Snow, rain slam California as Michigan suffers with out energy
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Heavy snow and rain pounded California and different components of the West on Friday within the nation’s newest winter storm, whereas tens of hundreds of individuals in Michigan suffered in freezing temperatures days after one of many worst ice storms in many years precipitated widespread energy outages.
Days of winter storms blacked out almost 1 million houses and companies from coast to coast, closed main roads, precipitated pileups on highways and snarled air journey. Greater than 460 flights had been canceled and greater than 7,400 had been delayed Friday throughout the U.S., in accordance with FlightAware.com.
In California, the Nationwide Climate Service warned of chilly, snowy and wet climate lasting via Saturday and issued flash flood warnings via 10 p.m. Friday for Los Angeles, its suburbs and a portion of Ventura County, a area that’s residence to about 6 million individuals.
Cellphones buzzed Friday afternoon with an emergency alert that warned: “This can be a harmful and life-threatening scenario. Don’t try and journey except you might be fleeing an space topic to flooding.”
Some locations within the flash flood warning zone might see as much as 10 inches (23 centimeters) of rain, the climate service stated.
The AP Interview: Biden able to run, US first girl says
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.S. first girl Jill Biden gave one of many clearest indications but that President Joe Biden will run for a second time period, telling The Related Press in an unique interview on Friday that there is “just about” nothing left to do however work out the time and place for the announcement.
Though Biden has lengthy stated that it is his intention to hunt reelection, he has but to make it official, and he is struggled to dispel questions on whether or not he is too outdated to proceed serving as president. Biden could be 86 on the finish of a second time period.
“What number of occasions does he should say it so that you can imagine it?” the primary girl stated in Nairobi, the second and closing cease of her five-day journey to Africa.
She added, “He says he’s not performed. He’s not completed what he’s began. And that’s what’s necessary.”
Granddaughter Naomi Biden, who’s on the journey, cheered the primary girl’s feedback after the interview.
Key US inflation measure surges at quickest fee since June
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s most well-liked inflation gauge rose final month at its quickest tempo since June, an alarming signal that value pressures stay entrenched within the U.S. financial system and may lead the Fed to maintain elevating rates of interest properly into this yr.
Friday’s report from the Commerce Division confirmed that client costs rose 0.6% from December to January, up sharply from a 0.2% enhance from November to December. On a year-over-year foundation, costs rose 5.4%, up from a 5.3% annual enhance in December.
Excluding risky meals and vitality costs, so-called core inflation rose 0.6% from December, up from a 0.4% rise the earlier month. And in contrast with a yr earlier, core inflation was up 4.7% in January, versus a 4.6% year-over-year uptick in December.
The report additionally confirmed that client spending rose 1.8% final month from December after falling the earlier month.
January’s value information exceeded forecasters’ expectations, confounding hopes that inflation was steadily decelerating and that the Fed might relent on its marketing campaign of fee hikes. It follows different current information that additionally advised that the financial system stays gripped by inflation regardless of the Fed’s strenuous efforts to tame it.
As Ukraine marks yr of conflict, chief vows to safe victory
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s chief pledged Friday to push for victory in 2023 as he and different Ukrainians marked the somber anniversary of the Russian invasion that upended their lives and Europe’s safety.
It was Ukraine’s “longest day,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated, however the nation’s dogged resistance a yr on has confirmed that “each tomorrow is price combating for.”
On a day of commemorations, reflection and tears, the Ukrainian president’s defiant tone captured the nationwide temper of resilience within the face of Europe’s largest and deadliest conflict since World Warfare II. Zelenskyy, who has himself change into an emblem of Ukraine’s refusal to bow to Moscow, stated Ukrainians proved themselves to be invincible throughout “a yr of ache, sorrow, religion and unity.”
“We’ve been standing for precisely one yr,” Zelenskyy stated. Feb. 24, 2022, he stated, was “the longest day of our lives. The toughest day of our trendy historical past. We awakened early and haven’t fallen asleep since.”
Ukrainians wept at memorials for his or her tens of hundreds of lifeless — a toll rising inexorably as combating rages in japanese Ukraine specifically. Though Friday marked the anniversary of the full-scale invasion, fight between Russian-backed forces and Ukrainian troops has raged within the nation’s east since 2014. New video from there shot with a drone for The Related Press confirmed how the city of Marinka has been razed, together with others.
Younger gymnast amongst 3 killed in shootings close to Orlando
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — At age 9, T’yonna Main excelled at her faculty work and in gymnastics, proven flexing her arms after competitions with newly gained medals round her neck in photographs her proud dad posted on social media.
“She was a lightweight to everybody that knew her,” the lady’s father, Tokiyo Main, posted on the fundraising website GoFundMe, the place he has requested for donations to assist pay for his daughter’s funeral. “She was the whole lot to us.”
T’yonna was killed Wednesday when a gunman barged into her residence outdoors Orlando and shot the third-grader and her mom, who survived the assault. The Orange County sheriff stated the identical assailant killed two different individuals within the Pine Hills space — a TV journalist shot in a automobile outdoors and a 38-year-old girl slain hours earlier in the identical neighborhood.
Sheriff John Mina stated the victims seem to have been killed at random.
Grieving households and buddies of the victims are nonetheless attempting to return to phrases with the bloody rampage. A least two vigils of their reminiscence had been deliberate Friday night.
Feds search to restrict telehealth prescriptions for some medication
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration moved Friday to require sufferers see a physician in individual earlier than getting consideration deficit dysfunction treatment or addictive painkillers, toughening entry to the medication towards the backdrop of a deepening opioid disaster.
The proposal might overhaul the best way tens of millions of People get some prescriptions after three years of counting on telehealth for physician’s appointments by pc or telephone through the pandemic.
The Drug Enforcement Administration stated late Friday it plans to reinstate as soon as longstanding federal necessities for highly effective medication that had been waived as soon as COVID-19 hit, enabling medical doctors to put in writing tens of millions of prescriptions for medication equivalent to OxyContin or Adderall with out ever assembly sufferers in individual.
Sufferers might want to see a physician in individual at the least as soon as to get an preliminary prescription for medication that the federal authorities says have the probably the most potential to be abused — Vicodin, OxyContin, Adderall and Ritalin, for instance. Refills may very well be prescribed over telehealth appointments.
The company may also clamp down on how medical doctors can prescribe different, much less addictive medication to sufferers they’ve by no means bodily met. Substances like codeine, taken to alleviate ache or coughing, Xanax, used to deal with anxiousness, Ambien, a sleep support, and buprenorphine, a narcotic used to deal with opioid dependancy, might be prescribed over telehealth for an preliminary 30-day dose. Sufferers would wish to see a physician at the least as soon as in individual to get a refill.
Prosecutor: Alex Murdaugh ‘fuzzy’ about new particulars of case
Disgraced South Carolina legal professional Alex Murdaugh confronted intense questioning about his actions the night time his spouse and son had been killed because the prosecutor challenged inconsistencies in his reminiscence Friday at his double homicide trial.
A day after revealing for the primary time that he was on the kennels the place his spouse and son had been shot shortly earlier than they died, Murdaugh returned to the stand in his personal protection. Throughout cross-examination, prosecutor Creighton Waters grilled Murdaugh about what he repeatedly known as the once-prominent lawyer’s “new story” about what occurred on the kennels on the night June 7, 2021.
Waters requested Murdaugh if he meant what he instructed the jury Thursday — that he tried to assist police discover the killers.
“Apart from mendacity to them about going to the kennels, I used to be cooperative in each side of this investigation,” Murdaugh stated.
“Very cooperative besides perhaps crucial reality of all, that you just had been on the homicide scene with the victims simply minutes earlier than they died,” Waters replied.
Flotsam discovered off New York could also be from well-known SS Savannah
NEW YORK (AP) — A bit of weather-beaten flotsam that washed up on a New York shoreline after Tropical Storm Ian final fall has piqued the curiosity of consultants who say it’s doubtless a part of the SS Savannah, which ran aground and broke aside in 1821, two years after it grew to become the primary vessel to cross the Atlantic Ocean partly below steam energy.
The roughly 13-foot (4-meter) sq. piece of wreckage was noticed in October off Fireplace Island, a barrier island that hugs Lengthy Island’s southern shore, and is now within the custody of the Fireplace Island Lighthouse Preservation Society. It’s going to work with Nationwide Park Service officers to establish the wreckage and put it on public show.
“It was fairly thrilling to seek out it,” stated Betsy DeMaria, a museum technician on the park service’s Fireplace Island Nationwide Seashore. “We positively are going to have some material consultants check out it and assist us get a greater view of what we’ve got right here.”
It could be tough to establish the wreckage with 100% certainty, however park service officers stated the Savannah is a prime contender amongst Fireplace Island’s identified shipwrecks.
Explorers have looked for the Savannah for over two centuries however haven’t discovered something they might definitively hyperlink to the well-known ship. The newly found wreckage, although, “very properly may very well be” a chunk of the historic shipwreck, stated Ira Breskin, a senior lecturer on the State College of New York Maritime Faculty within the Bronx. “It makes excellent sense.”
LIV Golf, PGA Tour spar over testimony from Saudi officers
A federal choose declined Friday to postpone the trial date in LIV Golf’s antitrust lawsuit towards the PGA Tour, even whereas conceding that may be inevitable if LIV proprietor Saudi Arabia appeals a ruling that officers with its sovereign wealth fund be required to testify.
Friday’s case administration listening to within the Northern District of California capped off a flurry of filings within the final week over the PGA Tour alleging the Public Funding Fund and its governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, had been extra than simply traders within the rival league.
Saudi Arabia’s PIF holds some $600 billion in oil earnings and different property, making it one of many largest sovereign wealth funds on the earth. The PIF owns 93% of LIV Golf, in accordance with court docket paperwork.
U.S. Justice of the Peace Susan van Keulen dominated final week that the PIF and al-Rumayyan weren’t exempt from offering testimony and paperwork below the International Service Immunity Act due to an exception for business exercise.
Saudi Arabia, via its legal professional, filed a separate letter with U.S. District Decide Beth Labson Freeman on Thursday, arguing that the Justice of the Peace’s order has “broad implications for Saudi Arabia past the moment case” and that it could file a friend-of-court enchantment.
St. Louis Zoo bear has second transient escape from enclosure
ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Zoo officers say they’re working to discover a approach to maintain an Andean bear named Ben inside his enclosure after he escaped Thursday for the second time this month.
The bear was outdoors for lower than an hour and was discovered solely about 100 ft away from his habitat, zoo officers stated in an announcement. The 4-year-old bear, who weighs about 300 kilos, was tranquilized and returned to the enclosure.
Guests and zoo employees had been saved inside zoo buildings throughout Ben’s escapade.
The bear escaped on Feb. 7 by tearing aside clips that had been hooked up chrome steel mesh to the body of the enclosure’s door. He didn’t wander far and was outdoors for about 90 minutes earlier than being returned.
In response, the zoo added chrome steel clips with 450 kilos of tensile energy to the mesh. However Ben managed to snap these clips Thursday.