Author: Sunfire

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PHOENIX (AP) — A wave of red-clad teachers will crash upon the Arizona state Capitol on Thursday for an unprecedented walkout that closed most of the state’s public school schools, part of an educator uprising that’s also bubbled up in Colorado.

Around 30,000 to 50,000 teachers and their supporters are expected to march through Phoenix to rally at the Arizona state Capitol to demand a 20 percent raise for teachers, about $1 billion to return school funding to pre-Great Recession levels and increased pay for support staff, among other things.   Continue reading “Thousands of teachers in Arizona, Colorado to protest”

RT

There is no need for Russian and Chinese businesses to pay each other in dollars and euros, when they can settle in rubles and yuan, according to Zhou Liqun, chairman of the Union of Chinese Entrepreneurs in Russia.

“The leaders of the two countries should think over improving relations, especially in financial cooperation. Why make payments with foreign currency? Why dollar? Why euro? They can be made directly in the yuan and the ruble,” he told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the Valdai Discussion Club conference in Shanghai, titled “Russia and China: Contemporary Development Challenges.”   Continue reading “China urges ditching dollar & euro trade with Russia in favor of national currencies”

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BERLIN (AP) — Germans of various faiths donned Jewish skullcaps and took to the streets Wednesday in several cities to protest an anti-Semitic attack in Berlin and express fears about growing hatred of Jews in the country.

The kippa protest was triggered by the daytime assault last week of two young men wearing skullcaps in an upscale neighborhood in the German capital. The attack, in which a 19-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker is a suspect, drew outrage in Germany and sharp condemnation by Chancellor Angela Merkel.   Continue reading “Germans don skullcaps to protest anti-Semitism”

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Authorities in California plan to make a “major announcement” in the case of an elusive serial killer they say committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state in the 1970s and 1980s.

Jane Carson-Sandler, who was sexually assaulted in California in 1976 by a man believed to be the so-called “East Area Rapist,” said she received an email Wednesday from a retired detective who worked on the case telling her they have identified the rapist and he’s in custody.   Continue reading “‘Major announcement’ planned on elusive serial killer”

RT

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved a draft interim agreement establishing free-trade zone between the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and Iran.

The corresponding order was published on Tuesday on the website of the Russian government. The agreement provides for the formation of a free-trade zone for certain goods and is subject to ratification, as it contains rules different from those stipulated by the Russian law.   Continue reading “Iran joins Russia-led free-trade zone”

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COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (AP) — The chairman of a commission examining the Florida high school massacre told his members Tuesday that they need to push aside ideology and base their final report solely on whatever facts they uncover.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told the 16 commission members as they began their first meeting that their goal should be to prevent any more mass shootings like the one Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. A gunman killed 14 students and three staff members, and wounded 17 during a six-minute spree inside the three-story freshman building. Other students hid in fear inside their classrooms or fled to the streets.  Continue reading “Commission investigates Florida high school massacre”

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DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines runs its planes hard. They make many short hops and more trips per day than other U.S. airliners, which adds to wear and tear on parts, including the engines. As the investigation into last week’s deadly engine failure continues, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly could face questions about whether the company’s low-cost business model — which puts its planes through frequent takeoffs and landings — is putting passengers at risk.   Continue reading “Southwest has been faced with fines, union safety complaints”

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A mummified body discovered near the site of a former royal mausoleum in Iran may be the remains of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and the father of the country’s last shah.

The recent find of the gauze-wrapped body — and the speculation it triggered — puts new hurdles in the way of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to fully erase the country’s dynastic past, which includes the jack-hammered destruction of the autocrat’s tomb immediately after the 1979 revolution.   Continue reading “Mummified body found in Iran could be father of last shah”

RT

As part of its years-long effort to reduce reliance on US currency amid a deepening standoff with Washington, Tehran has announced it will start reporting foreign currency amounts in euros rather than dollars.

The governor of Iran’s central bank (CBI) Valiollah Seif said that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had welcomed his suggestion of replacing the dollar with the euro in foreign trade, as the “dollar has no place in our transactions today.” The new policy could reportedly encourage government bodies and firms linked to the state to increase their use of the euro at the expense of the American currency.  Continue reading “Iran dumps dollar for euro in foreign trade transactions”

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DENVER (AP) — Across the street from the Colorado Capitol rises an 11-story building emblazoned with The Denver Post’s logo. No reporters work out of the building any more, only executives of Digital First Media, whose cuts at the Post triggered an unusual plea from the paper’s own editorial page to be sold to another owner.

Five hundred miles to the west, the Salt Lake Tribune newsroom takes up one floor of the building that bears its name, overlooking snow-capped mountains and the arena where the Utah Jazz play. Once a Digital First property that dealt with staff reductions and feared closure, the paper was sold to a prominent local family in 2016. Since then, its reporters received their first raise in a decade and won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.  Continue reading “In Denver, trying to put a price on the value of a newspaper”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans overwhelmingly believe teachers don’t make enough money, and half say they’d support paying higher taxes to give educators a raise. The findings of the new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research come amid recent teacher strikes and other protests over low pay, tough classroom conditions and the amount of money allocated to public schools in several Republican-led states.

Tens of thousands of Arizona teachers voted last week to strike after rejecting an offer of a 20-percent raise, because it didn’t include a vow from state lawmakers not to further cut taxes before providing more money for the state’s schools.   Continue reading “AP-NORC Poll: Amid strikes, Americans back teacher raises”

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A half-naked man suspected in the slayings of four people at a Waffle House remained on the run Monday, and authorities said he may be armed with one of the guns seized from him last year after he tried to enter the White House to see President Donald Trump.

More than 80 Nashville police officers continued to search for Travis Reinking, joined by agents with the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol.   Continue reading “Waffle House suspect remains on the run, may be armed”

RT

Alabama’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey released a campaign ad Tuesday, defending a bill she signed last year to protect her state’s Confederate monuments. Ivey called demands to remove the monuments “politically correct nonsense.”

“Up in Washington they always know better…politically correct nonsense I say,” runs the ad. “When special interests wanted to tear down our historical monuments, I said no!”   Continue reading “‘Politically correct nonsense’: Alabama governor defends Confederate monuments”

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Rashon Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn’t use the restroom because he wasn’t a paying customer. He thought nothing of it when he and his business partner, Donte Robinson, were approached at their table and were asked if they needed help. The 23-year-old entrepreneurs declined, explaining they were just waiting for a business meeting.   Continue reading “Men arrested at Starbucks say they feared for their lives”

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has reached an agreement with the federal government that the state’s National Guard troops will deploy to the border to focus on fighting transnational gangs as well as drug and gun smugglers, Gov. Jerry Brown said.

The announcement Wednesday came after a week of uncertainty in which President Donald Trump bashed the governor’s insistence that troops avoid immigration-related work. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen wrote on Twitter that final details were still being worked out “but we are looking forward to the support.”   Continue reading “California reaches deal on National Guard border mission”

RT

US Senate lawmakers are considering a bill that would somewhat restrict the president’s powers to go to war. Ron Paul, a former congressman and interventionism critic, says he is highly skeptical of the initiative.

The bipartisan resolution was introduced by leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senators Bob Corker and Tim Kaine, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to attack targets in Syria in retaliation for an alleged chemical-weapons attack. The legislation aims to repeal the broad authorizations Congress approved in 2001 and 2002 for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, replacing them with a more restrictive authority.   Continue reading “‘Won’t pass, won’t work, likely to make things worse’: Ron Paul on new presidential war powers bill”

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HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Microsoft co-founder’s mission to locate sunken warships in the South Pacific has chalked up another victory with the discovery of the USS Helena nearly 75 years after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes in the waters off the Solomon Islands, reviving stories of the battle-tested ship’s endurance and the nearly unbelievable survival of 165 of the crewmen.

Paul Allen’s team searches for the ships to “bring the history back into a relevant conversation,” said Janet Greenlee, a spokeswoman for Allen’s Vulcan Inc. “He wants to honor those that have served and are serving.”   Continue reading “Team backed by Microsoft co-founder locates USS Helena wreck”

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A preliminary examination of the blown jet engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that set off a terrifying chain of events and left a businesswoman hanging half outside a shattered window showed evidence of “metal fatigue,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Passengers scrambled to save the woman from getting sucked out the window that had been smashed by debris and a registered nurse and emergency medical technician on the flight rushed to try to help her. She later died, and seven others were injured.  Continue reading “Passengers rushed to provide CPR to woman in plane emergency”

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PARRISH, Ala. (AP) — A stinking trainload of human waste from New York City is stranded in a tiny Alabama town, spreading a stench like a giant backed-up toilet — and the “poop train” is just the latest example of the South being used as a dumping ground for other states’ waste.

In Parrish, Alabama, population 982, the sludge-hauling train cars have sat idle near the little league ball fields for more than two months, Mayor Heather Hall said. The smell is unbearable, especially around dusk after the atmosphere has become heated, she said.  Continue reading “‘It smells like death:’ Alabama endures NYC ‘poop train’”