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Day 2 of former Loudoun Co. schools superintendent’s jury trial: Prosecution rests, defense calls first witness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

Did former Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler retaliate against a public schoolteacher for speaking to a special grand jury, and did he unlawfully discharge her from her position?That’s the question a jury in Loudoun County, Virginia, had to consider as day two of his trial continued Wednesday.Ziegler was indicted on two misdemeanor counts for allegedly retaliating against Erin Brooks, a LCPS teacher who testified to an attorney general’s special grand jury investigating the school system’s handling of sexual assault allegations. Ziegler is accused of firing Brooks unlawfully.Prosecution argues school did not do enough to help BrooksZiegler’s attorney has said Brooks was a probationary employee, and could have her contract not renewed without cause.The special grand jury was empaneled by Virginia Attorney Jason Miyares under an executive order from Gov. Glenn Youngkin to investigate how the school system handled two sexual assaults by ...

United Auto Workers strike includes 2 Colorado locations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — The United Auto Workers union strike against major automakers has expanded to a total of 41 distribution centers across the country, including two in Colorado."As promised, we are expanding the Stand Up Strike in response to the lack of progress in bargaining with General Motors and Stellantis," Shawn Fain, UAW president, announced on Friday. "We will shut down parts distribution until those two companies come to their senses and come to the table with a serious offer." Biden urges striking auto workers to ‘stick with it’ in picket line visit unparalleled in history The UAW first walked out on Sept. 15 in a strike against big three automakers General Motors, Chrysler parent Stellantis and Ford. On Friday, the union expanded its strikes against GM and Stellantis.Some 18,600 workers are now on strike across 21 states, according to the union.UAW strike underway in ColoradoIn Colorado, UAW union members are striking at two Colorado locations in the Denver metro area:GM...

Mother speaks out after 3-year-old accidentally shoots hand with gun left unattended; relative charged with child neglect bonds out

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

A South Florida mother is making a plea to other parents after her little girl shot herself with a gun that was left unattended on a couch. Now, a relative is in trouble for what happened.Surveillance video on Sunday showed the moment Serenity ran to the couch and grabbed the gun inside of her family’s apartment in Southwest Miami-Dade.Warneicia Williams, Serenity’s mother, spoke with 7News on Wednesday about the chilling footage“I just kept rewatching it, I just kept replaying it, replaying, it, because I’m like, ‘How can this happen?'” she said. “I’m just grateful my daughter is alive, because if you watch the video, the gun was pointed at her chest.”As Serenity began playing with the gun, she accidentally fired the gun and shot her hand.“The bullet went straight through her finger,” Williams said. “Her hand stopped the bullet. Her hand saved her life.”Serenity on Tuesday was released from the hospital a...

Brother and sister want money from deposit back after apartment’s living room floor caves in

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

A young brother and sister wanted to move into their own apartment. They did, and you won’t believe what happened in their new place. It’s why they called Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser. Many people want to move from home and be on their own. Maliyah and her brother Joseph knew what it would take to do that.Maliyah Collins: Work, work. We worked a lot. Over four years, me and my brother were saving. Kept saving, kept saving.”This summer they found an apartment where the property manager wanted them to pay $8,800 to move in.Maliyah Collins: “She told us, since we didn’t have any credit or anything, we had to pay six months’ rent.”They paid it, left their mother’s house and moved in.Maliyah Collins: “We were excited that we really did this big step.”For a month and a half, everything was great.Until things collapsed.Maliyah Collins: “I just heard a big boom, and he called me to come in. He just fell inside the groun...

2 years after being reunited, owner of Yorkie who went missing for 10 years says microchip brought them back together

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

Two years after they were reunited, a Southwest Miami-Dade woman described the ordeal to bring her beloved dog home after the pet disappeared for a decade.Killer the Yorkie is living his best life once again. Just last week, he and his owner, Carolina Ramirez, celebrated the second year of their reunion after he was missing for 10 years.Speaking with 7News on Wednesday, Ramirez said someone stole Killer from her mother’s home in Kendall back in 2011.“They picked him up and snatched him from the front of her house, so we looked endlessly for him,” she said.But no luck … until September 2021, when someone dropped Killer off at the Humane Society in West Palm Beach.“They scanned his microchip, and our phone numbers were registered,” said Ramirez.Hours later, they were reunited. Ramirez described the moment.“It was a lot of emotions. It was huge shock at first, but then after, definitely excitement and a lot of nervousness,” she said.And since t...

Why Slovakia’s election doesn’t really matter for Europe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

He’s back — and he’s out for revenge.What may sound like the voice-over for a B-movie trailer is in fact a real-life political drama playing out in Slovakia’s election campaign, where former Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was forced to resign in 2018 amid a popular revolt, has returned to center stage with a vengeance.Fico, the leader of a left-wing populist party known as Smer (or, more officially, Direction–Social Democracy) is narrowly leading the polls with about 20 percent ahead of Sunday’s election, slightly ahead of the liberal Progressive Slovakia. The snap election comes after the collapse of a center-right alliance that took over from Smer in 2020.A former communist who rebranded himself a Social Democrat after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Fico, 59, has set alarm bells ringing in Western capitals in recent months by vowing to halt military support for Ukraine and block the country’s path into NATO. He’s even parroted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talking points, bla...

Can Europe survive Trump 2.0?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

The Continent could face a US president who toyed with quitting NATO and pledged to strike a ‘peace deal’ with Russia.By NICHOLAS VINOCURand CHRISTOPHER PILTZIllustration by Jonathan Bartlett for POLITICOHERE’S SOMETHING THE EUROPEAN MIND can’t fully comprehend: Come November 2024, Donald Trump may be headed back into the White House.It’s a nightmare scenario for Europeans who bore the brunt of the former U.S. president’s antagonism during his four years in office and hoped to never have to think about him again.The fact that his successor, Joe Biden, turned out to be one of the most Europe-friendly U.S. presidents in living memory helped to wash away the bad feelings of the Trump years, making it all feel like a bad dream. Did Trump really toy with the idea of pulling out of NATO? Maybe. Did he really call the European Union a “foe” and Brussels, the seat of the bloc’s institutions, a “hellhole”? Probably. What matters is that he’s gone.But as Biden enters t...

Time for the UN to recognize Taiwan’s voice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

Jonas Parello-Plesner is the executive director of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation.Despite mounting fears about a clash between Taiwanese and Chinese forces, few dared mention Taiwan during the U.N. General Assembly in New York.The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has used its economic clout and its position as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to silence any discussion of Taiwan’s status in the intergovernmental organization. And it also blocks any contact between the government in Taipei and the U.N.’s agencies.This leaves 23 million Taiwanese citizens without a voice in the world’s leading international institution, meaning the U.N. is shunning its own commitment to the “self-determination of peoples.”Beijing, of course, points to Resolution 2758 as the ostensible reason to overlook Taiwan. Passed in 1971, the resolution recognized the PRC as “the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations” and removed “the representatives of Chiang Kai-she...

Lachlan Murdoch could reunite Fox and Trump, biographer says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

Lachlan Murdoch, the newly appointed heir to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, might try to salvage Donald Trump’s relationship with Fox News, according to the media mogul’s biographer.Since Rupert Murdoch announced his plan to resign, ending his decades-long reign atop the family business, there has been much speculation on what’s in store for Fox and News Corp.Among that, one burning question: Will Trump — once beloved by right-wing Fox News and later jilted in favor of Republican opponent Ron DeSantis — make a comeback as the network’s darling?Michael Wolff, author of upcoming book “The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty” and longtime Murdoch watcher, said a Trump reconciliation is a distinct possibility for Rupert’s son Lachlan.“I think he could do that. Absolutely,” Wolff told POLITICO’s new global podcast Power Play. “Why not? It’s a humiliation. I would not want to have to go and sit down for a cup of tea with my father, Rupert M...

Rupert Murdoch’s UK papers could back Labour, biographer Michael Wolff predicts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:34 GMT

LONDON — Some of Rupert Murdoch’s U.K. media titles could switch their allegiance to the opposition Labour Party ahead of the next election, the mogul’s biographer predicted.Speaking to POLITICO’s Anne McElvoy in her new Power Play podcast, Michael Wolff — longtime Murdoch observer and author of “The Fall: The End of the Murdoch Empire” which publishes this week — discussed the impending exit of the Australian media boss from the chairmanship of Fox Corp. and News Corp.And he pointed out that some of Murdoch’s U.K.-based titles — which have traditionally favored the Conservatives — could make the leap and endorse Labour if its leader Keir Starmer continues to lead in the polls.“He’s done it before. Could he do it now? For sure,” Wolff said when asked if Murdoch could back Labour. “I think the voice of his daughter in London is an important voice,” Wolff added, referring to Elisabeth Murdoch, who is based-in the U.K. “And I think that if he saw a Labour government...