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Pennsylvania wants to make it easier to register to vote when drivers get or renew a license

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration said starting Tuesday it is making it easier for someone to register to vote when they are getting or renewing a driver’s license in Pennsylvania.Under the new format, prompts on the computer screens in driver’s license centers will take the user to a template to register to vote. That leaves it up to them to choose not to register. Previously, prompts on the computer screen first asked the user whether they wanted to register to vote.Twenty-three other states and Washington, D.C., already have varying models of what is called “automatic voter registration,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.The Shapiro administration said it does not need legislation or regulation to make the change at driver’s license centers.There are currently 8.6 million registered voters in Pennsylvania, according to information from the state Department of State. More than 10 million Pennsylvanians out of 13 million...

Iraq’s president will summon the Turkish ambassador over airstrikes in Iraq’s Kurdish region

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi president announced Tuesday that he will summon Turkey’s ambassador and hand him a formal letter of protest over recent Turkish airstrikes on Iraqi territory.The official protest came a day after an airstrike on a military airport in Arbat, southeast of the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Three members of the region’s counterterrorism force died and three of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces were wounded, according to local officials.“Day after day, systematic military attacks on Iraqi territory, specifically in (the Kurdish) region, are escalating without military or security justification,” Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid said in a statement.The “aggression targeted innocent civilians and military and security headquarters,” he said. Rashid belongs to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party, which has its main seat of power in Sulaymaniyah.There was no immediate comment from Turkey.The targeted airport had recentl...

Germany went from envy of the world to the worst-performing major developed economy. What happened?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

ESSEN, Germany (AP) — For most of this century, Germany racked up one economic success after another, dominating global markets for high-end products like luxury cars and industrial machinery, selling so much to the rest of the world that half the economy ran on exports. Jobs were plentiful, the government’s financial coffers grew as other European countries drowned in debt, and books were written about what other countries could learn from Germany. No longer. Now, Germany is the world’s worst-performing major developed economy, with both the International Monetary Fund and European Union expecting it to shrink this year.It follows Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the loss of Moscow’s cheap natural gas — an unprecedented shock to Germany’s energy-intensive industries, long the manufacturing powerhouse of Europe.The sudden underperformance by Europe’s largest economy has set off a wave of criticism, handwringing and debate about the way forward.Germany risks “...

Stock market today: Wall Street in wait-and-see mode as Federal Reserve meets to talk interest rates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

TOKYO — Wall Street pointed modestly higher in cautious trading Tuesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming decision on interest rates.Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were essentially flat, up less than 0.1% before the bell.The Fed is gathering Tuesday for a two-day meeting before it announces its decision on where interest rates are going. In all likelihood, the Fed’s benchmark rate will be left where it is. Japan’s central bank will meet Thursday and Friday amid speculation it might gradually begin to adjust its longstanding negative interest rate policy. Stocks have been see-sawing since early August on uncertainty about whether the Fed will finally end its hikes to interest rates. Higher rates have helped cool inflation from its peak last summer, but they also hurt prices for stocks and other investments while slowing the economy.The Fed is expected to keep rates steady at its meeting this week. Attention will mainly focus on fore...

How a rural Alabama school system outdid the country with gains in math

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

PIEDMONT, Ala. (AP) — While the rest of the country’s schools were losing ground in math during the COVID pandemic, student performance in a rural Alabama school district was soaring. Piedmont City schools notched significant improvement in math, landing in the top spot among school districts across the country in a comparison of scores from before and during the pandemic. Nationwide, students on average fell half a year behind in math, researchers say.Piedmont, a 1,100-student district where seven out of 10 qualify for free or reduced-prince lunch, has stuck with an approach it adopted before the pandemic: It gave teachers more time to dig into data on students’ scores and lengthened classes to help them focus on specific skills.“We made a total transformation about five years ago,” Superintendent Mike Hayes said. “We decided that we were going to let data make every decision.”In other words, Piedmont teachers use test scores to see where kids are struggling and then target t...

Blackhawks' 2023 training camp includes a minor change for fans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

CHICAGO — There is a little more excitement around the start of the Blackhawks' season thanks to the arrival of the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. During training camp, fans will get the chance to see Connor Bedard get ready for his first NHL season, but there will be a slight change as they do.The Blackhawks have announced their 2023 Training Camp with practices open to the public..This year, fans will have to go online to get free tickets to attend. Info on that is below..@WGNNews pic.twitter.com/HcCznn5yBd— Larry Hawley (@HawleySports) September 18, 2023Once again, fans can attend all practices for free, but for admittance to practices at Fifth Third Arena, the team is requiring fans to claim free tickets for the day they wish to attend. They can go to the Blackhawks' website and claim up to four free tickets per session at the team's practice facility, if available. Fans will get mobile entry tickets through the Blackhawks app or mobile wallet. See the Blackha...

'It wasn't any fun': Phil Mickelson admits to gambling addiction

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

Phil Mickelson won't be betting on football this year — much less the Ryder Cup — saying in a lengthy social media post on Monday that he previously crossed the line from moderation into addiction and “it wasn't any fun.”“The money wasn't ever the issue since our financial security has never been threatened, but I was so distracted I wasn't able to be present with the ones I love and caused a lot of harm,” Mickelson wrote in the post.His public admission of a gambling addiction comes more than a month after renowned gambler Billy Walters wrote in his book that Mickelson wagered more than $1 billion over the last three decades and wanted to place a $400,000 bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup while playing for Team USA.Mickelson denied ever betting on the Ryder Cup, which starts next week outside Rome.Mickelson has been relatively quiet since Walters did a media tour in August for his book, "Gambler: Secrets from a Life of Risk.” He returns to competition this week with Saudi-backed LIV Golf o...

Ground beef recalled due to possible E. coli contamination

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

(WJW) — Meat eaters are being warned about a possible E. coli contamination in some ground beef packages sold in several states. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said Friday that the Wisconsin-based Green Bay Dressed Beef, LCC has recalled a little over 58,000 pounds of its ground beef products. Find out more about recalls and safety alerts right here A sample of the meat tested by a state public health found Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) O103, prompting the recall. The affected meat was produced on Aug. 14 and has an establishment number of EST. 18076. The following beef products, all 10-lb. plastic tubes, were affected: 90050 Beef Fine Ground 81/19 -- lot code D12322602620473 Beef Halal Fine Ground 73/27 -- lot code D12322602720105 Beef Fine Ground 73/27 -- lot code D123226027FSIS said there have been no reported cases of human contamination but reminds everyone to throw out any affected beef to be safe. The beef was...

Almost 2,000 Texans have won more than $1 million in state lottery history

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Even if you don't win the jackpot, there's still a lot of money up for grabs in the lottery.In fact, almost 2,000 Texans have become overnight millionaires by purchasing a ticket.Since being introduced in 1992, the Texas Lottery has handed out almost $12.6 billion in prizes to players, as of Sept. 11, 2023.A total of 1,916 players have won more than $1 million and 227 have won more than $10 million, according to data from the Texas Lottery Commission.Meanwhile, four lucky players have won at least $100 million. Here’s what’s more — and less — likely to happen than you winning the lottery Here's a look at the 10 largest lottery wins in state history:The top 10 all won more than $60 million. The largest lottery prize ever in Texas was more than $157 million.An anonymous resident in Leander purchased a winning Mega Millions ticket worth $227 million for a drawing in September 2019. They opted for the cash value option, meaning they took home $157 million.The largest p...

Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Sept. 19 is National Voter Registration Day. The Texas Secretary of State's office says the voter registration deadline for the Nov. 7 Election is Oct. 10. Voters can confirm their registration status on the SOS Am I Registered? portal. The Secretary of State's office says you should contact your county voter registrar for specific questions about voter registration status. Texans who have recently changed their name or moved can update their voter registration online, the office said. Voters will get a new Voter Certificate in the mail within 30 days of submitting a change through this service. But if they send the changes less than 30 days prior to an election, they must vote at their current polling location, the SOS said.If a voter registration record is on ‘suspense,’ it means the county of registration has received information that voter no longer lives at the address on the current voter registration record. The Secretary of State's office says voters should ...