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Debt ceiling explained: White House, Republicans scramble for deal as default looms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, LISA MASCARO and COLLEEN LONG (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Thursday that “every hour matters” as his team scrambles to finalize a budget deal with the White House that would enable the government to avoid a potentially catastrophic default. The two sides have to strike a deal in a matter of days before the country runs out of cash to pay its bills. McCarthy’s team visited the White House on Wednesday for what both sides said was a productive session — but it still failed to produce an agreement as time runs out. House Republicans left town ahead of the holiday weekend while waiting for leaders to produce a bill.Republicans are insisting on spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit. Biden has come to the negotiating table after balking for months but says the GOP lawmakers will have to back off their “extreme positions.” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the co...

Red Sox notebook: Offense’s disappearing act fueling recent roller coaster run

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

Following the Red Sox over the past two weeks, it’s often felt like you’re watching two different clubs. One is a masher capable of piling on runs and crushing opponents under its boot, and the other a punchless outfit that seemingly can’t hit its way out of a wet paper bag.Unfortunately for Boston, we’ve seen a lot more of the latter lately.Since returning home from Atlanta, the Red Sox have gone 4-8 in their last 12 games, sandwiching a pair of four-game losing streaks around a four-game win streak. Though pitching has been the dominant narrative throughout that stretch — between Kenley Jansen’s uncharacteristic struggles and the intrigue surrounding the future of the starting rotation — the offense has ultimately driven the Red Sox recent success and failure.During Boston’s first four-game losing streak, the Red Sox scored five runs in their last three games, including just one run in their series finale against St. Louis and the following nigh...

DOJ expands anti-profiling rules to cover thousands more who work in justice system

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department issued new guidance Thursday emphasizing that investigations must be free from bias involving race and gender or against people with disabilities. Anti-profiling rules were also expanded to include thousands more people who work in the justice system. The guidelines obtained by The Associated Press are the first updates in nearly a decade and now cover thousands more people than before, including prosecutors, lawyers, analysts and contractors. They already applied to agents for Justice Department agencies such as the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration and local officers who work with them on task forces. Released on the third anniversary of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, the update also requires, for the first time, more extensive data collection measures that are intended to ensure the guidance is being followed.“We recognize that we have a responsibility to lead by example,” Attorney General Merrick G...

DeSantis pushes past embarrassing campaign start, outlines travel schedule for early state visits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday sought to push past an embarrassing beginning to his presidential campaign, outlining an aggressive travel schedule as his allies insisted they remain well funded and well positioned for a long Republican primary fight ahead.While DeSantis supporters privately acknowledged the bungled announcement was an unwelcome distraction, there was a broad sense — even among some Republican critics — that it would likely have limited long-term political consequences, if any at all.“Do they wish they could do it over again? Probably,” said David Oman, who managed two top-tier presidential campaigns in Iowa. “Will we be talking about it in 10 days? Probably not.”DeSantis formally launched his campaign Wednesday night during an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. But the audio stream crashed repeatedly, making it difficult for most users to hear the announcement in real time.On Thursday, the Republican governor announced plans ...

Johnston was already set to testify at committee before opposition demanded he appear

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s foreign interference watchdog David Johnston was already scheduled to testify before opposition MPs demanded his appearance in a letter this week, a parliamentary committee chair said Thursday.Liberal MP Bardish Chagger said at a hearing the House of Commons procedure committee invited Johnston to appear two months ago, and he is already scheduled to appear in less than two weeks. Opposition members of the committee wrote a letter this week demanding Johnston’s testimony after his first report on alleged foreign meddling was published Tuesday. The Conservative, NDP and Bloc Québécois MPs said they want the former governor general to explain why he decided against recommending a public inquiry on foreign meddling.Liberal MPs accused Conservatives of being irresponsible by implying that there was any reluctance on Johnston’s part to talk to the committee. “There is no lengths the opposition will not go to tarnish an individual’s reputati...

Debt limit talking: Biden mostly quiet in public, while McCarthy keeps making his case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — There was Kevin McCarthy, saying the White House was refusing to give on spending as the speaker returned to the Capitol one morning this week. Just a few hours later, there was McCarthy again, this time telling reporters that the sole concession that Republicans were making to the White House on the debt limit was in fact, simply to raise the debt limit, nothing else. As representatives from the White House and the GOP-controlled House labor toward a deal that would pave the way for lawmakers to lift the debt limit, one side has been eager to speak publicly about the closed-door talks — trying to shape public perceptions of the negotiations. It’s not the side that typically holds the bully pulpit. President Joe Biden has made a deliberate decision to go quiet as his team gets down to the wire in the debt-limit talks, according to White House officials. It’s his view that speaking in public about negotiations does nothing to produce an outcome. The volu...

Art professor arrested after threatening NY Post reporter with machete

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City artist and college professor who held a machete to a journalist’s neck and threatened to chop him up was arrested Thursday on charges of menacing and harassment, police said.The confrontation with a New York Post reporter at professor Shellyne Rodriguez’s apartment building on Tuesday came after the newspaper published a story about an earlier episode in which Rodriguez had cursed at anti-abortion activists at Hunter College, where Rodriguez was an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History.A widely circulated video of the May 2 Hunter College incident shows Rodriguez cursing at the anti-abortion activists and accusing them of “triggering” her students. In the video, Rodriguez asks, “What are you going to do, like anti-trans next?” and sweeps some of the anti-abortion pamphlets off the literature table.The Post ran a story about the incident Monday and sent a reporter and a photographer to Rodriguez’s Bronx ...

Human remains found off Hwy. 26 in Wasaga Beach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

Provincial police are investigating after human remains were found in the Town of Wasaga Beach.Investigators say around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, members of a land surveying company discovered the remains while working in an area off Highway 26.Police say the remains are confirmed to be human but released no further details as to whether they were male, female or that of a youth.A post-mortem is being conducted to identify the remains and determine the exact cause of death. An increased police presence should be expected in the area, OPP said.

Attorney demands firing of Mississippi police officer after 11-year-old boy is shot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi police officer who shot and wounded an unarmed 11-year-old Black boy in the child’s home should be fired, an attorney for the child’s mother said Thursday.The child, Aderrien Murry, was hospitalized five days for a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and fractured ribs after an Indianola Police Department officer shot him in the chest early Saturday, attorney Carlos Moore said. Aderrian returned home to Indianola on Wednesday.“We are demanding justice,” Moore said during a protest that his law office showed on livestream video.“An 11-year-old Black boy in the city of Indianola came within an inch of losing his life,” Moore said at Indianola City Hall. “He had done nothing wrong and everything right.”Aderrien’s mother, Nakala Murry, said her son is “blessed” to be alive but he does not understand why an officer shot him.“This was the worst moment in my life and I feel like nobody cares. That’s my child, y’all,&...

Remains of 5 more Native American children to be disinterred in Pennsylvania

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:24:41 GMT

CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) — The remains of five more Native American children who died at a notorious government-run boarding school in Pennsylvania over a century ago will be disinterred from a small Army cemetery and returned to descendants, authorities said Thursday.The remains are buried on the grounds of the Carlisle Barracks, home of the U.S. Army War College. The children attended the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to assimilate to white society as a matter of U.S. policy.The Carlisle school put children through harsh conditions that sometimes resulted in their deaths. Founded by an Army officer, the school cut their braids, dressed them in military-style uniforms and punished them for speaking their native languages. European names were forced upon them.The Office of Army Cemeteries said the latest disinterment of remains will take place beginning Sept. 11. It will be the sixth such disinter...