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Ex-head of Michigan marijuana panel pleads guilty to bribery

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The former head of a Michigan marijuana licensing board pleaded guilty to bribery Tuesday, acknowledging he accepted at least $110,000 in exchange for approving applications for the lucrative business. Rick Johnson’s appearance in federal court in Grand Rapids was a remarkable fall. Years ago he was a powerful state lawmaker, serving as speaker of the Republican-controlled House from 2001 through 2004.The investigation so far has centered on corruption at the marijuana board before it was disbanded in 2019. The board reviewed and approved applications to grow and sell marijuana for medical purposes.A Detroit-area businessman, John Dalaly, pleaded guilty last week. He said he provided at least $68,200 in cash and other benefits to Johnson, including two private flights to Canada.Johnson, 70, answered a series of questions from the judge during the hourlong hearing but wasn’t asked to explain his motive for taking bribes. Johnson and defense lawy...

Stock market today: Wall Street down as First Republic falls

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is slipping Tuesday after a torrent of companies gave mixed earnings reports for the first three months of the year. The S&P 500 was 0.9% lower in afternoon trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 165 points, or 0.5%, at 33,710, as of 12:35 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% lower. First Republic Bank tumbled 28.7% for the sharpest loss in the S&P 500 after it said customers withdrew more than $100 billion in deposits during the first quarter. That doesn’t include $30 billion that big banks plugged in to build faith in their rival after the second- and third-largest U.S. bank failures in history shook confidence.The size of the drop in deposits overshadowed First Republic’s beating analysts’ expectations for earnings at the start of the year.The majority of companies so far this reporting season have been topping expectations, but the bar was set considerably low. Analysts are forecasting the worst drop in S&P 50...

Lawyer: Proud Boys leader is Trump scapegoat for Jan. 6 riot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A defense attorney argued Tuesday at the close of a landmark trial over the Jan. 6 riot that the Justice Department is making Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio a scapegoat for Donald Trump after the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Tarrio and four lieutenants are charged with seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors say was a plot to attack the Capitol to stop the transfer of presidential power from Trump to President Joe Biden after the 2020 election. In his closing argument, defense lawyer Nayib Hassan noted Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, having been banned from the capital after being arrested on allegations that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner. Trump, Hassan argued, was the one to blame for extorting a crowd outside the White House to “ fight like hell.”“It was Donald Trump’s words. It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th in your beautiful and amazing city,” Hassan ...

Patch crowned ‘beautiful bulldog’ at Drake University event

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Patch, sporting a jean jacket as she strutted down the runway, was crowned the winner of Drake University’s Beautiful Bulldog Contest.The 2-year-old English bulldog beat out 28 other contestants from six states Monday night to win the top prize. The bulldog is Drake’s mascot and the contest kicks off the Drake Relays track and field competition happening later this week. Events will take place at the university’s stadium just west of downtown Des Moines.Patch’s entry seemed to get a boost when she carefully ambled through a hoop on the runway, bringing cheers from a crowd of spectators. Her owners, Jennifer Hinton and Joel Kornder of Johnston, Iowa, said they had worked on the hoop routine for months ahead of the competition.“I heard about the contest when I moved to Des Moines this past summer, and I knew I had to enter Patch,” Hinton said. “She is the epitome of the bulldog breed, and we’re so proud of her all the time but especially...

Trudeau says Canada to conduct airlifts out of Sudan, has two ships off its coast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

OTTAWA — A Canadian effort is underway to conduct airlifts out of Sudan and two military vessels have arrived off its coast, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday, as violence in the region continues for a second week. Trudeau said the federal government is co-ordinating with its allies to evacuate Canadian citizens from Sudan, where fighting between the military and a rival paramilitary group erupted in the East African country earlier this month, with hundreds killed and thousands more injured. “It’s an extremely difficult situation,” Trudeau said. “There’s very limited places where those airlifts can happen from.” One Canadian in Sudan, 29-year-old Waddaha Medani, said she made the trip to an airbase on the outskirts of the battle-torn capital of Khartoum Tuesday morning after she learned of an apparent evacuation flight. She told The Canadian Press in messages exchanged Tuesday that she boarded a German plane set to depart for Jordan, whe...

Swiss indict 2 managers of Saudi oil company in 1MDB scandal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss prosecutors said Tuesday they have indicted two managers of a Saudi oil exploration company as part of a yearslong international investigation of a scandal linked to a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund that the FBI once described as the “biggest kleptocracy case” ever. The office of Switzerland’s attorney general said the two PetroSaudi managers were accused of trying to enrich themselves and others by misappropriating at least $1.8 billion transferred to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund. Swiss officials did not name the pair, citing privacy reasons. The indictments are the first of their kind in Switzerland, where some financial institutions were ensnared in the far-reaching scandal involving the state-owned investment fund known as 1MDB. Malaysian investigators allege that more than $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund established in 2009 and laundered by associates of former Prime Minister Najib Razak through layers of bank accounts in the United Sta...

Weak on-time record of Canadian airports, airlines raises questions for summer travel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

MONTREAL — Canadian airports and airlines logged a large number of flight delays last month, raising questions about their readiness for the summer travel rush.Figures from aviation data firm OAG show large airports and carriers had a much weaker on-time record in March than comparable U.S. outfits — and than their own performance in 2019.Toronto’s Pearson airport saw 61.2 per cent of flights leave on time — that is, within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure — versus 73 per cent four years earlier.By comparison, New York’s JFK airport and Chicago’s O’Hare airport had an on-time performance of about 73 per cent and 79 per cent, respectively.Air Canada’s on-time arrivals rate was 57.3 per cent in March versus 69.6 per cent in March 2019.Former Air Canada chief operating officer Duncan Dee says the higher volume of flight delays could bode poorly for travellers in the coming months after chaotic travel seasons during the summer and winter holidays, re...

CNN’s Harlow, Collins pay tribute to fired colleague Lemon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — CNN’s Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins paid a brief tribute Tuesday to their former “CNN This Morning” co-host, Don Lemon, who was fired from the network the day before.“We wish him the best,” Collins said. The three anchors had been working together on the revamped morning show since last November.Lemon’s firing came after a series of missteps that included his suggestion in February that Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley was past her “prime.” He got into an onscreen argument last week with another GOP candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, over their interpretation of racial history.Those are sore spots at CNN, where network head Chris Licht has been trying to get Republicans to set aside their suspicion of the network and appear for interviews.Lemon was fired after anchoring the show on Monday. He criticized network management for not breaking the news to him in person, but CNN disputed that in a dueling tweet. Harlow addressed the absence on Tuesday ...

1 dead, 1 injured in blast at Chicago area petroleum plant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

LEMONT, Ill. (AP) — An explosion at a suburban Chicago petroleum plant killed one person and injured a second Tuesday morning, authorities said.The Will County Sheriff’s Office said that one person was confirmed dead and a second was transported to a hospital in Joliet following the explosion at Seneca Petroleum in Lemont, Illinois.The sheriff’s office said fire and emergency crews were at the scene after the explosion and they had controlled a fire. The sheriff’s office said the explosion brought down some power lines.“Initial reports indicate that the explosion may be from an asphalt tank. Fire personnel do not believe that any type of hazmat situation has occurred and there is no danger to the public,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.OSHA has been called to the scene, as well as ComEd.Lemont is a village located in Cook, DuPage, and Will counties southwest of Chicago.The Associated Press

WATCH LIVE | Biden's first public appearance following 2024 reelection bid announcement: 'Let’s finish this job'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:24:38 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally announced that he is running for reelection in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to “finish this job” and extend the run of America’s oldest president for another four years.Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age. He faces a smooth path to winning his party’s nomination, with no serious Democratic rivals. But he’s still set for a hard-fought struggle to retain the presidency in a bitterly divided nation.The announcement, in a three-minute video, comes on the four-year anniversary of when Biden declared for the White House in 2019, promising to heal the “soul of the nation” amid the turbulent presidency of Donald Trump — a goal that has remained elusive. “I said we are in a battle for the soul of America, and we still are," Biden said. “The question we are fac...