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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday signed off on the repeal of Memphis police traffic stop reforms set in place after the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by officers just over a year ago.

By enacting the legislation, the Republican governor sided with GOP lawmakers who forged ahead despite pleas from Nichols’ parents to give them a chance to find compromise.

Starting immediately, the law renders some of Memphis’ ordinances null and void, including one that outlawed so-called pretextual traffic stops, such as for a broken taillight and other minor violations.

Nichols’ death last January sparked outrage and calls for reforms nationally and locally. Videos showed an almost 3-minute barrage of fists, feet and baton strikes to Nichols’ face, head, front and back, as the 29-year-old Black man yelled for his mother about a block from home.

Nichols’ parents, mother RowVaughn Wells and stepfather Rodney Wells, were among the advocates who drummed up support for the Memphis city council last year to pass ordinance changes.

Jonathan Mattise, The Associated Press



RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed two top Democratic legislative priorities on Thursday: bills that would have allowed the recreational retail sales of marijuana to begin next year and measures mandating a minimum wage increase.

The development did not come as a surprise. While Youngkin had not explicitly threatened to veto either set of bills, he told reporters he didn’t think the minimum wage bill was needed and had repeatedly said he was uninterested in setting up retail marijuana sales.

In 2021, Virginia became the first Southern state to legalize marijuana, adopting a policy change that allowed adults age 21 and up to possess and cultivate the drug. But the state didn’t set up retail sales at the time and still hasn’t, due to shifts in partisan power and policy differences since then.

Advocates say the disconnect is allowing the illicit market to flourish, while opponents have safety health and safety concerns with further expanding access to the drug. In a statement, Youngkin said he shared those worries.

“States following this path have seen adverse effects on children’s and adolescent’s health and safety, increased gang activity and violent crime, significant deterioration in mental health, decreased road safety, and significant costs associated with retail marijuana that far exceed tax revenue. It also does not eliminate the illegal black-market sale of cannabis, nor guarantee product safety,” he said in a veto statement attached to the bills.

Currently in Virginia, home cultivation and adult sharing of the drug are legal. And patients who receive a written certification from a health care provider can purchase medical cannabis from a dispensary.

Under the bills, the state would have started taking applications on Sept. 1 for cultivating, testing, processing and selling the drug in preparation for the market to open May 1, 2025, with products taxed at a rate of up to 11.625%.

The legislation was supported by a range of industry interests and opposed by religious and socially conservative groups.

Virginia first took on legalization at a time when Democrats were in full control of state government. Elections later that year changed that, with Youngkin winning and Republicans taking control of the House of Delegates for two years, though Democrats are now back in full control of the statehouse.

While there has been some Republican legislative support since the 2021 session for setting up legal recreational sales, bills to do so have failed in 2022 and 2023.

As for the wage legislation, which would have increased the current $12-per-hour minimum wage to $13.50 on Jan. 1, 2025, and then to $15 on Jan. 1, 2026, Youngkin said the bills would “imperil market freedom and economic competitiveness.”

The bills would “implement drastic wage mandates, raise costs on families and small businesses, jeopardize jobs, and fail to recognize regional economic differences across Virginia,” he said in a news release.

Virginia Democrats began an effort to increase the minimum wage in 2020. They passed legislation that year — which took effect with a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic — establishing incremental increases up to $12, with further bumps requiring another Assembly vote.

They and other advocates have argued the legislation would help working families afford basic necessities and keep up with inflation.

Youngkin took action on a total of 107 bills Thursday, according to his office. He signed 100, including measures that his office said would “strengthen law enforcement’s ability to prosecute child predators and expand Department of Corrections inmate access to quality health services.”

Besides the marijuana and wage bills, he vetoed three others. One would have removed an exemption for farmworkers from the state’s minimum wage law.

Another would have required that approximately 315 individuals incarcerated or on community supervision with a felony marijuana conviction receive a sentencing review, according to Youngkin’s office.

“Ninety-seven inmates convicted of a violent felony offense, such as first and second-degree murder, kidnapping, and robbery, would be eligible for a reduced sentence under this proposal,” he said in his veto statement.

Thursday’s final veto came for a bill that dealt with the type of evidence that can be considered in certain workers’ compensation claims. The governor said current law provides a “balanced approach” while the proposal would “create a disproportionate imbalance in favor of one party.”

The part-time General Assembly adjourned its regular session earlier this month and will meet again in Richmond for a one-day session April 17 to consider Youngkin’s proposed amendments to legislation. They could also attempt to override one or more vetoes, a move that requires a 2/3 vote of both chambers, which are only narrowly controlled by Democrats.

The marijuana legislation advanced mostly along party lines, and the minimum wage bills passed strictly on party lines, meaning any override attempt would be almost certain to fail.

Youngkin announced the vetoes a day after the public collapse of one of his top legislative priorities: a deal to bring the NHL’s Washington Capitals and NBA’s Washington Wizards to Alexandria. The teams’ majority owner announced they would instead be staying in D.C.

Sarah Rankin, The Associated Press


OTTAWA — Quebec MP Anthony Housefather remains undecided on his future more than a week after a House of Commons motion on Israel and Gaza left him questioning whether he will remain in the Liberal party.

And Prime Minister Minister Justin Trudeau isn’t saying if he has even been talking to Housefather to try and keep him in the fold.

Trudeau dodged the question today, saying only that he has spoken to Housefather many times over the years and that he is proud to head a caucus where multiple viewpoints are heard and reflected.

Housefather is a lifelong Liberal and has been the party’s MP for Mount Royal since 2015.

But on March 19 he said he was “reflecting” on his future a day after the a majority of Liberals supported an NDP motion on Gaza after negotiating heavy amendments.

Housefather said the last-minute amendments without consultation were not the right way to go and that he was hurt that some members of his party appeared to applaud the NDP for a motion he felt was anti-Israel.

In response to a question Thursday from The Canadian Press he said he had not made any decisions he was ready to share.

The final motion included 14 amendments proposed by the Liberals, which eliminated a stand-alone call to recognize Palestinian statehood and instead saw MPs voice support for a peace process and a two-state solution, in keeping with existing Canadian policy.

It also identified Hamas as a terrorist organization, added a call for Hamas to lay down its arms, and changed language about banning all Canadian exports to Israel of military goods and technology to banning the export of arms.

Many of those changes reflected some of the criticism of the original motion but the final motion was still met with disgust by Israel and several Canadian Jewish organizations.

Housefather said he wishes the Liberals had simply voted down the flawed motion. However, there was the very real possibility that the cabinet would vote against it, and a majority of the rest of the caucus would vote for it.

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith said last week that would have been a far worse outcome for the party.

Trudeau has not spoken publicly about the motion or Housefather’s concerns before Thursday.

“Over the years I have had many many conversations with Anthony Housefather. I’ve known him a long time,” Trudeau said, when asked if he had spoken to Housefather in the last week.

He went on to say that the whole thing reinforces that the Liberal caucus is a reflection of Canada, which can sometimes get messy.

“And yes, for parties that can pick one side of the conflict and ignore the concerns of a whole bunch of Canadians, it may be easier to manage that caucus. But I suggest that it probably is not as good for Canada,” he said.

His office later said he had spoken to Housefather the day the motion was debated but would not say if the two had spoken since.

Housefather is Jewish and has been advocating for his community in the face of threats and protests targeting synagogues and Jewish community centres and businesses.

His Montreal riding has been a Liberal stronghold since the 1940s, and is home to the second-largest number of Jewish voters of any riding in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2024.

The Canadian Press


KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Vancouver’s Catholic Archbishop says a ‘Sacred Covenant’ agreement has been reached with the First Nation in Kamloops, B.C., that announced the discovery the remains of more than 200 children at the site of a former residential school. 

Archbishop J. Michael Miller of the Catholic archdiocese of Vancouver says the agreement with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc will open a “new chapter” in the relationship between the church and First Nations in B.C. 

Miller says the church recognizes its complicity in the Canadian government’s colonialist policies toward First Nations and the “resulting tragedies” from the residential school system. 

Chief Rosanne Casimir of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc says the covenant will see the church share records and information as the nation continues to investigate the site of a former Kamloops Indian Residential School where hundreds of children went missing. 

The nation announced in May 2021 that a search around the former school site using ground-penetrating radar found the unmarked burial sites of the remains of more than 200 children who were students at the school. 

The Nation and the archdiocese say the agreement includes commitments from the church on how to properly memorialize residential school survivors, information sharing about missing children and to offer “healing services” to family members of those who attended the school. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2024.

The Canadian Press


ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — An Orlando city commissioner was arrested Thursday on charges of elderly exploitation, identity fraud and mortgage fraud following accusations that she had spent a constituent’s money on herself after getting power of attorney over the 96-year-old woman.

Regina Hill, 63, pleaded not guilty to seven felony counts following her arrest by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. She didn’t say anything to reporters after bonding out of jail a short time later.

Hill got to know the elderly woman three years ago when she helped clean up the woman’s home, which was in deplorable condition. But within a month, the city commissioner had obtained power of attorney over the victim, the FDLE said in a news release.

Hill allegedly purchased a home with the victim as the co-signer, without the victim’s knowledge or consent, for a cost of more than $400,000. She moved into a second home that the victim owned, and spent more than $15,000 of the victim’s money on renovations without the victim knowing, the law enforcement agency said.

After gaining access to the woman’s personal checking, savings, and credit card accounts, Hill spent over $100,000 of the victim’s money on herself, the FDLE said.

Among the items Hill purchased were home renovations, expensive perfumes, clothing, a facelift and a hotel room in Miami, according to court papers that were filed as part of an injunction issued by a judge against the city commissioner last week.

If convicted, Hill faces a maximum sentence of 180 years in prison.

The Associated Press


Meta will be sunsetting Facebook News in early April for users in the U.S. and Australia as the platform further deemphasizes news and politics. The feature was shut down in the U.K., France and Germany last year.

Launched in 2019, the News tab curated headlines from national and international news organizations, as well as smaller, local publications.

Meta says users will still be able to view links to news articles, and news organizations will still be able to post and promote their stories and websites, as any other individual or organization can on Facebook.

The change comes as Meta tries to scale back news and political content on its platforms following years of criticism about how it handles misinformation and whether it contributes to political polarization.

“This change does not impact posts from accounts people choose to follow; it impacts what the system recommends, and people can control if they want more,” said Dani Lever, a Meta spokesperson. “This announcement expands on years of work on how we approach and treat political content based on what people have told us they wanted.”

Meta said the change to the News tab does not affect its fact-checking network and review of misinformation.

But misinformation remains a challenge for the company, especially as the U.S. presidential election and other races get underway.

“Facebook didn’t envision itself as a political platform. It was run by tech people. And then suddenly it started scaling and they found themselves immersed in politics, and they themselves became the headline,” said Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute in the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy who studies tech policy and how new technologies evolve over time. “I think with many big elections coming up this year, it’s not surprising that Facebook is taking yet another step away from politics so that they can just not, inadvertently, themselves become a political headline.”

Rick Edmonds, media analyst for Poynter, said the dissolution of the News tab is not surprising for news organizations that have been seeing diminishing Facebook traffic to their websites for several years, spurring organizations to focus on other ways to attract an audience, such as search and newsletters.

“I would say if you’ve been watching, you could see this coming, but it’s one more very hurtful thing to the business of news,” Edmonds said.

News makes up less than 3% of what users worldwide see in their Facebook feeds, Meta said, adding that the number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the U.S. dropped by over 80% last year.

However, according to a 2023 Pew Research study, half of U.S. adults get news at least sometimes from social media. And one platform outpaces the rest: Facebook.

Three in 10 U.S. adults say they regularly get news from Facebook, according to Pew, and 16% of U.S. adults say they regularly get news from Instagram, also owned by Meta.

Instagram users recently expressed dissatisfaction with the app’s choice to stop “proactively” recommending political content posted on accounts that users don’t follow. While the option to turn off the filter was always available in user settings, many people were not aware Meta made the change.

Sallee Ann Harrison, The Associated Press


FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky wrapped up work Thursday on a sweeping criminal justice bill that would deliver harsher sentences to combat crime. Opponents making a last stand before final passage warned the measure would carry a hefty price tag with no assurances that a tougher approach will lower crime.

The House voted 75-23 after another long debate to send the measure to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. The massive legislation is a priority for many in the GOP supermajority legislature.

The governor has signaled he likes aspects of the sprawling bill but dislikes other sections, including provisions to create the crime of unlawful camping, which critics say would criminalize homelessness.

“It’s hard to comment on a bill that tries to do this many things,” Beshear said recently. “I think it properly should have been split into different bills.”

House Bill 5 — one of the most contentious of the legislative session — would make a multitude of changes to the state’s criminal code, enhancing many current penalties and creating new offenses.

Supporters portrayed the bill as a necessary policy shift that would do more to hold criminals accountable and to make communities safer.

“If you get convicted of a violent crime, you’re going to the big house and you’re going for a long time,” Republican Rep. Jason Nemes said in defending the bill against blistering criticism from Democrats.

One prominent feature would create a “three-strikes” penalty that would lock up felons for the rest of their lives after committing a third violent offense.

Opponents said the measure failed to delve into the root causes of crime and warned of potential skyrocketing costs by putting more people behind bars for longer sentences.

“To increase the penalties may make us on paper look like we feel safer. I do not know that it will make us actually be more safe,” said Democratic Rep. Tina Bojanowski.

To bolster public safety, she suggested such alternatives as temporarily taking guns away from people experiencing mental health crises, better protecting domestic violence victims and improving access to housing — things not addressed by the legislation. Other critics said more effective ways to combat crime would be to raise the minimum wage and spend more on rehabilitative services.

The bill’s supporters focused mostly on urban crime in pushing for tougher policies. A law enforcement report released last year showed that overall serious crime rates fell across Kentucky in 2022, with declines in reports of homicides, robberies and drug offenses.

Opponents said the prospect of more criminal offenders serving longer sentences will saddle the Bluegrass State with significantly higher corrections costs and put more strain on overcrowded jails.

The fiscal note attached to the bill said the overall financial impact was “indeterminable” but would likely lead to a “significant increase in expenditures primarily due to increased incarceration costs.”

The measure would add to the list of violent crimes that require offenders to serve most of their sentences before becoming eligible for release.

Another key section aims to combat the prevalence of fentanyl by creating harsher penalties when its distribution results in fatal overdoses. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid seen as a key factor in the state’s high death toll from drug overdoses.

The section stirring some of the most heated debate would create an “unlawful camping” offense applied to the homeless. It means people could be arrested for sleeping or setting up camp in public spaces — whether on streets, sidewalks, under bridges or in front of businesses or public buildings. A first offense would be treated as a violation, with subsequent offenses designated as a misdemeanor. People could sleep in vehicles in public for up to 12 hours without being charged with unlawful camping.

Several thousand people experience homelessness in Kentucky on a given night, advocates say.

The bill would create a standalone carjacking law with enhanced penalties. Another provision would offer workers and business owners criminal immunity in cases where they use a “reasonable amount of force” to prevent theft or protect themselves and their stores.

The bill’s lead sponsor is Republican Rep. Jared Bauman and the measure drew dozens of cosponsors.

Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press



WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Thursday invited President Joe Biden to testify before Congress as part of their impeachment inquiry into him and his family’s business affairs.

Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to the Democratic president, inviting him to sit for a public hearing to “explain, under oath,” what involvement he had in the Biden family businesses.

“In light of the yawning gap between your public statements and the evidence assembled by the Committee, as well as the White House’s obstruction, it is in the best interest of the American people for you to answer questions from Members of Congress directly, and I hereby invite you to do so,” the Kentucky Republican wrote.

While it is highly unlikely that Biden would agree to appear before lawmakers in such a setting, Comer pointed to previous examples of presidents’ testifying before Congress.

“As you are aware, presidents before you have provided testimony to congressional committees, including President Ford’s testimony before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Judiciary Committee in 1974,” Comer continued.

The bold invitation comes as the monthslong inquiry into Biden is all but winding down as Republicans face the stark reality that it lacks the political appetite from within the conference to go forward with an actual impeachment. Nonetheless, leaders of the effort, including Comer are facing growing political pressure to deliver something after months of work investigating the Biden family and its web of international business transactions.

After a hearing earlier this month, the White House scoffed at the idea of Biden appearing for a public hearing, telling Republicans to “move on” and focus on “real issues” Americans want addressed.

“This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment,” spokesman Ian Sams said last week. “Call it a day, pal.”

Farnoush Amiri, The Associated Press


NEW YORK (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez will not appeal a judge’s ruling on Constitutional grounds that would have delayed his May trial, his lawyers said Thursday.

The Democrat’s lawyers notified the Manhattan federal judge who will preside over the May 6 trial in a letter that the senator’s decision was “principally motivated by his desire to proceed to trial and establish his innocence without further delay.”

He has pleaded not guilty to corruption charges filed after investigators discovered gold bars and cash at his New Jersey home.

Prosecutors say the gold and cash resulted from bribes that he and his wife received in exchange for favors Menendez carried out for three New Jersey businessmen.

Earlier this month, Judge Sidney H. Stein ruled that multiple warrants used to conduct 2022 searches of the Democrat’s email accounts and his home were properly sought and carried out.

The warrants had been contested by Menendez under provisions of the Constitution that would have allowed an appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prior to a trial if the senator chose to go that route.

The senator’s lawyers had claimed the warrants were “riddled with material misrepresentation and omissions that deceived the authorizing magistrate judge.”

Stein said any omissions in the warrants were not intentional or material for searches of his home in June 2022 that resulted in the discovery of over $100,000 worth of gold bars and more than $480,000 in cash. Prosecutors said much of the gold and cash was hidden in closets, clothing and a safe.

Menendez, 70, said the cash found in the house was personal savings he had put away for emergencies. After his fall arrest, Menendez was forced to relinquish his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but said he would not resign from Congress.

Besides Menendez, his wife, Nadine, and two businessmen also have pleaded not guilty to charges. A third businessman facing charges has pled guilty in a cooperation deal with prosecutors that calls for him to testify at trial.

According to an indictment, Menendez and his wife accepted gold bars and cash from a real estate developer in return for the senator using his clout to get that businessman a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund.

Menendez also was charged with helping another New Jersey business associate get a lucrative deal with the government of Egypt.

Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press


WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is planning to do away with paper health cards and switch to more durable plastic and digital ones.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala says the move is among many promises from last year’s provincial election campaign that will be fulfilled in the budget on Tuesday.

The NDP government says the new cards will be more secure and easier to use to access services.

It says the change will also help clear a backlog of applications for the current paper cards and that the application process will be soon be streamlined.

Sala took part in a pre-budget tradition of unboxing new shoes.

He handed out new pairs of shoes to several health-care workers at the Victoria Hospital in Winnipeg.

“We know how important of a role (workers) play in delivering health care to Manitobans, so today is about honouring them,” Sala said Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Match 28, 2024.

The Canadian Press