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Federal appeals court deals blow to Voting Rights Act, ruling that private plaintiffs can’t sue

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided federal appeals court on Monday ruled that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act, a decision voting rights advocates say could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law.The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis found that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices such as racially gerrymandered districts.The majority said other federal laws, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, make it clear when private groups can sue said but similar wording is not found in the voting law.“When those details are missing, it is not our place to fill in the gaps, except when ‘text and structure’ require it,” U.S. Circuit Judge David R. Stras wrote for the majority in an opinion joined by Judge Raymond W. Gruender. Stras was nominated by former ...

New Mexico Supreme Court weighs GOP challenge to congressional map, swing district boundaries

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Republican Party urged New Mexico’s state Supreme Court on Monday to strike down a congressional map that has divvied up a politically conservative oil-producing region into multiple districts as it reshaped a swing district along the U.S. border with Mexico.The high court heard oral arguments without ruling Monday on the congressional map from Democratic state lawmakers. The Democrats say a congressional swing district in southern New Mexico remains competitive, even with the ouster of a Republican incumbent in last year’s election.The high court’s ruling could influence which party represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez is seeking a second term. The district is one of about a dozen in the national spotlight as Republicans campaign to keep their slim U.S. House majority in 2024. Courts ruled recently in Alabama and Florida that Republican-led legislatures had unfairly diluted the voting ...

Two Quebec men charged with violating publication ban on identity of sex-crime victim

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec provincial police say two men have been charged for allegedly revealing the identity of a woman who was sexually assaulted by a former member of the legislature.Sylvain Fortin, 61, and Stéphane Vigeant, 44, are alleged to have violated a court order by publishing the victim’s name on social media during her attacker’s trial.The victim, Catherine Fournier, who is now the mayor of a Montreal suburb, had the publication ban lifted after her attacker was convicted in January, so she could speak publicly about her experience.Fournier said in a written statement that a major factor in her decision to report the assault to police was her belief that her identity would be protected.She says the fact two men have been charged sends the right message, but she laments how it took almost one year to bring the charges, adding that she wishes prosecutors would take publication bans more seriously.Harold LeBel, a member of the legislature from 2014 to 2022 with the Pa...

Taylor Swift’s Rio de Janeiro tour scarred by deaths, muggings, heat-related illnesses

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The deaths of two people, heat-related illnesses and other misfortunes have left legions of Taylor Swift fans angry and disappointed in the three-day Rio de Janeiro leg of the pop superstar’s Eras Tour, which concludes Monday night.Gabriel Mongenot Santana Milhomem Santos, 25, a fan who had traveled from the country’s center-west region to see Swift, was stabbed to death on a Copacabana beach about 3 a.m. Monday, Rio’s police said in a statement.It was the second death of a Swift fan in four days. On Friday, 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides Machado fell ill during the singer’s first show in the city, and died later that evening at a hospital. Fans also reported fainting from extreme heat, being mugged or getting caught up in a police raid.Rio’s Municipal Health Department said Benevides, who, according to a friend, passed out during Swift’s second song, “Cruel Summer,” experienced cardiorespiratory arrest, but the exact cause of her death...

Years after Parkland massacre, tour freshens violence for group of House lawmakers

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick spent years as an FBI agent and federal prosecutor, but he was shaken Monday by a tour of the building at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 teens and staff members were gunned down nearly six years ago.The Pennsylvania Republican and five other House members saw the blood-stained floors, the bullet-pocked walls, the shattered glass and the wilted flowers and balloons that remain from the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre. They also spoke with loved ones who were left behind and are now advocates for stronger national gun laws and school safety programs. “There are no words to describe the feelings that go through you walking those halls. I cannot even begin to imagine how the families feel when they’re walking through,” said Fitzpatrick, the only GOP member who took Monday’s tour. Monday marked the second time House members have toured the three-story building, following a group of six Democrats and t...

Transport committee launches probe into accessibility at Canadian airlines

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

OTTAWA — A parliamentary committee is launching an investigation into accessibility at Canadian airlines, with a focus on the country’s two largest carriers.Following a motion put forward on Monday by NDP lawmaker Taylor Bachrach, the federal transport committee voted to undertake a study on the state of accessible transportation for Canadians living with disabilities as well as the regulatory regime surrounding it.The committee cited recent news reports of air travellers “facing discrimination and unacceptable treatment” on board, and invited the CEOs of Air Canada and WestJet to testify along with Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez, Auditor General Karen Hogan and other experts and industry players.The motion further calls on the government to table a response to a committee report slated to be presented to the House of Commons.Earlier this month, Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau apologized for the airline’s accessibility shortfalls and announced new measure...

Argentina’s president-elect wants public companies in private hands, with media first to go

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s right-wing president-elect gave the first indications Monday of how he plans to start shaking up South America’s second-largest economy: with a slew of privatizations.Populist Javier Milei, a libertarian economist and self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” won a presidential runoff election on Sunday with 55.7% of the vote. He said Monday that he would move quickly to privatize the country’s state-owned media outlets and look to do the same with other public companies. “Everything that can be in the hands of the private sector will be in the hands of the private sector,” Milei told Bueno Aires station Radio Mitre.Experts immediately questioned how far Milei would get in fulfilling that vision without the support of Argentina’s National Congress, where his party holds a relatively small share of seats. However, some analysts said his resounding election victory could give him leverage. “The decisiveness of the victory — a doubt unt...

Alberta COVID panel chair urges federal Conservatives to weaponize his findings

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

EDMONTON — The chair of a taxpayer-funded panel reviewing Alberta’s COVID-19 response is urging the federal Conservatives to weaponize his findings against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s governing coalition in the next election.Preston Manning, the former head of the Reform Party, made the pitch last week in an email sent to Conservative MPs on the same day the report from the panel he chaired was published.The email begins with the salutation “Dear CPC friends,” but the recipients list included Calgary Liberal MP George Chahal, who published the missive on social media.Manning could not be immediately reached for comment.His report determined that for future crises, Alberta needs to concentrate decision-making in cabinet, embrace alternative scientific theories and do more to protect individual liberties.Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she’s OK with Manning’s letter, noting it was sent from his personal email address and says the more people who see the report’s fi...

Changing Armed Forces policies is slow and labour-intensive, external monitor says

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

OTTAWA — The military is finalizing a policy change to abolish its definition of sexual misconduct and to use the Criminal Code definition for sexual assault.The change, which is expected to be ready for approval by the end of the year, is among the 48 recommendations from former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour in a scathing report about military culture in May 2022.Jocelyne Therrien is serving as an external monitor whose job is to track the work to implement the recommendations.Therrien says in her second report that the process to change Armed Forces policies is labour-intensive, and even simple changes can take months. The Arbour report called on the federal government to remove the military’s jurisdiction over all sexual offences in the Criminal Code — something the defence minister says will happen in the coming months. Since December 2021, 142 of 275 cases reported to military police have been referred to civilian police services.  This report by The Canadian Press ...

Police identify victim in ‘targeted’ fatal shooting at Richmond Hill parking lot

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:56:58 GMT

York Regional Police have identified a man who was shot to death at a parking lot in Richmond Hill last Friday.Investigators say Alexander Bobby Lapage, 21, of Toronto, was found suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot of an entertainment plaza on York Boulevard at East Beaver Creek Road at around 11:20 p.m.Lapage was rushed to a trauma centre where he was later pronounced dead.Police have not released any suspect information, but say it was a targeted shooting.