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‘Shaft’ star Richard Roundtree, considered the ‘first Black action’ movie hero, has died at 81

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Richard Roundtree, the trailblazing Black actor who starred as the ultra-smooth private detective “Shaft” in several films beginning in the early 1970s, has died. He was 81.Roundtree’s longtime manager, Patrick McMinn, said the actor had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 and underwent a double mastectomy.“Richard’s work and career served as a turning point for African American leading men,” McMinn said. “The impact he had on the industry cannot be overstated.”Roundtree, who was born in New Rochelle, New York, was considered as the “first Black action hero” and became one of the leading actors in the blaxploitation genre through his New York street smart John Shaft character in the Gordon Parks-directed film in 1971. At age 28, it was Roundtree’s first feature film appearance after starting his career as a model.Roundtree’s “Shaft” was part of a change in how Black movie...

Vermont ski town says it’s ‘waiting with open arms’ for the winter season after severe flooding

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

LUDLOW, Vt. (AP) — The debris and mud slide near the base of the road to the Okemo ski resort have long been cleared away, and open flags now hang outside shops and restaurants in a small Vermont ski town hit by severe flooding this summer. As winter approaches and the fall tourism season lingers, Ludlow businesses that lost out on summer tourism want to get the word out that they are open, even though some are still in the throes of rebuilding. “As far as our businesses, I’d say 90% plus have reopened,” Ludlow Town Manager Brendan McNamara said. “Some are still just coming down that final stretch to open, especially for the fall-winter season, but we’ve come a long way and town is ready for the winter season. Waiting with open arms.” Ludlow was one of the Vermont communities hit hardest by the July flooding that not only inundated businesses and homes with floodwaters but heavily damaged the town post office and wastewater treatment plant.The post office reo...

Born after Superstorm Sandy’s destruction, 2 big flood control projects get underway in New Jersey

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

HOBOKEN, N.J. (AP) — A decade after they were first envisioned in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy ’s destruction, two of the largest flood control projects designed to protect the densely populated cities of New Jersey that lie just outside New York City will finally get underway Wednesday.A project in Hoboken, which was inundated by flooding during the 2012 storm, and another in the densely populated Meadowlands region, which also saw catastrophic flooding, will kick off. The projects will cost nearly $298 million and are designed to protect some of the region’s most vulnerable communities.Both projects were formulated by the group Rebuild By Design, which was initiated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2013, and New Jersey environmental officials. Rebuild By Design looked at ways to reduce flood risk and increase resiliency in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, and it launched a series of projects that are in various phases of planning or constr...

Support for Israel becomes a top issue for Iowa evangelicals key to the first Republican caucuses

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Steve Rowland peered beneath the brim of his baseball cap and admonished the roughly 500 people at Rising Sun Church of Christ in the Des Moines suburb of Altoona.It had been three days since Hamas attacked Israel and killed hundreds of civilians. In Iowa, where evangelical Christians dominate the first-in-the-nation Republican presidential caucuses, Rowland and other pastors are delivering a message meant to resonate both biblically and politically.“What we’re seeing in that region is pure evil,” Rowland said. “Israel has mobilized their army and they are intent on stamping out evil, and we should be behind them. That’s where we should be, and I want you to know that, as a pastor.” Support for Israel has leapt to a top priority for evangelicals in the leadoff Republican presidential caucuses now less than three months away, according to interviews with more than a dozen Iowa conservative activists. While curbing abortion has for decades energized Chr...

Parents like private school vouchers so much that demand is exceeding budgets in some states

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

In some states, higher-income families can now use taxpayer money to cover private school tuition — and more people than projected are taking the offer, which might force scrambles to shore up state budgets.It’s especially an issue in states like Arizona and Iowa, where at least some families whose children were already in private school can now take advantage of public funding.“It busts the budget because it’s taking on as a public expense what’s previously been a private cost,” said Josh Cowen, an education policy professor at Michigan State University.Advocates for school choice pitch vouchers as a way to give students in low-performing schools a way out – and, increasingly, to give parents control over what their children are taught.Programs funded through vouchers, tax credits or scholarships have been around since the 1990s and are now available in the majority of states. Whether students who change schools with the use of taxpayer money achieve better educational ...

Mike Johnson is the latest GOP nominee for House speaker as Republican infighting shows no end

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans chose Rep. Mike Johnson as their latest nominee for House speaker desperate to unite their fractious majority and end the chaos, just hours after an earlier pick abruptly withdrew in the face of opposition from Donald Trump. Johnson of Louisiana, a lower-ranked member of the House GOP leadership team, becomes the fourth Republican nominee in what has become an almost absurd cycle of political infighting since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as GOP factions jockey for power. When the House convenes at noon Wednesday ahead of a floor vote, Johnson, who won the majority behind closed doors, will need almost all Republicans in the public roll call to win the gavel. “Mike! Mike! Mike!” lawmakers chanted at a press conference late Tuesday night, surrounding Johnson and posing for selfies in a show of support.Three weeks on, the Republicans have been frittering away their majority status — a maddening embarrassment to some, democracy in action to others, but not...

Hungary hosts international training for military divers who salvage unexploded munitions

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Soldiers from across Europe suited up in heavy diving equipment inside a cavernous flooded stone quarry deep beneath the Hungarian capital. Once their air tanks, flippers and waterproof diving suits were secured, they slipped beneath the cold water and, flashlights in hand, disappeared into the darkness. The military divers from Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Lithuania were participating in an international training exercise in Budapest to prepare them for a variety of scenarios: recovery operations after a boat accident, rescues during a catastrophic flood, or the removal of unexploded underwater ordnance following an armed conflict. “The most important thing is to strengthen our capabilities and work together internationally, underwater, and to know each other’s equipment, techniques and procedures,” said Maj. Csaba Horvath, the chief of the training exercise from the Hungarian Defense Forces 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Riverine Guard Regiment. “Tha...

Boston councilmember wants hearing to consider renaming Faneuil Hall due to slavery ties

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Boston’s City Council on Wednesday is expected to debate whether to hold a hearing on renaming Faneuil Hall, a popular tourist site that is named after a wealthy merchant who owned and traded slaves.In calling for the hearing, Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson has filed a resolution decrying the building’s namesake, Peter Faneuil, as a “white supremacist, a slave trader, and a slave owner who contributed nothing recognizable to the ideal of democracy.”The push is part of a larger discussion on forms of atonement to Black Bostonians for the city’s role in slavery and its legacy of inequality.The downtown meeting house was built for the city by Faneuil in 1742 and was where Samuel Adams and other American colonists made some of the earliest speeches urging independence from Britain.“It is important that we hold a hearing on changing the name of this building because the name disrespects Black people in the city and across the nation,” Pastor Valerie Copeland...

Russia maneuvers carefully over the Israel-Hamas war as it seeks to expand its global clout

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

Russia has issued carefully calibrated criticism of both sides in the war between Israel and Hamas. But the conflict also is giving Moscow bold new opportunities — to advance its role as a global power broker and challenge Western efforts to isolate it over Ukraine.While Moscow lacks leverage to mediate a settlement in the Middle East, it could try to play on some perceived credibility problems with the West’s response to the crisis.It also expects the Israel-Hamas war to distract attention from the fighting in Ukraine and erode support for Kyiv.There are risks for Moscow, however. It could damage its relationship with Israel, which until now has kept it from sending weapons to Ukraine.Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on towns in southern Israel. At the same time, he warned Israel against blockading the Gaza Strip, likening it to Nazi Germany’s siege of Leningrad during World War II.He has cast the war as a failure of U....

Honolulu tells story of healers with dual male and female spirit through new plaque in Waikiki

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:25 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu officials on Tuesday introduced a new interpretive plaque for four large boulders in the center of Waikiki that honor Tahitian healers of dual male and female spirit who visited Oahu some 500 years ago. The centuries-old boulders — one for each of the four visiting healers — are protected by an iron fence in a beachside park surrounded by hotels and shops in the heart of the world-renowned tourist district. The monument is known as the stones of Kapaemahu, after the group’s leader.According to stories handed down orally, the boulders were placed on Waikiki’s shore at the time of the healers’ visit. But the stones became neglected more recently. In 1941, a bowling alley was even built over them and remained there for two decades.The earlier plaque dates to 1997. It doesn’t acknowledge the healers were “mahu,” which in Hawaiian language and culture refers to someone with dual male and female spirit and a mixture of gender traits.Scholar...