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POLITICO London Playbook awards 2023: All the winners from a wild year in UK politics

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

LONDON — It was meant to be the year two quiet technocrats, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, brought calm to the fevered Westminster swamp. Unfortunately SW1 didn’t get the memo.Politics remained pretty much as wild in 2023 as it has been since David Cameron — back in action as U.K. foreign secretary — last stalked the corridors of power. POLITICO hardly need remind you that with a general election looming in Britain and Donald Trump battling for the U.S. presidency, next year is unlikely to get any calmer. But before we embark on the joys of 2024, it’s time to honor those who excelled in 2023 with the London Playbook awards.Minister of the yearHonorable mention to Grant Shapps for managing to hold down five Cabinet jobs in the space of 12 months — imagine the sheer number of briefing notes he’s waded through. Scotland Secretary Alis...

Resilient economy energizes investors, as financial markets end 2023 up 24%

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The S&P 500 closed out 2023 with a gain of more than 24% and the Dow finished near a record high, as easing inflation, a resilient economy and the prospect of lower interest rates buoyed investors, particularly in the last two months of the year.Stocks closed Friday with modest losses.The S&P 500 slipped 13.52 points, or 0.3%, to 4,769.83. The benchmark index still posted a rare ninth consecutive week of gains and is just 0.6% shy of an all-time high set in January of 2022.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20.56 points, or 0.1%, to 37,689.54 after setting a record Thursday.The Nasdaq slipped 83.78 points, or 0.6%, to 15,011.35, but that was barely a blemish on an annual gain of more than 43%, its best performance since 2020.For most of the year, gains in the broader market were driven largely by seven stocks — Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla. Dubbed the Magnificent 7, they accounted for about two-thirds of t...

Massachusetts SafeLink a resource for domestic violence victims and survivors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

Coverage of tragic domestic violence incidents in communities in and around Boston can be “very triggering” for those struggling with their own relationships.That’s why advocates are urging people in need to reach out for assistance for themselves or others as they process the deaths of a husband, wife and teenage daughter in Dover.Authorities found the married couple and daughter at their home Thursday night in what Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said appears to be a “deadly incident of domestic violence.”Morrissey urged those who feel “unsafe” in their relationships to call Massachusetts SafeLink, a statewide 24/7 toll-free domestic violence hotline and resource for anyone affected by domestic or dating violence, at 877-785-2020.SafeLink is a “connector for survivors or anybody who’s worried about somebody to local domestic violence resources,” said Stephanie Brown, CEO of Casa Myrna, the organization that runs the hotline.Brown said she usually sees a “slight uptick”...

Red Sox finally spend, sign Lucas Giolito to 2-year deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

After nearly two months of interest and not much else, the Red Sox finally made a splash on Friday evening.As first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Red Sox are signing Lucas Giolito to a two-year, $38.5 million contract with an opt-out after the first season. There’s an additional million in incentives for each year, and should the right-hander opt out, he’ll receive $19 million and said performance bonuses.Giolito, 29, debuted with the Washington Nationals in 2016, but spent almost his entire Major League career in a Chicago White Sox uniform. Since his first full season in the Majors in 2018, he owns a 4.48 ERA, 4.34 FIP, and 1.257 WHIP across 167 starts totaling 947 innings. He was an All-Star in ’19, his first of three consecutive seasons in which he received AL Cy Young votes. He’s been durable, averaging just over 174 innings per season over the last five 162-game campaigns, and the Red Sox need durability in their rotation.A tumultuous ’...

Judge blocks most of an Iowa law banning some school library books and discussion of LGBTQ+ issues

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked key parts of an Iowa law that bans some books from school libraries and forbids teachers from raising LGBTQ+ issues.Judge Stephen Locher’s preliminary injunction halts enforcement of the law, which was set to take effect Jan. 1 but already had resulted in the removal of hundreds of books from Iowa schools.The law, which the Republican-led Legislature and GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds approved early in 2023, bans books depicting sex acts from school libraries and classrooms and forbids teachers from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students through the sixth grade. Locher blocked enforcement of those two provisions. The judge said the ban on books is “incredibly broad” and has resulted in the removal of history volumes, classics, award-winning novels and “even books designed to help students avoid being victimized by sexual assault.” He said that part of the law...

Phony MIT physicist bilked investors out of $24.6 million with Irvine tech firm, SEC alleges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

An Irvine man bilked more than 50 investors out of $26.4 million with phony academic credentials, a fanciful rags-to-riches story and a promise to usher in “the next age of humanity” with cutting-edge nanotechnologies that could cure cancer, detect counterfeiting and provide an antidote to snake venom, according to federal regulators.Faiz M. Chowdhury, 54, who owns Irvine-based DTI Holdings Inc. and Quantum Age Corp., swindled venture capitalists in the U.S. and Asia by falsely claiming to be a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained physicist and intellectual prodigy, states a U.S. Securities Exchange Commission lawsuit filed in federal court.From May 2018 to December 2022, Chowdhury treated DTI and QAC accounts as his “personal piggy bank,” the SEC said. He allegedly spent investment funds totaling $19.8 million to support an extravagant lifestyle that included international travel, gambling, luxury items for himself and his family, ATM cash withdrawals and wire transfers to...

Failed Del Mar horse show producer pleads guilty to murder-for-hire plot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

VISTA, Calif. — A North County woman accused of attempting to hire someone to kill her estranged husband pleaded guilty in court on Thursday to a charge of solicitation to commit murder.Tatyana Natasha Remley, 42, entered the guilty plea in front of a judge at a Vista Superior Court after reaching an agreement with prosecutors to the solicitation charge and a second charge for carrying a loaded, concealed gun in her vehicle that was not registered to her.She had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this year. As part of the deal to change her plea, she was immediately sentenced to three years and eight months behind bars in a state prison. Prosecutors also agreed to drop a third weapon-related charge. Four Rancho Santa Fe suspects plead not guilty to first degree burglary Remley was arrested by deputies with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department in early August after a sting operation set around a supposed meeting with a hitman, who — unbeknownst to her — was a...

San Diego minimum wage increases Jan. 1, but how much?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Minimum wage will increase for millions of workers across California on Jan. 1, 2024, including those employed within the City of San Diego.Just how much will hourly pay increase? According to city officials, employees who perform at least two hours of work in one or more calendar weeks of the year will receive a minimum wage increase from $16.30 to $16.85 an hour. Self-serve ramen restaurant coming to Mid-City, says San Diego celebrity chef “With the cost of living rising, this increase could not come at a more needed time for workers and working families,” said Mayor Todd Gloria. “This increase means a better ability to make ends meet, put food on the table, and spend in our local businesses."The city said the change is in accordance with San Diego's Earned Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Ordinance, which was approved in 2016.How is the increase determined?As explained by the city, San Diego minimum wage has gone up annually since 2019. The amount of the increase corres...

Jail call recording shows risk to witnesses in Tupac Shakur killing case, Las Vegas prosecutors say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Prosecutors are telling a Nevada judge that witnesses may be at risk in the case of a former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with orchestrating the killing of hip-hop music icon Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas more than 27 years ago.A court filing submitted Thursday urges the judge to keep Duane “Keffe D” Davis behind bars until trial, alleging that a list of witnesses was given to Davis family members, and that Davis’ son told the defendant during a recorded jail telephone call that a “green light” order had been given.“In (Davis’) world, a ‘green light’ is an authorization to kill,” prosecutors Marc DiGiacomo and Binu Palal said in the court filing.“This caused enough concern that the federal government stepped in and provided resources to at least (one witness) so he could change his residence,” the prosecutors wrote, calling the Oct. 9 jail call evidence of “credible threats to witnesses (that) demonstrate both a consciousness of guilt and that defendant poses a ...

Embezzlement of Oregon weekly newspaper’s funds forces it to lay off entire staff and halt print

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:44 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon weekly newspaper has had to lay off its entire staff and halt print after 40 years because its funds were embezzled by a former employee, its editor said, in a devastating blow to a publication that serves as an important source of information in a community that, like many others nationwide, is struggling with growing gaps in local news coverage.About a week before Christmas, the Eugene Weekly found inaccuracies in its bookkeeping, editor Camilla Mortensen said. It discovered that a former employee who was “heavily involved” with the paper’s finances had used its bank account to pay themselves $90,000 since at least 2022, she said. The paper also became aware of at least $100,000 in unpaid bills — including to the paper’s printer — stretching back several months, she said.Additionally, multiple employees, including Mortensen, realized that money from their paychecks that was supposed to be going into retirement accounts was never deposite...