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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton pursued perks beyond impeachment allegations, ex-staffers say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Unexplained Caribbean and European trips that cost taxpayers more than $90,000. A $600 sports coat paid for by an event organizer. A $45 office Christmas cake taken as his own.These are among the perks that Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ‘s former employees say he reveled in while using his office in ways that now have him facing a federal criminal investigation and potential ouster over allegations of corruption.Paxton’s impeachment trial that starts Tuesday covers years of highly publicized scandal, criminal charges and whistleblower accounts from his inner circle. But records obtained by The Associated Press, interviews with former aides and a review of thousands of legal filings reveal other ways in which Paxton allegedly reaped the benefits of being one of Texas’ most powerful figures. Together, they show how conviction and removal from office could cost Paxton not just a job but a lifestyle.Last year, that lifestyle included more ...

Tampa Bay area gets serious flooding but again dodges a direct hit from a major hurricane.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

Last year it was Hurricane Ian that drew a bead on Tampa Bay before abruptly shifting east to strike southwest Florida more than 130 miles (210 kilometers) away. This time it was Hurricane Idalia, which caused some serious flooding as it sideswiped the area but packed much more punch at landfall Wednesday, miles to the north.In fact, the Tampa Bay area hasn’t been hit directly by a major hurricane for more than a century. The last time it happened, there were just a few hundred thousand people living in the region, compared with more than 3 million today.“Tampa Bay avoided the worst again,” Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, said via email. “A lot of it comes down to luck. It’s happened before ( 1848, 1921 ) and will happen again.” Many in the area live in low-lying neighborhoods that are highly vulnerable to storm surge and flooding they have rarely before experienced, which some ...

Newsom plans to transform San Quentin State Prison. Lawmakers and the public have had little input

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has ambitious and expensive plans for a dilapidated factory at San Quentin State Prison where inmates of one of the nation’s most notorious lockups once built furniture, and lawmakers have given him the greenlight to start with little input or oversight. He wants to spend $360 million demolishing the building and replacing it with one more reminiscent of a college campus, with a student union, classrooms and possibly a coffee shop. It’s part of his desire to make San Quentin, once home to the nation’s largest death row and where the state performed executions, a model for preparing people for life on the outside — a shift from the state’s decades-long focus on punishment.And Newsom wants it all to happen by December 2025, just before he leaves office.A 21-member advisory council Newsom selected to help shape the new facility’s design and programming does not have to follow open meetings laws, while the Legislature traded away se...

What to know about the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Senate is set to gavel in Tuesday for the impeachment trial of state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a formal airing of corruption allegations that could lead Republican lawmakers to oust one of their own as lead lawyer for America’s largest red state.In May, the state House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach Paxton on articles including bribery and abuse of public trust. It was a sudden rebuke by the GOP-controlled chamber of a star of the conservative legal movement who has weathered years of scandal and alleged crimes.Paxton is only the third sitting official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to be impeached. The House vote suspended the 60-year-old from the office he used in 2020 to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral defeat of Donald Trump.Paxton decried the impeachment as a “politically motivated sham” and said he expects to be acquitted. His lawyers have said he won’t testify before the...

Groups seek to use the Constitution’s ‘insurrection’ clause to block Trump from 2024 ballots

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

As former President Donald Trump continues to dominate the Republican presidential primary, some liberal groups and a growing number of legal experts contend that a rarely used clause of the Constitution prevents him from being president after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.The 14th Amendment bars anyone from holding office who once took an oath to uphold the Constitution but then “engaged” in “insurrection or rebellion” against it. A growing number of legal scholars say the post-Civil War clause applies to Trump after his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and encouraging his backers to storm the U.S. Capitol.Two liberal nonprofits pledge court challenges should states’ election officers place Trump on the ballot despite those objections. The effort is likely to trigger a chain of lawsuits and appeals across several states that ultimately would lead to the U.S. Supreme Court, possibly in the midst of the 2024 primary season. The matter add...

California panel to vote on increasing storage at site of worst US methane leak despite risks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California officials are expected to vote Thursday on a proposal to increase storage capacity at the site of the nation’s largest known methane leak that sickened thousands of families and forced them from their Los Angeles homes in 2015.The proposal for the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility has sparked protests from residents, environmentalists and politicians, but utilities and state regulators say its necessary to guard against fuel price spikes this winter.“This is an unnecessary danger to people,” said Issam Najm, an environmental engineer and resident of Los Angeles’ Porter Ranch suburb, where thousands of residents were sickened by the leak.Each day the facility remains open, it is emitting cancer-causing chemicals including benzene, said Najm, citing reports by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the regulatory agency monitoring air pollution in the area.He and other opponents, including Democratic lawmakers, say the state should...

Tempers boil over at South Side meeting discussing migrant housing

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

CHICAGO — South Side residents voiced their opinions during a meeting Wednesday night centered around a plan to re-open a Kenwood hotel as a migrant shelter.According to city leadership, the Chicago Lake Shore Hotel will serve as a migrant shelter, housing up to 300 asylum-seekers, which could begin as early as Friday, Sept. 1.5th Ward Alderman Desmon Yancy led the emergency community meeting, which lasted two hours and became quite heated as city leaders shared their plan with residents.“Yelling and devolving into chaos isn’t going to get us anything,” Yancy said.Yancy told the crowd he only learned of plans to utilize the shelter for migrant housing last week, after the decision had already been made. He wanted to allow community members to share their thoughts and concerns, which is why he called the meeting. More from Courtney: ‘Now he’s a real angel:’ South Side community gathers to remember slain 14-year-old boy As city leaders attempted to answer questions, they were interr...

2 sentenced for role in dismemberment of homicide victim, whose remains were dumped in Lake Superior

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

GRAND MARAIS, Minn. — It’s been more than two years since St. Paul resident Ricky Balsimo Jr. was murdered on Father’s Day, driven hundreds of miles north, dismembered and callously tossed in Lake Superior, where those responsible believed he’d never be found.The plan likely would have succeeded if not for the persistence of the Balsimo family, who felt shunned by police and spent weeks pursuing their own investigation, ultimately helping bring the offenders to justice.Still, time has done little to heal the trauma, as evidenced by a pair of sentencings Tuesday in Cook County District Court.“I have to learn how to love and trust again,” his sister, Raquel Turner, said. “After this, I don’t know how to be a normal person. I don’t know how to get through a day without anger and hate.”Richard Anthony BalsimoTwo Northland residents who played active roles in covering up the murder after the fact were the first to receive their punishments, ahead of the killer’s sentencing next month.Rob...

Concert review: Yung Gravy’s Grandstand show lacking in momentum, talent

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be Yung Gravy. Don’t let them become spoiled white frat party habitues who spit out rapidly rhythmic rhymes that demean women at every opportunity, portraying them only as targets for conquest and domination.But if Rochester, Minn.’s, Matthew Hauri hadn’t invented Yung Gravy while a student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, an algorithm might have. Hauri’s degree is in marketing, and it’s easy to see his dorky playboy persona as just an exploitation scam directed at those in early adolescence, be it physically, emotionally or mentally. If you have any doubts about his priorities, you can find them explained in his biggest hit: “Betty (Get Money).”And it’s a fair assumption that Yung Gravy does clear a good amount of overhead, because he doesn’t employ musicians, just a DJ who turns the bass up to 11 so the curly-maned rapper’s misogynist lyrics don’t come out clearly in concert. But he’s certainly accrued a following, judging from the...

Takeaways from Rapids 3-0 loss to Minnesota United as Colorado falls to worst record in the league

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:55:50 GMT

The Colorado Rapids are staring at a 14’er-sized gap between them and the summit of the MLS standings.Colorado is firmly at the base of the table, now in last place.The Rapids lost 3-0 to Minnesota United Wednesday night at Allianz Field in St. Paul as it gave up all three goals inside the opening 45 minutes.After results elsewhere, Colorado now has the worst record in Major League Soccer (3-12-10, 19 points) as it is seriously in contention for a “mock-me” style trophy. Not the playoffs, but rather, “The Wooden Spoon”, awarded to the supporters whose teams finish at the bottom of the table.Here are two takeaways from the loss.Despondent, desperation inside locker roomFollowing the game, the always stoic Rapids head coach Robin Fraser gave a rare insight into the true reality of the locker room and did not hold back. It’s very bleak.“We play with a certain identity and I think given the situation we’re in right now, I don’t see t...