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Biden proposal would let conservationists lease public land much as drillers and ranchers do

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration wants to put conserving vast government-owned lands on equal footing with oil drilling, livestock grazing and other interests, according to a top administration official who defended the idea against criticism that it would interfere with industry.The proposal would allow conservationists and others to lease federally owned land to restore it, much the same way oil companies buy leases to drill and ranchers pay to graze cattle. Companies could also buy conservation leases, such as oil drillers who want to offset damage to public land by restoring acreage elsewhere.Tracy Stone-Manning, director of the Bureau of Land Management, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the proposed changes would address rising pressure from climate change and development. While the bureau previously issued leases for conservation in limited cases, it has never had a dedicated program for it, she said.“It makes conservation an equal among the m...

UN to commemorate Palestinians’ 1948 flight from Israel for the first time

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — For the first time, the United Nations will officially commemorate the flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from what is now Israel on the 75th anniversary of their exodus — an action stemming from the U.N.’s partition of British-ruled Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is headlining Monday’s U.N. commemoration of what Palestinians call the “Nakba” or “catastrophe.”Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, called the U.N. observance “historic” and significant because the General Assembly played a key role in the partition of Palestine. “It’s acknowledging the responsibility of the U.N. of not being able to resolve this catastrophe for the Palestinian people for 75 years,” Mansour told a group of U.N. reporters recently.He said “the catastrophe to the Palestinian people is still ongoing:” The Palestinians still don’t have an independent state, and they don’t have the right to return to their homes ...

New Chicago mayor’s progressive strategy to be tested amid public safety, growth concerns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson will take office Monday, facing an influx of migrants in desperate need of shelter, pressure to build support among skeptical business leaders, and summer months that historically bring a spike in violent crime.Progressives viewed Johnson’s election as evidence that bold stances lead to victory at the ballot box. Now, his first term leading the nation’s third-largest city will test the former union organizer’s ability to turn those proposals into solutions for stubborn problems worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, including public safety, economic growth and housing affordability. “There’s no honeymoon in mayoral politics or city governments,” said Dan Gibbons, CEO of the City Club of Chicago and a former staffer for the city’s longest-serving mayor, Richard M. Daley. “Everyone has your phone number, you get the blame and you don’t get the credit.” Johnson, 47 and a former organizer for the Chicago Tea...

Are you who you say you are? TSA tests facial recognition technology to boost airport security

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — A passenger walks up to an airport security checkpoint, slips an ID card into a slot and looks into a camera atop a small screen. The screen flashes “Photo Complete” and the person walks through — all without having to hand over their identification to the TSA officer sitting behind the screen.It’s all part of a pilot project by the Transportation Security Administration to assess the use of facial recognition technology at a number of airports across the country.“What we are trying to do with this is aid the officers to actually determine that you are who you say who you are,” said Jason Lim, identity management capabilities manager, during a demonstration of the technology to reporters at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The effort comes at a time when the use of various forms of technology to enhance security and streamline procedures is only increasing. TSA says the pilot is voluntary and accurate, but critics have raised conce...

NYC skyscrapers turning to carbon capture to lessen climate change

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — From the outside, the residential high-rise on Manhattan’s Upper West Side looks pretty much like any other luxury building: A doorman greets visitors in a spacious lobby adorned with tapestry and marble.Yet just below in the basement is an unusual set of equipment that no other building in New York City — indeed few in the world — can claim. In an effort to drastically reduce the 30-story building’s emissions, the owners have installed a maze of twisting pipes and tanks that collect carbon dioxide from the massive, gas-fired boilers in the basement before it goes to the chimney and is released into the air.The goal is to stop that climate-warming gas from entering the atmosphere. And there’s a dire need for reducing emissions from skyscrapers like these in such a vertical city. Buildings are by far the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions here, roughly two-thirds, according to the city buildings department. New York state’s buildings also emi...

What to Watch: Clues about voter sentiment could emerge from Kentucky, Pennsylvania primaries

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Off-year elections on Tuesday in Kentucky and Pennsylvania could send early signals about the mood of voters ahead of next year’s races for the White House and Congress. The Kentucky governor’s race is a table-setter for what should be a bruising general election contest. Republican voters will settle on a nominee to challenge incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who has enjoyed high approval ratings but will have to fend off a GOP challenge in a state Republicans usually dominate. Two candidates with ties to former President Donald Trump are contenders in a 12-candidate field.A special legislative race in the Philadelphia suburbs could determine whether Democrats retain a one-vote majority in Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives, and the outcome could demonstrate how voters are feeling in a crucial region of a swing presidential state. Both parties will choose nominees for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and Philadelphia voters will ca...

GOP state lawmakers try to restrict ballot initiatives, partly to thwart abortion protections

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — With other state lawmakers seated around her in the Ohio House, Democratic state Rep. Tavia Galonski got to her feet and began to loudly chant, “One person, one vote!”The former Teamster’s cry spread quickly through the visitors gallery, then began to rise from the throng of protesters gathered outside in the statehouse rotunda. Struggling to be heard over the din, the Republican speaker ordered spectators cleared from the chamber.Last week’s striking scene came as Ohio joined a growing number of Republican-leaning states that are moving to undermine direct democracy by restricting citizens’ ability to bypass lawmakers through ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments.The Ohio proposal will ask voters during an August special election to boost the threshold for passing constitutional amendments to 60% rather than a simple majority. It also would double the number of counties where signatures must be collected, adding an extra layer of d...

Native American remains discovered at Dartmouth College spark calls for accountability

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — As a citizen of the Quapaw Nation, Ahnili Johnson-Jennings has always seen Dartmouth College as the university for Native American students.Her father graduated from the school, founded in 1769 to educate Native Americans, and she had come to rely on its network of students, professors and administrators. But news in March that the Ivy League school in New Hampshire found partial skeletal remains of 15 Native Americans in one of its collections has Johnson-Jennings and others reassessing that relationship.“It’s hard to reconcile. It’s hard to see the college in this old way where they were taking Native remains and using them for their own benefit,” said Johnson-Jennings, a senior and co-president of Native Americans at Dartmouth. The remains were used to teach a class as recently as last year, just before an audit concluded they had been wrongly catalogued as not Native.“It was very upsetting to hear, especially when you’ve just felt so supported by a school and they’...

World’s oldest dog, according to Guinness, celebrates 31st birthday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

The world’s oldest dog recently celebrated his 31st birthday, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.Bobi, a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, a breed of Portuguese dog, celebrated during a party Saturday at his home in the rural Portuguese village of Conqueiros, where has lived his entire life. More than 100 people attended the “very traditional” Portuguese party, owner Leonel Costa said. Local meats and fish were served to up to 100 guests, with extra for Bobi, who only eats human food. A dance troupe also performed with Bobi participating in one of their routines.Costa has owned several old-aged dogs in the past, including Bobi’s mother, Gira, who lived to the age of 18. However, Costa said he never imagined any of his dogs would reach their 30s.“We see situations like this as a normal result of the life that they have, but Bobi is one of a kind,” Costa said.One of the biggest contributing factors to Bobi’s longevity is the “calm, peaceful environment” in which he live...

Biden, India’s Modi out to deepen their bonds, but geopolitical friendships have their limits

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has made it a mission for the U.S. to build friendships overseas — and the next few weeks will offer a vivid demonstration of the importance he’s placing on a relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.The two are both scheduled to attend this week’s Group of Seven summit in Japan, a subsequent gathering of Pacific island leaders in Papua New Guinea, and a later meeting of Indo-Pacific leaders in Australia. Those travels will be followed by a June 22 state visit by Modi to Washington, a sign that both seem willing to deepen their bonds.But like many geopolitical friendships, things are complicated between the world’s largest economy (the U.S.) and its most populous nation (India). The personal outreach has a clear strategic calculus as both countries respond to China’s economic rise and increased global prominence. Yet while Biden champions democratic ideals and openly opposes Russia for invading Ukraine, Modi ...