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Pamela Smart’s latest bid for sentence reduction dismissed

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire’s highest court on Wednesday turned away the latest attempt to get a sentence reduction for Pamela Smart, who is serving life in prison for plotting with her teenage lover to have her husband killed in 1990. Smart, 55, was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with a 15-year-old student who later shot and killed her husband, Gregory Smart. Though she denied knowledge of the plot, she was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and other crimes and sentenced to life without parole.Having exhausted her judicial appeal options, Smart returned for a third time to an elected state council, seeking a sentence reduction hearing last year. The five-member Executive Council, which approves state contracts and appointees to the courts and state agencies, rejected her latest request in less than three minutes, prompting another appeal to state Supreme Court.The justices dismissed the petition Wednesday, saying it would violate ...

Capitol riot: FBI informant testifies for Proud Boys defense

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — An FBI informant who marched to the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members on Jan. 6 testified on Wednesday that he didn’t know of any plans for the far-right extremist group to invade the building and didn’t think they inspired the violence that day.The informant, who identified himself in court only as “Aaron,” was a defense witness at the trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants charged with seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a plot to keep Donald Trump in the White House after the 2020 presidential election.The informant was communicating with his FBI handler as the mob of Trump supporters breached police barricades at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “Barriers down at capital building. Crowd surged forward, almost to the building now,” the informant texted. In another message, he wrote that the Proud Boys “did not do it, nor inspire.” “The crowd did as herd mentality. Not organized,” h...

Senate votes to repeal 2002 measure that approved Iraq war

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — HOLD FOR VOTE!! The Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the resolution that gave a green light for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, an effort to return a basic war power to Congress from the White House 20 years after an authorization many now say was a mistake.Iraqi deaths are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 U.S. troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush’s administration falsely claimed that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. “This body rushed into a war,” said Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who has pushed for years to repeal the powers. The war has had “massive consequences,” Kaine said. Senators voted 66-30 to repeal the 2002 measure and also the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War. If passed by the House, the repeal would not be expected to affect any current military deployments. But lawmakers in both parties are increasingly seeking to claw back congressional powers over U.S...

$263 million offered for Gulf oil under climate compromise

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Oil companies offered a combined $264 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday in a sale mandated by last year’s climate bill compromise.The auction was the first in the Gulf in more than a year and drew interest from industry giants including ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron. It could further test the loyalty of environmentalists and young voters who backed President Joe Biden in 2020 but were frustrated by this month’s approval of the huge Willow drilling project in northern Alaska.Developing the leases for sale in public waters in the Gulf of Mexico could produce more than 1 billion barrels of oil and more than 4 trillion cubic feet (113 billion cubic meters) of natural gas over 50 years, according to a government analysis. Burning that oil would increase planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions by tens of millions of tons, the analysis found.Oil prices have fallen sharply over the past year and it was uncertain how much companies would ...

Founding member of pope’s child protection board resigns

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A founding member of Pope Francis’ child protection advisory board resigned Wednesday, citing a host of problems inside the commission and in its relationship with the Vatican bureaucracy.In an unusually frank resignation note, the Rev. Hans Zollner cited inadequate financial accountability, insufficient transparency about decision-making and a lack of clarity about staff hiring and the board’s relationship with the Holy See’s sex abuse office.Francis announced the creation of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Miners in 2013 to advise the Vatican on best practices to prevent clergy sexual abuse. He named Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley as the commission’s head. The board has gone through several iterations since then, most significantly when another founding member, Irish abuse survivor and advocate Marie Collins, resigned in frustration in 2017 over Vatican stonewalling on the commission’s proposals.Zollner’s departure suggested a similar, but ...

Budget 2023 unlikely to be enough to spur major carbon capture investments: Experts

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

CALGARY — Industry watchers say Tuesday’s federal budget likely won’t be enough to convince Canadian oil and gas companies to pull the trigger on expensive, emissions-reducing carbon capture and storage projects.The oil and gas industry believes carbon capture and storage technology is the key to meeting its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.Companies have proposed ambitious projects, such as a $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage transportation line that a group of Canadian oilsands firms wants to build in northern Alberta.But James Millar, head of a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing carbon capture technology, says Tuesday’s budget didn’t provide the certainty companies need in order to start construction. He says the industry is looking to the government to remove the risk of investing in pricey emissions-reduction projects by essentially guaranteeing the future price of carbon.  While the government pledged Tuesday to implement a ...

St. Louis prosecutor to seek reelection despite ouster bid

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis’ elected prosecutor has said she will run for reelection in 2024, even as she tries to fend off an effort by Missouri’s attorney general to force her out of office.Democratic Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner spoke Tuesday night at an often-raucous public forum and made it clear that not only will she not resign, but that she plans to run again.Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey last month filed a lawsuit asking a judge to remove Gardner from office, accusing her of incompetence. Bailey cited a low rate of convictions in homicide cases, accused Gardner of failing to keep crime victims and their families updated, and said her office is too slow to take up cases brought by police.In addition to the lawsuit, a Republican-led bill in the statehouse would give the governor authority to appoint a special prosecutor to take on violent crimes in jurisdictions with a homicide rate over a certain threshold — a measure drafted with St. Louis in mind.Gar...

UN seeks court opinion on climate in ‘win’ for island states

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

The countries of the United Nations led by the island nation of Vanuatu adopted what they called a historic resolution Wednesday calling for the U.N.’s highest court to strengthen countries’ obligations to curb warming and protect communities from climate disaster.The resolution was adopted by consensus and Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau called it “a win for climate justice of epic proportions.” He reeled off a string of recent disasters including back-to-back Category 4 cyclones in his own country and record-breaking Cyclone Freddy that refused to leave southeastern Africa in recent weeks. “Catastrophic and compound effects like this are growing in number,” he said. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday he hoped the opinion, when issued, would encourage nations “to take the bolder and stronger climate action that our world so desperately needs.”Saudi Arabia and Iraq sought to soften the resolution saying it would increase the workload of ...

Russia puts Pussy Riot member on wanted list

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities have put a member of the Pussy Riot punk group on a wanted list for criminal suspects as the Kremlin works to stifle political dissent. Russian news outlet Mediazona discovered an entry for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of wanted individuals on Wednesday. The entry, also reviewed by The Associated Press, said Tolokonnikova faces criminal charges, but it didn’t specify what the charges are. Tolokonnikova became widely known for taking part in a 2012 Pussy Riot protest inside Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. She spent nearly two years in prison.Earlier this month Russia’s top human rights lawyer, Pavel Chikov, said a criminal case had been launched against Tolokonnikova on the charge of offending religious believers’ feelings, which became a criminal offense in Russia after the 2012 Pussy Riot protest. Tolokonnikova left Russia and reportedly lives in the U.S. In 2021, the Russian gover...

Dem senators from 4 states ask NOAA to address whale deaths

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:55:21 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Senators from four states want federal environmental officials to address a spate of whale deaths on both coasts, urging “transparency and timeliness” in releasing information about whale deaths and their causes.The call late Tuesday by New Jersey Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker; Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse for action by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marked the first large-scale request for action by Democratic federal lawmakers on an issue that has rapidly become politicized.Thus far, mostly Republican lawmakers have called for a pause or an outright halt to offshore wind farm preparation work, which they blame for the deaths of whales along the U.S. East Coast since December.But in their letter to a NOAA administrator, the Democratic senators conspicuously did not blame — or even mention — offshore wind as a potential cause of the death...