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Former New Hampshire state rep charged with child pornography

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

A former New Hampshire state representative with an extensive criminal history has been arrested and charged with distribution of child sexual abuse images, which the self-declared transgender former lawmaker allegedly got from a former romantic partner who worked with children in Tyngsboro.Nashua Police arrested Stacie-Marie Laughton, 39, of Derry, N.H., on Thursday, the day that Laughton’s former partner Lindsay Groves, 38, of Hudson, N.H., was charged in federal court in Boston with counts of child exploitation and child pornography.Laughton is due to be arraigned at 1 p.m. on the charges at Hillsboro Superior Court-South in Nashua.Groves worked at Creative Minds daycare in Tyngsboro, according to an affidavit filed in that case. Laughton appears to be the person identified only as “Person 1” in that court document. As the Herald reported Thursday, Groves is alleged to have taken nude photos of children — both boys and girls — she worked with at the daycare and then texted them t...

Live updates | Cost of Titan search will easily stretch into millions of dollars

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

By The Associated PressFollow along for live updates on the submersible that imploded deep in the Atlantic Ocean, killing all five people aboard during a voyage down to the Titanic shipwreck.___COST OF SEARCH FOR TITAN WILL EASILY STRETCH INTO MILLIONS OF DOLLARSThe cost of the search for the missing Titan submersible will easily stretch into the millions of dollars for the U.S. Coast Guard alone. The Canadian Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and other agencies and private entities also rushed to provide resources and expertise.There’s no other comparable ocean search, especially with so many countries and even commercial enterprises being involved, said Norman Polmar, a naval historian, analyst and author based in Virginia.The aircraft, alone, are expensive to operate.The Pentagon has put the hourly cost at tens of thousands of dollars for turboprop P-3 Orion and jet-powered P-8 Poseidon sub hunters, along with C-130 Hercules, all utilized in the search.Some agencies can seek reimburse...

Significant warmup expected in San Diego ahead of 4th of July

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- After a cold and cloudy spring season, summer has officially arrived in San Diego and warmer temperatures are on the way. That's according to National Weather Service predictions, which show a significant warmup in the forecast starting this week and continuing into Fourth of July weekend. Though not much change is expected for Friday, temperatures are expected to be warmer this weekend and even more so into next week, according to NWS. A starry, starry night in San Diego offers a summer salutation In the short term, weather officials say a low pressure system may bring strong and gusty west winds in the mountains and deserts through Sunday.Satellite imagery from Friday showed the marine layer thinning with patchy coverage, which is allowing those on the coast to enjoy some long-awaited sunshine. The most impactful warming is expected to occur Saturday with high temperatures slightly increasing near the coast and rising around 5 degrees for inland areas, says NWS. For...

Doja Cat making San Diego stop on North American tour

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Grammy Award winning superstar Doja Cat is coming to San Diego as part of her newly announced North American tour.The "Kiss Me More" and "Woman" singer will be performing at Viejas Arena on Nov. 5 as part of The Scarlet Tour, Doja Cat's first North American arena tour.The tour is using an advance registration system as an attempt to limit tickets getting in the hands of bots and scalpers, according to Live Nation.You can sign up for advance registration now through June 25 at 10 p.m. here. Pre-registration does not guarantee you will be able to purchase a ticket before they sell out. These 5 popular songs mention the San Diego area Fans will be randomly selected to receive a pre-sale access code to purchase tickets on Wednesday, June 28. A limited amount of general sale tickets will be available on Friday, June 30 at 10 a.m.You can find a full list of tour dates and locations here.The tour announcement comes on the heels of Doja Cat releasing her latest track "Attentio...

Privacy board recommends City Council reject SDPD proposal to activate smart streetlights, license plate readers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say the Privacy Advisory Board voted to recommend City Council reject the plan.SAN DIEGO — The debate over smart surveillance street lights and license plate readers in San Diego is heating up again. The San Diego Police Department's proposal would make San Diego the largest city to use street lights with license plate readers.But the City of San Diego's Privacy Advisory Board voted unanimously Thursday night to send to City Council the Option 2 plan, which rejects SDPD's proposal, according to Seth Hall with the Trust SD coalition.Some are worried about privacy. How much income is required to afford rent in San Diego? “Put the cameras away. Who watches who?” a community member said at the meeting.Community members expressed their opposition to more surveillance technology potentially hitting the streets of San Diego.“Our biggest concern is this money should be going to our communities not towards cameras and surveillance,” said...

Supreme Court ruling complicates Navajo Nation’s fight for more water

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — On some parts of the Navajo Nation, where roughly a third of the people lack reliable access to clean water, people have to drive for miles on red dirt roads to lug water home. Others rely on unregulated wells or water delivery trucks.Already facing some of the most severe water scarcity in the drought-stricken Southwest, the tribe now has to deal with a Supreme Court ruling this week that will make securing water even harder for the 170,000 enrolled tribal members who live on its reservation.“I know the battle and the strategy moving ahead is going to be a lot more difficult,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren told The Associated Press.The tribe argued that the “permanent home” promised in treaties the U.S. government signed more than 150 years ago includes a right to some of the water crossing the reservation. The question before the court was whether the federal government had to quantify the tribe’s water needs and come up with a plan to meet them.Two deca...

Titan owner OceanGate will likely seek court protection, and soon: lawyer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A maritime law professor at Louisiana’s Tulane University says the owner of a small submersible that imploded Sunday on its way to the wreck of the Titanic will likely seek court protection — and soon.Martin Davies says he expects OceanGate Expeditions will try to limit its financial liability if families of the five crew members who died aboard the Titan decide to sue.Davies said in an interview that the company would first have to decide which country’s liability laws would be most favourable.Such laws allow a vessel owner to cap the amount of money it could be ordered to pay out, but only if the owner can prove it was far enough removed from any wrongdoing.Twain Braden, a maritime lawyer in Maine, says he suspects OceanGate could have a difficult time proving it had no knowledge of the circumstances that may have caused the Titan to implode nearly four kilometres beneath the sea.He says a letter signed by subsea engineers in 2018 flagging conc...

Minister’s Access to Info focus is better service amid calls for legislative overhaul

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal minister responsible for the much-criticized access-to-information system says her focus is on improving service amid growing calls to go further and rewrite the transparency law.In an interview today, Treasury Board President Mona Fortier says her priority is better administration of the Access to Information Act, not a legislative overhaul.Fortier’s comments follow release this week of a House of Commons committee report in which opposition MPs recommend changes to the law to curb loopholes that prevent the release of information, and the imposition of penalties when responses to requests are late. The federal access law allows people who pay $5 to request an array of government documents, but many say it is slow and ineffective. The law has not been fully revamped since its introduction 40 years ago, and users complain of lengthy delays, heavily blacked-out documents or full denials in response to their applications.Fortier says the government is emphas...

Search for person feared missing after Paris explosion is complicated by debris, unstable building

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Paris rescuers are struggling to reach a person feared trapped in a Left Bank building that partially collapsed earlier this week in a violent explosion, the city prosecutor said Friday, citing a complex and risky rubble-clearing operation.Four people remain hospitalized in critical condition after Wednesday’s blast, and at least 54 others suffered lighter injuries or psychological shock, Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.One person has been declared missing, but the search “has been complicated by the ongoing risk that the neighboring building could collapse, and the difficulty of clearing large blocks of stone,” she said.Buildings in the area were evacuated after the explosion, which ignited a fire that took hours to extinguish and sent smoke billowing over Paris landmarks, leaving witnesses shaken.Investigators are studying whether a gas leak could have sparked the blast, among other possible causes. Beccuau said witnesses had described the smell of ...

Biden and Modi meet Apple, Google CEOs and other executives as Indian premier wraps state visit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday opened the final day of the Indian prime minister’s four-day U.S. visit by meeting top American and Indian executives as the leaders look to increase cooperation on artificial intelligence, semiconductor production and space.The leaders are putting a spotlight on the “Innovation Handshake,” a new initiative aimed at addressing regulatory hurdles that stand in the way of cooperation between the two countries and promoting job growth in emerging technologies.“Our countries are taking innovation and cooperation to new levels,” Biden told the group, which included Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We’re going to see more technological change … in the next 10 years than we’ve seen in the last 50 years.”White House officials say India’s deep talent pool will be crucial in building more resilient supply chains and developing technology to address c...