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Opa! Cardiff Greek Festival returns this weekend

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The grounds of Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Cardiff will be transformed into a Greek island this weekend.Opa! The 43rd annual Cardiff Greek Festival will kick off Saturday, Sept. 9 at 10 a.m. The two-day event will be filled with entertainment and hospitality.Festivalgoers can expect to experience the sights, sounds, and tastes of Greece. “Our parish is, once again, excited to share Greece’s rich history and traditions, which we hold so dear, with the community-at-large through the festival,” said Rev. Father Michael Sitaras, pastor of Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church.EntertainmentPrepare to be serenaded by the bouzouki from The Olympians, a Southern California Greek band that will perform traditional songs throughout the weekend.Intricate folk dances will also be performed by young parish members wearing elaborate costumes. You may want to wear your dancing shows because there will be guided dance instruction for those re...

Georgia special grand jury recommended charges in election case for Sen. Graham and 2 ex-senators

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A report released on Friday revealed that a special grand jury investigating efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results recommended indictments against a much larger group than Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis ultimately charged, including one current and two former U.S. senators.The nine-page report showed jurors recommended charges against 39 number of people, compared to the 18 who were charged along with former President Donald Trump. The names of those not indicted included Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of Georgia, former U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue of Georgia and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.Parts of the report, with 19 pages of appendices, had been released in February, but a judge had delayed the release of any recommendations for specific charges against specific people until after last month’s indictment. While most of the intrigue in the inner workings of the case has dimini...

Country music star Zach Bryan says he was arrested and jailed briefly in northeastern Oklahoma

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Country music star Zach Bryan was arrested by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and jailed briefly Thursday in northeastern Oklahoma, according to a video posted on his account on the social media site X, formerly Twitter.Bryan said he was driving through Vinita, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of Tulsa when his security guard, who was driving behind him, was stopped by an officer.Bryan, who is from Oologah, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Tulsa, said he also stopped and after 10 to 15 minutes, got out of his vehicle to smoke a cigarette when the officer told him to get back inside the vehicle or be taken to jail.Bryan said he cursed the officer, who then handcuffed him and placed him in the patrol vehicle.“I get too lippy with him,” Bryan said. “I’m just mouthing off like an idiot” and the officer was “just doing their job.”Bryan said he spent “a few hours” at the Craig County jail before being released on bond and that he spoke to the officer an...

Philadelphia police officer surrenders on criminal charges after fatal shooting of Eddie Irizarry

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed a driver who was sitting in his car turned himself in Friday morning to face criminal charges.Officer Mark Dial surrendered on a criminal warrant, according to his attorney, Fortunato N. Perri Jr., who said he has not yet been made aware of the specific charges against the officer.“Despite what has been portrayed to the media, the facts will unmistakably show that Officer Mark Dial was legally justified in discharging his weapon while fearing for his life,” Perri said in an email to The Associated Press.The district attorney’s office said it planned to release police bodycam footage of the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry later Friday and “announce developments in the investigation.”Authorities have said Dial shot Irizarry as he sat in his car after officers spotted the car driving erratically around noon Aug. 14 and followed it for several blocks. Then, officers approached as the driver turned the wro...

There will be no gold for the USA at the World Cup, after 113-111 loss to Germany

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — There will be no gold medal for the U.S. at this World Cup. And for the second consecutive time in FIBA’s biggest tournament, there might not even be any medal at all for the Americans.Instead, it’s Germany on the cusp of a world title.Andreas Obst scored 24 points, Franz Wagner added 22 and Germany shredded the U.S. defense for much of the way in its first win over the Americans — 113-111 in the World Cup semifinals on Friday night.The U.S., down by 10 midway through the fourth, nearly pulled off a comeback, getting within one point on two separate occasions in the final minutes. But the Americans never got the lead, and it was the Germans jumping and hugging as time expired.Germany — the last unbeaten team left in the tournament at 7-0 — will play Serbia on Sunday (8:40 a.m. EDT) for the World Cup title. Serbia beat Canada in the first semifinal, getting to its second World Cup final in the last three tournaments; it lost 129-92 to the U.S. in the 2014 c...

UN secretary-general has urged the Group of 20 leaders to send a strong message on climate change

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday urged the Group of 20 top economic powers, which are responsible for more than 80% of the emissions that cause global warming, to use their weekend summit to send a strong message on climate change.Guterres said all licensing or funding for new fossil fuel projects should be stopped and that the G20 must keep the “1.5-degree goal alive,” referring to the 2015 Paris climate agreement that set 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) as a global guardrail in atmospheric warming, with countries pledging to try to prevent that much long-term warming if possible.Earlier this year, the U.N. weather agency had said that there’s a two-out-of-three chance that the world will temporarily hit a key warming limit within the next five years.July 2023 was Earth’s hottest month on record by a wide margin.Climate ministers of the G20 nations ended their last meeting for the year in July without resolving major disagreements on c...

Poet Rita Dove to receive an honorary National Book Award medal for lifetime achievement

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Poet Rita Dove has a sharp, simple goal in response to receiving a National Book Award for lifetime achievement: “I want it to be a milestone, not a tombstone.”“It may seem like a rather macabre metaphor, but I simply meant — knock on wood — that I haven’t reached the end of my journey as an artist. I’m still observing, questioning, exploring,” she adds. The National Book Foundation, the nonprofit which presents the book awards, announced Friday that Dove is this year’s winner of its medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, an honor previously given to Toni Morrison, Edmund White and Art Spiegelman among others. Dove, 71, has been a published author for 50 years, her notable books including her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection “Thomas and Beulah,” inspired by her maternal grandparents.She is best known for her poetry, but has worked in other art forms and is currently planning a memoir. She has published short fiction, the novel “Through the Ivory G...

Justice Alito rejects Senate Democrats’ call to step aside from an upcoming Supreme Court case

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Samuel Alito on Friday rejected demands from Senate Democrats that he step aside from an upcoming Supreme Court case because of his interactions with one of the lawyers, in a fresh demonstration of tensions over ethical issues.Alito attached an unusual statement to an otherwise routine list of orders from the court. “There is no valid reason for my recusal in this case,” Alito wrote in a four-page statement.Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have been highly critical of Alito and the rest of the court for failing to adopt an ethics code, following reports of undisclosed paid trips taken by Justice Clarence Thomas and, on one occasion, by Alito. The committee approved an ethics code for the court on a party-line vote, though it is unlikely to become law.Last month, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and other Democrats on the committee sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts calling on Alito to not participate in a tax case...

Inside the brand new White House Situation Room: Cutting-edge tech, mahogany and that new car smell

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House Situation Room — a space of great mystique and even greater secrecy — just got a $50 million facelift. Actually, “room” is a misnomer. It’s a 5,500-square-foot (511-square-meter), highly secure complex of conference rooms and offices on the ground floor of the West Wing.These are rooms where history happens, where the president meets with national security officials to discuss secret operations and sensitive government matters, speaks with foreign leaders and works through major national security crises. Where President Barack Obama and his team watched the raid that took down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. Where President Donald Trump monitored the 2019 operation that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Where President Lyndon Johnson went over Vietnam War plans. The latest redo was no small update: The total gut renovation took a year to complete.The White House opened the classified space to a group of reporters this ...

Highland Park 'poverty simulation' event canceled amid backlash

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:22:36 GMT

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — Highland Park has canceled its upcoming "poverty simulation' event amid social media backlash.On Tuesday evening, the city announced on Facebook that they partnered with the Alliance for Human Services, Family Focus, Moraine Township and the Highland Park Community Foundation with the goal of increasing “residents’ understanding and awareness of what it is like to live in poverty in Lake County.”“Participants in this immersive experience will begin to experience what a “month” in poverty feels like. Participants are put into situations in which they do not have enough resources and are forced to make difficult choices that can negatively impact them and their families. The outcome is increased awareness of the need for resources to support those living in poverty to create a more resilient health, human, and education sector in our local area,” a description for the event, which was supposed to take place on Saturday, read.The post amassed over 2,000 comments —...