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Victims of fatal 2021 B.C. library stabbing describe shattered lives at sentencing

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. — Victims of a stabbing spree and their relatives have told a sentencing hearing how their lives were shattered two years ago by the deadly attack in and around the Lynn Valley Library in North Vancouver, B.C.Yannick Bandaogo, 30, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and several attempted murder charges earlier this year.Several victims spoke before Justice Geoffrey R.J. Gaul of the B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday, including the mother of the lone victim killed in the attack.The woman said her daughter was “fearless” and “gentle,” and her death had destroyed the family.“We’re left merely to exist,” the woman told the court.The victim’s father held his wife throughout the testimony, occasionally glaring at Bandaogo who was seated in the back of the courtroom.Neither the young woman who died in the attack nor her relatives can be identified due to a publication ban on the victim’s name.Another victim, Emma H...

Toby Keith’s shows at his Oklahoma music venue mark return to stage after revealing cancer diagnosis

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Country music star Toby Keith was back on stage over the Fourth of July weekend with his first shows since revealing last summer that he had been fighting stomach cancer. Hundreds attended the native Oklahoman’s pop-up concerts Friday and Saturday night in Norman, where he lives, The Oklahoman reports. He performed at Hollywood Corners, a 1920s roadhouse and service station that he bought and converted into a deli, bar and music venue. Norman resident Joanna Hall, who attended Friday’s show, told the newspaper that Keith put on a great performance and was “very thankful for everybody who showed up.”“He seemed a little taken aback that that many people were there,” Hall said. “He was like, ‘This was supposed to be a secret. … This was a bigger secret than what I intended.’ ”Keith’s publicist confirmed that Keith and his Easy Money Band played for about two and a half hours both nights. Last June, Keith said that he had been battling stomac...

El Salvadoran ex-President Mauricio Funes sentenced to 6 years for tax evasion

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — An El Salvador court sentenced former President Mauricio Funes Wednesday to six years in prison for tax evasion, the second time in barely more than a month that a court has sentenced the ex-leader in absentia.Prosecutors had asked for an eight-year sentence against Funes, who lives in Nicaragua.In late May, another tribunal sentenced Funes to 14 years in prison for negotiating with the country’s powerful street gangs during his administration.El Salvador has pursued Funes, 64, who governed from 2009 to 2014, for other alleged crimes in at least a half dozen cases. Nicaragua gave him citizenship in 2019.Funes is the second former Salvadoran president sentenced to prison for illegal activity during his administration. In 2018, former President Tony Saca was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to diverting more than $300 million in state funds. He was Funes’ predecessor, governing from 2004 to 2009.El Salvador changed its laws last ye...

Manitoba government says searching landfill for remains of Indigenous women too risky

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government says a proposed search for the remains of two slain Indigenous women believed to be in a landfill north of Winnipeg is too risky.Premier Heather Stefanson says the province cannot knowingly risk workers’ health and safety for a search with no guarantee that the remains will be found.Stefanson made the comments in a written statement after meeting with relatives of some of the women believed to have been killed before ending up in the Prairie Green landfill.Her office later clarified that the province would not stop a search if the federal government supports one and can provide sufficient safeguards around the risks.Cambria Harris, a daughter of one of the victims, posted on social media that Stefanson is retraumatizing the family and being disrespectful.Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran are believed to have been killed last year.Jeremy Skibicki has been charged with first-degree murder in their deaths as well as the deaths of Rebecca Contois,...

Rep. Adam Schiff, censured by GOP-led House, raises $8.1 million for his California Senate race

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff’s Senate campaign said Wednesday that the California Democrat had raised $8.1 million over the past three months, a period that includes his recent censure by the Republican-led House.His team said that was a record for a Senate campaign for the April-through-June quarter of a year in which an election is not taking place. The 2024 race is to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.However, federal records show that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s main campaign committee raised over $11 million in the second quarter of 2021, a year when he was not facing reelection. Schiff’s campaign said in the announcement that the $8.1 million amount represented “the most any Senate campaign nationwide has raised in Q2 of an off-cycle year, ever.” Campaign communications director Marisol Samayoa said in an email the “record” amount referred to fundraising in open Senate contests, where an incumbent is not running. That ...

In Trump case, Justice Dept. unseals previously blacked-out portions from search warrant application

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Wednesday disclosed some of the previously blacked-out portions of a warrant application it submitted last year to gain authorization to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida property for classified documents.Key portions of the document had already been made public, but media organizations including The Associated Press had pressed for further unsealing in light of a 38-count indictment last month charging Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, with concealing classified records at Mar-a-Lago from investigators. The magistrate judge, Bruce Reinhart, declined to order the Justice Department to unseal the search warrant affidavit in its entirety but did require prosecutors to publicly file a less-redacted affidavit.Many of the newly revealed paragraphs recounted how surveillance camera footage from inside the property showed dozens of boxes being relocated in the days before FBI and Justice Department investigators visited the home...

Connecticut lawmaker attacked after Muslim service says she sustained multiple physical injuries

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

A Connecticut state legislator who was attacked last month as she left a Muslim prayer service made her first public comments about the incident on Wednesday, saying she sustained multiple physical injuries from what she described as an attempted sexual assault and violent physical assault.Rep. Mayram Khan, who was with her children and sister outside a downtown Hartford arena taking pictures when the attack occurred, said in a written statement that she was grateful to the “courageous men who came to my aid” and chased down her assailant until police arrived. “Their courage and tenacity in those moments helped to save my life, the lives of my children and many other Muslim women and children that were still inside the XL Center,” said Khan, referring to the roughly 4,000 other people who attended the service marking Eid al-Adha, the end of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage by Muslims to Mecca.Khan, who said she is “on a long journey of physical and emotional healing,” said she ...

Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued for Cook, Kankakee, Lake, & Will County

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

6:25 p.m. -- The National Weather Service in Chicago has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Cook, Kankakee, Lake, and Will County until 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.Skilling: Thunderstorms, possible hail Wednesday nightDownpours and storm-generated wind gusts with the potential for some hail are to accompany some t-storms into Wednesday evening. A few may become severe. But, a huge, well organized upper wind band which lead to a widespread outbreak of severe storms isn't in place. So the storms which blossom in this environment will be left to tap the energy stored in the humid air—what is known as "Latent heat energy". Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Make no mistake, storms which feed off latent heat energy absent powerful wind fields aloft are more than capable of generating their own powerful wind gusts and they can produce damage. They don't, however, tend to take on the widespread damaging character of the derecho which swept downstate Illinois last Friday produc...

Deadly hit-and-run investigation prompts SWAT response in West Chicago

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

CHICAGO — A search warrant executed at a home in West Chicago, related to one of two fatal hit-and-run incidents, prompted a significant police response.Bharat Patel told WGN News that he was out and about near his home Wednesday morning when he witnessed the 900 block of Hawthorne Lane crawling with cops. There, a SWAT situation was unfolding, as police searched a home. Bharat says he saw a huge police presence in the same spot a few days earlier. Up to $50K reward for information in armed robbery of USPS carrier on Far South Side "The other day, it was about 6-7 hours," he said. "So many police cars."Last Saturday, WGN News was told that a hit-and-run occurred in the same location, leaving a teenage pedestrian dead. The DuPage County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as 16-year-old Julio Salinas-Pino of Aurora. A witness who did not wish to be identified told WGN News that they heard gunfire before the teen was struck. In an unfortunate coincidence, West Chicago police are...

Storm damage in Morton Grove as severe weather rolls through

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:52:00 GMT

MORTON GROVE, Ill. -- A storm cell passed through Morton Grove Wednesday afternoon with heavy rainfall and high winds.On the east side of Morton Grove, downed limbs and branches along Frontage Road, as well as on Major Ave and Lee Street. Skilling: Thunderstorms, possible hail Wednesday night A woman who lives in a home with the tree down on that backyard tent said she rented it for the Fourth of July and were waiting to return it when the tree came down.Her neighbor was sitting in his front room when the storm passed by."My dog nudged me in the arm 'hey you should get up.' I was looking to the window, I’ve never seen rain and wind going in a circle, it was scary," Morton Grove resident John Jakiel said. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Some downed trees and power lines are also reported in nearby Northfield.A Flood Watch has been issued for most of Northeastern Illinois until 9 p.m. Wednesday night. For updates, click here.