- MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A liberal judge running in a pivotal race to determine majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court touts her support for abortion rights in the first two television ads of the closely watched race launched Thursday. The winner of the April 4 election will determine whether the court remains under control […]
- INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A 3-year-old girl has died more than two weeks after she was seriously injured in an Indianapolis apartment fire that killed her father and 15-month-old sister, a fire official said. Battalion Chief Rita Reith said the Indianapolis Fire Department was notified that the girl died Thursday morning. She was among five people […]
- WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank this weekend in his first trip to the Middle East this year, amid an escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence, U.S. concerns over the direction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government and ongoing issues with Egypt’s human rights […]
- COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The corruption trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was temporarily paused Wednesday after a juror tested positive for COVID-19. U.S. District Judge Timothy Black ordered proceedings paused for the remainder of this week “in an effort to ensure everyone’s safety.” The directive Wednesday evening was an extension of a […]
- WASHINGTON (AP) — The second consecutive quarter of economic growth that the government reported Thursday underscored that the nation isn’t in a recession despite high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s fastest pace of interest rate hikes in four decades. Yet the U.S. economy is hardly in the clear. The solid growth in the October-December quarter […]
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- Abortion front and center in Wisconsin Supreme Court raceon January 26, 2023 at 3:24 pm
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A liberal judge running in a pivotal race to determine majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court touts her support for abortion rights in the first two television ads of the closely watched race launched Thursday. The winner of the April 4 election will determine whether the court remains under control of conservative justices or flips to a liberal majority. Everything from redistricting to abortion rights to election laws heading into the 2024 presidential election and after in the swing state could be determined by the court. The court has the final word on hotly contested issues in the state because of conflicts between Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature. The court has overwhelmingly sided with Republicans on major policy issues over the past decade-plus. The race has become increasingly partisan, with both sides promising to spend millions on the contest in the battleground state. The candidates, particularly Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz, have also been more outspoken than usual for a judicial race in stating their positions on issues that could come before the court. Protasiewicz launched the promotional spots that are running statewide as part of a $700,000 ad buy leading up to the Feb. 21 primary election. She is the first of four candidates to run ads in the race. Protasiewicz faces another liberal, Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell, and two conservative candidates: former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly and Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow. In one Protasiewicz ad, she looks directly at the camera and says, “I believe in a woman’s freedom to make her own decision on abortion.” In another, a woman says she is voting for Protasiewicz because she “believes in our freedom to make our own decisions when it comes to abortion.” Protasiewicz also has been outspoken on redistricting, another issue almost certain to come before the court. She has called Republican-drawn maps approved by the state Supreme Court “rigged.” Mitchell, the other liberal candidate, has also been outspoken in supporting abortion rights, while calling the state’s gerrymandered legislative maps“extreme” and “partisan.” Wisconsin’s 1849 law banning nearly all abortions went into effect last year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that established a nationwide right to abortion. Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general and governor are suing to overturn the state law, a case that could make its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court after the new justice is sworn in in August. Former justice Kelly is endorsed by the state’s three largest anti-abortion groups, a fact he touted on Wednesday. Those groups are Wisconsin Family Action, Pro-Life Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Right to Life. Dorow, who became known for presiding over the nationally televised trial of a man who drove his SUV through a Christmas parade, killing six and injuring dozens, is endorsed by Wisconsin Right to Life. Pro-Life Wisconsin, which endorsed Kelly but not Dorow, says on its website that it only gets behind candidates “who demonstrate a commitment to protect preborn children — in all circumstances and at all stages of development — as full persons under the law.” Kelly, who served on the Supreme Court between 2016 and 2020, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump in his losing run for a full term three years ago. Dorow’s husband, Brian Dorow, worked in the Trump administration as a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Girl, 3, dies after Indiana apartment fire kills dad, sisteron January 26, 2023 at 3:18 pm
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A 3-year-old girl has died more than two weeks after she was seriously injured in an Indianapolis apartment fire that killed her father and 15-month-old sister, a fire official said. Battalion Chief Rita Reith said the Indianapolis Fire Department was notified that the girl died Thursday morning. She was among five people hospitalized after firefighters pulled them, unconscious and in cardiac arrest, from the smoke-filled apartment on Jan. 9. The girl’s 31-year-old father died two days after the fire, while her 15-month-old sister died the next day. He was identified by the Marion County Coroner’s Office as Raymond Diggs, while the toddler was identified as Leilani Rembert. Reith said a 12-year-old boy remains hospitalized, while a 14-year-old boy has been released from the hospital and is continuing to recover. The children’s mother was not home when the fire broke out on the city’s far east side, officials said. Investigators have determined the fire started on a couch, but the exact cause remains under investigation, Reith said. Burning couches can emit dangerous chemicals, and the victims may have been sleeping while the fire burned, Reith has said. Fire investigators said a smoke alarm had been removed from the apartment at some point prior to the fire for an unknown reason. Apartment management told investigators there was a working smoke alarm in the apartment about two weeks before the fire. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Blinken will travel to Mideast amid US concern over violenceon January 26, 2023 at 2:58 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank this weekend in his first trip to the Middle East this year, amid an escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence, U.S. concerns over the direction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government and ongoing issues with Egypt’s human rights record. The State Department said Thursday that Blinken would leave Washington on Saturday for stops in Cairo, Jerusalem and Ramallah. The announcement came just hours after an Israeli raid on suspected terrorists in the West Bank city of Jenin that Palestinian officials say killed nine people in the deadliest such incident this year. After visiting Cairo for talks on Sunday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Blinken will go to Jerusalem and Ramallah on Monday and Tuesday to see Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the department said. “With both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the secretary will underscore the urgent need for the parties to take steps to deescalate tensions in order to put an end to the cycle of violence that has claimed too many innocent lives,” spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. After the raid on a suspected terrorist hideout, Israel’s defense minister directed forces in the occupied West Bank and on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip to go on heightened alert. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have soared since Israel launched the nightly raids in the West Bank last spring, following a spate of Palestinian attacks. The conflict has only intensified this month, as Netanyahu’s government came to office and pledged to take a hard line against the Palestinians. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Juror’s COVID halts ex-Ohio House speaker’s corruption trialon January 26, 2023 at 2:57 pm
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The corruption trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was temporarily paused Wednesday after a juror tested positive for COVID-19. U.S. District Judge Timothy Black ordered proceedings paused for the remainder of this week “in an effort to ensure everyone’s safety.” The directive Wednesday evening was an extension of a single day off Black had called Wednesday due to the juror’s illness, halting the highly anticipated trial just two days after it had begun. Testimony is scheduled to resume Monday. Altogether, 12 jurors and four alternates are hearing the case. Householder, 63, a Republican, and lobbyist Matt Borges, 50, a former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, are charged with conspiracy to participate in a $60 million racketeering enterprise involving bribery and money laundering. Each faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for those who test positive for the coronavirus to isolate for five days. They may exit isolation after that point, as long as they are feeling better, but are advised to wear a high-quality mask through the tenth day. Federal prosecutors had been in the middle of questioning FBI agent Blane Wetzel on Tuesday and indicated Wetzel would be on the stand for the entirety of a second day. Wetzel is walking through highlights of the tens of thousands of pages of documents gathered as part of the FBI’s investigation, described as the largest corruption case in Ohio history. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- EXPLAINER: How will we know if the U.S. is in recession?on January 26, 2023 at 1:48 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The second consecutive quarter of economic growth that the government reported Thursday underscored that the nation isn’t in a recession despite high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s fastest pace of interest rate hikes in four decades. Yet the U.S. economy is hardly in the clear. The solid growth in the October-December quarter will do little to alter the widespread view of economists that a recession is very likely sometime this year. For now, the economy expanded at a 2.9% annual rate in the fourth quarter, though some of the underlying figures weren’t as healthy. Consumer spending, for example, grew at a slower pace than in the previous quarter, and business investment was weak. Last quarter’s growth was fueled by factors that won’t likely last. These include companies’ restocking of inventories and a drop in imports, which meant that more spending went to U.S.-made goods. Increased borrowing rates and still-high inflation are expected to steadily weaken consumer and business spending. Businesses will likely pare expenses in response, which could lead to layoffs and higher unemployment. And a likely recession in the United Kingdom and slower growth in China will erode the revenue and profits of American corporations. Such trends are expected to cause a U.S. recession sometime in the coming months. Still, there are reasons to expect that a recession, if it does come, will prove to be a comparatively mild one. Many employers, having struggled to hire after huge layoffs during the pandemic, may decide to retain most of their workforces even in a shrinking economy. Six months of economic decline is a long-held informal definition of a recession. Yet nothing is simple in a post-pandemic economy in which growth was negative in the first half of last year but the job market remained robust, with ultra-low unemployment and healthy levels of hiring. The economy’s direction has confounded the Fed’s policymakers and many private economists ever since growth screeched to a halt in March 2020, when COVID-19 struck and 22 million Americans were suddenly thrown out of work. Inflation, the economy’s biggest threat last year, is now showing signs of steadily declining. Used and new cars are becoming less expensive. Price increases for furniture, clothes and other physical goods are slowing. Last year, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate seven times, from zero to a range of 4.25% to 4.5%. The Fed’s policymakers have projected that they will keep raising their key rate until it tops 5%, which would be the highest level in 15 years. As borrowing costs swell, fewer Americans can afford a mortgage or an auto loan. Higher rates, combined with inflated prices, could deprive the economy of its main engine — healthy consumer spending. Fed officials have made clear that they’re willing to tip the economy into a recession if necessary to defeat high inflation, and most economists believe them. Many analysts envision a recession beginning as early as the April-June quarter this year. So what is the likelihood of a recession? Here are some questions and answers: ____ WHY DO MANY ECONOMISTS FORESEE A RECESSION? They expect the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes and high inflation to overwhelm consumers and businesses, forcing them to slow their spending and investment. Businesses will likely also have to cut jobs, causing spending to fall further. Consumers have so far proved remarkably resilient in the face of higher rates and rising prices. Still, there are signs that their sturdiness is starting to crack. Retail sales have dropped for two months in a row. The Fed’s so-called beige book, a collection of anecdotal reports from businesses around the country, shows that retailers are increasingly seeing consumers resist higher prices. Credit card debt is also rising — evidence that Americans are having to borrow more to maintain their spending levels, a trend that probably isn’t sustainable. More than half the economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics say the likelihood of a recession this year is above 50%. ___ WHAT ARE SOME SIGNS THAT A RECESSION MAY HAVE BEGUN? The clearest signal would be a steady rise in job losses and a surge in unemployment. Claudia Sahm, an economist and former Fed staff member, has noted that since World War II, an increase in the unemployment rate of a half-percentage point over several months has always signaled a recession has begun. Many economists monitor the number of people who seek unemployment benefits each week, a gauge that indicates whether layoffs are worsening. Weekly applications for jobless aid actually dropped last week to a historically low 190,000. Employers continue to add many jobs, causing the unemployment rate to fall in December to 3.5%, a half-century low, from 3.7%. ___ ANY OTHER SIGNALS TO WATCH FOR? Economists monitor changes in the interest payments, or yields, on different bonds for a recession signal known as an “inverted yield curve.” This occurs when the yield on the 10-year Treasury falls below the yield on a short-term Treasury, such as the three-month T-bill. That is unusual. Normally, longer-term bonds pay investors a richer yield in exchange for tying up their money for a longer period. Inverted yield curves generally mean that investors foresee a recession that will compel the Fed to slash rates. Inverted curves often predate recessions. Still, it can take 18 to 24 months for a downturn to arrive after the yield curve inverts. Ever since July, the yield on the two-year Treasury note has exceeded the 10-year yield, suggesting that markets expect a recession soon. And the three-month yield has also risen far above the 10-year, an inversion that has an even better track record at predicting recessions. ___ WHO DECIDES WHEN A RECESSION HAS STARTED? Recessions are officially declared by the obscure-sounding National Bureau of Economic Research, a group of economists whose Business Cycle Dating Committee defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.” The committee considers trends in hiring. It also assesses many other data points, including gauges of income, employment, inflation-adjusted spending, retail sales and factory output. It puts heavy weight on a measure of inflation-adjusted income that excludes government support payments like Social Security. Yet the NBER typically doesn’t declare a recession until well after one has begun, sometimes for up to a year. ___ DOES HIGH INFLATION TYPICALLY LEAD TO A RECESSION? Not always. Inflation reached 4.7% in 2006, at that point the highest in 15 years, without causing a downturn. (The 2008-2009 recession that followed was caused by the bursting of the housing bubble). But when it gets as high as it did last year — it reached a 40-year peak of 9.1% in June — a downturn becomes increasingly likely. That’s for two reasons: First, the Fed will sharply raise borrowing costs when inflation gets that high. Higher rates then drag down the economy as consumers are less able to afford homes, cars and other major purchases. High inflation also distorts the economy on its own. Consumer spending, adjusted for inflation, weakens. And businesses grow uncertain about the future economic outlook. Many of them pull back on their expansion plans and stop hiring. This can lead to higher unemployment as some people choose to leave jobs and aren’t replaced. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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