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Robbins: Loyal Afghan allies still waiting for safety they deserve

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

“America,” wrote novelist Thomas Wolfe, “is a fabulous country, the only fabulous country; it is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time.” We’re having more than our share of trouble doing the fundamentally right things, let alone achieving miracles. But a properly bipartisan bill pending before Congress would at least do the fundamentally right thing for tens of thousands of Afghans, most of them women and children, whose families risked their lives helping us confront Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and who now depend on us to offer them the permanent safety they deserve.In the 20 years following Sept. 11, 2001, untold numbers of Afghans chose to help American forces attempt to ensure that the kind of mass murder visited upon us when planes smashed into lower Manhattan never happened again. They were drivers, interpreters, soldiers, nurses, social workers, cooks, construction workers and more, and they enlisted alongside our own men and women se...

Boulders 'about as big as a school bus' fall onto I-8

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

Rockslide impacting traffic between San Diego, Imperial Counties. (Caltrans San Diego)Rockslide impacting traffic between San Diego, Imperial Counties. (Caltrans San Diego)Rockslide impacting traffic between San Diego, Imperial Counties. (Caltrans San Diego)Rockslide impacting traffic between San Diego, Imperial Counties. (Caltrans San Diego)SAN DIEGO — A rockslide on Interstate 8 in rural East County is impacting traffic for drivers between San Diego and Imperial counties.According to Caltrans, a large boulder and rubble was blocking traffic on I-8, near In-Ko-Pah Park Road Sunday.One-way traffic control was put in place by Caltrans crews as they work to clear the rockslide from the freeway. As of noon Monday, these measures were still in effect."Caltrans crews on EB I-8 near In-Ko-Pah trying to remove the boulders that are about as big as a school bus," Caltrans said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. PHOTOS: Tropical Storm Hilary moves through San Diego Officials said t...

13 people rescued from flooding in San Diego riverbed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego Fire-Rescue crews saved over a dozen people from a flooded riverbed in Mission Valley, as the back end of Tropical Storm Hilary continues to drop heavy rains on the region.The incident was reported along the San Diego River at approximately 8:12 p.m. nearby the Morena bridge, according to SDFD. A total of 31 personnel were dispatched to the scene, including California Office of Emergency Services swift water rescue teams.As of 10:30 p.m., a total of 13 people were rescued from the riverbed. A few people were received of medical attention, but none were transported to a hospital, according to SDFD. No other injuries have been reported as of Sunday night. MORE: Tracking Hilary Several of the victims walked out of the water on their own, SDFD said, with one coming out of knee-deep water. The rest were guided out with the assistance of first responders.Tropical Storm Hilary, which pummeled most of Southern California on Sunday with widespread rainfall and gusty ...

San Diego River still experiencing flooding from Tropical Storm Hilary

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Hilary may have passed through San Diego County, but the impact of the storm remained Monday, with flooding and damage reported around the region.The San Diego River in Mission Valley was one such area that was still experiencing heavy flooding from the record-breaking rain.According to the National Weather Service, the river had reached 8.95 feet in height at 10:15 p.m. Sunday near Fashion Valley, marking the highest summertime height ever recorded at that location. PHOTOS: Tropical Storm Hilary moves through San Diego Sunday night, 13 people were saved from the riverbed after getting stuck in the flooded water. No injuries were reported form the incident.Swift water rescue teams were still on standby Monday morning as the riverbed was still flowing through the streets of Mission Valley with a constant stream.While many of the surrounding roads along the San Diego River in Mission Valley are prone to flooding when heavy rain hits the region, the flooding was more wide...

How a mix of natural and human-caused factors cooked up Tropical Storm Hilary’s soggy mess

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

A natural El Nino, human-caused climate change, a stubborn heat dome over the nation’s midsection and other factors cooked up Tropical Storm Hilary’s record-breaking slosh into California and Nevada, scientists figure.Cooked up is the key phrase, since hot water and hot air were crucial in rapidly growing Hilary and then steering the storm on an unusual path that dumped 10 months of rain in a single weekend in normally bone-dry places. Nearly a foot of rain fell along a couple Southern California mountains while cities smashed summertime records.“It was a combination of sort of a perfect situation of everything coming together in a way that made the storm possible,” said University of Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero, an expert on Pacific hurricanes.It’s never easy to attribute a single event to climate change, especially so quickly and with El Nino being a prominent factor, said former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane and climate scientist Ji...

2nd person found dead in eastern Washington wildfires, hundreds of structures burned

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

A second person has died in wildfires in eastern Washington state that ignited on Friday during red flag conditions, burning hundreds of structures and closing a section of a major interstate for days, fire officials said.A body was found in the area burned by the Oregon fire north of Spokane on Sunday afternoon, fire officials told The Associated Press on Monday.Another person died in connection with the Gray fire that started Friday west of Spokane, officials said on Saturday. Gov. Jay Inslee visited the burned areas Sunday and declared a statewide emergency because of those fires — which have destroyed at least 265 structures — and others that combined have burned more than 53 square miles (137 square kilometers) around the state this year. Inslee said Monday he had talked with President Joe Biden and Federal Emergency Management Administrator Deanne Criswell about securing federal dollars to help with firefighting efforts. “I appreciated President Biden’s call this morning to sh...

San Francisco Archdiocese declares bankruptcy amid hundreds of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s Roman Catholic archdiocese filed for bankruptcy Monday, saying the filing is necessary to manage more than 500 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by church officials.The Chapter 11 protection filing will stop all legal actions against the archdiocese and thus allow it to develop a settlement plan with abuse survivors, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a statement.“The unfortunate reality is that the Archdiocese has neither the financial means nor the practical ability to litigate all of these abuse claims individually, and therefore, after much consideration, concluded that the bankruptcy process was the best solution for providing fair and equitable compensation to the innocent survivors who have been harmed,” Cordileone said.The San Francisco Archdiocese is the third Bay Area diocese to file for bankruptcy after facing hundreds of lawsuits brought under a California law approved in 2019 that allowed decades-old claims to be filed by Dec...

Manager with Colorado cannabis business is tapped to lead New Mexico’s team of marijuana regulators

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A manager with one of Colorado’s largest cannabis companies will serve as the next director of New Mexico’s Cannabis Control Division. New Mexico announced the hiring of Todd Stevens on Monday, saying he has years of experience working in Colorado’s marijuana industry. He most recently served as the manager of training and development at Native Roots Cannabis Co.Stevens’ appointment follows a year of turnover at the division and comes as regulators try to ramp up enforcement against non-compliant businesses. Most recently, a state district judge granted the division’s request to halt operations at an Albuquerque business that regulators claimed was unlawfully selling out-of-state cannabis products and manufacturing extracts without a proper license or permit. Stevens said in a statement that he wanted to help the industry become an economic driver while protecting consumer safety.“In the past year, New Mexico has established a thriving new industry, licensed mo...

Knicks suing Raptors over ex-employee taking proprietary information

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

The New York Knicks say they have sued the Toronto Raptors organization as well as several members of their staff for taking and using proprietary files, an MSG spokesperson told Sportsnet on Monday.“The New York Knicks have sued the Toronto Raptors and several members of their organization, including a former Knicks employee after the former employee illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position with the Toronto Raptors,” MSG said in a statement.“These files include confidential information such as play frequency reports, a prep book for the 2022-23 season, video scouting files and materials and more. Given the clear violation of our employment agreement, criminal and civil law, we were left no choice but to take this action.”The Raptors said they were made aware of the initial complaint last Thursday in a letter from MSG but have not been advised that a lawsuit has been filed.“MLSE responded promptly, making clear our inte...

Arkansas education secretary says state to review districts’ AP African American Studies materials

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:55 GMT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas’ top education official on Monday told school districts offering an Advanced Placement African American Studies course to send in their course materials for review, citing concerns the class may not comply with a state law restricting how race is taught in the classroom.Education Secretary Jacob Oliva sent the letter to the five districts that have said they will continue teaching the class after the state said it was not an approved course and would not count toward a student’s graduation credit. Oliva has said since it’s a pilot program, the state has not been able to vet the course to determine if it complies with the law prohibiting “critical race theory” from being taught at schools.The state had previously said the districts could offer the course as a local elective. The districts have said they’ll continue teaching the course at six schools and that it will count toward students’ grade point averages.“Given some of th...