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Court order sought to bar California school district from enforcing LGBTQ policy, critical race theory ban

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

The law firm suing Temecula’s school district over its critical race theory ban announced Thursday, Nov. 30, it is seeking a court order to stop the district from enforcing that ban as well as a policy requiring parents be told if their child identifies as transgender.Its motion asks a judge to bar the Temecula Valley Unified School District from enforcing school board policies “that censor state-mandated curriculum,” a news release from Public Counsel states.“Across the district, teachers are avoiding discussions of racial and other forms of inequality for fear of violating the ban, making it impossible to teach subjects like American history and government with even a semblance of accuracy,” lawyers argue in their motion.“Denied access to concepts being learned by their peers elsewhere in the state, Temecula students are at a marked disadvantage as they prepare for college, careers, and participation in a diverse democracy.” View this document on ScribdPublic Counsel’s release in...

USC’s Bronny James cleared by doctors for return

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

LOS ANGELES — Smiles abounded when Bronny James walked into the gym for USC’s practice on Thursday, but not much was said. There was no fanfare. There was no raucous applause.On Thursday morning, a long-awaited statement from a James family spokesperson confirmed the USC freshman had been cleared by doctors for a “full return to basketball,” about a month after father LeBron said they had a “big moment” at the end of November to gauge his son’s progress. The statement went viral, like most everything surrounding the young James does. But his USC teammates, senior DJ Rodman said Thursday, knew he was coming back sooner than the public expected.“We’re excited,” senior guard Boogie Ellis said. “But we’ll be more excited when he’s actually out there with us, playing next week.”Yes – playing next week. It’s been all of four months since James collapsed during a USC summer workout with cardiac arrest; all of two months since he’d started rehab after heart surgery. But the path forward has...

Cal State faculty plans to strike as officials reject a 12% salary increase

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

BY MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN | CalMattersBarring a breakthrough in negotiations, the California State University faculty will go on one-day strikes at four campuses next week as they fight for 12% wage hikes this academic year plus other key concessions — increases that the system of nearly 460,000 students says it cannot afford.The action would dash hopes of a labor peace between the union of 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches on one end and management of the nation’s largest public four-year university system on the other. And it would only be the beginning: If Cal State leadership doesn’t meet faculty demands, union leadership is promising more labor unrest in 2024.“The decision was made to start on the smaller side…to allow us to give some space to escalate,” said Kevin Wehr, bargaining team chair for the California Faculty Association and a professor at Sacramento State. “We don’t feel the need necessarily to go from zero to 60.”The planned dates and camp...

Meta shuts thousands of fake Facebook accounts primed to polarize voters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

By David Klepper | The Associated PressSomeone in China created thousands of fake social media accounts designed to appear to be from Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year’s elections, Meta said Thursday.The network of nearly 4,800 fake accounts was attempting to build an audience when it was identified and eliminated by the tech company, which owns Facebook and Instagram. The accounts sported fake photos, names and locations as a way to appear like everyday American Facebook users weighing in on political issues.Instead of spreading fake content as other networks have done, the accounts were used to reshare posts from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that were created by politicians, news outlets and others. The interconnected accounts pulled content from both liberal and conservative sources, an indication that its goal was not to support one side or the other but to exaggerate partisan ...

2 children who died in Southern California fire had been deemed ‘safe’ by caseworker

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

Riverside County Child Protective Services caseworkers assessed the risk to the children living with a drug-addicted mother in a Lake Elsinore-area home as “moderate” and the living conditions as “safe” a year before a boy and girl died in a fire that authorities blamed on their mother’s neglect, according to documents obtained by the Southern California News Group.Arya Alcarez, 1, and Julian Alcaraz-Fisher, 2, perished on Jan. 25, 2021, when a garage, converted into a living quarters at a home on Blackwell Boulevard in unincorporated Lakeland Village, caught fire with three children inside watching television. Cal Fire/Riverside County fire investigators said a space heater tethered to a table by bungee cords either tipped over into a pile of clothes or made contact with clothes and a bamboo partition hanging from the ceiling.The children’s mother, Devinn Elise Fisher, was outside in a car with her boyfriend at the time — she under the influence of methamphetamine and he smoking me...

Rafael Nadal to return to playing at Brisbane International in January after being out for a year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Rafael Nadal will return to playing at the Brisbane International in Australia in January, the 22-time Grand Slam champion said Friday.“After a year of not competing, it is time to come back,” Nadal said in a video posted on social media. “It will be in Brisbane in the first week of January. See you there.”The 37-year-old Spaniard has not played on tour since last January, when he hurt his hip flexor during a loss in the second round of the Australian Open.In May, a little more than a week before the start of the French Open, Nadal announced that he would miss the tournament he’s won a record 14 times and wasn’t exactly sure when he might return to play.Nadal had said then that he hoped to compete in 2024, which he expected to be his final season.“You never know how things will turn out,” Nadal said at a news conference at the time, “but my intention is that next year will be my last year.”He wound up having arthroscopic surgery in June in Barcelona.Dating ...

Haslam family denies allegation from Warren Buffett’s company that it bribed truck stop chain execs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An attorney for the billionaire Haslam family called bribery allegations leveled by Warren Buffett’s company a “wild invention.But a judge didn’t decide immediately whether those allegations will be resolved at a January trial that should help determine the multibillion-dollar price Berkshire Hathaway might have to pay the Haslams for the rest of the Pilot truck stop chain.The Haslams and Buffett’s company are accusing each other of manipulating Pilot’s earnings this year to affect the price Berkshire would have to pay for the Haslams’ remaining 20% stake in the company if the family decides to sell.The Haslam family — which includes Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam — accused Berkshire last month of trying to understate Pilot’s earnings this year by changing its accounting practices. Berkshire responded this week with a lawsuit of its own accusing Jimmy Haslam of trying to bribe key Pilot e...

Rafael Nadal says he will return to playing at Brisbane International in Australia in January

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Rafael Nadal says he will return to playing at Brisbane International in Australia in January.Source

UK police probe ticket problem that sparked violence and arrests of Polish fans at Aston Villa game

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — English police had 46 supporters of Legia Warsaw in custody Friday after “ 90 minutes of sustained violence ” the night before when 1,000 Polish fans arrived to Villa Park but weren’t given their tickets to the game against Aston Villa.West Midlands Police said their investigation will include determining why the tickets weren’t distributed but that they’ll pursue charges against those arrested after four officers were injured.“The disorder that we encountered last night was the most severe that a lot of us have ever seen,” assistant chief constable Damian Barratt told Talk Sport radio.“It was undoubtedly, as I say, instigated as a result of this issue related to ticket allocation,” he continued. “That’s something I’ll be taking up with football authorities and UEFA in particular. I will be expecting some strong decisions on their part.”Villa won the Europa Conference League game 2-1. The away fans section of the stadium...

A secret trip by Henry Kissinger grew into a half-century-long relationship with China

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:55 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Official China called Henry Kissinger “an old friend.” A commentator likened him to a giant panda, a goodwill ambassador between two countries that have been at odds more often than not over the decades.Kissinger, who died Wednesday, developed a special relationship with China in the second half of his 100-year-long life. It started with a secret trip in 1971, when he feigned illness while at a meeting in Pakistan and flew undercover to Beijing for unprecedented talks that led to U.S. President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit the next year.For that act, he is remembered positively in China as an envoy who was willing to overlook ideological differences at the height of the Cold War and to engineer a rapprochement that over time brought communist-ruled China fully back into the family of nations. Many Chinese people mourned Kissinger’s death on social media.“This is one of the main reasons for him to be revered,” Zhao Minghao, an international relations prof...