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Activist runs almost 9,000 miles across Australia to raise support for Indigenous Voice

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Ultramarathon runner Pat Farmer ended a 14,400-kilometer (8,950-mile) run at the central Australian sandstone landmark Uluru on Wednesday after a seven-month journey to raise public support for the creation of an Indigenous advocacy body in the constitution.Australians will vote on Saturday at a referendum that would enshrine in the constitution a so-called Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a mechanism for Indigenous Australians to advise lawmakers on policies that effect their lives.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was at Uluru, which is an Indigenous sacred site also known as Ayers Rock, to welcome the 61-year-old runner’s arrival.Albanese said he had “utter admiration and awe” for Farmer’s commitment for the cause which opinion polls suggest is unlikely to succeed.“No one has done more than this bloke and I am very pleased to welcome him here at Uluru,” Albanese said.Farmer said his first glimpse of the enormous rock rising from the flat Australian wildern...

2 Guatemalan migrants were shot dead in Mexico near US border. Soldiers believed to be involved

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two Guatemalan migrants were killed Monday and three others — along with a Honduran man — were wounded in a shooting in northern Mexico near the U.S. border that apparently involved Mexican army soldiers.Prosecutors in the northern state of Chihuahua said the army has turned over four soldiers to testify in the case, but did not say whether they were formally suspects in the still-unclear shooting. The survivors told authorities they were heading to the border wall in a truck with a ladder to climb a wall into the United States, when they came under fire. The four wounded migrants mostly suffered wounds to their legs and their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.The army also turned over four rifles for testing. A fifth soldier who was apparently in the patrol vehicle has not been located.Prosecutor Carlos Manuel Salas said the shooting occurred near the Santa Teresa border crossing west of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. He said t...

Texas executes man who questioned evidence presented at trial in deadly carjacking of elderly woman

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man who unsuccessfully challenged the safety of the state’s lethal injection drugs and raised questions about evidence used to persuade a jury to sentence him to death for killing an elderly woman decades ago was executed late Tuesday.Jedidiah Murphy, 48, was pronounced dead after an injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the October 2000 fatal shooting of 80-year-old Bertie Lee Cunningham of the Dallas suburb of Garland. Cunningham was killed during a carjacking.The execution took place hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an order that had delayed the death sentence from being carried out. The high court late Tuesday also turned down another request to stay Murphy’s execution over claims the drugs he was injected with were exposed to extreme heat and smoke during a recent fire, making them unsafe and leaving him at risk of pain and suffering. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday had upheld a federal judge’s order from last ...

Fire partially collapses a parking structure at London’s Luton Airport and 5 people hospitalized

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A fire burning in a London airport’s parking structure early Wednesday caused a partial collapse, and five people have been hospitalized for smoke inhalation.All flights at Luton Airport were suspended until noon due to the fire, the airport posted on the X social media platform.Five people, firefighters and an airline official, were admitted to hospitals for smoke inhalation. A sixth person was treated at the scene.Video posted on social media and on British news outlets’ websites showed police and fire department vehicles gathered outside a multi-story parking structure where the top level was engulfed in orange flames. The newly built parking structure for Terminal 2 partially collapsed after the fire started around 9 p.m. Tuesday. The airport asked would-be passengers to stay away since access to the area was restricted.Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue, Bedfordshire Police and the East of England Ambulance remain on the scene.Luton Airport is about 35 miles (56 k...

Kari Lake begins Senate campaign as she keeps fighting her loss in the last election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Kari Lake asked for a show of hands.Who’s been canceled? Who’s lost friends? Has strained relations with family? Been indicted? Sued for defamation? “If your hand did not go up in any of that, then I do think you need to work a little harder. I really do,” Lake told an adoring crowd of Michigan Republicans gathering last month on Mackinac Island. Lake launched a U.S. Senate campaign for an Arizona seat in a splashy Scottsdale rally on Tuesday, having never conceded that she lost last year’s race for Arizona governor. She is trying out new messages and courting the support of national Republicans she’s insulted in the past. But the former television news host isn’t backing down on the things that made her a star on the far right — her combativeness with perceived enemies, her fealty to Donald Trump and her willingness to defend his election lies. That worries some Republicans who fear she will cost them a race that could decide control of the Se...

Woman launches sustainable footwear line, sourced and made in Mexico

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

CHICAGO — Vanessa Arroyo loved fashion, even studied design at Colombia College in Chicago, but knew nothing about shoes. But that was the first job she was offered when she arrived in New York City with a one way ticket looking to live her fashion dream. Thanks to mentors, Arroyo learned on the job how to design footwear for the top brand Rag and Bone. She loved the fashion world in the Big Apple, but after six years, she yearned for more. By then she was in love with shoes, and went to Guanajuato, Mexico to learn how to make them. Little did she know that trip would also mean a personal transformation for her and a deeper understanding of her Mexican ancestors. More: Hispanic Heritage Month Last May, she launched her own brand of footwear called “Seres” that is sourced and made in Mexico. She is proud of her sustainable, fashion forward shoes but even more of the fact that it represents who she is and where she comes from. 

City promises to fix sinkhole after dissatisfied residents call FOX 2

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

ST. LOUIS – St. Louisans in the Benton Park West neighborhood are fed up with a massive hole in their street that has gone nearly two weeks without being fixed.FOX 2 went looking for answers; action from the City of St. Louis soon followed.Residents say everything started five or six weeks ago, with water bubbling up from under Utah Street near Ohio Avenue.About 12 days ago, a Water Division work crew cut a 12-foot by 15-foot hole into the pavement to find the source of the problem.The water leak stopped, but the hole remained. Traffic cones and caution tape surrounded the hole and only partially covered it with plywood instead of metal plates, which are typically used to cover holes in pavement.Residents cringe every day as drivers from each direction weave around the mess using the side of the street without the hole. Loretta Anderson parks her car in front of her home on that side of the street. She folds in her side-view mirror now so weaving vehicles don’t knock it off.“They sp...

Scott Air Force Base could play role in U.S. military support for Israel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Ill. – As of Tuesday evening, it’s not clear what role Scott Air Force Base is playing in any military support the United States is sending Israel. A spokesperson for the base indicated they would not speculate on what may or may not happen.Global logistics are a key component of the U.S. Transportation Command at Scot Air Force Base. A video from the base shows some of the command’s capabilities. “Scott Air Force Base helps us realize we’re part of the whole world,” said Illinois State Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville.His district neighbors the base. Meier said part of serving at the base involved being prepared for immediate changes. Monthly $500 payments coming soon for some St. Louis families “They have to change their whole plan at a second’s notice when something happens, like what’s happened in Israel,” he said.Meier said the base is also an important part of the St. Louis and southwestern Illinois economies. He said many service members are also active mem...

UCity apartment building gets flood buyout; homeowners still waiting on theirs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. – Flood-weary University City residents are still hoping for a flood buyout. They’ve been waiting a long time. Those along Wilson Avenue were slammed in the powerful floods in July 2022, just like the rest of the St. Louis area.University City had hoped to buy out 300 homes but had to cut that request down to 14, a request that still has not been approved by the fed.While homeowners on Wilson Avenue are still awaiting help, the owner of an apartment complex is getting $3.2 million in a federal flood buyout.University City applied for the money in a national competition and was one of the local winners.The apartments will be torn down and made into green space. University City City Manager Gregory Rose said they have no control over the approval process. Monthly $500 payments coming soon for some St. Louis families “The Hafner Court Apartments, which is what we received the money to buy out, is frequently flooded,” he said. “So, we had made an application with ...

Drive-by shooting victim in critical condition, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:24:25 GMT

PAGEDALE, Mo. – Police in Pagedale are investigating a drive-by shooting that sent one man to the hospital Tuesday evening.The shooting happened around 7 p.m. on Robbins Avenue.Police claim the shooting was not random and that a vehicle pulled up to the victim, a man in his 20s, and the occupants in the vehicle opened fire.The victim was taken to a nearby hospital. He’s listed in critical condition.