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Stock market today: Asian markets mixed as US government debt talks push toward brink of default

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

NEW YORK — Asian markets were mixed Friday as a deadline loomed for Congress to reach a deal on the U.S. government debt or face a potentially calamitous default. Tokyo and Seoul rose while Shanghai and Sydney fell. Hong Kong was closed for a holiday. U.S. futures slipped and oil prices also declined. Talks on raising the U.S. debt ceiling continued Thursday while lawmakers left town for the Memorial Day holiday weekend just days before the U.S. could face an unprecedented default.Republican are demanding spending cuts the Democrats oppose as their price for raising the legal debt limit. At the Capitol, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said “every hour matters” in talks with President Joe Biden’s team as they try to work out a budget agreement.But markets are whirling from various factors, and on Thursday, enthusiasm over artificial intelligence pushed share prices higher despite the potential crisis brewing in Washington.Tech company shares rose in Asia, too, where Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 g...

Supreme Court limits regulation of some US wetlands, making it easier to develop and destroy them

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

The U.S. Supreme Court has stripped federal agencies of authority over millions of acres of wetlands, weakening a bedrock environmental law enacted a half-century ago to cleanse the country’s badly polluted waters.A 5-4 majority significantly expanded the ability of farmers, homebuilders and other developers to dig up or fill wetlands near rivers, lakes and streams, finding the government had long overreached in limiting such activities.The ruling Thursday may nullify key parts of a rule the Biden administration imposed in December, which two federal judges already had blocked from being enforced in 26 states. It’s the latest turn in a decades-old struggle by courts and regulators to determine which waters are subject to protection under the Clean Water Act.Some experts say the battle over wetlands now may shift to states, with red and blue states writing laws that take dramatically different approaches. The high court’s decision follows one in 2022 curtailing federal power to...

Always wanted a lighthouse? US is giving some away, selling others at auction

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Ten lighthouses that for generations have stood like sentinels along America’s shorelines protecting mariners from peril and guiding them to safety are being given away at no cost or sold at auction by the federal government.The aim of the program run by the General Services Administration is to preserve the properties, most of which are more than a century old. The development of modern technology, including GPS, means lighthouses are no longer essential for navigation, said John Kelly of the GSA’s office of real property disposition. And while the Coast Guard often maintains aids to navigation at or near lighthouses, the structures themselves are often no longer mission critical.Yet the public remains fascinated by the beacons, which are popular tourist attractions and the subject of countless photographers and artists.“People really appreciate the heroic role of the solitary lighthouse keeper,” he said, explaining their allure. “They were really the inst...

Indiana doctor reprimanded for talking publicly about Ohio 10-year-old’s abortion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana board decided Thursday night to reprimand an Indianapolis doctor after finding that she violated patient privacy laws by talking publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from neighboring Ohio.The state Medical Licensing Board voted that Dr. Caitlin Bernard didn’t abide by privacy laws by telling a newspaper reporter about the girl’s treatment in a case that became a political flashpoint in the national abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.The board, however, rejected accusations from Indiana’s Republican attorney general that Bernard violated state law by not reporting the child abuse to Indiana authorities. Board members chose to fine Bernard $3,000 for the violations, turning down a request from the attorney general’s office to suspend Bernard’s license.Bernard has consistently defended her actions, and she told the board on Thursday that she followed Indiana’s reporting require...

South Carolina school bus crash sends 18 people including several students to hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

GILBERT, S.C. (AP) — A school bus collided with a tanker truck Thursday in South Carolina, sending at least 18 people, mostly children, to the hospital, authorities said.The bus was carrying 36 passengers when it collided with the tanker at about 4 p.m. at an intersection near Gilbert in Lexington County, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol.At least 17 children and one adult were taken to Lexington Medical Center for treatment, the hospital told WIS-TV.There was no immediate information on their conditions or the cause of the crash.The bus passengers were from Gilbert Middle School and Gilbert High schools.Gilbert is about 30 miles (49 km) southwest of South Carolina’s capital of Columbia.The Associated Press

Police in northern Peru port seize cocaine packets with Nazi flag printed on the outside

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peruvian anti-drug police seized 58 one-kilo packages of cocaine Thursday bearing a picture of a Nazi flag on the outside and the name Hitler printed in low relief.The discovery occurred in the port of Paita, on Peru’s northern Pacific coast close to its border with Ecuador. The drugs were hidden inside a shipping container carrying asparagus on the Liberian-flagged vessel SC Anisha R that had earlier anchored in the Ecuadorian port of Ecuador, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press. It said the shipment was destined for a port in Belgium.The Peruvian police’s anti-drug directorate showed videos and photographs to AP revealing that the drugs were inside the ventilation system of a container. Police continued to search the more than 80 containers on the vessel.Peruvian authorities have previously reported finding cocaine in brick-shaped packages with various and strange symbols, but never with one of the flag of Nazi Germany.Authorities ...

Rare James M. Cain story ‘Blackmail’ published for first time

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — PLEASE SEND FRIDAY JUST AFTER MIDNIGHTThe characters are pure noir: Pat, a “dark, heavily handsome thick-shouldered” young man; Myra, a “cheesecakey” woman whose “thick blonde hair” fell “off her bare head to brilliant brassy effect.”And they talk the way crime fiction characters used to talk, as crafted by James M. Cain, in a short story rarely seen until now. “Hello there,” she said. “Hiya.”“You looking for someone?”“Sure am. For Johnsie.”“He just now left.“In the taxi?”“For the concert. He likes egghead music.”Cain’s “Blackmail” is featured in the new issue of Strand Magazine, a quarterly which has unearthed obscure works by Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Shirley Jackson and many others. Written over the latter part of his life and left unpublished, “Blackmail” tells of a blind Korean War veteran known as Johnsie; Pat, the former comrade who now employs him; and Myra, a woman from the past with some hard-boiled ideas about money, and love.“H...

Deadline looming, Biden and McCarthy narrow in on budget deal to lift debt ceiling

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days from a deadline, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are narrowing in on a two-year budget deal aiming to curb federal deficits in exchange for lifting the nation’s debt ceiling and staving off an economically devastating government default.The Democratic president and Republican speaker hope to strike a budget compromise this weekend. With Republicans driving for steep cuts, the two sides have been unable to agree to spending levels for 2024 and 2025. Any deal would need to be a political compromise, with support from both Democrats and Republicans to pass the divided Congress.But the budget flow isn’t the only hang-up. A person familiar with the talks said the two sides are “dug in” on whether or not to agree to Republican demands to impose stiffer work requirements on people who receive government food stamps, cash assistance and health care aid, some of the most vulnerable Americans. Yet both Biden and McCarthy expressed optimi...

As legislative session draws to a close, schools still need state funding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- With the legislative session ending soon, there is a lot of attention on school funding.Heading into the session, school districts had high hopes that lawmakers would increase the basic allotment, helping students and teachers in districts across the state, but now many who have pushed for more funding are upset.”The state is woefully underfunding our public schools,” said Ovidia Molina, Texas State Teachers Association President. ”We had hopes that with a $33 billion budget surplus, that something would be done to keep our educators in the profession.”Many districts have made moves to increase salaries as inflation and cost of living have increased around Central Texas.Earlier this month Austin ISD increased salaries by 7% after struggling to keep teachers in the district.Leander ISD is also looking to increase salaries, but the district will wait to see what happens in the legislature. Texas Senate committee advances teacher pay bill with addition of school vouc...

Lynx drop to 0-3 with loss in Phoenix

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:07 GMT

Minnesota’s third consecutive loss to open the 2023 campaign couldn’t be blamed on one specific quarter.In a battle between 0-2 teams, the Lynx simply appeared to be the inferior team. Minnesota was out-played for much of its ___ loss Thursday in Phoenix at the hands of the previously winless Mercury.And the problems facing the Lynx in the loss weren’t all that easily correctable. Minnesota isn’t good enough defensively, as evidenced by Phoenix’s 50-point first half. Diana Taurasi finished with 23 points and 10 assists, while Brittney Griner added 19 points and eight in her third game back with the Mercury after missing all of last season while she was detained in Russia.Phoenix (1-2) shot 49 percent from the field and 46 percent from deep.And Minnesota simply doesn’t have the offensive weapons to counteract that kind of punch. Aerial Powers — who played single-digit minutes in each of the Lynx’s first two contests — led the way ...