Month: February 2024

By Missouri Independent via My Courier-Tribune Political candidates who make national headlines — and those who may only be known in their hometown — descended on Jefferson City on Tuesday morning for the first day of a month-long window to file to run for office in Missouri. To run for office, candidates have no choice

By Associated Press RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Aid convoys carrying food reached northern Gaza this week, Israeli officials said Wednesday, the first major delivery in a month to the devastated, isolated area, where the U.N. has warned of worsening starvation among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians amid Israel’s offensive. The increasing alarm over hunger across

By Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appeared torn Wednesday about a challenge to a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory that allows semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns and was used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The high court is weighing whether the Trump administration

By Associated Press NEW YORK — White powder was found Wednesday in an envelope addressed to the New York judge who ordered Donald Trump to pay a $454 million civil fraud judgment. It’s the latest security scare involving people in key roles in the former president’s legal cases. A court officer screening mail at Judge

By Associated Press Severe storms that appear to have spawned a rare February tornado outbreak sent sleeping Midwesterners scrambling for safety and left a trail of damage and power outages across four Great Lakes states, including the Chicago suburbs, ending a spell of summerlike, sometimes record temperatures. At least nine confirmed or suspected tornadoes in

By Associated Press BETHESDA, Md. — President Joe Biden “continues to be fit for duty,” his doctor wrote Wednesday after conducting an annual physical that is being closely watched as the 81-year-old seeks reelection in November. Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician, wrote that the president is adjusting well to a new device that helps control

By Associated Press WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans have blocked legislation that would protect access to in vitro fertilization, objecting to a vote on the issue Wednesday even after widespread backlash to a recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that threatens the practice. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican, objected to a request for a

By Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to decide whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted on charges he interfered with the 2020 election and set a course for a quick resolution. The justices’ order maintains a hold on preparations for a trial focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn his

By Associated Press WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history who maintained his power in the face of dramatic convulsions in the Republican Party for almost two decades, will step down from that position in November. McConnell, who turned 82 last week, announced his decision Wednesday in the well of the Senate,

By Associated Press LONDON — Kate Winslet is running things — on and off the set of her new TV show, “The Regime.” In the HBO show premiering Sunday, she plays Elena Vernham — also known as The Chancellor, the ruler of a fictional country in Europe, possibly near Poland. Winslet, who is also an

By Associated Press If you watched Lifetime’s Wendy Williams docuseries that premiered over the weekend and felt uncomfortable, you weren’t alone. “Where is Wendy Williams?” premiered over the weekend and featured numerous scenes of the former talk show host unsteady, belligerent, confused and also drunk. Her manager would regularly find liquor bottles hidden throughout her

By Associated Press NEW YORK — U.S. stocks drifted lower Wednesday to edge a bit further from their all-time highs. The S&P 500 slipped 8.42 points, or 0.2%, to 5,069.76, continuing its quiet and listless run since setting a record last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 23.39, or 0.1%, to 38,949.02. The Nasdaq

By Associated Press The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it’s giving Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan to fix quality problems and meet safety standards for building planes after a panel blew off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max jetliner last month. The agency said the directive followed all-day meetings Tuesday with top

By Associated Press NEW YORK — When Hayao Miyazaki was contemplating whether he would come out of retirement in 2016, he put together a curiously self-critical proposal. “There’s nothing more pathetic than telling the world you’ll retire because of your age, then making yet another comeback,” wrote the filmmaker, now 83. “Doesn’t an elderly person

By Associated Press WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew at a robust 3.2% annual pace from October through December, propelled by healthy consumer spending, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday in a slight downgrade from its initial estimate. The expansion in the nation’s gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services —

By Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is signing an executive order aimed at better protecting Americans’ personal data on everything from biometrics and health records to finances and geolocation from foreign adversaries like China and Russia. The move allows the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to take steps to prevent the

By Associated Press Adam Sandler playing an astronaut on a solo mission to the edge of the solar system in the sci-fi drama “Spaceman,” and Disney+’s animated coming-of-age story “Iwájú” set in the future in Lagos, Nigeria, are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among

By Associated Press SAN DIEGO — It will still be months before the San Diego Zoo gets new pandas, the first such bears sent to the United States by China in decades. For now, the only U.S. zoo left with any is in Atlanta. But globally there are many places to check out the cuddly

By Michael Traugott University of Michigan The Conversation via AP Joe Biden won the 2024 Michigan Democratic primary, but “uncommitted” ran a spirited campaign. More than 100,000 Michiganders voted “uncommitted” in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, 13% of the Democratic electorate. Listen to Michigan organized the uncommitted campaign in Michigan, promoting it as a way to express