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Biden in Utah to mark anniversary of PACT Act expanding veterans benefits

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — President Joe Biden will mark the first anniversary of a law that is delivering the largest expansion of veterans benefits in decades on Thursday by showcasing the bipartisan PACT Act in the company of Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox.The Democratic president and GOP governor will visit the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center to promote a law that is intended to improve health care and disability compensation for exposure to toxic substances, such as burn pits that were used to dispose of trash on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 348,000 veterans have had their claims approved in the last year, and about 111,000 who are believed to have toxic exposure have enrolled in health care.The president is winding up a three-state western swing in which he has been combining events focused on achievements from his first term with campaign fundraisers aimed at helping him win a second. Both Biden and Cox have stressed the need...

Indictment shows White House lawyers struggling for control as Trump fought to overturn election

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A few hours after rioters laid siege to the Capitol, overpowering police in a violent attack on the seat of American democracy on Jan. 6, 2021, the White House’s top lawyer, Pat Cipollone, called his boss with an urgent message.It’s time to end your objections to the 2020 election, Cipollone told Donald Trump, and allow Congress to certify Joe Biden as the next president. Trump refused.Trump was no longer listening to his White House counsel, the elite team of attorneys who take an oath to serve the office of the president. But by all accounts, he hadn’t been listening to them for some time.The extraordinary moment — fully detailed for the first time in the latest federal indictment against Trump unsealed last week — vividly illustrates the extent to which the former president’s final weeks in office were consumed by a struggle over the law, with two determined groups of attorneys fighting it out as the future of American democracy hung in the balance.Trump’s...

Mar-a-Lago property manager and Trump’s aide are due back in court in the classified documents case

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — The property manager of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and an aide to the former president are due back in federal court in Florida on Thursday to face charges in the case accusing Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents at his resort after leaving the White House. Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager, is scheduled to be arraigned in Fort Pierce before a magistrate judge on charges including conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. De Oliveira made an initial appearance in court late last month but didn’t enter a plea because he hadn’t yet found a Florida-based attorney to represent him, as is required under court rules. Walt Nauta, a Trump aide, is expected to enter a plea for a second time in the case — this time on a new indictment with additional charges recently handed down. Nauta pleaded not guilty last month after the case was first brought in June. The former president was also sched...

2 robotaxi services seeking to bypass safety concerns and expand in San Francisco face pivotal vote

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California regulators are poised to decide whether two rival robotaxi services can provide around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco, despite escalating fears about recurring incidents that have caused the driverless vehicles to block traffic or imperil public safety.If the state’s Public Utilities Commission approves expansions sought by robotaxi services Cruise and Waymo in a vote scheduled Thursday, San Francisco will become the first major U.S. city with two fleets of driverless vehicles competing for passengers against ride-hailing and taxi services dependent on humans to operate the cars.It’s a distinction San Francisco officials don’t want, largely because of the headaches that Cruise and Waymo have been causing in the city while testing their robotaxis on a restricted basis during the past year.Although they have so far been able to drive millions of cumulative miles without causing any major accidents, the robotaxis have come to ...

A yearlong slowdown in US inflation may have stalled in July

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation in the United States likely rose in July for the first time in 12 months, driven higher by more expensive gasoline and suggesting that the fight against rising prices may prove bumpier in the months ahead.The inflation report the government will issue Thursday is expected to show that consumer prices increased 3.3% from 12 months earlier. That would mark an uptick from a 3% year-over-year increase in June — the lowest such figure in more than two years.On a month-to-month basis, consumer prices are thought to have risen 0.2% from June to July, the same as in the previous month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.A jump in energy prices was likely a major contributor to higher inflation in July. Gasoline prices have surged nearly 30 cents over the past month to a national average of $3.83 a gallon, according to AAA.Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices are expected to show a 4.8% rise in July over the pr...

Putin profits off global reliance on Russian nuclear fuel

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and its European allies are importing vast amounts of nuclear fuel and compounds from Russia, providing Moscow with hundreds of millions of dollars in badly needed revenue as it wages war on Ukraine.The sales, which are legal and unsanctioned, have raised alarms from nonproliferation experts and elected officials who say the imports are helping to bankroll the development of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal and are complicating efforts to curtail Russia’s war-making abilities. The dependence on Russian nuclear products — used mostly to fuel civilian reactors — leaves the U.S. and its allies open to energy shortages if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to cut off supplies. The challenge is likely to grow more intense as those nations seek to boost production of emissions-free electricity to combat climate change.“We have to give money to the people who make weapons? That’s absurd,” said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Washington-based Nonproliferation...

Anti-corruption Ecuadorian presidential candidate assassinated at campaign event

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

By GONZALO SOLANO and MEGAN JANETSKY (Associated Press)QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — An Ecuadorian presidential candidate known for speaking up against cartels and corruption was shot and killed Wednesday at a political rally in the capital, amid a startling wave of gang-driven violence in the South American country.President Guillermo Lasso confirmed the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio and suggested organized crime was behind his slaying, less than two weeks before the Aug. 20 presidential election.“I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Lasso said in a statement. “Organized crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law.”Ecuador’s attorney general’s office said that one suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight after the killing, and police detained six suspects following raids in Quito.In his final speech before he was killed, Villavicencio promised a roaring crowd that he would roo...

Shohei Ohtani bests SF Giants in rubber match loss

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

The San Francisco Giants’ final game in Anaheim was perhaps their most daunting one. They’d face likely American League MVP Shohei Ohtani not just as designated hitter, but as the starting pitcher.In an eventual 4-1 loss on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium, Ohtani wasn’t the Giants’ destroyer. An increasingly anemic offense did them in.The Giants couldn’t take advantage of a rare off-night for Ohtani, who couldn’t quite find his release point and struggled to locate his fastball. Meanwhile his counterpart, Sean Manaea, was pitching one of his most dominant outings of the season as the featured pitcher. With a one-run lead, the Giants looked like they could escape with a series victory behind their versatile left-handed pitcher.But the margin for error was too slim. Manaea had held the Angels hitless through four innings with six strikeouts until Luis Rengifo’s double to lead off the sixth inning.Reliever Tristan Beck couldn’t close the...

Air quality advisory issued as fire burns at Schnitzer Steel in Oakland

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

OAKLAND – As crews continued to battle a blaze at Schnitzer Steel near the Port of Oakland on Wednesday night, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District warned that heavy smoke from the fire could impact several East Bay cities and possibly even reach San Jose.In an advisory, the air district said winds were expected to push the smoke south and east into Oakland, San Leandro, Fremont and Alameda overnight Wednesday.“The air district is not forecasting an exceedance of the national air quality standard for the region and is not issuing a Spare the Air Alert,” the district said in the advisory.The air district urged residents who smell smoke to stay inside with windows and doors closed until smoke levels subside. Air conditioning units and vehicle ventilation systems should be set to re-circulate to keep smoke from moving inside, according to the air district.The blaze was reported shortly before 6 p.m. at Schnitzer Steel, said Michael Hunt, a spokesperson for the Oakland Fire Depa...

Perseid meteor shower expected to be visible this weekend in Bay Area

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:25 GMT

(KRON) -- One of two large annual meteor showers will be visible in the sky this weekend -- especially this year since the moon will be barely visible. Views of the Perseid meteor shower are expected to be spectacularAll you need to do is find a very dark place to watch the show. The Perseid meteor shower peaks this weekend and it’s even better this year For those who choose to stay up late this weekend and pick a dark spot with a clear view of the heavens, you are in for a treat that only comes around this time of year."Lay out a blanket. Maybe, bring yourself a hot toddy or something and just lay there for a couple of hours and just watch the sky -- the whole sky," said astronomer Gerald McKeegan.From late Saturday night until before dawn Sunday, the Chabot Space and Science Center says you should expect to see anywhere from 30 to 100 shooting meteors an hour.Pebble-sized rocks and dust from the Swift-Tuttle comet burn through the atmosphere to make up the annual Perseid meteor ...