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Battenfeld: Will Trump indictment boomerang on Joe Biden?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

The latest indictment of former President Donald Trump could have a boomerang effect on President Biden if voters feel the case is just an attempt to stop Trump from running.If the latest charges against Trump start to fall apart, it will throw the spotlight back on Democrats and Biden, and confirm what half the country believes – that this is a politically motivated prosecution.Trump, about to turn 77, is still in a precarious position heading into 2024, with possible indictments related to Jan. 6 and Georgia still to go. Just from a stamina point of view, it will be tough for Trump to survive the heat.But polls conducted after the 37-count indictment on classified documents was released show the former president is still the frontrunner in the GOP race. A clear majority of Republican primary voters – 81% – say they believe the indictment for illegally keeping secret documents and lying about it is politically motivated.That’s a clear indication that the charges won’t yet hurt Trum...

Russian missile attack on Zelenskyy’s hometown kills at least 10; dozens wounded

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles hit civilian buildings in a central Ukrainian city overnight, killing at least 10 people, regional officials said Tuesday as rescuers searched for at least one person still believed to be trapped under the rubble.Kryvyi Rih mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said that the death toll had risen to at least 10. He said that one person is still believed to be trapped under the rubble and 28 were wounded. The strike involving cruise missiles hit a five-story residential building, which was engulfed in fire, Gov. Serhiy Lysak of the Dnipropetrovsk region wrote on Telegram.The devastation in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown is the latest bloodshed in Russia’s war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, as Ukrainian forces are mounting counteroffensive operations using Western-supplied firepower to try to drive out the Russians.Images from the scene relayed by Zelenskyy on his Telegram channel showed firefighters battling the blaze as pockets of fire poke...

Leader of Belarus says he wouldn’t hesitate to use Russian nuclear weapons to repel aggression

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday that he wouldn’t hesitate to order the use of Russian tactical nuclear weapons that are set to be deployed to Belarus if his country faces an aggression.Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the planned deployment of short-range nuclear weapons to Moscow’s neighbor and ally Belarus in a move widely seen as a warning to the West as it stepped up military support for Ukraine. Putin has emphasized that Russia will retain control of them, but Lukashenko’s statement contradicted that.“God forbid I have to make a decision to use those weapons today, but there would be no hesitation if we face an aggression,” Lukashenko, known for his blustery statements, said, according to the state news agency BelTA. Russian officials had no immediate comment on Lukashenko’s remarks.Lukashenko emphasized that it was he who had asked Putin to deploy Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus. He ar...

9 wounded in Denver mass shooting after Nuggets win and suspect taken into custody, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Nine people were wounded in a mass shooting early Tuesday in Denver in an area where basketball fans had been celebrating the Nuggets first NBA title win, police said, and a suspect was taken into custody.The shooting happened about 12:30 a.m. — about 3 1/2 hours after the game — and three of the injured were in critical condition, the Denver Police Department said in a statement. The suspect, a man, was one of the six people who suffered injuries believed to be non-life-threatening.The shooting happened about a mile from Ball Arena, where the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat on Monday night.“As far as what led up to this altercation that resulted in the shots being fired, that’s still under investigation at this time,” police spokesperson Doug Schepman said. “It did occur in the area where we had largest gathering of folks celebrating during the night.”A small crowd was in the area at the time of the shooting, he said, but had “diminished quite a bit at tha...

3 found dead and 3 injured in related violence in English city of Nottingham, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A man was arrested on suspicion of murder in the English city of Nottingham Tuesday after three people were found dead and three others were hit and injured by a van in related early-morning incidents, police said.“This is an horrific and tragic incident which has claimed the lives of three people,” said Nottinghamshire Police Chief Constable Kate Meynell. She said two people were found dead in one street just after 4 a.m. and a third on a different street. The three wounded by the van were at a different location and were being treated in a hospital. There was no immediate word on their condition.Witness Lynn Haggitt told reporters that a white van pulled up beside her at 5:30 a.m. and she saw the driver look in his mirror and spot a police car approaching slowly from behind without its lights on. The van then drove into a man and woman at a street corner. “He went straight into them, he didn’t even bother to turn, just went back straight into them,” Haggi...

Microsoft’s media literacy program aims to empower internet users and combat online misinformation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — People are hungry for accurate and reliable information online and may just need help to find it, according to a new media literacy project launched by Microsoft.The tech company worked with the Trust Project, a nonprofit consortium of news organizations, to create advertisements directing internet users to a list of eight “ trust indicators ” that can be used to assess a website’s credibility. The indicators include things like the clear labeling of opinion pieces, a code of practices and the attribution of sources.Most people who saw the list expressed greater confidence in their own ability to find reliable news while ferreting out misinformation — a promising finding that suggests media literacy can be a cheap and scalable solution to the daunting problem of online misinformation.“This was a bit of an experiment for us,” said Ginny Badanes, senior director of Microsoft’s Democracy Forward Initiative, a unit at the company that focuses on efforts to ...

Americans warned not to mail checks if possible as cases of check fraud spike dramatically

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Check fraud is back in a big way, fueled by a rise in organized crime that is forcing small businesses and individuals to take additional safety measures or to avoid sending checks through the mail altogether.Banks issued roughly 680,000 reports of check fraud to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also known as FinCEN, last year. That’s up from 350,000 reports in 2021. Meanwhile the U.S. Postal Inspection Service reported roughly 300,000 complaints of mail theft in 2021, more than double the prior year's total.Early in the pandemic, government relief checks became an attractive target for criminals. The problem has only gotten worse and postal authorities and bank officials are warning Americans to avoid mailing checks if possible, or at least to use a secure mail drop such as inside the post office. Meanwhile, as the cases of fraud increase, victims are waiting longer to recover their stolen money.Check usage has been in decline for decades as Americans have ...

Person dead after being hit by vehicle on SH 130 in Pflugerville

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas (KXAN) -- Northbound State Highway 130 was shut down early Tuesday morning after a person was hit and killed on the road. Pflugerville Police said on Twitter at 5 a.m. the highway was shut down at mile marker 428A and traffic was being diverted onto the service road. That area is just north of East Pflugerville Parkway. Police said the lanes of the highway will be closed for the next several hours. Drivers can subscribe to Pflugerville traffic alerts by texting PfTraffic to 38276.

Austin Police investigating overnight shooting involving Travis County deputy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

TRAVIS COUNTY (KXAN) -- The Austin Police Department is investigating an overnight shooting that involved a Travis County Sheriff's Office deputy. According to APD, a deputy opened fire on someone shortly after midnight in the 6200 block of the south I-35 frontage road. A public information officer with TCSO confirmed a deputy was involved, and APD is currently the lead agency investigating since the incident happened within the department's jurisdiction. APD said the person the deputy shot at drove away from the scene. It's not clear what led to the shooting or if the person was hit by gunfire or injured. APD also said the deputy could have been off-duty at the time of the incident. TCSO confirmed the deputy was not injured.

98.3 TRY Social Dilemma: Was It Rude That I Asked The Waitress To Write Down My Order?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:47 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Today's 98.3 TRY Social Dilemma is about going out to eat at a restaurant. Here's the email: Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Hey Jaime my name is Allison and I’m emailing you for the social dilemma about something my best friend and I have been arguing about. We were out to dinner the other night at a new place we were trying and the waitress took our order and didn’t write anything down which is a huge pet peeve of mine. I didn’t say anything until she came back to our table five minutes after taking our order to ask us to tell her again. That’s when I suggested she just write it down. She didn’t and told me she had it. Then my friend got annoyed at me for asking her to write it down. She doesn’t like to make any waves and told me I was being a pain for asking her to write down the order. I don’t see how I’m the bad guy here; all I did was ask her to write it down. Now we’ve been arguing about it s...