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Lizzo breaks silence on allegations; former dancers’ lawyer doubles down (EXCLUSIVE)

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

Lizzo is responding to the allegations from her former dancers, who this week sued the Grammy winner for alleged harassment, weight-shaming and more.In the bombshell lawsuit filed Tuesday, Crystal Williams, Arianna Davis and Noelle Rodriguez list a series of accusations such as discrimination, weight shaming, and sexual harassment that included ‘inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers’ at a club in Amsterdam.“Yeah, she was there with the dildos and the bananas and the vaginas,” the dancers’ attorney Neama Rahmani tells the Daily News. “She’s the one that asked everyone to go, and everyone felt pressure to go to get along with Lizzo. Telling Arianna to touch the nude woman and telling the security guard to pull down his pants. He was whipped by one of the nude performers. Lizzo was an active participant in all of this.”The “Truth Hurts” artist released a statement Thursday denying all allegations in an Instagram post writing, “These last few days have been gu...

Boston welcomes National Association of Asian American Professional convention

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

The largest Asian American professional network in the country announced the kick off of their national convention in Boston Tuesday, detailing a line-up of networking events and business showcases.“Here in NAAAP we create communities, and we build leaders,” said Harris Zhao, NAAAP Chapter President at a press conference at City Hall. “That is why this year we have chosen Boston to host our convention — I know because I was born and raised here that we are an inclusive city and a city of visionaries.”The 2023 Leadership Convention will last from Thursday through Saturday at the Sheraton Hotel in Back Bay, organization leaders said, welcoming over 700 attendees to Boston. This year’s theme, speakers said, is unifying visionaries.NAAAP will be hosting a Maker’s Market at the hotel from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., featuring AAPI-owned businesses or creators. The following day the organization will host a Diversity Career Fair open to the public from 1 p....

Quebec court authorizes class action over alleged sterilization of Indigenous women

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

Quebec’s Superior Court has authorized a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Atikamekw women who say they were sterilized against their will. Justice Lukasz Granosik green-lit the lawsuit on behalf of “all women of Atikamekw origin who have undergone surgery that has impaired their fertility without having given their free and informed consent … since 1980.”The lawsuit, dated Aug. 21, demands unspecified damages from two doctors — identified as R.M. and Y.B. — and from the estate of a third, M.T., all three of whom the plaintiffs say violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Quebec’s civil code.The lead plaintiffs, who are identified by the initials U.T. and M.X., are also putting some of the blame on an unnamed integrated health and social services centre, known in Quebec as a CISSS.Identified only as CISSS A, the health authority is accused of having allowed, “by its actions or its negligence, that wrongful or criminal acts be perpetrated...

Court battle begins over Missouri’s ban on gender-affirming health care for minors

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey and the families of transgender children are in court this week fighting over whether a new law banning minors from receiving gender-affirming health care will take effect as scheduled Monday. Lawyers last month sued to overturn the law on behalf of three families of transgender minors, doctors and two LGBTQ+ organizations. They asked a county judge to temporarily block the law as the court challenge against it plays out.Hearings over pausing the law are taking place this week in Springfield. A judge is expected to rule before Monday. THE LAWThe law, signed by Republican Gov. Mike Parson in June, would prohibit Missouri health care providers from providing puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries to minors. Minors prescribed puberty blockers or hormones before Aug. 28 would be able to continue to receive those treatments.Missouri’s Planned Parenthood clinics had been ramping up available appoi...

A bus carrying Mexicans and Venezuelan migrants crashes, killing 15 people and injuring 36

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A bus carrying Mexicans and Venezuelan migrants crashed into a freight truck Tuesday in central Mexico, killing 16 people and injuring 36, local authorities said.The National Immigration Institute said that 15 of the dead were Mexicans, but one was a Venezuelan citizen. Nine of the injured were Venezuelans who had appointments on the CBP app to apply for asylum at the U.S. border. The accident happened early Tuesday on a highway that runs south toward Oaxaca state. The route is frequently used by migrant smugglers.Migrants frequently use trucks and buses to travel through Mexico to reach the U.S. border, and accidents involving those vehicles are not uncommon in Mexico.In July, five Honduran migrants were killed and another 18 injured when the van they were riding in crashed on a road on Mexico’s southern Gulf coast.In February 17 migrants were killed when the bus they were traveling in crashed in Puebla.Migrants frequently use trucks and buses to travel through M...

Yale police union flyers warning of high crime outrage school, city leaders

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

Yale University and New Haven officials blasted the labor union representing campus police officers Tuesday for handing out flyers telling new students it was unsafe to leave school grounds, walk alone, take public transportation or be outdoors after 8 p.m.The pamphlets, distributed Sunday as incoming Yale freshmen moved into their dorms, came emblazoned with a hooded skull and purported to be a “survival guide” for first-year students at the prestigious university.They portrayed Yale’s home city on the Connecticut coast as a place to be avoided, especially after dark.“The incidence of crime and violence in New Haven is shockingly high, and it is getting worse,” it warned, offering examples of recent crimes.School and city officials called the handouts a misleading scare tactic by a union seeking a new contract.“They handed out unbelievably offensive flyers with misrepresentative information, scaring Yale students and promoting a narrative of our city that is inaccurate and to...

Kentucky commission approves licenses for September launch of sports wagering

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky awarded licenses Tuesday for horse tracks to operate sports betting facilities and for companies to accept online bets, paving the way for legal wagering on sporting events to start in September.The action by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission means bettors now know where they can place in-person sports wagers starting Sept. 7 and which mobile applications can take wagers beginning Sept. 28.The Bluegrass State has been on an accelerated push to launch legal sports wagering since Kentucky lawmakers passed a sports betting measure at the end of their session in late March.Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear praised the horse racing commission on Tuesday for “getting this done right and getting it done in time for the opening of the NFL season.”The following Kentucky racetracks and their satellite facilities were approved to open a retail sportsbook: Churchill Downs, Louisville; Derby City Gaming, Louisville; Ellis Park, Henderson; the Mint Gaming Hall Cumberlan...

Federal judge orders utility to turn over customer information amid reports of improper water use

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Mississippi’s largest electric utility to turn over information on customers in and around the capital city who might be using water without paying for it. In a Monday court filing, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate granted a motion by Ted Henifin — the federally appointed interim manager of Jackson’s water and sewer systems — that compels Entergy Mississippi to turn over names, addresses and contact information for customers in over 30 zip codes in the area. The order comes months after Henifin said Jackson is collecting only a little more than half of the money it bills for water use, far below the rate at which most American cities obtain such fees. JXN Water, the corporation Henifin formed to manage water infrastructure projects, will cross reference the Entergy customer records with city records to see what homes might be using water without a utility account. “This is essential to updating and correcting the informa...

Texas’ floating barrier to stop migrants draws recurring concerns from Mexico, US official says

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Mexico’s government has repeatedly raised concerns with the U.S. about large buoys Texas put on the Rio Grande to deter migrants and agreements between the two countries could suffer if the floating barrier remains in place, a State Department official said in court Tuesday.The testimony sought to reinforce what the Biden administration argues are the diplomatic stakes over wrecking-ball-sized buoys that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott authorized this summer as part of the Republican’s increasingly hardline measures in the name of curbing the flow of migrants crossing the border.U.S. District Judge David Ezra did not immediately rule at the conclusion of the hearing Tuesday in Austin. At one point, Ezra said the issue centered on whether Abbott has the power to unilaterally try stopping what the governor has described as an “invasion” on America’s southern border. “Mexico has sensitivities about sovereignty and doesn’t want to be seen as a lesser ...

In session reacting to school shooting, Tennessee GOP lawmaker orders removal of public from hearing

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:11:50 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Families close to a Nashville fatal school shooting broke down in tears Tuesday after a Tennessee Republican leader ordered state troopers to remove them and others from a legislative hearing room while they waited to testify in favor of gun control measures.The emotional scene was just one of several chaotic moments that erupted during the second day of Tennessee’s special legislative session. Republican Gov. Bill Lee initially called lawmakers back to the Capitol to consider his proposal to keep firearms away from dangerous people.“I was supposed to speak, I was supposed to testify,” said Sarah Shoop Neumann, sobbing and shaking in front of the silent GOP-controlled House subcommittee room, which was cleared out after some clapping from the public gallery, even though she sat quietly and wasn’t holding any signs.As a parent whose child attends The Covenant School, Neumann is among the family members desperately attempting to address the state’s ...