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As death toll from Maui fire reaches 89, authorities say effort to count the losses is just starting

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — As the death toll from a wildfire that razed a historic Maui town reached 89, authorities warned Saturday that the effort to find and identify the dead was still in its early stages. It’s already the deadliest U.S. wildfire for over a century.Crews with cadaver dogs have completed just 3% of the search area, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said. “We’ve got an area that we have to contain that is at least 5 square miles and it is full of our loved ones. And we’ve got 89 so far. Today we identified two,” noting that the death toll is likely to grow and “none of us really know the size of it yet.”He spoke as federal emergency workers picked through an ashen moonscape left by the fire that razed the centuries-old town of Lahaina. Teams marked the ruins of homes with a bright orange X for an initial search and HR when they found human remains.Pelletier said that identifying the dead is extremely challenging because “we pick up the remains and they fall apart...

Argentines vote in a primary election that will gauge the yearning for change amid economic turmoil

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentines vote Sunday in a primary election that will act as a bellwether ahead of October general elections and give a hint at how eager citizens are for a change in a country that is suffering one of the world’s worst inflation rates.The primary will determine who will be the presidential candidate in the main center-right opposition coalition in which Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta is facing off against former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich. Whoever comes out on top will almost certainly be running against Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who is facing a leftist challenger to become the candidate of the ruling coalition. Center-left President Alberto Fernández decided not to run for reelection as he suffers from rock-bottom approval ratings amid annual inflation of more than 100%, rising poverty and a rapidly depreciating currency.The primary will also finally give a firm answer on how much traction upstart right-wing populist cand...

Mishmash of how US heat death are counted complicates efforts to keep people safe as Earth warms

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Postal worker Eugene Gates Jr. was delivering mail in the suffocating Dallas heat this summer when he collapsed in a homeowner’s yard and was taken to a hospital, where he died. Carla Gates said she’s sure heat was a factor in her 66-year-old husband’s death, even though she’s still waiting for the autopsy report. When Eugene Gates died on June 20, the temperature was 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.6 Celsius) and the heat index, which also considers humidity, had soared over 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius). “I will believe this until the day I die, that it was heat-related,” Carla Gates said. Even when it seems obvious that extreme heat was a factor, death certificates don’t always reflect the role it played. Experts say a mishmash of ways more than 3,000 counties calculate heat deaths means we don’t really know how many people die in the U.S. each year because of high temperatures in an ever warming world. That imprecision h...

As free press withers in El Salvador, pro-government social media influencers grow in power

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Douglas Guzmán’s TikTok feed was dotted with workout routines and videos showcasing his favorite parts of his country. That changed about a year ago, as rights groups, civil society and even some officials criticized El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for violating human rights in his crackdown on criminal gangs, and said that his unconstitutional bid for re-election would corrode the country’s democracy.Within days of Bukele announcing his bid for a second five-year term, Guzmán’s feed was plastered with videos describing Bukele as the “future liberator of Latin America” and slick montages of the leader’s “mega-prison” for accused gangsters. Views on the social media influencer’s videos skyrocketed. The 39-year-old member of Bukele’s party said he found a new mission: counteracting negative press from independent media about his populist president.“(Journalists) don’t know anything. All they do is sit at their desks and watch as ...

Lifeless Rockies’ offense falters again against red-hot Dodgers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

Solid starting pitching? Check.Good defense? Check.Productive offense? Next question, please.You guessed it, the Rockies lost at Dodger Stadium, again, falling 4-1 on Saturday night in Los Angeles.The red-hot Dodgers, winners of a season-high seven consecutive games, own a 29-9 record against the Rockies in L.A. since 2019.The Rockies managed just three hits and were dominated by right-hander Tony Gonsolin, who gave up one run on three hits, struck out six and walked none over his six innings of work. In eight career games (seven starts) vs. Colorado, Gonsolin is 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA, 46 strikeouts and five walks.Colorado was helpless against the Dodgers’ bullpen, and closer Evan Phillips notched his 17th save by striking out the side in the ninth. After striking out 16 times Friday night, the Rockies fanned 11 times Saturday.“Recently, our offense has been our problem,” manager Bud Black told reporters in Los Angeles. “We have to get a little more offense ...

1 killed, 1 injured in deadly shooting, DC police say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

Emergency vehicle lights flashing, police car inspecting city, security service(Getty Images/iStockphoto/Motortion) Emergency vehicle lights flashing, police car inspecting city, security service(Getty Images/iStockphoto/Motortion) D.C. police said one man has died and another has been seriously injured after a shooting in Northeast late Saturday.Officers responded to reports of a shooting at a BP Gas Station in the 1500 block of Kenilworth Avenue in Northeast at about 11 p.m.Preliminarily, one victim appears to have died at the scene of the shooting. Another person injured in the shooting has been taken to a local hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries.Police have not identified any suspects in the shoo...

Stetson Bennett gets his first NFL action for the Rams in a 34-17 preseason loss to the Chargers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Stetson Bennett passed for 191 yards and a touchdown for the Los Angeles Rams in the stadium where he led Georgia to his second national championship seven months ago, getting his first NFL action in a 34-17 preseason loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night.Former TCU quarterback Max Duggan passed for 19 yards and rushed for 20 yards for the Chargers as both quarterbacks got their first NFL action at SoFi Stadium, where Bennett’s Bulldogs routed Duggan’s Horned Frogs 65-7 in the College Football Playoff title game.Both quarterbacks are vying for backup jobs with Los Angeles’ two NFL teams, but Bennett’s debut was much busier.Bennett entered the game early in the second quarter and immediately led a 16-play, 75-yard drive that included three near-interceptions and a sharp 11-yard touchdown pass to fellow rookie Puka Nacua.Bennett led two more scoring drives after halftime, finishing 17 for 29 with no interceptions.While Dugg...

Fiction writers fear the rise of AI, but also see it as a story to tell

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — For a vast number of book writers, artificial intelligence is a threat to their livelihood and the very idea of creativity. More than 10,000 of them endorsed an open letter from the Authors Guild this summer, urging AI companies not to use copyrighted work without permission or compensation.At the same time, AI is a story to tell, and no longer just in science fiction. As present in the imagination as politics, the pandemic or climate change, AI has become part of the narrative for a growing number of novelists and short story writers who only need to follow the news to imagine a world upended.“I’m frightened by artificial intelligence, but also fascinated by it. There’s a hope for divine understanding, for the accumulation of all knowledge, but at the same time there’s an inherent terror in being replaced by non-human intelligence,” said Helen Phillips, whose upcoming novel “Hum” tells of a wife and mother who loses her job to AI.“We’ve...

Lawsuit targets Wisconsin legislative districts resembling Swiss cheese

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — If Wisconsin state Rep. Jimmy Anderson wants to visit residents in some of the northern neighborhoods he represents, he first must leave his own district — twice.From his Fitchburg home in suburban Madison, Anderson must exit his 47th Assembly District, pass through the 77th District, reenter the 47th District, then head north through the 48th District to finally reach a cluster of homes assigned like a remote outpost to his district. Unusual? Yes. Inconvenient? Yes. Unconstitutional? Perhaps. Though the Wisconsin Constitution requires legislative districts “to consist of contiguous territory,” many nonetheless contain sections of land that are not actually connected. The resulting map looks a bit like Swiss cheese, where some districts are dotted with small neighborhood holes assigned to different representatives. Wisconsin’s nationally peculiar practice of detached districts is cited as one of several alleged violations in a recent lawsuit seeking to str...

Southern California hiker falls to death in Grand Teton National Park

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:31 GMT

A Southern California woman fell to her death while hiking a steep, craggy peak in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park on Friday.Park rangers say Joy Cho of Simi Valley was hiking with seven other people when she fell off the west side of Teewinot Mountain in the early morning. She died at the scene, and her body was flown from the area by helicopter.National Park Service officials did not say how old Cho was, what caused her to fall or how far she fell.Teewinot, a popular destination for mountaineers, is an exposed peak that reaches 12,325 feet (3,757 meters) above sea level.