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Maui County police find additional remains, raising Lahaina wildfire death toll to 99

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — The death toll for the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century has increased by one, to 99, after Maui County police found additional remains.The remains were recovered on Oct. 12 in Lahaina, police spokesperson Alana Pico said in an email Friday. An autopsy and forensic examination verified that they were not from a previously recovered individual. So far police have identified the remains of 97 people from the Aug. 8 fire that wiped out much of Lahaina, a historic town on Maui’s west coast. The remains of two people have yet to be identified. Seven people are still missing. The wildfire started in a grassy area in Lahaina’s hills. Powerful winds related to a hurricane passing to Hawaii’s south carried embers from house to house and hampered firefighting efforts. More than 2,000 buildings were destroyed, and some 8,000 people were forced to move to hotels and other temporary shelter. The Associated Press

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians pops up in southern Gaza, reawakening old traumas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — When the sun rose on Friday and the autumn heat baked the rotten debris on Gaza’s streets, Mohammed Elian emerged from the zipper hole of his new canvas home. He — and hundreds of other Palestinians displaced by the latest war between Israel and Hamas — have crowded into a squalid tent camp in southern Gaza, an image that has brought back memories of their greatest trauma.Last week after the Israeli military ordered Elian’s family, along with more than 1 million other Palestinians, to evacuate the north, the smartly dressed 35-year-old graphic designer from Gaza City ended up homeless in the city of Khan Younis, with few comforts but thin mattresses, solar-powered phone chargers and whatever clothes and pots he could squeeze into his friend’s car. With nowhere else to go, Elian, his wife and four kids landed in the sprawling tent camp that cropped up this week as United Nations shelters overflowed in Gaza, where most people are already refu...

French intelligence points to Palestinian rocket, not Israeli airstrike, for Gaza hospital blast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

PARIS (AP) — An assessment by French military intelligence indicates the most likely cause of the deadly explosion at Gaza City’s al-Ahli hospital was a Palestinian rocket that carried an explosive charge of about 5 kilograms (11 pounds) and possibly misfired, a senior French military official said Friday.Several rockets in the arsenal of the Palestinian militant group Hamas carry explosive charges of about that weight, including an Iranian-made rocket and another that is Palestinian-made, the intelligence official said.None of their intelligence pointed to an Israeli strike, the official said.The official spoke on condition of anonymity, but was cleared to discuss the assessment by President Emmanuel Macron in what was described as an attempt to be transparent about the French intelligence findings. The assessment was based on classified information, satellite imagery, intelligence shared by other countries and open-source information, the official said.The size of the blast crater...

Gaza has long been a powder keg. Here’s a look at the history of the embattled region

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza has long been a powder keg, and it exploded after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7 and began killing and abducting people.More than 1,400 people in Israel — mostly civilians — were killed in the Hamas attack, and the Israeli army says about 200 hostages were taken into Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. Nearly half Gaza’s population — the vast majority of whom are already refugees — have been displaced. Israel has imposed a complete siege on Gaza, preventing the entrance of food, water and fuel — a move that has created a catastrophic humanitarian situation. As the Israeli military gears up for a ground invasion and pledges to topple Hamas, the futures of Gaza and its 2.3 million Palestinians look uncertain. Here’s a look at the history of the Gaza Strip:1948 – 1967: EGYPTBefore the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948, present-d...

Oklahoma attorney general sues to stop US’s first public religious school

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Friday sued to stop a state board from establishing and funding what would be the nation’s first religious public charter school after the board ignored Drummond’s warning that it would violate both the state and U.S. constitutions.Drummond filed the lawsuit with the Oklahoma Supreme Court against the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board after three of the board’s members this week signed a contract for the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School, which is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.“Make no mistake, if the Catholic Church were permitted to have a public virtual charter school, a reckoning will follow in which this state will be faced with the unprecedented quandary of processing requests to directly fund all petitioning sectarian groups,” the lawsuit states.The school board voted 3-2 in June to approve the Catholic Archdiocese’s application to establ...

Georgia Medicaid program with work requirement has enrolled only 1,343 residents in 3 months

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s new health plan for low-income adults has enrolled only 1,343 people through the end of September about three months after launching, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.The Georgia Department of Community Health has projected up to 100,000 people could eventually benefit from Georgia Pathways to Coverage. But the nation’s only Medicaid program that makes recipients meet a work requirement is off to a very slow start.“We will continue working to educate Georgians about Pathways’ innovative, first-of-its-kind opportunity and enroll more individuals in the months to come,” Kemp’s office said in a statement.The program’s creeping progress reflects fundamental flaws as compared to Medicaid expansions in other states, including the extra burden of submitting and verifying work hours, experts say. And some critics note it’s happening just as the state, as part of a federally mandated review, is kicking tens of thousands of pe...

Ohio embraced the ‘science of reading.’ Now a popular reading program is suing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The battle over how to teach reading has landed in court. With momentum shifting in favor of research-backed strategies known as the “science of reading,” states and some school districts have been ditching once popular programs amid concerns that they aren’t effective. A legal fight in Ohio centers on a state ban of material that uses a common technique called three-cueing. It involves encouraging students to draw on meaning, sentence structure and visual clues to identify words, asking questions like: “What is going to happen next?,” “What is the first letter of the word?” or “What clues do the pictures offer?”The technique is a key part of the Reading Recovery program used in more than 2,400 U.S. elementary schools. The Reading Recovery Council of North America filed a lawsuit earlier this month, saying lawmakers infringed on the powers of state and local education boards by using a budget bill to ban three-cueing. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, blaste...

Local Islamic leader: Muslim hate today worse than 'the post 9/11 environment'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

***Warning: The contents of this story may be harmful or traumatizing to some audiences.***CHICAGO — In the wake of the recent war between Israel and Hamas, local Islamic leaders from around Chicago said they are receiving reports of hate and threats made against local Muslims at a rate worse than "the post-9/11 environment."In a press release Friday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Chicago said they sought to address examples of recent hate-related incidents. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Suburban man faces hate crime charges after allegedly threatening to shoot 2 Muslim men “This is the worst I have ever seen in 20 years, including the post-911 environment. This time around, they are even targeting our children," said Ahmed Rehab, CAIR Chicago Executive Director. "The level of blind hatred and depravity we are witnessing should not be on us to condemn and prevent, that’s on our nation’s leaders on whose watch this America is emerging."Al Aqsa School in Bridgeview clos...

HS football brawl leads to one-week suspension for both teams, 'unfair and unjustified' says parent

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

CHICAGO — Community members are distressed after a brawl between two high school football teams last weekend resulted in both teams receiving a one game suspension, likely eliminating one of the teams from state playoff contention.Aspira Business and Finance High School and Rauner College Prep became involved in a large brawl near halftime at Winnemac Stadium Saturday, with Rauner College Prep up 35-0 at the time of the fight breaking out."It's just unfair and unjustified," said Eva Daniels, a parent of a player on Rauner Prep. "Our team had no choice but to defend themselves."No one was injured during the incident, but Daniels said Chicago police were called to intervene. More from Julian: Suspected arsonist targeting North Side Halloween decorations The Illinois High School Athletic Association issued the following statement: With both teams not having enough players to finish the game, the contest was called at halftime."Our sons had a lot at stake here. the players had a lot a...

Jussie Smollett enters rehab after 'extremely difficult past few years': TMZ

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

CHICAGO — Representatives for Jussie Smollett told TMZ that the actor is in a rehab treatment facility amid his attempt to appeal a hate crime hoax conviction.The entertainment media outlet reports that Smollett, 41, is in an outpatient program for substance abuse."Jussie has had an extremely difficult past few years," the actor's rep told TMZ. "He has quietly been working very hard for some time now and we are proud of him for taking these necessary steps."SEE ALSO: Illinois appeals court hears arguments on Jussie Smollett request to toss convictionsIn 2021, Smollett was found guilty of five felony counts of disorderly conduct. Prosecutors sought to prove that the former 'Empire' actor paid two brothers to stage a racist and homophobic attack on him so that he could gain notoriety. In 2022, a Cook County judge sentenced Smollett to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation, $120,106 in restitution to the city of Chicago, and a $25,000 fine. He would ultimately spend six nights ...