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Donald Trump’s lawyers question Michael Cohen in the former president’s civil business fraud trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

By JENNIFER PELTZ and JAKE OFFENHARTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen returned to the witness stand Wednesday in his ex-boss Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial as the former president’s defense team tried to undermine the credibility and question the motives of his onetime personal attorney turned adversary.With Trump in court, his lawyer Alina Habba confronted Cohen with comments he had made on social media, in interviews and during congressional testimony praising Trump, before turning on him, when Cohen’s legal problems started in 2018.She tried to suggest that Cohen had angled unsuccessfully for a job in Trump’s White House — Cohen insisted he never sought one — and asked whether he had “significant animosity” toward Trump.“Do I have animosity toward him? Yes I do,” Cohen replied.“You have made a career out of publicly attacking President Trump, haven’t you?” Habba asked.Af...

‘The Art of War,’ Amy Schumer’s memoir and many other books are banned in US prisons. Here’s why

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

By HILLEL ITALIE (AP National Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — Tens of thousands of books are being banned or restricted by U.S. prisons, according to a new report from PEN America. The list includes everything from self-help books to an Elmore Leonard novel.“The common concept underpinning the censorship we’re seeing is that certain ideas and information are a threat,” says the report’s lead author, Moira Marquis, senior manager in the prison and justice writing department at PEN, the literary and free expression organization.Timed to the start Wednesday of Prison Banned Books Week, “Reading Between the Bars” draws upon public record requests, calls from PEN to prison mailrooms, dozens of accounts from inmates and PEN’s struggles to distribute its guide for prison writing, “The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison,” which came out last year.Marquis said that the most common official reasons for bans are...

Studio City family targeted in home invasion; suspect shouts 'Free Palestine'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

A man who was arrested for a home invasion in Studio City early Wednesday morning shouted “Free Palestine” as he was cuffed and placed in a police cruiser, video shows.The break-in happened around 5:20 a.m. in the 3000 block of Lauren Canyon Boulevard, according to Los Angeles Police. Officers responded after a homeowner called 9-1-1 saying a man had broken in through the front door.According to Key News, a Los Angeles stringer service, two adults and four children were inside the home at the time, and the intruder threatened to kill the family.A suspect is taken into custody following a home invasion in Studio City, California on Oct. 25, 2023. (KNN)A suspect is taken into custody following a home invasion in Studio City, California on Oct. 25, 2023. (KNN)A suspect is taken into custody following a home invasion in Studio City, California on Oct. 25, 2023. (KNN)The husband eventually pushed the man out of the home and into the backyard where officers found him armed with a knife, K...

Workers protest alleged use of migrants to replace them during strike

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

Hotel workers are continuing to publicly call for better pay and working conditions, and on Wednesday, they're taking to the streets of downtown Los Angeles to call out their employers.Unite Here Local 11, the workers' union, is assembling employees of 50 hotels at Hill and 6th streets Wednesday morning for a march."The march comes after a fruitless negotiation meeting last week in which a group of hotel employers presented hundreds of SoCal workers with a 'new' proposal to resolve the months-long labor dispute," the union said. "Enraging workers, the hotels did not meaningfully improve upon their prior position, offering no new money for wages, pension, or health insurance."In addition to demanding a living wage, workers are also hoping to raise awareness about how they claim their employers are filling in gaps created by striking workers: the "exploitation of migrant workers living in Skid Row," the union said in a news release.Some of those workers were among the migrants bused f...

Recipe: Fresh foraged seaweed chips with sesame oil and sea salt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

Taku Kondo is a San Francisco sushi chef-turned expert forager from Northern California who runs the popular YouTube channel Outdoor Chef Life. (See our interview with him here.) This is Kondo’s recipe for seaweed chips (or seasoning) that you can make yourself using seaweed harvested right from the Pacific ocean.First, a couple of caveats. People who try this recipe “should definitely know what they’re eating,” Kondo says. “A couple easy-to-identify seaweeds would be sea lettuce and laver (nori). In California, there are two types of seaweed that are illegal to take: eel grass and sea palm. Although all seaweed is technically edible, they’re not all good to eat.”Also, you must have a fishing license to harvest seaweed legally. “The current seaweed limit is 10 pounds wet weight,” Kondo says, “You must avoid harvesting in Marine Protected Areas. All information is available on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife w...

Meet the Bay Area sushi chef who’s become a YouTube star

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

Some people look at the ocean and see a pretty view. Taku Kondo gazes over a beach and sees horseneck-clam sashimi, crunchy kelp pickles and sea-urchin pasta served in its own spiky shell.The Bay Area native is the creator of Outdoor Chef Life, a 700,000-subscriber YouTube channel devoted to foraging and cooking in nature. On any given day, you might find him and partner Jocelyn Gonzalez, the channel’s videographer, scraping herring eggs off seaweed, flipping rocks to find octopus for ceviche or anchoring a smoker in a river to make whiskey-maple-glazed steelhead trout.It’s quite fun, but cooking in the wild can court danger. In Alaska, they had a dicey encounter with a curious Alaskan grizzly (“Bear approached and I feared for her life”). And Kondo once got yanked off his kayak by a probable dogtooth tuna (“Big fish pulls me in! These fish are crazy”).Lots of people make content about wilderness cooking, but Kondo is set apart by his knife skills and culinary prow...

Bagged, precut onions from California company linked to salmonella outbreak that has sickened 73 people in 22 states

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

By JONEL ALECCIA | AP Health WriterAn outbreak of salmonella poisoning linked to bagged, precut onions has sickened at least 73 people in 22 states, including 15 who were hospitalized, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.Gills Onions of Oxnard, California, has recalled packages of diced yellow onions, red onions, onions and celery and a mix of onions, celery and carrots, known as mirepoix. The products recalled had use-by dates in August 2023. They are no longer for sale in stores, but consumers may have them — or foods made with them — in freezers. Consumers should not eat, sell or serve the onions for foods made with them, health officials said.The diced onion products were sold at food service and other institutions in the U.S. and Canada and at retailers in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Retail sites included Stater Bros., Bashas’ markets and Smart & Final stores in Arizona and California and Smart & Final and Chef’s Store in California, Orego...

Maxwell hits fastest Cricket World Cup hundred as Australia routs the Netherlands by 309 runs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Glenn Maxwell smashed a 40-ball hundred — the fastest ever at the Cricket World Cup — to help Australia beat the Netherlands by 309 runs on Wednesday.Maxwell hit nine fours and eights towering sixes as he scored 106 runs off only 44 balls to propel Australia to 399-8 (50 overs).Coming in to bat in the 39th over, Maxwell’s feat overshadowed David Warner, who scored a second straight hundred and his 22nd overall in one-day internationals.Warner scored 104 off 93 balls following his hundred against Pakistan. It was his sixth World Cup century, the most for an Australian batsman.The Netherlands was bowled out for a paltry 90 runs in 21 overs.The Dutch team is 1-4, its only win coming in a huge upset victory over South Africa last week.Wrist spinner Adam Zampa picked four wickets for eight runs in three overs for Australia, as it cemented third place with six points from three wins in five games.The margin of victory was the largest (by runs) in World Cup history a...

Montgomery Co. police say 12-year-old responsible for multiple school bomb threats — but cannot be charged

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

The person responsible for making repeated email bomb threats against two Montgomery County Public Schools this month is a 12-year-old who cannot be charged under Maryland law, according to a statement from police Chief Marcus Jones.The police chief said the child is responsible for three bomb threats sent on Oct. 13, Oct. 16 and Oct. 23 that targeted Richard Montgomery County High School in Rockville and another threat on Oct. 15 against Oak View Elementary School in Silver Spring.Detectives worked with the school system’s IT staff to track down the source of the email, and then spoke with the 12-year-old, “who admitted responsibility,” Jones said.However, under a state juvenile justice reform law, which took effect in July 2022, children under the age of 13 can only be charged with offenses that constitute a “crime of violence,” he said.“It is disheartening to accept that the individual responsible for disrupting the educational process and inst...

Albanese arrives at White House to start day of meetings and celebrations of alliance with US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden pressed forward with this week’s state visit from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, carving out time to nurture the relationship with a critical U.S. ally in the Pacific against the backdrop of escalating fighting between Israel and Hamas. The state visit, only the fourth since Biden took office, is a reminder of how he’s pursuing long-term plans to counter China’s influence even as bloody conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, where the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues after almost two years, remain the most immediate concerns.Albanese arrived at the White House on Wednesday morning as a military band played and 4,000 guests watched from the South Lawn. Biden said their alliance is characterized by “imagination, ingenuity and innovation,” and they will “race undaunted to a future we know is possible if we work together.”Albanese said the “soul of our partnership” is “not a pact against a common ene...