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Turnover has plagued local election offices since 2020. One swing state county is trying to recover

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — The polls had just opened for last year’s midterms in Pennsylvania when the phones began ringing at the election office in Luzerne County.Polling places were running low on paper to print ballots. Volunteers were frustrated, and voters were worried they might not be able to vote.Emily Cook, the office’s interim deputy director who had been in her position for just two months, rushed to the department’s warehouse. She found stacks of paper, but it was the wrong kind — ordered long ago and too thick to meet the requirements for the county’s voting equipment.Conspiracy theories swiftly began to spread: Republican polling places were being targeted; Democrats overseeing elections were trying to disenfranchise Republicans.“The feeling early on in the day was panic — concern — which grew to overwhelming panic,” Cook said. “And then at some point throughout the day, there was definitely a feeling of people are starting to point fingers — before the day ...

Author Salman Rushdie calls for defense of freedom of expression as he receives German prize

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Author Salman Rushdie called Sunday for the unconditional defense of freedom of expression as he received a prestigious German prize that recognizes his literary work and his resolve in the face of constant danger.The British-American author decried the current age as a time when freedom of expression is under attack by all sides, including from authoritarian and populist voices, according to the German news agency dpa.He made his remarks during a ceremony in St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, where he was honored with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for continuing to write despite enduring decades of threats and violence.In August 2022, Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly while on stage at a literary festival in New York state. Rushdie has a memoir coming out about the attack that left him blind in his right eye and with a damaged left hand. “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” will be released on April 16. He called it a way “to answer violence with ...

South Korea, US and Japan hold first-ever trilateral aerial exercise in face of North Korean threats

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries conducted their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise on Sunday in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s air force said.The training held near the Korean Peninsula was to implement the three countries’ earlier agreement to increase defense cooperation and boost their joint response capabilities against North Korean threats, the air force said in a statement.The drill involved a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber from the United States and fighter jets from South Korea and Japan, the statement said.South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies in Asia, which together host about 80,000 American troops. The three countries have occasionally held trilateral maritime drills, such as anti-submarine or missile defense exercises, but Sunday’s training marked the first time for them to perform a trilateral aerial drill.In South Korea, expanding military drills with Japan is a sensitive issue, becaus...

Biden walks tightrope with support for Israel as allies and the left push for restraint

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden told a crowd of Democratic donors over the weekend about a decades-old photo he took with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an aside that seemed intended to illustrate his long support of Israel and track record of speaking bluntly with the conservative Israeli leader.Biden said he’d written on the photo of himself as a young senator and Netanyahu as an embassy hand, “Bibi, I love you. I don’t agree with a damn thing you say.’” He told donors at a Friday night fundraiser that Netanyahu still keeps the photo on his desk and had brought it up during Biden’s lightning visit to Tel Aviv last week.As expectations grow that Israel will soon launch a ground offensive aimed at rooting out Hamas militants who rule the Gaza Strip, Biden finds himself facing anew the difficult balancing act of demonstrating full-throated support for America’s closet ally in the Middle East while trying to also press the Israelis to act with enough ...

BoC expected to hold key interest rate steady amid ‘sluggish’ economy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

The Bank of Canada is widely expected to hold its key interest rate steady on Wednesday as the Canadian economy bends to higher interest rates and inflation resumes its downward trend.The central bank held its key interest rate steady at five per cent last month but kept the door open to more rate hikes, citing concerns about the persistence of underlying price pressures. “Economic data releases since the Bank of Canada opted to forego an interest rate hike in September have been mixed, but we expect that they on net have made a hike at next week’s decision unlikely,” wrote RBC assistant chief economist Nathan Janzen and economist Claire Fan in a client note on Friday.The annual inflation rate rose in both July and August, while core measures  of inflation — which strip out volatile prices — have not eased by much in recent months.But the September consumer price index report helped quell some of those anxieties as the pace of price growth slowed across the eco...

2 injured after shooting in Walgreens on North Side: CPD

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

CHICAGO -- Two men are injured after a shooting in a Walgreen's store in the city's Old Town neighborhood, police said. According to police, a 26-year-old man was working at a 24-hour Walgreens in the 1600 block of North Wells Street around 11:55 p.m. when a man in his late twenties entered the store, had an altercation with the employee and produced a gun.Police said gunfire was exchanged and the employee sustained a graze wound to the chest. He refused medical attention on the scene. Police offer warning after string of 6 armed robberies in under 30 minutes on Southwest Side The offender sustained gunshot wounds to the chest, head, abdomen and self-transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition.Police said the two appeared to have known each other and investigators have not disclosed whether they have recovered how the two individuals knew each other.It is still unknown whether the employee is a CCL holder, and the company does ban guns inside store location...

Israel bombs Gaza, Syria and West Bank as war threatens to ignite other fronts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel warplanes bombed Gaza overnight and into Sunday, as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank.Israel has traded fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group on a near-daily basis since the war began, and tensions are soaring in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.For days, Israel has seemed to be on the verge of launching a ground offensive in Gaza as part of its response to Hamas' attack on Oct. 7. Tanks and tens of thousands of troops have massed at the border, and Israeli leaders have spoken of an undefined next stage in operations.A convoy of 17 aid trucks was allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt on Sunday, Egypt's state-run media reported, the second shipment into the territory since Israel imposed a complete siege two weeks ago. On Saturday, 20 trucks entered.Relief workers said far more was needed to address the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where half the territory's 2.3 million people have fled their homes. The U.N....

What causes the morning frost on your windshield?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — As we continue to see temperatures fall, scraping frost off the car windshield in the morning will, unfortunately, become a lot more common for some of us.But WLNS Meteorologist Kendall Wilson tells us that not every cold and freezing night can create frost. For frost to form we need the 3 C’s: cold freezing air, clear skies, and calm conditions overnight.  What that overlooked button in your car does When skies are clear, the heat we gain during the day can escape quickly into the atmosphere, so our cool down overnight is maximized. As our temperatures drop down to the dew point — or in this case, the freezing point — we create moisture at the surface. And when temperatures of the surface are at or below freezing, that moisture turns to frost. This is an extremely delicate process, so even something as small as a strong gust of wind can mix up the air and prevent this process from happening.  Do you really need to let your car warm up befo...

AUS expects to set passenger record Monday after Formula One weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A record number of flyers are expected at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport after Formula One weekend in Austin. Airport officials expect 32,000 departing passengers Sunday and 45,000 passengers Monday. RELATED: How to check TSA wait times before flying from AUS The current record for the busiest day was set after F1 weekend in 2022, with 42,241 passengers leaving AUS.With busy travel days ahead, passengers should get to the airport 2.5 hours before domestic flight departures and 3 hours before international flights, according to the airport. RELATED: Austin airport passenger totals still on track for record-breaking year… again Allegiant and Frontier flyers should also note a detour at the South Terminal. AUS South Terminal detour map (Courtesy AUS)Flyers should also plan extra time for rental car returns, baggage check or travel time to the airport. AUS officials also suggest using the upper level or lower level to drop off and pick up passengers—whichev...

A warm week and, at times, wet

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:29:44 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Temperatures will remain unseasonably warm today and through the upcoming week. However, unlike the previous two days, there will be no records for heat this afternoon.Austin-Bergstrom's high Saturday was 95°, a new record for October 21st. The previous record was 92° set in 1953. The high at Camp Mabry was 94°, also a new record for October 21st. The record prior to yesterday was 92° first set in 1934 and tied in 1979.Today's normal high is 81°Today's high temperature record is 92° set in first set in 1933 and tied in 1939.Today is Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix race day at the Circuit of the Americas. The weather will be very warm and dry. The race starts at 2 p.m. under a partly cloudy sky and a temperature in the middle 80s.It's Race Day at COTARain chances pick up after midnight as energy from Tropical Storm Norma moves over Texas. Surface winds from the Gulf will also provide moisture for a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Wet weather will continue on Monda...