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Landmark U.S. law saved whales through marine industries change

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

By PATRICK WHITTLE | Associated PressPORTLAND, Maine  — On a breezy spring day, scientists and conservationists methodically conducted experiments near 15 North Atlantic right whales that occasionally spouted and surfaced in a bay south of Boston.The pod of adults and calves is about 4% of the worldwide population of a marine mammal that almost disappeared from the planet after many decades of commercial whaling. There now are only a few hundred of the behemoths, which can weigh 70 tons (63.5 metric tons) and subsist on small ocean organisms.Although right whale numbers are dwindling, conservationists attribute their continued survival to the U.S. Endangered Species Act.The landmark federal law — a half century old this year — has forced the fishing and commercial shipping industries to take important steps to help protect the critically endangered whales. And it’s spurred government agencies and scientists to undertake research.David Wiley, research ecologist with the National Ocea...

Silicon Valley ‘environmentally friendly’ crypto startup Chia Network files confidentially for IPO

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

By Hannah Miller | Bloomberg Crypto startup Chia Network Inc. indicated Friday that it has moved a step closer to a US initial public offering. The company said that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.The company, which was valued at about $500 million in 2021, said in the announcement that the size and price range for the proposed IPO have not been determined yet. Chia didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Gene Hoffman, who was appointed as chief executive officer of Chia this year, told Bloomberg in January that the startup didn’t plan on going public in 2023 because it didn’t think the market would be “open” for them.Chia joins other digital asset companies angling to go public. Jesse Powell, the co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, said that his company was positioning itself for a potential public listing when he announced that he was stepping down as CEO. Bitcoin miner Bitdeer Technolo...

Kurtenbach: Warriors youngster Jonathan Kuminga is poised to soar in the NBA playoffs

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

The Warriors carry many advantages into this postseason, but none is more significant — or arguably more powerful — than experience.The Dubs’ core players — Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson — have combined to play 433 playoff games going into Saturday’s first-round Game 1 with the Kings in Sacramento.They’ve raised some banners. They’ve fallen behind in series. They’ve even lost two NBA Finals. Good and bad (but mostly good), they’ve seen some stuff over the last decade.“I feel a totally different energy now that the regular season is over,” Green said Thursday. “The focus level in the playoffs is totally different. The preparation is totally different.“You lean into the know-how. You know what to do.”And while the Warriors come into this postseason as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference — it’s the first time the Dubs have finished lower than the No. 3 seed since Steve Kerr took over the team ...

Family of Cash App founder Bob Lee thanks San Francisco police ‘for bringing his killer to justice’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

The family of murdered Cash App founder Bob Lee issued a statement Thursday thanking the San Francisco Police Department “for bringing his killer to Justice” after the arrest of Nima Momeni.“Our next steps will be to work with the District Attorney’s office to ensure that this person is not allowed to hurt anyone else or walk free,” the statement said.Bob Lee. (Mobile Coin) Law enforcement described Momeni as a 38-year-old man from Emeryville and said Momeni and Lee knew one another, but didn’t provide further details about their connection.California Secretary of State Records indicate that Momeni has been the owner of an IT business, which, according to its website, provides services like technical support.Momeni is scheduled to have his arraignment hearing on Friday afternoon.Lee was stabbed to death in the Rincon Hill neighborhood of San Francisco early in the morning of April 4th. The moments following the stabbing attack were captured on surveillance video and in a 911 ca...

SF mayor to propose 5-year, $600M plan to halve unsheltered homelessness

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

In June 2022, a newly enacted city ordinance announced: "It shall be the policy of the City to offer to every person experiencing homelessness in San Francisco a safe place to sleep." On Friday, less than a year later, the mayor is set to announce a five-year strategic plan intended to comprehensively address homelessness in San Francisco. But if that plan is successfully implemented, the city policy may need to be restated to change the words "every person" to "every other person," because the plan only proposes to reduce the unsheltered population by half. Bay Area suburb is CA’s best for city-like living, study says The plan was prepared by the city's Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), the city's lead agency on issues of unsheltered homelessness, and is entitled "Home by the Bay, An Equity-Driven Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness in San Francisco." The plan provides that by spending $607 million in new funding over five years, the city can...

Marianne Williamson on Being a TikTok Phenom

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

If engagement on TikTok is any indication, a Democratic primary held today among people under 50 would result in a landslide for Marianne Williamson. Williamson has only posted 63 videos but has drawn more than 10 million views, according to a TikTok data counter. This week on Deconstructed, Ryan Grim speaks with Williamson about her growing popularity with Gen Z, why her message focusing on the economic hardships Americans are facing resonates, and what the Democratic Party is missing.Transcript coming soon.The post Marianne Williamson on Being a TikTok Phenom appeared first on The Intercept.

Attorney: Mom of Virginia boy who shot teacher was depressed

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The mother of a 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot and wounded his teacher had a series of miscarriages and post-partum depression in the year before the shooting, her attorney said Friday, after she was arraigned on charges of child neglect and failing to secure the handgun her son used in the shooting.Police say the boy fired a single shot at his first-grade teacher, Abigail Zwerner, on Jan. 6, striking her in the left hand and chest. She spent two weeks in the hospital and has had four surgeries since the shooting.The Associated Press is not identifying the mother to shield the identity of her son. A grand jury indicted the mother this week, and she was released on a $5,000 bond after turning herself in Thursday.The 25-year-old woman appeared somber and stood with her hands clasped behind her back as the two charges against her were read in Newport News Circuit Court. She did not speak except to say “no, sir” in response to a question from the judge. After ...

Airport reopens as South Florida flood water slowly recedes

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — One of Florida’s busiest airports reopened Friday morning, two days after an unprecedented deluge left planes and travelers stranded and turned Fort Lauderdale’s streets into rivers.Officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport completed final inspections after sunrise Friday and resumed operations at 9 a.m. In a tweet Friday morning, airport officials advised travelers to check with their airlines on updated flight schedules before going to the airport. The airport shut down Wednesday evening as a storm dumped more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of rain.“Nature has been unkind to us,” Broward County Mayor Lamar Fisher said during a news conference Thursday afternoon at the airport.A flood warning was expiring, but the National Weather Service warned motorists that water-covered roads could still be a hazard. All across Fort Lauderdale, residents and business owners cleaned up. While it started raining on Monday in South Florida,...

EE.UU. está “decepcionado” por la decisión de un tribunal chino de mantener la pena de muerte para un ciudadano estadounidense

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

(CNN) —  El Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos declaró este jueves que está “decepcionado” por la decisión de un tribunal chino de mantener la condena a muerte del ciudadano estadounidense Mark Swidan y pidió su liberación inmediata.“Hoy, el Tribunal Intermedio de Jiangmen, en la República Popular China, denegó la apelación del ciudadano estadounidense Mark Swidan, detenido injustamente, y confirmó su condena a muerte con dos años de suspensión de la pena”, declaró en un comunicado el portavoz adjunto principal del Departamento de Estado, Vedant Patel.“Estamos decepcionados por esta decisión y seguiremos presionando para su inmediata liberación y regreso a Estados Unidos”, añadió Patel.Swidan, un empresario de Texas, ha estado detenido en China durante más de una década desde que fue arrestado en 2012 por cargos relacionados con las drogas.El ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Uruguay visitará China la próxima semanaFue declarado cul...

Ukraine bars national sports teams from events with Russians

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:39 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian government has barred its national sports teams from competing at international events which also include athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus.The decree published by the Ministry of Youth and Sports follows opposition from Ukraine to efforts by the International Olympic Committee to reintegrate Russian and Belarusian competitors into events as neutrals without national symbols. It could pressure global sports bodies to choose between admitting Russians and Belarusians or risking a Ukrainian boycott.After Ukraine signaled last month it would seek to block its athletes from competing against Russians and Belarusians, the IOC said any such move would “hurt only the Ukrainian athlete community.” The IOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.The decree only refers to national team delegations and it was not clear if it would affect individual Ukrainian players on the men’s and women’s tennis tours, where Russian a...