March 21, 2024 4:54 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Employers in Pennsylvania could get a tax credit if they make contributions to their employees’ tuition savings account, under a Pennsylvania House of Representatives bill. The legislation passed out of the chamber unanimously on Wednesday. It now goes to the state Senate. The bill would allow employers to contribute up to $500 to an employee’s tuition savings account for a tax credit equal to 25% of the employer’s total contributions. Sponsors for the bill say that with student debt totaling $1.77 trillion nationally, the legislation would help reduce the financial burden on students.
March 21, 2024 4:53 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — For Democrats trying to defend the White House and Senate majority, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania is emerging as the tip of the spear in trying to reframe the election-year narrative around inflation. It’s a key soft spot in 2024 for Democrats and President Joe Biden. Casey argues that consumer prices are high primarily because of “greedflation,” a term that describes profiteering corporations jacking up prices. Casey’s opponent, Republican David McCormick, calls Casey’s contentions “nonsense” and blamed federal spending under Biden and rising energy prices. Economists tend to list many forces behind global inflation, including pandemic-fueled supply-chain shortages, a strong labor market and Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
March 21, 2024 2:52 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The United Steelworkers Union has endorsed President Joe Biden, giving him support from another large labor union. The announcement Wednesday by the Pittsburgh-based union came less than a week after Biden voiced opposition to the planned sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan. The USW represents 850,000 workers in metals, mining, rubber and other industries. It said that Biden has a track record of supporting retirement security, affordable health care and laws that support workers. The union said those issues are important to its members. The AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, and several other unions previously endorsed Democrat Biden in his race against Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. The Teamsters union has yet to announce its pick. (Photo: AP)
March 21, 2024 5:02 am
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the “gaps are narrowing” in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over another cease-fire and hostage release that the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have spent several weeks trying to broker. Blinken’s sixth visit to the region since the start of the Israel-Hamas war began in Saudi Arabia and will take him to Egypt on Thursday and Israel on Friday. In an interview Wednesday with the Al-Hadath network in Saudi Arabia, Blinken said he thinks an agreement is very much possible. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 31,800 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the surprise Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war, and abducted another 250 people.
March 21, 2024 5:03 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired 31 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv before dawn in the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in 44 days. Officials say air defenses shot down all the incoming missiles, though 13 people including a child were injured by falling wreckage. Residents of Kyiv were woken up by loud explosions around 5 a.m. Thursday as the missiles arrived at roughly the same time from different directions. Ukraine’s air force says Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles against the capital. An 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man were reported to be hospitalized and eight other people sustained light injuries.
March 21, 2024 3:23 pm
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The last of six former law enforcement officers who tortured two Black men outside Mississippi’s capital has been sentenced. Former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield was given an approximately 10-year federal prison sentence on Thursday. The six white officers were fired and pleaded guilty to subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racist torture in January 2023. The so-called “Goon Squad” broke into a home where a neighbor complained that the Black men were staying with a white woman. Hartfield tried to destroy evidence of the torture. The sentences for the six ex-officers ranged from about 10 years to 40 years.
March 20, 2024 5:01 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll shows that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States are highly supportive of legal abortion, even in situations where the pregnant person wants an abortion for any reason. The poll from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that nearly 8 in 10 people who identify as AAPI think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and three-quarters say Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortions nationwide. Even AAPI Republicans are somewhat supportive of legal abortion: More than half say abortion should be legal in some or all cases.
March 21, 2024 1:09 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Doctors in Boston say they have transplanted a pig kidney into a 62-year-old patient. Massachusetts General Hospital said Thursday it’s the first time a genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted into a living person. Previously pig kidneys have been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Also, two men received heart transplants from pigs, although both died within months. The hospital announced the transplant Thursday and said the patient is recovering well.
March 21, 2024 3:32 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Sweet Easter baskets will likely come at a bitter cost this year for consumers as the price of cocoa climbs to record highs. Cocoa futures have roughly doubled in 2024 after surging 61% overall in 2023. Rising temperatures and weather conditions have stressed and damaged crops in West Africa, which produces more than 70% of the global cocoa supply. Big chocolate companies like Hershey’s and Mondelez have been passing those costs on to consumers. That has helped bolster profit margins. Both companies reported shrinking sales volumes for their most recent quarters as consumers grow tired of paying higher prices. (Photo: AP)
March 20, 2024 5:19 am
TEMPE, Arizona (AP) — Joe Biden and Donald Trump are moving closer to a November rematch, as primary voters around the country urge their favored candidate to keep up the fight and worry about what might happen if their side loses this fall. Both candidates are already their parties’ presumptive nominees. Trump easily won Republican primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio. Biden did the same except in Florida, where Democrats had canceled their primary and opted to award all 224 of their delegates to Biden. Both Biden’s and Trump’s campaigns are working to fire up their bases by tearing into each other and warning of the perils of the opponent.
