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Maine 19-year-old will plead guilty in mosque attack plot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A 19-year-old from Maine who the FBI says built homemade explosives and plotted to attack a mosque in the name of the Islamic State group will plead guilty to providing material support to terrorists.Xavier Pelkey of Waterville faces a maximum of 15 years in prison under a plea agreement in which a second charge will be dropped, according to court documents filed Wednesday. The change-of-plea hearing is set for next week in U.S. District Court.Pelkey’s attorney did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment on Thursday. Law enforcement officials said Pelkey was in communication with two juveniles — one in Canada, the other in Illinois — about conducting a mass shooting at a Shiite mosque in the Chicago area and possibly other houses of worship. All three alleged plotters believed in a radical form of Sunni Islam that views the Shiite branch of Islam as nonbelievers, officials said. Pelkey was 18 when he was arrested last year by FBI agents who fo...

Israeli author: Netanyahu legacy imperiled by judicial plan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli historian, philosopher and best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari said Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may go down in history as the man who destroyed Israel.Harari, who has been vocal about his opposition to a proposed judicial overhaul by Netanyahu’s right-wing government, said the long-serving prime minister has divided the country to preserve his political longevity. This has caused rifts that will be difficult to heal, Harari said.“If Netanyahu had retired after two terms in office or after, say, eight years. I think even though I didn’t like many of the things he did, I think he would have retired as one of the great leaders of Israel,” Harari said during an interview with The Associated Press in Tel Aviv. “Now, his legacy is he is the certainly the divider of Israel, the person who divided the Israeli nation against itself. And I hope … we don’t get there,” he said. “But he could go down in history as the pe...

Nova Scotia mass shooting inquiry identifies many RCMP failings, recommends overhaul

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

A public inquiry has found widespread failures in how the Mounties responded to Canada’s worst mass shooting and recommends that Ottawa rethink the RCMP’s central role in Canadian policing.“The RCMP must finally undergo the fundamental change that many previous reports have called for,” commissioner Leanne Fitch said in written remarks prepared for delivery Thursday.In a seven-volume report spanning more than 3,000 pages, the Mass Casualty Commission also says police missed red flags in the years leading up to the Nova Scotia rampage that resulted in 22 people being murdered on April 18-19, 2020, by a denture maker disguised as an RCMP officer and driving a replica police vehicle.The murderer, Gabriel Wortman, was killed by two Mounties at a gas station in Enfield, N.S., 13 hours into his rampage.The final report delves deeply into the causes of the mass shooting. These include the killer’s violence toward his spouse and the failure of police to act on ...

Can the Cubs get back to the playoffs in 2023?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune joins "9 Good Minutes" on WGN News Now to talk about the start of the Cubs 2023 seasonCHICAGO - Could this be the year that a new core of players for the Cubs gets back into the postseason?Perhaps that's ambitious for a team that's been under .500 the last two seasons, but there is hope on the north side that the team is closer to a return to the playoffs than they were a year ago. Team president Jed Hoyer will start to find that out for sure when the Cubs face the Brewers to start the 2023 season, one in which there are a few new players on the roster along with others that joined last year as the team builds a new core.Shortstop Dansby Swanson, starting pitcher Jameson Taillon, catcher Tucker Barnhart and outfielder Cody Bellinger were among the key additions to the club in the offseason. Meanwhile, starting pitcher Marcus Stroman along with outfielder Seiya Suzuki enter their second year with the franchise. Ian Happ, one of the holdovers f...

These MLB teams have never won a World Series: Will that change this season?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

(NEXSTAR) - With Opening Day upon us, the MLB season is now underway. While last year's World Series winners, the Houston Astros, will be trying to defend their title, other teams will be vying for their first.Of the 30 active MLB teams, all but one franchise has made a World Series appearance: the Seattle Mariners. Since joining the American League in 1977 as an expansion team, the Mariners have appeared in three league championship games but never won.Twice, the Mariners fell victim to the team with the most World Series appearances and wins, the New York Yankees, ESPN records show. MLB Opening Day: Recipes that make you feel like you’re there Of the 118 World Series that have been played, the Yankees have appeared in 40, or one-third, winning 27. Seattle isn't the only team that has never brought home the Commissioner's Trophy. Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena celebrates with the trophy after their 4-1 World Series win against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 on Saturda...

Kid swings with Disney, PAW Patrol designs recalled over fall hazard

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

(WHTM) - Tens of thousands of 2-in-1 outdoor child swings are being recalled over a fall hazard, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and PAW Patrol images can be found on the top of the swings which are made of plastic. The swing is for children 9 months through 4 years old, or holds up to 50 pounds.Around 43,380 units of Delta Enterprise Corporations 2-in-1 Outdoor Kids Swings were impacted by the recall. Thousands of pounds of beef recalled over E. coli concerns The recall is for model numbers SW86508MM, SW86516MN, SW86575MM, SW86576MN and SW86577PW. The model numbers are printed on a Delta Children's label on the bottom of the swing.(Photos CPSC)There have been multiple reports of the swing seat restraint straps breaking, though no injuries have been reported.The swings were sold at Walmart from March through October 2022.Consumers with affected models are urged to stop using the swings immediately and contact Delta Enterprise Co...

7 shot, 2 dead outside Tennessee restaurant with ties to rapper Yo Gotti

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) -- Police say two people were killed and five others wounded in a shooting Wednesday night at a Tennessee restaurant with ties to rapper Yo Gotti.According to police reports, the shooting happened at Prive restaurant a little after closing. Two male victims were found on the scene. One was pronounced dead, and the other was taken to a local hospital where he later died.Five others, four men and a woman, arrived at hospitals by private vehicles. The men were ages 37, 35, 31 and 30. The woman was 25 years old. Officials say the shooting stemmed from an altercation inside the restaurant.A pickup truck at the scene appeared to have a large bullet hole in the driver's side window. Nine dead after two US Army helicopters crash in Kentucky The restaurant, which rapper Yo Gotti -- whose real name Mario Sentell Giden Mims -- purchased for his mother, was roped off by police, but people could be seen stopping by, including some who were crying. Arthur Horne, the owne...

Gisele Barreto Fetterman pushes back on 'power hungry wife' description

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

(The Hill) - Gisele Barreto Fetterman is speaking out against critics who’ve dubbed her a “power hungry wife,” saying she’s faced the “vast majority” of “harassment” after her husband, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), was hospitalized for treatment of clinical depression.“As soon as John’s political profile began to grow, I started receiving hate mail — ten times more than John ever got himself,” Barreto Fetterman wrote in an op-ed published in Elle on Thursday.“I hadn’t sought an office of any kind, and I had never wanted to be in the public eye; in fact, that’s the last thing I’d want,” the 41-year-old founder of Free Store 15104, an organization in Pennsylvania that distributes donated goods at no cost, wrote.“I’ve always preferred serving others as a private citizen and have no interest in the politicking of policy.”Nonetheless, Barreto Fetterman said, she was on the receiving end of “politically-motivated attacks” that continue to “flood” her life.“I’ve been called a ‘mai...

High school students say they've found new way to prove Pythagorean theorem

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Two students at a school in New Orleans have presented evidence of a mathematical discovery that scholars have been trying to prove for 2,000 years. School officials at St. Mary's Academy say Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson, both 17, attended the American Mathematical Society's Annual Southeastern Conference where they said they had found a way to prove the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry and without using circular logic."In the 2,000 years since trigonometry was discovered it's always been assumed that any alleged proof of Pythagoras’s Theorem based on trigonometry must be circular," the teenage authors wrote in the abstract of their presentation a the conference. "In fact, in the book containing the largest known collection of proofs (The Pythagorean Proposition by Elisha Loomis) the author flatly states that 'There are no trigonometric proofs, because all the fundamental formulae of trigonometry are themselves based upon the truth of the Pythagorean...

Wild send clear message to other Western Conference contenders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

LAS VEGAS — As the Wild filed onto the ice for their morning skate on Wednesday, all they had to do was look up to find any extra motivation they might need heading into their biggest game of the season. Hanging in the rafters at Ball Arena in Denver is a 2022 Stanley Cup banner, proof that the Colorado Avalanche are the team to beat in the NHL until further notice.“They’re the team that we have to beat because they were the champions,” Wild coach Dean Evason told reporters in Denver roughly 12 hours later as the Wild put the finishing touches a statement 4-2 win over the Avalanche. “To put this in our memory bank is good.”Though the Wild have kept the focus on getting as many points as possible ahead of the NHL playoffs, they have sent a clear message to other Western Conference contenders in the process. They are an incredible 16-1-4 since a swoon last month dropped them below the playoff cut line.“We don’t want to run into the Wild in the first round if we can help it...