WPTF News Archives - Page 6 of 91

Trial begins for the man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 15, 2024, 3:34 pm

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — A prosecutor says the man on trial in the killing of nursing student Laken Riley “went hunting for females” on the University of Georgia campus that February day. Prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge Tuesday at the outset of Jose Ibarra’s trial that the Venezuelan man encountered Riley while she was out for a run and killed her when “she refused to be his rape victim.” Her body was found on the campus. Ibarra’s attorney, Dustin Kirby, called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing, but he said none of it proves that Ibarra killed Riley. Ibarra entered the U.S. illegally two years ago, and the case helped fan the immigration debate during this year’s presidential race.… Read More

Whistleblower sounds alarm about destruction of tribal sites in North Carolina

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 15, 2024, 9:54 am

A career archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service says managers have been engaging in irresponsible and illegal behavior that has resulted in damage to Native American sites across the forested slopes of North Carolina. Scott Ashcraft says his whistleblower case has brought to light the lack of guardrails more broadly to keep the agency from using outdated modeling and skirting requirements to consult with tribes ahead of prescribed fires and other work on national forest land. In a letter shared with The Associated Press, Ashcraft sent his concerns Thursday to top federal officials. The case has the attention of specialists in the field and a national group of tribal historic preservation experts.… Read More

China’s president unveils a megaport in Peru, but locals say they’re being left out

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 10:48 pm

CHANCAY, Peru (AP) — A remote fishing town on the edge of Peru’s coastal desert is the site for a $1.3 billion megaport majority-owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco. Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated the port Thursday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru. The development is expected to encompass 15 quays and a large industrial park drawing more than $3.5 billion in investment over a decade. But it has met a skeptical response from impoverished villagers, who say it is depriving them of fishing waters and bringing no economic benefit to locals. Fishermen returning to port with smaller catches complain that they have already lost out.… Read More

Trump meets with Argentina’s president, the first foreign leader he’s met with since election

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 10:31 pm

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump has met at his Mar-a-Lago club with Argentine President Javier Milei, the first foreign leader to meet with the president-elect since his victory in last week’s election. The meeting Thursday was confirmed by a person who insisted on anonymity to discuss a meeting that hadn’t yet been announced publicly. The person said the meeting went well and Milei also met with investors. After meeting with Trump, Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” and frequent recipient of Trump praise, addressed the America First Policy Institute gala. Trump later said it was an “honor” to have Milei at his Florida club.… Read More

Trump chooses anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 8:36 pm

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration. HHS is a massive Cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.… Read More

Republicans win 218 US House seats, giving Donald Trump and the party control of government

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 5:45 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump. A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in slow-counting California earlier Wednesday, gave the GOP the 218 House victories that make up the majority. Republicans earlier gained control of the Senate from Democrats. With hard-fought yet thin majorities, Republican leaders are envisioning a mandate to upend the federal government and swiftly implement Trump’s vision for the country.… Read More

Stock market today: Wall Street weakens as its post-election boom slows some more

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 4:21 pm

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks slipped as the market’s big burst following Donald Trump’s election continued to cool. The S&P 500 dipped 0.6% Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.6%. Several areas of the market that had bounced highest following Trump’s election reversed their momentum and led the way lower. Tesla sank to just its second loss since Election Day, while smaller stocks fell harder than the rest of the market. Short-term Treasury yields swung following the latest economic reports before rising after Chair Jerome Powell said the Federal Reserve is not in a hurry to cut interest rates.… Read More

Insurers say bear that damaged luxury cars was actually a person in a costume

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 4:11 pm

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California is seeing its share of bear break-ins. Now it’s seen a fake one — someone in a bear costumer rummaging through luxury cars. In what it’s dubbed “Operation Bear Claw,” the California Insurance Department says four Los Angeles residents were arrested Wednesday, accused of defrauding three insurance companies out of nearly $142,000 by claiming a bear damaged their vehicles. The group is accused of providing video footage from the San Bernardino Mountains in January of a “bear” moving inside a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes to the insurance companies. The department says a biologist reviewed the videos and confirmed it was clearly a person in a bear suit.… Read More

Thailand’s baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng now has an official song in 4 languages

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 1:54 pm

BANGKOK (AP) — In case you can’t get enough of the little pygmy hippo Moo Deng from Thailand, there’s now an official song featuring the internet’s favorite baby animal — released in four languages for her global fans. The upbeat 50-second song “Moodeng Moodeng,” available in Thai, English, Chinese and Japanese versions, features simple lyrics like “Moo Deng Moo Deng, boing boing boing/…… Read More

Outgoing North Carolina governor grants 2 pardons, 6 commutations

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 12:57 pm

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has commuted what have been lengthy sentences served by six criminal offenders in state prisons and granted pardons to two others. Five of the commutations went to people who were convicted of murder. Those pardons of innocence the outgoing governor also signed on Wednesday gives the persons wrongly imprisoned for erroneous felony convictions the ability to seek monetary compensation. One such pardon went to a man ultimately acquitted in the deaths of an elderly couple. The other pardon went to a man exonerated in a convenience store robbery.… Read More

New FDA rules for TV & radio drug ads: Simpler language and no distractions

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 11:51 am

WASHINGTON (AP) — New rules require drugmakers to be clearer about explaining the risks and side effects of prescription drugs. The new guidelines from the the Food and Drug Administration are designed to do away with pharmaceutical industry practices that downplay or distract viewers from risk information. FDA officials spent more than 15 years crafting the rules, which apply to both TV and radio ads. But while regulators were drafting them, a new trend has emerged: pharmaceutical influencers pushing drugs online with little government oversight. A new congressional proposal would compel FDA to police those social media promotions.… Read More

Satire publication The Onion buys Alex Jones’ Infowars at auction with Sandy Hook families’ backing

Author: The Associated Press | Date: November 14, 2024, 11:46 am

The satirical news publication The Onion has bought Alex Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction with the backing of families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The announcement was made Thursday. Jones owes the families more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the 2012 massacre a hoax. The sale price was not immediately disclosed. The Onion says its “exclusive launch advertiser” will be the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety. Jones criticized the sale and vowed to challenge it in court. Infowars’ website appears to have been taken down.… Read More