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‘Don’t Say Gay’ lawmaker pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The former Florida lawmaker who sponsored the controversial law critics call “Don’t Say Gay” pleaded guilty Tuesday to committing $150,000 in COVID-19 relief fraud.Joseph Harding, a 35-year-old Republican, pleaded guilty in Gainesville federal court to wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements in connection with COVID-19 relief fraud, according to court records. He faces up to 35 years in prison at a hearing scheduled for July 25.Harding resigned from the Florida House in December, a day after federal prosecutors announced his indictment.According to court documents, Harding made false statements to the Small Business Administration while applying for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan for one of his dormant business entities. After obtaining $150,000 in COVID-19 relief funds, prosecutors said Harding conducted three monetary transactions, each involving more than $10,000 in fraudulently obtained funds: a transfer to his joint bank account, a p...

Video shows Sarasota Police officer getting hit by speeding car

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

SARASOTA, Fla. (WSVN) — A Sarasota Police officer is recovering after being hit by a car on Monday night. The incident, which was caught on camera, shows the officer flipping over the car upon impact. Police officers were staging a roadblock to stop a suspected burglar when the suspect hit the officer head-on. The police responded to Mourning Dove Drive around 3 p.m. for reports of stolen personal items from a car. Later in the day, security footage captured the white Mercedes flying down Bird Key, swerving the parked patrol car, and hitting the officer, flipping him over the vehicle. The officer was rushed to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, where he was later discharged and is expected to make a full recovery.Chief Rex Troche commented on the incident the following day in a press conference. “When we watched the video this morning in our command staff meeting, it was horrific. It was terrible,” he said. “This person needs to be put in jail for what he did. He co...

Warming Breeze Rest of this Week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

A gradual warmup continues across South Florida this weekend. Following widespread lows in the 50s Monday morning, lows this morning were near normal in the 60s to low 70s, which is closer to slightly above average. Above average temperatures will be the story the remainder of this week and into this weekend with highs in the upper 80s in spots by weeksend.This Wednesday, expect generally bright and sunny skies with a easterly breeze that will remain strong along the coast. That will make for a high risk for rip currents at east coast beaches. High temperatures will be in the low 80s.Temperatures will hold steady in the low 80s on Thursday, then the mid 80s on Friday as the wind flow veers more out of the southeast around a dominant area of high pressure over the Atlantic. Conditions remain dry with a good deal of sunshine.By the weekend, a weak front will reach northern Florida, causing winds to flow more out of the south. This will drive temperatures up further and will introduce ...

Spanish government defeats no-confidence vote brought by far right

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

Spain’s parliament on Wednesday rejected by a wide margin a no-confidence vote in the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez put forward by the far-right Vox party.Vox’s motion was based on a host of accusations against the government — led by Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) — including its handling of new legislation on sexual consent and plans to overhaul the sedition law that was used to prosecute Catalan leaders associated with the failed independence referendum. The far-right’s vote wasn’t expected to pick up much support, and that proved to be the case, with Vox’s 52 lawmakers joined by just one from the center-right Ciudadanos in supporting the motion. There were 201 votes against, with 91 abstentions (most of which were from the main opposition Popular Party or PP).Vox’s suggested candidate to replace Sánchez as PM had the motion been successful was Ramón Tamames, an 89-year-old economist and for...

MPs pass key part of Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland Brexit deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

LONDON — A key part of Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland Brexit deal has sailed through the House of Commons despite a Conservative rebellion.The House of Commons voted 515 to 29 in favor of the plan, after the opposition Labour, Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats also voted to support the so-called Stormont Brake — a part of the U.K.-EU Windsor Framework that aims to fix issues with the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol.The Stormont Brake is a intended to allow the currently-deadlocked Northern Ireland Assembly to object to new EU regulations set to apply in the region — a key concern for Northern Irish unionists who do not want to be separated further from the rest of the U.K.However, the eight MPs from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) voted against the brake Wednesday and are maintaining their opposition to Sunak’s wider deal — known as the Windsor Framework — for now.Ex-prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss also refused to back Sun...

Boris Johnson: I did not lie to the House of Commons over Partygate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

LONDON — Boris Johnson denied lying to the House of Commons over the Partygate scandal as a marathon grilling on the former prime minister’s conduct got underway Wednesday.The cross-party privileges committee, chaired by Labour grandee Harriet Harman, is examining whether the ex-prime minister knowingly misled parliament about COVID rule-breaking parties in Downing Street when he made statements about the gatherings — later the subject of police fines — to the House of Commons.After swearing an oath on the King James Bible at the start of an expected four-hour session, Johnson told the committee: “I am here to say to you, hand on heart, that I did not lie to the house.”And he added: “When those statements were made they were made in good faith and on the basis of what I knew and believed at the time.”The privileges committee has said Johnson — who could face a temporary Commons ban or be forced to apologize to MPs — may have misled the House multiple times with a s...

2 people taken to hospital, 8 displaced after fire in senior housing complex in Maynard

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

At least two people were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a fire broke out in a senior public housing complex in Maynard.Officials said eight residents were also displaced.The fire started at the complex on Powder Mill Road around 6:30 a.m., according to a statement from Maynard Fire Chief Angela Lawless.Lawless said crews soon arrived at the scene to find heavy smoke and fire coming from the second floor of the complex. The fire eventually grew to three alarms, prompting mutual aid from multiple area emergency departments.Firefighters were able to confine the fire to one side of the building, Lawless said, before bringing it under control around 7:40 a.m.Police initially asked drivers to avoid nearby Powder Mill Road. Police later announced the road had reopened just after 9 a.m.Lawless said one resident was taken to an area hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries. A Maynard firefighter was also taken to the hospital, according to Lawless, also with non...

Pizza shop owner accused of abusing workers denied bail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston pizza shop owner accused by federal authorities of abusing employees who were not legally in the U.S. has been ordered held without bail by a magistrate judge who cited the defendant’s “history of violence and threats.”“At this juncture, the evidence against him appears strong,” Magistrate Judge Judith Dein wrote in Stavros Papantoniadis’ detention order Tuesday. “The government has met its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assume the safety of any other person and the community.”Papantoniadis, 47, who also goes by Steve, faces one charge of forced labor but allegedly victimized at least seven employees, according to court documents.He currently owns two Stash’s Pizza locations in Boston, but previously owned several other pizza parlors in suburban communities.Prosecutors allege he hired people in the U.S. illegally, made them work l...

TikTok CEO to tell lawmakers its parent company is ‘not an agent of China’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

(CNN) — TikTok CEO Shou Chew plans to tell US lawmakers that the app’s parent company, ByteDance, does not work for the Chinese government as he seeks to avert a US ban and reassure policymakers TikTok poses no national security threat.The remarks, which include broad promises to protect US user data, to keep teens safe and to remain free from any government influence, mark the company’s most visible attempt yet to shake off concerns about the potential for foreign spying that have spooked governments worldwide.“Let me state this unequivocally,” Chew will say, according to a copy of his remarks released by a key House panel. “ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.”Chew is scheduled to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday, in what will be his first public testimony to Congress as TikTok’s chief executive. More than 150 million Americans use TikTok every month, Chew will say...

After bank failures, Elizabeth Warren demands Fed crackdown on large regional banks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:14:32 GMT

(CNN) — Senator Elizabeth Warren is cranking up the pressure on the Federal Reserve following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.In a new letter shared exclusively with CNN, Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders and ten other senators are calling for the Fed to crack down on large regional banks with assets between $100 billion and $250 billion.Both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank fit into that asset threshold when they failed earlier this month. The bipartisan 2018 rollback of Dodd-Frank freed large regional banks in that range of assets from the toughest oversight.“The fall of both SVB and Signature, the near-crash of First Republic, and the struggles of other regional banks shed new light on the systemic important of banks with assets totaling between $100 billion and $250 billion,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Michael Barr, the vice chair for supervision at the Fed.The dozen lawmakers note that the same 2018...