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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — “Paper or plastic” will no longer be a choice at grocery store checkout lines in California under a new law signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that bans all plastic shopping bags. California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable. The new measure, approved by state legislators last month, bans all plastic shopping bags starting in 2026. Consumers who don’t bring their own bags will now simply be asked if they want a paper bag. State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, one of the bill’s supporters, said people were not reusing or recycling any plastic bags. She pointed to a state study that found that the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew from 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) per year in 2004 to 11 pounds (5 kilograms) per year in 2021. Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, said the previous bag ban passed a decade ago didn’t reduce the overall use of plastic. “We are literally choking our planet with plastic waste,” she said in February. The environmental nonprofit Oceana applauded Newsom for signing the bill and “safeguarding California’s coastline, marine life, and communities from single-use plastic grocery bags.” Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s plastics campaign director, said Sunday that the new ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery store checkouts “solidifies California as a leader in tackling the global plastic pollution crisis.” Twelve states, including California, already have some type of statewide plastic bag ban in place, according to the environmental advocacy group Environment America Research & Policy Center. Hundreds of cities across 28 states also have their own plastic bag bans in place. The California Legislature passed its statewide ban on plastic bags in 2014. The law was later affirmed by voters in a 2016 referendum. The California Public Interest Research Group said Sunday that the new law finally meets the intent of the original bag ban. “Plastic bags create pollution in our environment and break into microplastics that contaminate our drinking water and threaten our health,” said the group’s director Jenn Engstrom. “Californians voted to ban plastic grocery bags in our state almost a decade ago, but the law clearly needed a redo. With the Governor’s signature, California has finally banned plastic bags in grocery checkout lanes once and for all.” As San Francisco’s mayor in 2007, Newsom signed the nation’s first plastic bag ban. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, continuing a multiday U.S. visit, addressed a cultural celebration on Long Island Sunday, where he praised the United States’ return of nearly 300 antiquities to India and relayed news of his country’s dual win at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, to an enthusiastic crowd. “I just got some very good news,” Modi told an estimated 13,000 people inside Nassau Veterans Coliseum for an event billed as a celebration of cultural ties between India and the United States. “In the Chess Olympiad, in both the men’s and women’s tournament, India has won gold medals,” he said to applause in a speech that was translated into English for an online audience. Modi was reelected in June following a marathon election in which more than 640 million votes were cast over a span of six weeks in the world’s largest democratic exercise. “This year, 2024, is a very important one for the entire world,” he said. “On the one hand, there are conflicts raging between several countries in the world, there is tension. And on the other, democracy is being celebrated in several countries of the world. India and America are also together in this celebration of democracy.” Modi’s appearance in New York came a day after he attended a summit hosted by President Joe Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, for leaders of the so-called Quad that also included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan. Also Saturday, Modi accepted the return of 297 antiquities spanning thousands of years that had been stolen or trafficked from India. The U.S. has returned nearly 600 such cultural artifacts to India since 2016, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs. On Monday, the prime minister is expected to attend a United Nations summit in advance of this week’s General Assembly. Sunday’s event was sponsored by the not-for-profit Indo American Community of USA. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
MEXICO CITY (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar rejected accusations by Mexico’s president that the U.S. was partly responsible for a surge in cartel warfare in northern Sinaloa over the weekend. Sinaloa has been eclipsed by violence as two warring factions of the Sinaloa cartel have clashed in the state capital of Culiacan in what appears to be a fight for power since two of its leaders were arrested in the U.S. in late July. “It is incomprehensible how the United States can be responsible for the massacres we see in different places,” Salazar said in a news conference in Chihuahua on Saturday. “What is being seen in Sinaloa is not the fault of the United States.” The arrests startled many because it appeared that the son of notorious drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán abducted an elder cartel figure, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, and flew them both to the U.S. to be detained. Such a violent outburst was expected in the wake of the arrests. As the warring cartel factions and authorities have clashed in firefights, helicopters regularly circle overhead and military rove the streets of the capital. Families have said they are scared to send their children to school. Meanwhile, bodies have appeared across the city, often left slung out on the streets or in cars with either sombreros on their heads or pizza slices or boxes pegged onto them with knives. The pizzas and sombreros have become informal symbols for the warring cartel factions, underscoring the brutality of their warfare. Local authorities said that as of Friday at least 53 people had been killed and 51 others have gone missing in Sinaloa state since the fighting started. On Thursday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed American authorities in part for the bloodshed. Asked at his morning briefing if the U.S. government was “jointly responsible” for this violence in Sinaloa, the president said, “Yes, of course … for having carried out this operation.” “If we are now facing instability and clashes in Sinaloa, it is because (the American government) made that decision,” López Obrador said. López Obrador claimed American authorities “carried out that operation” to capture Zambada and that “it was totally illegal, and agents from the Department of Justice were waiting for Mr. Mayo.” Salazar had previously denied that American officials were involved in the alleged kidnapping. It was the latest blow to bilateral relations between the two regional allies. Last month, López Obrador — a populist prone to lashing out at critics — said he was putting relations with the U.S. and Canadian embassies “on pause” after ambassadors criticized his controversial plan to overhaul Mexico’s judiciary by requiring all judges to stand for election. Still, the Zambada capture has fueled criticisms of López Obrador, who has throughout his administration refused to confront the cartels and has falsely stated that cartels respect Mexican citizens and largely fight amongst themselves. Under López Obrador, who leaves office at the end of this month, cartels have employed an increasing array of weapons and tactics, including roadside bombs, trenches, home-made armored vehicles and bomb-dropping drones. The criminal organizations have also seeped into new industries such as migrant smuggling and the lucrative avocado business. While Mexican authorities said Saturday they had sent an additional 600 soldiers to Sinaloa as reinforcements, Salazar cast blame for the surge of violence in the state on Mexico’s wider security crisis. “The reality is that there is a problem of insecurity and violence” in Mexico, Salazar said. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday said her Republican rival Donald Trump should accept the proposal for a new debate on CNN next month. Former President Trump on Saturday rejected doing another debate with his Democratic opponent after Harris’ campaign said she had agreed to an Oct. 23 matchup on CNN. (Reporting by Nandita Bose and Daphne Psaledakis; writing by Susan Heavey; editing by Chris Reese) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
RAVENNA, Ohio (AP) — A local Ohio elections board says the county sheriff’s department will not be used for election security following a social media post by the sheriff saying people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses recorded so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democratic vice president wins the November election. In a statement on the Portage County Democrats’ Facebook page, county board of elections chair Randi Clites said members voted 3-1 Friday to remove the sheriff’s department from providing security during in-person absentee voting. Clites cited public comments indicating “perceived intimidation by our sheriff against certain voters” and the need to “make sure every voter in Portage County feels safe casting their ballot for any candidate they choose.” A Ravenna Record-Courier story on the Akron Beacon Journal site reported that a day earlier, about 150 people crowded into a room at the Kent United Church of Christ for a meeting sponsored by the NAACP of Portage County, many expressing fear about the Sept. 13 comments. “I believe walking into a voting location where a sheriff deputy can be seen may discourage voters from entering,” Clites said. The board is looking at using private security already in place at the administration building or having Ravenna police provide security, Clites said. Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski posted a screenshot of a Fox News segment criticizing President Joe Biden and Harris over immigration. Likening people in the U.S. illegally to “human locusts,” he suggested recording addresses of people with Harris yard signs so when migrants need places to live “we’ll already have the addresses of their New families … who supported their arrival!” Local Democrats filed complaints with the Ohio secretary of state and other agencies, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio accused Zuchowski of an unconstitutional “impermissible threat” against residents who want to display political yard signs. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine called the comments “unfortunate” and “not helpful.” The secretary of state’s office said the comments didn’t violate election laws and it didn’t plan any action. Zuchowski, a Republican supporter of former President Donald Trump, said in a follow-up post last week that his comments “may have been a little misinterpreted??” He said, however, that while voters can choose whomever they want for president, they “have to accept responsibility for their actions.” A message seeking comment was sent Sunday to Zuchowski, who spent 26 years with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and was a part-time deputy sheriff before winning the top job in 2020. He is running for reelection as the chief law enforcement officer of the northeast Ohio county about an hour outside of Cleveland. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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