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Oktoberfest celebration begins in La Mesa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

LA MESA, Calif. -- The city of La Mesa kicked off its 50th Oktoberfest celebration on Friday.The free event runs through the weekend and features live music, traditional food and drink, games, and other family-fun activities on La Mesa Blvd and Spring Street.Over 40 food vendors will be on site offering a variety of food including traditional German food, giant pretzels, bratwurst and schnitzel.Competitors can participate in games like Keg Stands, NXPT Workout Challenges, Air Bike Sprint, Sandbag Toss, Farmer’s Carry and Tank Push for Oktoberfest medal and bragging rights. 2 SD-area cities among least affordable rental markets for average income: study Shoppers can browse at the Artisanal Market where there are more than 100 vendors selling unique and hand-made items.Pup lovers can make their way to Dackeldorf Dachshund Village, which has activities from Weiner dog races to a fashion show.On Saturday, Oktoberfest will start at 10 a.m. -10 p.m., while Sunday's hours are noon- 8 p.m...

Things to know about the Nobel Prizes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Fall has arrived in Scandinavia, which means Nobel Prize season is here.The start of October is when the Nobel committees get together in Stockholm and Oslo to announce the winners of the yearly awards.First up, as usual, is the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology, which will be announced Monday by a panel of judges at the Karolinska Institute in the Swedish capital. The prizes in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics will follow, with one announcement every weekday until Oct. 9.Here are some things to know about the Nobel Prizes:AN IDEA MORE POWERFUL THAN DYNAMITEThe Nobel Prizes were created by Alfred Nobel, a 19th-century businessman and chemist from Sweden. He held more than 300 patents but his claim to fame before the Nobel Prizes was having invented dynamite by mixing nitroglycerine with a compound that made the explosive more stable.Dynamite soon became popular in construction and mining as well as in the weapons industry. It made Nobel a very...

Inside the night that Tupac Shakur was shot, and what led up to the fatal gunfire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The first arrest in the 1996 death of Tupac Shakur came Friday with the murder indictment of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, one of the last living witnesses to the Las Vegas drive-by shooting of the hip-hop superstar. Here’s a look at the hours that led up to the fatal gunfire. TUPAC, SUGE AND THE TYSON FIGHT IN VEGAS On the afternoon of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur and Suge Knight, the head of his music label, Death Row Records, arrived in Las Vegas along with an entourage that included Shakur’s fiancee, Kidada Jones, along with his cousins and friends, to watch a heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. At about 8:30 p.m., Shakur and Knight took their front row seats at the fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.Shortly afterward the fight began. It would end less than two minutes later, with Tyson winning in a first-round knockout and taking Seldon’s WBA Heavyweight title.THE FIGHT’S AFTERMATH AND ANOTHER FIGHT At about 8:40 p.m., moment...

Transgender minors in Nebraska, their families and doctors brace for a new law limiting treatment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — As Nebraska’s new law restricting gender-affirming care for minors goes into effect this weekend, families with transgender children and the doctors who treat them are steeling themselves for change. But exactly what and how much change is anyone’s guess.A key aspect of the law is a set of treatment guidelines that has yet to be created. Affected families, doctors and even lawmakers say they have largely gotten no response from health officials on when they can expect the new rules, which should lay out how and when transgender minors can be treated with puberty blockers and hormones. Many of them fear Republican officials and their appointees in charge of administering the rules are slow-walking the regulations as a way to block treatment for new transgender patients under 19, the age of adulthood under Nebraska law.“There has been no communication,” said 42-year-old Lincoln resident Heather Rhea, who has a 17-year-old transgender daughter. “There’s...

On the brink of a government shutdown, the Senate tries to approve funding but it’s almost too late

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is on the brink of a federal government shutdown after hard-right Republicans in Congress rejected a longshot effort to keep offices open as they fight for steep spending cuts and strict border security measures that Democrats and the White House say are too extreme.Come midnight Saturday with no deal in place, federal workers will face furloughs, more than 2 million active duty and reserve military troops will work without pay and programs and services that Americans rely on from coast to coast will begin to face shutdown disruptions.The Senate will be in for a rare Saturday session to advance its own bipartisan package that is supported by Democrats and Republicans and would fund the government for the short-term, through Nov. 17. But even if the Senate can rush to wrap up its work this weekend to pass the bill, which also includes money for Ukraine aid and U.S. disaster assistance, it won’t prevent an almost certain shutdown amid the chaos in the ...

Prosecutor in Hunter Biden case cut a contentious path in Baltimore

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — Before being assigned to investigate President Joe Biden’s son, Leo Wise built a reputation in Baltimore as a tough and hard-charging federal prosecutor, taking on powerful, and seemingly untouchable, figures — whether a gang of corrupt cops, a police commissioner, a top local prosecutor and even a mayor.Wise’s backers call him talented and savvy, with a knack for navigating complex, headline-generating cases. To detractors, he’s stubborn and uncompromising as well as self-promotional: he wrote a memoir about one of his major cases while still employed by the Justice Department. His approach – aggressive in a way that has won him accolades but riled other lawyers – sets the stage for a contentious fight in the high-stakes prosecution of Hunter Biden.“He holds everything very close to the vest, and he takes every possible advantage that he can take,” said Gerard Martin, a Baltimore criminal defense lawyer who calls Wise a “hard-ass.” “He’s not a guy you can go meet w...

Arrest in Tupac Shakur killing stemmed from Biggie Smalls death investigation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The first arrest in the 1996 slaying of Tupac Shakur had its roots in the investigation of the killing of Biggie Smalls. The shooting deaths of the two hip-hop luminaries and rivals — Shakur in Las Vegas and Smalls in Los Angeles six months later — have always been culturally inseparable, and one man, Duane Keffe D. Davis, found himself involved in both investigations. On Friday, Davis was arrested and charged with murder, with prosecutors saying he ordered and masterminded the Shakur killing.Now retired Los Angeles police detective Greg Kading was assigned to investigate the slaying of Smalls — whose legal name was Christopher Wallace — and in 2009 interviewed Davis as a person of interest in the case. Davis had had been at the party at the Peterson Automotive Museum that Wallace had just left when he was shot.Kading had helped build a federal drug case against Davis to get leverage to compel him to talk to Los Angeles police, who to date have made no arrests in th...

The Feinstein they knew: Women of the Senate remember a fighter and friend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Washington Sen. Patty Murray received a call early Friday morning that Sen. Dianne Feinstein had died, she immediately started calling her fellow female senators.The Democrat’s first call was to Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who had worked with Feinstein almost as long as she had. Murray and Feinstein were elected in 1992 — “the year of the woman” — and Collins was elected just four years later. Murray then called several other female Senate colleagues, hastily arranging a tribute.“My immediate response was my women Senate colleagues that have been her friends and her family for so long, and that we needed to be together on the floor.” Murray said in an interview in her Capitol office Friday afternoon.They were all there when the Senate opened at 10 a.m., just hours after Feinstein had died at her home in Washington after serving more than three decades in the Senate. Standing near Feinstein’s Senate desk, now draped in black cloth, the senators — along with ...

Biden says shutdown isn’t his fault. Will Americans agree?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Staring down a likely government shutdown, the White House wants to make sure any blame falls at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue — specifically on House Republicans. After all, it’s House Republicans who have been paralyzed by their inability to pass a funding package, and Republicans who don’t want to uphold a bipartisan spending agreement from earlier this year. President Joe Biden is hoping the rest of the country will see things the same way. It’s a murky proposition at a time of extreme political polarization, with many Americans dug into their partisan corners regardless of the facts of the matter.A shutdown would arrive at a tenuous moment for Biden, who already faces low poll numbers and concerns about the economy as he seeks a second term in office, partially on the pitch that he offers steady stewardship in Washington.If no spending bill passes Congress by the end of Saturday, federal workers stop getting paid, air travel could be e...

Iowa’s two campaigns: Donald Trump’s rivals search for paths to stop him as he blazes his own trail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:11 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Having stood out in two presidential debates, Nikki Haley has booked her largest venue in Iowa since launching her campaign. She’s hoping to fill a 600-person hall in a western Des Moines suburb on Saturday.That would be a huge number for most of her rivals. It’s also less than the smallest crowds usually drawn by Donald Trump, who is dominating the Republican field for the 2024 Iowa caucuses less than four months away. The former president will be in rural southeast Iowa the following day to headline an organizing event. Aides were expecting at least 1,000 to attend. In essence, there are two Iowa campaigns underway: Trump is holding fewer, bigger events that demonstrate the strength of his organization and grip on GOP base voters, while his rivals attend the state’s traditional candidate forums and meet-and-greets, searching for ways to cut into his lead or consolidate second place. While things could change before the Jan. 15 caucuses, so...