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Bail bondsman charged alongside Trump in Georgia becomes the first defendant to take a plea deal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A bail bondsman charged alongside former President Donald Trump and 17 others in the Georgia election interference case pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges on Friday, becoming the first defendant to accept a plea deal with prosecutors.As part of the deal, Scott Graham Hall will receive five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.Hall, 59, pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties, all misdemeanors. Prosecutors had accused him of participating in a breach of election equipment in rural Coffee County and initially charged him with racketeering and six conspiracy charges.He is one of the lower-level players in the indictment filed last month alleging a wide-ranging scheme to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory and keep the Republican Trump in power. But the plea deal nonetheless is a major development in the case and marks a win for Fulton County District At...

A doctor caught in the crossfire was among 4 killed in a gunbattle at a hospital in Mexico

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hitmen stormed a hospital in northern Mexico in a bid to kill a patient but they clashed with other gunmen already inside, sparking a gun battle that left four people dead, including a doctor apparently caught in the crossfire, police said Friday.Three gunmen tried to storm the hospital in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan near midnight Thursday to carry out a hit, but two of them were killed in a gunbattle with armed people already inside the hospital, state police said.A doctor was killed in the exchange of fire, as apparent “collateral damage,” state Police Chief Gerardo Mérida said. A third assailant was wounded.Mérida did not say why there were people with weapons inside the private hospital, or whether they were bodyguards for a person being treated there. He said both groups were “criminals.”“They tried to carry out a supposed execution inside, and there was an exchange of gunfire,” he said.The third wounded assailant scuffled with a police officer as h...

S&P/TSX composite down, U.S. stock markets mixed

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

Canada’s main stock index closed down by almost 50 points, while U.S. stock markets were mixed on the final trading day of what has been a difficult month for investors.The S&P/TSX composite index was down 49.47 points at 19,541.27.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 158.84 points at 33,507.50. The S&P 500 index was down 11.65 points at 4,288.05, while the Nasdaq composite was up 18.05 points at 13,219.32.The day’s trading closed out the third quarter of 2023 and marked the end of what has been a volatile September for markets. The S&P/TSX composite has declined more than three-and-a-half per cent since the end of August, as investors grappled with a growing sense that interest rates may not be coming down anytime soon.Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated it may not reduce rates by as much as investors previously anticipated. The higher-for-longer mentality is putting pressure on global bond markets and spurring worries that the economy ...

Rounded up! South Dakota cowboys and cowgirls rustle up hundreds of bison in nation’s only roundup

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

South Dakota cowboys and cowgirls rounded up a herd of more than 1,500 bison Friday as part of an annual effort to maintain the health of the species, which has rebounded from near-extinction. Visitors from across the world cheered from behind wire fencing as whooping horseback riders chased the thundering, wooly giants across hills and grasslands in Custer State Park. Bison and their calves stopped occassionally to graze on blond grass and roll on the ground, their sharp hooves stirring up dust clouds. “How many times can you get this close to a buffalo herd?” said South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Secretary Kevin Robling, who was among 50 riders herding the animals. “You hear the grunts and the moans and (see) the calves coming and running alongside mamas.”Custer State Park holds the nation’s only Buffalo Roundup once a year to check the health of the bison and vaccinate calves, park Superintendent Matt Snyder said. As many as 60 million bison, sometimes called buffalo in th...

New York City area gets one of its wettest days in decades, as rain swamps subways and streets

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Rain walloped the New York metropolitan area with a startling punch Friday, knocking out several subway and commuter rail lines, stranding drivers on highways, flooding basements and shuttering a terminal at LaGuardia Airport in one of the city’s wettest days in decades.As much as 6.7 inches (17 cm) of rain had fallen in parts of Brooklyn by midday, with at least one spot seeing 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) in a single hour, according to weather and city officials. The 6 inches (15 cm) of rain at John F. Kennedy Airport surpassed a record set during Hurricane Donna in September 1960, the National Weather Service said. And more downpours were expected. The deluge came two years after the remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped record-breaking rain on the Northeast and killed at least 13 people in New York City, mostly in flooded basement apartments. Although no deaths or severe injuries have been reported so far from Friday’s storm, it stirred frightening memories ...

NATO beefs up its Kosovo force as the US worries about a buildup of Serb troops in the area

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — NATO announced Friday that it is beefing up its troop presence in Kosovo after four people were killed in a weekend shootout and as the U.S. expressed concern about a buildup of Serbian forces along the border of its former territory.Kosovo’s prime minister welcomed NATO’s decision, saying that Sunday’s attack, involving around 30 gunmen, is a new sign that Serbia wants to destabilize its former southern province with the help of ally Russia.“These people want to turn back time,” Prime Minister Albin Kurti told The Associated Press. “They are in search of a time machine. They want to turn the clock back by 30 years. But that is not going to happen.”NATO launched a bombing campaign on Serb positions to halt a crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and end their 1998-99 war. The war left around 10,000 people dead, mostly Kosovo Albanians.Earlier on Friday, Kosovo police raided several locations in a Serb-dominated area ...

Airlines claim passenger safety at risk under new passenger rights rules

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

MONTREAL — Aviation companies are making the pitch to Ottawa that stricter rules designed to boost customer compensation and improve service could put passenger safety at risk — an argument consumer advocates reject as “ridiculous.”The push, made in regulatory submissions and meetings on Parliament Hill, comes on the heels of sweeping reforms to the passenger rights charter announced in April and currently being hashed out by Canada’s transport regulator before going into effect next year.The changes appear to scrap a loophole through which airlines have denied customers compensation for flight delays or cancellations when they were required for safety purposes. The sector wants that exemption restored, and says it doesn’t want pilots to feel pressured to choose between flying defective planes and costing their employer money.“We want our pilots to be entirely free from any financial consideration when they take a safety-related decision,” WestJet...

Stock market today: Wall Street wraps its miserable September with another weak finish

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street closed out its worst month and quarter of the year with more losses on Friday. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% after a gain from the morning withered, and the majority of stocks within the index sank. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 158 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite edged higher by 0.1%.Solid gains for stocks early on faded as pressure built from within the bond market. After easing earlier in the day on encouraging signals about inflation, Treasury yields got back to rising as the day progressed.The yield on the 10-year Treasury yield returned to 4.58%, where it was late Thursday, after dipping to 4.52%. It’s again near its highest level since 2007. Treasurys are seen as some of the safest investments possible, and when they pay higher yields, investors are less likely to pay high prices for stocks and other riskier investments. That’s a big reason why the S&P 500 dropped 4.9% in September to drag what had been a big gain for the...

Baton Rouge officers charged for allegedly covering up excessive force during a strip search

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The scandal-plagued Baton Rouge Police Department has arrested three of its own officers, including a deputy chief, and charged them with trying to cover up excessive force during a strip search inside a department bathroom, the police chief announced Friday.The department is under intensifying scrutiny as the FBI opened a civil rights investigation last week into allegations that officers assaulted detainees in an obscure warehouse known as the “ Brave Cave.” The officers who were arrested Thursday were part of the same since-disbanded street crimes unit that ran the warehouse. “Lets be crystal clear, there is no room for misconduct or unethical behavior in our department,” Chief Murphy Paul said at a news conference Friday. “No one is above the law.”The findings announced Friday stemmed from one of several administrative and criminal inquiries surrounding the street crimes unit. In one case under FBI scrutiny, a man says he was taken to the warehouse and be...

IRS contractor charged with leaking tax return information of wealthy people

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:11 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service was charged Friday with leaking tax information to news outlets about a government official and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people. Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., is accused of stealing the tax return information and giving it to two different news outlets between 2018 and 2020, the Justice Department said in a statement. Littlejohn declined to comment. The Associated Press also reached out to his attorney. Both organizations, which are not named in charging documents, published numerous articles describing the tax information, charging documents state. Some of the information dated back more than 15 years. Littlejohn is charged with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted. The IRS declined to comment specifically on the case, but Commissioner Danny Werfel said “any disclosure of taxpayer info...