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Railroad automatic braking system needs improvement to prevent more derailments, safety board says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The automatic braking system railroads were required to install several years ago needs improvement to better prevent collisions, federal safety investigators said in a report Wednesday.The National Transportation Safety Board’s report urged the Federal Railroad Administration and the industry to keep developing new technology that can be used to improve Positive Train Control systems. Their recommendations included at least one practical idea that railroads could likely implement relatively quickly.Railroads spent 12 years and roughly $15 billion to develop and install the automatic braking system after Congress required it in 2008 in the wake of a collision between a commuter and freight train in California that killed 25 and injured more than 100. The system, in place on about 58,000 miles (93,000 kilometers) of track nationwide since 2020, is designed to reduce human error by automatically stopping trains in certain situations, such as when they’re in da...

Extremists kill 37 villagers in latest attack in Nigeria’s hard-hit northeast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Extremists in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 37 villagers in two different attacks, residents said Wednesday, highlighting once again how deadly islamic extremist rebels have remained in their 14-year insurgency in the hard-hit region.The extremists targeted villagers in Yobe state’s Geidam district on Monday and Tuesday in the first attack in the state in more than a year, shooting dead 17 people at first while using a land mine to kill 20 others who had gone to attend their burial, witnesses said.The Boko Haram Islamic extremist group launched an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 in an effort to establish their radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in the region. At least 35,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced due to the extremist violence concentrated in Borno state, which neighbors Yobe.Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who took office in May, has not succeeded in ending the nation’s securi...

Ornithological society to rename dozens of birds – and stop naming them after people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

Birds in North America will no longer be named after people, the American Ornithological Society announced Wednesday. Next year, the organization will begin to rename around 80 species found in the U.S. and Canada. “There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today,” the organization’s president, Colleen Handel, said in a statement. “Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely.”Rather than review each bird named after a person individually, all such birds will be renamed, the organization announced. Birds that will be renamed include those currently called Wilson’s warbler and Wilson’s snipe, both named after the 19th century naturalist Alexander Wilson. Audubon’s shearwater, a seabird named for John James Audubon, also will get a new name.In 2020, the organization renamed a bird once referring to a Confederate Army general, John P. McCown, as the t...

Escalating violence threatens Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico’s northern Sonora state

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — What started as an ambush quickly transformed into a manhunt on Wednesday afternoon, when police in Mexico’s northern border state of Sonora repelled a highway attack, then chased injured shooters into the mountains nearby.It was the second shootout in two days in a region where escalating clashes between authorities and powerful local gangs threaten to put a damper on the country’s Day of the Dead celebrations.Agents from the state attorney general’s office were attacked while driving between the towns of Santa Ana and Magdalena de Kino, 56 miles (89 kilometers) from the Arizona border, authorities said in a post on Facebook. The attackers left three assault rifles, a truck and smears of blood before fleeing onto a mountain nearby.Police officers and the military continue to search for the assailants.Immediately following the attack, the mayor of Santa Ana evacuated the local school and postponed all Day of the Dead celebrations until further notice.T...

Alberta, Ottawa demand accountability ahead of meeting on Alberta CPP-exit proposal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

EDMONTON — The Alberta and federal governments are calling on each other to be transparent and accountable ahead of a national meeting Friday on the province’s proposal to quit the Canada Pension Plan.The two sides exchanged duelling public letters Wednesday as federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland prepares to host the virtual meeting of finance ministers from across Canada to discuss Alberta’s CPP-exit campaign and its ramifications for the rest of the country.Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner, in his letter to Freeland, asserted Ottawa has private data that could affect his government’s claim that Alberta is entitled to 53 per cent of CPP assets if it leaves to run its own program.Alberta, citing a third-party analysis it commissioned, calculates it should receive $334 billion from the CPP — a figure tied to how much Alberta-based workers have paid linked to compounded investment returns.Economists and the CPP investment board calculate that number to be far less and more ...

Oak Park church offers dozens of migrants reprieve from cold weather

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

OAK PARK, Ill.  — The mission statement is clear for one church that sits on the edge of Oak Park."You help people in need – that’s who we are," said Kathy Nolte, the lead pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Built on that foundation in 1936, Nolte, quite literally and figuratively, answered the call that came ringing around midnight. On the other line was Oak Park's village president asking if Nolte would take in some asylum seekers who had been sleeping outside in the cold.  City Council vote on migrant shelter in Morgan Park temporarily shelved "I said, 'Give me 15 minutes. I'll be at the door. We’ll open the church,'" Nolte said.Since then, Nolte has been actively working to help about 100 people get situated inside their little building of faith."We are full and cannot take one more person," Nolte said. "We are bursting at the seams. We are not a big congregation. We just have a big heart."The relocation is hot on the heels of $150,000 in grant money awarded to Oak P...

Male shot dead in Chicago's West Pullman neighborhood

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

CHICAGO — A homicide investigation is underway after Chicago police say a male was shot and killed on the city's Far South Side.Just after 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to the 500 block of W. 120th St. in West Pullman. Arriving officers located a male, age unknown, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the body. The male was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he later died.No one is in custody. Read more: Latest Chicago news headlines Anyone with information is asked to call police or leave an anonymous tip at cpdtip.com.SkyCam9 flew above the scene.

Man burglarizes home, leaves behind warrant with his name on it: police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) – A Tennessee man is accused of breaking into someone's home and left behind an arrest warrant with his name on it, helping police nab him. Maurica Walls, 37, was charged with aggravated robbery and theft of property in connection with the Oct. 18 burglary in Memphis, according to authorities.A man told the Memphis Police Department that he was outside his home when Walls approached him and claimed to be selling candy for St. Jude. The man said Walls was holding a USPS envelope with a small stack of papers. Cooking spray burn victim awarded $7.1 million after can ‘exploded into a fireball’ Police said the man was suspicious of Walls and told him to come back the next day.Moments later, the man's neighbor left his home. When the neighbor returned, he found that his house had been burglarized.This booking photo shows Maurica Walls, 37. (Memphis Police Department)The suspect allegedly took several electronics. The neighbor whose home was burglarized noticed that...

President Biden to visit Illinois next week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

CHICAGO -- President Joe Biden is set to visit Illinois next week.President Biden's travel details are still unclear at this time, but he's expected to tout his agenda and likely have a fundraiser on Thursday, Nov. 9.The president will travel to rural areas over the next two weeks to highlight how two specific laws are helping the economy.According to the Chicago Sun-Times, members of the Illinois congressional delegation have been told that the president is expected to visit the Chicago area on Nov. 9. Rep. Dean Phillips announces primary challenge to Biden President Biden visited a family-run farm in Minnesota on Wednesday and is holding a fundraiser featuring many of the state’s top Democrats, championing his administration’s investments in rural America while flexing political muscle on the home turf of his new 2024 primary challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips.The president announced more than $5 billion in spending, largely in rural areas. It will go toward better adapting agricult...

'There's help out here for you': First trauma recovery center in Texas opens in Austin

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:30 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN)— Clarence Watson fought back tears as he stood in front of a crowd during the grand opening of the Harvest Trauma Recovery Center in Austin. Survivor, Clarence Watson embraced after emotional speech during Harvest Trauma Recovery Center open. (KXAN photos/Tim Holcomb).Watson is a survivor of violent crime, and for years, worked to bring a trauma recovery center to the area. He said he was shot in a drive-by shooting when he was in his 20s, among other traumatic experiences. "I've experienced homelessness, and I am a survivor of sexual assault as a child," Watson said. "If I had access to these resources...the pain I experienced would have ended a long time ago."Harvest Trauma Recovery Center is the first of its kind in Texas, according to the City of Austin and the African American Youth Harvest Foundation (AAYHF). This center was created in partnership with multiple entities including Travis County.Setting out to provide a holistic approach to helping survivors of vio...