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In courtroom faceoff, Michael Cohen says he was told to boost Trump’s asset values ‘arbitrarily’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

By Jake Offenhartz and Jennifer Peltz, Associated PressNEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen faced off with him at the former president’s civil fraud trial Tuesday, testifying that he worked to boost asset values to “whatever number Trump told us to.”Five years after turning on a boss that he once pledged to “take a bullet” for, Cohen is a key witness in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit alleging that Trump and his company duped banks, insurers and others by giving them financial statements that inflated his wealth.“I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets, based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected,” Cohen testified, saying that he and former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg labored “to reverse-engineer the various different asset classes, increase those assets, in order to achieve a number that Mr. Trump had tasked us.”Asked what that number was, Cohen replied: “Whatever number Trum...

Police investigating school bus crash on Riverway, minor injuries reported

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

Authorities are investigating what caused a crash between a bus driving a pair of Boston Public Schools students and another vehicle on the Riverway Tuesday morning.State Police and Boston EMS responded to the crash between the bus, a 2023 Ford Econoline, and a 2023 Toyota Camry sedan around 7:55 a.m. Three parked and unoccupied vehicles were also involved in the crash, said Dave Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police.The crash caused minor injuries to a passenger in the Camry, a 51-year-old Brockton woman who was transported to Beth Israel Hospital for treatment, Procopio said. The driver did not suffer injuries.Two students on the bus, ages 15 and 17, and the driver, a 53-year-old Dorchester woman, were evaluated and medically cleared on scene.The bus and one of the parked vehicles, a Tesla, were towed from the scene which was cleared at 9:30 a.m.The crash remains under investigation.

Padres manager Bob Melvin accepts job with Giants: report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego Padres manager Bob Melvin has accepted a job with the San Francisco Giants, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Tuesday, citing sources.Melvin joined the Padres prior to the 2022 season.Check back for updates on this developing story.

West Texas county bans travel on its roads to help someone seeking an abortion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Commissioners in a west Texas county have banned drivers from transporting a person seeking an abortion, making it the largest of five counties, three in Texas, that have approved the measure.Lubbock County commissioners voted 3-0 Monday, with two abstentions, to approve the ban and declare the county a “Sanctuary County for the Unborn,” rejecting County Judge Curtis Parrish and the district attorney’s office request to postpone the vote.The ordinance allows citizens to sue anyone who assists a person in traveling to get an abortion in Lubbock County or even traveling through the area to seek care elsewhere.No violations of the travel prohibition, now approved in four Texas and two New Mexico counties, have been reported and the ordinance does not apply to the person seeking an abortion.“This ordinance as written has many legal problems,” said Parrish, who joined Commissioner Gilbert Flores in abstaining. “This ordinance, however, does not have a problem ...

UN official: Hostilities in Syria have reached the worst point in four years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The head of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria said Tuesday that fighting in the country has reached its worst point in years, with devastating consequences for civilians.“We are witnessing the largest escalation of hostilities in Syria in four years,” Paulo Pinheiro told the U.N. General Assembly. “Yet again there appears to be total disregard for civilians’ lives in what are often tit-for-tat reprisals.”A drone strike earlier this month on the Homs Military Academy killed 89 people, including 31 women and five children, and wounded as many as 277. No group claimed responsibility for the attack but the Syrian military accused insurgents “backed by known international forces” of carrying it out and launched a brutal campaign of airstrikes on opposition-held areas of northwest Syria in retaliation.“In just four days of ground shelling… some 200 civilians were killed and injured, and medical facilities, schools and markets were impacted yet again,” Pinhe...

Federal Court approves $23B First Nations child-welfare settlement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

A Federal Court judge has verbally approved a landmark $23-billion settlement that will see Ottawa compensate more than 300,000 First Nations children and their families over chronic underfunding of on-reserve child-welfare services.It comes more than 15 years after the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society launched a joint human rights complaint.The 2007 complaint revolved around allegations that Ottawa’s underfunding of on-reserve child welfare services amounted to discrimination. It also said First Nations children were denied equal access to support like school supplies and medical equipment.More to come.

Houston mayoral candidate Jackson Lee regretful after recording of her allegedly berating staffers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who is running to be Houston’s next mayor, expressed regret and said that “everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect” following the release of an unverified audio recording purported to be of the longtime Democratic lawmaker berating staff members with a barrage of expletives.In the recording, which was sent anonymously to multiple news organizations on Friday, a woman who sounds like Jackson Lee can be heard criticizing a male staff member after he tells her that some information she was seeking was with another staffer. It is unclear when the recording was made.“I want you to have a (expletive) brain. I want you to have read it. I want you to say, ’Congresswoman, it was such and such date. That’s what I want. That’s the kind of staff that I want to have,” the woman can be heard saying.In the rest of the 95-second recording, the woman berates the staffer she is talking to and another staff member, whom she described as a “...

3 suspects sought in assault at Toronto school parking lot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

Toronto police are searching for three suspects in connection to an alleged assault outside a middle school in Flemingdon Park that occurred just as students were leaving for the day.Police say just after 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, officers responded to a person with a knife call in the parking lot of Valley Park Middle School on Overlea Boulevard near Don Mills Road.It is alleged three male suspects approached another person in the parking lot and struck them on the shoulder with an edged weapon.The suspects then fled the area.Police have not released the age of the victim or elaborated on the severity of their injuries.It is not yet known if the suspects and victim knew each other or attended the school.Police describe the suspects as:Suspect #1: 17 to 20-years old, tanned skin with medium complexion, black braided hair, wearing a blue hoodie, a mask, black pants, and black shoesSuspect #2: 15 to 17 years old, tanned skin with a medium complexion, short black hair, wearing a grey ...

2nd trial in death of New York anti-gang activist ends in mistrial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — The second trial of a New York woman accused of causing the death of an anti-gang activist in a dispute over a memorial honoring the activist’s slain daughter has ended in a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict on the top count of criminally negligent homicide.Jurors on Long Island deadlocked Monday after four days of deliberations in the case of Annmarie Drago, accused of fatally running over Evelyn Rodriguez in 2018. Drago was found guilty of one misdemeanor count of petit larceny for stealing a bouquet and other items from the memorial that Rodriguez had set up to honor her teenage daughter, Kayla Cuevas.Newsday reported that neither Drago not defense attorney Matthew Hereth commented after the mistrial was declared Monday in a courtroom in Suffolk County.Drago was convicted in Rodriguez’s death in 2020, but the conviction was overturned last year and the judge ordered a new trial, citing prosecutorial misconduct.Suffolk County District...

CP NewsAlert: Federal Court approves $23B First Nations child-welfare settlement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:42:37 GMT

OTTAWA — A Federal Court judge has verbally approved a landmark $23-billion settlement that will see Ottawa compensate more than 300,000 First Nations children and their families over chronic underfunding of on-reserve child-welfare services.More coming. The Canadian Press