By JACQUES BILLEAUD and JOSH KELETY (Associated Press) PHOENIX (AP) — Eleven Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election were charged Wednesday with conspiracy, fraud and forgery, marking the fourth state to bring charges against “fake electors.” The eleven people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried the state. The document was later s ..read more

Joseph Wilkinson | New York Daily News Hamas released Wednesday a propaganda/proof of life video of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The 24-year-old was one of the hundreds of people taken hostage in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. He’s one of 133 hostages remaining in Gaza, though dozens of them are believed to be dead. In the heavily edited video, which is also clearly scripted, Goldberg-Polin criticizes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. “Think of us detainees in underground hell, without water, food or sun, without the treatment I (have needed ..read more

OROVILLE — A former Sycamore Junior High School teacher pled no contest to unlawful sex with a minor, according to a media release by Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. The former school teacher — Michelle Christine Solis, 46, of Gridley — entered no-contest pleas Tuesday at Butte County Superior Court to sex charges that also included sending harmful photos to a minor. Solis According to Ramsey, her charges stem from conduct with a 14-year-old boy in 2021 during his eighth-grade year at Sycamore. Evidence obtained by Gridley police alleged that Solis followed the boy on social media ..read more

By RICK CALLAHAN and KATHLEEN FOODY (Associated Press) CHICAGO (AP) — The “rat hole” is gone. A Chicago sidewalk landmark some residents affectionately called the “rat hole” was removed Wednesday after city officials determined the section bearing the imprint of an animal was damaged and needed to be replaced, officials said. The imprint has been a quirk of a residential block in Chicago’s North side neighborhood of Roscoe Village for years, but it found fresh fame in January after a Chicago comedian shared a photo on the social media platform X. The attention, however, quickly grew old for ne ..read more

CHICO — Officers used foam projectiles during an arrest of a woman suspected of wielding a knife and approaching cars and homes at the 200 block of West 17th Street, according to a media release by Chico Police Department. According to the release, police received calls around 4 p.m. Monday. Responding officers identified the suspect — Alexis Olmstead, 37 — and directed her to comply with orders. She allegedly refused to comply, so officers used a “less lethal” foam projectile to safely arrest her. Olmstead was booked into Butte County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, crimina ..read more

Grace Toohey | (TNS) Los Angeles Times Hawaii lawmakers are hoping that phasing out short-term rentals could help ease its worsening housing crisis, where locals face the highest housing costs in the nation and one of the worst rates of homelessness. Two bills that would allow for new regulation of “transient accommodations” have moved readily through the state legislature this spring, and if passed, could provide new avenues to limit the short-term home rental industry, which has exploded in recent years across the state’s four populated islands. But the issue has been a challenging one for o ..read more

By STEPHEN GROVES and MARY CLARE JALONICK (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — For Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson, the necessity of providing Ukraine with weapons and other aid as it fends off Russia’s invasion is rooted in their earliest and most formative political memories. McConnell, 82, tells the story of his father’s letters from Eastern Europe in 1945, at the end of World War II, when the foot soldier observed that the Russians were “going to be a big problem” before the communist takeover to come. Johnson, 30 years younger, came of age as the Co ..read more

By FATIMA HUSSEIN (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — About one-quarter of U.S. adults age 50 and older who are not yet retired say they expect to never retire and 70% are concerned about prices rising faster than their income, an AARP survey finds. About 1 in 4 have no retirement savings, according to research released Wednesday by the organization that shows how a graying America is worrying more and more about how to make ends meet even as economists and policymakers say the U.S. economy has all but achieved a soft landing after two years of record inflation. Everyday expenses and housing ..read more

Arielle Zionts | KFF Health News (TNS) HISLE, S.D. — Katherine Goodlow is only 20, but she has experienced enough to know that people around her are dying too young. Goodlow, a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, said she’s lost six friends and acquaintances to suicide, two to car crashes, and one to appendicitis. Four of her relatives died in their 30s or 40s, from causes such as liver failure and covid-19, she said. And she recently lost a 1-year-old nephew. “Most Native American kids and young people lose their friends at a young age,” said Goodlow, who is considering becoming a mental h ..read more

Nicole Blanchard | (TNS) Idaho Statesman WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments from the state and the U.S. Department of Justice that will determine their decision on the fate of emergency abortion access in Idaho. Since Idaho’s strict abortion laws went into effect following the court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, they have faced numerous legal challenges. Several have been elevated to the Idaho Supreme Court, and others have risen to the U.S. District Court or 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Here’s how this particular case made its way to the highest cour ..read more