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Editorial: Dems find their Eden for 2024 national convention

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

The state of Illinois recently lost three Fortune 500 companies, and its population has declined by more than 100,000 residents in the past two years. Meanwhile, its largest city is a poster child for rampant crime and a failing public education system.How fitting — and deliciously ironic — that Chicago was selected last week to host the 2024 Democratic national convention.The symbolism is rich. Illinois is a one-party state dominated by public-employee unions. Property taxes are among the highest in the nation. The state’s government pension system is a monument to red ink, running almost $140 billion in the hole. According to the Tax Foundation, Illinois ranks 36th in the country for its business tax climate, worst in the region.State Democrats have one answer for most issues: higher taxes and more regulation. Politicians in Springfield are contemplating a new “wealth” tax and a revamp of the state’s income tax system that will separate citizens from more of their hard-earned mone...

In-office workers spend more time on career development

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

Workers in the office spend 25% more time in career-development activities than their remote counterparts, according to new data from a team of economists who have analyzed working from home since the pandemic began.Those who came into work devoted about 40 more minutes a week to mentoring others, nearly 25 more in formal training and about 15 additional minutes each week doing professional development and learning activities, according to WFH Research, a group that includes Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom.The figures, based on surveys of more than 2,400 US adults who are able to work from home, lend quantitative support to CEOs such as JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon and Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman, who have said that workers — particularly younger staff — need to be on-site more often than not to learn and develop alongside more experienced colleagues. Wall Street banks have been in the vanguard of corporate campaigns to get workers back to offices more often...

Dear Abby: Recovering addict caught smoking weed

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

Dear Abby: My fiance and I have been together for six years. We are in our late 40s. He’s a recovering alcoholic and former drug user from his late teens into his early 20s. He hasn’t touched drugs for 21 years. He often talked to people about his recovery, and I was beyond proud of him.I recently saw something that broke my heart. My neighbor has a security camera. I went over to check on him and he asked me to look at the camera he has for fear of strangers coming up to his door. My heart began to race as I saw my fiance in the background of the video smoking something. I watched the video at least 20 times and there he was, smoking a blunt! I was so shocked and disappointed that it took me an hour before I could text him.I sent him a clip of the video and asked how he could fall off the wagon and be so sneaky about it. I am no longer sure I want to marry him because — what’s next? Alcohol, more drugs? My father was an alcoholic, and I always told myself I ...

US sails warship through Taiwan Strait after China’s drills

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The United States Navy has sailed a warship through the Taiwan Strait in its first known transit since China carried out an encirclement exercise around self-ruled Taiwan. The U.S. 7th Fleet said the transit through the strait by the USS Milius on Sunday was routine. The cruisers “transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,” the statement said.Last week China concluded large-scale air and sea drills in the strait in retaliation for Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on April 5 in California. China said Wednesday that the exercises simulating an encirclement of Taiwan were intended as a “serious warning” to pro-independence politicians on the self-governing island and their foreign supporters. China protested the transit Monday, saying the U.S. transit was a “public hype” and that the Eastern Theater Command was ready at any time to “resolutely safeguard the...

Texas freight train collision injures 2, no hazmat onboard

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

A train collision and subsequent derailment injured two rail employees in Texas Sunday night, according to a company official.A Union Pacific freight train collided with an unoccupied train that was parked on a siding around 7 p.m. in Chico, Texas, Union Pacific spokesperson Kristen South, said in an email to The Associated Press.A locomotive engineer and conductor were being treated for injuries after the southbound train derailed following the accident near County Road 1540. No one else was on board the freight train, South said.One patient was transported to a hospital by helicopter and the other was transported by ambulance to Wise Health System in Decatur, Texas, the Wise County Emergency Operations Center said in a statement.Three locomotives and about 15 grain cars derailed, but the train was not carrying any hazardous materials, South said. Asked about the speed of the train when the accident occurred, South said Union Pacific was investigating the cause of the accident and ...

US, allies conduct more drills in face of N. Korean threat

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States, South Korea and Japan will conduct a joint missile defense exercise Monday in waters near the Korean Peninsula as they expand military training to counter the growing threats of North Korea’s nuclear-capable missiles, the South Korean navy said. Last week, North Korea conducted one of its most provocative weapons demonstrations in years by flight-testing for the first time an intercontinental ballistic missile powered by solid propellants, as it pursues a weapon that’s more responsive, harder to detect and could directly target the continental United States. North Korea’s unprecedented run of weapons tests has so far involved more than 100 missiles of various ranges fired into the sea since the start of 2022 as the country attempts to build a viable nuclear arsenal that could threaten its rival neighbors and the United States.The exercises Monday may trigger a belligerent response from North Korea, which condemns the United St...

Progressives focus on local-level wins to counter setbacks

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — For many progressives, the past decade has been littered with disappointments. But recent down-ballot victories are providing hope of reshaping the Democratic Party from the bottom up, rather than from Washington. In Chicago earlier this month, a former teacher’s union organizer unexpectedly won the mayor’s race. In St. Louis, progressives secured a majority on the municipal board. The next opportunities could lie in Philadelphia and Houston, which also hold mayoral elections this year.The focus on lower-level contests already has helped progressives gain power and influence policy at a local level, organizers say, shaping issues such as the minimum wage. It also may help the movement find future stars, with today’s city and county officials becoming tomorrow’s breakout members of Congress and only moving further up the political ladder.“Progressives have taken a look at how to be strategic and how to build power,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Fli...

Russia’s UN council presidency is most contentious in memory

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — First the Russians gave the U.N. spotlight to the commissioner of children’s rights accused with President Vladimir Putin of war crimes for deporting Ukrainian children to Russia, sparking a walkout by the U.S. and several others. Then Russia went after the West by claiming it is violating international laws in arming Ukraine, drawing blistering retorts that Ukraine has every right to defend itself against Putin’s invading army. So far, the Russian presidency of the U.N. Security Council has been the most contentious in the memory of longtime U.N. diplomats and officials. And it’s just at the midway point.More fireworks are to come later in the month when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov presides over the premier event of the presidency — an open council meeting on defending the principles of the U.N. Charter. Russia is widely accused of violating the charter by invading Ukraine and flouting its underpinning principles of respecting sovereignty and ...

GOP leader McConnell returning to Senate after head injury

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will be back at work in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, almost six weeks after a fall at a Washington-area hotel and extended treatment for a concussion.The longtime Kentucky senator, 81, has been recovering at home since he was released from a rehabilitation facility March 25. He fell after attending an event earlier that month, injuring his head and fracturing a rib. He visited his office Friday, the first time since his injury, and is expected to be working a full schedule in the Senate this week.“I am looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday,” McConnell tweeted on Thursday. “We’ve got important business to tackle and big fights to win for Kentuckians and the American people.”McConnell returns to the Senate ahead of a busy stretch in which Congress will have to find a way to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and negotiate additional aid for the Ukraine war, among other policy matters. And he comes back as several ot...

2 bodies lifted from sea after Japan army helicopter crash

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:27:36 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s military recovered two bodies of the 10 crew members on an army helicopter that sunk to the bottom of the sea after presumably crashing off a southern Japanese island 11 days ago.On Monday, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force confirmed the deaths of two male crew members recovered by special divers from the 100-meter (330-foot) -deep seabed where they were found with the wreckage and three other crew members. The other five crew members on board at the time of the crash are still missing. The UH-60JA Black Hawk helicopter disappeared April 6 soon after taking off from an army base on Miyako Island for a reconnaissance mission in Japan’s southern islands.Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday expressed his “deepest regret” over the deaths Monday and pledged to do the utmost for the recovery of the rest of the crew members “so that those who devoted their lives for the defense of the country can go back to their families as soon as possible, while we pursue our ef...