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Teacher appreciation? Try better pay, more governors say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — As schools across the country struggle to find teachers to hire, more governors are pushing for pay increases, bonuses and other perks for the beleaguered profession — with some vowing to beat out other states competing for educators.Already in 2023, governors in Georgia and Arkansas have pushed through teacher pay increases. Ahead of Monday’s start of national Teacher Appreciation Week, others — both Republican and Democratic — have proposed doing the same to attract and retain educators.More than half of the states’ governors over the past year — 26 so far — have proposed boosting teacher compensation, according to groups that track it. The nonprofit Teacher Salary Project said it is the most it has seen in nearly two decades of tracking.“Today we have governors left and right from every political party and then some who are addressing this issue because they have to,” said founder and CEO Ninivé Caligari. “We’ve never seen what we are seeing right now. Neve...

Why so many mass killings? Families, experts seek answers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

More than five years after his son was gunned down in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Richard Berger still asks why.Why Stephen Berger was killed the day after celebrating his 44th birthday. Why the gunman rained bullets over the Las Vegas Strip in 2017, turning a country music festival into a bloodbath. Why the massacre’s death toll didn’t shock U.S. leaders into doing more to prevent that kind of violence from happening again and again.Why?“It’s just a hole in our hearts,” Berger said. “We just don’t know, and we just don’t know what to say.”For the Bergers, the families of the other 59 victims in Vegas — and relatives and friends of countless others slain in mass killings across the country in the years since — the questions loom just as large now as when the crimes happened. Yet the carnage continues.Over the first four months and six days of this year, 115 people have died in 22 mass killings — an average of one mass killing a week. That includes the bloodsh...

Five injured in weekend Redwood City shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

REDWOOD CITY — Five people were hospitalized for treatment of serious injuries after a weekend shooting, and police were seeking a single suspect, authorities said.In a statement Sunday evening, police said they responded to the shooting around 4:30 a.m. in the 400 block of Redwood Avenue in the city’s Palm Park neighborhood.After officers arrived, they learned that a male suspect walked up to a group of people drinking on a sidewalk before firing a 9mm handgun.Four men and a 16-year-old boy were hit by gunfire, and first responders took them to an area hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Their conditions were not immediately available late Sunday.Police said there have been no arrests, and did not share any description of a suspect or associated vehicle.Anyone with information may call Redwood City police Det. James Schneider at 650-780-7607 or call the department tip line at 650-780-7110.Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.

Oakland teachers strike will continue Monday, district says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

(BCN) -- The Oakland Unified School District announced at 6:43 p.m. Sunday it did not reach a contract agreement with teachers and the Oakland Education Association (OEA) will continue its strike Monday. The district said "As was the case the first two days of OEA's strike, schools will remain open but it will not be school as usual. Nutrition services will still be provided as will other needed support for students and families. 5 injured after early morning shooting in Redwood City We regret the continued challenges this causes for our community." The strike involves about 3,000 teachers and other employees and affects about 35,000 students. Teachers and their supporters picketed at about 80 schools across the district Thursday and Friday. Teachers represented by OEA are striking over wages and issues such as safety and racial justice, for which they want concessions in any contract. District officials say they are prioritizing wages in contract negotiations because they wa...

Mark Zuckerberg wins medals in Bay Area jiu-jitsu tournament

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

(KRON) -- You probably didn't know this. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg competes locally in jiu-jitsu, a form of martial arts from Japan.Zuckerberg won multiple medals at a jiu-jitsu tournament in the Bay Area, the Facebook CEO posted Saturday on social media. He included silver and gold medal emojis in the post's caption. Curry cracks Forbes’ list of highest-paid athletes for second straight year The tournament, which was Zuckerberg's first, took place at Woodside High School in Woodside, just north of Silicon Valley. Zuckerberg competed for the Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu team -- a gym with Bay Area locations in San Jose and Pleasanton.Zuckerberg's medal-winning performance caught the eye of a number of star UFC fighters. Current champions Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski congratulated Zuckerberg in the comments section of the tech tycoon's Instagram."When the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world gives you shorts, you wear them!" Zuckerberg replied to Volkanovski's comment...

Reportan más de 50 muertos y 23.000 desplazados por la violencia étnica en Manipur, India

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

Nueva Dehli (CNN) — La violencia étnica en el estado de Manipur, India, ha causado más de 50 muertos, cientos de hospitalizados y 23.000 desplazados, según funcionarios hospitalarios y el ejército indio.Al menos 55 personas han muerto y otras 260 han sido hospitalizadas desde que estalló la violencia entre miembros de las etnias kuki y meitei a principios de esta semana, según informaron el domingo responsables hospitalarios de la ciudad de Imphal.El ejército indio, por su parte, declaró que 23.000 civiles habían huido de los combates, y que los desplazados estaban alojados en bases y guarniciones militares del estado.Los dos grupos étnicos se han enfrentado en las calles de Imphal, en el este de la India, y en otros lugares.ANÁLISIS | Una controvertida caricatura sobre India reabre las viejas heridas del que ahora es el país más poblado del mundoLas heridas de bala son las más comunes, según los funcionarios de los hospitales de Imphal, el Instituto Regional de Ciencias Médic...

After years of turmoil, Milan teams back in European elite

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

MILAN (AP) — First came a return to the top of Italian soccer, now comes a chance to reach the Champions League final.The Milan teams are back.But only one will get the opportunity to compete for European soccer’s top prize as AC Milan faces city rival Inter Milan in the semifinals of the Champions League.The victor will face either Real Madrid or Manchester City in the final.Three-time European champion Inter was the last Italian club to lift the trophy, when it won an unprecedented treble of the league, Italian Cup and Champions League under José Mourinho in 2010. Milan won the last of its seven titles in 2007.“To be part of a club like this is a dream,” Milan defender Fikayo Tomori said in an interview with The Associated Press. “To go and play in the San Siro, seeing it on the Champions League nights … it’s such an iconic stadium, such an iconic sort of club. “The fact that two Italian teams are in the semifinals … it’s obviously good for the league, good for Italian footb...

Iran hangs 2 in rare blasphemy case as executions surge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran hanged two men Monday convicted of blasphemy, authorities said, carrying out rare death sentences for the crime as executions surge across the Islamic Republic following months of unrest. Iran remains one of the world’s top executioners, having put to death at least 203 prisoners since the start of this year alone, according to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. But carrying out executions for blasphemy remains rare, as previous cases saw the sentences reduced by authorities. The two men executed, Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, died at Arak Prison in central Iran. They had been arrested in May 2020, accused of being involved in a channel on the Telegram message app called “Critique of Superstition and Religion,” according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Both men faced months of solitary confinement and could not contact their families, the commission said. The Mizan news agency of Iran’s ju...

Sudan doctors: At least 100 killed in armed fighter clashes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — At least 100 people were killed in clashes that erupted last month between armed fighters in a city in Sudan’s restive region of Darfur, according to the Sudan’s Doctors Syndicate.Hospitals were still out of service in the Darfur city of Genena and an accurate count of the wounded was still hard to make, the doctors’ union added in a statement posted on their official Facebook page late Sunday.The fighting in Genena, which broke out a few days after Sudan’s two rival generals took arms against each other in Khartoum, pointed to the possibility that conflict in the capital could spiral to other parts of the East African country.At least 481 civilians were killed in Khartoum clashes that erupted in mid-April between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, according to the same doctors’ statement. The number of the wounded among civilians has jumped to more than 2560.The Associated Press

War shadows Victory Day, Russia’s integral holiday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:21 GMT

Victory Day, Russia’s most important secular holiday, lauds two tenets that are central to the country’s identity: military might and moral rectitude. But the war in Ukraine undermines both this year.The holiday falling on Tuesday marks the 78th anniversary of Germany’s capitulation in World War II after a relentless Red Army offensive pushed German forces from Stalingrad, deep inside Russia, all the way to Berlin, about 2,200 kilometers (1,300 miles).The Soviet Union lost at least 20 million people in the war; the suffering and valor that went into the German defeat have been touchstones ever since.However, many regions have canceled their May 9 observances because of concerns the events could be targets for Ukrainian attacks. Moscow’s famed Red Square military parade will go ahead following Russia’s claim of an attempted Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin, whose spires loom next to the parade venue.For all the fearsome armaments that will growl through the square, R...