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Activists Gather to Show Support for San Diego Law to Stop Sales of Flavored Tobacco in City

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Teen smoking e-cigarette
A teen secretly smoking an e-cigarette. Picture by way of Pixabay

Anti-smoking and vaping activists joined council members Jen Campbell and Marni von Wilpert Thursday to point out assist for ending the sale of flavored tobacco in San Diego.

An area ordinance to ban such gross sales, the SAAFE Act, is about to go earlier than the San Diego Metropolis Council on April 25.  

Council member Marni von Wilpert, in a press release, accused the smoking and vaping business of concentrating on and addicting “a brand new technology of kids on tobacco and nicotine merchandise” utilizing “sweet flavors to attraction to younger kids and trick them into pondering they’re smoking one thing safer than conventional cigarettes.”

“We should act now to carry Massive Tobacco accountable and to guard the well being and security of our youth,” she mentioned. 

The newest information reveals that over 2 million youngsters used e-cigarettes final yr, in keeping with the 2021 Nationwide Youth Tobacco Survey, and 85% of them use flavored tobacco merchandise. Regionally, it’s estimated that one in 4 San Diego highschool college students use e-cigarettes.  

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“Our lives and the well being of our kids are at stake. The time for motion is now,” Council member Jen Campbell mentioned. 

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An area coalition, San Diegans vs. Massive Tobacco, is behind the push for the town ban. Members embody the American Coronary heart Affiliation, American Lung Affiliation, American Most cancers Society Most cancers Motion Community, together with mum or dad, doctor and youth advocacy teams.

“All San Diego metropolis council members have the chance to make a vital choice that can enhance the well being and way forward for the town and its residents within the title of public well being, fairness and social justice,” mentioned Aida Castaneda, deputy coalition supervisor.

San Diego is likely one of the largest cities in California with out an ordinance ending the sale of flavored tobacco merchandise. Greater than 100 cities and counties throughout California, together with San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana and Lengthy Seashore, are cracking down on the sale of such merchandise.

California acted in 2020 to finish the sale of flavored tobacco merchandise, however that legislation is on maintain. The tobacco business spent $20 million to attempt to overturn it by way of a November 2022 referendum. 





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San Diego, CA

Village at Pacific Highlands Ranch adds Tesla charging stations

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Village at Pacific Highlands Ranch adds Tesla charging stations


The Village at Pacific Highlands Ranch is now home to a new Tesla “supercharger” electric vehicle charging station. Located on the top floor of the parking deck, near Jersey Mike’s and UC San Diego Health, 12 superchargers will be available 24/7.

According to Tesla’s website, a car can be recharged up to 200 miles in 15 minutes—enough time to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks, pick up a burrito at El Pueblo or fit in a Trader Joe’s run at the center.

The new supercharging station at 6030 Village Way is one of the largest in the area— Torrey Hills Shopping Center on Carmel Mountain Road has 24 charging stations and the 4S Ranch Target on Camino Del Sur has 16 in its parking lot.



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Ukraine’s Zelenskyy discusses further NATO support with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk

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Ukraine’s Zelenskyy discusses further NATO support with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk


WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that he expects the upcoming NATO summit to provide specific steps to strengthen his country’s air defenses against Russia, hours after a Russian missile attack killed at least 31 people and wounded 154 others in various locations, including a children’s hospital in Kyiv.

Zelenskyy met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw to discuss further support for Ukraine from NATO, as well as signing a bilateral cooperation and defense document.

“We would like to see greater resolve in our partners and hear resolute responses to these attacks,” Zelenskyy told a joint news conference, stressing that Ukraine will take its own retaliatory steps.

“I can see a possibility for our partners to use their air defense systems in a way to hit .. the missiles that are carrying out attacks on our country,” Zelenskyy said.

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Zelenskyy stopped in Warsaw en route to a NATO summit, which begins Tuesday in Washington, marking the Western defense alliance’s 75th anniversary. Leaders are expected to discuss ways of providing reliable long-term security aid and military training for Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

At the start of the news conference with Tusk, Zelenskyy asked those gathered to observe a moment of silence for the victims of Monday’s airstrikes.

Tusk offered every available form of help for the children evacuated from the bombed hospital.

The two leaders signed a cooperation and defense agreement that spells out Poland’s continued support for Ukraine in defense, especially air defense, energy security for Ukraine, and Poland’s participation in reconstruction.

A legion of Ukrainian volunteers currently abroad will be trained in Poland with the aim of joining the defense effort on Ukraine’s soil, Zelenskyy said.

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Poland will be represented at the NATO summit by President Andrzej Duda, who was scheduled to meet with Zelenskyy later Monday. Poland is among the staunchest supporters of Ukraine and has offered around $4 billion in military equipment, training and other items for defense. It is also offering humanitarian, political and economic support.

An initiative likely to be endorsed at the three-day summit is NATO taking more responsibility for coordinating training, and military and financial assistance for Ukraine’s forces, instead of the U.S. Europeans also are talking about giving Ukrainians a greater presence within NATO bodies, though there’s no consensus yet on Ukraine joining the alliance.

Tusk said that Poland will “continue to advocate among our allies that this path for Ukraine to reach the EU and NATO membership should be as fast as possible.”



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National abortion ban splits the Trump campaign and Republican activists writing the party platform

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National abortion ban splits the Trump campaign and Republican activists writing the party platform


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans may remove a vow to ban abortion from their party platform for the first time in 40 years at the behest of former President Donald Trump, who has refused to support such a ban even as he takes credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

The platform is a statement of first principles traditionally written by party activists. Trump’s campaign wants the group drafting this year’s platform to produce a shorter document without statements favored by many conservatives but potentially unpopular with the broader electorate.

The platform committee begins its meeting Monday, a week before the start of the Republican National Convention where Trump is scheduled to accept his third straight nomination for president.

Trump has faced months of Democratic criticism over abortion as President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has highlighted that Trump nominated half of the Supreme Court majority that struck down the nationwide right to abortion in 2022. But among the vocal abortion opponents on the platform committee, some say the aspiration of a federal ban on abortion after a certain stage in pregnancy must remain a party principle, even if it’s not an immediately attainable policy or one that necessarily helps the Trump campaign in November.

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“I see that as problematic. We still need these principles clearly stated. Some of these battles are not over,” said Iowa state Rep. Brad Sherman, a platform committee member who supported Trump’s winning Iowa caucus campaign in January and also supports a federal limit on abortion.

While the abortion statement is likely to be the most contested provision in the platform, there may also be disputes over Trump’s preference for tariffs and his isolationist approach to foreign policy and U.S. involvement in global conflicts, particularly in helping Ukraine as it battles Russia.

Conservative activists who are accustomed to having a seat at the table fumed over what they said was a secretive process for selecting committee members and the meeting taking place behind closed doors.

“For 40 years, the Republican Party and the GOP platform have massively benefitted from an open and transparent process,” said Tim Chapman, the incoming president of Advancing American Freedom, a foundation headed by Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump’s campaign has sought to reshape the Republican National Committee into a campaign vessel. It signaled in a memo last month from senior campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles that “textbook-long platforms … are scrutinized and intentionally misrepresented by our political opponents.”

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Trump ally Russ Vought is serving as the policy director of the Republican Party’s platform writing committee while also leading the effort to draft the 180-day agenda for Project 2025, a sweeping proposal for remaking government that Trump said Friday he knew nothing about despite having several former aides involved.

Still, Trump’s campaign said it was unclear what would make the final document at the convention in Milwaukee while suggesting it would reflect Trump’s positions.

“Is the desire to make the platform concise and reflect the president and his policies? Yes,” Danielle Alvarez, a Trump spokeswoman, said in reference to the memo. “Until we convene, we don’t know where we’ll end up.”

Trump had supported federal legislation in 2018 that would have banned abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, though the measure fell short of the necessary support in the Senate.

However, after the 2022 midterm elections, Trump blamed Republicans who held strict anti-abortion positions for the party’s failure to secure a larger House majority. He has since been critical of the most stringent abortion bans in individual states.

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An AP-NORC poll conducted in June 2023 found that about two-thirds of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The poll also found that 6 in 10 Americans think Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide.

Biden’s campaign has criticized Republicans for making the platform committee meetings in Milwaukee closed to the news media and reminded voters of Trump’s onetime support for a 20-week abortion ban.

Tamara Scott, who is one of Iowa’s two Republican National Committee members and also a platform committee member, said Trump could campaign on the position he holds and also embrace the platform to reflect a longer-term goal of a federal limit.

“It’s our vision. It’s our foundational principles. It’s who we are as a party,” Scott said. “I agree a platform must be clear and concise but it must convey our core principles.”

To several on the committee, that means maintaining support for an “amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth,” the passage first included in 1984.

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Trump was urged to keep that language in the platform, according to a letter signed by leaders of groups opposed to abortion, including Ralph Reed, Faith and Freedom Coalition founder and chairman; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List.

That passage, once removed, would be difficult to restore in future platforms, Dannenfelser said.

“The conversation about the platform is about the future. It’s about presidential campaigns 10 years from now, and Senate campaigns and House campaigns, Republican campaigns everywhere,” Dannenfelser said. “It’s not just about this election. And that’s why it matters.”

___

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Amelia Thomson-Deveaux contributed from Washington.

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