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Activist’s fight against segregation evolved into political action to push for voting rights

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Norman Hill was at the AFL-CIO office in Washington, D.C., in August 1965, and recalls cheering when he learned the Voting Rights Act had passed Congress. He then took a moment to remember the people “who were killed, literally, struggling to try to get Blacks registered to vote.”Now 90, Hill started working in the Civil Rights Movement with the NAACP in Chicago before joining the Congress of Racial Equality in the early 1960s to work on its Route 40 Project.Route 40 was the major corridor between Washington, D.C., and New York, but many restaurants along the highway in Maryland and Delaware served whites only. CORE staged sit-ins and was preparing a massive motorcade to fight the practice when several restaurants relented and desegregated.That prompted the Maryland Legislature to pass a public accommodations law in 1963 banning discrimination in hotels and restaurants, becoming the first state below the Mason-Dixon Line to do so.Hill then helped coordinate the March...

Voting rights marcher recalls being clubbed, hearing fatal gunshot during pivotal day of protests

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

MARION, Ala. (AP) — Della Simpson Maynor was just 14 when she marched for voting rights in her hometown of Marion, Alabama. Her most distinct memory of that evening is of the police attacking the demonstrators.She recalls one officer, on horseback, swinging at her head with a club.“I remember going up with my elbow, trying to protect my head,” she said, pointing to the place where the club cracked down on her arm. “They didn’t care who they hit — children, women. I remember a lady, she was pregnant.”The Feb. 18, 1965, march ended with the shooting of a young activist and set in motion events that galvanized support for Congress passing the Voting Rights Act later that year.The group had gathered to walk from Zion Methodist Church to the nearby jail to protest the arrest of James Orange, a leader in the civil rights movement. There was a rumor that white people in the town planned to lynch Orange that night to send a message.Maynor had wiggled her way near the front of the line, but ...

13-year-old endangered runaway missing out of Jeffco

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) -- Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is searching for a 13-year-old endangered runaway.Lauren Thompson left her house in south Jeffco at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and was last seen at the Denny's at West Hampden Avenue and South Wadsworth Boulevard at 12:30 a.m.She is described as 5 feet, 5 inches tall, 115 pounds with red hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt, grey sweatpants and was carrying a dark-colored backpack.Jeffco asks that anyone who sees her contacts law enforcement immediately.

Body cam shows man fleeing CSP before being hit by passing car

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — FOX31 has obtained body camera footage showing the moments before a man died while trying to get away from Colorado State Patrol on Interstate 70.Troopers said the incident happened on June 1 around 1:50 a.m. on C-470 and I-70.According to CSP, troopers pulled over the vehicle after seeing the man driving eastbound on the westbound lanes of C-470."Oh, I actually just flipped around right here, pretty sure you saw me," said the man to a trooper. Officer shot, suspect killed in Denver neighborhood By this point, the trooper said they suspected the man was impaired, and asked for his license. However, he said he didn't have one.The video then shows the trooper trying to detain the driver after he's seen ignoring requests to leave his hands out of his pockets. The driver can be heard saying he needs a cigarette."No, we're past that. We're past that," the trooper responds.Next, the driver gets back into the car from the passenger side and gets behind the wheel."You're g...

North Dakota GOP Gov. Doug Burgum files to run for president in 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

(CNN) — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum on Wednesday filed paperwork to run for president.The long-shot Republican contender is set to kick off his campaign with an event in Fargo, North Dakota, and earlier this week he released a video teasing the bid.“Anger, yelling, infighting – that’s not going to cut it anymore. Let’s get things done. In North Dakota, we listened with respect and we talked things out. That’s how we can get America back on track,” the two-term Republican governor says in the video.The North Dakota governor enters the GOP primary with considerably less national name recognition than others vying to take on President Joe Biden. Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and talk radio host Larry Elder are already in the race.Burgum told a North Dakota newspaper last month that there was a hunger for candid...

Former Trump aide arrives at Miami courthouse to appear before grand jury in classified documents probe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

(CNN) — Taylor Budowich, who has worked as a spokesman for Donald Trump, has arrived at the federal courthouse in Miami to appear before a grand jury as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents.Budowich and his attorney, Stanley Woodward, declined to answer questions as they arrived.Still aligned closely with the former president, Budowich now runs a super PAC backing Trump called MAGA, Inc.The grand jury based in southern Florida has heard testimony from multiple witnesses in recent weeks as part of the federal investigation that has relied for months on grand juries in Washington, DC, to help gather evidence and witness testimony.Smith’s investigation into potential mishandling of classified materials and possible obstruction appears to be nearing the final stages of the investigation.

BSFR extinguish fire at assisted living facility in Lauderdale Lakes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

The Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue crews extinguished a fire that broke out in an assisted living facility in Lauderdale Lakes. According to officials, the blaze started just before 11 p.m. Tuesday at 3485 N.W. 30th St. Firefighters entered the building where they found smoke expelling from the third floor in one of the rooms.Officials believed the flames spread from an unattended candle in the living space.The automatic sprinklers in the building suppressed the fire and kept it from spreading further. Approximately 50 firefighters responded to the scene to control the blaze and help people evacuate nearly 30 residents from inside the living facility. Most of the residents lived on the second, third and fourth floors of the housing structure and were evacuated due to the smoke conditions and water disturbance caused by the sprinkler system.Around midnight, two residents needed to be transported for complaints related to the fire but their conditions were stable. Everyone involved was e...

Woman rescued from sinking boat 4 decades ago reunites with good Samaritan who saved family

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

MELBOURNE, Fla. (WSVN) — There was a heart warming reunion between a good Samaritan and a woman who was rescued from a sinking boat four decades ago.“I’ll never forget him,” Memory Wilks said. “I can’t thank him enough, he is truly my hero.” Wilks was clearing out her parents’ home recently when she found a newspaper article from 1982.The article was about her family’s boat, which sank near Melbourne.The article mentioned the man who was credited with saving their lives.After a quick Facebook search, the two connected.“The boat was half sunk, they were a like a foot and a half of water, deep already, all their belongings were floating away,” Doug Ritter said. “They were in a panic.” “He reached his hand down, he said, ‘Sweetie, I got you. Grab my hand,'” Wilk’s said. Ritter was able to rescue all seven members of Wilk’s family.He said that was the best day he’s ever had on th...

Russia used sabotaged dam as ‘weapon of mass destruction’ says Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and the natural world suffered catastrophic damage after the destruction of Nova Kakhovka dam unleashed heavy flooding across southern Ukraine, the country’s energy minister told POLITICO on Wednesday.German Galushchenko said Russia deliberately destroyed the hydroelectric dam, creating “the largest man-made disaster in Europe in decades.”“People have lost their homes. The nature, unique ecosystems have suffered irreparable damage. About 20,000 households in the Kherson region are cut off electricity, have limited access to clean food and water,” he said, adding: “It is a war crime and can be qualified as the use of weapons of mass destruction under the Geneva Convention. They must be punished for all their crimes.”Ukrainian authorities worked through the night on Wednesday to evacuate thousands of people from flood-hit areas of Kherson region, in the south of the country. As many as 16,000 res...

Court says no, Polish government says go on coal mine permit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:12 GMT

WARSAW — The Polish government said it will ignore a court ruling suspending an environmental permit for one of the country’s largest lignite coal mines.The ruling was issued by a Warsaw court on May 31 and made public on Tuesday. The case had been filed by Polish, Czech and German environmental groups, complaining about an environmental permit issued last year for an expansion of the Turów mine located near the Czech and German borders in southwestern Poland.The court found that the permit — valid from 2026 to 2044 — was issued in breach of EU environmental regulations. “It should be pointed out that the probability that the [permit] is defective cannot be ruled out,” the court said, adding: “Further mining under the conditions set out in the permit … may lead to irreversible damage not only to the environment, but may also have a negative impact on the health of the inhabitants of nearby towns.”That set off a storm of protest from the Polish government.“We’re def...