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US new-home sales fall for first time since February

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

By Augusta Saraiva, Bloomberg NewsU.S. new-home sales declined in June for the first time in four months, suggesting high borrowing costs and prices are restraining momentum in the market.Purchases of new single-family homes fell 2.5% to an annualized 697,000 pace after a downward revision to the prior month, government data showed Wednesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 725,000 rate.Even with the decline, sales have rebounded over the past year thanks to limited inventory of existing homes. That explains why homebuilder sentiment is at the highest level in over a year, and contractors are applying to break ground on more single-family projects.Still, high borrowing costs and elevated prices continue to pose affordability challenges. The median sales price of a new home declined to $415,400 from a year earlier, but that’s well above pre-pandemic levels.The Federal Reserve is anticipated to raise interest rates to the highest level in more than...

Dog trainer assaulted by skateboarders in Balboa Park: police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Police are asking for the public's help in locating two young men suspected of using their skateboards to assault a dog trainer in Balboa Park last month, authorities say.On June 21, shortly before 5 p.m., a 24-year-old dog trainer was working with a client and a friend near the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center when more than 100 skateboarders arrived, San Diego County Crime Stoppers said in a news release. One of the skateboarders told the trainer and his friend to leave the park because it was "Skate Day" and it was their day to be there.The two refused, and when several skateboarders started intimidating them, the trainer tried to get away, Crime Stoppers said. He was followed by several people in the group, and two of them used their skateboards to strike the trainer over his head. The trainer lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital to be treated for a laceration on the back of his head. Costco crackdown: Can people in my household still use my Costco membersh...

Judge gives deadline extension to organizers trying to stop ‘Cop City’ with signature campaign

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday significantly extended the deadline for Atlanta organizers who have been trying to gather more than 70,000 signatures to force a vote on the construction of a police and firefighter training center that critics call “ Cop City.”U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen ruled that the city had imposed an unlawful requirement that those collecting signatures have to be residents of Atlanta. A group of people who live in DeKalb County just outside the city had sued — saying they should be allowed to join in the canvassing effort and noting that the planned site for the training center itself is in unincorporated DeKalb County, outside the city limits.“Requiring signature gatherers to be residents of the city imposes a severe burden on core political speech and does little to protect the city’s interest in self-governance,” Cohen wrote, adding: “The city has offered no specifics as to why permitting nonresident plaintiffs to gather signatures … will...

6 killed in Damascus suburb bombing near Shiite Muslim shrine ahead of the holy day of Ashura

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Explosives planted in a taxi detonated in a Damascus suburb near a Shiite Muslim shrine Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens a day before the solemn holy day of Ashura, state media reported, citing the interior ministry. State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV and the state news agency said Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash also reported that 26 people wounded in the blast in the Sayida Zeinab neighborhood were being treated at several hospitals. Twenty others were treated on site or discharged, he said.The Britain-based opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that a woman was among those who died and that her three children were wounded. The Observatory said the explosion occurred close to positions of Iranian militias, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad alongside Russia in Syria’s civil conflict now in its 13th year.Photos shared by Al-Ikhbariya and pro-government media show a charred taxi surrounded by large crowd...

Big banks will need to hold more capital to guard against risk under new Fed proposal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s biggest and most complex banks will need to hold additional capital on their balance sheets under an initial proposal by the Federal Reserve designed to help banks better withstand risks to their businesses that go beyond a recession or financial crisis. The proposal released Thursday, boiled down from highly complex and technical nuances, roughly means that Wall Street collectively will have to set aside tens of billions of dollars to meet the Fed’s new rules. Banks that rely more on fee income will see a greater impact than those holding bonds and other securities. The main question addressed by the proposal is how banks over $100 billion in assets should value what are known as risk-weighted assets on their balance sheet when determining how much of a buffer the bank has to withstand market gyrations and economic fluctuations. Risk-weighed assets came out of what is known as the Basel Accords, an international agreement among banks, whose ...

REVIEW: The Beanie Bubble, a billionaire boy and his babies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

Billionaires don’t understand the world like most people do. A billionaire is a person who never has to their laundry, because they’ve got someone on the payroll to do that. They don’t know what it’s like to be on a crowded bus smelling the growing amount of sweat. A billionaire is someone who sees the world in a way the majority of people don’t. Can we really trust a billionaire to understand something like an economic bubble?The Beanie Bubble, courtesy of Apple Studios.This is the the question that the Beanie Bubble asks of those who watch it. This film stars Zach Galifianakis (from the Hangover series and Baskets) as Ty Warner, the creator of the Beanie Baby. A tiny version of a stuffed animal that took the world by storm, the film depicts his rise and fall from the lends of three women who impacted his life in large ways.First, there’s the business partner (played by Elizabeth Banks from the Hunger Games series) who helped him launch his compa...

First victim of Nova Scotia floods identified as member of local rock band

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

HALIFAX — A man who died during a torrential rainstorm last weekend in rural Nova Scotia has been identified as Nicholas Anthony Holland.Holland was one of four people, including two small children, who went missing early Saturday after the vehicles they were in were swept off a road and submerged as they fled their homes.His former wife, Julie Giffin Holland, confirmed to The Canadian Press that the 52-year-old, a member of the local rock band Hogtooth, died trying to escape the floodwater.He leaves behind a partner and two children.An obituary on a funeral home website describes Holland as a talented musician who played in many bands over the years and for whom music was his life’s passion.Holland’s body was recovered Monday in Brooklyn, N.S., and in the obituary his family thanked search and rescue teams, private citizens and Holland’s bandmates for their efforts to find him.A youth aged under 18 who was travelling with Holland remains missing, while the remains...

Stock market today: Wall Street rally fades as investors review upbeat economic, earnings reports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A rally for stocks fizzled out in afternoon trading Thursday as Wall Street reviewed fatter-than-expected profit reports from big companies and the latest signals that the economy is so far refusing to ditch into a recession.The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in afternoon trading after earlier touching its highest level in nearly 16 months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 98 points, or 0.3%, at 35,423, as of 2:19 p.m. Eastern time, and on track for a 14th straight gain. The Nasdaq composite, meanwhile, was holding onto a gain of 0.2% following a strong profit report from Meta Platforms.Earnings rose more for Meta, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp in addition to Facebook, than analysts expected after its services attracted additional active members. Meta is one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks because of its massive size, and it rose 5.3%.McDonald’s was helping to offset some losses in the Dow after it easily topped analysts’ forecasts for profits durin...

Investigators say poor track conditions caused a 2021 Amtrak derailment in Montana that killed three

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A derailment of an Amtrak train in Montana that killed three people in 2021 was caused by poor track conditions near the accident site, federal investigators said Thursday in a final report.The National Transportation Safety Board’s finding Thursday follows an earlier report that identified a bent track near scene of the accident. The poor track conditions included a worn rail, vertical track deflection, misalignment and instability, the report found. It also found that a train inspector’s workload prevented him from doing a walking inspection of the area before the derailment. Amtrak’s Empire Builder derailed Sept. 25, 2021, in northern Montana while en route from Chicago to Seattle and Portland, Oregon, with 154 people on board. Thusday’s finding follows what was revealed earlier this year in the agency’s investigative documents. Investigators identified a bent track based on video footage, including from two BNSF freight trains that went around the acci...

Former Mississippi governor sues news site over welfare fraud comments

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:05 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is suing a local news organization, claiming it defamed him in public comments on the misspending of $77 million of federal welfare funds intended to help some of the poorest people in the U.S.The lawsuit comes just over two months after Mississippi Today and one of its reporters, Anna Wolfe, won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the welfare misspending. Bryant’s attorney filed a complaint Wednesday in the Circuit Court of Madison County against the outlet’s CEO, Mary Margaret White, and Deep South Today, the outlet’s nonprofit owner. The lawsuit, which does not appear to challenge the veracity of Mississippi Today’s findings about the welfare scandal, claims White and other employees made “slanderous” or unfounded comments about Bryant when discussing the outlet’s reporting in several public settings. “Governor Bryant believes he has been libeled by Mississippi Today,” wrote Denton Gibbes, a ...