Thursday, March 28

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DOJ urged to decide on death penalty for suspect
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DOJ urged to decide on death penalty for suspect

A federal judge Thursday urged Justice Department lawyers to expedite a decision on whether they will seek the death penalty against the gunman in the Buffalo supermarket massacre.In his first court appearance since being charged with federal hate crimes in the May 14 attack that left 10 dead, Payton Gendron was put on notice that he faced the prospect of death in a case where he is accused of specifically targeting Black victims at the Tops FriendlyMarket.More:Buffalo shooting suspect charged with federal hate crimes, Garland meets with victims' familiesMore:In Buffalo shooting, outrage grows as details emerge about white supremacist motiveUS Magistrate Kenneth Schroeder Jr., said quick action was necessary so the defense could be afforded access to expert witnesses and other resources...
Detroit honors Vincent Chin, Asian American killed in 1982
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Detroit honors Vincent Chin, Asian American killed in 1982

DETROIT >> Decades before Chinese immigrant Yao Pan Ma was attacked while collecting cans in New York and Thai American Vicha Ratanapakdee was fatally assaulted in San Francisco, Vincent Chin was beaten to death with a baseball bat in Detroit by two white men who never served jail time. Forty years later — and amid a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans — Detroit has partnered with The Vincent Chin 40th Remembrance & Rededication Coalition on a four-day commemoration to honor civil rights efforts that began with Chin's death and declare the city's commitment against such violence. “Although hate crimes existed, Vincent Chin did bring out a flash point for Asian Americans,” Stanley Mark, senior staff attorney at the New York-based Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, s...
SoFi Stadium, Rose Bowl finalists for 2026 World Cup matches
Europe

SoFi Stadium, Rose Bowl finalists for 2026 World Cup matches

FIFA will choose host cities for the 2026 World Cup from among 23 candidates in the US, Mexico and Canada on Thursday, setting the stage for the largest, most challenging tournament in World Cup history.Two stadiums in Southern California — SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena — are among the finalists. FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, is expected to select 16 venues, as many as a dozen in the USThe World Cup field is expanding to a record 48 teams and 80 games in 2026, with 60 of those games expected to be played in the US and 10 each in Canada and Mexico. Canada has proposed staging games in Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto while Mexico is offering Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City's Azteca Stadium, which has already played host to two World Cup fina...
Buffalo shooting suspect said he carried out attack ‘for the future of the White race,’ federal complaint says
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Buffalo shooting suspect said he carried out attack ‘for the future of the White race,’ federal complaint says

The white man accused of fatally shooting 10 Black people in a racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store wrote an apology note to his family and said he carried out the attack "for the future of the White race," according to a federal criminal complaint. The handwritten note was discovered in the bedroom of Payton Gendron a day after the May 14 shooting at Tops Friendly Market left 10 people dead and three wounded — 11 of whom are Black and two white.Gendron, 18, was arrested at the store and faces 26 federal counts of hate crimes and firearms offenses, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday. He has already been indicted on 25 state criminal counts that include murder and attempted murder as a hate crime and weapons possession.In his note, he "apologized to his family ...
Yellowstone floodwaters threaten water supplies in Montana’s largest city
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Yellowstone floodwaters threaten water supplies in Montana’s largest city

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Damaging floodwaters that tore through Yellowstone National Park threatened communities downstream where residents cleaned up from the mess and kept an eye on rising river levels while others braced for the economic fallout while the park remains closed. After wiping out thousands of roads and untold number of bridges in the park and swamping hundreds of homes in surrounding communities, the roiling waters threatened to cut off fresh drinking water supplies to Montana's largest city. Officials asked Billings residents Wednesday to conserve water because it was down to a 24- to 36-hour supply after a combination of heavy rain and rapidly melting mountain snow raised the Yellowstone River to historic levels that forced them to shut down its water treat...
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Parts of Yellowstone may reopen Monday; reservation system planned | WyomingNews

CODY — Yellowstone National Park is beginning to set reopening plans in motion, even before the floodwaters recede.The entire park will remain closed through the weekend, with the less-damaged southern loop now expected to open Monday at the earliest, Superintendent Cam Sholly said Wednesday, during a call with residents and tourists in Cody. The park closed all entrances earlier this week as the floodwaters washed out roads, destroyed bridges and turned gateway communities into temporary islands.About 15,000 visitors left the park amid the disaster, which could take months or even years to fully recover from.Officials will likely institute a reservation system that limits the number of visitors who enter to avoid overcrowding and damage to infrastructure in the southe...
Mortgage rates for June 16
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Mortgage rates for June 16

Placeholder while article actions loadMortgage rates skyrocketed this week, soaring to their highest levels since 2008. The unexpectedly speedy escalation has had a chilling effect on the US housing market, increasing pressure on an economy already hounded by unremitting inflation.The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most popular home loan product, jumped to 5.78 percent this week, up from 5.23 percent a week ago, according to Freddie Mac data released Thursday. The more than a half-percentage-point rise was the biggest one-week jump since 1987. The jump came in anticipation of the Federal Reserve's rate hike this week. The Fed hiked interest rates by the sharpest pace since 1994, to curb soaring inflation.What will the Fed's rate hike mean for consumers?Consumers have been facing hig...
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Closely watched Alzheimer’s study fails to prevent advance of disease

The Alzheimer's drug crenezumab did not slow or prevent cognitive decline in a long-running study of Colombian families who carried a genetic mutation that put them at near certain risk to develop the mind-robbing disease. The study of 252 people tested whether the pharmaceutical giant Roche's antibody crenezumab could slow or halt the disease if participants took the medication before memory or thinking problems surfaced. But the drug did not demonstrate a significant benefit in tests measuring cognitive abilities or memory function among study participants, Roche said Thursday in a news release.The widely anticipated study that began enrolling patients in 2013 sought to test the idea that Alzheimer's disease could be prevented or delayed if otherwise healthy people took a medication ...
What is the Stop Woke Act?  Florida law raises First Amendment issues
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What is the Stop Woke Act? Florida law raises First Amendment issues

TALLAHASSEE-Gov. Ron DeSantis' “Stop Woke Act” is facing its first federal court test after weeks of being celebrated by the political right for restricting race-based teaching and training in schools, universities and workplaces.But not all conservatives are lined up behind the Republican governor.A civil liberties organizationwhich has sided with Florida Republicans in the past on campus speech issues, is among those now condemning DeSantis' approach.“It's intended to chill speech,” said Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). “The entire point of the new law is to set out certain categories or concepts that the state disdains and says you can't introduce.”Much of the debate over Stop Woke has centered on public schools and busin...
Covid doesn’t stop Anthony Fauci from taking on Rand Paul – again
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Covid doesn’t stop Anthony Fauci from taking on Rand Paul – again

“Are you going to let me answer a question?” Fauci quipped amid a flurry of interruptions from Paul, who is also a medical doctor. “Soundbite number one,” he added. Sen. Paul first asked Fauci if there was direct scientific evidence that booster shots prevent hospitalization and death in all people age 5 and older. When Fauci noted that the booster recommendations were based on assumptions and antibody data, Paul fired back: “If I give a patient 10 mRNA vaccines and they … make antibodies each time, is that proof we should give 10 boosters, Dr. Fauci?” “I think that is somewhat of an absurd exaggeration,” Fauci said. Sen. Paul then changed his line of questioning to the royalties scientists from the National Institutes of Health may have received from companies, especially vaccin...