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Jury selection begins over 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue attack

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jury selection began Monday in the federal death penalty trial of a truck driver accused of shooting to death 11 Jewish worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.Robert G. Bowers, who is from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, faces 63 counts in the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue, where members of three Jewish congregations were holding Sabbath activities. The charges include 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death and 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death. Bowers, 50, could get the death sentence if convicted. He offered to plead guilty in return for a life sentence, but federal prosecutors turned him down even though Joe Biden pledged while campaigning for president three years ago that, if elected, he would work to end the federal death penalty. Bowers’ lawyers also recently said he has schizophrenia and structural and functional brain impairments.It ...

Hundreds of migrants reach Italian isle; 23 reported missing

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

ROME (AP) — With the return of calm seas, migrant smugglers launched a score of boats from Tunisia during the weekend and their passengers reached a tiny Italian island by the hundreds. A body was found in one of the boats, Italian news reports said, while survivors of two rescues said 23 persons were missing.Dozens of the migrants sat Monday morning near Lampedusa’s port awaiting transfer to the island’s overcrowded shelter or eventually to Sicily or the Italian mainland.Earlier Monday, a fishing boat off Lampedusa aided a distressed migrant boat that contained 34 people and a body, the Italian news agency ANSA said. Survivors reportedly told rescuers that some 20 fellow passengers were missing from the boat, which had set out from a Tunisian port on Saturday night.A few hours later, the Italian Coast Guard rescued 42 migrants from a boat foundering off Lampedusa after setting out Saturday night from Tunisia, ANSA said. Survivors told rescuers that three men were missing.The ...

Susan Rice, Biden’s top domestic policy adviser, departing

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that his top domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, will leave her post next month. As director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Rice had broad sway on the administration’s approach to health care, immigration and racial inequality. It was a surprising shift for Rice, a longtime Democratic foreign policy expert who served as President Barack Obama’s national security adviser and U.N. ambassador, the only person to serve in both positions. She worked closely with then-Vice President Biden in those roles and was on his short list to become his running mate during the 2020 campaign.“After more than two years of her steady leadership of the Domestic Policy Council — it’s clear: there is no one more capable, and more determined to get important things done for the American people than Susan Rice,” Biden said in a statement announcing her departure. Rice went into the job a flashpoint for Republican attacks dating back to th...

Tennessee lawmakers who faced expulsion to visit White House

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday plans to welcome to the White House the three Tennessee lawmakers who faced expulsion for participating in gun control protests at their statehouse. The episode has turned the lawmakers, known as the “Tennessee three,” into Democratic heroes. Vice President Kamala Harris already visited Nashville earlier this month to show her support.The statehouse protest took place days after the shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school where three children and three adults were killed. The three lawmakers — Rep. Justin Pearson, Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Gloria Johnson — approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn as protesters filled the galleries.The Republicans who control the Tennessee legislature called for their expulsion because they disrupted House proceedings. Pearson and Jones, both Black, were expelled, while Johnson was not. Pearson and Jones were later reinstated on an interim basis by local officials, ...

Banks are paying savers again after many years of low rates

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are finally reaping some benefit from keeping their money in the bank.Banks are paying up for savers’ deposits in a much bigger way than they have in more than a decade, based on recent earnings reports from the nation’s biggest banks. After a decade of low interest rates, the Federal Reserve has unleashed a rapid series of rate hikes to combat inflation, pushing up its benchmark rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%. That has prompted banks to pay higher interest on traditional savings products like money market funds, certificates of deposit and regular savings accounts. A 24-month CD, a common savings product for medium-term savers, is now carrying an average yield of 4.81%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That’s up from a 1.18% yield only a year ago. Further, non-bank names such as Apple are getting into the deposit game, giving savers even more options. Banks were initially slow to raise their payouts as the Fed raised rates be...

Suburban home invasion suspect allegedly punched K9 before being bitten, arrested

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

LAKE COUNTY, Ill. — A man accused of a home invasion allegedly punched a Lake County K9 before being bitten and arrested.On Sunday at around 8:30 p.m., authorities were dispatched to the 36200 block of North Old Creek Court, located in unincorporated Gurnee, for a possible home invasion.A 911 caller told authorities he was on FaceTime with a 36-year-old woman. While speaking to her, a man appeared in the video behind the woman. Police said she then screamed and the FaceTime call disconnected.Authorities arrived to the home and located the woman, who had been battered. Police believe a former acquaintance of the woman, Joshua Simmons, 34, of Dublin, Georgia, allegedly forced entry and struck her in the face and neck after taking her phone.Simmons allegedly fled on foot when police arrived and he was found in a three-seasons room of another home after a one-mile track with police K9 Dax, authorities said.K9 DaxPolice said Simmons refused to surrender and K9 Dax was deployed to try to ...

Owner, employees of New York midwife practice charged with distributing fake vaccine cards

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

(The Hill) -- The owner and two employees of a New York midwife practice have been charged with distributing fake vaccine cards, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced.Two nurse midwives at Sage-Femme Midwifery PLLC, one of whom is the owner, and a nurse at the practice face charges that they conspired to defraud the United States by enrolling the clinic as an authorized COVID-19 vaccine administration site and providing vaccination cards to unvaccinated people, according to the DOJ. They also allegedly destroyed vials of the COVID-19 vaccine that patients were meant to receive."Even though Sage-Femme was a small midwife practice, the defendants’ fraud turned it into one of the busiest vaccination sites in New York State, outpacing large, state-run vaccination sites," the DOJ said. Book ban list: These 13 titles are targeted most Two other individuals were separately charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering for...

Did Ed Sheeran song copy Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On'? Trial to decide

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Jury selection and opening statements are set to begin Monday in a trial that mashes up Ed Sheeran's “Thinking Out Loud” with Marvin Gaye's “Let's Get It On.”The heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye's co-writer of the 1973 soul classic, sued Sheeran, alleging the English pop star's hit 2014 tune has “striking similarities” to “Let's Get It On” and “overt common elements” that violate their copyright.The lawsuit filed in 2017 has finally made it to a trial that is expected to last a week in the Manhattan federal courtroom of 95-year-old Judge Louis L. Stanton.Sheeran, 32, is among the witnesses expected to testify.“Let's Get It On” is the quintessential, sexy slow jam that's been heard in countless films and commercials and garnered hundreds of millions of streams, spins and radio plays over the past 50 years. “Thinking Out Loud,” which won a Grammy for song of the year, is a much more marital take on love and sex.While the jury will hear the recordings of both s...

Chicago police identify young boy, cancel alert

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

CHICAGO — Chicago police have identified a young boy found in Austin.The boy, who is between 2 and 3 years old, was found in the 100 block of North Lotus Avenue, Chicago police said.Read more: Latest Chicago news headlinesAdditional information hasn't been released.

Former NICU babies reunite with hospital care teams, walk in 'graduation' ceremony

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:59:20 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A very special reunion happened at Q2 Stadium over the weekend. Former neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, babies and their families had the chance to reunite with the teams who cared for them in the hospital. The reunion was held Sunday at Q2 Stadium by the nonprofit Hand to Hold in partnership with St. David's HealthCare. There was also a graduation ceremony to celebrate former NICU babies of any age. Since many NICU babies have a long stay in the hospital, parents often form lifelong relationships with their doctors and nurses, the nonprofit said. For many who attended, the reunion allowed them to get together for the first time since the pandemic."They see their NICU nurses more than they do their own family members because they're in that NICU every day taking care of their child -- and so it's a very close bond that extends way past discharge," Rhonda Reed, director of the NICU at St. David's, said. This was the first citywide NICU reunion, where all health...