTREME HEAT DANGEROUS? Heat kills more Americans than any other weather event, including tornadoes and flooding, even though most heat-related deaths are preventable through outreach and intervention,

Here's how to keep cool and stay safe during a heat wave
Health

Here's how to keep cool and stay safe during a heat wave

Scorching heat across the U.S. already has caused more than a dozen deaths in Texas alone and led to mounting misery for millions of people from the Pacific Northwest to the South. And the official end of summer is still months away. Here’s a guide on how to keep cool and stay safe in the punishing temperatures as the latest heat wave ravaging the country spreads east. WHY IS EXTREME HEAT DANGEROUS? Heat kills more Americans than any other weather event, including tornadoes and flooding, even though most heat-related deaths are preventable through outreach and intervention,

Here's how to keep cool and stay safe during a heat wave
Political

Man wanted on Jan. 6 charges arrested with weapons near Barack Obama's Washington home

A man armed with explosive materials and weapons, and wanted for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was arrested Thursday in the Washington neighborhood where former President Barack Obama lives, law enforcement officials said. Taylor Taranto, 37, was spotted by law enforcement a few blocks from the former president’s home and fled, though he was chased by U.S. Secret Service agents. Taranto has an open warrant on charges related to the insurrection, two law enforcement officials said. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing case and spoke

Man wanted on Jan. 6 charges arrested with weapons near Barack Obama's Washington home
Political

Police body camera ramp up started a decade ago. How well have they worked?

Body cameras have proliferated in law enforcement agencies in the U.S. over the past decade, amid mounting scrutiny over how officers and agents interact with the communities they serve. They’re forcing major changes in how policing is done, even as research is mixed on their effectiveness. The Associated Press on Thursday sat in on a discussion of the law-enforcement tool with representatives from more than 200 agencies nationwide, hosted by the think tank Police Executive Research Forum. New York City became one of the first large departments to adopt body cameras in 2013 after a federal court

Police body camera ramp up started a decade ago. How well have they worked?
Health

New Mexico regulators fine oil producer $40 million for burning off vast amounts of natural gas

New Mexico oilfield and air quality regulators on Thursday announced unprecedented state fines against a Texas-based oil and natural gas producer on accusations that the company flouted local pollution reporting and control requirements by burning off vast amounts of natural gas in a prolific energy-production zone in the southeast of the state. The New Mexico Environment Department announced a $40.3 million penalty against Austin, Texas-based Ameredev, alleging the burning caused excessive emissions in 2019 and 2020 at five facilities in New Mexico’s Lea County near the town of Jal. Regulators raised concerns about the excess

New Mexico regulators fine oil producer $40 million for burning off vast amounts of natural gas
Education

A 2003 Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action planted the seeds of its overturning, as justices then and now thought racism an easily solved problem

The Supreme Court issued a decision on June 29, 2023, that ends affirmative action in college admissions. Drew Angerer/Getty Images In an anticipated but nonetheless stunning decision expected to have widespread implications on college campuses and workplaces across the country, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, 2023, outlawed affirmative action programs that were designed to correct centuries of racist disenfranchisement in higher education. In the majority opinion about the constitutionality of admissions programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Harvard’s and UNC’s race-based admission guidelines “cannot be

A 2003 Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action planted the seeds of its overturning, as justices then and now thought racism an easily solved problem
World

A new pro women's hockey league is set to launch in January in North America, ending a long standoff

Organizers announced plans Friday to launch a new women’s professional hockey league in January that they hope will provide a stable, economically respectable home for the sport’s top players for years to come. The North American league has many unanswered questions — how many teams, where they will play, will the economic model work after earlier leagues fell short — but an initial framework is in place. The effort also has deep pockets behind it: Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and wife Kimbra, team President Stan Kasten and tennis legend Billie Jean King will help run the league. “Over

A new pro women's hockey league is set to launch in January in North America, ending a long standoff
Political

Biden talks Supreme Court and Russia but also media and McCain in rare network interview

President Joe Biden rarely gives network interviews, and when he sat down in the MSNBC studio on Thursday, it came at an especially busy time, with the Supreme Court having just overturned the use of affirmative action in college admissions and in the aftermath of a revolt in Russia. The nearly 20-minute conversation addressed those matters. But it also veered heavily into topics like criticism of the media and light-hearted discussion of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who was a friend of Biden’s. When Donald Trump was president, he was criticized for giving interviews to

Biden talks Supreme Court and Russia but also media and McCain in rare network interview
Health

In rural India, summer's heat can be deadly. Ambulance crews see the toll up close

Siren blaring, Sunil Kumar Naik’s ambulance tore across a dry and rocky countryside blasted by dangerous midday heat, rushing to check on a vomiting and dizzy 30-year-old man with possible heat stroke. As soon as they reached the man’s village, Naik’s paramedic partner guided the stricken man into the ambulance, then checked his pulse and oxygen levels as Naik sped back to the public hospital. With barely a moment to drink some water and splash their faces, the men were dispatched again, this time to pick up a pregnant woman who had gone into labor as

In rural India, summer's heat can be deadly. Ambulance crews see the toll up close
World

600 arrested and 200 police officers hurt on France's 3rd night of protests over teen's killing

Protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police in French streets overnight as tensions grew over the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old that has shocked the nation. More than 600 people were arrested and at least 200 police officers injured as the government struggled to restore order on a third night of unrest. Armored police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot the teen identified only by his first name, Nahel. On the

600 arrested and 200 police officers hurt on France's 3rd night of protests over teen's killing
World

Jersey Shore towns say state's marijuana law handcuffs police and emboldens rowdy teens

It’s summer on the Jersey Shore. For many young people, that means one thing: Party time! But officials and residents of several beachside towns say New Jersey’s criminal justice reforms in recent years — such as decriminalizing marijuana use — are having an unintended effect, emboldening large groups of teenagers to run amok on beaches and boardwalks, knowing there’s little chance they’ll get in trouble for it. Now, some lawmakers are trying to walk back parts of those laws, which also involve alcohol use and possession. The laws were designed to keep more juveniles out

Jersey Shore towns say state's marijuana law handcuffs police and emboldens rowdy teens
World

The world's tallest flagpole. A tiny Maine town. An idea meant to unite people is dividing them

Lobster boat engines rumble to life in quiet coves. Lumberjacks trudge deep into the woods. Farmers tend expanses of wild blueberries. Maine’s Down East region is where the sunlight first kisses the East Coast of the United States each day, where the vast wilderness and ocean meet in one of the last places on the East Coast unspoiled by development. Which makes it a striking backdrop to one family’s bold vision for the region: a flagpole jutting upward from the woodlands toward spacious skies — the tallest one ever, reaching higher than the Empire State

The world's tallest flagpole. A tiny Maine town. An idea meant to unite people is dividing them
World

Aces rout Liberty 98-81 in a matchup of marquee WNBA teams for their seventh straight win

Becky Hammon wasn’t going to put too much into the Las Vegas Aces’ rout of the New York Liberty in the first meeting between two of the top teams in the WNBA. “We’re in June still. We’re not banking too much on this,” Hammon said after the 98-81 win Thursday night. “Feels better than losing. At the end of the day we have a lot of basketball left to be played.” It was the seventh consecutive win for the Aces (14-1), who have been nearly unstoppable this season on offense, averaging nearly 93 points a game.

Aces rout Liberty 98-81 in a matchup of marquee WNBA teams for their seventh straight win
Health

Heat waves like the one that's killed 14 in the southern US are becoming more frequent and enduring

Heat waves like the one that engulfed parts of parts of the South and Midwest and killed more than a dozen people are becoming more common, and experts say the extreme weather events, which claim more lives than hurricanes and tornados, will likely increase in the future. A heat dome that pressured the Texas power grid and killed 13 people there and another in Louisiana pushed eastward Thursday and was expected to be centered over the mid-South by the weekend. Heat index levels of up to 112 degrees (44 Celsius) were forecast in parts of Florida over

Heat waves like the one that's killed 14 in the southern US are becoming more frequent and enduring
World

Arizona city holds 10-year remembrance for 19 firefighters who died in the Yarnell Hill Fire

It was one of the deadliest wildland fires ever in the U.S., killing 19 members of an elite central Arizona firefighting crew in 2013 after flames trapped them in a brush-choked canyon. The city of Prescott and the neighboring town of Yarnell marked a decade without the fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots on Friday with separate events. In Prescott, the downtown Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza was flooded with attendees, first responders from all over the country and dignitaries including Gov. Katie Hobbs. Portraits of each firefighter were on display as an honor guard opened the ceremony. Each name was read to

Arizona city holds 10-year remembrance for 19 firefighters who died in the Yarnell Hill Fire
Political

Trump, DeSantis among 2024 GOP hopefuls set to appear at Moms for Liberty gathering

Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the main rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, are scheduled to speak Friday at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a two-year-old group that has fiercely opposed instruction related to race and gender identity in the nation’s classroom. The group, which has quickly become a force in conservative politics, advocates “ parental rights ” in education, but an anti-hate watchdog has labeled it “ extremist ” for allegedly harassing community members, advancing anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and fighting to scrub diverse and inclusive material from lesson plans. Former U.N.

Trump, DeSantis among 2024 GOP hopefuls set to appear at Moms for Liberty gathering
World

Ukraine aims to wear down and outsmart a Russian army distracted by infighting

The ambush had been postponed three times before Ukrainian commanders decided one recent night that conditions were finally right. Cloaked in darkness, a battalion of Kyiv’s 129th brigade pressed ahead, advancing stealthily on unsuspecting Russian soldiers. By the time the Russians situated along the front line realized they were under attack, it was too late. Ukraine’s recapture of the small village of Neskuchne in the eastern Donetsk region on June 10 encapsulates the opening strategy of a major counteroffensive launched earlier this month. Small platoons bank on the element of surprise and, when successful, make incremental

Ukraine aims to wear down and outsmart a Russian army distracted by infighting
World

Ukraine has an array of new Western weapons. What advantages could they offer in a counteroffensive?

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine’s military was largely reliant on Soviet-era weaponry, from tanks to artillery to fighter jets. While that arsenal helped Ukraine fend off an assault on the capital of Kyiv and prevent a total rout in the early weeks of the war, billions of dollars in military assistance has since poured into the country, including more modern Western-made weapons. Ukraine’s counteroffensive, now in its early stages, could offer a glimpse of whether and to what extent the newer weapons systems have strengthened Kyiv’s ability to stand up to Russia. Analysts are cautiously optimistic. “Ukraine

Ukraine has an array of new Western weapons. What advantages could they offer in a counteroffensive?
Political

Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling leaves colleges looking for new ways to promote diversity

The Supreme Court has sent shockwaves through higher education with a landmark decision that struck down affirmative action and left colleges across the nation searching for new ways to promote student diversity. Leaders of scores of universities said Thursday that they were disappointed by what they see as a blow to diversity. Yet many also voiced optimism that they would find new ways to admit more Black and Hispanic students, despite evidence that eliminating the practice often leads to steep enrollment decreases among them. President Joe Biden said he disagreed with the decision and asked the Education

Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling leaves colleges looking for new ways to promote diversity

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