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Petroleum asphalt remains in Yellowstone River, even after cleanup from train derailment

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

REED POINT, Mont. (AP) — Two months after a railroad bridge collapse sent carloads of hazardous oil products plunging into Montana’s Yellowstone River, the cleanup workers are gone and a mess remains.Thick mats of tarry petroleum asphalt cover portions of sandbars. Oil-speckled rocks and bushes line the shore along with chunks of yellow sulfur, a component of crude. In the middle of the river downstream of the bridge, a tangle of steel juts out of the water from a ruptured railroad tank car that has not been removed.The railroad, Montana Rail Link, in conjunction with federal and state officials last week halted most cleanup work and stopped actively looking for more contaminated sites. They said dropping river levels that have been exposing more pollution also make it harder to safely operate the large power boats used by cleanup crews.Almost half the estimated 48,000 gallons (180,000 liters) of molten petroleum asphalt that spilled has not been recovered, officials said. That incl...

Trump set to surrender at Georgia jail on charges that he sought to overturn 2020 election

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump is set to surrender Thursday to authorities in Georgia on charges that he schemed to overturn the 2020 election in that state, a booking process expected to yield a historic first: a mug shot of a former American president.Trump’s arrival follows a presidential debate featuring his leading rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination, a contest in which he remains the leading candidate despite accelerating legal troubles. His presence in the state, though likely brief, is expected to swipe the spotlight at least temporarily from his opponents in the aftermath of a debate in which other candidates sought to seize on Trump’s absence to elevate their own presidential prospects.The Fulton County prosecution is the fourth criminal case against Trump since March, when he became the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted. Since then, he’s faced federal charges in Florida and Washington and, this month, was indicted in Atlanta with 1...

World Cup plans in Okinawa unaffected by North Korean spy satellite launch attempt

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Plans for the start of the Basketball World Cup in Okinawa, Japan, were unaffected Thursday after a North Korean rocket launch prompted an alert ordering some residents to evacuate.Press conferences and practices for the eight teams that are beginning World Cup play in Okinawa went on as scheduled Thursday. The tournament begins Friday, also in the Philippines and Indonesia. There were no reports of damage.“It was a little scary,” Slovenia star Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks said Thursday when asked what it was like to experience the alert, which went out shortly before 4 a.m. local time.“I didn’t sleep much,” Doncic added.Along with Slovenia, the other nations playing group-stage World Cup games in Okinawa starting Friday are Finland, Germany, Australia, Japan, Cape Verde, Georgia and Venezuela.North Korea confirmed after the early morning launch Thursday that it was an unsuccessful second attempt to launch a spy satellite. Japanese officials s...

Cape Cod strands more dolphins than anywhere else. Now they’re getting their own hospital

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

When members of the marine mammal team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare rush to a Cape Cod beach to help a stranded dolphin or porpoise, they have no choice but to treat the endangered animal on site and then immediately release it.That is about to change.The organization, which protects animals worldwide, is opening a first-of-its-kind short-term dolphin hospital on Cape Cod this month that it hopes will not only improve survivability rates, but also enhance the research it has developed over 25 years.Stranded marine mammals are stressed, in shock and dehydrated, said Brian Sharp, director of the rescue team. Simply caring for them at the scene is often not enough. They need additional diagnostics, treatment and recovery time.“With this ICU for dolphins, we’ll be able to get them treatment that’s needed, then be able to release them quickly,” he said.While there are marine mammal rehabilitation centers that can take care of animals for months or even years, the ...

The Fukushima nuclear plant begins releasing radioactive wastewater into the sea

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

OKUMA, Japan (AP) — The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has begun releasing its first batch of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.In a live video from a control room at the plant Thursday, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings showed a staff member turn on a seawater pump, marking the beginning of the controversial project that is expected to last for decades.“Seawater pump A activated,” the main operator said, confirming the release was underway.Japanese fisher groups have opposed the plan out of worry of further damage to the reputation of their seafood. Groups in China and South Korea have also raised concern, making it a political and diplomatic issue.But the Japanese government and TEPCO say the water must be released to make room for the plant’s decommissioning and to prevent accidental leaks. They say the treatment and dilution will make the wastewater safer than international standards and its environmental im...

After a Vermont playhouse flooded, the show went on

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

WESTON, Vt. (AP) — Members of a beloved Vermont acting company were sleeping in theater housing when torrential rains and flooding forced them to flee, with water inundating the playhouse’s vast basement of dressing rooms, costumes and props and reaching into the first floor.The July storms left the large, column-fronted white Greek Revival building with layers of mud and debris, and as volunteers and others dug out of the mess, the Weston Theater Company eventually kept performing — on higher ground. The shortened season came to end last week on a smaller stage on higher ground, and the actors are now figuring out how to make up for some of the losses and rebuild their leased playhouse to be more flood resistant in the tiny riverside town.The prominent playhouse sits in the center of the 620-resident southern Vermont community of Weston along the West River. The oldest professional theater company in Vermont draws people from around the country, including part-time residents and vi...

Trial to begin in Texas in lawsuit over Biden policy letting migrants from 4 countries into the US

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — A key portion of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy that grants parole to thousands of people from Central America and the Caribbean was set to be debated in a Texas federal courtroom beginning Thursday.Under the humanitarian parole program, up to 30,000 people are being allowed each month to enter the U.S. from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.Texas is leading a lawsuit filed by 21 Republican-leaning states to stop the program, arguing the Biden administration has overreached its authority. Other programs the administration has implemented to reduce illegal immigration have also faced legal challenges.The parole program was started for Venezuelans in fall 2022 and then expanded in January. People taking part must apply online, arrive at an airport and have a financial sponsor in the U.S. If approved, they can stay for two years and get a work permit.The program has “been tremendously successful at reducing migration to the southwest border,” attorneys for t...

Fire renews Maui stream water rights tension in longtime conflict over sacred Hawaiian resource

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Shortly after the ignition of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, a developer of land around a threatened Maui community urgently asked state officials for permission to divert water from streams to fight the growing inferno.West Maui Land Company, Inc. said it eventually received approval from the Hawaii commission that oversees water management, but suggested the state body didn’t act quickly enough and first directed the company to talk with a downstream taro farmer who relies on stream water, according to letters by a company executive obtained by The Associated Press and other news outlets. Community members, including Native Hawaiian farmers, say the water the developer wanted for its reservoirs would not have made a difference in the fires. The reservoirs don’t supply Maui County’s fire hydrants, and firefighting helicopters — which could have dipped into the reservoirs for water — were grounded by high winds.The Aug. 8 fire that killed ...

Bans on diverse board books? Young kids need to see their families represented, experts say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

When Wes Brown sought out children’s books for his two young sons, he made sure to seek titles that reflected the family he and his husband were building. He found that in one called “The Family Book,” a 2003 picture book by Todd Parr. It depicts families of all kinds: the traditional nuclear family, but also families with one parent or step-parents, as well as adoptive families and same-sex parents like Brown and his husband.But across the country, books and lessons that represent different families and identities are increasingly the target of conservative pushback — even when they’re for the youngest of learners. Parr’s book for preschoolers and early readers is often among those challenged by parents and activists. “It is important my kids are definitely exposed to that,” Brown said. “What these parents are really doing is demonstrating how fragile their worldview is, that a children’s book is enough to shatter it.”Efforts to ban books have been surging at scho...

A former principal of an Australian Jewish school sentenced to 15 years for child sex abuse

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:57:46 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A former principal of an Australian Jewish school was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison after she was convicted of sexually abusing two students.Malka Leifer, 56, must serve at least 11 years and six months of the sentence before she can be considered for early release. As soon as she is released from a Victoria state prison, she will likely be deported to her native Israel.Leifer was principal of Melbourne’s ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel School when she abused sisters Dassi Erlick and Elly Sapper between 2004 and 2007. Erlick was aged 16 and Sapper 17 when the abuse began.The Associated Press does not usually identify victims of sexual abuse, but the sisters have chosen to identify themselves in the media.A Victoria County Court jury in April convicted her of 18 of 27 charges of sex abuse that she was tried on. The most serious convictions were on six counts of rape, each carrying a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.In sentencing, J...