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Colorado high court to hear case against Christian baker who refused to make LGBTQ-themed cake

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

DENVER (AP) — On the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court victory this summer for a graphic artist who didn’t want to design wedding websites for same-sex couples, Colorado’s highest court said Tuesday it will now hear the case of a Christian baker who refused to make a cake celebrating a gender transition. The announcement by the Colorado Supreme Court is the latest development in the yearslong legal saga involving Jack Phillips and LGBTQ+ rights. Phillips won a partial victory before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 after refusing to make a gay couple’s wedding cake but was later sued by Autumn Scardina, a transgender woman, who asked his suburban Denver bakery to make a pink cake with blue frosting for her birthday. It refused after Scardina explained it would celebrate her transition from male to female.The justices didn’t explain how or why they made the determination. It was announced in a long list of decisions about which cases they will hear and reject. The case involves the state’s...

The Supreme Court seems likely to side with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed likely to preserve the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against a conservative-led challenge.Even some conservative justices sounded skeptical of arguments that the agency, created after the 2008 financial crisis to regulate mortgages, car loans and other consumer finance, violates the Constitution in the way it is funded.The CFPB case is one of several major challenges to federal regulatory agencies on the docket this term for a court that has for more than a decade been open to limits on their operations. The CFPB, the brainchild of Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, has long been opposed by Republicans and their financial backers.But a majority of the court appeared ready to reject the sweeping arguments made by the lawyer for payday lenders whose challenge to a CFPB rule spawned the Supreme Court case. A ruling for the agency also would quiet concerns about the validity of the CFPB’s actions si...

US Rep. John Curtis says he won’t run to succeed Mitt Romney as Utah senator

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

U.S. Rep. John Curtis won’t run to succeed Mitt Romney, leaving the race to replace the nationally known Utah senator clear of one of the state’s best known Republicans.“We’ve accomplished a lot but my work for them is not done,” Rep. John Curtis wrote in a Monday op-ed in the Deseret News. “I believe we need elected leaders who are more concerned about doing their job than getting the next job. To walk away now would leave a commitment unfilled. I want to finish the job.”A former mayor of the city of Provo, Curtis, 63, has served in Congress since 2017, winning a special election that year and reelection by wide margins ever since.Curtis emerged as a possible candidate after Romney, 76, announced last month that he won’t run for reelection. Romney said he would be too old by the time his second term ended and that younger people needed to step up and run.The announcement opened a wider door for next year’s Senate race and led to speculation about whether Uta...

Pennsylvania House proposes April 2 for presidential primary, 2 weeks later than Senate wants

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Most Pennsylvania lawmakers want to move their state’s presidential primary election up from late April, but disagreements arose in the House on Tuesday over whether to embrace a Senate-backed plan that would shift the election to mid-March. A House committee first rejected, but later passed, a bipartisan Senate bill that seeks to hold the election on March 19. That second vote came hours after the committee approved its own bill to move the primary to April 2. Most lawmakers are motivated to move the primary from April 23 — where it is set by state law — to avoid a conflict with the Jewish holiday of Passover and to make it earlier in the primary calendar, thereby giving voters in the battleground state more of a say in deciding presidential nominees.“I think at its core, people recognize that Pennsylvania is frankly the center of the political universe,” said the bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia. “If you want to win a natio...

MK-ULTRA mind-control experiments: Quebec high court says U.S. has immunity in Canada

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec’s Court of Appeal says the United States government cannot be sued in Canada for its alleged role in infamous brainwashing experiments at a Montreal psychiatric hospital.The proposed class-action lawsuit is about MK-ULTRA — allegedly funded by the Canadian government and the CIA between the 1940s and 1960s at Montreal’s Allan Memorial Institute, which was affiliated with McGill University.In a 3-0 decision rendered Monday, the province’s highest court upheld a lower court decision that said a 1982 Canadian law governing how foreign states can be sued in the country cannot be used retroactively. The court case stems from a January 2019 class-action lawsuit filed against McGill University, the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Canadian and U.S. governments after Montrealers allegedly had their memories erased and were reduced to childlike states.The lawsuit — which has not been authorized by a judge — alleges that the experiments by Dr. Ewen Cameron a...

Welcome to Lake Cow-nty: Giant cow sculpture pays homage to farmers and land — it just needs a name

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

LAKE COUNTY, Ill. — In some regards, the Lake County landscape is every bit as much as it was 150 years ago. But to a great extent, this county and plenty of others in Illinois and throughout America which were agriculturally base, have given way to the modern city and suburban lifestyle.Enter a sculpture of a larger-than-life bovine. It’s an artistic homage to the milk cow and all that she represents — and it’s all because of Greg Koeppen and the Lake County Farm Bureau.Koeppen is the executive director of the bureau and he saw a similar cow 20 years ago while driving through Door County, where German settlers brought them to Wisconsin to help in feeding a fast-growing Midwest.“In my head at the time I said, ‘One day that'll be so cool to have something like that here in a very urban Chicago area,” he said.So 18 months ago he pitched it to the board at the bureau and they loved it.“The minute I told him this is my idea is the vision I have for it they loved it. They embraced it and...

Tuesday Forecast: Temps in upper 80s with mostly sunny conditions

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

CHICAGO — Hazy sunshine and unseasonably warm Tuesday. Winds: SSW 5-10 mph. Air quality is Moderate for Chicagoland. High 88/81 lakeshore. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storms here Partly cloudy and mild tonight. Winds: SSE 0-5 mph. Low 68.Wednesday Forecast: Increasing clouds, breezy and warm. Chance of PM showers/t'storms. Winds: SSW 5-15 mph. High 83.Extended outlook calls for temps to get back towards normal around 70 on Thursday with some rain at times and perhaps an iso. t'storm. We'll enter a significantly cooler weather pattern for the end of the week and through the weekend. High temps will struggle to get to 60, overnight lows will be in the 40s and each day has a chance of isolated showers. Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog

Study shows shouting at kids as harmful as physical and sexual abuse — and more

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

For Tuesday, Oct. 3, WGN’s Dina Bair has new medical information, including: More Coverage: WGN's Medical Watch Sepsis test could save lives & money A new blood test for sepsis could save lives and money, according to a finding from a lead researcher at Penn State. The test is called IntelliSep.The company behind the development requested decision modeling to understand its costs and benefits. Researchers did so in hospital emergency rooms. The test characterizes changes in a patient's white blood cells to provide a fast evaluation of whether the person is at high risk of sepsis. The results were published in critical care explorations. FDA warns against probiotic use in pre-term infants The FDA is warning hospitals against using probiotics in infants born prematurely. The federal agency said bacteria and fungi used in probiotics might put pre-term infants at risk of potentially fatal infections. The letter referred to the case of an infant who received the probiotic Eviv...

Never-before-seen photos, videos released in Tupac Shakur murder case

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Never-before-seen photos of the crime scene where Tupac Shakur was shot and videos from the night of the shooting are among the evidence shown to a Las Vegas grand jury and obtained by Nexstar's KLAS.Last week, a Clark County grand jury indicted 60-year-old Duane “Keffe D” Davis in Shakur’s murder.(Grand Jury exhibit/KLAS) Las Vegas Metro police arrested Davis near his Nevada home early Friday morning. The grand jury, which met at least five times over the course of three months, voted Thursday to indict Davis on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement. Prosecutors announced the indictment Friday. Tupac shooting investigator: Keefe D ‘talked himself into prison’ The shooting on Sept. 7, 1996, a block off the Las Vegas Strip, followed a fight earlier in the night. In the hours before the murder, Shakur’s group reportedly attacked Orlando Anderson, a member of a rival gang and Davis’ nephew. The files obt...

Bears sign veteran safety to aid injury-riddled secondary

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:39 GMT

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — With injuries piling up in the secondary, the Bears are adding a safety to the fold on a short week. Duron Harmon will certainly give the team plenty of experience as he starts a new chapter of his career in Chicago.The Bears have signed veteran defensive back Duron Harmon to the active roster from the Ravens’ practice squad..The three-time Super Bowl champ has played with the Patriots, Lions, Falcons & Raiders..He signed with Baltimore Sep. 12..@WGNNews pic.twitter.com/C2VaYvb5m6— Larry Hawley (@HawleySports) October 3, 2023The safety was signed off the practice squad of the Ravens and onto the active roster for the Bears as they get ready for Thursday's game against the commanders at FedEx Field. This comes as the Bears are currently dealing with a few injuries in the secondary, including starting safety Eddie Jackson, who has been sidelined for the last two games with a foot injury. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson is still dealing with a hamstring issue al...