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A US aircraft carrier will make a rare Vietnam port call as countries compete for favor in SE Asia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — An American aircraft carrier was due to make a port call in Vietnam on Sunday — a rare visit by one of the U.S. Navy’s biggest ships that comes as Washington and Beijing both step up efforts to bolster ties with Southeast Asian nations.The USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, was scheduled to arrive in Da Nang on June 25 and stay through June 30, making use of a port that was modernized and expanded by the United States during the war in Vietnam, the country’s Foreign Ministry announced. It will be only the third such visit by an American aircraft carrier since the end of the hostilities.The visit comes about a month after a Chinese navy training ship made its own port call in Da Nang as part of what it called a goodwill tour that also took it to Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines. Japan’s largest destroyer, Izumo, made a port call in Vietnam over the past week, following exercises in the South China Sea with the Reag...

Cambodian lawmakers approve changes to election law that disqualify candidates who don’t vote

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Pro-government Cambodian lawmakers unanimously approved changes to the country’s election law on Friday that will ban anyone who fails to vote from running as a candidate in future elections, a move critics say is aimed at crippling the opposition’s chances in the polls.The measure was approved with minimal debate by all 111 lawmakers present in the National Assembly. All members of the assembly belong to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party.Hun Sen, who has been in power for 38 years, declared last week that the law would be amended ahead of July’s general election to compel candidates for public office to prove their civic responsibility. The amended law will take effect after approval by the Senate, a formality.Hun Sen’s critics say the action as his latest tactic to marginalize his political opponents, some of whom are considering an election boycott. He announced the plan less than a month after the main opposition party was barred from ...

Interim Supt. Fred Waller to discuss plans to tackle weekend violence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

CHICAGO -- Interim CPD Supt. Fred Waller is expected to discuss plans to tackle weekend violence ahead of the Chicago Pride Parade set to take place Sunday. Last weekend, 75 people were shot with 13 fatalities in the city of Chicago. Ahead of the following weekend, police have responded to eight people shot overnight. A 17-year-old boy suffered a graze wound to the back of the head in Gage Park around 9:22 p.m. He was transported to the hospital in serious condition. Body recovered from Lake Michigan near where woman went missing Another shooting happened near the Loyola University campus in the 1200 block of West Columbia Street around 8:09 p.m. A 24-year-old man self-transported to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the buttocks. He is listed in good condition. Police reported that a 13-year-old boy was also shot in the arm near the 1300 block of South Morgan Street around 11:28 p.m. He as transported to Stroger Hospital in good condition. Interim CPD Supt. Fred Waller acknow...

2 Chicago breweries are finalists in a major beer competition - and it's helping them toward their main goal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

CHICAGO — Two Chicago companies have been named finalists in a major competition involving craft beer as they each do their part to diversify the brewing industry.Azadi Brewing Company and Funkytown Brewery, both based in the city, have been chosen to take part in Samuel Adam's "Crafting Dreams Beer Bash" in New York on Friday. As one of six breweries chosen from 50 applicants, it gives each the chance to win a brewing & business "experienceship" in which one of the companies can work side-by-side with Samuel Adams to learn more about the business. As part of that, the brewery would get the opportunity to make a collaboration beer with the Boston-based brewer.Azadi and Funkytown will get the chance to share their own unique stories at the event, one that's not only about the beer they produce but also their mission in brewing.Bhavik Modi & Gator Schrand of Azadi Brewing (Courtesy Azadi Brewing)Azadi Brewing was started in 2020 by friends Bhavik Modi and Gator Schrand, partne...

Leftover food going from would-be trash to ice cream and pizza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

LOS GATOS, Calif. (AP) — At Tyler Malek's ice cream parlors, one cook's trash is another chef's frosty treat.The head ice cream maker at the Portland, Oregon-based Salt & Straw uses the whey leftover from yogurt makers in upstate New York to make his lemon curd flavor. For chocolate barley milk, he mixes in the remnants of rice and grains from beer brewing to give it a light and creamy taste.“Instead of calling this food waste, we need to call it wasted food and start decreasing how much wasting we're doing,” Malek said.Malek’s ice cream chain is among those at the forefront of the upcycling movement, the process of creating high-quality products from leftover food. Malek's shops from the Pacific Northwest to Miami now feature flavors like “Cacao Pulp & Chocolate Stracciatella Gelato,” which is made from leftover cacao pulp from chocolate production that otherwise would have gone to waste.It's a trend gaining ground as consumers spend more time reading packaging labels and m...

Motorcyclist dead after crashing into center Median in Rogers Park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

CHICAGO -- A Motorcyclist is dead after crash that took place on Sheridan Road in Rogers Park Thursday night. According to police, the crash took place around the 7700 block of North Sheridan Road around 9:15 p.m. when the motorcyclist, a 36-year-old man was found unresponsive. Interim Supt. Fred Waller to discuss plans to tackle weekend violence He was travelling south on Sheridan Road on a motorcycle before he struck the center median. He was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. There were no vehicles involved.

How animal sedative adding new pain to opioid drug crisis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A powerful animal sedative in the illicit drug supply is complicating the U.S. response to the opioid crisis, scrambling longstanding methods for reversing overdoses and treating addiction.Xylazine can cause severe skin wounds, but whether it is leading to more deaths — as suggested by officials in Washington — is not yet clear, according to health and law enforcement professionals on the front lines of efforts in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In fact, early data suggests the drug may inadvertently be diluting the effects of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid behind most overdose deaths.There is broad agreement, however, that much more information is needed to understand xylazine’s impact, to craft ways of disrupting illegal supplies and to develop medicines to reverse its effects.“We don’t know whether xylazine is increasing the risk of overdose or reducing the risk of overdose,” said Dr. Lewis Nelson of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, who advises federal ...

Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers managed to stabilize the population

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s honeybee hives just staggered through the second highest death rate on record, with beekeepers losing nearly half of their managed colonies, an annual bee survey found.But using costly and Herculean measures to create new colonies, beekeepers are somehow keeping afloat. Thursday’s University of Maryland and Auburn University survey found that even though 48% of colonies were lost in the year that ended April 1, the number of United States honeybee colonies "remained relatively stable.”Zac Lamas, post doctoral fellow at ORISE, holds a bee as he inspects them for the parasitic mite Varroa at a hive in the backyard of University of Maryland bee researcher Nathalie Steinhauer on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in College Park, Md. A new survey says America's honeybee hives just staggered through the second highest death rate on record. The mites are a factor why bee deaths are on the rise. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)University of Maryland bee researcher Nathalie Steinh...

Is restaurant tipping getting out of hand?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

(The Hill) -- American diners may be reaching a tipping point. Not long ago, a restaurant tip was a 15 percent gratuity for the server, calculated on a napkin and scrawled on a credit card receipt at the end of a sit-down meal. The server didn’t know the sum until the diner had departed. In 2023, tipping, or choosing not to, has expanded into a near-universal ritual of food service. Customers at a humble takeout joint might face a choice among three double-digit gratuities on a touch screen, under the penetrating gaze of a cashier.  Two societal forces, the COVID-19 pandemic and touch-screen point-of-sale tablets, have conspired to transform the American tipping culture. The gratuity has colonized the food-service universe, from fast-food restaurants to food trucks to farmers markets. “My family went strawberry picking last weekend,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.com. “I made the reservation. They asked me for a tip. I asked my wife, ‘What are we ...

Austin ISD approves budget with $52 million deficit; highest since 2017-18

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:36 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – The Austin ISD Board of Trustees approved the 2023-24 budget early Friday morning. The $1.82 billion budget includes a $52.25 million deficit. According to Thursday night's district presentation by Chief Finance Officer Ed Ramos, that is the highest deficit since the 2017-18 budget deficit of $54 million. In May, the Board of Trustees approved using up to $53 million of the district’s reserve funds to give teachers and school employees a raise for the 2023-24 school year.Ramos said detailed recommendations on deficit reductions will be made to the board of Trustees in the fall of 2023. According to the AISD presentation, the district will budget the $1.82 billion for:$940.5 million on recapture$354.4 million on operational costs, Central Office Administration, UIL, front office campus staff, TRS on behalf, property insurance premiums, etc. $304.8 million on teachers, subs, tutoring, supplies, dual language program, etc. $156 million on Special Education$33.1 millio...