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3 SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Two California counties violated the Constitution's right to keep and bear arms when they shut down gun and ammunition stores in 2020 as nonessential businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. Officials in Los Angeles and Ventura counties had separately won lower court decisions saying gun stores were not exempt from broader shutdown orders aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus early in the pandemic. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected both lower court rulings. The Second Amendment “means nothing if the government can prohibit all persons from acquiring any firearm or ammunition,” Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote. "But that’s what happened in this case." Because buyers can obtain guns only by personally going to gun stores in California, Ventura County’s 48-day closure of gun shops, ammunition shops and firing ranges “wholly prevented … [Read more...] about California’s COVID gun store shutdowns ruled illegal

NEW YORK (AP) — Peloton's shares tumbled on Thursday after a media report said the exercise and treadmill company was temporarily halting production of its connected fitness products amid waning consumer demand. Shares fell nearly 24%, or $7.62 to $24.22 on Thursday on the report. Peloton Interactive Inc. plans to pause production of its main stationary bikes for two months, from February to March, according to CNBC, citing internal documents. The news site said that it already halted production of its more expensive Bike+ in December and will do so until June. It won’t manufacture its main treadmill machine for six weeks, beginning next month. And it doesn’t anticipate making any of its more expensive Tread+ treadmill machines in fiscal 2022, according to CNBC. The move is the latest in a string of bad news for Peloton, which was one of the early pandemic success stories. In May, it halted production of its Tread+ treadmills, after recalling about 125,000 of its treadmills less … [Read more...] about Report: Peloton pauses production on bikes, treadmills

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — CSX railroad's fourth-quarter profit jumped 23% even though volume slipped amid the ongoing supply chain challenges. The Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad said Thursday it earned $934 million, or 42 cents per share. That's up from $760 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier. CSX said the number of shipments it delivered declined 2% as auto production remained weak because of the shortage of computer chips, but demand for most industrial shipments remained strong and the railroad delivered nearly the same number of containers of imported goods as it did the previous year. The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 41 cents per share. The freight railroad said its revenue grew 21% to $3.43 billion in the quarter as CSX increased prices and collected more fuel surcharges. That also beat the Street forecasts for $3.3 billion revenue. CSX said its … [Read more...] about CSX railroad’s Q4 profit jumps 23% even though volume slips

A Florida man has been charged with human smuggling after the bodies of four people, including a baby and a teen, were found in Canada near the U.S. border in what authorities believe was a failed crossing attempt during a freezing blizzard. Steve Shand, 47, was charged Thursday with human smuggling after seven Indian nationals were found in the U.S. and the discovery of the bodies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota Court documents filed Wednesday in support of Shand’s arrest allege one of the people spent a significant amount of money to come to Canada with a fraudulent student visa. “The investigation into the death of the four individuals in Canada is ongoing along with an investigation into a larger human smuggling operation of which Shand is suspected of being a part,” John Stanley, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, said in court documents. Shand could not be immediately reached for comment. There was no immediate … [Read more...] about Florida man charged after 4 found dead at Canada-US border

Peru declared an environmental emergency on Thursday after announcing that 21 beaches on the Pacific coast were contaminated by an oil spill at a refinery run by Spain-based Repsol, following surging waves caused by the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga President Pedro Castillo said a committee will be formed to propose ways of dealing with the crisis, in keeping with national policies aimed at protecting the environment. Prime Minister Mirtha Vásquez said Repsol has promised to deliver a cleaning schedule, to incorporate local fishermen in the cleanup on beaches and to deliver food baskets to affected families. Vásquez said the United Nations will provide a team of experts to help Peru deal with the oil spill. People are barred for now from going to the 21 polluted beaches because of health concerns. Peruvian authorities say an Italian-flagged ship spilled 6,000 barrels in the Pacific on Saturday in front of the La Pampilla refinery. In recent days, … [Read more...] about Peru: 21 beaches polluted by spill linked to Tonga eruption

A project that will boost Great Lakes shipping in a crucial bottleneck and another intended to protect the lakes from invasive carp will get big funding increases under the Biden administration's infrastructure package, officials said Thursday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would pump $479 million into construction of a new navigational lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, expanding a complex that enables vessels to haul bulk cargo between Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes. Additionally, the Corps will devote $226 million to the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Illinois where plans call for the installation of obstacles to prevent invasive carp from migrating up the Illinois River to Lake Michigan The projects have been top priorities for members of Congress from the eight states that border the Great Lakes. The infrastructure measure, which also includes $1 billion to improve water quality, makes “the single largest investment ever in … [Read more...] about Long-sought Great Lakes projects get funding under new law

NEW YORK (AP) — Locked out baseball players plan to make a counteroffer to management on Monday, 11 days after clubs gave the union a proposal when the snail-paced negotiations resumed following a 42-day break. The players’ association asked Major League Baseball on Thursday to schedule the negotiating session, which is to take place in-person. There is dwindling time to reach an agreement in time for spring training to start as scheduled on Feb. 16. The scheduled March 31 opening day is also increasingly threatened, given the need for players to report, go through COVID-19 protocols and have at least three weeks of workouts that include a minimal number of exhibition games. Players don’t receive paychecks until the regular season, and owners get only a small percentage of their revenue during the offseason. Those factors create negotiations that are a game of chicken until mid-to-late February, when significant economic losses become more imminent. When owners made … [Read more...] about MLB’s snail-paced lockout talks to resume with union offer

The Syrian doctor tortured detainees — opponents of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad — by beating them with sticks and kicking them, and even set one on fire, German prosecutors say. In one instance, they allege, he killed a prisoner with a lethal injection. The accusations against Dr. Alaa Mousa — at least 18 charges of torture and one of murder committed between April 2011 and the end of the 2012 — amount to crimes against humanity, German prosecutors will seek to prove in Dr. Mousa’s long-awaited trial, which began on Wednesday in Frankfurt. The proceedings started less than a week after German prosecutors won a guilty verdict in the world’s first trial prosecuting state-sponsored torture in Syria. Dr. Mousa is accused of targeting Assad opponents in military facilities. According to one charge, he doused the testicles of a teenage boy with alcohol and set him ablaze in a military hospital in the summer of 2011. With this and other cases, Germany has emerged at the … [Read more...] about Syrian Doctor Accused of Atrocities Goes on Trial in Germany

A New York City police detective was shot in the leg when a man fired through a door as the police searched a Staten Island home for drugs early Thursday, officials said. The shooting occurred at around 6 a.m. as narcotics officers executed a search warrant at the home in the New Springville neighborhood, the police said. After the officers walked up a stairwell at the address, on Rockne Street near Nome Avenue, a man fired “numerous shots” at them from another room, Keechant Sewell , the police commissioner, said at a news conference on Thursday. The police returned fire and shot him, officials said. The man and the detective, a 10-year veteran of the department, were both in stable condition, the police said. “In less than three weeks, we’ve been in East Harlem, the Bronx and Staten Island,” Commissioner Sewell said, in reference to the locations of other recent shootings . She continued to emphasize that she views illegal guns as the core problem fueling violence. … [Read more...] about Detective Shot in Leg During Drug Search on Staten Island, Police Say

History has had a nasty habit of repeating itself with the Miami Dolphins during the past decade, if not two. No matter how hard the franchise tries to steer a different course, it keeps traveling down the same path, making similar mistakes, and the people who record that history need to take some ownership for this ride on the mediocrity merry-go-round. At least I do, because not all of Dolphins’ history has been recorded properly, or done in a timely fashion. For instance, you’ve probably heard whisperers, or internet chatter about the failed coup d’état the 2014 receivers orchestrated at the end of the season to have quarterback Ryan Tannehill replaced by Matt Moore. As I’ve been told by multiple sources, in December of that season, with a playoff berth on the line, the receiver unit sat down with then-head coach Joe Philbin and asked him to bench Tannehill for Moore, who was a more aggressive passer. Philbin denied their request, and 7-5 turned into 8-8. Every … [Read more...] about Omar Kelly: Dolphins’ commitment to Tua isn’t unanimous and it could hurt search for coach