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McCarthy: No movement on debt ceiling  

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday after meeting with President Joe Biden and Democratic congressional leaders that he “didn’t see any new movement” toward ending a months-long impasse over raising the nation’s borrowing limit. But he said they would reconvene Friday in hopes of averting a potential U.S. default by the federal government.Lawmakers and their staffs were to continue separate discussions as soon as Tuesday evening on the annual federal budget at Biden’s encouragement, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said, as Democrats signaled openness to some spending cuts as long as they were disconnected from the threat of default.“I asked the president this simple question, Does he not believe there’s any place we could find savings,” McCarthy told reporters outside the White House. “All I’m asking is that we spend the amount of money we spent five months ago.”The high-stakes Oval Off...

Orioles prospect Jackson Holliday adjusting to High-A Aberdeen with new goals: ‘I feel like I’m in a good spot’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

Jackson Holliday remembers being on the bus ride home from Fredericksburg, Virginia, after playing his last series with the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds. His father, a seven-time MLB All-Star, texted him asking for an update if he had been called up yet. “Not yet,” he replied.But when the bus arrived later that night on April 23, last year’s No. 1 overall draft pick got the call that he would be promoted to High-A Aberdeen.“It was cool,” Holliday said. “I guess he had a good sense for that. They were all excited.”Holliday joined the IronBirds for a road trip that lasted the next two weeks and is finally set to make his Aberdeen debut at Ripken Stadium against the Winston-Salem Dash on Tuesday night.Through those first 10 road games at the new level, Holliday, the Orioles’ top prospect still in the minor leagues, is slashing .297/.435/.459 with an .894 OPS. He has walked nine times and struck out 10.For Holliday, the transition boils down ...

FTX founder wants indictment thrown out

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

NEW YORK — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sought a dismissal of criminal charges against him in a court filing, saying prosecutors have improperly made federal crimes out of civil and regulatory issues that resulted from an industrywide collapse of cryptocurrency markets dubbed the “crypto winter.”Lawyers for the onetime head of a multibillion dollar cryptocurrency exchange said in papers in Manhattan federal court that the U.S. government had a “dramatic — and troubling” response to a broad market crash in cryptocurrency last year that affected every corner of the market.They said Bankman-Fried’s non-U.S. FTX company lasted far longer than others in the industry before it entered bankruptcy in November when the global exchange ran out of money after the equivalent of a bank run. A trial is tentatively set for the fall.Prosecutors alleged in December that Bankman-Fried cheated investors and looted customer deposits on FTX to make lavish real estate purch...

Tucker Carlson to launch new show on Twitter; ‘See you soon’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

On a raucous day in politics, Tucker Carlson added more fuel to the 2024 election fire by announcing he’s no longer going to remain on the sidelines.The ousted Fox News host said he’s launching a show on Twitter.“Twitter has long served as the place where our national conversation incubates and develops. Twitter is not a partisan site. Everybody is allowed here and we think that’s a good thing,” Carlson said in a video on his Twitter feed.“Starting soon we will be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter,” he added @TuckerCarlson. “See you soon.”This is a major coup for Elon Musk, who is struggling to keep Twitter relevant after buying it for $44 billion in October.Musk didn’t have much to say, yet, about Carlson’s show. He did agree with another Twitter commenter who pointed out the social media platform has become “the world’s number-one podca...

Remains of Sober Grid app founder identified in California

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Human remains found last month in Southern California have been identified as those of the Sober Grid app founder who disappeared in 2021, authorities said.The remains of Beau Mann were found on April 25 in the courtyard of an abandoned property in Santa Monica and were identified by the Los Angeles County coroner on May 6, the Santa Monica Police Department said in a statement Monday.The coroner’s office was trying to determine the cause of death, police said.Sober Grid is a social media-style app that provides peer support coaching, an online community and other resources to people in recovery from addition. It was founded in 2015.“Simply put — Beau was our light,” Sober Grid said in a statement. “After an experience in his early years with drugs and addiction, he turned his focus and passion towards helping others.” Mann was 39 when he was last heard from on Nov. 30, 2021, after he got into an Uber near Sober Grid’s Los Angeles office, acco...

4 staff leave Indianapolis-area school where kid ate vomit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

BROWNSBURG, Ind. (AP) — Four staff members at a suburban Indianapolis school have been fired or have submitted their resignations after a 7-year-old special education student was told to eat his own vomit.The board of the Brownsburg Community School Corp. approved the actions Monday night for the staff at Brown Elementary School.They are among five staff members the Hendricks County Prosecutor’s Office has charged with neglect or failure to report neglect after the February incident. The fifth, a behavioral technician, works for an outside agency and cannot be disciplined by the school district.A sixth staffer who does not face charges but who the school district said also did not report the incident, also has submitted a letter of resignation. That letter was not received in time to be acted upon during Monday’s meeting and will be discussed at a June board meeting.A teacher and an instructional aide at the school were charged with neglect. They as well as a second teacher, a secon...

Riverbank erosion prompts Wisconsin band to ask for emergency shutdown of Line 5

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

WASHINGTON — Heavy spring flooding has made Line 5 an “imminent threat” to Lake Superior and a key Indigenous watershed, lawyers argued Tuesday in an emergency motion to shut down the controversial cross-border pipeline. Lawyers for the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa filed their emergency motion Tuesday and asked District Court Judge William Conley to make a decision on it before the end of the week. The motion comes after a joint status report by both the band and the pipeline’s owner, Enbridge Inc., acknowledged extensive erosion last month that has brought the edges of the Bad River ever closer to the pipeline. That erosion has only continued with “alarming rapidity” in recent days, the motion says, with the river less than five metres away in several spots — and just 3.5 metres away in one specific area.“Erosion continues to progress … and important factors suggest that further bank loss could be significant, resulting in the exp...

Execution set for Florida man convicted of rapes and murders

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing and sexually assaulting a teenage girl and another woman in separate South Florida attacks in 1984 is set to be executed next month under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.Duane Owen’s execution is set for June 15 at 6 p.m. It’s the fourth execution scheduled in Florida this year after a break dating back to 2019. Donald Dillbeck was executed in February, and Louis Bernard Gaskin was executed in April. Darryl B. Barwick was executed earlier this month.The execution would be only the sixth under DeSantis, a far slower pace than recent Florida governors — and ahead of his widely expected presidential campaign.According to court records, Owen broke into a Delray Beach home in March 1984 and attacked 14-year-old Karen Slattery, who was babysitting two young children. Owen repeatedly stabbed the girl and then sexually assaulted her, investigators said. The young children weren’t injured.Abo...

Quebec tables new bill to crack down on Airbnb-style, short-term rentals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

QUEBEC — The Quebec government tabled a bill Tuesday that would require short-term rental companies to ensure their online listings are certified by the province.The legislation would make it illegal for anyone to advertise a short-term rental online without including the number and expiry date for their provincial certificate.Quebec’s bill is in response to calls from cities for limits on the number of Airbnb-style rentals, which have removed apartments from the long-term rental market and exacerbated housing shortages.The bill also comes after seven people died in March in a fire in an Old Montreal heritage building that had been housing illegal short-term rentals on Airbnb.After the fire, Airbnb said it would voluntarily remove all uncertified listings in Quebec from its online platform and require all new listings to have certificate numbers.The bill includes fines for online platforms of up to $100,000 for each illegal rental listing.This report by The Canadian Press was ...

White House eases COVID protocols as emergency lifts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:18:04 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pandemic-era rules on COVID-19 testing for White House journalists are being loosened as the public health emergency declaration expires Thursday. It’s another sign of how a vast web of policies designed to limit the spread of the virus is dissipating.As part of the shift, reporters will no longer be required to get tested for COVID-19 while covering events with President Joe Biden in Washington. The rules have applied to journalists who are in the pool, a rotating group that covers the president on behalf of the press corps.In addition, the White House won’t ask reporters whether they’re vaccinated.However, reporters will still need to take COVID-19 tests to fly on Air Force One or Air Force Two, which is used by Vice President Kamala Harris, or before interviews with key administration figures.The Associated Press