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Key Fed official raises possibility of rate cut

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

WASHINGTON — A key Federal Reserve official raised the possibility Tuesday that the Fed could decide to cut its benchmark interest rate as early as spring if inflation keeps declining steadily.The official, Christopher Waller, a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, cautioned that inflation is still too high and that it’s not yet certain if a recent slowdown in price increases can be sustained. But he sounded the most optimistic notes of any Fed official since the central bank launched its aggressive streak of rate hikes in March 2022, and he signaled that the central bank is likely done raising rates.Waller is regarded as a relatively “hawkish” official, meaning that he typically favors higher rates to combat inflation rather than low rates to boost job growth. But he has also become somewhat of a bellwether for the Fed’s overall rate-setting committee.If inflation continues to cool “for several more months — I don’t know how long that mi...

Amazon launches Q, a business chatbot powered by generative artificial intelligence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon finally has its answer to ChatGPT. The tech giant said Tuesday it will launch Q — a business chatbot powered by generative artificial intelligence.The announcement, made in Las Vegas at an annual conference the company hosts for its AWS cloud computing service, represents Amazon’s response to rivals who’ve rolled out chatbots that have captured the public’s attention. San Francisco startup OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT a year ago sparked a surge of public and business interest in generative AI tools that can spit out emails, marketing pitches, essays, and other passages of text that resemble the work of humans. That attention initially gave an advantage to OpenAI’s chief partner and financial backer, Microsoft, which has rights to the underlying technology behind ChatGPT and has used it to build its own generative AI tools known as Copilot. But it also spurred competitors like Google to launch their own versions. These c...

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s longtime sidekick at Berkshire Hathaway, dies at 99

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

By JOSH FUNK (AP Business Writer)OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Charlie Munger, who helped Warren Buffett build Berkshire Hathaway into an investment powerhouse, has died at a California hospital. He was 99.Berkshire Hathaway said in a statement that Munger’s family told the company that he died Tuesday morning at the hospital just over a month before his 100th birthday.“Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation,” Buffett said in a statement.Munger served as Buffett’s sounding board on investments and business decisions and helped lead Berkshire for more than five decades and served as its longtime vice chairman.Munger had been using a wheelchair to get around for several years but he had remained mentally sharp. That was on display while he fielded hours of questions at the annual meetings of Berkshire and the Daily Journal Corp. earlier this year, and in recent interviews on an...

Pursuit from San Diego leads to Ramona SWAT standoff

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

RAMONA, Calif. — A SWAT standoff in Ramona Tuesday afternoon prompted authorities to close off both directions of Vista Ramona Road, San Diego police said.The standoff was initiated after SDPD received a call around 11:27 a.m. of two men fighting on Monroe Avenue in San Diego's Kensington neighborhood, the department told FOX 5. The caller reported that one of the two appeared to have a gun at the time of the altercation.Officers spotted at least one of the men and attempted to pull him over, but he did not yield. According to SDPD, a pursuit ensued and the suspect led officers all the way to Ramona.San Diego County Sheriff's Department deputies are assisting in the response.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Documents of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and lieutenant governor subpoenaed in lawsuit over bribery scheme

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s governor and lieutenant governor have been drawn into a FirstEnergy Corp. investors lawsuit connected to the $60 million bribery scheme concocted by the Akron-based energy giant and a now-incarcerated House speaker.Republican Gov. Mike DeWine received a subpoena for documents in the case dated Nov. 17, according to a copy provided to The Associated Press by his office on Tuesday and first reported by cleveland.com. His spokesperson, Dan Tierney, said the governor’s lawyers are reviewing the order.It seeks any communications DeWine might have had with FirstEnergy, executives named in the lawsuit or Sam Randazzo, the state’s former top utility regulator, that related to former House Speaker Larry Householder’s efforts to secure power, to the tainted $1 billion nuclear bailout legislation Householder championed in exchange for the bribes, and to a host of other related topics.Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, also a Republican, received a similar...

Activist who acknowledged helping flip police car during 2020 protest sentenced to 1 year in prison

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A well-known west Philadelphia activist who acknowledged having helped overturn a police car during 2020 protests following the death of George Floyd has been sentenced to a year in prison.Anthony Smith was sentenced Tuesday following a guilty plea in June to a federal charge of obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder, which included aiding and abetting an arson, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Smith acknowledged having helped others flip a vacant Philadelphia police car over outside City Hall on May 31, 2020. After someone fired a road flare into the vehicle, sending it up in flames, Smith then threw a piece of paper into the blaze, prosecutors said.U.S. District Judge Juan Sánchez heard emotional pleas in a packed courtroom from family, friends and ex-students of the former social studies teacher who asked him not to send Smith to prison. Sánchez praised them for coming to court and lauded Smith’s community work and “passion for advocacy” ...

Novelist Tim Dorsey, who mixed comedy and murder in his Serge A. Storms stories, dies at 62

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Tim Dorsey, a former police and courts newspaper reporter who found lasting fame as the creator of the crime-comedy novel series starring Serge A. Storms, an energetic fan of Florida history and an ingenious serial killer, has died. He was 62.Dorsey, who published 26 novels, died Sunday, according to Danielle Bartlett, a publicity director at William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. No details were revealed. Fans of Dorsey appreciated his clever observations and satirical pokes at the weirdness of Florida. He was part of a trio of former newspapermen from Florida — including Dave Barry and Carl Hiaasen — who found a rich vein of absurdist humor in the state.“It was a privilege and honor to work with Tim Dorsey. His easy wit and deep knowledge of Florida-lore made his satirical crime capers as entertaining as they were timely. But his greatest gift was the boundless joy and escape that Serge A. Storms brought to readers on every page,” said Emily Krump, Dors...

Sports Illustrated is the latest media company damaged by an AI experiment gone wrong

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Computer-generated writers … writing computer-generated stories? Sports Illustrated is the latest media company to see its reputation damaged by being less than forthcoming — if not outright dishonest — about who or what is writing its stories at the dawn of the artificial intelligence age.The once-powerful publication said it was firing a company that produced articles for its website written under the byline of authors who apparently don’t exist. But it denied a published report that stories themselves were written by an artificial intelligence tool.Earlier this year, experiments with AI went awry at both the Gannett newspaper chain and the CNET technology website. Many companies are testing the new technology at a time when human workers fear it could cost jobs. But the process is fraught in journalism, which builds and markets its values-based products around the notions of truth and transparency.While there’s nothing wrong in media companies experime...

US agency to end use of ‘cyanide bomb’ to kill coyotes and other predators, citing safety concerns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has halted the use of spring-loaded traps that disperse cyanide powder to kill coyotes and other livestock predators, a practice wildlife advocates have tried to outlaw for decades due to safety concerns.The M-44 ejector-devices that critics call “cyanide bombs” have unintentionally killed thousands of pets and non-predator wildlife, including endangered species, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services. They have a scented bait and emit a poisonous cloud when triggered by a physical disturbance.The Bureau of Land Management quietly posted a notice on its website last week that it no longer will use the devices across the 390,625 square miles (1,011,714 square kilometers) it manages nationally — an area twice the size of California — much of it where ranchers graze cattle and sheep. Other federal agencies — including the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service — already prohibit th...

Digital services tax still part of the plan, says Freeland, but timing unclear

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:22 GMT

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is pushing back against the idea that the federal government is wavering on its Jan. 1 timeline for implementing a new digital services tax. Language in last week’s fiscal update suggested the government wanted some flexibility in the timeline for when the tax would go into effect. Freeland insists the government’s position on the controversial measure remains unchanged, although she did not explicitly say if the tax would take effect early next year, as originally planned. The three per cent levy, aimed at foreign digital services companies that profit off Canadian audiences, is deeply unpopular in the United States, where critics say it unfairly targets the U.S. tech sector. Freeland says Canada’s preference has always been to be part of an international tax framework that is still under development, but also that it would not wait until any later than 2023.The tax is just one of a suite of measures from the fall econom...