(The Center Square) – With Chicago’s downtown office vacancy rate now at a record-high 28%, Illinois Policy Institute researcher LyLena Estabine says city policymakers have become their own worse enemy when it comes to addressing the area’s changing demographics. New data shows Loop vacancies ballooned over the recent third quarter as post-pandemic work trends continue Read More…
U.S. markets lost momentum this week as investors stepped back from recent highs, digesting mixed economic signals and growing uncertainty around the outlook for interest rates and growth. After several weeks of gains, the S&P 500 fell roughly 2.4% for the week, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped about 3%, its steepest decline since April. The Read More…
Now that the United States has officially stopped making pennies, a nationwide scramble is underway among gas stations, fast-food chains, and major retailers to adjust prices and handle cash transactions — a shift that could quietly erode profits for many high-volume businesses. The transition follows President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year to halt production Read More…
(The Center Square) – Death threats against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are up by 8,000% compared to the same timeframe last year, the Department of Homeland Security said on Friday. Assaults against ICE officers remain at a 1,000% increase, The Center Square first reported. Targeted removal efforts prioritizing arresting violent offenders are ongoing as Read More…
Federal prison inmates are keeping large sums of money — in some cases more than $100,000 each — in government-run deposit accounts effectively shielded from court orders for things like child support, alimony or other debts, and not subject to the same scrutiny as accounts owned by non-incarcerated citizens, according to court documents and interviews. Read More…
With each new school year, fresh checks for tuition and fees streamed into the principal’s office at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, Calif. But for 10 years, those checks, along with donations, scarcely made it to the school’s bank account. Instead, the school’s principal, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was stealing the money and Read More…
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators OK first new Alzheimer’s drug in nearly 20 years, against the advice of their own outside experts. READ FULL STORY
Lee en español On Sunday, the largest elections in the history of México will be held. But this electoral process has been tainted by the murder of at least 91 politicians — 36 of them candidates and aspiring candidates — from different parties, taking place since campaigning began in September 2020. These homicides make this election the second most Read More…
Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said he received “death threats” from other scientists for broaching the possibility that Covid-19 leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The former CDC director said the threats came after a March 26 CNN interview, when he told the network, “I am of the point of Read More…
ATLANTA (SBG) — A small business advocacy organization filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Major League Baseball, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, the Major League Baseball Players Association and executive director Tony Clark. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by the Job Creators Network. READ FULL STORY
United Airlines is offering their MilagePlus members the opportunity to win flight tickets for an entire year if they upload their COVID-19 vaccination card to their account. According to United Airlines’ website, those who upload their vaccination card to their membership account by June 22 will automatically be entered into the contest with the chance to Read More…
European Union leaders will discuss retaliatory measures against Belarus at a summit dinner on Monday night, after the country’s president Alexander Lukashenko scrambled a jet fighter to force a Ryanair RYAAY, -0.13% RYA, -1.13% flight carrying a dissident journalist to land in Minsk on Sunday. The Irish plane was on a regular flight from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, and was forced to Read More…
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Bill Gate’s resignation from Microsoft’s board was because of a romantic relationship with an employee. The Journal reported Sunday that a female Microsoft engineer alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship over the years with Gates. READ FULL STORY
A U.S. Navy pilot was wounded on Monday after two jets collided over Ricardo, Texas, in a training accident. One operator safely landed at the Naval Air Station in Kingsville, while the other was forced to eject from the plane near Ricardo. The injured service member was taken to a local hospital with minor wounds. Both of the pilots were Read More…
LONDON — DarkSide, the hacker group behind the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, received a total of $90 million in bitcoin ransom payments before shutting down last week, according to new research. Colonial Pipeline was hit with a devastating cyberattack earlier this month that forced the company to shut down approximately 5,500 miles of pipeline in the Read More…
A South Carolina school bus driver who kept his cool during an armed hijacking hailed all 18 children the real heroes of the high-pressure encounter. Kenneth Corbin spoke exclusively to “Good Morning America” Monday about how he was able to hold off the gunman and what the students said to the man that helped keep them safe Read More…
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a $25 million judgment and trial verdict finding Bayer’s Roundup caused a California resident’s non-Hodgkin lymphoma, dealing a blow to the chemical company’s hopes of limiting its legal risk over the weed-killer. The trial judge did not misapply the law when he allowed the lawsuit by Edwin Hardeman Read More…
U.S. government officials were working closely with top U.S. fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline on Sunday to help it recover from a ransomware cyberattack that forced the company to shut a critical fuel network supplying populous eastern states. The attack is one of the most disruptive digital ransom operations reported and has prompted calls from Read More…
Private job growth accelerated in April but fell a bit short of Wall Street expectations, according to a report Wednesday from payroll processing firm ADP. Companies added 742,000 workers for the month, a jump from March’s upwardly revised 565,000 but a bit shy of the 800,000 forecast from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. Leisure and Read More…
The eldest child in the former reality television family, the Duggars, was arrested Thursday for charges related to child pornography. The U.S. Marshals Service in Arkansas arrested Josh Duggar, whose family had been the center of the TLC show 19 Kids and Counting. He was charged with possession of and receiving child pornography and pleaded not guilty Friday. Read More…
A group of female high school track athletes is appealing a Sunday federal district decision forcing them to compete against transgender athletes. The case was dismissed by Judge Robert Chatigny on procedural grounds because the two transgender athletes in question have since graduated from high school, making the case moot. Chatigny wrote, however, that if Read More…
GUARERO, Venezuela — They bring drinking water to residents in the arid scrublands, teach farming workshops and offer medical checkups. They mediate land disputes, fine cattle rustlers, settle divorces, investigate crimes and punish thieves. They’re not police officers, civil servants or members of the Venezuela government, which has all but disappeared from this impoverished part Read More…
Walter Mondale, who transformed the role of U.S. vice president while serving under Jimmy Carter and was the Democratic nominee for president in 1984, died Monday at 93, according to a family spokesperson. The big picture: President Biden, who was mentored by Mondale through the years, said in 2015 that the former vice president gave him a “roadmap” Read More…
The fight over Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky’s $30 million payday is heating up. The state of Illinois, charitable organization OxFam and several religious organizations have filed letters with the Securities and Exchange Commission opposing his pay. The letters urge shareholders to vote no on a “say on pay” proposal set for consideration at Read More…
Bernard Madoff, the Manhattan investment adviser who promised stellar returns to his A-list clients and instead defrauded them of more than $19 billion in history’s largest Ponzi scheme, has died. He was 82. He died Wednesday, according to an emailed statement from Brandon Sample, Madoff’s attorney. No cause was given. Madoff’s home since July 2009 was Read More…
Since 2017, the IRS owes — that’s right, owes – Americans $1.3 billion in unclaimed tax returns, the agency said on Monday. The IRS said that in total, 1.3 million tax payers who did not file a 2017 Form 1040 federal income tax return are owed a refund. The IRS said the median refund would Read More…
After he canceled student debt for about 72,000 defrauded borrowers two weeks ago, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced on Monday relief measures for borrowers with total and permanent disabilities. Under the previous rule, established under President Barack Obama, anyone determined permanently disabled by a physician, the Social Security Administration, or the Department of Veteran Affairs was eligible for federal Read More…
The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after it was vacated by a lower court last year. Tsarnaev was convicted of planting pressure-cooker bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon with his brother, which killed three people and injured hundreds of others. He was sentenced Read More…
PORTLAND, Ore.—When the fence that had surrounded the federal courthouse here was removed earlier this month, city leaders touted it as a sign that Portland was returning to normal after nine months of protests that often turned violent. But within days, bands of rioters were back in downtown Portland. They blocked streets, broke windows, threw Read More…
Rioters targeted the federal courthouse in Portland, Ore., on Thursday evening in renewed clashes between demonstrators and federal police. The attack on the courthouse came one day after authorities removed fencing initially erected over the summer, in response to continued riots following the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during his arrest Read More…
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, whose criminal fraud trial was scheduled to start in July, is asking for a delay because she’s pregnant. In a court filing on Friday, her defense attorneys and prosecutors asked Judge Edward Davila to delay the start of her trial by six weeks to begin on August 31, 2021. “On March Read More…
One of the most prolific careers in NFL history has come to an end, as New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees announced Sunday on Instagram he has decided to retire after 20 seasons. Brees’ four children, Baylen, Bowen, Callen and Rylen, announced in a video: “After 15 years with the Saints and 20 years in the NFL, our dad Read More…
A number of Americans reported late Friday that the third round of government stimulus checks were posted in their bank accounts, just one day after President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Relief Plan into law. Biden said on Thursday that some Americans would begin receiving deposits as soon this weekend. READ FULL STORY
Dozens of violent anti-cop protesters clad in black descended upon an Oregon courthouse, where they set fires and damaged the building Thursday night as federal officers responded with tear gas and flash-bang grenades, according to video and reports. Footage from outside the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse in downtown Portland late Thursday shows a small fire outside Read More…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now advising that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can gather indoors with others who have the jab — without masks or social distancing. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC, said Monday that fully vaccinated people can follow the looser guidelines about two weeks after their final shot. “CDC Read More…
The U.S. and South Korea have reached agreement on a new accord that would resolve a yearslong dispute on how to share the cost of American troops based on the Korean Peninsula, officials from the two countries said Sunday. The new accord, which would last through 2025, would provide for a “meaningful increase” in the South Korean Read More…
The U.S. is on course for an employment boom this year once pandemic restrictions ease and the economy reopens, according to economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “Reopening, fiscal stimulus, and pent-up savings should fuel very strong demand growth,” Chief Economist Jan Hatzius and colleagues wrote in a report highlighting an outlook that’s more optimistic than Read More…
On January 15, in its last days, President Donald Trump’s State Department put out a statement with serious claims about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. The statement said the U.S. intelligence community had evidence that several researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory were sick with Covid-like symptoms in autumn 2019—implying the Chinese government had Read More…
A Long Island doctor is facing murder charges after five patients allegedly died between 2016 and 2018 due to prescriptions he wrote. George Blatti, 75, was arraigned Thursday on five counts of murder in the second degree and 11 counts of reckless endangerment in the first degree. Blatti was remanded and is due back in Read More…
Israeli authorities have identified the ship responsible for a massive oil spill that polluted the bulk of the country’s Mediterranean coastline, Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said Wednesday. “We have laid our hands on the criminal ship,” Gamliel tweeted. “Our long reach will get to all those who harm nature in the sea and our Read More…
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is lifting its mask mandate, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday, making it the largest state to no longer require one of the most effective ways to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The announcement in Texas, where the virus has killed more than 43,000 people, rattled doctors and big city leaders who Read More…
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Biden administration’s push to end contracts with private prisons has left federal authorities in Cleveland scrambling to find ways to house nearly 800 inmates. A contract between the U.S. Marshals Service and CoreCivic, owner of the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, expired Sunday. Authorities, however, were granted a three-month reprieve, Read More…
Two Bronx women caused an American Airlines flight to divert due to their “disturbing and unacceptable” behavior — including spitting at a passenger who asked them to stop using racial slurs, according to reports. Kelly Pichardo, 30, and Leeza Rodriguez, 29, were aboard Flight 776 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles on Wednesday when a Read More…
Two travelers visiting Hawaii from Louisiana were arrested on Friday and accused of offering a Honolulu airport screener $3,000 to let them pass without quarantining or providing the negative coronavirus tests required for entry, officials say. Johntrell White, 29, and Nadia Bailey, 28, were charged with bribery and flown back to the mainland. The two allegedly flew Read More…