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Chicago man exonerated in 2011 murder case where legally blind eyewitness gave testimony

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

Darien Harris spent more than 12 years in an Illinois prison, convicted of murder in part on the testimony of an eyewitness who was legally blind.Harris, who was released from prison on Tuesday, was convicted in 2014 for the 2011 fatal shooting of a man at a gas station on Chicago’s South Side. His case is the latest in a dozen exonerations this year in Chicago’s Cook County, where defendants have been represented by attorneys with The Exoneration Project. “It does seem in the past few months there have been a larger number than usual,” said Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, a lecturer in law and staff attorney for The Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School.Since 2009, more than 200 people have been exonerated through the group’s work, according to data from the organization. About 150 of the convictions were tied to former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts, who regularly framed people for drug crimes they didn’t commit. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx...

Pacific storm that unleashed flooding barreling down on southeastern California

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A Pacific storm that pounded California’s coastal areas and stranded motorists was poised to pounce on the southeastern area of the state through Friday, bringing flood threats to a sweeping area extending from San Diego into the Mojave Desert and even into parts of Arizona.As millions of Californians scrambled to finish their holiday shopping or prepared to head out onto highways, the National Weather Service issued flood watches for low-lying urban areas and the deserts.Showers and thunderstorms could dump up to 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) of rain through the day, but the real concern was that some areas could be drenched with a half-inch to an inch (1.3 to 2.5 centimeters) of rain in just an hour, causing streams, creeks and rivers to overflow, the weather service said.On Thursday, motorists were stranded in their vehicles on flooded roadways northwest of Los Angeles.Downpours swamped areas in the cities of Port Hueneme, Oxnard and Santa Barbar...

For years, he couldn’t donate at the blood center where he worked. Under new FDA rules, now he can

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — Over the last six years, blood center employee Dylan Smith was often asked how frequently he gave blood himself. His answer was always the same: As a gay man, he couldn’t.That changed this month.Thanks to new federal guidelines finalized in May, gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can now donate at many blood centers around the country without abstaining from sex. Bloodworks Northwest, where Smith works as a donor services supervisor, adopted the change on Dec. 6. He and his partner gave blood for the first time the next day. “It’s been really emotionally difficult just to explain every single time the reason why,” said Smith, 28. “To be able to finally step up and support the mission that I really have just believed in since I started here just makes my heart feel so happy.”The new U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines are the latest step in a yearslong effort to reverse restrictions that were designed to protect the blood supply fr...

The war took away their limbs. Now bionic prostheses empower wounded Ukrainian soldiers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — When Alexis Cholas lost his right arm as a volunteer combat medic near the front lines in eastern Ukraine, his civilian career as a surgeon was over. But thanks to a new bionic arm, he was able to continue working in health care and is now a rehab specialist helping other amputees.The 26-year-old is delighted with his sleek black robotic arm — he described it as “love at first sight” — and realizes how lucky he was to get one. “There are fewer (bionic) arms available than lost ones,” Cholas said.Russia’s war on Ukraine has created a massive need for prosthetic limbs. An estimated 20,000 Ukrainians have had amputations since the war started in February 2022, many of them soldiers who lost arms or legs due to blast wounds.Only a small number was able to receive bionic prostheses, which are more advanced and can provide greater mobility than the traditional prosthetic limbs. They are also far more costly than conventional prostheses. Bionic artificial limbs typical...

Chatty robot helps seniors fight loneliness through AI companionship

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Joyce Loaiza lives alone, but when she returns to her apartment at a Florida senior community, the retired office worker often has a chat with a friendly female voice that asks about her day. A few miles away, the same voice comforted 83-year-old Deanna Dezern when her friend died. In central New York, it plays games and music for 92-year-old Marie Broadbent, who is blind and in hospice, and in Washington state, it helps 83-year-old Jan Worrell make new friends. The women are some of the first in the country to receive the robot ElliQ, whose creators, Intuition Robotics, and senior assistance officials say is the only device using artificial intelligence specifically designed to alleviate the loneliness and isolation experienced by many older Americans. “It’s entertaining. You can actually talk to her,” said Loaiza, 81, whose ElliQ in suburban Fort Lauderdale nicknamed her “Jellybean” for no particular reason. “She’ll make comments like, ‘I wou...

Rules aimed at long-contaminated groundwater drive California farmers and residents to court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

Near fields awash with strawberries and greens, Ileana Miranda and her family pay $72 a month to get water piped into their home in a rural California community — and that’s before they consume a drop.They pay to bring it from more than a mile away because the groundwater beneath them has been contaminated with nitrates leached into the soil from years of large-scale farming.Now, the San Jerardo cooperative — where Miranda and 300 others live — and environmental organizations have sued the state, demanding stricter rules about how much fertilizer farmers can use in the hope that the next generation of residents in the community 100 miles (161 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco will have cleaner water.“We understand crops need these chemicals to grow, but you don’t need to put that much in the groundwater,” said Miranda, who manages the cooperative. “It is essentially poisoning the groundwater that we need to live.”Some California farming communities have been plagued...

Need last-minute gifts? Presidential hopefuls offer ornaments, gift wrap – and Trump mug shot merch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The field of 2024 presidential candidates may have some options for shoppers scrambling for a last-minute holiday gift.As the campaign for the White House kicks into full gear, the contenders are offering an onslaught of holiday-themed merchandise, many of which capture some of the surreal aspects of the 2024 race. Donald Trump, for instance, is embracing his status as the first former president to face criminal charges by emblazoning his mug shot on Christmas sweaters, gift wrap and stockings. Trump and his supporters have embraced the image of him intensely glaring into a Fulton County Jail camera since he surrendered on charges that he illegally tried to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 election.Trump’s campaign is hardly backing away from his status, offering items emblazoned with the mug shot almost immediately after it was taken in August, with nearly daily emails offering supporters a mug, T-shirt or poster bearing the image, along with the words “Never...

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Try Alaska. Meanwhile, some US ski areas struggle with rain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

For most Americans dreaming of a white Christmas, this year’s prospects aren’t good.Although parts of the Rockies and Midwest already have snow or could get a fresh dusting by Monday, other parts of the country that are normally coated in white this time of year are still sporting their drab late-fall look.“Some people will get their dream, their wish, and get a white Christmas right at the last minute,” said Judah Cohen, the director of seasonal forecasting at Verisk Atmospheric and Environmental Research. “But most of the country will have a brown Christmas.” Among the areas more accustomed to snowy Decembers is the Northeast, where a powerful storm blew in this week and dumped heavy rain on the region’s ski areas, wreaking havoc on the snowpack.“It didn’t wash out our trails. But it was crazy rain,” said Tom Day, the general manager of Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, New Hampshire.He hiked the ski area Monday, when it was closed, as 3.5 inches (8.8 ce...

New Mexico prepares for June presidential primary amid challenge to Trump candidacy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s major political parties are scheduled to certify presidential contenders to appear on the state’s June 4 primary ballot, amid uncertainty about whether Donald Trump can be barred from contention by any state under anti-insurrection provisions of the U.S. Constitution.Party-certified presidential candidates will be vetted in February by the New Mexico secretary of state’s office to ensure they meet administrative requirements to run for the office. New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said she won’t exclude candidates that meet administrative requirements — unless a court with jurisdiction intervenes.The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday barred Trump from the state’s ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone from holding office who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it. It’s the first time in history the provision has been used to prohibit someo...

Punishing their own but passing few laws, a Congress in chaos leaves much to do in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — This Congress started with showy bluster, a bitter 15-round, multi-day spectacle to elect a House speaker, a Republican who vowed to “never quit,” and then did just that.House lawmakers proceeded not only to oust the GOP speaker, they also punished their own colleagues with censures and expulsion, launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and were barely able to conduct the basics of governing by keeping federal offices from shuttering. While this first year of the 118th Congress was a historic one, thanks to the dizzying turmoil coming from the Republicans on the House side of the Capitol, next year is headed toward more of the same. With just 27 bills and resolutions signed into law, not counting a few board appointments, it’s among the most do-nothing sessions of Congress in recent times. “This fall has been a very actively stupid political environment,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, the bow-tie-wearing Republican from North Carolina, who emerg...