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Trump turns focus to Biden, hints again at skipping debates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

By Michelle L. Price and Jonathan J. Cooper | Associated PressMANCHESTER, N.H. — Former President Donald Trump turned his attention to the general election on Thursday, using his first campaign appearance since President Joe Biden launched his own reelection bid to boast of his poll numbers and suggest that he has no need to debate his Republican rivals.Trump’s appearance in New Hampshire marked his first return to an early voting state since his legal troubles increased with an indictment in New York. He spoke on the same day that his former vice president, Mike Pence, testified before a federal grand jury investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. Meanwhile, writer E. Jean Carroll testified for a second day Thursday in a civil rape case against Trump over an encounter in the 1990s, an allegation he denies.“We are a nation in serious decline, a nation that has lost its way,” Trump said at a downtown Manchester hotel, a smaller ven...

Antioch opens its first transitional housing for homeless residents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

Homeless advocate Nichole Gardner has brought hot home-cooked meals, blankets, tents and sleeping bags to the unhoused, sat with them in their encampments, and learned their names and stories. And now some of the people she calls friends will get a second chance through the city’s new transitional housing program.Unveiled Thursday morning, Antioch’s first-ever non-congregate shelter will be located at the former Executive Inn motel at 515 E. 18th St. and provide wraparound services geared toward the chronically homeless, many of whom have survived for years living in encampments along the riverfront or railroad tracks or under freeways.“It’s different when you know people and have built relationships with the people on the streets,” Gardner said, noting her excitement over the new center. “They’ve been there for a dozen years and I’ve seen them in the cold and the rain and in the extreme heat without water or food and seen them struggle.”Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who advocated for...

DNA from coffee cup leads to arrest in decades-old rapes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

By Celina Tebor, Gili Remen and Nouran Salahieh | CNNA Michigan man is facing felony charges after DNA from a coffee cup linked him to two rapes in different states from more than 20 years ago, a prosecutor said.Kurt Alan Rillema, 51, was arrested last week and arraigned in Michigan on charges of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He also faces felony charges in Pennsylvania, according to court documents.The charges are the latest stemming from advances in investigative genetic genealogy leading authorities to a suspect in a decades-old cold case.The first rape Rillema is accused of was reported at a golf course in Michigan in 1999. Someone came in through an employee-only door and sexually assaulted a young woman who was working at the course’s food stand, said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard at a news conference last week.Investigators at the time obtained DNA but didn’t have a suspect, the sheriff said.Then, another rape was reported in 2000 at ...

Longtime East Bay high school football coach steps down

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

Paul Perenon is stepping down as Mt. Eden’s head football coach after 13 seasons. Perenon, 70, joined the Hayward school in 2010 and led Mt. Eden to a 58-60-1 record and four trips to the North Coast Section playoffs. He said “uncertainty” in the program is the reason he is leaving but did not get into specifics.“There are great young men at this school, who need guidance and leadership … and a model for them to show how to be successful. We did that,” Perenon told the Bay Area News Group on Thursday.  Before his stint at Mt. Eden, Perenon coached Bishop O’Dowd’s football team from 1985-2009, where he led the Dragons to three NCS titles. While reflecting on his time at Mt. Eden, Perenon repeatedly said that his favorite part of coaching at the school was taking local kids and turning them into what he called great “scholar-athletes.”“When I was coaching here, I wanted to coach the kids who were here and wanted to be at Mt. Eden and play football in our program and understood w...

Swinging Oakland A’s homer twice off Ohtani, but fall to Angels and close in on April loss record

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

The A’s continue to flex the power rarely showed last season, but the losses still keep piling up.Brent Rooker hit a three-run homer and Shea Langeliers added a two-run shot in the fourth inning off Shohei Ohtani, but the Los Angels Angels two-way star endured that rough patch on the mound and also finished a home run shy of hitting for the cycle to send Oakland to a 8-7 road loss.The A’s have lost 12 of 14, and at 5-21 are one loss shy of matching the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for the most April defeats in major league history.The A’s have three more games remaining before the calendar turns to May, starting Friday night at the Coliseum in the opener of a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. It’s the first time the A’s will play at home since team officials announced they have agreed to purchase land for a potential stadium site off the Las Vegas Strip.The A’s, who hit the fourth-fewest home runs in the majors last season, homered in all s...

One Night in Washington, D.C., With George Santos

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

At the nondescript Admiral bar in Dupont Circle, there was no visible sign of the coming attraction, but maybe that was the point. He was marquee enough on his own, at least for a Wednesday night. A milieu of young conservatives, operatives, and House staffers were assembling to howl in the next-gen model of Donald Trump’s societal wrecking ball, and the name on everybody’s lips was George Santos.I was challenged on entry for failing to register as press but quickly spoke with the event manager of the Washington, D.C., Young Republicans, Isaac Smith, who towered over me broad-shouldered and glistening. “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone,” he smirked with William F. Buckley flare.Smith, an EMT by trade, saw carnage a plenty in his day job, and seemed eager for more as night fell and the hour of Santos’s appearance drew near. Following a national political trend, he confirmed, last year he and his cohort had successfully used the bylaws of the Young Republicans to ...

NFL Draft 2023 Live | Texans select C.J. Stroud No. 2

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The NFL draft has begun! The Carolina Panthers kicked off Thursday night’s proceedings by taking quarterback Bryce Young with the No. 1 pick. The events at Kansas City’s Union Station began at 1 p.m. Eastern and included a red carpet and musical acts highlighted by Fall Out Boy. The draft can be viewed on NFL Network, ABC, ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Follow for live updates from Associated Press reporters across the country (all times EST).What to know:— When, where and how to watch the NFL draft.— Mock Draft! See if your predictions are better than ours. ___8:25 p.m.The Houston Texans have selected C.J. Stroud with the No. 2 pick. Here are some things to know about the former Ohio State quarterback:He has elite accuracy and touch combined with good arm strength and size at 6-foot-3 and 214 pounds. He broke a Big Ten record held by Drew Brees by throwing 85 touchdown passes over two seasons. But while he’s flashed above-average athleticism, he has at times ...

Panthers take Bryce Young at No. 1 overall in NFL draft

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Panthers believe they’ve finally found their franchise quarterback.The Panthers selected Alabama’s Bryce Young with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft on Thursday night, the first time the team has selected a QB with the top overall pick since Cam Newton in 2011.He becomes the first Alabama player selected No. 1 overall since Harry Gilmer in 1948.“It’s a dream come true,” Young said. “I’m blessed. I want to thank God for allowing me to be here.’’Young was 30-4 as a starter during three seasons with the Crimson Tide, throwing for 8,356 yards with 80 touchdowns and only 12 interceptions. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2021 after tossing 47 TD passes and helping Alabama go 13-2 and reach the College Football Playoff national championship game.The 5-foot-10, 204-pound Young is considered small by NFL standards, and is just the third quarterback since the merger shorter than 6 feet to be selected in the first round, joining Kyler Murray ...

Texans get franchise QB, draft Ohio State’s Stroud at No. 2

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud was selected by the Houston Texans with the second overall pick in the NFL draf t Thursday night as the team addressed its most glaring need.Stroud was a two-year starter for the Buckeyes where he threw for 8,123 yards with 85 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions as Ohio State went 21-4. Stroud joins a team that has failed to find a reliable quarterback in the two seasons since Deshaun Watson requested a trade before being traded to the Cleveland Browns. Davis Mills has started most of the last two seasons, going 5-22-1 in 28 games with 26 starts as the Texans sunk to among the NFL’s worst teams. Stroud becomes the third quarterback Houston has selected in the first round, joining Watson, taken 12th in 2017 and David Carr, the team’s first draft pick who was the top overall pick in 2002. The Texans hired former player DeMeco Ryans to coach the team this offseason as they try to turn things around after winning just 11 games combined ...

Three found dead in Fairfax Co. home in apparent domestic shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:42 GMT

Two men and a woman were found dead in the basement of a Springfield, Virginia, home Thursday afternoon in what police said appeared to be a domestic shooting.Fairfax County Deputy Chief of Police for Investigations Eli Cory said the department got a call just after 3:45 p.m. from the housekeeper of a home in the 8500 block of Wild Spruce Drive. She told police she found three people dead in the basement of the house.Cory said police believe the housekeeper, a nanny and a 2-year-old child were the only other people home at the time of the shooting. All three are safe and accounted for, as are two other children who live in the home, but they weren’t there when the shooting happened.When officers showed up, they found a man, who appeared to be in his 40s, a woman in her 30s and a man who police said looked like he was in his 20s, all shot dead in the basement. The woman and the younger man both had multiple gunshot wounds to the upper body, according to Cory. The older man had ...