ReportWire

Tag: U.S. News

  • FBI: DNA Recovered From Glove Found Near Guthrie Home That Appears to Match Glove Worn by Suspect

    [ad_1]

    A glove containing DNA found about two miles from the house of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother appears to match those worn by a masked person outside her front door in Tucson the night she vanished, the FBI said Sunday.

    The glove, found in a field near the side of a road, was sent off for DNA testing. The FBI said in a statement that it received preliminary results Saturday and was awaiting official confirmation.

    Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her Arizona home on Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities say her blood was found on the front porch. Purported ransom notes were sent to news outlets, but two deadlines for paying have passed.

    The discovery was revealed days after investigators had released surveillance videos of the masked person outside Guthrie’s front door. A porch camera recorded video of a person with a backpack who was wearing a ski mask, long pants, jacket and gloves.

    On Thursday, the FBI called the person a suspect. It described him as a man about 5 feet, 9 inches tall with a medium build. The agency said he was carrying a 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack.

    Late Friday night, law enforcement agents sealed off a road about two miles (3.2 kilometers) from Guthrie’s home as part of their investigation. A series of sheriff’s and FBI vehicles, including forensics vehicles, passed through the roadblock.

    The investigators also tagged and towed a Range Rover SUV from a nearby restaurant parking lot late Friday. The sheriff’s department later said the activity was part of the Guthrie investigation but no arrests were made.

    On Tuesday, sheriff deputies detained a person for questioning during a traffic stop south of Tucson. Authorities didn’t say what led them to stop the man but confirmed he was released. The same day, deputies and FBI agents conducted a court-authorized search in Rio Rico, about an hour’s drive south of the city.

    Authorities have expressed concern about Nancy Guthrie’s health because she needs vital daily medicine. She is said to have a pacemaker and have dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.

    Earlier in the investigation, authorities had said they had collected DNA from Nancy Guthrie’s property which doesn’t belong to Guthrie or those in close contact with her. Investigators were working to identify who it belongs to.

    The FBI also has said approximately 16 gloves were found in various spots near the house, most of which were searchers’ gloves that had been discarded.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • A Storm System Sweeps Across the Southeast Triggering Tornado Warnings and Damaging Winds

    [ad_1]

    ATLANTA (AP) — A storm system sweeping across the Southeast late Saturday and Sunday brought tornado warnings to Mississippi and Louisiana, and then took aim at parts of Georgia and Florida, as people in the Northeast were finally getting a reprieve from weeks of bitterly cold temperatures.

    Some of the fiercest storms in the South were reported near Lake Charles, Louisiana, where high winds from a thunderstorm overturned a horse trailer and a Mardi Gras float, damaged an airport jet bridge and flung the metal awning from a house into power lines. The damage was documented by National Weather Service employees who surveyed the area.

    Power poles were snapped and toppled near the Louisiana towns of Jena, Cheneyville and Donaldsonville, the weather service reported.

    No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but the damage reports came as the storm system continued its path into parts of south Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, which were under tornado watches on Sunday.

    Boston was running nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 Celsius) below average for February by midweek, and the city was on pace for its coldest winter in more than a decade. Boston remained cold on Sunday, but the week’s forecast called for temperatures climbing into the high 30s and low 40s, which is closer to the seasonal average.

    Elsewhere in the U.S., parts of California were bracing for showers, thunderstorms and snow showers. Jacob Spender, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, said a storm system was moving on shore in California throughout Sunday and through the week.

    Heavy snow was forecast for elevated areas, Spender said.

    “As we get up into the mountains and the foothills, we’re going to be looking at some snowfall,” Spender said. “So there will be snowfall all the way down into the foothills as well.”

    Spender said people should heed travel advisories in the coming days.

    “So if they are traveling, packing winter safety kits. Anything to be prepared. This is a bigger system, and a major system,” Spender said.

    Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York City; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • US Military Boards Another Oil Tanker in Indian Ocean After Tracking It From the Caribbean

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said Sunday.

    Venezuela had faced U.S. sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure then-President Nicolás Maduro before Maduro was apprehended in January during an American military operation.

    Several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast in the wake of the raid, including the ship that was boarded in the Indian Ocean overnight. The Defense Department said in a post on X that U.S. forces boarded the Veronica III, conducting “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding.”

    “The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine — hoping to slip away,” the Pentagon said. “We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down.”

    Video posted by the Pentagon shows U.S. troops boarding the tanker.

    The Veronica III is a Panamanian-flagged vessel under U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to the website of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

    The Veronica III left Venezuela on Jan. 3, the same day as Maduro’s capture, with nearly 2 million barrels of crude and fuel oil, TankerTrackers.com posted Sunday on X.

    “Since 2023, she’s been involved with Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil,” the organization said.

    Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, told The Associated Press in January that his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document that at least 16 tankers left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine.

    The Trump administration has been seizing tankers as part of its broader efforts to take control of the Venezuela’s oil. The Pentagon did not say in the post whether the Veronica III was formally seized and placed under U.S. control, and later told the AP in an email that it had no additional information to provide beyond that post.

    Last week, the U.S. military boarded a different tanker in the Indian Ocean, the Aquila II. The ship was being held while its ultimate fate was decided by the United States, according to a defense official who spoke last week on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing decision-making.

    Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Tax season is here. Here’s what you need to know for stress-free filing

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — Tax season is underway and you have until April 15 to file your return with the IRS. If you want to avoid the stress of the looming deadline, start getting organized as soon as possible.

    “Don’t wait until the last minute but also don’t rush,” said Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals,

    Gathering all your documents, signing up for direct deposit and keeping copies of your tax returns are some of the best practices when it comes to preparing to fill out your taxes. This year, due to the Republican tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump signed over the summer, there are new deductions taxpayers should know about.

    Among them are no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, deductions for car loan interest, and deductions for people who were 65 or older by Dec. 31, said Miguel Burgos, a certified public accountant and an expert for TurboTax.

    The average refund last year was $3,167. This year, analysts have projected it could be $1,000 higher, thanks to changes in tax law. More than 165 million individual income tax returns were processed last year, with 94% submitted electronically.

    If you find the process too confusing, there are plenty of free resources to help you get through it.

    Here are some things you need to know:

    While the required documents might depend on your individual case, here is a general list of what everyone needs:

    —Social Security number

    —W-2 forms, if you are employed

    —1099-G, if you are unemployed

    —1099 forms, if you are self-employed

    —Savings and investment records

    —Any eligible deduction, such as educational expenses, medical bills, charitable donations, etc.

    —Tax credits, such as the child tax credit, retirement savings contributions credit, etc.

    To find a more detailed document list, visit the IRS website.

    O’Saben recommends gathering all of your documents in one place before you start your tax return and also having your documents from last year. Taxpayers can also create an identity protection PIN number with the IRS to guard against identity theft. Once you create a number, the IRS will require it to file your tax return.

    — Change to standard deduction

    The standard deduction for single taxpayers is $15,750 for this year. For married couples filing jointly, it has increased to $31,500. For heads of households, the standard deduction is $23,625.

    — Change to state and local taxes (SALT) deduction

    The deduction cap on state and local taxes has increased from $10,000 to $40,000. The change is also known as the Working Families Tax Cut and was enacted in July 2025.

    “This is a big benefit, especially for states like California, New York, and New Jersey, that have a higher state income tax,” said Keith Hall, president and CEO of the National Association for the Self-Employed and a certified CPA.

    The SALT deduction is a federal tax deduction for some state and local taxes paid during the year. The total deduction had been capped at $10,000 since it started in 2018.

    People who have not previously itemized their SALT deduction might want to consider it this year. To know if you should itemize your deductions, O’Saben recommends that you ask yourself the following questions: Did you pay state taxes? Did you pay property taxes? Do you have mortgage interest? Do you have charitable contributions?

    —Deductions for tips

    What is known as “no tax on tips” is not quite accurate. This new deduction is only for qualified tips and is subject to income limitations.

    “It can be cash, it can be electronic as well. But the main thing is, hey, it has to be voluntary (tips),” Burgos said.

    The maximum annual deduction is capped at $2,500. The deduction phases out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income over $150,000, or $300,000 for joint filers. The tax deduction is also limited to specific industries where tipping is common practice. Some of the included industries are bartenders, food servers, musicians and housekeeping cleaners.

    To claim the new tax break, you will need to fill out a new tax form called Schedule 1-A.

    —Additional Schedule 1-A deductions

    Schedule 1-A is an IRS form used to claim and calculate four tax deductions originating from the tax and spending bill. They are the change in state and local tax deduction, deduction on qualified tips, and car loan and senior deductions.

    IRS Direct File, the electronic system for filing tax returns for free, will not be offered this year. For those who make $89,000 or less per year, IRS Free File offers free guided tax preparation; you can choose from eight IRS partners, such as TaxAct and FreeTaxUSA.

    Beyond companies such as TurboTax and H&R Block, taxpayers can also hire licensed professionals, such as certified public accountants. The IRS offers a directory of tax preparers across the United States.

    The IRS also funds two programs that offer free tax help: Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE). People who earn $69,000 or less a year, have disabilities, or are limited English speakers, qualify for the VITA program. Those who are 60 or older qualify for the TCE program. The IRS has a site for locating organizations hosting VITA and TCE clinics.

    Many people fear getting in trouble with the IRS if they make a mistake. Here’s how to avoid some of the most common ones:

    —Double-check your name on your Social Security card

    When working with clients, O’Saben asks them to double-check their number and their legal name, which can change when people get married.

    “If you got married last year and you now want to use your married name, that married name doesn’t exist if you haven’t filed it with Social Security,” O’Saben said.

    —Search for online tax statements

    Many people opt out of physical mail but when you do, it can also include your tax documents.

    “These documents may actually be available online because you may have chosen to have paperless contact. And because of that, you may need to go get those documents yourself,” O’Saben said.

    —Make sure you report all of your income

    If you had a second job in 2025, you need the W-2 or 1099 form for each job.

    In general, if you make a mistake or you’re missing something in your tax records, the IRS will audit you. An audit means that the IRS will ask you for more documentation.

    Currently, the tax credit is $2,200 per child but only $1,700 is refundable. This refund is called the Additional Child Tax Credit. To claim the Additional Child Tax Credit, you must have at least $2,500 of income for the tax year.

    You qualify for the full amount of the Child Tax Credit for each qualifying child if you meet all eligibility factors and your annual income is not more than $200,000 ($400,000 if filing a joint return). Parents and guardians with higher incomes may be eligible to claim a partial credit.

    You can find more details about the child tax credit here.

    Last September, the IRS began phasing out paper tax refund checks. If you’re expecting a tax refund, the IRS recommends you sign up for direct deposit.

    Tax season is prime time for tax scams, O’Saben said. These scams can come via phone, text, email and social media. The IRS uses none of those means to contact taxpayers.

    Sometimes scams are even operated by tax preparers, so it’s important to ask lots of questions. If a tax preparer says you will get a refund that is larger than what you’ve received in previous years, for example, that may be a red flag, O’Saben said.

    If you can’t see what your tax preparer is working on, get a copy of the tax return and ask questions about each of the entries.

    It’s always good practice to keep a record of your tax returns, just in case the IRS audits you for an item you reported years ago. O’Saben recommend keeping copies of your tax return documents five to seven years.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Independent Spirit Awards celebrate indie movies and TV in Los Angeles

    [ad_1]

    Ethan Hawke,Rose Byrne and Keke Palmer are just a few of the actors up for prizes at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles. Comedian and “Saturday Night Live” veteran Ego Nwodim is hosting the celebration of independent film and television, which will be livestreamed on YouTube starting at 5 p.m. ET.

    Top nominees going into the 41st edition of the show include Ira Sachs’ “Peter Hujar’s Day,” which recreates an interview with the 1970s photographer, played by Ben Whishaw; Clint Bentley’s lyrical Denis Johnson adaptation “Train Dreams,” with Joel Edgerton; and Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby,” about life after an assault.

    The show, which serves as a fundraiser for Film Independent’s year-round programs, is being held at the Hollywood Palladium for the first time, as its longtime beachside perch in Santa Monica undergoes renovations.

    The awards sometimes overlap significantly with major Oscar contenders and winners, as it did with “Anora,” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and sometimes not. Organizers limit eligibility to productions with budgets less than $30 million, meaning more expensive films like “One Battle After Another” are not in the running.

    Byrne is one of the few actors nominated for both a Spirit Award and an Oscar, for her performance as a mother on the edge in Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” In the lead performance category, she’s up against the likes of Edgerton (“Train Dreams”), Dylan O’Brien (“Twinless”), Palmer (“One of Them Days”), Tessa Thompson (“Hedda”) and Whishaw. The organization switched to gender-neutral acting categories in 2022.

    Supporting performance nominees include Naomi Ackie (“Sorry, Baby”), Zoey Deutch (“Nouvelle Vague”), Kirsten Dunst (“Roofman”), Nina Hoss (“Hedda”) and Archie Madekwe (“Lurker”).

    Films nominated in the international category include “Sirāt,”“The Secret Agent” and “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.” “Come See Me in the Good Light,” “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow” and “The Perfect Neighbor” are also up for the documentary prize.

    Hawke, who is nominated for an Oscar for “Blue Moon,” is up for a Spirit Award for his leading performance in the television series “The Lowdown,” where other nominees include Seth Rogen for “The Studio,” Stephen Graham for “Adolescence” and Noah Wyle for “The Pitt.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Four new astronauts arrive at the ISS to replace NASA’s evacuated crew

    [ad_1]

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The International Space Station returned to full strength with Saturday’s arrival of four new astronauts to replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns.

    SpaceX delivered the U.S., French and Russian astronauts a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral.

    Last month’s medical evacuation was NASA’s first in 65 years of human spaceflight. One of four astronauts launched by SpaceX last summer suffered what officials described as a serious health issue, prompting their hasty return. That left only three crew members to keep the place running — one American and two Russians — prompting NASA to pause spacewalks and trim research.

    Moving in for eight to nine months are NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev. Meir, a marine biologist, and Fedyaev, a former military pilot, have lived up there before. During her first station visit in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk.

    Adenot, a military helicopter pilot, is only the second French woman to fly in space. Hathaway is a captain in the U.S. Navy.

    NASA has refused to divulge the identity of the astronaut who fell ill in orbit on Jan. 7 or explain what happened, citing medical privacy. The ailing astronaut and three others returned to Earth more than a month sooner than planned. They spent their first night back on Earth at the hospital before returning to Houston.

    The space agency said it did not alter its preflight medical checks for their replacements.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • US ocean regulator faces criticism over changes to right whale protection rule

    [ad_1]

    PORTLAND, Maine — The U.S.’s ocean regulator plans to make industry-friendly changes to a longstanding rule designed to protect vanishing whales, prompting criticism from environmental groups who cite the recent death of an endangered whale.

    The rules protect the North Atlantic right whale, which numbers less than 400 and lives off the East Coast. The giant animals are protected by a vessel speed rule that requires large ships to slow down at certain times to avoid collisions, which is a leading cause of death for the whales.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a Thursday statement to The Associated Press that it plans to soon announce proposed new rules designed to “modernize” the whale protections. The proposal will be a “deregulatory-focused action” that will seek to “reduce unnecessary regulatory and economic burdens while ensuring responsible conservation practices for endangered North Atlantic right whales,” the statement said.

    A notice of rulemaking about the right whale rules is listed on the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website, but it does not include any details about the proposal. NOAA said in its statement that more information about the rules was forthcoming and that the agency was focused on “implementing new technologies, engineering approaches, and other advanced tools” to protect the whales.

    Several environmental groups criticized the move away from vessel speed rules. Some cited the Feb. 10 confirmation of the death of a 3-year-old female whale off Virginia. The cause of the animal’s death was not yet determined, but it died at a far younger age than typical.

    “Another female right whale — the future of this species — has lost her life. We urgently need more right whale protections, not fewer. The Trump administration’s apparent determination to weaken the vessel speed rule could not come at a worse time,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at conservation group Defenders of Wildlife.

    Right whales migrate every year from calving grounds off Florida and Georgia to feeding grounds off New England and Canada. Along the way, they are vulnerable to collisions with ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. They were once numerous off the East Coast but were decimated during the commercial whaling era and have been federally protected for decades.

    The Biden administration planned to expand slow zones off the East Coast to protect the whales. It also planned to expand the classes of boats required to slow down. However, the federal government withdrew the proposal in the final days of the administration, with officials saying it didn’t have time to finalize the regulations due to the scope and volume of public comments.

    Some shipping businesses and other marine industries have long pushed back at vessel speed rules. The National Marine Manufacturers Association has described speed restrictions as “archaic” and advocated for solutions that rely on technology.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 2 Washington Post writers at the Olympics despite being laid off, say it was important to be there

    [ad_1]

    CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Washington Post columnist Barry Svrluga was reporting from his first Winter Olympics when Lindsey Vonn left her hospital bed after a crash and returned to compete days later at the 2006 Turin Games.

    He is back in Italy two decades later at the Milan Cortina Games and was there again to write about it when Vonn ended up back in the hospital following another crash. Even though he’s losing his job.

    The Post announced two days before the Olympics opened last week that it was eliminating its sports section while laying off a third of its staff. Svrluga said the newspaper originally planned to send 14 staff members to these Games.

    With air tickets and accommodation already paid for, Svrluga is one of four of the paper’s journalists who decided to still come: He is in Cortina, Rick Maese is in Bormio, and Les Carpenter and national staffer Robert Samuels are in Milan.

    “They can take away our section,” Svrluga said, “but in a way, they can’t take away our spirit.”

    Of the four, Svrluga and Carpenter are being laid off. They came to their final assignment anyway.

    “I wanted to be occupied,” said Svrluga, who is at his 12th Games. “I love covering the Olympics. … I had Lindsey injured in Sestriere and then had her gold (Vancouver, 2010) and I’ve had every one of her Olympic races, whether they were successes or not. Same with (Mikaela) Shiffrin.”

    The first Olympics that Svrluga worked at was the 2004 Athens Summer Games and he was immediately struck by the way colleagues at the paper collaborated at such a big event.

    “It felt like a team sport for us and that benefited the section and the paper,” Svrluga said. “What we’re trying to do here is remind people — readers and decision makers — that these are a lot of committed people who were doing things for the right reasons.”

    Carpenter, the Post’s Olympics writer, is at his eighth Games. He’s been covering figure skating, speedskating and hockey.

    “The Post sports department always had such a great connection with its readers. I felt I had to stay to tell the story of this Olympics for them,” Carpenter said. “It’s what I’d want as a reader. If this is the end for Post sports, let’s give our most loyal readers our best.”

    Svrluga gave his readers — and the wider skiing community — reason for pause even before he got to Cortina.

    An extensive pre-Games interview with Shiffrin and her mother and coach, Eileen, turned into much more than an Olympic preview story when they revealed to Svrluga why Eileen was absent at the start of this World Cup season: She had been diagnosed with cancer and faced six weeks of treatments.

    “This was a very personal situation,” Svrluga said. “I’m thankful for them that they trusted me with the information. It’s their story to tell.”

    Changes across the industry have resulted in fewer American reporters attending events like the Olympics.

    “That’s tragic for readers,” Svrluga said, noting how the extra space in the reporters’ interview areas at the finish lines are “great for logistics and sad for the business.”

    Some of the people who Svrluga has reported on at the Olympics have reached out to him after word spread about the cuts at the Post. It’s happened back in Washington, too, he said.

    “People who have won World Series, people who own teams. I’ve been there 22 years, so you build relationships over time, even with people you battle with a little bit or you write something they don’t like. It’s still a human element to it,” Svrluga said. “So I’ve heard from more people than I can count.”

    But, Svrluga added, “You don’t want to be the story. You want to cover the story.”

    The Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, called the layoffs painful but necessary.

    “You could argue maybe we’re in this position because we didn’t adapt or see what is coming next,” Svrluga said. “It’s obvious people get their news in different ways now. I’m ‘old school’ in one regard. … I hope that the people who are in their 20s and early 30s, like when I first went to the Olympics, are figuring out whatever’s next. I would love for it to include written storytelling, because that’s what I like to do.”

    Eliminating the Post sports section was a sharp blow since the department has hosted many well-known bylines through the years, including the likes of John Feinstein, Michael Wilbon, Shirley Povich, Sally Jenkins and Tony Kornheiser.

    Svrluga’s final column from these Games will mark his final story for the Post. In the meantime, he’s going to try and enjoy the Olympics — and being in Italy — more than he usually does while on assignment.

    “The red wine,” he said, “will flow.”

    ___

    AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Soaring coffee prices rewrite some Americans’ daily routines

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — For years, it was a daily McDonald’s trip for a cup of coffee with 10 sugars and five creams. Later, it was Starbucks caramel macchiatos with almond milk and two pumps of syrup.

    Coffee has been a morning ritual for Chandra Donelson since she was old enough to drink it. But, dismayed by rising prices, the 35-year-old from Washington, D.C., did the unthinkable: She gave it up.

    “I did that daily for years. I loved it. That was just my routine,” she says. “And now it’s not.”

    Years of steadily climbing coffee prices have some in this country of coffee lovers upending their habits by nixing café visits, switching to cheaper brews or foregoing it altogether.

    Coffee prices in the U.S. were up 18.3% in January from a year ago, according to the latest Consumer Price Index released on Friday. Over five years, the government reported, coffee prices rose 47%.

    That extraordinary rise has brought some to take extraordinary measures.

    “Before, I thought, ‘There’s no way I could make it through my day without coffee,’” says Liz Sweeney, 50, of Boise, Idaho, a former “coffee addict” who has cut her consumption. “Now my car’s not on automatic pilot.”

    Sweeney used to have three cups of coffee at home each day and stop at a café whenever she left the house. As prices climbed last year, though, she nixed coffee shop visits and cut her intake to a cup a day at home. To make up for the caffeine, she pops open a can of Diet Coke at home or rolls through McDonald’s for one.

    Dan DeBaun, 34, of Minnetonka, Minnesota, has likewise trimmed back on coffee shop visits, conscious of the increasing expense as he and his wife save up for a house.

    “What used to be a $2 coffee, it’s now $5, $6,” says DeBaun, who now buys ground coffee at Trader Joe’s and fills up a travel mug to bring to the office.

    Data from Toast, a payment platform used by more than 150,000 restaurants, found the median price of a regular hot coffee in the U.S. had climbed to $3.61 in December, with wide variation by location. The median price of cold brews was $5.55.

    Virtually all coffee consumed in the U.S. is imported. Though tariffs affected some imports of coffee in 2025, they ultimately were removed. Climate issues — drought in Vietnam, heavy rain in Indonesia, and hot, dry weather in Brazil — are blamed for reducing yields of coffee crops and driving up global prices.

    Two-thirds of Americans drink coffee daily, according to the National Coffee Association. For many, it is such an indispensable part of their routine, the soaring price has led to nothing more than grumbling.

    The coffee association says its surveys show coffee consumption is broadly holding steady despite price hikes. But, squeezed by the cost of everything from rent to beef, others are shaking up their habit.

    Sharon Cooksey, 55, of Greensboro, North Carolina, was visiting her local Starbucks most weekday mornings for a caramel latte until scaling back last year. First, she switched to brewing Starbucks at home. Then, she discovered Lavazza coffee was about 40% cheaper and switched to it.

    “I can buy a bag of coffee for $6?” she said to herself. “It was like I had just discovered another world. The multiverse opened up to me in the coffee aisle of Publix.”

    She has noticed her home-brewed costs tick upward, too, but it’s nothing compared to her café habit. A bag of beans that lasts weeks costs her about the same as one latte.

    Cooksey misses the social aspect of visiting the café, where baristas greeted her by name. But she’s been surprised to find she actually prefers the way her homemade coffees taste.

    “I’ll be damned if it didn’t taste so good,” she says.

    Growing up, Donelson watched enviously as her mother made a daily coffee jaunt (also to McDonald’s, also 10 sugars and five creams), and she duplicated the habit. She went from college to the Air Force to a government job as a data and artificial intelligence strategist, but through it all, coffee was there.

    She noticed the growing expense of her routine, but kept it up until a government shutdown halted her paychecks last fall and she needed to trim her spending. Looking for a morning substitute, she landed on a Republic of Tea blend with a healthy squeeze of honey.

    “Twenty cents a cup compared to $7 or $8 a cup,” she says. “The math just makes sense.”

    ___

    Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Hundreds of agents search for Nancy Guthrie as her case spotlights other families left behind

    [ad_1]

    As hundreds of federal and local agents scoured the Arizona desert and chased down potential leads in the nearly two weeks since Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her affluent neighborhood, families of other missing people are reminded how elusive answers can be.

    On the one hand, families who spoke to The Associated Press share in the deep pain that Nancy Guthrie’s children, including the well-known “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, have expressed publicly.

    On the other, people like Tonya Miller — whose own mother disappeared under suspicious circumstances in Missouri in 2019 — say they feel frustrated as they watch seemingly endless resources flood into the search for Guthrie.

    “Families like ours that have just your normal missing people, they have to fight to get any help,” Miller, 44, said.

    Miller’s mother, Betty Miller, is one of the thousands of people who are listed as abducted each year, according to federal statistics. In most cases, families like Tonya Miller’s say it’s a full-time job advocating for a fair and thorough investigation.

    The country has been engrossed by the apparent kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, after authorities said they believe she was taken against her will. People in her neighborhood have tied yellow ribbons to tree to express their support.

    Multiple news outlets have reported receiving ransom notes, and the Guthrie family has expressed a willingness to pay — although it’s not known whether ransom notes demanding money with deadlines that have already passed were authentic.

    In the meantime, several hundred detectives and agents are now assigned to Nancy Guthrie’s investigation, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.

    FBI spokesperson Connor Hagan declined to say how many of those agents were federal law enforcement, and how many were already assigned in Arizona. He also didn’t clarify how the federal agency prioritizes different missing persons cases.

    However, he said agents from the Critical Incident Response Group, technical experts and intelligence analysts are working to bring Guthrie home. There is also a 24-hour command post where dozens of agents parse through the 13,000 tips that have flooded in from the public, among other responsibilities, according to a post the agency made.

    The vast majority of people who are reported missing are believed to be runaways — not kidnapped or abducted.

    Throughout all of 2024, the latest year that National Crime Information Center published the data, over 530,000 missing person records were entered. By the end of the year, just over 90,000 cases remained unresolved on that list — some going back decades.

    Roughly 95% of the hundreds of thousands of cases filed in 2024 were believed to be runaways and only 1% were listed as abducted.

    Often, the abductor is a parent who doesn’t have legal guardianship over a child, the report said. It’s even more rare for someone to be abducted by a stranger.

    The FBI names five kidnapped or missing people, including Nancy Guthrie, from Arizona on its online database of 125 missing or kidnapped people. All five from Arizona are listed as Native American or otherwise disappeared from tribal communities, except for Guthrie.

    That racial trend holds true for the rest of the country, too.

    A disproportionate number of Black and Indigenous people were among the abducted in 2024, according to the National Crime Information Center report. Roughly a third of the 533,936 missing people listed as abducted in 2024 were Black, even though the U.S. Census reports only 13% of the U.S. population as Black. Similarly, almost 3% of the missing people listed as abducted were Indigenous, compared to the 1.4% of people who are Indigenous in the U.S. writ large.

    “Every person deserves to be safe, and when someone is missing, there should be an immediate, coordinated, and effective response,” Lucy Simpson, the chief executive officer for the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center said. “For many Native women, longstanding gaps in resources, coordination, and systemic support for Tribal Nations have made prevention and response more difficult.”

    Experts have said that sometimes the attention on high-profile cases can be a major obstacle to law enforcement operations. But Savannah Guthrie’s celebrity status has also garnered extensive resources from the federal and local government — including a $100,000 FBI reward for accurate information about her whereabouts or that could lead to an arrest and conviction of whoever took her.

    That’s in stark contrast, Miller said, to the dearth of help she’s received in Sullivan, Missouri, where she’s had to use her own time and money to search for her mom, who was last seen in her apartment in the roughly 7,000 person town. A box of Betty Miller’s prescribed fentanyl patches were missing from the apartment and her prescription eye glasses were left on an armchair, Tonya Miller said. There was a massive scratch on her mom’s front door that wasn’t there before.

    The Sullivan Police Department didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment Friday.

    Despite those suspicious circumstances, local police didn’t treat her mother’s apartment like a crime scene, Tonya Miller said. She had to beg them to take fingerprints and often had to prod them to follow up on tips filed by the public. In the weeks that followed, Tonya Miller organized search parties, printed out fliers and held fundraisers to scrape together a $20,000 reward for her mother.

    Tonya Miller said it has become harder as the years go by to know how to help find her mom. She’s written letters to elected officials at all levels of government, including President Donald Trump.

    “I feel so helpless,” Miller said, “because you just don’t know what to do anymore.”

    ___

    Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Winning Numbers Drawn in Friday’s Mega Millions

    [ad_1]

    ATLANTA (AP) — The winning numbers in Friday evening’s drawing of the “Mega Millions” game were:

    34-40-49-59-68, Mega Ball: 1

    (thirty-four, forty, forty-nine, fifty-nine, sixty-eight, Mega Ball: one

    Estimated jackpot: $385 million

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Judge dismisses charges against 3 officers accused of mistreating paralyzed prisoner

    [ad_1]

    A Connecticut judge on Friday dismissed criminal charges against three current and former New Haven police officers who were accused of mistreating prisoner Richard “Randy” Cox after he was paralyzed in the back of a police van in 2022.

    Judge David Zagaja dropped the cases against Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera after granting them a probation program that allows charges to be erased from defendants’ records, saying their conduct was not malicious. Two other officers, Betsy Segui and Ronald Pressley, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor reckless endangerment and received no jail time.

    Cox, 40, was left paralyzed from the chest down on June 19, 2022, when the police van, which had no seat belts, braked hard to avoid an accident, sending him head-first into a metal partition while his hands were cuffed behind his back. He had been arrested on charges of threatening a woman with a gun, which were later dismissed.

    “I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said in the van minutes after being injured, according to police video. He later was found to have broken his neck.

    Diaz, who was driving the van, brought Cox to the police department, where officers mocked Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox out of the van and around the police station before placing him in a holding cell before paramedics brought him to a hospital.

    Before pulling him out of the van, Lavandier told Cox to move his leg and sit up, according to an internal affairs investigation report. Cox says “I can’t move” and Lavandier says “You’re not even trying.”

    New Haven State’s Attorney John P. Doyle Jr.’s office said prosecutors and Cox did not object to the charges being dismissed.

    Defense lawyers said that while the officers were sympathetic to what happened to Cox, they did not cause his injuries or make them worse. The three officers whose cases were dismissed were scheduled to go on trial next month.

    “We don’t think that there was sufficient evidence to prove her guilt or any wrongdoing,” said Lavandier’s attorney, Dan Ford. “This is a negotiated settlement that avoids the risk of having go through the emotional toll of a trial.”

    Rivera’s lawyer, Raymond Hassett, called the decision to charge the officers “unjust and misplaced.”

    “The actions of the Police Chief and City Mayor in targeting the officers were a misguided effort to deflect attention from the police department shortcomings in managing the department and ensuring proper protocols were in place and followed,” Hassett said in a statement.

    Attorneys for Cox and Diaz did not immediately return phone and email messages Friday. Cox’s lawyer, Louis Rubano, has said Cox and his family hoped the criminal cases would end quickly with plea bargains.

    New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said city officials disagreed with the judge’s decision to dismiss the charges.

    “What happened to Randy was tragic and awful,” he said in a statement.

    The case drew outrage from civil rights advocates including the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Cox is Black, while all five officers who were arrested are Black or Hispanic. Gray, who also was Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a Baltimore police van.

    The case also led to reforms at the New Haven police department as well as a statewide seat belt requirement for prisoners.

    In 2023, the city of New Haven agreed to settle a lawsuit by Cox for $45 million.

    New Haven police fired Segui, Diaz, Lavandier and Rivera for violating police conduct policies, while Pressley retired and avoided an internal investigation. Diaz appealed his firing and got his job back. Segui lost the appeal of her firing, while appeals by Lavandier and Rivera remain pending.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • What to Know About the Counter Drone Technology That Triggered the Closure of the El Paso Airspace

    [ad_1]

    The government’s ability to deal with drones that pose a threat on American soil has been questioned this week after the use of a laser designed to shoot down drones near the border in Texas led to the abrupt closure of the airspace over El Paso, sources familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

    The details of exactly what happened before the Federal Aviation Administration shut down the busy airport in the Mexican border city on Wednesday aren’t entirely clear, but a source familiar with the situation told AP that the laser was deployed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection without coordinating with the FAA.

    Two months ago, Congress agreed to give more law enforcement agencies the authority to take down rogue drones as long as they are properly trained. That could make situations like the one in El Paso more likely. Previously, only a select few federal agencies had that power.

    Here’s a look at what happened and the issues that raised:


    Communication issues acknowledged

    The government would say only that the airspace was shut down when an incursion by Mexican drug cartel drones was neutralized.

    But the two people who discussed sensitive details on condition of anonymity said the FAA grounded every aircraft in the El Paso area over concerns about the safety of the laser system being used near commercial planes. The restrictions were initially expected to last 10 days, but then they were lifted a few hours later.

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday that the government agencies involved in El Paso are working to address the concerns that led to the cancellation of more than a dozen flights and sent travelers scrambling.

    “This was a joint agency task force mission that was undertaken and we’re continuing to work on the communication through that,” Noem said in Arizona.

    But drone warfare expert Brett Velicovich said the dysfunction in Texas raises questions about whether the U.S. will be prepared to deal with a significant drone threat.

    “We need to simplify the authorities for who is really in charge and get these egos out of the way from these different agencies before an American gets hurt,” said Velicovich, who founded drone maker Power.us and consults on ways to mitigate their threats.

    Velicovich, who used to use Predator drones in the military to bomb targets, said it wouldn’t be hard for someone with malicious intent to buy a drone for a few hundred bucks and do great harm at a major public event like a World Cup match or the celebrations of America’s 250th birthday that are planned this summer.

    Cartels routinely use drones to deliver drugs across the Mexican border and surveil Border Patrol officers. Officials told Congress last summer that more than 27,000 drones were detected within 1,600 feet (500 meters) of the southern border in the last six months of 2024.

    The government recently handed out $250 million in grants to the 11 states that are set to host World Cup matches this summer to help them prepare for the threat of drones. Another $250 million in grants will be awarded later this year to strengthen the nation’s drone defenses.


    More near misses involving drones

    The threat to planes from drones continues to increase along with the number of near misses around airports. Homeland Security estimates there are more than 1.7 million registered drones flying in the United States, and that number has been growing.

    Larger drones are required to carry a radio transponder that identifies the drone’s owner and broadcasts its position to help avert collisions. Cities can also invest in additional sensors around stadiums to help quickly detect drones.

    Airspace Link, a Detroit company, created a low altitude air traffic control system to track drones and can alert authorities who might soon be able to take action. Cities can buy additional sensors to upgrade that system around stadiums or other high-profile locations.

    “We don’t want something to happen,” said CEO Michael Healander. “But we also want to be prepared to have the tools in place to take action, because these are such big global events.”


    Acting against rogue drones

    Common anti-drone systems use radio signals to jam or force drones to land. But the government has also developed high-powered microwaves or laser beams like the one sources say was used in Texas this week that are capable of disabling the machines.

    Some other systems station small drones to take flight quickly and ram into drones that are considered a threat. And there are systems that use bullets to shoot down drones.

    Michael Robbins, president and CEO of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International trade group, said these counter drone systems are more common in warzones than across the United States. But the government is working to get them into the hands of more officers nationwide.

    “It’s our belief that this is important technology that when responsibly used with proper oversight and intensive training will help to mitigate unsafe or malicious drones in the very rare instances where that needs to occur,” Robbins said.


    Pilots worry about drones

    Allied Pilots Association union spokesman Capt. Dennis Tajer said he’s not sure how big of a threat the counter drone technology is to the American Airlines jets he flies because so few details have been released about what happened in Texas. And officials with Homeland Security and the FAA didn’t respond to questions about it again on Friday.

    Tajer said he’s more concerned about the possibility of a passenger jet running into a drone because that could bring the plane down. A year ago, 67 people were killed when an American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C.

    “You don’t have to be a pilot, an engineer or a defense expert to understand that two pieces of metal in the sky that one doesn’t know the other is there and is uncontrolled is dangerous,” Tajer said. “We’ve got to keep those two pieces of metal away from each other.”

    Associated Press writer Josh Kelety contributed from Scottsdale, Arizona.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Wendy’s closes US restaurants and focuses on value to turn around falling sales

    [ad_1]

    Wendy’s is closing several hundred U.S. restaurants and increasing its focus on value after a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter.

    The Dublin, Ohio-based company said Friday that its global same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 10% in the October-December period. That was worse than the 8.5% drop expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

    U.S. same-store sales fell even further in the fourth quarter. Wendy’s said late last year that it planned to close underperforming U.S. restaurants, but it gave more details about those closures Friday.

    Wendy’s said it already closed 28 restaurants in the fourth quarter and ended 2025 with 5,969 U.S. locations. It expects to close between 5% and 6% of its U.S. restaurants – or 298 to 358 locations – in the first half of this year.

    Those actions come on top of the closure of 240 U.S. Wendy’s locations in 2024. At the time, the 57-year-old chain said many of its locations are simply out of date.

    Like McDonald’s, Taco Bell and other rivals, Wendy’s also plans to emphasize value as it tries to win back inflation-weary customers.

    “One learning from 2025 around value, we swung the pendulum too far towards limited-time price promotions instead of everyday value,” said Ken Cook, Wendy’s interim CEO and chief financial officer, in a conference call with investors.

    In January, Wendy’s introduced a permanent “Biggie Deals” value menu with three price tiers: $4 Biggie Bites, $6 Biggie Bags and an $8 Biggie Bundle. Cook said Wendy’s also has new products coming this year, including a new chicken sandwich.

    Wendy’s said its revenue fell 5.5% in the fourth quarter to $543 million. That was higher than the $537 million analysts had forecast.

    Wendy’s expressed confidence that its U.S. turnaround plans and international growth will help arrest its sales slide this year. The company said it expects global systemwide sales — which includes sales at both company-owned and franchised restaurants — will be flat this year. Systemwide sales fell 3.5% last year.

    Wendy’s shares rose nearly 5% in mid-day trading Friday.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Falling cocoa prices won’t necessarily mean cheaper Valentine’s Day chocolates

    [ad_1]

    Cocoa prices have fallen nearly 70% since last Valentine’s Day, but that won’t make heart-shaped boxes of chocolate or even chocolate Easter bunnies more affordable this year.

    Chocolate prices at U.S. retail stores rose 14% between Jan. 1 and the first week of February compared to the same period last year, according to market research company Datasembly. That’s on top of a 7.8% increase for the same period in 2025.

    Europe has seen even steeper price increases. In Germany, chocolate prices rose 18.9% in 2025, according to government figures.

    Here’s what caused the price of cocoa futures to rise and then fall — and why that may not be reflected in the prices customers are paying.

    Cocoa prices more than doubled in 2024 due to insufficient rainfall and crop diseases in West Africa, which supplies more than 70% of the world’s cocoa. Cocoa, which is made from the dried beans of the cacao tree, is the main ingredient in both dark and white chocolate.

    Weather conditions have improved since then in Ivory Coast and Ghana, and cocoa production is increasing in Ecuador and other countries, according to an analysis by J.P. Morgan. The resulting supply increase is one reason cocoa prices are coming down.

    But they’re also dropping because of lower global demand. Chocolate getting more expensive has turned off consumers, so manufacturers have cut the amount of chocolate they use or shifted to other products like gummy candies to keep prices in check, said Chris Costagli, a food thought leader at the market research company NIQ.

    In the U.S., annual retail sales of chocolate rose 6.7% in 2025 compared to the prior year, largely because of price increases, according to NIQ data. But the number of individual products sold was down 1.3%, as consumers bought less chocolate overall.

    The Trump administration’s tariffs were another reason U.S. chocolate prices increased last year.

    The administration put a tariff averaging 15% on cocoa-producing countries last February, which raised the price of U.S. cocoa imports, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

    In November, the administration removed tariffs on cocoa and other commodities that can’t be grown in the U.S., including coffee, spices and tropical fruit.

    But tariffs of 15% or more on products from the European Union, including chocolates, remain in place.

    So far, declining cocoa prices haven’t necessarily let chocolate lovers pay less.

    Costagli compares the situation to gas prices. Even when the cost of oil goes down, prices at the pump don’t immediately follow because companies need to use up the oil they bought at a higher price.

    Chocolate makers like The Hershey Co. have long-term contracts that may require them to pay more than current cocoa prices. The market also is volatile; companies know that another bout of poor weather or a surge in demand could make cocoa prices surge again.

    But Costagli said companies also watch shoppers’ reaction to prices.

    “If the customer is still willing to pay that higher price point, do we really take the price down?” he said.

    Mondelez International, which owns chocolate brands like Oreo, Cadbury and Toblerone, raised its prices by 8% globally in 2025 to counter higher cocoa costs.

    In Europe, the company hiked prices by even more and saw a significant decrease in the amount of its products sold. As a result, Mondelez lowered prices this year in some markets, including the United Kingdom and Germany.

    “We have learned that certain price points are very important, and so we have adjusted already to put our products at the right price point,” Mondelez Chairman and CEO Dirk Van de Put said during a February conference call with investors.

    Van de Put said Mondelez didn’t plan immediate price cuts in North America, where both its price increases and its sales volume losses were more moderate.

    Two segments of the chocolate market grew in the U.S. last year: value brands and super-premium brands, Costagli said.

    The expanded interest in higher-end chocolate may seem surprising if consumers balked at paying more for a Snickers bar or a pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. But the companies behind super-premium lines like Ferrero Rocher, Justin’s and Lindt Excellence were less aggressive about instituting cocoa-related price increases since their products already were more expensive, Costagli said.

    As mainstream chocolate makers like Hershey and Mars raised prices, some customers decided they’d just spend a little more, he said.

    “It’s given the aspirational shopper that little push they need to trade up. If they wanted a better product, if they wanted better experience, better product characteristics, organic, fair trade, whatever it might be,” Costagli said.

    On the flip side, value brands — think Whitman’s or some store-brand chocolates — also sold more products in the U.S. last year as price-conscious shoppers traded down from mainstream brands.

    “The savings you get by trading down is actually greater than it used to be,” Costagli said. “So from an aspirational perspective, it’s easier to trade up, and from a financially insecure perspective, it saves you more to trade down.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • New astronauts launch to the International Space Station after medical evacuation

    [ad_1]

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A new crew rocketed toward the International Space Station on Friday to replace the astronauts who returned to Earth early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.

    SpaceX launched the replacements as soon as possible at NASA’s request, sending the U.S., French and Russian astronauts on an expected eight- to nine-month mission stretching until fall. The four should arrive at the orbiting lab Saturday, filling the vacancies left by their evacuated colleagues last month and bringing the space station back to full staff.

    “It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,” SpaceX Launch Control radioed once the astronauts reached orbit. “That was quite a ride,” replied the crew’s commander, Jessica Meir.

    NASA had to put spacewalks on hold and deferred other duties while awaiting the arrival of Americans Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev. They’ll join three other astronauts — one American and two Russians — who kept the space station running the past month.

    Satisfied with medical procedures already in place, NASA ordered no extra checkups for the crew ahead of liftoff and no new diagnostic equipment was packed. An ultrasound machine already up there for research went into overdrive Jan. 7 when used on the ailing crew member. NASA has not revealed the ill astronaut’s identity or health issue. All four returning astronauts went straight to the hospital after splashing down in the Pacific near San Diego.

    It was the first time in 65 years of human spaceflight that NASA cut short a mission for medical reasons.

    With missions becoming longer, NASA is constantly looking at upgrades to the space station’s medical gear, said deputy program manager Dina Contella. “But there are a lot of things that are just not practical and so that’s when you need to bring astronauts home from space,” she said earlier this week.

    In preparation for moon and Mars trips where health care will be even more challenging, the new arrivals will test a filter designed to turn drinking water into emergency IV fluid, try out an ultrasound system that relies on artificial intelligence and augmented reality instead of experts on the ground, and perform ultrasound scans on their jugular veins in a blood clot study.

    They also will demonstrate their moon-landing skills in a simulated test drawing extra attention because of the impending launch of four astronauts to the moon on Artemis II, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century.

    Adenot is only the second French woman to launch to space. She was 14 when Claudie Haignere flew to Russia’s space station Mir in 1996, inspiring her to become an astronaut. Haignere cheered her on from the Florida launch site, wishing her “Bon vol,” French for “Have a good flight,” and “Ad astra,” Latin for “To the stars.”

    Hathaway, like Adenot, is new to space, while Meir and Fedyaev are making their second station trip. On her first mission in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk. The other half of that spacewalk, Christina Koch, is among the four Artemis II astronauts waiting to fly around the moon as early as March. A ship-to-ship radio linkup is planned between the two crews.

    Meir wasn’t sure astronauts would return to the moon during her career. “Now we’re right here on the precipice of the Artemis II mission,” she said ahead of liftoff. “The fact that they will be in space at the same time as us … it’s so cool to be an astronaut now, it’s so exciting.”

    SpaceX launched the latest crew from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Elon Musk’s company is preparing its neighboring Kennedy Space Center launch pad for the supersized Starships, which NASA needs to land astronauts on the moon.

    NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman said following Friday’s liftoff that testing continues at the Artemis pad, where the Space Launch System moon rocket awaits liftoff. A practice fueling last week unleashed hydrogen fuel leaks. Two seals have since been replaced and a mini fueling conducted.

    Isaacman stressed that no launch date will be set until additional fueling tests — potentially a series of them — are completed. The earliest that Artemis II could launch is March 3, he noted.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Patriots’ Stefon Diggs to be arraigned and denies assault allegation

    [ad_1]

    BOSTON — New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Massachusetts on felony strangulation and other criminal charges stemming from an alleged dispute with his personal chef.

    The arraignment at Dedham District Court was postponed until after Super Bowl LX so Diggs could play in the NFL championship game.

    According to court records, the woman told Dedham officers she and Diggs argued about money he owed her for her work as his private chef. During the Dec. 2 encounter at his home, she said, he “smacked her across the face” and then “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck,” leaving her feeling short of breath.

    Diggs’ arraignment was originally slated for Jan. 23 but was moved to Feb. 13 — five days after the Patriots’ 29-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks — to accommodate his playing schedule.

    Diggs’ attorney has said he “categorically denies these allegations,” calling them unsubstantiated and motivated by a financial dispute. The Patriots released a statement saying they support him.

    Investigators allege the woman first reported the incident to police on Dec. 16, two weeks after it occurred; she initially hesitated to file charges but later chose to do so, according to court documents.

    The arraignment Friday will be the first court appearance in the case. The judge is expected to address bail conditions and set future hearing dates.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 4 Smart Moves to Cut Your 2025 Tax Bill Under New Rules

    [ad_1]

    The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made some long-awaited permanent changes to the tax code. It also introduced short-term tax breaks that come with strict limits and phaseouts, and many of them are only available through 2028 or 2029. Here are four ways to get the most out of the OBBBA’s temporary provisions as you file your 2025 taxes and plan ahead.

    The OBBBA temporarily boosts the state and local tax deduction cap, or SALT, from $10,000 to $40,000 (for married couples filing jointly and single filers). This higher cap applies from 2025 through 2029.

    Run the numbers: For 2025, the standard deduction is $31,500 for married couples and $15,750 for singles. If your total itemized deductions — including mortgage interest, charitable giving, and state and local taxes (up to the new $40,000 cap) — add up to more than your standard deduction, you should itemize.

    Watch your income: The new $40,000 SALT cap isn’t for everyone. It begins to phase out if your modified adjusted gross income is over $500,000 (for all filers). If your MAGI reaches $600,000, your SALT deduction reverts to the original $10,000 limit.

    The OBBBA introduced several temporary above-the-line deductions (available whether you itemize or not) to help middle-income workers. But they have very strict income and benefit limits.

    The qualified overtime pay deduction: Capped at $25,000 for married couples filing jointly and $12,500 for singles. Only the extra “half-time” portion of your time-and-a-half pay qualifies for the deduction. For a married couple, this benefit begins to disappear if your MAGI hits $300,000 and is entirely gone once your MAGI reaches $550,000.

    The qualified tips income deduction: Allows you to write off qualified tip income up to $25,000 per tax return, whether you file as married or single. The deduction is only available for tips that are formally reported on a Form W-2 or Form 1099. It phases out sharply for higher earners, starting at a MAGI of $300,000 for married couples and $150,000 for singles, and is fully eliminated at $550,000 and $400,000, respectively.

    The auto loan interest deduction: This temporary deduction allows you to write off up to $10,000 of interest paid on a loan for a new, personal-use vehicle with final assembly in the US. (Leases are excluded.) It starts to phase out at $200,000 for married couples and $100,000 for singles and is completely gone by $250,000 and $150,000.

    If you are 65 or older, the OBBBA offers a new, temporary deduction for seniors of up to $12,000 for married couples ($6,000 per eligible spouse) and $6,000 for single filers. This is a welcome tax break, but it’s fragile.

    Beware the MAGI trap: This deduction begins to disappear for married couples with a MAGI over $150,000 and for singles over $75,000.

    Model Roth conversions for 2026: If you are a senior who is close to the $150,000 MAGI limit, a Roth conversion done in 2026 could push your income over the threshold, causing you to lose this entire $12,000 deduction. Work with your adviser to model any planned 2026 conversions.

    Many of the OBBBA’s most valuable temporary provisions are income-sensitive, particularly those new targeted deductions and the elevated SALT cap. Keep these rules in mind for 2025 filing and 2026 tax planning.

    For your 2025 return: You can still influence your 2025 MAGI by:

      1. Making 2025 HSA contributions (before the April 2026 tax deadline).

      2. Making 2025 deductible IRA contributions, if you’re eligible.

    Plan for 2026 income: If your 2026 income is likely to approach any phaseout thresholds (such as the $300,000 limit for tips/overtime or the $500,000 limit for the elevated SALT cap), consider strategies that help keep it within the qualifying range.

      3. Postponing the sale of highly appreciated stock to avoid realizing large capital gains in 2026.

      4. Delaying the exercise of nonqualified stock options if doing so would push you over a phaseout threshold.

      5. Maximizing 401(k) and health savings account contributions to reduce your 2026 MAGI.

      6. Holding off on large Roth conversions if they would increase your income above key limits.

    Don’t let the technical limitations and phaseouts catch you by surprise. With a little smart planning, you can lock in significant tax savings.

    _____

    This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.

    Sheryl Rowling, CPA, is an editorial director, financial adviser for Morningstar.

    Related Links

    https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/how-name-charity-your-ira-beneficiary

      8. 6 Steps to Claiming Your Baby’s Free $1,000 From Uncle Sam

    https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/6-steps-claiming-your-babys-free-1000-uncle-sam

    https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/8-tips-stop-worrying-about-running-out-money-retirement

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler to resign after emails show close ties to Jeffrey Epstein

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — Kathy Ruemmler, the top lawyer at storied investment bank Goldman Sachs and former White House counsel to President Barack Obama, announced her resignation Thursday, after emails between her and Jeffrey Epstein showed a close relationship where she described him as an “older brother” and downplayed his sex crimes.

    Ruemmler said in a statement that she would “step down as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Goldman Sachs as of June 30, 2026.”

    Up until her resignation, Ruemmler repeatedly tried to distance herself from the emails and other correspondence and had been defiant that she would not resign from Goldman’s top legal post, which she had held since 2020.

    While Ruemmler has called Epstein a “monster” in recent statements, she had a much different relationship with Epstein before he was arrested a second time for sex crimes in 2019 and later killed himself in a Manhattan jail. Ruemmler called Epstein “Uncle Jeffrey” in emails and said she adored him.

    In a statement before her resignation, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson said Ruemmler “regrets ever knowing him.”

    In her statement Thursday, Ruemmler said: “Since I joined Goldman Sachs six years ago, it has been my privilege to help oversee the firm’s legal, reputational, and regulatory matters; to enhance our strong risk management processes; and to ensure that we live by our core value of integrity in everything we do. My responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs’ interests first.”

    Goldman CEO David Solomonsaid in a separate statement: “As one of the most accomplished professionals in her field, Kathy has also been a mentor and friend to many of our people, and she will be missed. I accepted her resignation, and I respect her decision.”

    During her time in private practice after she left the White House in 2014, Ruemmler received several expensive gifts from Epstein, including luxury handbags and a fur coat. The gifts were given after Epstein had already been convicted of sex crimes in 2008 and was registered as a sex offender.

    “So lovely and thoughtful! Thank you to Uncle Jeffrey!!!” Ruemmler wrote to Epstein in 2018.

    Historically, Wall Street frowns on gift-giving between clients and bankers or Wall Street lawyers, particularly high-end gifts that could pose a conflict of interest. Goldman Sachs requires its employees to get preapproval before receiving or giving gifts from clients, according to the company’s code of conduct, partly in order to not run afoul of anti-bribery laws.

    As late as December, Goldman CEO David Solomon described Ruemmler as an “excellent lawyer” and said she had his full faith and backing.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • As electricity costs rise, everyone wants data centers to pick up their tab. But how?

    [ad_1]

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — As outrage spreads over energy-hungry data centers, politicians from President Donald Trump to local lawmakers have found rare bipartisan agreement over insisting that tech companies — and not regular people — must foot the bill for the exorbitant amount of electricity required for artificial intelligence.

    But that might be where the agreement ends.

    The price of powering data centers has become deeply intertwined with concerns over the cost of living, a dominant issue in the upcoming midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and governors’ offices.

    Some efforts to address the challenge may be coming too late, with energy costs on the rise. And even though tech giants are pledging to pay their “fair share,” there’s little consensus on what that means.

    “‘Fair share’ is a pretty squishy term, and so it’s something that the industry likes to say because ‘fair’ can mean different things to different people,” said Ari Peskoe, who directs the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard University.

    It’s a shift from last year, when states worked to woo massive data center projects and Trump directed his administration to do everything it could to get them electricity. Now there’s a backlash as towns fight data center projects and some utilities’ electricity bills have risen quickly.

    Anger over the issue has already had electoral consequences, with Democrats ousting two Republicans from Georgia’s utility regulatory commission in November.

    “Voters are already connecting the experience of these facilities with their electricity costs and they’re going to increasingly want to know how government is going to navigate that,” said Christopher Borick, a pollster and director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.

    Data centers are sprouting across the U.S., as tech giants scramble to meet worldwide demand for chatbots and other generative AI products that require large amounts of computing power to train and operate.

    The buildings look like giant warehouses, some dwarfing the footprints of factories and stadiums. Some need more power than a small city, more than any utility has ever supplied to a single user, setting off a race to build more power plants.

    The demand for electricity can have a ripple effect that raises prices for everyone else. For example, if utilities build more power plants or transmission lines to serve them, the cost can be spread across all ratepayers.

    Concerns have dovetailed with broader questions about the cost of living, as well as fears about the powerful influence of tech companies and the impact of artificial intelligence.

    Trump continues to embrace artificial intelligence as a top economic and national security priority, although he seemed to acknowledge the backlash last month by posting on social media that data centers “must ‘pay their own way.’”

    At other times, he has brushed concerns aside, declaring that tech giants are building their own power plants, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright contends that data centers don’t inflate electricity bills — disputing what consumer advocates and independent analysts say.

    Some states and utilities have started to identify ways to get data centers to pay for their costs.

    They’ve required tech companies to buy electricity in long-term contracts, pay for the power plants and transmission upgrades they need and make big down payments in case they go belly-up or decide later they don’t need as much electricity.

    But it might be more complicated than that. Those rules can’t fix the short-term problem of ravenous demand for electricity that is outpacing the speed of power plant construction, analysts say.

    “What do you do when Big Tech, because of the very profitable nature of these data centers, can simply outbid grandma for power in the short run?” Abe Silverman, a former utility regulatory lawyer and an energy researcher at Johns Hopkins University. “That is, I think, going to be the real challenge.”

    Some consumer advocates say tech companies’ fair share should also include the rising cost of electricity, grid equipment or natural gas that’s driven by their demand.

    In Oregon, which passed a law to protect smaller ratepayers from data centers’ power costs, a consumer advocacy group is jousting with the state’s largest utility, Portland General Electric, over its plan on how to do that.

    Meanwhile, consumer advocates in various states — including Indiana, Georgia and Missouri — are warning that utilities could foist the cost of data center-driven buildouts onto regular ratepayers there.

    Utilities have pledged to ensure electric rates are fair. But in some places it may be too late.

    For instance, in the mid-Atlantic grid territory from New Jersey to Illinois, consumer advocates and analysts have pegged billions of dollars in rate increases hitting the bills of regular Americans on data center demand.

    Legislation, meanwhile, is flooding into Congress and statehouses to regulate data centers.

    Democrats’ bills in Congress await Republican cosponsors, while lawmakers in a number of states are floating moratoriums on new data centers, drafting rules for regulators to shield regular ratepayers and targeting data center tax breaks and utility profits.

    Governors — including some who worked to recruit data centers to their states — are increasingly talking tough.

    Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat running for reelection this year, wants to impose a penny-a-gallon water fee on data centers and get rid of the sales tax exemption there that most states offer data centers. She called it a $38 million “corporate handout.”

    “It’s time we make the booming data center industry work for the people of our state, rather than the other way around,” she said in her state-of-the-state address.

    Energy costs are projected to keep rising in 2026.

    Republicans in Washington are pointing the finger at liberal state energy policies that favor renewable energy, suggesting they have driven up transmission costs and frayed supply by blocking fossil fuels.

    “Americans are not paying higher prices because of data centers. There’s a perception there, and I get the perception, but it’s not actually true,” said Wright, Trump’s energy secretary, at a news conference earlier this month.

    The struggle to assign blame was on display last week at a four-hour U.S. House subcommittee hearing with members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

    Republicans encouraged FERC members to speed up natural gas pipeline construction while Democrats defended renewable energy and urged FERC to limit utility profits and protect residential ratepayers from data center costs.

    FERC’s chair, Laura Swett, told Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, that she believes data center operators are willing to cover their costs and understand that it’s important to have community support.

    “That’s not been our experience,” Landsman responded, saying projects in his district are getting tax breaks, sidestepping community opposition and costing people money. “Ultimately, I think we have to get to a place where they pay everything.”

    ___

    Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter

    [ad_2]

    Source link