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Texas lawmakers approve abortion ban as early as 6 weeks

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The Associated Press
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas would ban abortions after as early as six weeks — before many women even know they are pregnant — and allow private citizens to enforce the rule through civil lawsuits against doctors and others under a measure given final approval by state lawmakers Thursday.

The Senate vote sends the bill to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law. That would bring Texas in line with about a dozen other GOP-led states that have passed so-called “heartbeat bills” that have been mostly blocked by federal courts. The Texas measure is also likely to draw a swift legal challenge from abortion rights groups.

The bill would ban abortions after the first detection of an embryonic “heartbeat.” Advanced technology can detect an electric signal flutter as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, even though the embryo isn’t yet a fetus and doesn’t have a heart. An embryo is termed a fetus beginning in the 11th week of pregnancy, medical experts say.

A unique provision in the Texas bill prohibits state officials from enforcing the ban. Instead, it allows anyone, even someone outside of Texas, to sue a doctor or anyone else who may have helped someone get an abortion after the time limit, and seek financial damages.

“The Texas Heartbeat Act is novel in approach, allowing for citizens to hold abortionists accountable through private lawsuits. No heartbeat law passed by another state has taken this strategy. Additionally, the bill does not punish women who obtain abortions,” said Rebecca Parma, Texas Right to Life senior legislative associate.

Critics say that provision would allow abortion opponents to flood the courts with lawsuits to harass doctors, patients, nurses, domestic violence counselors, a friend who drove a woman to a clinic, or even a parent who paid for a procedure.

And they argue that it would violate state constitutional requirements that civil lawsuits can be filed only by impacted parties. Under the bill, a person filing the lawsuit would not need any personal connection to the abortion in question.

The bill has been opposed by medical groups.

Texas law currently bans abortion after 20 weeks, with exceptions for a woman with a life-threatening medical condition or if the fetus has a severe abnormality.

Proponents of these so-called “heartbeat bills” are hoping for a legal challenge to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court, where they look for the conservative coalition assembled under President Donald Trump to end the constitutional right to abortion protected under the high court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

Kraken still plan to hire coach before expansion draft

By
The Associated Press
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SEATTLE — Now that the Seattle Kraken are full-fledged members of the NHL, general manager Ron Francis can start his wheeling and dealing.

Signing players? That started this week with the addition of 21-year-old Luke Henman. Trades and some of those side deals that Vegas negotiated during the last NHL expansion draft? Absolutely.

But along with wondering when the opening date will be for its training center and its new arena, and who Seattle may take in the expansion draft, there is one major question still hanging over Francis.

Who’s going to be the coach?

“As we get closer to the second quarter of this year we should be pretty set in what we want to do,” Francis said this week.

The framework for the Kraken’s first season will take shape over the next two months as the NHL goes through the Stanley Cup playoffs and moves toward the July 21 expansion draft, when the bulk of Seattle’s roster will be established.

Meantime, Francis is being methodical about picking a coach, even as rumors swirl about the likely candidates.

All Francis has offered is the “second quarter,” which likely means June. It’s just in time for the new boss to get acquainted with the franchise before the expansion draft.

But waiting also allows Francis time to survey the fallout from the NHL season and most of the playoffs to see if any unlikely candidates suddenly become available.

Francis noted last month he’s been keeping a spreadsheet of names.

“You look at guys who are currently out there without jobs, you look at guys who are currently working and maybe have expiring contracts, you look at other situations that maybe are looking to make a change,” Francis said in April. “You’re not really going to know all that until the next month or two.”

Most speculation has centered on Gerard Gallant since he was fired by Vegas halfway through the 2019-20 season. His experience with the Golden Knights through their expansion season in 2017-18 and in leading them to the Stanley Cup Finals made him an obvious candidate the longer he went without another NHL gig.

There could be a complication with him, however. Gallant will be the head coach for Canada at the IIHF World Championships that start this month in Latvia.

There are plenty of other names floating about, like Bruce Boudreau, Claude Julien, Todd Nelson and John Stevens.

There’s also the possibility of a current coach leaving his team in the coming weeks and providing an option for Seattle.

In that vein, Rod Brind’Amour in Carolina has long been rumored because of his history with Francis, though he appears to be near a contract extension with the Hurricanes. Travis Green in Vancouver is another name regularly mentioned should his time with the Canucks be coming to an end.

John Tortorella, Rick Tocchet and David Quinn also recently became available.

Whoever ends up getting the job will be in a rush to get ready for the start of the 2021-22 season, expected to begin in mid-October. Between putting together a staff, the expansion draft, free agency and training camp, it will be a jampacked 2½ months before play begins.

“We’re patient. We think we’re prepared,” Francis said. “When we get to that point to zero in and talk to the people we want to talk to we’ll make that decision.”

More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Beating the goalie: Top-shelf shots all the rage in the NHL

By
The Associated Press
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The puck was on Leon Draisaitl’s stick for maybe one-tenth of a second before the reigning NHL MVP fired it into the net from an absurd angle between the unsuspecting goaltender’s glove hand and the post. The dreaded short-side goal.

“Sometimes you think there’s a better play to be made,” Draisaitl said. “I’m lucky that I made that decision that it went in.”

Luck ain’t got nothin’ to do with it. Beating an NHL goaltender is an evolving cat-and-mouse game with shooters, who are more accurate than ever before at picking their spots and have the best sticks ever designed at their disposal.

The result in modern-day hockey is players lighting the lamp with wicked shots over the shoulders of goalies, who almost exclusively turn to the butterfly style of going to their knees to stop the puck, opening up holes high on the glove and stick sides. Yet despite all the league efforts to increase offense, goalies have adjusted to the point that scoring is at its lowest level in four seasons.

“Goalies are evolving,” said Olaf Kolzig, who won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender in 2000. “They try to keep taking things away and they keep adding things to the players — these composite sticks, the unlimited curves — and the goalies, to their credit, just keep finding a way to get the job done.”

The Associated Press interviewed 14 retired goaltenders with at least 100 games of NHL experience ranging from 1965-2020 about the evolution of the position and how equipment for goalies and skaters, video, specialized coaching and analytics have changed the ways goals are scored.

One consensus? Watch any game now, and the puck is most likely to get sniped top corner.

“That’s been going on for way too long,” said Kelly Hrudey, who played 762 games from 1983-88 before becoming an analyst for Sportsnet in Canada. “Goals are scored high short-side now — it’s almost like an epidemic. In my opinion, they’re giving away free goals.”

High short-side is how Draisaitl beat Ottawa goaltender Marcus Hogberg with that shot from just above the goal line earlier this season. According to HockeyViz analytics, that shot in that particular situation had under a 5% probability of becoming a goal.

By contrast, a wrist shot from between the faceoff circles has roughly a 20% chance of going in, and goalies of yesteryear can see exactly where the puck is going now.

“Guys shooting high glove or low blocker is almost an automatic for them,” said Martin Biron, who played 531 games from 1995-2013 . “They come in in the slot, they don’t have time to think, they shoot it, they go high glove. Boom, they shoot it and they go low blocker.”

If goalies know that, why does the puck keep going in? It’s a matter of technique. Almost every kid growing up playing the position is taught the butterfly; standing up to make saves just doesn’t happen.

“We stood up, so we would get beat low,” said Ron Hextall, Pittsburgh’s general manager, who played 701 games from 1986-99. ”They get beat more up top because of the fact that they’re obviously going down.”

Until now, that data has only been kept internally team-by-team, though the NHL through a deal with Amazon Web Services plans to unveil shot and save analytics when the playoffs begin this weekend. That information will be able to show each goalie’s success — or lack thereof — making stick, blocker, glove or pad saves.

The butterfly style has revolutionized goaltending, with advances in equipment lending a helping hand. Five-hole goals — those that go in between a goalie’s legs — are rarer now than in decades past.

“My first maybe 10 years, when (the goalie) doesn’t have their stick on the ice and it was a shot through his legs, the puck was going in,” said Martin Brodeur, the leader in career games played, wins and shutouts and a three-time Stanley Cup champion. “I never thought twice, ‘It’s going to hit something.’ (Now) that stick really doesn’t matter if it’s on the ice or not because the pad just molds to the ice perfectly all the time and it seals up everything.”

Of course, not everything is sealed up. Toronto’s Auston Matthews surpassed 40 goals in a 56-game season during which 684 different players have scored at least once.

All at the same time goalies like Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury and the New York Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov are putting up save percentages of .925 or higher. As two-time playoff MVP and Hall of Fame goalie Bernie Parent said, “There’s a lot of talent out there.”

Size, too. Jim Rutherford knows he never could have played his 468 games in the ‘70s and ’80s at 5-foot-8. As a GM, Rutherford drafted 6-foot-4 goalie Frederik Andersen, who is just one of many giants in net.

Brian Boucher, now an NBC Sports analyst, was part of that generation of growing goalies at 6-foot-2 when he made his NHL debut in 1999 and understands why the butterfly has become the overwhelming style with so many bigger goalies.

“You cover a lot more ice from your knees when you’re 6-foot-3 than if you are standing up,” said Boucher, who played 371 games before retiring in 2013.

Not a fan of wasting energy, Tom Barrasso once bristled at questions about shots hitting the post behind him and quipped, “What do you want me to do, stop the ones that are going wide, too?” Nah, it’s difficult enough for goalies to avoid getting beat by the pucks on net nowadays.

“The game is so much faster, the quality of shot is a lot greater, and the commitment of players defensively is a lot different than when we played, so I think their job is a lot harder than we had,” Brodeur said. “It’s a lot more demanding than it used to be.”

AP Hockey Writer Larry Lage contributed.

Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno

More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Bo Bichette leads resilient Blue Jays past Braves again, 8-4

By
The Associated Press
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ATLANTA — Bo Bichette hit a go-ahead, two-run double in the ninth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays rallied yet again to beat Atlanta 8-4 on Thursday and sweep six games from the Braves this season.

Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. left in the seventh inning with an apparent left ankle injury.

Toronto trailed 2-0 and 4-3 before its 10th comeback win this season and third of the series completed a three-game series sweep.

Danny Jansen, hitting .095, led off the ninth with a single off Will Smith (0-3). Marcus Semien singled, and Bichette doubled to the gap in right-center for a 6-4 lead.

Bichette drove in three runs on two hits. Cavan Biggio knocked out Smith with his second double of the game to drive in another run.

Travis Bergen (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth. Jordan Romano struck out the side in the ninth.

Acuña led off the game with his major league-high 12th homer, then got hurt while trying to beat out a grounder to third base.

Acuña initially was ruled safe by first base umpire Mike Estabrook before a video review overturned the call. Acuña hopped down the right-field line, then collapsed onto the outfield grass. He was able to walk back to the dugout with a slight limp.

Smith gave up four runs and five hits in the ninth while recording only one out.

Dansby Swanson’s two-run homer in the sixth had given Atlanta a 4-3 lead. The Blue Jays pulled even in the eighth when Biggio’s double drove in Teoscar Hernández, who walked.

Toronto’s Ross Stripling struck out nine, one shy of his career high. He allowed two runs and four hits, all in the first of his five innings.

Acuña pulled Stripling’s first pitch, an inside fastball, 442 feet down the left-field foul line. The homer landed near the back of the second level.

Charlie Morton allowed three runs, seven hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings. Morton’s exit ended a streak of Braves starters pitching at least six innings in four consecutive games and six of eight.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: RHP Rafael Dolis (right calf) plans to throw a bullpen session on Friday. He was placed on the 10-day injured list after leaving the May 7 game at Houston with tightness in the calf.

Braves: CF Cristian Pache grimaced while running to first base on a groundout in the second and left with right hamstring tightness. 3B Austin Riley, who was given his first break from starting since April 16, entered. Ehire Adrianza, who started at third base, moved to right while Acuña moved to center.

UP NEXT

Blue Jays: LHP Steven Matz (5-2, 4.86) starts when Toronto opens a 10-game homestand Friday night against Philadelphia in Dunedin, Florida.

Braves: LHP Drew Smyly (1-2, 6.12) and Atlanta open a three-game series at Milwaukee on Friday night.

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Scotland: 2 held for migration breaches freed after protest

By
The Associated Press
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LONDON — Two men detained by British immigration officials in Glasgow were released Thursday after a seven-hour standoff between hundreds of protesters and Scottish police.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon slammed the “unacceptable” action by Britain’s Home Office to detain the Indian men, especially as it came during celebrations for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, in an area hit by the pandemic.

The Home Office said in a statement that the men were detained “in relation to suspected immigration offences” and had been released on bail.

Sturgeon said in a tweet that Police Scotland officers had been put in an “invidious position” after being called to support the Home Office operation.

“To act in this way, in the heart of a Muslim community as they celebrated Eid, and in an area experiencing a COVID outbreak was a health & safety risk,” she said.

Police were first called to Kenmure Street in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, at about 10 a.m. where the Immigration Enforcement van with the men in it was surrounded by protesters, including neighbors of the men.

One demonstrator climbed under the vehicle to stop it from moving, while others sat in the road. The crowd chanted “Leave our neighbors, let them go” and “Cops go home.”

Police Scotland said the decision to finally release the men had been made “to protect the safety, public health and well-being” of all involved.

Videos posted on social media showed cheers going up as the doors of the van were opened and the men emerged.

Protester Mohammad Asif, the director of the Afghan Human Rights Foundation, said the demonstration was a response to the “hostile environment” created by the British government.

Britain’s immigration rules have long been criticized by lawyers and human rights groups, who say they are often harsh and unfairly implemented. Rules have been tightened in the past decade under Conservative governments determined to make the U.K. a “hostile environment” for illegal immigration.

Prosecutors in LA announce sweep in fentanyl overdose deaths

By
The Associated Press
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LOS ANGELES — At least 11 suspected drug dealers face charges in Southern California that they sold fentanyl and other opioids that led to overdose deaths, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The cases, which are unrelated, are the result of a federal law enforcement task force focused on combating fatal overdoses and a rise in deadly fentanyl being found in counterfeit drugs.

California has not been hit as hard as other states by the nation’s opioid crisis but has experienced a recent spike in fentanyl overdoses locally, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney.

“This is a present public safety threat that we’re trying to address in a number of ways, including targeting the dealers who are directly selling fatal doses of drugs to users,” Mrozek said. “The drug dealers are not only putting the public in harm’s way but they are facing severe penalties when they are linked to a fatal overdose.”

The acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and Drug Enforcement Administration scheduled at an afternoon news conference to discuss the sweep.

The 11 cases, which date back as far as 2018, included five arrests made Thursday in a sweep of dealers.

At least one defendant, William Fulton, is charged in two deaths over subsequent days in October. The victims are listed only by their initials: D.S. and A.L.

Fulton is also charged with having methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of ammunition. He has a lengthy record including convictions for car theft, burglary and drug possession, according to court records.

Another suspect, Jason Soheili, of Laguna Hills, allegedly mailed a fatal dose of fentanyl to a man who had moved to Utah to go to rehab, but had dropped out of the program in January. The victim, who died Feb. 21, is not identified in court documents.

An affidavit for Soheili’s arrest includes text exchange he had with the alleged victim. When asked if he could provide a powder form of fentanyl, Soheili indicated he could and added: “just dont die … lol.”

Lawyer: ‘Tiger King’s’ Jeff Lowe willing to give up big cats

By
The Associated Press
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MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Netflix’s “Tiger King” star Jeff Lowe and his wife are willing to give up their big cats to resolve a Justice Department civil complaint against them over the animals’ care, their attorney told a federal judge.

At a hearing Wednesday where the judge found the couple in contempt for violating a previous order regarding the big cats, attorney Daniel Card said the Lowes “want out completely.”

Jeff Lowe took over the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park from founder Joe Exotic in 2016. Lowe and his wife displayed big cats there until shutting down the park in August. They then moved to a new facility in Thackerville.

The civil complaint, filed in November, accused the Lowes of recurring inhumane treatment and improper handling of animals protected by the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Judge John F. Heil III in January issued an order that, among other things, required the couple to prevent breeding; to relinquish all of their lion and tiger cubs to the federal government; and not to exhibit any of their big cats.

The judge in March found that the Lowes had violated his order, and on Wednesday fined them $1,000 per day until they get in compliance, according to The Oklahoman.

“They don’t want to fight this anymore. They don’t want to do it,” Card told the Heil. “They want to give the tigers to a … sanctuary of their choice and be done with it.”

Jeff Lowe was one of the central characters in the Netflix series that became a pop culture phenomenon last year. The series focused on Joe Exotic, a pseudonym for Joseph Maldonado-Passage. He is serving 22 years in federal prison for violating federal wildlife laws and for his role in a failed murder-for-hire plot targeting his chief rival, Carole Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida.

Video shows San Diego police repeatedly punching Black man

By
The Associated Press
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SAN DIEGO — A video shot by a bystander shows San Diego police officers repeatedly punching a man in the face, head and leg after tackling him to the ground in the upscale neighborhood of La Jolla, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Thursday.

Nicole Bansal told the newspaper she witnessed the arrest around 9 a.m. Wednesday and decided to record it with her cellphone.

“It’s so excessive and unnecessary,” Bansal told the newspaper.

San Diego Police Department spokesman Lt. Shawn Takeuchi said in a statement the officers saw the man urinating in public and asked him to stop.

One officer he said struck the man “several times” after he would not comply with orders.

“The man would not stop to speak with officers therefore an officer held the man to detain him,” Takeuchi said. “Despite the officers repeatedly telling the man to ‘stop resisting,’ the man would not comply. One of the officers struck the man several times.”

He said department officials are aware of the cellphone video and the internal affairs unit is investigating the incident, including reviewing body-worn camera footage.

In the video, an officer is seen tackling the man to the ground as another officer holds the man’s arm. The officer then punches him in the face repeatedly. Bansal, who was parked across the street, can be heard gasping and yelling, “Stop!”

The man can be seen yanking a radio off one officer’s belt and throwing into the street, then punching or swiping at the face of the officer who had hit him.

The man, who is Black, is shoeless and wearing a faded orange life preserver around his neck.

Bansal told the newspaper she often passes the man while walking her dog and that he usually talks to himself. She said he has never made her feel threatened.

For the next 2½ minutes, the officers keep the man pinned to the ground as they shout commands for him to stop resisting. The two officers strike the man several more times before other officers arrive.

The man was taken to a hospital before being booked into county jail on suspicion of resisting arrest and battery on a police officer, Takeuchi said.

In an email to Chief David Nisleit, Francine Maxwell, president of the NAACP San Diego branch, wrote that “to yell ‘stop resisting’ and to continually punch and slap this man was clearly not conducive to calming the situation.”

Maxwell cited the department’s de-escalation policy, implemented last June amid protests following George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis.

“This man posed no obvious threat, had no apparent weapons and no one else was near. We want to know that this incident of violence will be properly investigated, and be assured that these officers will not be exonerated for this assault on an unarmed black man,” she wrote.

Judge tosses lawsuit over Virginia state senator’s censure

By
The Associated Press
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A federal judge on Thursday sided with the state of Virginia and tossed a lawsuit filed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase over her censure by the Virginia Senate.

Chase, a far-right-wing conservative state senator often at odds with even fellow Republicans, filed the lawsuit in February, a few days after her colleagues passed the censure resolution on a bipartisan vote, denouncing her for a “pattern of unacceptable conduct.”

Chase was seeking a declaratory judgment that the censure violated her First Amendment rights and wanted the censure expunged and her seniority restored. Her attorney, GOP legal activist Tim Anderson, argued the censure was a stain on her candidacy for governor. Chase was one of seven Republicans competing for the party’s nomination, but GOP delegates chose businessman Glenn Youngkin as the nominee on May 8.

Chase has been accused of voicing support for those who participated in storming the U.S. Capitol. She herself attended a rally shortly before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol but was not part of the group that later stormed the building. Chase also previously called for martial law to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The Senate’s censure resolution said she had “exhibited conduct unbecoming of a Senator during her terms in office by displaying a disregard for civility in discourse with colleagues, making false and misleading statements both in committee and on the Senate floor, and displaying a disregard for the significance of her duty to the citizens of the Commonwealth as an elected representative in the Senate of Virginia.”

It also said Chase, who has refused to wear a mask amid the pandemic and sits on the Senate floor behind a large plastic barrier, has “undermined the seriousness of the pandemic by stating, ‘I don’t do COVID.’”

U.S. District Judge Robert Payne agreed with Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring that the two defendants named by Chase — the Virginia Senate and the Clerk of the Senate — are immune from the lawsuit.

Chase declined to immediately comment on the ruling. She told The Associated Press in a text message that she is on vacation this week and would be happy to comment on Monday.

The state also argued in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit that Chase’s claims were a political question and not for a court to decide.

Bills sign 5 draft picks, including 2nd-round DE Basham

By
The Associated Press
-

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills signed five of their eight rookie draft picks, including second-round selection defensive end Carlos Basham of Wake Forest, on Thursday, the eve of a three-day rookie camp.

Also signing their rookie four-year deals were fifth-round selection offensive lineman Tommy Doyle out of Miami (Ohio); two of three sixth-round picks, Houston receiver Marquez Stevenson and Wisconsin cornerback Rachad Wildgoose; and Texas Tech offensive lineman Jack Anderson, a seventh-round pick.

The Bills also signed free agents offensive lineman Steven Gonzalez and linebacker Mike Bell to one-year contracts.

Buffalo announced the signing of six undrafted rookie free agents, including Southern California cornerback Olaijah Griffin, who is the son of rapper, songwriter and record producer Warren G.

Rounding out the class of undrafted rookie additions are San Jose State receiver Tre Walker, a two-time All Mountain West selection; Notre Dame cornerback Nick McCloud; San Diego State safety Tariq Thompson; Bowling Green tight end Quintin Morris and Fresno State offensive lineman Syrus Tuitele.

More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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