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Today in History: July 14, Billy the Kid shot and killed by Pat Garrett

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

Today in History Today is Friday, July 14, the 195th day of 2023. There are 170 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On July 14, 2004, the Senate scuttled a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, with 48 senators voting to advance the measure — 12 short of the 60 needed — and 50 voting to block it. On this date: In 1789, in an event symbolizing the start of the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside. In 1798, Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government. In 1881, outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias “Billy the Kid,” was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico. In 1912, American folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma.In 1933, all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed. In 1945, Italy formally declared war on ...

5 outdoor things to do to stay cool in San Diego area

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- With the summer already kicking off to a hot start in San Diego County, many people are looking for ways to stay cool.For some, staying out of the heat may mean staying indoors with the air conditioner running, but there are ways of enduring the scorching temperatures while being outside. Sonic the Hedgehog-themed pop-up restaurant opening in East Village FOX 5 compiled a list of five fun outdoor spots that will help you beat the heat:Visit a water park: Whether it's relaxing on the lazy river or the adrenaline rush of water slides, Sesame Place San Diego, Legoland Water Park and The Wave are water parks San Diego County has to offer.Picnic at a park under a tree: Pack a lunch and head to the more than 400 parks in San Diego County to picnic while finding a shady spot to sit under at parks like Olive Grove Park in Clairemont Mesa East, Civita Park in Mission Valley or Kate Session Parks in Pacific Beach.Hit up a beach: Spacious beaches like Coronado Beach will keep y...

India’s space agency is set to launch an unmanned mission to the moon’s south pole

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

SRIHARIKOTA, India (AP) — India was set to send a spacecraft to the far side of the moon Friday in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface.Chandrayaan-3, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, will take off from a launch pad in Sriharikota in southern India with an orbiter, a lander and a rover. It will embark on a journey lasting slightly over a month before landing on the moon’s surface later in August.A successful landing would make India the fourth country — after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China — to achieve the feat.The six-wheeled lander and rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on the properties of lunar soil and rocks, including chemical and elemental compositions, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, junior minister for Science and Technology.India’s previous attempt to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon’s little-explored south p...

2 massacres, 2 different decisions: How does the DOJ decide who should face death?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Two separate shootings 2,000 miles (3,218 kilometers) apart. One killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The other killed 23 at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Both were motivated by racial hate. Both involved gunmen who later claimed mental illness.But earlier this year, the Justice Department authorized the death penalty only for the case in Pittsburgh, where jurors will soon answer the weightiest of questions: Should Robert Bowers be put to death?Bowers’ trial is in the penalty phase after his June conviction for the 2018 antisemitic attack. A federal judge last Friday gave Patrick Crusius the maximum available sentence for the 2019 Walmart attack on Hispanics: life in prison. He pleaded guilty after the department took a death sentence off the table.Contrasting decisions in such similar cases illustrates the department’s murky, often baffling and seemingly inconsistent death penalty policies. Department decision-making and the criteria it favors are also shrouded ...

Iowa’s restrictive abortion measure faces legal challenge as governor prepares to sign it into law

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge on Friday afternoon will consider a request to postpone the state’s new ban on most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, just as Gov. Kim Reynolds is scheduled to sign the measure into law in front of 2,000 conservative Christians barely a mile away.The split screen punctuates a bitter battle between abortion advocates and opponents in Iowa that has dragged on for years and will likely, for now, remain unresolved as the courts assess the law’s constitutionality.Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy but will be far more restricted when Reynolds puts pen to paper Friday — unless or until the district court judge issues a temporary hold.The new legislation prohibits almost all abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant. The bill passed with exclusively Republican support late on Tuesday at the conclusion of a rare, 14...

Death Valley visitors drawn to the hottest spot on Earth during ongoing US heat wave

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — As uninviting as it sounds, Death Valley National Park beckons.Even as the already extreme temperatures are forecast to climb even higher, potentially topping records amid a major U.S. heat wave, tourists are arriving at this infamous desert landscape on the California-Nevada border.Daniel Jusehus snapped a photo earlier this week of a famed thermometer outside the aptly named Furnace Creek Visitor Center after challenging himself to a run in the sweltering heat.“I was really noticing, you know, I didn’t feel so hot, but my body was working really hard to cool myself,” said Jusehus, an active runner who was visiting from Germany. His photo showed the thermometer reading at 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius).Most visitors at this time of year make it only a short distance to any site in the park — which bills itself as the lowest, hottest and driest place on Earth — before returning to the sanctuary of an air-conditioned vehicle. T...

Ex-officers at federal women’s prison in California plead guilty to multiple sex abuse counts

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two former officers of a federal women’s prison in California pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple counts of sexual abuse, the latest to be prosecuted following an Associated Press investigation last year resulting in prison sentences for the former warden and chaplain. Andrew Jones, a former cook supervisor at Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, pleaded guilty to six felony charges of sexual abuse of three women he supervised, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday. Nakie Nunley, a guard at the prison call center, pleaded guilty to four charges of sexual abuse and five lesser felonies of abusive sexual contact of five women. Both also pleaded guilty to making false statements to the government. The two men will enter pleas and be sentenced at later dates. They are at least the seventh and eighth former employees charged with abusing inmates after an investigation by The Associated Press last year revealed a harrowing culture of rampant abuse and c...

Beijing says it warned Japanese fishing boat in waters near Japan-held islands claimed by China

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China says its coast guard issued a warning to a Japanese fishing boat operating in waters surrounding uninhabited East China Sea islands that are controlled by Japan but claimed by China. The warning is the latest event pointing to lingering tensions between the sides, just over a week after China’s senior diplomat, Wang Yi, made controversial comments suggesting China, Japan and South Korea should establish an alliance based on cultural and racial similarities in order to exclude the U.S. and other Western-style democracies. State media ran a statement just before midnight Thursday quoting coast guard spokesperson Gan Yu saying a Chinese vessel issued a “warning to depart” to the Japanese fishing boat Zuiho Maru on Thursday near the the island known as Chiwei Yu in Chinese and Taisho in Japanese. The tiny islet is the easternmost of the eight islands making up the Senkaku chain, known as Diaoyu in Chinese. Taiwan also claims the chain, but has forged agreement...

CHP in pursuit of burglary suspects out of Orange County

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

Authorities with the California Highway Patrol were in pursuit of a driver, and two passengers who were wanted for a home burglary out of Orange County. The suspects were leading officers in chase in the northbound lanes of the 57 Freeway north of Brea before transitioning to the westbound 60 Freeway. Later, the chase moved to the northbound 710 Freeway. Sky5 picked up the pursuit as the suspects were speeding through northbound lanes of the 101 Freeway, weaving in and out of traffic as CHP officers followed close behind. After exiting the freeway at Rampart, the suspects bailed the vehicle and ran into the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, near Bellevue Avenue and Coronado Street. Officers with CHP also exited their cruisers and were searching for the suspects in the neighborhood. Authorities were also circling the area from the air. Before long, one of the suspects was taken into custody. Two of the three burglary suspects seen bailing the pursuit car on the Rampart ramp off ...

12-year-old boy's hand ruptured by illegal firecracker in South L.A.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:29 GMT

A 12-year-old boy from South Los Angeles is facing a long recovery from a painful upcoming surgery after an illegal firework went off in his hand during a post-Fourth of July celebration.  Anthony Gibson was with his younger brother when someone handed him the illegal firecracker. He said he took it with him around the corner from his grandmother’s house.  “It was in my hand, and I tried to light it and it blew up,” the 12-year-old told KTLA.  The rocket ruptured Gibon’s left hand, burned his face and much of his body. The explosion also scattered debris particles in his eyes. The reality of the incident horrified his mother and grandmother.  “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I didn’t grasp it right away, I didn’t want to believe it,” Yadira Gonzalez, Gibon’s grandmother, said. “I immediately ran to see what was going on and when I got to him, it was like something traumatizing I will never forget.”  The trauma is something the family, including the 12-year...