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Head into shopping season ready to manage spending and debt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

By Tiffany Curtis | NerdWalletRetailers once again have begun their bid for consumers’ attention with big sales early in fall, such as what amounts to a second Amazon Prime Day sale. A longer holiday shopping season lets you spread out expenses, but it also could lead to overspending.Danetha Doe, founder of financial education company Money & Mimosas, said in an email, “It’s easy to go into unplanned debt during this time because many of us show love to those we care about by buying gifts or by spending money on travel to be with loved ones.”NerdWallet’s 2023 holiday shopping report bears that out: 52% of Americans incurred credit card debt from holiday shopping last year, and 31% of them still have lingering balances. Survey results also show that nearly 2 in 5 2023 holiday shoppers (39%) feel pressure to spend more on buying gifts than they’re comfortable spending this year, and 12% of 2023 holiday shoppers say they will likely use some of their emergency savings to buy ...

Gillette Stadium death: Police seeking assault charges against 3 Rhode Island men

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

Foxboro Police are seeking to arrest three Rhode Island men they say were involved in a fracas that preceded the death of a New Hampshire man attending a Patriots game at Gillette stadium last month.Dale Mooney, 53, of Newmarket, N.H., died following what appeared to be some sort of physical altercation in the 300-tier of the stadium a little before 11 p.m. on Sept. 17. Mooney was transported to Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro that night where he was pronounced dead.Foxboro Police are seeking criminal complaints alleging assault and battery and disorderly conduct, according to a Thursday morning statement in which they did not name the suspects. A probable-cause hearing or hearings will be held in Wrentham District Court “in the coming weeks,” according to police.Preliminary findings from Mooney’s autopsy did not suggest traumatic injury, “but did identify a medical issue” a spokesman for the Norfolk District Attorney’s office said a couple days after the incident. The police ...

An upset father shoots a youth football coach over his son’s playing time, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A youth football coach in St. Louis has been hospitalized in critical but stable condition after being shot at practice, allegedly by a father who was upset about his son’s playing time, authorities said.Shaquille Latimore, 30, was shot multiple times Tuesday evening at Sherman Park. Daryl Clemmons, 43, later turned himself in, police said. He was charged Wednesday with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. Clemmons does not yet have an attorney who could speak on his behalf, according to Missouri’s online court-reporting system. A call to a phone number listed for him went unanswered. He remains jailed without bond.Relatives told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Shaquille Latimore has undergone surgery and is in good spirits.Shaquille Latimore coaches a little league football team made up primarily of 7- and 8-year-olds, his mother, SeMiko Latimore, told the newspaper.Shaquille Latimore told police that Clemmons was “upset with him for not starting his so...

Mexico’s president calls 1994 assassination of presidential candidate a ‘state crime’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president unleashed a broad spate of conspiracy theories Thursday, arguing that the 1994 assassination of a Mexico presidential candidate was a government-sponsored killing.President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not provide any specific evidence for the accusation of state involvement in the killing of ruling party candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, but he did say he had met with Colosio just days before he died, purportedly at the hands of a lone gunman.“I came to the conclusion a long time ago that this was a state crime,” López Obrador said of the assassination.Colosio had been viewed as the front-runner in the race and had seemed poised to take the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, on a more leftward turn, away from the pro-market, privatization policies it had adopted. Researchers have speculated in the past that may have made top PRI members uncomfortable.It wasn’t the only conspiracy theory the Mexican president espoused ...

Scalise must sway skeptical GOP colleagues as he tries to round up the votes to be the House speaker

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nominated to be House speaker, Rep. Steve Scalise is heading straight into a familiar Republican problem: Skeptical GOP colleagues are reluctant to give their support, denying him the majority vote needed to win the gavel.The House opened its Thursday session at midday in anticipation of floor action to elect a speaker. But Scalise must peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed his chief rival, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman favored by hard-liners, as lawmakers dig in for a fight to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job. No votes were scheduled.“Time is of the essence,” McCarthy said when he arrived at the Capitol.Asked if it was still possible for Scalise, R-La., to find enough support, McCarthy said: “It’s possible — it’s a big hill, though.” The House is entering its second week without a speaker and is essentially unable to function, so the pressure is on Republicans to reverse course,...

Intense shelling has displaced 70,000 people in northwest Syria, UN agencies warn

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

DANA, Syria (AP) — United Nations humanitarian officials sounded an alarm Thursday over a humanitarian crisis in rebel-held northwestern Syria, warning that intense shelling by government forces displaced almost 70,000 people in recent weeks.The Syrian government, backed by Russia, pounded the country’s northwest this month, especially after a drone attack targeted a military college graduation ceremony in the heart of the government-held city of Homs. At least 89 officers and civilians were killed, making it one of the deadliest attack in the war-town nation in years.Humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations have reported Syrian and Russian strikes hitting hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure as Syria endures the 13th year of a conflict that has killed a half-million people.“We’re at the most significant escalation of hostilities since 2019,” David Carden, the U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said after meeting with displace...

Don’t mess with this mama bear: Grazer easily wins popular Fat Bear Contest at Alaska national park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — When it comes to packing on the pounds to survive an Alaska winter, this year’s undisputed champ is Grazer.Grazer, also known as Bear 128 to the fans of Fat Bear Week at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, won this year’s contest, handily defeating Chunk 108,321 to 23,134 in the finals.The annual contest, which this year drew more than 1.3 million votes from dedicated fans watching the bears live at explore.org, is way to celebrate the resiliency of the brown bears that live on the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands.Viewers of Alaska’s most-watched popularity contest are glued to computer screens all summer long to see which bears are stocking up the most on salmon. They then vote in tournament style brackets over the course of a week, advancing bears to the next round until a champion is crowned. Grazer took the title Tuesday.According to Grazer’s biography on the Katma...

Loving, proud, kind, joyful: Who were the three Canadians killed by Hamas in Israel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

OTTAWA — Friends and family have confirmed that at least three Canadians were killed last weekend when Hamas militants conducted a series of brutal attacks in Israel.Two Canadian men were killed by Hamas gunmen who ambushed a music festival in southern Israel, according to their loved ones in Canada. And an Israeli Canadian mother of two was killed in her kibbutz, a communal farming settlement, an Ottawa Jewish group said.At least 2,700 people have been killed so far in the conflict sparked by the Hamas attacks, which has escalated throughout the week as Israel conducts retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip.Canada considers Hamas a terrorist group, and Canadian leaders have decried the violence it waged on the weekend. The federal government is organizing flights for Canadian citizens and permanent residents out of Tel Aviv, but it can do little to help some 70 Canadians trapped in Gaza amid Israel’s siege on the territory.  Global Affairs Canada has not provided official conf...

US arranging evacuation flights for Americans who want to leave Israel as war with Hamas rages

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is expected to announce soon that the U.S. government will begin operating evacuation flights to help Americans leave Israel as Israel prepares to escalate retaliatory action against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, according to two people familiar with the plans.The evacuation flights are expected to begin operating as early as Friday, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss the plans before the official announcement.The U.S. government is arranging for at least four charter flights a day out of Israel through Frankfurt, Germany.There are still some commercial carriers flying in and out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, and ground routes are open to leave Israel. White House officials, however, have voiced concern that those options may not be feasible or affordable for some Americans in Israel who want to leave.White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday that the administration ...

Leak in LA council racism scandal may have come from 2 ex-labor employees, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:50 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say two former employees of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor are the focus of an investigation into a secret recording of several City Council members and a labor leader that entangled City Hall in a racism scandal.The aftermath shook public trust in government and led to the resignations of then-Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez and the powerful labor leader. Councilman Kevin de León has resisted calls for his ouster, including from President Joe Biden, and is running for reelection. The scandal was triggered by a leaked recording of crude, racist comments during a private meeting in 2021 at the labor federation’s headquarters involving Martinez, de León and two others — all Latino Democrats — in which they plotted to expand their political power at the expense of Black voters during a realignment of council district boundaries.Rivalries among groups separated by race, geography, partisanship or religion have a long history i...