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Biden and Sunak hold White House talks on daunting challenges to Ukraine, world economy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

By AAMER MADHANI and SEUNG MIN-KIM (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched wide-ranging talks at the White House on Thursday by vowing that they would work in lockstep as the globe tries to adapt to a period of rapid economic, political and technological change.The leaders’ Oval Office talks were expected to cover the war in Ukraine, China, economic security, international cooperation on regulating the growing field of artificial intelligence, and more. Biden and Sunak have already had four face-to-face meetings since Sunak became prime minister in October, but the talks in Washington will offer the two leaders a chance for their most sustained interaction to date.“We will put our values front and center,” Biden said.Sunak reflected on the significant conversations that their respective predecessors have had over the years in the Oval Office and acknowledged that both he and Biden were facing the...

Senate release $586 million tax relief plan that avoids changes to tax cap law

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

Senate Democrats rolled out a $586 million tax relief proposal Thursday that boosts several housing-related initiatives but steers clear of significant changes to Massachusetts’ tax-cap law and short term capital gains tax.Tax relief has been one of the few major talking points on Beacon Hill this legislative session after efforts to push a bill forward fizzled out last year when the state was required to send billions back to taxpayers under the state’s tax cap law known as Chapter 62F.Senators plan to debate their proposal on June 15. Amendments are due Monday by 5 p.m.Senators proposed increasing the cap on rental deductions from $3,000 to $4,000 and initially boosting the statewide Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) cap from $10 million to $57 million before settling on $30 million annually.HDIP provides a real estate tax exemption and tax credits for building new housing or rehabilitating old properties in gateway cities. It was one feature of Healey’s $750 million ta...

Adam Montgomery, accused of killing daughter, 5, convicted on unrelated gun charges

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A New Hampshire man charged with murder in connection with the disappearance of his 5-year-old daughter was convicted of unrelated gun charges Thursday.A jury found Adam Montgomery guilty of six charges: two counts each of being an armed career criminal, receiving stolen property, and theft. The Hillsborough County jury in Superior Court got the case Wednesday afternoon after a trial that lasted several days.Montgomery was accused of having a shotgun and a rifle, even though he has multiple felony convictions in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He pleaded not guilty. His lawyers said that the prosecution’s case relied on lies from other witnesses and that police reached the wrong conclusion.A sentencing date has not been set.Regarding his daughter, Harmony Montgomery, Montgomery pleaded not guilty in October to second-degree murder, falsifying physical evidence and abuse of a corpse charges. Authorities allege that he killed Harmony by repeatedly striking he...

E-bikes found in East Village shed fire

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The City of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department responded to a structure fire on 16th Street in East Village on Thursday morning. At 4:45 a.m., firefighters say they found a multi-level building with smoke rising. SDFD says the blaze started in a shed adjacent to the building. All occupants of the building exited on their own, according to SDFD. The incident prompted authorities to detour traffic in the area. The State Route 94 ramp near F Street was shut down by California Highway Patrol while crews were fighting the fire.All lanes have since been reopened.SDFD says the blaze was knocked down at about 5 a.m. and there were no injuries reported in connection to this incident.  A fire chief confirmed to FOX 5 that the probable cause of the fire is batteries from e-bikes and scooters, however, the matter is still under investigation.

Poor air quality from Canadian wildfires affects people as far as away as North Carolina

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — On air quality maps, purple signifies the worst of it. In reality, it’s a thick, hazardous haze that’s disrupting daily life for millions of people across the U.S. and Canada, blotting out skylines and turning skies orange.With weather systems expected to barely budge, the smoky blanket billowing from wildfires in Quebec and Nova Scotia and sending plumes of fine particulate matter as far away as North Carolina and northern Europe should persist into Thursday and possibly the weekend.That means at least another day of a dystopian-style detour that’s chased players from ballfields, actors from Broadway stages, delayed thousands of flights and sparked a resurgence in mask wearing and remote work — all while raising concerns about the health effects of prolonged exposure to such bad air.The weather system that’s driving the great Canadian-American smokeout — a low-pressure system over Maine and Nova Scotia — “will probably be hanging around at le...

LBJ’s daughter Luci watched him sign voting rights bill, then cried when Supreme Court weakened it

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Luci Baines Johnson was a somewhat impatient 18-year-old on Aug. 6, 1965, when she happened to be on what she called “daddy duty,” meaning “I was supposed to accompany him to important occasions.”The occasion that day was President Lyndon Johnson’s scheduled signing of the Voting Rights Act, which Congress had passed the day before. She assumed the ceremony would be in the East Room of the White House, where the Civil Rights Act had been signed the previous year.“And that would probably take an hour and then I could be on my way,” she recalled in a recent interview from the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. Instead, her father met her and guided her to the South Portico, where the presidential motorcade was waiting. They were going to Congress.Knowing a trip to Capitol Hill would take more time than she anticipated, she asked why.“‘We are going to Congress because there are going to be some courageous men and women who may not be returning to Congress b...

Officials: Devastating 2021 Colorado blaze caused by smoldering fire outside home and power lines

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Embers from a smoldering scrap wood fire outside a home days earlier and a sparking power line caused a Colorado wildfire fanned by high winds that destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and left two people dead, authorities said Thursday.The Dec. 30, 2021, blaze in heavily populated suburbs between Denver and Boulder caused $2 billion in damage, making it the most destructive in Colorado history. Two people were also found dead after what was known as the Marshall Fire.The inferno erupted following months of drought amid a winter nearly devoid of snow and fed on bone-dry grassland surrounding fast-growing development in the area near the Rocky Mountain foothills. It spread rapidly in winds that gusted up to 100 mph (160 kph) in places.There is no evidence to support criminal charges against anyone for the fire, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said at a news conference.The scrap wood fire — buried by residents Dec. 24 and OK’d by firefighters who stopped by th...

US says it has suspended all food aid to Ethiopia after investigation finds supplies were diverted

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United States Agency for International Development says it has suspended all food aid to Ethiopia, Africa’s second most-populous country, after an internal investigation found supplies intended for needy people were being diverted on a “widespread” scale. It did not say by whom.“After a country-wide review, USAID determined, in coordination with the government of Ethiopia, that a widespread and coordinated campaign is diverting food assistance from the people of Ethiopia,” the agency said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press on Thursday.“As a result, we made the difficult but necessary decision that we cannot move forward with distribution of food assistance until reforms are in place.”The U.S. is the biggest single donor to Ethiopia, providing $1.8 billion in humanitarian assistance, including food aid, in the 2022 fiscal year. In total, 20 million people across Ethiopia rely on aid because of conflict and drought, out of a total population...

Ex-national security adviser to PM unsurprised Chong memo didn’t reach politicians

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

OTTAWA — A former top adviser to the prime minister says a memo warning about Beijing’s alleged targeting of Conservative MP Michael Chong was produced after he retired, but he was aware of issues in the way intelligence is handled. Vincent Rigby appeared this morning at a parliamentary committee that is investigating allegations that MPs were targeted by foreign interference.His testimony comes after the release of watchdog David Johnston’s first report, which found there are serious issues with the way the government handles confidential information.Former public safety minister Bill Blair blamed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service last week for the fact he did not receive the 2021 classified memo about Chong.Rigby says that during his tenure, he was concerned about intelligence being appropriately followed up on, but he says he can’t speak to what specifically happened with Blair’s office or the memo.Current adviser Jody Thomas said last week the me...

Expulsions, walkouts, filibusters: Lawmakers grapple with acrimonious legislative sessions

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:37 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Lawmakers this year have kicked rival colleagues out of office in Tennessee and off the chamber floor in Montana. They have staged walkouts in Oregon and filibusters in Nebraska, where interactions are so fraught that some lawmakers say they’re unsure they can work together anymore.In a year of outsized acrimony at statehouses, it would be wrong to say tensions have never been worse. Legislatures have seen fistfights, unpopular members hounded from office, mass expulsions and even armed confrontations.Experts say what’s different now is that politics can reward sparring and punish bipartisanship, making reelection tougher for those who seek compromise.Lawmakers “recognize that the general electorate would prefer that they compromise, but they think that the primary electorate wants them to oppose it,” said Laurel Harbridge-Yong, a Northwestern University political scientist.Civility can crumble when lawmakers draw gerrymandered districts or make voting rules ...