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In Pentagon Leak, the Problem Is What’s Classified, Not What Got Out

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

Only death and taxes are certain in life, Ben Franklin wrote in 1789, though he could have done us a favor by also noting that we can count on our government to make exaggerated claims about the unauthorized publication of classified documents.Like clockwork, after a set of secret national security documents burst into public view last week, the Washington Post reported a “high level of panic” at the upper echelons of the Department of Defense, with officials “stunned” and “infuriated.” According to Politico, one Pentagon aide even said he was “sick to [his] stomach” over the alleged betrayal. The Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation, while John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, warned, “This is information that has no business in the public domain. It is not intended for public consumption, and it should not be out there.”The intelligence documents appear to have entered the public domain in an unusual way — someone began sharing them, starting lat...

High-capacity magazine supplier sued in FedEx mass shooting

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

The son of a man killed in a 2021 mass shooting at an Indianapolis FedEx facility filed a federal lawsuit Thursday with two of the survivors against the distributor of the 60-round magazine used by the gunman, alleging the use of reckless marketing tactics targeting young men at risk for violent behavior. The lawsuit — filed almost exactly two years after the shooting that killed eight people — alleges that American Tactical, Inc. failed to take steps to help prevent dangerous people from obtaining the high-capacity magazine, which allow shooters to fire dozens of rounds without having to reload. Instead, the lawsuit says the company specifically targeted its products to a “consumer base filled with impulsive young men who feel they need to harm others in order to prove their strength and who have militaristic delusions of fighting in a war or a video game.” It points to action-movie-style marketing videos that were posted on American Tactical’s YouTube page featur...

MATCHDAY: Lazio at Spezia, Lyon visits Toulouse

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Friday:ITALYLazio hopes to solidify its second-place spot in Serie A when it visits Spezia. Napoli is likely out of reach at the top of the table but Lazio wants to hold off third-place Roma and is on a seven-game unbeaten run in the league. Spezia enters the match one spot and four points above the relegation zone. Cremonese hosts Empoli in the other game. The hosts are in the drop zone, just one point above last-place Sampdoria.SPAINOsasuna visits Rayo Vallecano with both teams needing a win to boost their slim chances of finishing the season with a European competition berth. Osasuna is in eighth place with Rayo one point behind in ninth. In Spain this season, the top four finishers go to the Champions League, the fifth-place team to the Europa League, and the sixth-place team to the Europa Conference League. Osasuna is seven points behind Betis, which is currently in sixth. But Osasuna can win a direct pass to the Europa League if...

Romney faces first potential challenge in Utah Senate race

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

FARMINGTON, Utah (AP) — A potential primary challenger to Republican first-term Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah took a major step Thursday toward jumping into next year’s race, expected to be one of the GOP’s hardest-fought contests in 2024.With memories of Romney’s two votes to impeach former President Donald Trump stillfresh, Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson announced he was forming an exploratory committee for the primary race, which all but formalizes his entry and allows him to raise money and campaign statewide. In an interview at his real estate office in northern Utah, Wilson said Utah needs a “conservative fighter” who represents its values and blamed “professional career politicians” in Washington for inflation and higher gas prices.“I don’t have any illusions that as speaker of the house, I’m a household name. But that’s really not what this is about,” Wilson told The Associated Press. “What this is about is me going out and understanding what people care about.” Romne...

Threats to dictionary publisher land man a year in prison

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

A California man who made violent anti-LGBTQ-related threats against dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster Inc. over its updated gender definitions was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison.The sentence imposed on Jeremy Hanson, 35, by a federal court in Massachusetts also included 30 days of home confinement, three years of probation and mental health treatment.Hanson pleaded guilty last year to interstate transmission of threatening communications in connection with threats made to the Springfield, Massachusetts-based dictionary publisher and to the president of the University of North Texas.In court documents, prosecutors said the Rossmoor, California, man has a history of making “threatening communications, nearly all of which were motivated by … biases based upon race, gender, gender identity, and/or sexual orientation.”Those other communications were directed at the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Land O’ Lakes Inc., Hasbro, a nonbinary rabbi and o...

Supreme Court won’t block $6B student debt relief settlement

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a roughly $6 billion legal settlement to go forward that will cancel student loans for hundreds of thousands of borrowers who say they were misled by their schools.The justices did not comment in rejecting an emergency plea from Everglades College, Lincoln Educational Services Corp. and American National University. The schools had argued that they were unfairly included on a list of more than 150 institutions, most of them for-profit, linked with alleged misconduct. Lincoln and American are for-profit institutions; Everglades is a not-for-profit.The justices’ action comes as the high court is weighing what to do with the Biden administration’s plan to wipe away $400 billion in student debt held by more than 40 million people. A decision on that plan is expected by late June.The legal challenges have some similarities but the administration is relying on different laws in the two programs.The class-action settlement...

Florida GOP passes 6-week abortion ban; DeSantis supports it

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on Thursday approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a proposal supported by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares for an expected presidential run. DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks.A six-week ban would give DeSantis a key political victory among Republican primary voters as he prepares to launch a presidential candidacy built on his national brand as a conservative standard bearer. The policy would also have wider implications for abortion access throughout the South in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving decisions about abortion access to states. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, while Georgia forbids the procedure after cardiac activity can be detected, which is around six weeks. “We have the opportunity to lead the na...

Hexagon political comedy revue returns from pandemic hiatus at new location in Silver Spring

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

toggle audio on and off change volume download audio WTOP's Jason Fraley previews Hexagon (Part 1) $(function () { $('.wtop-audio-container .fa-play').on('click', function(){ var audio_filename = $('div.wtop-audio-file').data("mp3-url"); ga('send', 'event', 'Audio', 'play', audio_filename); }); }); The Hexagon political comedy troupe has been a D.C. staple for decades, but it unfortunately shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the group lost President Joe Kaplan to the disease in 2020.Next week, the show hopes to launch a new era with eight live performances from April 21 to April 29.“Spring of 2019 was the la...

Man arrested after posting video threatening to shoot school

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

A 25-year-old man who posted a Snapchat video threatening to shoot up a New Hampshire high school has been arrested, police said Thursday.Portsmouth Police said the suspect, 25-year-old Kyle Hendrickson, was charged with criminal threatening with a firearm. In the video posted Wednesday afternoon, he is in a vehicle with a gun outside Portsmouth High School and says “Imma gonna shoot up the school.” The incident, police said, was caught by Snapchat, which relayed it to the FBI who then contacted the local police around 6 p.m. They would not release the video.“People should know better,” Portsmouth Police Capt. Dave Keaveny told The Associated Press. “If he thought it was funny or he did it to gain popularity on social media, then he should make better choices. We take those threats very seriously.”The police and the school district released a joint statement Thursday, after deciding to close the school as a precaution. They said it was unclear why Hendrickson targeted the school, th...

Abortion providers scramble as courts restrict pills

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:23 GMT

Doctors, clinics and telehealth providers across the country are scrambling to figure out how they will continue to provide the most common type of abortion after a federal appeals court imposed new restrictions on a key abortion medication.One telehealth provider would have to shut down for two weeks. Some abortion clinics in Ohio are considering ditching the drug altogether. Meanwhile, other doctors are looking for legal loopholes to dispense the drug, called mifepristone.People who live far from abortion clinics will be particularly hard hit, abortion rights advocates say. The restrictions could force people to travel hundreds of miles for care and stay for days, said Kirsten Moore, director of the Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project. “This is going to have a severe, severe impact on access,” she said, adding that it will be “devastating” for underserved rural populations.This is the second time in less than a week that the legal sands have shifted around medication abor...