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Tennessee’s long rape kit processing times cut in half after jogger’s 2022 killing exposed delays

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s lead investigative agency says it now takes less than half the time it took to process rape kits in August 2022, not long before the high-profile killing of a jogger shone a light on the long delays and prompted a funding boost.Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch discussed the improvements during a budget hearing in front of Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday. He pointed to the most recent quarterly report, which shows the average turnaround time to process a rape kit this August was 19.6 weeks, compared to 45.4 weeks last August. He said the average time is now at about 18 weeks.The state’s turnaround times for sexual assault kits drew heavy scrutiny after the high-profile killing of teacher Eliza Fletcher in September 2022. The man charged with killing Fletcher was charged in a 2021 rape of a different woman shortly afterward, when the rape kit from that case was finally processed.The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had attri...

Woman sues ex-Grammys CEO for sexual assault and accuses Recording Academy of negligence

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman filed a lawsuit Wednesday against former Grammy Awards CEO Neil Portnow, accusing him of a 2018 sexual assault, and against the Recording Academy for negligence.The woman, who was not named, filed the lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act. The measure, passed last year, created a temporary window for those who allege sexual assault to file past the state’s usual deadlines.In the lawsuit, the woman, described as an internationally known musician who once played at Carnegie Hall, said she met Portnow in early 2018 and had set up a meeting to interview him at his hotel in New York City later that year. She said he gave her something to drink at the meeting that made her intermittently lose consciousness and that he then proceeded to assault her.A spokesperson for Portnow, who stepped down as the CEO in 2019, said in an email that the accusations were “completely false” and “undoubtedly motivated by Mr. Portnow’s refusal ...

Great-West Lifeco sees base earnings rise in third quarter to $950 million

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

WINNIPEG — Great-West Lifeco Inc. says its base earnings for the third quarter were $950 million, up from $809 million a year earlier.The company attributed the increase primarily to business growth, as well as higher average equity markets and interest rates.Great-West Lifeco says its net earnings attributable to common shareholders were $905 million in the third quarter, down from $987 million during the same quarter last year. Net earnings per diluted share were 97 cents, down from $1.06 a year earlier. The company says base earnings from its Canadian segment were $296 million, down from $340 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, base earnings in the U.S. increased slightly to $262 million, while earnings rose in Europe to $206 million. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GWO)The Canadian Press

B.C. woman who married ISIS fighter, repatriated from Syrian camp granted peace bond

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

CHILLIWACK, B.C. — A judge has placed a terrorism peace bond on a British Columbia woman who was repatriated to Canada last year from a Syrian prison camp after she married an ISIS fighter.Chilliwack provincial court Judge Kristen Mundstock says Kimberly Polman must follow several conditions while under bond, including reporting to a parole officer, remaining at her current Squamish, B.C.,  address, wearing electronic supervision equipment and not leaving the province. The order also includes conditions that Polman have no contact with several people, including her ex-husband, that she have no access to driving a vehicle except an electronic bike and that she not communicate with anyone suspected to be involved in terrorism. The court order is effective as of Tuesday and will last for eight months. Polman and another woman were returned to Canada in October 2022 from the detention camp in Syria that is holding mostly women and children who were rounded up after the fall of the extre...

2 more endangered Florida panthers struck and killed by vehicles, wildlife officials say

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

LABELLE, Fla. (AP) — Two endangered Florida panthers have been struck and killed by vehicles, officials said.A 2-year-old male panther’s remains were found Monday near the Spirit-of-the-Wild Wildlife Management Area in Hendry County, and a 3-year-old female panther was found dead a day later near the Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area in Glades County, wildlife officials said.All 10 known panther deaths this year were caused by vehicle collisions, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.Florida panthers once roamed the entire Southeast, but their habitat now is mostly confined to a small region of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. Up to 230 Florida panthers remain in the wild.The Associated Press

Alaska governor appoints Republican Thomas Baker to vacant state House seat

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday appointed Republican Thomas Baker to the state House seat left vacant last month when independent Rep. Josiah Patkotak resigned after being elected North Slope Borough mayor.Patkotak was one of four rural lawmakers — independents and Democrats — who joined with 19 Republicans to form a majority in the 40-member House earlier this year. Because Patkotak was an independent, Dunleavy was not bound by party affiliation in selecting a replacement. Dunleavy’s office said in a statement that Baker’s name will be sent to Republican House members for a confirmation vote. Provisions of law dealing with legislative vacancies were tweaked under a 2020 ballot measure. Scott Kendall, an attorney and an author of that measure, said confirmation should be voted on by members of the House majority caucus, regardless of party. Two House Republicans are not part of the majority caucus.Baker is a construction operations manager for Kikik...

Court cites clergy-penitent privilege in dismissing child sex abuse lawsuit against Mormon church

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

An Arizona judge has dismissed a high-profile child sexual abuse lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ruling that church officials who knew that a church member was sexually abusing his daughter had no duty to report the abuse to police or social service agencies because the information was received during a spiritual confession.In a ruling on Friday, Cochise County Superior Court Judge Timothy Dickerson said the state’s clergy-penitent privilege excused two bishops and several other officials with the church, widely known as the Mormon church, from the state’s child sex abuse mandatory reporting law because Paul Adams initially disclosed during a confession that he was sexually abusing his daughter.“Church defendants were not required under the Mandatory Reporting Statute to report the abuse of Jane Doe 1 by her father because their knowledge of the abuse came from confidential communications which fall within the clergy-penitent exception,” Dickerson wr...

Voters in in small Iowa city decide not to give their City Council more control over library books

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

PELLA, Iowa (AP) — Voters in a small Iowa city narrowly decided not to support giving their City Council more power over their local library.Just over half the voters in Pella rejected an advisory vote on whether the City Council should have more power over how the library spends its money and whether it pulls certain books from shelves, the Des Moines Register reported Wednesday. Only 87 votes separated the two sides in the unofficial tally.The measure got on the ballot in the central Iowa town of about 10,000 people about two years after some community members tried to persuade the appointed library board to ban or restrict access to Maia Kobabe’s LGBTQ+ memoir “Gender Queer.” But the board decided to keep that book in the adult section of the library.Attempts to ban books have continued at a record pace nationwide, according to the American Library Association, especially in conservative states and communities like Pella, where former President Donald Trump won 68% of the vote in...

Skilling: Showers until Wednesday night, but sunshine through the weekend

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

The latest autumn weather disturbance—the 2nd to sweep the area this week---is centered in downstate Illinois and has managed to send a surge of 70-deg air as far north as Kankakee county.  Temps at late afternoon have reached 73 at Kankakee, 68 Hebron IN; 65 Joliet, 63 Romeoville, 64 Morris and 63 in Valparaiso, IN.  At the same time, Wed afternoon temps have only made it to 53 on the North Shore at Lake Forest and 50 at Wonder Lake.This weather system managed some snow in the Upper Midwest overnight—with 5" reported at Grand Marais in northeast Minnesota's Arrowhead region north of Duluth and a dusting of across sections of far Northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula where Marquette report 0.8".Some showers are scattered across the area as the late Wednesday commute gets underway and a band of eastbound showers has included a few flashes of lightning from northwest and north central Illinois into southern Wisconsin—so sporadic rain showers will continue in...

Former CTA clerk sentenced to prison after stealing $356,000 in retirement plan funds

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:13:50 GMT

CHICAGO — A former clerk for the Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) retirement plan has been sentenced to a year in federal prison after fraudulently obtaining more than $356,000 in plan funds, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Illinois.United States District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly imposed a year-and-a-day sentence Tuesday on Ayanna Nesbitt, a 51-year-old woman from Chicago. Nesbitt pleaded guilty earlier this year to a wire fraud charge, which led to her sentencing earlier this week.Government officials said Nesbitt created and obtained approval for approximately 43 fraudulent requests from the CTA's retirement plan to issue various benefits payments and refunds of pension contributions, which upon approval, were sent to financial accounts controlled by Nesbitt, or paid to people who then transferred the money to her. Valparaiso University student dies after stabbing at Planet Fitness; Man in custody From 2019 to 2021, government officials said...