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Rosalynn Carter marks 96th birthday at home with the former president, butterflies and ice cream

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Rosalynn Carter will celebrate her 96th birthday at home Friday with her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, and other family members, while the surrounding community of Plains, Georgia, honors the former first lady’s years of public health advocacy.The latest milestone comes as Rosalynn Carter navigates dementia and the former president, now 98, continues to receive hospice care. Yet they remain together in the same small town where they were born, married and that anchored Jimmy Carter’s victorious 1976 presidential campaign.Rosalynn will have a quiet birthday celebration, according to The Carter Center, the human rights organization the pair opened in Atlanta after losing his 1980 reelection bid. She plans to eat cupcakes and peanut butter ice cream, nodding to the couple’s experience as Georgia peanut farmers, which became part of their political branding. She also will release butterflies in the Carters’ garden; her love of butterflies trace...

Michigan judge to hear final day of testimony before sentencing school shooter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A judge will hear a fourth and final day of testimony Friday to determine whether a teenager will get a life sentence for the fatal shooting of four students at a Michigan school in 2021.An immediate decision is not expected. Prosecutors are planning to counter claims made by a psychologist who said Ethan Crumbley was like a “feral child” and mentally ill when he attacked students and staff at Oxford High School.Crumbley, now 17, pleaded guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes. His attorneys are arguing he can be rehabilitated while in prison and should receive a sentence giving him an opportunity for parole some day.“Ethan’s brain is still maturing,” psychologist Colin King said on Aug. 1.Because of his age — 15 at the time of the shooting — the teen can’t automatically be given life sentence. Oakland County Judge Kwame Rowe must consider his maturity, mental health, tumultuous family life and other factors set by the U.S. Supreme Court.Rowe still can ord...

In Hawaii, concerns over ‘climate gentrification’ rise after devastating Maui fires

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

Kim Cuevas-Reyes, a 38-year-old cellphone store owner, snuck into Lahaina last Friday to see the remnants of her home with her own eyes. She took backroads and walked. What she saw stunned her. “When you step into the house, it’s like an inch or two of ash. There is nothing,” she said, adding that she hopes to stay and rebuild her home and destroyed business and is in touch with the insurance company. More than 3,000 buildings in Lahaina were damaged by fire, smoke or both. Insured property losses alone already total some $3.2 billion, according to Karen Clark & Company, a prominent disaster and risk modeling firm.With a housing crisis that has priced out many Native Hawaiians as well as families that have been there for decades, concerns are rising that the state could become the latest example of “climate gentrification,” when it becomes harder for local people to afford housing in safer areas after a climate-amped disaster.It’s a term Jesse Keenan, an associate pr...

Olympic champ Tori Bowie’s mental health struggles were no secret inside track’s tight-knit family

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Olympic gold medalist Tori Bowie’s autopsy included an easy-to-overlook, one-line notation beneath the heading “Medical History:” Bipolar disorder.Around track circles, where the champion sprinter’s absence is hitting particularly hard heading into Saturday’s opening in Hungary of the first world championships since her death, Bowie’s mental health struggles were more than an afterthought.They were a stark reality during training over the years. They also revealed themselves in the Florida neighborhood where police found her body days after the 32-year-old, who was eight months pregnant, died due to what the coroner said were complications of childbirth.“It’s not that she slipped through the cracks,” her one-time coach, Al Joyner, told The Associated Press. “I think people didn’t take it seriously enough.”Bipolar disorder, a mental-health condition that causes extreme mood swings, can be treatable with medication and counseling. However, t he National Instit...

Millions of old analog photos are sitting in storage. Digitizing them can unlock countless memories

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

This may seem like a sad story because it begins with a boy with few memories of his father, who died when he was 7 years old. It’s why Mitch Goldstone cherishes his only picture with his dad — a snapshot at Disneyland taken during the late 1960s, when the concept of people reflexively reaching for smartphone cameras in their pockets could only happen in Tomorrowland.But this story, and the personal stories that follow, aren’t sad at all. And a half-century later and more, Goldstone has done something with that memory. He is pursuing a career focused on the joy of rediscovery. He and his longtime partner, Carl Berman, run ScanMyPhotos, part of a niche industry that specializes in turning the billions of analog slides, undeveloped negatives and printed pictures taken in the pre-smartphone era into digital treasure chests filled with memories that had been forgotten.“There’s nothing else like it, there are so few businesses doing something that makes people cry when they g...

Music Review: Reneé Rapp delivers bold, cathartic pop on debut album, ‘Snow Angel’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

“Snow Angel,” Reneé Rapp (Interscope Records)Reneé Rapp sings about the trials of trusting oneself and the tribulations of communicating with others on her debut album, “Snow Angel.” In other words: She waits by a phone and hopes that it rings, she overthinks and knows it.The album’s 12 tracks — with lyrics navigating relationships, sexuality, growing up and those themes’ accompanying anxieties — oscillate between shimmery, upbeat pop and robust ballads. They are cathartic, sometimes tragic, and sometimes knowingly petty. The thematic and sonic range combine into a worthy debut for an artist with already-proven versatility.Rapp’s name first became synonymous (in some niche circles, at least) with her powerful vocals in 2018, when she won a Jimmy — a prestigious high school musical theater award. She was on Broadway a year later, beginning what would be a yearlong stint as Regina George in “Mean Girls,” a role she will reprise in an upcoming film adaptation. Rapp then spent two...

Trump’s 2024 GOP rivals converge on Atlanta just days after his latest indictment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Republican White House hopefuls are set to greet a conservative conference with hopes of making up ground against Donald Trump. But his shadow may be especially difficult to escape in the city where he was most recently indicted.Trump won’t speak at The Gathering, an Atlanta event by syndicated radio host Erick Erickson taking place Friday and Saturday about 10 miles from the jail where the former president has to surrender before next Friday on a racketeering indictment related to the 2020 election. Six of his 2024 rivals, meanwhile, are scheduled for onstage interviews with Erickson, an influential conservative who has been critical of the former president. The timing sets up one more example of the struggle Trump’s GOP opponents face: He dominates the primary polls and media attention — especially on cable news and talk radio — even as he faces multiple criminal indictments for alleged actions before, during and after his presidency. While they ...

Sheriff agrees to patrol Goodhue County town after its police force resigns en masse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

The city of Goodhue and the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday for police coverage for the southeastern Minnesota city from the county through 2023.Sheriff Marty Kelly said the county’s coverage for the city of 1,200 will almost certainly extend well into 2024 and possibly beyond.“I’ve been waiting for this shoe to drop since I started,” he said, referring to the mass resignations that led to the collapse of Goodhue’s police department.On Monday, the Goodhue City Council accepted the resignations of Police Chief Josh Smith and full-time Officer Anthony Brecht. Five part-time officers also resigned, leaving Goodhue without any police officers .Smith said officer pay and recruitment problems were the main reasons behind his leaving.Kelly said he pays new patrol deputies $32.51 per hour. That number, he said, is up $5 an hour after the county conducted a comparable pay study to see how county employees were paid compared to workers in similar pos...

Nolan Gorman heads to IL with back strain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

ST. LOUIS - More tough luck hits the St. Louis Cardinals in a challenging season. Young slugger Nolan Gorman lands on the injured list with a lower back strain. Gorman, who ranks second on the team in home runs and RBI, has dealt with back tightness periodically throughout the season. He will be sidelined through at least the final week of August. Along with Gorman's injuries, the Cardinals have been a bit banged up in recent days. Willson Contreras, Lars Nootbaar and Tommy Edman all left games earlier this week with various injury concerns. Many mysteries around next year’s Cardinals rotation; Mo wants to add ‘three starters’ In a corresponding move to placing Gorman on the injured list, the Cardinals call up minor-league prospect Richie Palacios, acquired from the Cleveland Guardians in June. Shortly after the move Thursday, top prospect Masyn Winn played one more game with Triple-A Memphis. Hours later, he has been recalled from the minors for his big-league debut. Winn ranks...

El Segundo team takes opening game in Little League World Series

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:33 GMT

Fans, families and friends of team El Segundo, a little league baseball team playing their first game in the Little League World Series in Pennsylvania Thursday, gathered in local restaurants to support the hometown squad.  On Saturday, the team met up for a 4 a.m. bus ride to the Ontario International and then flew all the way to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where they are considered one of the favorites among the 10 teams from the U.S. There are also 10 international teams in the series.  “We’ve never had a team go to the World Series before,” El Segundo Little League President Jamin Griffiths told KTLA. "In a district of eight different leagues around the South Bay, I don’t think they’ve ever had anybody go to the World Series before. It’s just monumental what the kids have been able to do.”  The El Segundo little team, seen here, in a photo posted to their GoFundMe via Sheena Landrum Parks. Even the L.A. Dodgers have taken notice of the hometown heroes, Tweeting, "...