February 20, 2024 4:25 pm
DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines is raising bag fees and pushing customers to buy tickets directly from the airline if they want to earn frequent-flyer points. American said Tuesday that checking a bag on domestic flights will rise from $30 now to $35 online, and it’ll be $40 if purchased at the airport. The fee for a second checked bag will rise from $40 to $45 both online and at the airport. American says it hasn’t raised bag fees since 2018. American Airlines also says that most customers will have to buy tickets directly from the airline or partner airlines or approved travel sites if they want to earn frequent-flyer points. Corporate travelers won’t be affected by the change. (Photo: AP)
February 20, 2024 4:11 pm
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri prosecutors say two men have been charged with murder in last week’s shooting that killed one person and injured 22 others after the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade. Both adults are charged with second-degree murder and other charges. Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said during a news conference that both men have been hospitalized since the shooting. The new charges come after two juveniles were detained last week on gun-related and resisting arrest charges. Authorities said more charges are possible. Police have said a dispute among several people led to the shooting.
February 20, 2024 3:53 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing another $5.8 billion for water infrastructure projects nationwide, paid for by one of the Biden administration’s key legislative victories. Appearing in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Harris says clean water is a right and a way to protect public health. The $5.8 billion will pay for projects in all 50 states, bringing the total awarded for water infrastructure projects to $22 billion. It comes from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law that President Joe Biden signed in 2021. Harris was joined in Pittsburgh by and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan. Regan says clean water is essential.
February 20, 2024 12:50 pm
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court must decide if Pennsylvania voters who put the wrong date on the envelope containing their mail-in ballots should have their votes thrown out. The case argued Tuesday in Philadelphia could be significant in this year’s presidential contest. The NAACP and several voter groups call the mistakes “meaningless” and want them counted. They say that more than 10,000 ballots in the state were rejected in 2022 over mistaken dates. Republican groups are challenging a federal court ruling last year that the votes should count if they are received in time.
February 20, 2024 5:13 am
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Arab nations are putting to a vote a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, knowing it will be vetoed by the United States but hoping to show broad global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war. The Security Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday morning. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield says the U.S. will veto the resolution because it may interfere with ongoing U.S. efforts to arrange a deal between the warring parties that would bring at least a six-week halt to hostilities and release all hostages taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. In a surprise move ahead of the vote, the United States circulated a rival Security Council resolution that would support a temporary cease-fire in Gaza.
February 20, 2024 5:12 am
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Donald Trump is doubling down on comparing his criminal indictments to the circumstances of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. Navalny died in a remote arctic prison after being jailed by Russia’s autocratic leader Vladimir Putin. Trump held a town hall with Fox News on Tuesday in which he suggested he also could become a political prisoner. Trump bemoaned Navalny’s death, which President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have blamed on Putin. Trump then pivoted to himself, repeating his assertions that the prosecutions against him are driven by politics despite no evidence that Biden or the White House ordered them.
February 20, 2024 5:09 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel has ordered new evacuations from parts of Gaza City, an indication it still faces stiff resistance in areas it said were cleared weeks ago. UNICEF meanwhile says one in six children are acute malnourished in the isolated and largely devastated north of the territory, where the city is located. The report finds deepening misery across the territory, where Israel’s air and ground offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, has killed over 29,000 Palestinians, obliterated entire neighborhoods and displaced more than 80% of the population. Israel has vowed to expand the offensive to the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge.
February 20, 2024 5:08 am
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Tucker Carlson asked Vladimir Putin about his reasons for invading Ukraine two years ago, Putin gave him a lecture on Russian history. The 71-year-old Russian leader spent more than 20 minutes showering baffled Carlson with dates and names going back to the 9th century. Carlson admitted after the interview that a history lecture in response to a straightforward question about one’s political motives “shocked” him. But in Russia, history has become a propaganda tool. Authorities have sought to magnify the country’s past victories while glossing over the more sordid chapters of its history. They’ve rewritten textbooks, funded exhibitions and suppressed voices that contradicted their narrative.
February 20, 2024 4:57 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing another $5.8 billion for water infrastructure projects nationwide, paid for by one of the Biden administration’s key legislative victories. Appearing in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Harris says clean water is a right and a way to protect public health. The $5.8 billion will pay for projects in all 50 states, bringing the total awarded for water infrastructure projects to $22 billion. It comes from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law that President Joe Biden signed in 2021. Harris was joined in Pittsburgh by and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan. Regan says clean water is essential.
February 20, 2024 4:53 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Federal regulators are about to announce what they believe caused a bridge to collapse in Pittsburgh more than two years ago, sending vehicles plummeting into a ravine and injuring several people. The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to vote Wednesday on the results of its investigation into the January 2022 collapse of the Forbes Avenue bridge over Fern Hollow Creek. The bridge’s collapse dropped a bus and four cars about 100 feet on the day President Joe Biden visited Pittsburgh to promote spending on infrastructure. A new bridge at the site opened to traffic in December 2022.
