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Why a government default could be worse than a government shutdown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — All the hand-wringing over a potential government default if Congress doesn’t increase the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling has conjured up images of past government shutdowns. In shutdowns, “essential” workers — TSA agents and such — showed up, but most federal employees stayed home. Work piled up in offices, and litter piled up in untended national parks.However, there’s a big difference between a government shutdown and a default on the nation’s debts.America very well knows what happens in a shutdown — it’s had four of them in the past 30 years. There’s a lot more uncertainty about a default, which could well have more wide-ranging and devastating impacts, at home and around the world. There’s never been a default, and negotiators are trying to find a way to avoid one now. A look at what is known — and not — about both:GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNA shutdown occurs when Congress doesn’t approve funding legisla...

Montana judge temporarily blocks enforcement of abortion ban; hearing next week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a new ban on the type of abortion most commonly used after 15 weeks of gestation until he can hear arguments on the law next week.District Court Judge Mike Menahan issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against a law that bans the use of dilation and evacuation abortions. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law on Tuesday and it took immediate effect. The law would cause immediate and irreparable harm and damage to Planned Parenthood and its patients if it was allowed to remain in effect while the challenge played out in court, the order states.Planned Parenthood of Montana filed a legal complaint over the constitutionality of the law on Tuesday, just hours after it was signed.Martha Fuller, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Montana, said she was glad the judge recognized the harm that anti-abortion laws cause to patients seeking basic health care.“Politics has no pl...

Videos show purported ivory-billed woodpeckers as US moves toward extinction decision

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

New video and photographs purporting to show ivory-billed woodpeckers flying in a Louisiana forest were published by researchers on Thursday, as government officials said they will make a final decision on whether the birds are extinct by the end of the year.The images — grainy and taken from a distance by drones and trail cameras — offer tantalizing hints the large woodpecker may yet exist almost 80 years after the last agreed-upon sightings, in Louisiana.Several experts said it adds to prior indications of their survival. They called on the government to drop the pending proposal to write off the so-called Lord God Bird — a nickname derived from the exclamation some viewers made upon seeing one.But others dismissed the new research as inconclusive, including a scientist who said some of the footage clearly depicts another type of woodpecker that many amateurs mistake for the ivory-billed.The peer-reviewed research in the journal Ecology and Evolution comes from a group that’...

ChatGPT makes its debut as a smartphone app on iPhones

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

ChatGPT is now a smartphone app, which could be good news for people who like to use the artificial intelligence chatbot and bad news for all the clone apps that have tried to profit off the technology. The free app started to become available on iPhones in the U.S. on Thursday and will later be coming to Android phones. Unlike the web version, you can also ask it questions using your voice.The company that makes it, OpenAI, said it will remain ad-free but “syncs your history across devices.” “We’re starting our rollout in the U.S. and will expand to additional countries in the coming weeks,” said a blog post announcing the new app, which is described in the App Store as the “official app” by OpenAI.Matt O’brien, The Associated Press

WestJet cancels 100-plus flights as pilot strike looms, negotiations in stalemate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

MONTREAL — WestJet has cancelled more than 100 flights on Thursday as talks with the pilots’ union have hit a “critical impasse,” the company said, jeopardizing travel plans for thousands of passengers ahead of the May long weekend.Some 1,800 pilots at the carrier and its Swoop subsidiary are poised to walk off the job as of 3 a.m. MT after the Air Line Pilots Association served a strike notice Monday.WestJet issued a statement early Thursday saying negotiations were stuck “in a stalemate.”“We remain at a critical impasse with the union and have been left with no choice but to begin taking the painful steps of preparing for the reality of a work stoppage,” CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said in a release.The Calgary-based company has begun to park the bulk of its fleet using a “measured, phased and safe approach,” the statement read.As of early Thursday afternoon, the carrier had cancelled 111 flights or 31 per cent of those scheduled for the day, according to tr...

Top Senate Dem: Congress ‘must move quickly’ on artificial intelligence legislation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Congress “must move quickly” to regulate artificial intelligence and has convened a bipartisan group of senators to work on legislation.Schumer says the group met on Wednesday and that his staff has already met with close to 100 CEOs, scientists and academics who deal with the technology.“We can’t move so fast that we do flawed legislation, but there’s no time for waste or delay or sitting back,” Schumer said in opening remarks on the Senate floor Thursday. “We’ve got to move fast.”The unusual legislative push from the Senate majority leader comes as potentially groundbreaking products like AI chatbot ChatGPT have entered the marketplace and can in many ways mimic human behavior. Those tools have generated broader concerns that they will mislead people, spread falsehoods, violate copyright protections and upend some jobs.Last week, the head of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company that makes ChatGPT, told a Senate pan...

Police neglected their duty in Saskatchewan toddler’s death: complaints commission

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — The Public Complaints Commission in Saskatchewan has found police officers neglected their duty before a toddler was killed in Prince Albert last year. Thirteen-month-old Tanner Brass died last February. The child’s mother alleged that when she called police for help in the hours before his death, she was taken into custody because officers racially profiled herThe boy’s father, Kaij Brass, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death.The commission, which investigates complaints against municipal police services, submitted its findings to the police chief to “impose appropriate discipline.”The commission is a five-person body independent of police appointed by the government.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 18, 2023.The Canadian Press

Syria’s Assad arrives in Saudi Arabia for regional summit, sealing his return to the Arab fold

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived on Thursday in Saudi Arabia to attend a regional summit that is expected to seal Syria’s return to the Arab fold, marking his first visit to the oil-rich kingdom since Syria’s conflict began in 2011.Assad’s attendance at the Arab League summit, which starts Friday, is a major step in normalizing relations following a 12-year suspension which saw the embattled leader turn toward non-Arab allies Iran and Russia to maintain his grip on power. The 22-member league, which is convening in the Saudi city of Jeddah, recently reinstated Syria and is now poised to welcome Assad, once viewed as a regional pariah, back into its ranks. The Syrian president was officially invited to attend the summit last week. Assad appeared relaxed and cheerful as he descended onto the tarmac, where he was greeted by Prince Badr bin Sultan, deputy governor of the shrine city Mecca, along with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul ...

Police: Arrest in NY over death of man pushed onto Baltimore subway tracks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of pushing another man onto the tracks at a Baltimore subway station, electrocuting him, has been arrested in New York, police said.Investigators found Joseph White, 39, of Baltimore at a hotel in the South Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens on Wednesday and arrested him, police said in a news release. White will be charged with first-degree murder after he is extradited to Baltimore, police said.White pushed Christopher Foster onto the subway tracks at the Shot Tower station in downtown Baltimore on April 12, police said.Detectives called to the station that day found medics rendering aid to Foster, who died on the scene. Their investigation revealed Foster had been standing near the edge of the platform when he was pushed from behind, fell onto the tracks and was electrocuted, police said.It was not immediately clear whether White had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.The Associated Press

Man charged with killing 5-year-old who was found dead in suitcase 9 years ago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:30 GMT

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — The man charged with murder in the death of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver, whose body was found in a suitcase beside a Massachusetts highway in 2014, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Thursday and was held without bail.Alberto Sierra Jr., 32, was the former boyfriend of Jeremiah's mother and was arrested on Wednesday, according to the office of Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.An email seeking comment was left with Sierra's attorney.Jeremiah’s body was found in April 2014 along Interstate 190 in Sterling, about an hour west of Boston. But the boy was last seen alive in September 2013, and was not reported missing until December of that year.The case shocked the state, with even then-Gov. Deval Patrick saying he was trying to “keep my own rage in check.” The boy's death also led to three employees of the state's child welfare agency getting fired, and spurred reforms at the agency.Jeremiah's family, which lived in Fitchburg at the time, was bein...