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Stock market today: Wall Street is higher ahead of speech by Federal Reserve’s head

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rising in early trading Friday ahead of a speech by the head of the Federal Reserve.The S&P 500 was up 0.4%, coming off its worst loss in three weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 163 points, or 0.5%, at 34,362, as of 9:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.The day’s headliner is Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who is giving a speech at an annual Fed event that’s been the site of big policy announcements in the past. The hope is that he’ll say the fall in inflation over the last year is encouraging and that the Fed may be done with hiking interest rates.But such hopes have been diminishing following a string of stronger-than-expected reports on the economy. They could be putting upward pressure on inflation, and the worry is that Powell at the least will say no cuts to rates are coming early next year, as some traders have bet. He is scheduled to speak at 10:05 a.m. Eastern time.The Fed has already hiked its main interest r...

Canada to join U.S. trade fight with Mexico over genetically modified corn products

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

WASHINGTON — Canada is siding with the United States in a burgeoning trade dispute over Mexico’s restrictions on products made with genetically modified corn. Trade Minister Mary Ng and Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay say Canada will take part in dispute resolution proceedings as a third party. Mexico imposed a ban in February on importing tortillas or dough made with biotech corn — a move its trading partners say is contrary to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. A dispute settlement panel under the terms of the deal, known in Canada as CUSMA, was announced last week by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. Tai and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack say the ban is not based on science and ignores clear evidence that genetically modified corn is safe. The U.S., where biotech varieties of corn and soy have been produced for decades, exports some 17 million tonnes of corn to Mexico each year. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he fears contaminating n...

West Virginia can restrict abortion pill sales, judge rules, despite FDA approval that it’s safe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia can restrict the sale of the abortion pill, despite federal regulators’ approval of it as a safe and effective medication, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Chambers determined Thursday that the near-total abortion ban signed by Republican Gov. Jim Justice in September 2022 takes precedence over approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “The Supreme Court has made it clear that regulating abortion is a matter of health and safety upon which States may appropriately exercise their police power,” Chambers wrote in a decision dismissing most challenges brought against the state by abortion pill manufacturer GenBioPro, Inc. in a January lawsuit filed in the state southern district’s Huntington division.Since the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that provided nationwide access to abortion, most GOP-controlled states have enacted or adopted abortion bans of some kind, ...

Ontario adds $160M to skills training funding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

Ontario is set to put $160 million toward skills training programs, prioritizing help for people on social assistance and people with criminal records.Labour Minister Monte McNaughton is set to announce the fourth round of funding through the Skills Development Fund on Friday.He says it’s aimed at giving at least 100,000 people free training in health care, auto manufacturing, IT, hospitality and skilled trades.The announcement brings the total for Skills Development Fund training to more than $860 million, with 596 projects in a variety of sectors supported so far.McNaughton says one million people in Ontario have a criminal record, with the majority for non-violent and petty crimes, and half of them are on social assistance even 15 years after being released.He says around 40 per cent of people with a criminal record can’t get a second interview when job hunting, so he is calling on organizations to submit proposals to help them find meaningful work while also addressi...

Firefighters in Greece discover another body, bringing this week’s death toll from wildfires to 21

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Authorities battling a major wildfire in northeastern Greece that has been described as the European Union’s largest single recorded fire recovered another body, the fire department said Friday, bringing the total death toll from wildfires in Greece this week to 21.The fire department said firefighters recovered the body of a man from the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park, which lies near the border with Turkey, on Thursday.Eighteen bodies were discovered Tuesday near a shack in an area near the northeastern city of Alexandroupolis, and the body of another person was found Monday in a forest. In central Greece, a man was found dead Monday in a sheep pen after reportedly trying to save his livestock from an advancing wildfire.With no reports of missing people in northeastern Greece, authorities suspect the people whose bodies were discovered in the area were migrants who may have crossed into the country recently from the nearby border with Turkey. Greec...

Texas prosecutor says he will not seek death penalty for man in slayings of 2 elderly women

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — A Texas prosecutor says he will not seek the death penalty for a man convicted of killing two elderly women and suspected of killing nearly two dozen total.“Billy Chemirmir is an evil person who preyed upon our most vulnerable citizens,” Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said in a statement Thursday.“Although he is certainly deserving of a death sentence, my decision … is informed by the fact that he has already been tried three times in another county and he will never be a free man again,” Willis said.The first murder trial of Chemirmir, 50, for the slaying of Lu Thi Harris, 81, ended in mistrial in Dallas County. He was later convicted in a second trial for Harris’ death and convicted of a second killing in the death of Mary Sue Brooks, 87.Chemirmir has maintained his innocence of the crimes.Authorities say Chemirmir preyed on older women, killing them and stealing their valuables.He was caught after a 91-year-old woman sur...

21-year-old dies following Fox Lake crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

FOX LAKE, Ill. — A man died following a crash Thursday night in Fox Lake.At around 9:40 p.m., authorities responded to a call of a crash on Route 12 near Route 59.Two vehicles were involved and a 21-year-old man died at the hospital.Both drivers had to be extricated from their vehicles. The other driver suffered non life-threatening injuries.

Dean's Weekender: 'The SpongeBob Musical,' the Jonas Brothers and more

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

Check out Dean's Weekender for the latest events happening in the Chicagoland area this weekend.Get Dean's reviews and A-List interviews delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for Dean's Downloads weekly newsletter. You'll also get his Dean Cooks recipes too!

What is Stockholm syndrome? It started 50 years ago with a bank robbery

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — It's a common term these days, deployed to describe the bond that victims of kidnappings or hostage situations sometimes develop with their captors: “Stockholm syndrome.” And it got its name 50 years ago this week, during a failed bank robbery in Sweden's capital.In this photo released by police, three of the four hostages and bank robber Clark Olofsson, standing right, are seen in a bank in Stockholm, Sweden, Aug. 27, 1973, shortly before the gunmen were overwhelmed by police. This week marks 50 years since a failed bank robbery that gave rise to the Stockholm syndrome, a term used in psychology to describe the bond that victims of kidnappings or hostage situations sometimes develop with their captors. (AP Photo, File)The Stockholm syndrome — initially dubbed “Norrmalmstorg syndrome,” after the square where the bank heist took place — has since been used in connection with hostage-takings around the world, including the kidnapping of newspaper heires...

Trump recounts 'terrible experience' of being booked in Georgia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:55:04 GMT

(The Hill) -- Former President Donald Trump said he had a “terrible experience” while being booked at the Fulton County jail Thursday night, surrendering after being charged on 13 counts related to seeking to overturn the 2020 election.Trump, in separate interviews with Fox News Digital and Newsmax just a short time after his arrest, described the process as “very sad” and uncomfortable as he recounted being processed and having his mugshot taken."They insisted on a mugshot, and I agreed to do that," he told Fox Digital. "This is the only time I’ve ever taken a mugshot.""It is not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong,” he added.Trump recounted his experience at length in an interview with Newsmax’s Greg Kelly after landing back in New Jersey.  Trump mugshot makes history after surrender at Fulton County jail Trump at one point claimed he’d “never heard the words mugshot” only to later find himself taking one. He quipped that they didn’t teach hi...