BusinessYahoo Finance'A huge leap forward': Democrats add a host of retirement provisions to the $3.5T reconciliation bill
Inside the Democrats' forthcoming package of proposed social spending is a host of significant changes to how Americans might save for retirement in the years and decades ahead. The provisions – if enacted – would be one of the most impactful changes to the private retirement system since the SECURE Act was passed in 2019. Susan Neely, president and CEO of American Council of Life Insurers, supports the proposals and told Yahoo Finance that "the punchline is it will be a huge leap forward in closing the retirement savings gap which was a problem in this country pre-pandemic."
PoliticsHuffPostJon Stewart Admits Why He Was Wrong About Donald Trump
Jon Stewart admitted the mistake he made when Donald Trump first announced his candidacy for president in 2015. Back then, the then-host of “The Daily Show” figured the reality TV personality was a comedic “gift from heaven. But in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Wednesday, Stewart said he misjudged, failing to consider that Trump's “certainty, his ridiculousness, his shamelessness is what made him dangerous.
U.S.INSIDERFiancé of Gabby Petito breaks silence on her mysterious disappearance
Gabby Petito's fiancé broke his silence on her mysterious disappearance. Brian Laundrie's attorney, Steven Bertolino, issued a statement about Petito, 22, on Tuesday. He said it was "an extremely difficult time for both the Petito family and the Laundrie family."
BusinessTechCrunchRivian vehicles are now ready for sale in all 50 states, following key certifications
Rivian vehicles have received certifications from three agencies, the final hurdle that allows the electric automaker to sell and deliver its R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV in all 50 U.S. states. Rivian confirmed to TechCrunch in an email that the vehicles are fully certified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. Bloomberg also reported that Rivian has received regulatory approval to deliver vehicles to customers.
U.S.DirtAl Capone’s ‘Piece of Crap’ Miami Beach Home Likely to Be Demolished
Your beloved Miami Beach house, which you purchased for $40,000 in 1928, is scheduled to be torn down. The new owners of your Florida refuge, who purchased it for $10.75 million this summer, told the Miami Herald that the house has flood damage and standing water under it. Now, Al, please don't grab your Thompson submachine gun.
- U.S.Baltimore Sun
Before camera was found in Caroline County judge’s cabin, parents of boy he took on trips had conversations about safety
Before their son went on his first hunting trip with Caroline County Judge Jonathan G. Newell, his parents sat him down and came up with a safe word. “I said, 'I know you like Judge Newell, and you think he's a great guy, and we have no reason to think otherwise, but ... we want to make sure that you are aware of what to look for — what to know is acceptable versus unacceptable,'” the boy's mother recalled. Newell, a circuit court judge for five years and before that Caroline County's top prosecutor for more than a decade, took his life Friday morning as the FBI moved in to arrest him on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child.
PoliticsReutersU.S. judge rules Trump cannot stop rape accuser's lawsuit from proceeding
A U.S. judge on Wednesday said former President Donald Trump cannot delay a lawsuit accusing him of defaming former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll after she claimed he raped her in the mid-1990s. In a one-sentence order, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan refused to put the case on hold while Trump appeals an earlier ruling he made. The order could let Carroll obtain documents and other materials from Trump during the appeal.
U.S.Washington ExaminerHigh school teacher says telling students to behave in class is 'white supremacy'
A Virginia high school teacher posted a TikTok video that said telling students to behave themselves in class falls under the definition of "white supremacy." "I stated that PBIS is white supremacy with a hug and a lot of y'all wanted to know more about that," the teacher said in the May TikTok video. "So, if PBIS concerns itself with positive behaviors, we have to ask ourselves, 'OK, well what are those positive behaviors?' And it's things like making sure that you're following directions and making sure that you're sitting quietly and you are in your seat and all these things that come from white culture."
BusinessMarketWatchThis is how much the average Social Security check is likely to rise next year
The reason is that August's official inflation figures came in below expectations—thanks in part to the effects of the “delta” variant of COVID-19, which caused a slump in the prices of things like air travel and hotel tickets, and some weird looking numbers on housing (more on this below). Each year's Social Security COLA is fixed by looking at consumer prices for July, August and September and then comparing them to the prices during the same three months a year earlier. July and August of this year are running 5.9% ahead of the same months last year.
U.S.Associated PressWoman tied to dog dragged to death by San Francisco train
A woman who had a dog tethered to her waist with a leash was dragged to death by a train in San Francisco, transit officials said Tuesday. The woman had boarded a Bay Area Rapid Transit train at Powell Station with her dog and as the doors were about to close she stepped out but the dog stayed on the train. As the train took off, she was dragged, pulled onto the tracks and killed Monday, BART officials said in a statement.
U.S.Miami HeraldNavy sailor slapped on 9/11 anniversary by woman calling him a fake. But he’s not
A man was verbally accosted and slapped at a pizza restaurant on the anniversary of Sept. 11 by a woman who said he was lying about being a Navy sailor. Photos dating back to 2020 show him at Naval Station Great Lakes, with the chief of the fire department he volunteers for also confirming his service. Nolte said the encounter began Saturday when the woman kept staring at him as he waited inside the pizza restaurant.
PoliticsHuffPostSamantha Bee Spots Real Reason For GOP Fearmongering On COVID-19 Vaccines, Mandates
Samantha Bee said Wednesday that Republicans “need to be honest” about why they're stoking anger about COVID-19 vaccines and mandates. Republicans aren't really afraid of them, said the “Full Frontal” host. They're just terrified of “the hate-filled, conspiracy-loving base they have cultivated.
- WorldAssociated Press
Australian fugitive surrenders after 3-decade beach stay
A 64-year-old fugitive walked into a Sydney police station to give himself up almost 30 years after he used a hacksaw blade and bolt cutters to escape from prison, police said on Wednesday. Darko Desic decided to go back to prison because Sydney's COVID-19 lockdown made him jobless and homeless, media reported. Desic surrendered at Dee Why Police Station at Sydney's fashionable northern beaches on Sunday morning and was denied bail when he appeared in a downtown court on Tuesday charged with escaping from lawful custody in 1992, a police statement said.
PoliticsThe WeekTrump is right about Bush
Trump was responding to a thinly veiled shot made by Bush towards the Trump-idolizing insurrectionists during a speech at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Without explicitly naming Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, Bush compared "violent extremists at home" to the terrorists who had hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, and crashed them in New York City, Arlington, and Shanksville, killing nearly 3,000 people. "There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home," Bush explained.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-Telegram2-year-old found at her baby brother’s side along Rio Grande in Texas, officials say
Two children were found abandoned along the Mexico border in Texas and a note was left with them, officials said. U.S. Border Patrol agents on the Rio Grande spotted an “unusual color” along the riverbank Tuesday and discovered the children, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A note left under a baby carrier revealed the children are siblings from Honduras, officials said.
- ScienceReuters Videos
Over 1,400 dolphins killed in Faroe Islands hunt
More than 1,400 dolphins were killed on Sunday (September 12) off the coast of the Faroe Islands in a single day, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said, as part of the Danish territory's century-old traditional Grindadrap hunt. The U.S.-based NGO said the slaughter of 1428 Atlantic white-sided dolphins is considered to be the largest single hunt of cetaceans ever recorded worldwide. The annual dolphin drive, when several hundred pilot whales are slaughtered for their meat and blubber, is part of a 1,000-year-old tradition in the North Atlantic archipelago.
WorldWashington Examiner‘The world is a jungle’: France fumes at US-Australia nuclear submarine deal
French President Emmanuel Macron's team is outraged at President Joe Biden's announcement to share U.S. and British nuclear submarine technology with Australia, which scuttles an agreement for Australia to purchase French vessels. “The American choice to exclude a European ally and partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region ... shows a lack of coherence that France can only note and regret,” French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said in a joint statement Wednesday evening.
U.S.Miami Herald‘Get out of there!’ Watch the moment a teenage surfer is attacked by shark in Florida
In an instant, a photographer caught a terrifyingly rare sight: a shark attacking a surfer off the Florida coast last week. Central Florida photographer Sam Scribner happened to be hanging out watching surfers in action Thursday at the Ponce Inlet in New Smyrna Beach when suddenly the unthinkable occurred. Posted on Scribner's Instagram (Headline: “Trigger Warning: SHARK BITE”), his video eerily looks like a scene from the 1975 classic “Jaws.
U.S.Associated PressIndiana woman who strangled stepdaughter gets life sentence
A northern Indiana woman convicted of murder in the strangulation death of her 10-year-old stepdaughter was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Amanda Carmack, of Gas City, was sentenced during a hearing Wednesday. A jury convicted her last month on murder, strangulation, neglect and battery charges in the killing of Skylea Carmack.
- U.S.The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
50-year-old man allegedly raped 17-year-old girl after getting her high on meth
A 50-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after he was accused of raping a 17-year-old girl behind an outbuilding in Spokane Valley. The girl told deputies she met the suspect, Terrence Kelley, Tuesday night and the two went into an access alley behind a row of businesses between Mansfield and Indiana avenues, according to a Spokane County Sheriff's Office news release. She told deputies Kelley gave her methamphetamine, which she had never taken before.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderCaitlyn Jenner says she 'can't believe' voters kept Newsom in office after receiving only about 1% of the vote in the California recall election
Caitlyn Jenner has so far received 1.1% of the vote in the California gubernatorial recall election. Despite her near-universal name identification, Jenner struggled to gain traction with voters. Caitlyn Jenner entered this year's California gubernatorial recall election with near-universal name recognition and a burning desire to take down Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, branding herself as a "compassionate disrupter" who would "save" the Golden State from its liberal excesses.
U.S.Associated PressEx-cop's murder conviction reversed in 911 caller's death
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the third-degree murder conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a woman who had called 911 to report a possible rape behind her home. In its ruling in the case of Mohamed Noor, the Supreme Court also clarified what would constitute third-degree murder, or depraved-mind murder, saying the statute doesn't apply if a defendant's actions are directed at a particular person. Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual U.S.-Australian citizen who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home.
U.S.Washington PostThey came to Texas for the big houses and barbecue - they also got new laws on abortion, guns and voting
There was a lot to like in Austin when Kevin Longley moved there a month and a half ago from Maryland's Montgomery County. In July, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning government entities, including public schools, from requiring masks or vaccination (the Texas Supreme Court denied his request last month), despite the state's rising death toll: more than 6,000 Texans have died of covid-19 in the past month. On Sept. 1, legislation allowing Texans to carry a handgun in public without a permit or the background check and training the state previously required went into effect.
- HealthFox News
Moderna analysis: Those vaccinated last year twice more likely to get COVID-19 than those jabbed recently
Moderna Inc. has released a set of data which suggested its COVID-19 vaccine is effective in preventing serious health issues or death from "variants of concern" but admitting that efficacy decreases over time, such that those who received the vaccine last year were twice more likely to contract a breakthrough case of the coronavirus disease. According to the data, which Moderna released Wednesday, a "study shows lower risk of breakthrough infection in participants vaccinated more recently (median 8 months after first dose) than participants vaccinated last year (median 13 months after first dose)." Across both groups, Moderna highlighted that "only 19 severe cases were observed."
- U.S.Associated Press
Search at Grand Canyon turns up remains of another person
Crews searching for a missing man at Grand Canyon National Park made an unexpected discovery this summer. They found the remains of another person, believed to be Scott Walsh, who was last seen stepping off a shuttle bus at the park's South Rim in 2015. The clothing had blended in with the surroundings, and the body was positioned in a way that made it almost undetectable, said park spokeswoman Joelle Baird.
“It’s time for a late-stage empire to sober up a bit and refocus on building a functioning nation-state here on the home front.”
“The response to evil abroad cannot be to throw up our hands. Failure is not inevitable.”
“The United States keeps insisting that it must do that which it cannot do.”
“When the U.S. blames others, it doesn’t recognize its mistakes, so it repeats them.”
“Nothing has been resolved, no lessons have been learned, no meaningful assessment of the war on terror has been passed.”