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To run or not to run? New California senator faces tough decision on whether to enter 2024 campaign

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — To run or not to run?The crowded, wide-open race to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in California has hit a suspenseful turn as candidates wait for newly appointed Sen. Laphonza Butler to decide if she will enter the 2024 contest for her seat after being picked to complete the remainder of Feinstein’s term.Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom installed Butler to fill the vacant post earlier this month, shortly after Feinstein died at 90 following a series of illnesses. The term ends in January 2025.Butler, a Democratic insider and former labor leader, had never held public office before joining the Senate. She now is considering whether to mount a campaign for a full, six-year term and join a contest that has been underway since January. It already features three prominent Democratic House members — Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee — and Republican Steve Garvey, a former baseball MVP who entered the race Tuesday.So far, Butler has been coy about...

Having ousted Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans are hitting trouble trying to nominate a new speaker

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stalemated over a new House speaker, the Republican majority is scheduled to convene behind closed doors to launch internal party voting but lawmakers warn it could take hours, if not days, to unite behind a nominee after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster.The two leading contenders Wednesday for the gavel, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, appear to be splitting the vote among their Republican colleagues. They outlined their visions at a lengthy candidate forum ahead of the private balloting.McCarthy, meanwhile, who had openly positioned himself to reclaim the job he just lost, told his colleagues not to nominate him this time. Instead, at Tuesday’s late evening candidate forum, he read a poem from Mother Teresa and delivered a unity prayer.“I don’t know how the hell you get to 218,” Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said afterward, referring to the majority vote typically needed to seize the gavel. “It could be a long week....

ACT test scores for US students drop to new 30-year low

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

High school students’ scores on the ACT college admissions test have dropped to their lowest in more than three decades, showing a lack of student preparedness for college-level coursework, according to the nonprofit organization that administers the test. Scores have been falling for six consecutive years, but the trend accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students in the class of 2023 whose scores were reported Wednesday were in their first year of high school when the virus reached the U.S.“The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” said Janet Godwin, chief executive officer for the nonprofit ACT. The average ACT composite score for U.S. students was 19.5 out of 36. Last year, the average score was 19.8.The average scores in reading, science and math all were below benchmarks the ACT says students must reach to have a high probability of success in first-year college courses....

Republicans are divided on far-right move to remove McCarthy as House speaker, an AP-NORC poll shows

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The unprecedented ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has left no consensus among Republicans about whether his removal was the right move as the party struggles to coalesce around a new leader, according to a new poll. Only one-quarter of Republicans say they approve of the stunning decision by a small group of House Republicans to remove the California lawmaker from his post during a vote last week. Three in 10 Republicans believe it was a mistake for a small faction of the party, and all Democrats, to support a motion ejecting McCarthy from the speakership.“It’s just chaos,” Betsy Young, a Republican from Oregon, told The Associated Press. “And I don’t think it’s helpful.” About 4 in 10 Republicans (43%) say they neither approve nor disapprove. That is according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted after McCarthy became the first speaker in history to be voted out of the role.The political uphea...

Quake in Afghanistan leaves rubble, funerals and survivors struggling with loss

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

ZINDA JAN, Afghanistan (AP) — Nurullah crossed the border into Iran to earn money for his family, like so many men from his village in western Afghanistan.On Sunday, he stood on the side of the road crying. The 55-year-old was heading home to bury his wife, three children and a grandchild killed a day before, when an earthquake left at least 2,000 people dead in Afghanistan’s Herat province. On Wednesday, another quake of the same magnitude struck nearby. It is not yet clear what further damage it caused to the already devastated region.The hearses arrived, following Nurullah’s directions to find the remote village, and mourners took the dead to the cemetery. Nurullah’s sister Maahzaad, 53, kept repeating her daughter’s name.She had a son, who she’d already lost to war and misfortune. Now she had lost her only remaining child, a young woman married three months earlier.Nurullah — many Afghans use only one name — got out of the car and people came over to welc...

Takeaways from Nuggets’ preseason opener at Phoenix Suns: Julian Strawther makes early pitch for playing time

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

The Nuggets defeated the Suns 115-107 in their 2023-24 preseason opener Tuesday night in Phoenix. Here are three takeaways from the defending champs’ return to NBA action.First glance at potential second unit?Four preseason games remain, and as Michael Malone has pointed out, he might feel inclined to keep tinkering with his bench unit after the real games start like last year. But the preseason opener did offer some grain-of-salt sense of a developing pecking order as interim coach David Adelman went 10 deep in a first half that seemed designed to vaguely simulate standard lineup substitutions. Denver’s starters — with the exception of Michael Porter Jr. (left ankle) — did actually start, as opposed to Phoenix not playing Devin Booker, Kevin Durant or Bradley Beal at all.The first two off the Nuggets’ bench were point guard Reggie Jackson and rookie forward Hunter Tyson. Soon after, Julian Strawther, Peyton Watson and Zeke Nnaji rounded out the second unit. Justin...

Anti-Semitic flyers distributed in Orange County

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

Anti-Semitic flyers were discovered in an Orange County community as the deadly attack by Hamas militants on Israel continues overseas.Residents in the city of Orange discovered the anti-Semitic flyers dispersed across their neighborhood and vehicles on Tuesday morning.Some of the flyers could still be seen on cars parked near Harwood Street and Chapman Avenue.“It's very disturbing,” said Kari Ratkevich, an Orange resident. “Someone is placing propaganda like this on our cars. It doesn't belong here and it doesn't belong in America.”The flyer features a headline saying, “Jews wage war on American freedoms!” while taking aim at the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-hate organization fighting anti-Semitism. The flyer then encourages the public to join a local nationalist group.Anti-semitic flyers were discovered in the city of Orange on Oct. 10, 2023. (KTLA)Anti-semitic flyers were discovered in the city of Orange on Oct. 10, 2023. (KTLA)Anti-semitic flyers were discovered in the city o...

Shooting, pursuit in Hollywood captured on video

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

Nearly a month after a fight outside a Hollywood nightclub that involved gunfire, a police shooting and a pursuit, a 25-year-old Los Angeles man has been arrested in connection with the incident, authorities announced Tuesday.  The dangerous incident unfolded on Sept. 9 outside of a club on the southwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Avenue at around 1:45 a.m., according to a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department.  Hollywood Division officers were flagged down by the nightclub’s security guards who pointed out a man who appeared to be causing a fight between patrons.  A portion of the fight, the shootings and the pursuit were captured on video released by LAPD.  The suspect, later identified as Albert Tamrazian, can be seen getting hit in the face by another person and knocked to the ground. He then walks into the street where his Mercedes Benz is parked, backs the vehicle into a turn and fires several rounds at people on the sidewalk from his d...

Man shot and robbed Monday night in South San Francisco

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO – A man was shot and robbed Monday night in South San Francisco, police said.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | San Mateo: 12-year-old boy arrested in connection with stabbing Crime and Public Safety | Suspects pistol-whip, rob victim of jewelry in Redwood City Crime and Public Safety | San Francisco police arrest suspects during blitz operations against retail theft Crime and Public Safety | Redwood City: Teenager arrested on suspicion of stabbing elderly man Crime and Public Safety | Five people arrested after beating, attempted stabbing in San Mateo Officers were called to the 200 block of Hillside Boulevard around 11:10 p.m. for a report of a person shot, the South San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.The victim was taken to San Francisco General Hospital with a gunshot wound to his lower leg.Police said the suspects got out of a black vehicle and demanded th...

Sunol school board refuses to reverse Pride flag ban as tensions simmer

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:48:18 GMT

The Sunol Glen School board declined to reverse their flag ban or affirm support for their superintendent on Tuesday night, in the first regularly scheduled board meeting since the controversial resolution was approved in September.Wearing cowboy boots, board president Ryan Jergensen opened the meeting by saying that he expected “a civil discussion.” And in fact, in contrast to the last two meetings, tempers seemed to have cooled slightly.Related ArticlesPolitics | Letters: Speed cameras | End occupation Politics | Biden condems ‘sheer evil’ of Hamas attack on Israel Politics | Letters: Russia’s direction | Workers for disabled Politics | EU warns Musk about penalties for misinformation on X Politics | Palestinians scramble for cover as Israel pounds Gaza Strip Sunol Glen, a tiny one-school district set in a bucolic valley south of Pleasanton, has become the Bay Area’s epicenter of an e...