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5 killed, 6 wounded in overnight clashes in crowded Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Overnight clashes Sunday in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon left 5 dead and 6 others wounded, Palestinian officials said.The ongoing clashes are taking place as Palestinian factions in Ein el-Hilweh for years have cracked down on militant Islamist groups and fugitives seeking shelter in the camp’s overcrowded neighborhoods. In 2017, Palestinian factions engaged in almost a week of fierce clashes with a militant organization affiliated with the extremist Islamic State group. The Palestinian officials, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the clashes broke out after an unknown gunman tried to assassinate Islamist militant Mahmoud Khalil, killing a companion of his instead. Factions used assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the overcrowded camp, as ambulances zoomed through its narrow streets to take the wounded to the hospital. Several resi...

Who’s in, who’s out: A look at which candidates have qualified for the 1st GOP presidential debate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — With less than a month to go until the first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 campaign, seven candidates say they have met qualifications for a spot on stage in Milwaukee.But that also means that about half the broad GOP field is running short on time to make the cut.To qualify for the Aug. 23 debate, candidates needed to satisfy polling and donor requirements set by the Republican National Committee: at least 1% in three high-quality national polls or a mix of national and early-state polls, between July 1 and Aug. 21, and a minimum of 40,000 donors, with 200 in 20 or more states.A look at who’s in, who’s (maybe) out and who’s still working on making it:WHO’S QUALIFIED DONALD TRUMP The current front-runner long ago satisfied the polling and donor thresholds. But he is considering boycotting and holding a competing event.Campaign advisers have said the former president has not made a final decision a...

A boom in apartment construction is helping to curb rents but not all renters will benefit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When viewed through a wide lens, renters across the U.S. finally appear to be getting some relief, thanks in part to the biggest apartment construction boom in decades.Median rent rose just 0.5% in June, year over year, after falling in May for the first time since the pandemic hit the U.S. Some economists project U.S. rents will be down modestly this year after soaring nearly 25% over the past four years.A closer look, however, shows the trend will likely be little comfort for many U.S. renters who’ve had to put an increasing share of their income toward their monthly payment. Renters in cities such as Cincinnati and Indianapolis are still getting hit with increases of 5% or more. Much of the new construction is located in just a few metro areas, and many of the new units are luxury apartments, which rent for well north of $2,000. Median U.S. rent has risen to $2,029 this June from $1,629 in June 2019, according to rental listings company Rent, which tracks rents...

Adding to the heat numbers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Camp Mabry is up to 37 days of triple-digit heat with Saturday's high of 104°. It is the 22nd consecutive day of a three-digit high placing 2023 in second place in this category. These numbers will be added to for at least the next seven days as highs exceeding 100° dominate the 7-Day Forecast.Today's normal high is 98°The average high temperature for the first 29 days of this month is "fell" to 90.68° with yesterday's high/low readings. This is the hottest July so far, topping the 90.63° in all of July 2022.With the increase in the heat this afternoon comes a decrease in the humidity. Saturday's lowest humidity at Camp Mabry was 20% on a 53° dew point. Drier air this afternoonMuch of Central Texas will be under a High to Very High Wildfire Danger today and tomorrow. The very high areas are eastern and far northwestern Travis County along with a four-county area that includes all of Lampasas, much of San Saba, far northeast Llano and far northern Burnet Counties.Wil...

ACC chancellor named interim president at Texas A&M-Central Texas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Richard Rhodes, the chancellor of Austin Community College, was named the interim president of Texas A&M University-Central Texas in Killeen, the university system announced Wednesday. Rhodes will start the job Oct. 1 if approved by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. RELATED: Texas A&M regents could offer a settlement to the journalism professor at center of hiring controversy The Killeen campus, part of the Texas A&M University System, is the state's only public upper-level university focused on transferring students who have started but not finished an undergraduate degree, according to Texas A&M. “I can’t wait to get started. As someone who has devoted my career to building a community college system that serves everyone, I understand and appreciate A&M-Central Texas’ unique mission,” Rhodes said in a release. Rhodes replaces the inaugural president of the Central Texas school, Marc Nigliazzo. Rhodes spent 12 years as ACC ...

Literary pick for July 30

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

Scott Fitzgerald describes the Minnesota State Fair as “one of the most magnificent in America” in his 1928 short story  “A Night at the Fair,” the featured story in the program Fitzgerald in St. Paul: The St. Paul Stories, hosted by poet/chef Danny Klecko, presented by Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug, 3, at Subtext Bookstore, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.F. Scott Fitzgerald was 15 when this picture was taken a few months after he completed “The Thoughtbook of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Secret Boyhood Diary.” It is featured on the cover of the University of Minnesota’s edition of the short memoir Fitzgerald wrote in 1910-1911 when he was about the age of Basil Duke, protagonist of Fitzgerald’s 1928 short story “A Night at the Fair.” (Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)Published in the Saturday Evening Post magazine, “A Night at the Fair” is one of Fitzgerald’s popular ...

Open space managers gearing up for more e-bikes on Front Range trails

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

Mountain biking is a huge part of life for Jay Bollinger, his wife Krista, and their two school-age sons. The family lives just a couple of blocks from South Table Mountain in Golden, a haven for mountain biking, and their oldest boy, Isaac, competes on a mountain bike racing team.Krista hadn’t been able to ride with them in recent years, though, as she battled breast cancer and endured strength-sapping post-operative treatments. Then, Jay bought her an e-mountain bike last fall, and for the first time in years, the four of them could hit the trails together.“We went to South Table, and it was so awesome,” Krista said. “I hadn’t been on my mountain bike in forever. I just didn’t have the confidence that I could handle it. It’s not like [the e-bike] gives me this super extra [boost], but I can go up hills and hang with them. We can all enjoy it.”E-mountain bikes, which have become a major segment of the cycling market, have electrical a...

In first six months in Congress, Pettersen seeks to spread opioid policies shaped in Colorado

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

In one of her first major speeches since she arrived in Congress, U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen stood before the House and talked about her mom.“Like so many Americans, my mom has struggled with an opioid addiction,” Pettersen, a former state senator who now represents central Colorado, told her colleagues in May. “When I was just 6 years old, she hurt her back, and she came home with bottles and bottles of opioids.”The House was debating a bill to permanently reclassify fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that’s cornered the drug market and sent overdose rates skyrocketing, as a schedule one substance. That designation would place it in the highest tier of banned substances in the United States, a proposal sponsored by Republicans and supported by the Biden White House.Pettersen, who as a Colorado legislator had spent years working on substance use policy here, had concerns. The bill included mandatory-minimum sentencing provisions that she opposed. She woul...

How a demolished community became the epicenter of the Bay Area reparations debate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

On a recent afternoon, Priscilla Figueroa played “Solamente Una Vez,” a melancholy song about love and loss, on the piano at her home. The music echoed in the dining room, where old photo albums depicted life as it once was in Russell City, a town in which she was married decades earlier. A town where her husband grew up. A town that no longer exists.“I used to play piano in the churches there,” said Figueroa, 80, who now lives in Hayward.Russell City, an unincorporated area in Alameda County, became a thriving haven for people of color after World War II. It was annexed and bulldozed by neighboring Hayward in 1964 to make way for an industrial park, and during the 1950s and 1960s, over 1,400 people were displaced.Now, nearly 60 years after Russell City was razed, it has become the epicenter of the movement to provide reparations to Black communities in the Bay Area.Just last month, Alameda County apologized for its role in the destruction of the community, f...

A bomb rips through a rally for a hard-line cleric in northwest Pakistan, killing 10 and wounding more than 50

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — A bomb rips through a rally for a hard-line cleric in northwest Pakistan, killing 10 and wounding more than 50.Source