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San Diego lifeguards ready for July 4 crowds

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- With the much-anticipated Fourth of July celebrations starting in hours, San Diego's dedicated team of lifeguards is gearing up to ensure the safety of beachgoers. A contingent of 250 highly trained lifeguards is preparing to patrol shores ready to handle any situation. “Every day you are coming to the beach, we want you to swim near a lifeguard, ask a lifeguard where a good place to swim is,” said Sgt. Westley Fransway, a San Diego lifeguard.The lifeguards have been diligently training and equipping themselves for the bustling holiday weekend. Their new Triton rescue ship will also patrol the waters of Mission Bay searching for speeding and reckless boaters, but their primary objective is to prevent accidents and respond to incidents that may occur along the city's coastlines. “There’s going to be a good chance of a lot of different calls at one time so we have to make sure we have a lot of personnel able to respond, able to handle both phone calls at once,” Fransway s...

Parts of Imperial Beach back open

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A Fourth of July holiday bonus for beachgoers in Imperial Beach as the beach north of the IB Pier is back open.The entire beach has been closed pretty much all year because of sewage spills and contamination from the Tijuana River.Warning signs to stay out of the water are still posted south of the pier, but locals will take whatever beach they can get.The constant closures are frustrating for IB residents like Ed Vogel who went a few miles north for a beach walk in Coronado.Contamination and closures have also affected Coronado beaches, which have been open since around Memorial Day. Big Bay Boom: How to watch the fireworks show John Duncan is a Coronado City councilmember who is on a city subcommittee dealing with the sewage water issues and is a new citizen board member with the International Boundary and Water Commission -- the agency which runs an international wastewater treatment plant at the border.Duncan says problems with the contamination spills aren’t goin...

Viola Ford Fletcher, oldest living Tulsa Race Massacre victim, publishes memoir

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Being a centenarian hasn’t slowed down Viola Ford Fletcher’s pursuit of justice.In the last couple of years, Fletcher has traveled internationally, testified before Congress and supported a lawsuit for reparations — all part of a campaign for accountability over the massacre that destroyed Tulsa, Oklahoma’s original “Black Wall Street” in 1921, when she was a child.Now, at age 109, Fletcher is releasing a memoir about the life she lived in the shadow of the massacre, after a white mob laid waste to the once-thriving Black enclave known as Greenwood. The book will be published by Mocha Media Inc. on Tuesday and becomes widely available for purchase on Aug. 15.In a recent interview with The Associated Press, she said fear of reprisal for speaking out had influenced years of near-silence about the massacre.“Now that I’m an old lady, there’s nothing else to talk about,” Fletcher said. “We decided to do a book about it and maybe that would help.”Her memoir, “Don’t Let The...

The 8 wanted overseas-based Hong Kong activists will be pursued for life, city leader says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader on Tuesday said the eight overseas-based activists who were wanted for alleged national security offenses would be pursued for life, dismissing criticism from Western governments over the police’s high-profile crackdown on the pro-democracy figures. Chief Executive John Lee expressed his support for the police’s efforts in arresting the activists who are now based in the U.S., Britain, Canada, and Australia. At his weekly press briefing, Lee said anyone, including their friends and relatives, who offered information leading to their arrests would be eligible for the bounties offered by the police.“The only way to end their destiny of being an abscondee who will be pursued for life is to surrender,” he said. Lee’s comments were targeting former pro-democracy lawmakers Nathan Law, Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, lawyer Kevin Yam, unionist Mung Siu-tat and activists Finn Lau, Anna Kwok and Elmer Yuen. They were accused of breaching t...

The American flag wasn’t always revered as it is today. At the beginning, it was an afterthought

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — In the bedroom of the Betsy Ross House, a reconstruction of where the upholsterer worked on her most famous commission, a long flag with a circle of 13 stars hangs over a Chippendale side chair and extends across the floor. Over the weeks in 1776 needed to complete the project, Ross would have likely knelt on the flag, stood on it and treated it more like an everyday banner — not with the kind of reverence we’d expect today. “She would not have worried about it touching the floor or violating any codes,” says Lisa Moulder, director of the Ross House. “The flag did not have any kind of special symbolism.”Flags proliferate every July 4. But unlike the right to assemble or trial by jury, their role was not prescribed by the founders. They would have been rare during early Independence Day celebrations. Only in the mid-19th century does the U.S. flag become a permanent fixture at the White House, scholars believe; only in the mid-20th century was a federal code...

Stock market today: Asian stocks mixed after Wall St hits 15-month high ahead of holiday

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after Wall Street hit a 15-month high ahead of a decision by Australia’s central bank on a possible interest rate hike.Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney retreated. Hong Kong gained. Oil prices rose.Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.1% on Monday ahead of a report this week on U.S. employment, one of the factors watched by the Federal Reserve in deciding on possible additional interest rate hikes.Australia’s rate decision was expected to be the day’s major data point while U.S. markets were closed for Independence Day.The Shanghai Composite Index gained less than 0.1% to 3,246.13 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo shed 0.9% to 33,446.78. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong advanced 0.4% to 19,388.71.The Kospi in Seoul lost 0.2% to 2,596.87 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 sank 0.1% to 7,236.50.New Zealand, Bangkok and Jakarta advanced while Singapore declined.On Monday, the S&P 500 rose to 4,455.59, i...

RoseAnne Archibald calls for reinstatement after removal as AFN national chief

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

OTTAWA — RoseAnne Archibald is calling on supporters to tell their chiefs and councils to reinstate her after she was voted out as national chief of the Assembly of First Nations last week.In a five minute video posted to Facebook, Archibald also urged supporters to ensure a forensic audit of the national advocacy organization moved ahead.“You can call or text or email your chief and council and you can ask for two things. One, that they reinstate me as national chief and two, that they make sure that the forensic audit goes ahead,” she said in the video statement recorded in her car in a B.C. parking lot.Archibald was voted out as national chief last Wednesday after more than a year of turmoil involving her leadership.The vote took place during a special chiefs assembly that was convened in part to address the implications of a human resources investigation related to complaints that AFN staff had filed against Archibald.The resolution to oust her, just over two years a...

Highland Park marks 1 year after July 4 shooting with community walk reclaiming parade route

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

Highland Park, Ill. (AP) — One year after a shooter terrorized July Fourth paradegoers in Highland Park, Illinois, community members are planning to gather to honor the seven people who were killed, commemorate the day and reclaim the space to move forward.In collaboration with the park district, the city is hosting a series of events during the holiday Tuesday aimed at giving people “an opportunity to engage with the day and gather as a community in the way that feels most comfortable to them,” city communications manager Amanda Bennett said. The city approached the event planning with a trauma-informed perspective, Bennett said.A 10 a.m. Remembrance Ceremony at City Hall is set to include remarks from Mayor Nancy Rotering, a musical performance and a moment of silence at 10:14 a.m. to mark the exact time police say the first shot was fired. Then, attendees may walk the parade route. “The Community Walk will symbolize the reclaiming of the 2022 parade route as we build resiliency t...

In a polarized US, how to define a patriot increasingly depends on who’s being asked

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

Millions of Americans will attend parades, fireworks and other Independence Day events on Tuesday, celebrating the courage of the nation’s 18th century patriots who fought for independence from Great Britain and what they considered an unjust government. Those events also will honor the military and those who sacrificed in other conflicts that helped preserve the nation’s freedom over its 247-year history.That is only one version of a “patriot.” Today, the word and its variants have morphed beyond the original meaning. It has become infused in political rhetoric and school curriculums, with varying definitions, while being appropriated by white nationalist groups. Trying to define what a patriot is depends on who is being asked.THE ORIGINAL PATRIOTSWhile the word’s origins come from ancient Greece, its basic meaning in American history is someone who loves his or her country.The original patriots come from the American Revolution, most often associated with figures...

A hot, increasingly humid July 4th on tap in Chicago—but thunderstorm prospects and a severe weather threat due Wednesday; longer range: next wet weather system late Saturday/Sunday to keep above normal precipitation pattern going

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

CHICAGO’S WEEKEND DELUGE — A RECORD-BREAKERWidespread 3-8” rains centered on central Cook CountyNothing like the drenching rain of this past weekend has happened in more than 3 years at our official Chicago observation site at O’Hare. There, the total weekend rainfall came to 3.82.” Nothing close to that amount has taken place on a single day there for more than 3 years, report my NWS Chicago colleagues.At Midway Airport, 4.01” fell Sunday which, reports veteran Chicago NWS observer Frank Wachowski, sets a new July 2nd record at the South Side site, eclipsing the previous July 2nd of 2.50” set back in May 2020.Other sections of the Chicago area were swamped by rains totaling 4 to nearly 9 inches—in particular a site one mile north/northeast of Berwyn—where an astounding 8.96” of rain fell, most of coming down Sunday. That's an amount of rain twice that which falls in the full month of May—and it came down in a single day!A WEATHER RADAR ANIMATION covering the entire weekend rain eve...