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Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexican culture, not independence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — American bars and restaurants gear up every year for Cinco de Mayo, offering special deals on Mexican food and alcoholic drinks for the May 5 holiday that is barely celebrated south of the border. In the United States, the date is largely seen as a celebration of Mexican American culture stretching back to the 1800s in California. Typical festivities include parades, street food, block parties, mariachi competitions and baile folklórico, or folkloric ballet, with whirling dancers wearing shiny ribbons and braids and bright, ruffled dresses. For Americans with or without Mexican ancestry, the day has become an excuse to toss back tequila shots with salt and lime and gorge on tortilla chips smothered with melted orange cheddar that’s unfamiliar to most people in Mexico. That’s brought some criticism of the holiday, especially as beer manufacturers and other marketers have capitalized on its festive nature and some revelers embrace offensive stereotypes, such...

Ballet benefit held for 5 teen dancers injured in violent Seal Beach hit-and-run

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

A special benefit performance was held Thursday night in Long Beach for five ballet dancers severely injured in a violent hit-and-run crash in February that was captured on surveillance cameras.  Footage released by the Seal Beach Police Department showed the moment a man in a gold 1987 Mercedes Benz 300 blew through a red light on Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street on Feb. 11, striking the sedan carrying five teenage girls.  All five of the girls, members of Premier Dance Arts of Los Alamitos, had been dancing together earlier in the day and were on the way to a dinner reservation when they were hit. After the crash, they were all rushed to the hospital. Four of the girls had been knocked unconscious by the sheer force of the impact. Thursday night’s benefit performance in the auditorium at Millikan High School was hosted by Los Alamitos Ballet Theater and titled “Ballet in Bloom.” The funds raised at the event will help to offset medical and recovery ex...

Man who saves baby in runaway stroller speaks out

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

A good Samaritan who saved a baby from rolling into speeding traffic in Hesperia is speaking out after the terrifying ordeal was caught on camera.Video of the heart-stopping ordeal has since gone viral on social media.Security video shows the stroller suddenly rolling backward outside of the A1 Hand Car Wash on Monday around 3:30 p.m. as the baby’s great aunt was rummaging through her car.When the woman notices, she runs toward the stroller, but trips and falls down. She gets up again, only to fall down once more.Just as the stroller is seconds away from hitting traffic, a man suddenly dashes over and grabs the handle just in time.The quick-thinking hero, Ronald Nessman, recalls the moment he spotted the runaway stroller."I start hearing the lady screaming and she had already fallen down,” recalls Nessman. “I see a baby stroller being blown by the wind and before I knew it, I took off after it and the wind was blowing it so fast."Ronald Nessman speaks to KTLA's John Fenoglio about s...

Two 10-year-old girls reported missing from Fremont

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

(KRON) -- Two 10-year-old girls were reported missing by Fremont police on Thursday night. Dhaneissa Set and Nailah Johnson are both missing from the area of Celia Court. They were both described as Asian females who are 4-foot-7 and 50 pounds.Set has long, straight, dark hair and was last seen wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue jeans and white shoes. Johnson has long, curly, dark hair in a ponytail. She was last seen wearing a white-and-tan letterman jacket with a white hood, blue jeans, black-and-white Converse shoes and a light gray backpack. Anyone who sees the girls is asked to call Fremont police at (510) 790-6800 and dial option 3. Calling 9-1-1 is also an option in an emergency.

Oakland company wants to buy dog, cat poop for science

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

(BCN) -- East Bay dog and cat owners might be able to turn their pet's rear ends into mini-ATM machines thanks to a local biotech firm's call for fresh fecal deposits. AnimalBiome in Oakland is asking people to contribute healthy pet poop to its "stool bank program" and is willing to shell out $100 per month for every fur baby it enrolls. UC Davis stabbing suspect has Bay Area ties The six-year-old company "uses carefully screened feces from healthy pets to support ailing cats and dogs suffering from issues related to microbiome imbalances in the gut," according to a news release it sent out Wednesday. All people have to do to turn their backyards into bumper crops is pick up their pet's poop and sequester it in a cooler that is retrieved by AnimalBiome staff. In addition to the money, participants will also receive reimbursement for the cost of an annual veterinarian exam, regular monitoring of their animal's gut health, and poop collecting supplies, according to c...

Bucks fire Budenholzer as coach after early playoff exit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Milwaukee Bucks have fired coach Mike Budenholzer just over a week after their stunning first-round playoff loss to the Miami Heat spoiled a season in which they owned the NBA’s best record.Budenholzer’s ouster comes just two years after he directed the Bucks to their first NBA title in half a century. The move also comes three weeks after the NBA finalized Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam’s purchase of a 25% stake in the team.“The decision to make this change was very difficult,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst said Thursday in a statement announcing the move. “Bud helped lead our team for five incredible seasons, to the Bucks’ first title in 50 years, and into an era of sustained success. We are grateful for the culture of winning and leadership that Bud helped create in Milwaukee.“This is an opportunity for us to refocus and re-energize our efforts as we continue building toward our next championship season.”The Bucks posted the most combined regular-seaso...

Parliament’s Qatargate debate: build a wall or look inside

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

The European Parliament panel that is charged with responding to the Qatargate bribery scandal is divided over whether the real threat comes from without — or within.This split was laid bare Thursday as lawmakers, rushing to show they’re taking the scandal seriously ahead of next year’s European elections, held a debate on a report regarding the Parliament’s response to allegations of a cash-for-favors scheme involving current and former EU parliamentarians, on behalf of interests from Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania.The scandal, which has come to be known as Qatargate, was just one clear example of the need to shore up the Parliament’s “security culture,” said Slovak MEP Vladimír Bilčík, one of the file’s principal authors and a member of the center-right European People’s Party. He and French MEP Nathalie Loiseau, of the centrist Renew group, drafted a measure that sought to protect the democratically elected institution from potentially nefarious non-EU influence, while o...

Suspect arrested in Serbia’s second mass shooting in 2 days

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian police said they have arrested a suspect in a drive-by shooting attack that killed at least eight and wounded 14, the nation’s second such mass shooting in two days.In a statement, police said that the man, identified by initials U.B., was arrested early Friday near the central Serbian town of Kragujevac, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Belgrade.The arrest followed an all-night search by hundreds of police, who sealed off an area south of Belgrade where the shooting took place late Thursday.“I heard some tak-tak-tak sounds,” recalled Milan Prokic, a resident of Dubona, a village near the town of Mladenovac. Prokic said he first thought villagers were shooting to celebrate a childbirth, as is tradition in Serbia and the Balkans. “But it wasn’t that. Shame, great shame,” Prokic added. “They say the kid killed them for no reason. They say there was an argument here at the center of the village, he went home, took his arms and came ba...

Key dates in the career of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier this year marked 20 years in power — first as prime minister and later as president — is seeking a third consecutive presidential term in elections on May 14.The 69-year-old started as a reformist who expanded rights and freedoms, allowing his majority-Muslim country to start European Union membership negotiations.He later reversed course, cracking down on dissent, stifling the media and passing measures that eroded democracy.The presidential and parliamentary elections could be Erdogan’s most challenging yet. They will be held amid economic turmoil and high inflation, just three months after a devastating earthquake.Here’s a look at some of the key dates in Erdogan’s rule:— March 27, 1994: Erdogan is elected mayor of Istanbul, running on the pro-Islamic Welfare Party ticket.— Dec. 12, 1997: Erdogan is convicted of “inciting hatred” for reading a poem that the courts say violated secular laws. He is sentenced ...

Turkey’s Erdogan faces tough election amid quake, inflation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:10 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Early in his political career, a devastating earthquake and economic troubles helped propel Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power in Turkey. Two decades later, similar circumstances are putting his leadership at risk.The highly divisive and populist Erdogan is seeking a third consecutive term as president on May 14, after three stints as prime minister, which would extend his rule into a third decade. He already is Turkey’s longest-serving leader.The presidential and parliamentary elections could be the most challenging yet for the 69-year-old Erdogan. Most opinion polls point to a slight lead by his opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads the secular, center-left Republican People’s Party, or CHP. The outcome of the presidential race could well be determined in a runoff vote May 28. Erdogan is facing a tough test in this election because of public outrage over rising inflation and his handling of the Feb. 6 earthquake in southern Turkey that killed over 50,000 people,...