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Elf Bar and other e-cigarette makers dodged US customs and taxes after China’s ban on vaping flavors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — In only two years, a small, colorful vaping device called Elf Bar has become the most popular disposable e-cigarette in the world, generating billions in sales and quickly emerging as the overwhelming favorite of underage U.S. teens who vape.Last week, U.S. authorities publicly announced the first seizure of some of the company’s products, part of an operation confiscating 1.4 million illegal, flavored e-cigarettes from China. Officials pegged the value of the items at $18 million, including brands other than Elf Bar.But the makers of Elf Bar and other Chinese e-cigarettes have imported products worth hundreds of millions of dollars while repeatedly dodging customs and avoiding taxes and import fees, according to public records and court documents reviewed by The Associated Press.Records show the makers of disposable vapes routinely mislabel their shipments as “battery chargers,” “flashlights” and other items, hampering efforts to block products that are driving te...

Ja Morant lawsuit provides glimpse into his youth, family and a contentious pickup game

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A pickup basketball game at Ja Morant’s parents’ home near Memphis two summers ago quickly turned a day of fun, food, family and friends into chaos.Under the hot July sun, the trash-talking escalated between the Memphis Grizzlies star and a local high school player who was friends with Morant’s sister and had been guarding him that day, according to witnesses.During a check-ball sequence to start a game, Joshua Holloway hurled a hard pass from in close that hit Morant in the face, leading Morant to punch the 17-year-old in the chin. Morant’s childhood friend Davonte Pack then punched him again, knocking him to the ground, witnesses said. As Holloway was being escorted away, he said he was going to “light up” the place like “fireworks,” according to people who were there.On Wednesday, lawyers for Morant, 24, and Holloway, now 18, will return to court for a pretrial hearing in a lawsuit the teen filed against the mercurial player. Morant, ...

Many kids are still skipping kindergarten. Since the pandemic, some parents don’t see the point

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

CONCORD, Calif. (AP) — Aylah Levy had some catching up to do this fall when she started first grade.After spending her kindergarten year at an alternative program that met exclusively outdoors, Aylah, 6, had to adjust to being inside a classroom. She knew only a handful of numbers and was not printing her letters clearly. To help her along, the teacher at her Bay Area elementary school has been showing her the right way to hold a pencil.“It’s harder. Way, way harder,” Aylah said of the new grip.Still, her mother, Hannah Levy, says it was the right decision to skip kindergarten. She wanted Aylah to enjoy being a kid. There is plenty of time, she reasoned, for her daughter to develop study skills.The number of kindergartners in public school plunged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerned about the virus or wanting to avoid online school, hundreds of thousands of families delayed the start of school for their young children. Most have returned to schooling of some kind, but even three...

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, to be laid to rest at funeral Tuesday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, an Arizona native and consistent voice of moderate conservatism as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, will be laid to rest with funeral services Tuesday. President Joe Biden and Chief Justice John Roberts are scheduled to speak at the funeral held at Washington National Cathedral. O’Connor retired from the high court in 2006 after more than two decades, and died Dec. 1 at age 93. O’Connor was nominated in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan. A rancher’s daughter who was largely unknown on the national scene until her appointment, she would come to be referred to by commentators as the nation’s most powerful woman.O’Connor wielded considerable influence on the nine-member court, generally favoring states in disputes with the federal government and often siding with police when they faced claims of violating people’s rights. Her impact could perhaps best be seen, though, on the court’s rulings on abortion. She twice helped fo...

Illegal crossings surge in remote areas as Congress, White House weigh major asylum limits

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

LUKEVILLE, Ariz. (AP) — Hundreds of dates are written on concrete-filled steel columns erected along the U.S. border with Mexico to memorialize when the Border Patrol has repaired illicit openings in the would-be barriers. Yet no sooner are fixes made than another column is sawed, torched and chiseled for large groups of migrants to enter, usually with no agents in sight.The breaches stretch about 30 miles (48 kilometers) on a washboard gravel road west of Lukeville, an Arizona desert town that consists of an official border crossing, restaurant and duty-free shop. The repair dates are mostly since spring, when the flat desert region dotted with saguaro cactus became the busiest corridor for illegal crossings.A Border Patrol tour in Arizona for news organizations, including The Associated Press, showed improvements in custody conditions and processing times, but flows are overwhelming. Chaotic scenes, including when daily arrivals averaged more than 7,000 across the border a week in...

These kids want to go to school. The main obstacle? Paperwork

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — It’s unclear to Tameka how — or even when — her children became unenrolled from Atlanta Public Schools. But it was traumatic when, in fall 2021, they figured out it had happened.After more than a year of some form of pandemic online learning, students were all required to come back to school in person. Tameka was deeply afraid of COVID-19 and skeptical the schools could keep her kids safe from what she called “the corona.” One morning, in a test run, she sent two kids to school.Her oldest daughter, then in seventh grade, and her second youngest, a boy entering first grade, boarded their respective buses. She had yet to register the youngest girl, who was entering kindergarten. And her older son, a boy with Down syndrome, stayed home because she wasn’t sure he could consistently wear masks.After a few hours, the elementary school called: Come pick up your son, they told her. He was no longer enrolled, they said. Around lunchtime, the middle school called: Come ge...

In 2023, the Saudis dove further into sports. They are expected to keep it up in 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

At the dawn of 2023, the specter of Saudi Arabia’s growing influence on pro golf — and sports in general — served not only as a moral conundrum for players and their fans, but also, some argued, as an existential threat to the multibillion-dollar professional-sports industry itself.Twelve months later, it’s a different conversation, now virtually devoid of concern about the supposed menace of “sportswashing” and the line between “right” and “wrong,” and more fixed on just how rich the Saudis might make all these athletes before they’re done investing. Two major events sparked the change: The June 6 announcement that the PGA Tour was looking to go into business with the very Saudi group that was paying for the kingdom’s LIV Golf, which the tour had labeled as a threat. Then, six months later, the decision by the world’s third-ranked player and an early resister of LIV, Jon Rahm, to move to that league for a contract reported in the neighborhood of $500 million. Making les...

1 hospitalized after stabbing in Hermosa Beach

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

Authorities in Hermosa Beach responded to reports of a stabbing Monday night.  First responders with the Los Angeles County Fire Department received calls about the incident inside the Gallery of Playa Pacifica Apartment complex, in the 400 block of 2nd Street, at around 6:15 p.m., fire officials confirmed to KTLA.  Details are extremely limited and it’s unclear what led up to the stabbing, but video of the scene captured by OnScene.TV, an independent news agency, showed a heavy presence of police at the location. At least one person was seen in the video being loaded into an ambulance in unknown condition.  A stabbing victim seen as they are being loaded into the back of a waiting ambulance in Hermosa Beach on Dec. 18, 2023. (OnScene.TV)Police and paramedics seen outside an apartment complex where at least one person was stabbed on Dec. 18, 2023. (OnScene.TV)KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo, who was at the scene, reported that a coroner’s van with the Los Angeles County Me...

Back-to-back storms to hit Southern California: The latest rain timing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

Southern Californians can expect a rainy week as they prepare for Christmas.Two storms are headed to the area, first a weaker system expected to arrive overnight Monday and then the second Tuesday night.While the first storm is expected to bring "light rain" to most areas, the second "looks more impactful and has the potential to bring more significant flood-related impacts to the area with moderate to heavy rain, possible thunderstorms, and gusty southeast winds," the National Weather Service said. Interactive Weather Radar From Tuesday through Friday night, much of the Southland is expected to get 3 to 4 inches of rain, the NWS said. The first storm, meanwhile, will probably produce less than an inch of rain in most places.For both storms, snow levels are expected to stay at 7,500 to 9,000 feet.The National Weather Service released this map of projected rainfall totals from a coming storm on Dec. 17, 2023.However, it's important to note that the second storm could behave unpredi...

Concord: Man killed in collision on Kirker Pass Road

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:22:55 GMT

CONCORD – A 30-year-old man was killed in a crash Monday in Concord, police said.Related ArticlesCrashes and Disasters | Two killed, six injured in crash on I-680 in Pleasanton Crashes and Disasters | Child killed in alleged Martinez DUI highway crash is identified Crashes and Disasters | Driver says he hit a deer, police found a dead body in his car Crashes and Disasters | Pedestrian killed in San Leandro hit-and-run collision; suspect later arrested Crashes and Disasters | A road to paradise paved in misery: 4 college students are just the latest to die on Malibu’s broken highway The collision happened on Kirker Pass Road, according to a spokesperson for the Concord Police Department.Kirker Pass Road was shut down near Hess Road as a result of the crash, police said in a social media post around 5:20 p.m. The roadway was reopened by 8:30 p.m.Additional details about the collision were not immediately a...