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Alaskans get a $1,312 oil dividend check this year. The political cost of the benefit is high

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Nearly every Alaskan will receive a $1,312 check starting this week, their annual share from the earnings of the state’s nest-egg oil fund. Some use the money for extras like tropical vacations but others — particularly in high-cost rural Alaska where jobs and housing are limited — rely on it for home heating fuel or snow machines that are critical for transportation.But the unique-to-Alaska benefit has become a blessing and a curse in a state that for decades has ridden the boom-bust cycle of oil, and it now competes for funding with services like public education, health care programs and public safety as lawmakers tap into the earnings to help fund the state budget. Squabbling over the oil checks’ size has resulted in legislative paralysis, and a Senate proposal aimed at resolving the dividend debate this year fizzled with no agreement.As Alaska struggles to attract workers and stem a years-long trend of people moving away, some residents are wondering...

A shooter who wounded 10 riders on a New York City subway is to be sentenced

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who sprayed a New York City subway car with bullets during rush hour, wounding 10 people and sparking a citywide manhunt, is set to be sentenced Thursday.Frank James, 64, pleaded guilty earlier this year to terrorism charges in the April 12, 2022, mass shooting aboard a Manhattan-bound train.Prosecutors have asked for a life sentence, saying James spent years carefully planning the shooting in order to “inflict maximum damage.”James’ attorneys have asked for a reduced sentence of 18 years, saying he didn’t intend to kill anyone and suffered from serious mental illness.Disguised as a construction worker, James waited until the train was between stations, denying his targets a chance to flee. Then he ignited multiple smoke bombs and unleashed a barrage of bullets from a 9 mm handgun at panicked riders in the crowded train car. The attack wounded victims ranging in age from 16 to 60 as the train pulled into a station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. As ...

Experts: Battery technology in Venice bus made it less prone to catastrophic fires

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

MILAN (AP) — Italy’s transport minister is questioning the spread of electric vehicle technology following the fiery crash of a fully electric shuttle bus that killed 21 people in mainland Venice. But the battery chemistry used by the Chinese bus maker makes it less prone to catastrophic fires, experts said. Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said the accident involving an electric bus that drove through an overpass guardrail during rush-hour Tuesday should be “cause for reflection.”“It is early to comment,’’ Salvini said, “But someone told me that electric batteries catch fire more quickly than other power sources. In a moment in when everything must be electric, there is cause for reflection.”Prosecutors have ordered an expert examination of the guardrail as one of several strands of the investigation, which is looking at such possible causes as a sudden illness to the driver, who was among the dead, or a risky road maneuver. The city-owned, fully electric bus was traveling on a ce...

Trudeau says he never suggested those worried about ‘parental rights’ are hateful

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he never suggested that individuals concerned about their rights as parents were hateful when he issued a statement in response to the thousands who attended recent protests about “gender ideology” in schools. Speaking to reporters at a housing announcement in Vaughan, Ont., Trudeau said the post he issued Sept. 20 on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, was about taking a stand for the LGBTQ+ community. Trudeau said in the post that “transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia have no place in this country,” adding that the country condemns “this hate and its manifestations.” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused him days later of “demonizing concerned parents.”And the Muslim Association of Canada called on Trudeau to retract and apologize for what it called the “deeply inflammatory” comment, saying Muslim parents who participated in the protests showed up ̶...

IMF chief says the global economy has shown resilience in the face of COVID, war and high rates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The global economy has shown “remarkable resilience’’ but still bears deep scars from the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and rising interest rates, the head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.“While the recovery from the shocks of the past few years continues, it is slow and it is uneven,’’ IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a speech in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, ahead of next week’s fall meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Global economic growth is likely to remain well below the 3.8% average of the past two decades and the world has lost $3.7 trillion in economic output from successive shocks since 2020, Georgieva said. The IMF releases its official growth forecasts Tuesday.The United States, she said, “is the only major economy where output has returned to its pre-pandemic path. The rest of the world is still below trend.’’ The poorest countries are suffering the most because they have a limited ability to “buffer their eco...

Stock market today: Wall Street falls as pressure from the bond market stays high

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is slipping Thursday, as pressure from the bond market stays high due to worries about a too-hot U.S. job market. The S&P 500 was 0.5% lower in afternoon trading, a day before a highly anticipated report on the job market that could sway the Federal Reserve’s view on interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 123 points, or 0.4%, to 33,008 as of 1:29 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower.Stocks have struggled since the summer under the weight of soaring Treasury yields in the bond market, which undercut stock prices and crimp corporate profits. Yields have leaped as traders acquiesce to a new normal where the Federal Reserve is likely to keep its main interest rate at a high level for a long time, as it tries to extinguish high inflation.Treasury yields wavered up and down Thursday after a report showed fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected. That’s a sign fewer...

Putin says hand grenade fragments found in bodies of victims in Wagner chief’s plane crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that fragments of a hand grenade have been found in the bodies of people who died in an August crash of Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane.Putin added that experts investigating the crash found no indication that the plane had suffered an “external impact.” All 10 people on board, including Wagner mercenary group chief Prigozhin, were killed.While Putin noted that the probe was still ongoing and stopped short of saying what caused the crash, his statement appeared to hint that the plane was brought down by an accidental grenade explosion.Prigozhin’s aborted rebellion in June marked the most serious challenge to Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades and eroded his authority.Exactly two months after the rebellion’s start, a plane carrying Prigozhin and his top lieutenants crashed on Aug. 23 while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg.The Associated Press

Suspect in helmeted motorcyclist’s stomping of car window in Philadelphia is jailed on $2.5M bail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man who prosecutors say was the helmeted motorist who stomped in the back window of a car in Philadelphia and waved a gun at the vehicle’s driver in a weekend assault that was recorded on video was in custody Thursday after bail was set at $2.5 million.Court records show Philadelphia resident Cody M. Heron, 26, was arraigned late Wednesday on charges that include aggravated and simple assault, reckless endangerment and terroristic threats in the attack Sunday night on a street near City Hall.The court docket indicated he would have to post 10% of the $2.5 million to be released. Heron did not have a lawyer named in court records or a listed phone number. A city police spokeswoman said Thursday that Heron was in custody but jail officials did not have a record of him having been processed there.Police arrested him late Tuesday night after the video was widely shared online and authorities sought the public’s help identifying the man.The video showed ...

Psychiatrist shortage denounced in aftermath of Quebec killing spree, coroner hears

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

MONTREAL — A Quebec doctor denounced to local health officials the severe lack of psychiatrists in a Montreal suburb, shortly after three men were gunned down by a man with mental health issues in August 2022.Psychiatrist Simon Roussel testified today in a coroner’s inquest into the shooting deaths of André Lemieux, Mohamed Belhaj and Alex Levis-Crevier, and into the police killing of the suspect, Abdulla Shaikh.Roussel told the inquest that he wrote a letter on Aug. 4, 2022, about the random killings, which he said revealed that patients in the Montreal suburb of Laval couldn’t be properly monitored because of a psychiatrist shortage.Shaikh, 26, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had previously been hospitalized in Laval, where he murdered Levis-Crevier on Aug. 3, 2022, when the 22-year-old was skateboarding on the street.The day before in Montreal, Shaikh shot and killed Lemieux and Belhaj, who were both outside.Roussel says he never received a reply to his lett...

The Biden administration says it is using executive power to allow border wall construction in Texas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:04:08 GMT

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration announced they waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction on Wednesday, marking the administration’s first use of sweeping executive power to pave the way for building more border barriers — a tactic used often during the Trump presidency.The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement on the U.S. Federal Registry with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas, which is part of a busy Border Patrol sector seeing “high illegal entry.” According to government data, about 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded in this region during the current fiscal year.“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, stated in the notice.The Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act ...