Australian tourist killed and 2 injured as snorkeling boat capsizes off Indonesia's Bali island
DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — A snorkeling boat carrying 13 people, including 11 Australian tourists, capsized in rough seas off Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Friday, killing a woman and injuring two others, police said.
The Sea Dragon boat was on its way from a port in Bali to Nusa Penida, a popular tiny island near Bali, when it was overwhelmed by high waves, local police spokesperson Agus Widiono said.
The group was looking at underwater scenery when their boat was hit by a large wave that threw a 39-year-old woman, identified by police as Anna Maree, overboard. It was followed by a second wave that capsized the boat in Kelingking waters, Widiono said.
A nearby boat was rushed to rescue 12 survivors, including two local crews and two injured tourists from the choppy waters. Rescuers also found the body of Maree, the spokesperson said.
Survivors were treated at nearby health clinic and are in stable condition.
Maritime accidents have killed hundreds of people in Indonesia in recent years. Boats are often overcrowded, and safety regulations are poorly enforced. The vast archipelago country spans more than 17,000 islands with a population of 280 million, and boats are a popular and relatively cheap form of transportation.
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A teenager with a job making burritos became a powerful Minnesota lawmaker who trained service dogs
MINNEAPOLIS -- MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Melissa Hortman' s influence at the Minnesota Capitol and her power as a Democratic leader to shape the course of a deeply divided Legislature were a far cry from her job as a teenager making chili-cheese burritos and overshadowed her volunteer work training service dogs for veterans. She was a lifelong Minneapolis-area resident who went to college in Boston and then returned home for law school and, with degree fresh in hand, worked as a volunteer lawyer for a group fighting housing discrimination. Elected to the Minnesota House in 2004, she helped pass liberal initiatives like free lunches for public school students in 2023 as the chamber's speaker. With the House split 67-67 between Democrats and Republicans this year, she helped break a budget impasse threatening to shut down state government. Tributes from friends and colleagues in both parties poured in after Hortman and her husband were shot to death early Saturday in their suburban Brooklyn Park home in what authorities called an act of targeted political violence. Helping Paws, which trains service dogs, posted a message on its Facebook page, along with a 2022 photo of a smiling Hortman with her arm around Gilbert, a friendly-looking golden retriever trained to be a service dog and adopted by her family. 'Melissa Hortman was a woman that I wish everyone around the country knew,' U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a longtime friend and Democratic ally, said Sunday on ABC's 'This Week.' Klobuchar added: 'She was a true leader and loved her work, but was always so grounded and such a decent person. I think that's probably the best word to describe her. You look at her pictures and you know what she was about.' The killings of Hortman and her husband early Saturday followed the shootings and wounding of another prominent Minnesota lawmaker, state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, at their home in Champlin, another Minneapolis suburb. Hoffman is chair of the Senate committee overseeing human resources spending. A nephew posted Sunday on Facebook that the Hoffmans were out of surgery and recovering from multiple gunshot wounds. The Hortmans, the Hoffmans and other top Democrats had gathered at a downtown Minneapolis hotel Friday night for their party's annual Humphrey-Mondale dinner. It's named for two Minnesota liberal icons who served both as U.S. senators and vice presidents, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale. Minnesota Democrat and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said she saw both lawmakers at the dinner. 'So it feels so personal, because we're all very good friends, of course, to have that have happened so shortly after we were all together,' Smith said on CNN's 'Inside Politics Sunday.' Outside the state Capitol in St. Paul, a memorial to Hortman and her husband included flowers, candles, small American flags and a photo of the couple. Visitors left messages on Post-It notes commending Hortman's legislative work, including, 'You changed countless lives." Legislative colleagues described Hortman as funny, savvy and fiercely committed to liberal causes. When lawmakers convened in January with a vacancy in a Democratic seat in the House giving the GOP a temporary advantage, Hortman led a boycott of daily sessions for more than three weeks to force Republicans into a power-sharing arrangement. Republicans were intent this year on ending state health coverage for adult immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally, authorized in 2023 as part of a sweeping liberal program. Democrats wanted to keep it, and lawmakers began June — the last month of the 2025 budget year — without having passed a 2026-27 spending blueprint. Hortman helped negotiate a package that included a bill ending the state health coverage for adult immigrants on Jan. 1, 2026. She was the only House Democrat to vote for it last week— the 68th vote it needed to pass the chamber. She told reporters afterward that Republicans insisted on the bill, and Minnesota voters who gave the House an even partisan split expect the parties to compromise. But she acknowledged she worries about people who will lose their health insurance. 'I know that people will be hurt by that vote,' she said, choking up briefly before regaining her composure. 'We worked very hard to try to get a budget deal that wouldn't include that provision.' Hortman's earliest jobs didn't suggest that she'd become a power in Minnesota politics. The earliest job listed on her profile, when she was 16, was as a cook and cashier at a restaurant, where she made tacos and, 'most importantly, chili cheese burritos.' She also worked for caterers and was a runner at an auto parts store, putting inventory away and retrieving items for customers. Her husband, Mark, earned a physics degree from the University of North Carolina and later, a master's of business administration. He was the chief operating officer of an auto parts company for 10 years before co-founding a business consulting firm. He was active in Helping Paws and worked with homebuilding nonprofit Habitat for Humanity. They have an adult son and an adult daughter. Melissa Hortman earned a degree in philosophy and political science from Boston University, where she also worked as a residence assistant in one of its dormitories. She earned her law degree from the University of Minnesota, but also a master's of public administration from Harvard University. She served a decade on the board of a local nonprofit providing transportation and car repairs for low-income residents. She also was part of a committee in 2005 considering whether Minneapolis should submit a bid to host the Summer Olympics. 'We remember Melissa for her kindness, compassion, and unwavering commitment to making the world better,' Helping Paws said in its Facebook message.
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Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative
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Records show Boelter registered to vote as a Republican while living in Oklahoma in 2004 before moving to Minnesota where voters don't list party affiliation. Near the scene at Hortman's home, authorities say they found an SUV made to look like those used by law enforcement. Inside they found fliers for a local anti-Trump 'No Kings' rally scheduled for Saturday and a notebook with names of other lawmakers. The list also included the names of abortion rights advocates and health care officials, according to two law enforcement officials who could not discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said at a briefing on Sunday that Boelter is not believed to have made any public threats before the attacks. Evans asked the public not to speculate on a motivation for the attacks. 'We often want easy answers for complex problems,' he told reporters. 'Those answers will come as we complete the full picture of our investigation.' Friends told the AP that they knew Boelter was religious and conservative, but that he didn't talk about politics often and didn't seem extreme. "He was right-leaning politically but never fanatical, from what I saw, just strong beliefs,' said Paul Schroeder, who has known Boelter for years. Boelter, who worked as a security contractor, gave a glimpse of his beliefs on abortion during a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023. While there, Boelter served as an evangelical pastor, telling people he had first found Jesus as a teenager. 'The churches are so messed up, they don't know abortion is wrong in many churches,' he said, according to an online recording of one sermon from February 2023. Still, in three lengthy sermons reviewed by the AP, he only mentioned abortion once, focusing more on his love of God and what he saw as the moral decay in his native country. 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While living in Wisconsin, records show Boelter and his wife Jenny founded a nonprofit corporation called Revoformation Ministries, listing themselves as the president and secretary. After moving to Minnesota about a decade ago, Boelter volunteered for a position on a state workforce development board, first appointed by then-Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, in 2016, and later by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. He served through 2023. In that position, he may have crossed paths with one of his alleged victims. Hoffman served on the same board, though authorities said it was not immediately clear how much the two men may have interacted. Records show Boelter and his wife started a security firm in 2018. A website for Praetorian Guard Security Services lists Boelter's wife as the president and CEO while he is listed as the director of security patrols. 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'May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn't gone this way,' Boelter wrote. 'I don't want to say anything more and implicate you in any way because you guys don't know anything about this. But I love you guys and I'm sorry for the trouble this has caused.'
San Francisco Chronicle
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- San Francisco Chronicle
Iran renews missile attacks on Israel, killing 5 and wounding dozens
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