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Mom fatally shot by neighbor after dispute over playing children, Florida sheriff says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida mother was fatally shot through the front door of her neighbor’s home while her 9-year-old son stood next to her, a violent culmination of what police said was a 2½-year feud.Ajike Owens, 35, was fatally shot after going to the Ocala apartment of her neighbor, who earlier had yelled at Owens’ children as they played nearby and threw a pair of skates that hit one of them, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said at a news conference Monday.Deputies responding to a trespassing call at the apartment Friday night found Owens suffering from gunshot wounds. The mother of four was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died. Ocala is about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of Orlando.“I wish our shooter would have called us instead of taking actions into her own hands,” Woods said. “I wish Ms. Owens would have called us in the hopes we could have never gotten to the point at which we are here today.”Since January 2021, Woods said, deputies responded at leas...

WATCH: Ukraine accuses Russia of destroying major dam, warns of ecological disaster

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The wall of a major dam in a part of southern Ukraine that Moscow controls collapsed Tuesday after a reported explosion, sending water gushing downriver and prompting dire warnings of ecological disaster as officials from both sides in the war ordered residents to evacuate.Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and hydroelectric power station, while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian military strikes in the contested area.The fallout could have broad consequences: Flooding homes, streets and businesses downstream; depleting water levels upstream that help cool Europe’s largest nuclear power plant; and draining supplies of drinking water to the south in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed.The dam break added a complex new element to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, now in its 16th month. Ukrainian forces were widely seen to be moving forward with a long-anticipated counteroffensive in patches along more than 1000 kilometers (6...

Dad pleads with carjackers to get son out of his car

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — It was a scary moment for a Tennessee couple who thought carjackers might drive off in their vehicle with their son still strapped in his car seat.It happened Sunday at the Canterbury Woods Apartments in Northeast Memphis.Marlen, who only wanted to be identified by her first name, said they had gone to the apartment complex to visit her aunt and swim in their pool. Canterbury Woods Apartments in Northeast Memphis (Photo by Melissa Moon, WREG)Marlen said when it was time to go, her boyfriend went ahead of her and put their 18-month-old in her Dodge Charger. She explained that when she left the pool area, she saw a car stop in front of her Charger. Then, a man allegedly put a gun to the back of her boyfriend's head."I'm freaking out. First thing I do is call the cops while this is going on," she told Nexstar's WREG. The suspected carjacker demanded the car keys and took her boyfriend's wallet and the diaper bag he was carrying, Marlen explained. She said her b...

Bay Area sex offender sentenced for deadly crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

A man who is registered sex offender for crimes in Marin County has been sentenced for causing a crash that led to the death of a Marysville woman, the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office announced.Dominik Oshay Cash, 30, received 21 years to life in prison for the incident that occurred Jan. 16, 2021, in which he ran a red light at 80 mph in Marysville and crashed into Dawn Loralee Ritter, 55, who died on impact, the prosecution said Wednesday.Dominik Cash (Marin County Jail photo) Cash fled California Highway Patrol officers after a traffic stop for speeding. Officers would later discover he had a 9mm handgun in the seat next to him at the time and multiple warrants for his arrest, prosecutors said.The prosecution said despite that multiple attempts from law enforcement to stop his vehicle safely during the pursuit, he entered the intersection and struck Ritter’s vehicle.After the impact, the prosecution said, Cash continued to flee from law enforcement on foot but was tak...

Oh rats! How to get rid of them humanely

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

Last week, I discovered two rat traps in my backyard, close to my neighbor’s fence. They were a strange and disturbing find because I didn’t put them there so whomever did gained access without asking me and leaving rat traps outside makes no sense.The reason it makes no sense to leave rat traps outside is simple — it does nothing to deter more rats. If there are attractants — like gardens, woodpiles, pet food left outside, birdseed on the ground, etc. — they’ll keep coming.The best method of rodent control is prevention and exclusion. According to Alison Hermance, director of communications and marketing at WildCare, “Rodents tend to set up camp near our homes when food and space are made available to them. If we remove debris, ivy, construction waste, etc., there are fewer hiding places for rats. It’s also important to eliminate their food sources like unsealed garbage, fallen fruit and birdfeeders left outside at night.”Vegetable gardens are big attractants as well but you can ke...

Bay Area doctor helps San Quentin inmates tell their childhood stories

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

To many incarcerated people in San Quentin State Prison, Dr. Jenny Espinoza, who spent seven years as the prison’s primary care provider, is still known as “Doc.” When the Kentfield resident sees them nowadays, it’s not to soothe their aches, pains and illnesses, but to help them share their stories through her nonprofit Back to the Start, whose writing workshops lead them through detailing their lives from childhood to incarceration.Co-led by Espinoza, the former chief physician and surgeon of the California prison health care system, and incarcerated individuals, and with the help of volunteers, they hope these narratives underscore the need for investments in early childhood and family resources as well as address the United States’ systemic and racial inequities starting at birth.A writing workshop by Back to the Start at San Quentin State Prison. After navigating COVID outbreaks and quarantines inside the prison the past few years, the nonprofit’s first cohort graduated ea...

Skelton: California proves that stricter gun laws save lives

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

Fewer guns plus more gun control add up to less gun carnage. That’s logical. And it’s a fact.California is proof.So is Mississippi.We’re a state with arguably the nation’s strictest gun laws. And we’ve got one of the lowest rates of gun deaths.States with lax gun controls have some of the highest gun death rates. Many are Southern red states. Starting with Mississippi.“We must be doing something right,” says Garen Wintemute, director of the UC Firearms Violence Research Program.Wintemute is a career researcher, as well as an emergency room doctor who has treated countless gunshot wounds. He tends to be cautious with his rhetoric.But not so much the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which doesn’t mince words.It grades California with an “A” for gun control. “Overall, California has the strongest gun safety laws in the nation and has been a trailblazer,” it reports.Mississippi gets an “F” from Giffords: It “has the weakest gun laws in the country and the highest gun death r...

Opinion: 50 years after first ERA debate, women still don’t have equal rights

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

Betty Friedan was just a fiery radical with a bad temper. It’s convenient to believe this. But at a moment when many of the rights for women she gained are being overturned, it’s time to reconsider common wisdom about her character.Friedan, a towering figure in the women’s movement who died in 2006, wrote the 1963 groundbreaking book “The Feminine Mystique” and co-founded the National Organization for Women and the National Women’s Political Caucus.Fifty years ago, on May 1, 1973, Friedan participated in the first public airing of the pros and cons of the Equal Rights Amendment at Capen Auditorium in Normal, Illinois, with Phyllis Schlafly, founder of the STOP ERA movement. Schlafly wanted to destroy the amendment. Friedan worried that without it passing, women’s rights — and the movement itself — would wither.The stakes were high. In 1973, 30 states had already ratified the ERA; eight more were needed to enshrine it in the Constitution.As we all know, Schlafly would play on women’s...

Tech recruiting firm moving HQ to California from New York

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

After 10 years in the Big Apple, two Southern California natives have brought their tech hiring platform to home turf.SingleSprout earlier this year swapped New York’s concrete jungle for the coastline of Newport Beach.Formed in 2013, the recruiting firm named after “individualized growth” uses its own formula to match software engineers, data scientists, product managers and attorneys to a variety of clients, including Blue Apron, Instacart, Acorns, Peloton and Nike.SingleSprout cofounders and co-CEOs David Saad, left, and Natan Fisher, in their new Newport Beach office onTuesday, May 2, 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)SingleSprout cofounders and co-CEOs Natan Fisher, left, and David Saad in their new Newport Beach office onTuesday, May 2, 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)SingleSprout cofounders and co-CEOs Natan Fisher, left, and David Saad in their new Newport Beach office onTuesday, May 2, 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange...

California man faces 21 years for trying to smuggle in frozen, roasted eels

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:08 GMT

A Pomona man with a wholesale food business in Industry faces a possible 21 years in federal prison for trying to sneak in frozen roasted eels adulterated with unsafe animal drugs that already had been rejected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Kevin Sheng Hsiang Fang, 41, and Yong Chang Trading Co., doing business as Heng Xing Foods, each pleaded guilty on May 31 to smuggling and introducing the food into interstate commerce, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.Fang is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 14 at a Los Angeles federal courthouse.“This individual showed complete disregard for the health and safety of the U.S. consumer by knowingly bringing tainted products into the market,” Eddy Wang, acting special agent in charge at Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles, said in a statement.Frozen roasted eels adulterated with unsafe animal drugs that already had been rejected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Photo courtesy U.S. Food and ...