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Supreme Court rules for business owner who denied services to LGBTQ customers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Friday that a Christian graphic artist who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples.The court ruled 6-3 for designer Lorie Smith despite a Colorado law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender and other characteristics. Smith had argued that the law violates her free speech rights.Smith’s opponents warned that a win for her would allow a range of businesses to discriminate, refusing to serve Black, Jewish or Muslim customers, interracial or interfaith couples or immigrants. But Smith and her supporters had said that a ruling against her would force artists — from painters and photographers to writers and musicians — to do work that is against their beliefs.“The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish,...

London prosecutor calls Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey ‘a sexual bully’ who preys on men

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

By BRIAN MELLEY (Associated Press)LONDON (AP) — Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey got a thrill preying on other men and escalated his behavior from touchy-feely advances to hostile fondling and worse, a prosecutor told jurors Friday during Spacey’s sexual assault trial in London.Spacey is “a man who does not respect personal boundaries or space, a man who it would seem delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable — a sexual bully,” prosecutor Christine Agnew said in her opening statement. “His preferred method of assault is, it appears, to grab aggressively other men in the crotch.”Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen charges involving four men and allegations that date from 2001 to 2013, when he worked at London’s Old Vic Theatre. The charges include sexual assault, indecent assault and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.The stakes for the American actor are high. A convicti...

The Supreme Court rules for a designer who doesn’t want to make wedding websites for gay couples

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

By JESSICA GRESKO (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Friday that a Christian graphic artist who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples. The court ruled 6-3 for designer Lorie Smith despite a Colorado law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender and other characteristics. Smith had argued that the law violates her free speech rights.Smith’s opponents warned that a win for her would allow a range of businesses to discriminate, refusing to serve Black, Jewish or Muslim customers, interracial or interfaith couples or immigrants. But Smith and her supporters had said that a ruling against her would force artists — from painters and photographers to writers and musicians — to do work that is against their beliefs. Smith’s lawyer, Kristen Waggoner, said the Supreme Court was right to reaffirm that the government cannot...

Yankees’ Harrison Bader looking forward to St. Louis return

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

It didn’t take long for Jordan Montgomery to get a crack at his former team.The Yankees, in a surprising buzzer-beater deal at the deadline, sent the southpaw to St. Louis last Aug. 2 in exchange for Harrison Bader. Montgomery then made his Cardinals debut at home against the Yankees on Aug. 6. He held his former coworkers scoreless over five innings.While Montgomery shoved that day, Bader didn’t impact that game for his new squad, nor did he face his old one. The Yankees acquired the center fielder mid-recovery from plantar fasciitis, and he didn’t debut for his new team until September.Instead, Friday’s series-opener will be the first Cardinals game Bader appears in as an opponent, assuming he starts for the Yankees. It will also mark his return to St. Louis, where he spent the first 5.5 years of his career.“It’s gonna be really exciting,” Bader told the Daily News. “Obviously, I have a lot of history there. So just looking forward t...

French President Emmanuel Macron urges parents to keep teens at home to quell rioting, says many arrested are young

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron urged parents Friday to keep teenagers at home and proposed restrictions on social media to quell rioting spreading across France over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver that has resulted so far in the arrests of 875 people.After a second crisis meeting with senior ministers, Macron maintained that social media platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok played a “considerable role” in fueling copycat acts of violence during this week’s unrest.Macron said his government would work with technology companies to establish procedures for “the removal of the most sensitive content.” He did not specify the content he had in mind but said, “I expect a spirit of responsibility from these platforms.”French authorities also plan to request, when “useful,” the identities “of those who use these social networks to call for disorder or exacerbate the violence,” the president said.M...

DeSantis and Trump among the 2024 GOP hopefuls appearing at the annual Moms for Liberty gathering

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that 2024 will be the year that parents “finally fight back” as he kicked off the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a group that has fiercely opposed instruction related to race and gender identity in the nation’s classrooms.The two-year-old group, which was founded in Florida in 2021 to fight local COVID school mask mandates and quarantine requirements, has quickly become a force in conservative politics as an advocate for “parental rights” in education. But it has also been accused of preaching hate, with the Southern Poverty Law Center recently labeling it an “extremist” group for allegedly harassing community members, advancing anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and fighting to scrub diverse and inclusive material from lesson plans. The conference has nonetheless drawn leading Republican presidential candidates, including DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, the race’s frontrunner, who is set to speak later Frida...

No need for ‘double punishment’ in mandatory sentence case, Supreme Court rules

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s top court says a woman who was barred from driving for almost two years while awaiting sentencing would face a kind of double punishment if she were now handed an additional, mandatory one-year prohibition.The Supreme Court of Canada ruling comes today in the case of Jennifer Basque, who was charged with operating a motor vehicle with excess blood alcohol concentration in Moncton, N.B., in 2017.Basque spent the next 21 months, between her initial court appearance and sentencing, under a prohibition that prevented her from driving.Basque pleaded guilty and a judge levied a $1,000 fine and a mandatory one-year driving prohibition, but took into account the time that had elapsed, meaning she was not subjected to the further ban on driving.However, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal allowed the Crown’s appeal and varied the judge’s decision to include the mandatory one-year driving prohibition.In its unanimous ruling today, the Supreme Court says that ...

Businesses expect more but slowing price, wage increases: BoC survey

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

OTTAWA — A new survey by the Bank of Canada suggests businesses still anticipate larger-than-normal wage and price increases, but expectations are shifting closer to what they were before the pandemic.In its business outlook survey, the central bank says that for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, businesses on balance expect slower wage growth over the next year.Firms on balance also expect their input and output prices to grow at a slower rate over the next 12 months.Overall, the business outlook survey indicator pointed to a negative sentiment as businesses continue to expect their sales growth over the next year to be weak, with one in five firms expecting an outright decline in sales.However, the survey for the second quarter found fewer firms expect an outright recession with one-third planning for a recession compared with half in the first quarter.Meanwhile, the central bank’s Canadian survey of consumer expectations also suggests that while consumer inflati...

How the Supreme Court student loan decision affects you

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loan debt, effectively killing the $400 billion plan, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in federal student loans for 43 million people. Of those, 20 million would have had their remaining student debt erased completely.The court’s decision means, barring an act of Congress, those Americans are on the hook for payments starting in October.Still, borrowers who are worried about their budgets do have options. For instance, the government has other loan forgiveness programs that are still in effect, even if Biden’s plan was struck down.Here’s what to know about how the decision will affect you:WHEN WILL STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS RESUME?Student loan payments that have been frozen for the last three years because of the pandemic are set to restart in October. That was going to happen no matter what the Supreme Court decided. Interest will...

After Republicans expelled him, campaign for Tennessee Democratic Rep. Pearson says he raised $860K

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:57 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson raised about $860,000 through some 31,700 campaign donations after Tennessee Republican lawmakers abruptly moved to expel him and two other Democrats for a gun control protest on the House floor, his campaign said.The short-lived expulsion propelled the Memphis environmental activist, a fresh face just months into his first term, to become a nationally watched progressive figure who sat in the Oval Office. His quick fame translated into a wave of campaign cash largely because Republicans opened the door for Pearson and fellow expelled Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville to accept donations from across the country just when the spotlight centered on them. Had Republican lawmakers left the two young Black lawmakers in office, they would’ve been banned from raising cash because a legislative session was ongoing.Instead, in just two months, Pearson attracted, through average donations of about $27, an amount of campaign cash similar...