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Banks crank up credit standards amid failures

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

WASHINGTON — A Federal Reserve report Monday showed that banks raised their lending standards for business and consumer loans in the aftermath of three large bank failures and expect to lift them more this year, a trend that could slow the economy in coming months and increases the risk of a recession.The report, known as the senior loan officers survey, asked banks if they have tightened their lending standards by taking steps such as demanding higher credit scores, charging higher interest rates, or requiring more collateral, among other steps, that altogether would make it harder for businesses and consumers to obtain loans.About 46% of all banks said they had raised standards for business loans known as commercial and industrial loans, up from just under 45% in the previous quarter. That increase was not as dramatic as in previous quarters, but banks were tightening credit before the bank failures. A year ago, slightly more banks were easing credit standards than raising them. N...

Lawsuit claims debt limit on spending already authorized by Congress unconstitutional 

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

A lawsuit filed a day before a high stakes meeting between President Biden and congressional leaders claims the debt limit set by Congress is unconstitutional when applied to spending already authorized by lawmakers.The legal action, filed in Federal Court in Boston by a union of government employees, targets Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Biden to try to stop them from complying with the law that limits the government’s total debt.The suit, filed by the National Association of Government Employees, says that if Yellen abides by the debt limit once it becomes binding, possibly next month, she would have to choose which federal obligations to actually pay.But under the Constitution, the lawsuit argues, the president and Treasury secretary have no authority to decide which payments to make because the Constitution grants spending power to Congress. Doing so, it contends, would violate the Constitution’s separation of powers.“Nothing in the Constitution or any ju...

New taco 'playground' coming to Ocean Beach this summer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Tacos are about as fundamental to San Diego culture as the beach is. But this summer, beloved Mexican food spot City Tacos is about to take the region's taco craze to the next level: with a taco "playground."The new 10,000 square-foot City Tacos playground concept in Ocean Beach will be a place that combines delicious tacos with a space designed for laid-back fun, in true San Diego fashion.This will be the seventh San Diego County location for the award-winning Mexican eatery. The first location opened in North Park on May 5, 2014."Extending my footprint into OB really is a testament to the great people of San Diego," founder Gerry Torres said in a release. "Their passion for City Tacos means more City Tacos.”The new location will be right in the heart of Ocean Beach, situated only a few blocks from the Dusty Rhodes Park. The playground will feature a courtyard with a variety of seating options, as well as a gated dog park with tables.Murals from a dozen local artists w...

1 adult injured in shooting at Las Vegas middle school

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — An adult was shot and injured Monday afternoon at a middle school in suburban Las Vegas, but law enforcement officials said they did not believe there was any further threat to the school as their search for the shooter continued.The shooting was reported just before 12:40 p.m. at Ed Von Tobel Middle School, according to a statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. No students were injured in the shooting.In a letter sent to parents shortly after the shooting, the school’s principal said all students were safe in their classrooms after one person was struck by gunfire on campus but outside the school building.The middle school located about a 15-minute drive northeast of the Las Vegas Strip was placed on lockdown for about an hour while police cleared the campus. The person who was shot was taken to a hospital, although police did not describe the extent of their injuries. Police also have not said whether the person who was shot was a school...

Rangers search for two overdue mountain climbers in Alaska

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Alaska (AP) — Aerial and limited ground searches were underway Monday in Alaska for two overdue mountain climbers whose last known tracks disappeared at the site of an avalanche, officials said.Eli Michel, 34, of Columbia City, Indiana, and Nafiun Awal, 32, of Seattle, were last known to be near Moose’s Tooth, a 10,300-foot (3,140-meter) mountain in Ruth Gorge, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) southeast of Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, officials said in a statement.The two last checked with friends via a satellite communication device on Friday morning, when they said they were planning to climb the West Ridge route along Moose’s Tooth.Their friends contacted park mountaineering rangers in nearby Talkeetna on Sunday when they hadn’t heard again from the climbers.Rangers on Sunday found the climbers’ unattended tent and ski tracks heading to the base of the route. There, they found the climbers’ skis, left behind when they apparently...

‘Risk it all’: Migration rises ahead of end to asylum rules

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Under a set of white tents at the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, dozens of Venezuelan men waited. Some sat on curbs and others leaned on metal barricades. When the gates eventually opened, the long line of men filed slowly up the pedestrian pathway to the bridge and across the Rio Grande River to Mexico.In the past few weeks, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have been facilitating these expulsions three times a day as roughly 30,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have entered the U.S. in this region since mid-April. That’s compared with 1,700 migrants Border Patrol agents encountered in the first two weeks of April.In the other end of the state, in El Paso, officials are dealing with another increase of migrants and worry that thousands more are waiting to cross.All this comes as the U.S. is preparing for the end of a policy linked to the coronavirus pandemic that allowed it to quickly expel many migrants, and it spotlights co...

As Trump probes intensify, foes of ex-president see opening

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — An investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents has intensified in recent weeks, with prosecutors summoning a broad range of witnesses before a federal grand jury and zeroing in on questions of whether the former president or others obstructed government efforts to recover the records.It remains unclear when the investigation led by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith might end or whether Trump might face charges over documents found at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate. But as probes in Washington and Atlanta proceed, Republican critics of Trump see an opportunity for intensifying legal woes to knock him off his frontrunner mantle in the 2024 presidential race in a way that an earlier indictment in New York failed to do.The ongoing investigations “are the ones that have the meat,” said Bobbie Kilberg, a longtime Republican donor who has become a vocal Trump critic. ”It’s very, very serious,” she said. “It ought to hav...

Jury hears final arguments in writer’s claims against Trump

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump should be held accountable for sexually attacking an advice columnist in 1996 because even a former president is not above the law, a lawyer for the columnist told a jury Monday in closing arguments in the lawsuit that accuses Trump of rape.A lawyer for Trump responded by calling the accuser’s account “unbelievable” and “outrageous.”Once the final arguments were complete, the judge sent the jury home with instructions to return Tuesday to hear about an hour of instructions before beginning deliberations. Jurors will be asked to decide whether Trump committed battery and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll and whether damages should be awarded.In recapping Carroll’s case, attorney Roberta Kaplan showed jurors video clips of Trump from his October deposition and replayed the “Access Hollywood” video from 2005 in which Trump said into a hot mic that celebrities can grab women’s genitals without asking.Kaplan recalled Trump’s c...

3 boys violently carjacked elderly person, used stolen vehicle in pharmacy robbery: police

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

Toronto police say three boys between the ages of 14 and 17 violently carjacked an elderly person, then used the stolen vehicle in an armed pharmacy robbery the next day before crashing it into a pole while trying to flee.The wild scenario that ultimately led to their arrests began on Thursday, May 4, when police responded to a call for a person with a gun in the Finch Avenue West and Weston Road area.That’s where police say an elderly person was sitting in their vehicle and was approached by the trio.Police say one of the suspects pointed a gun at the victim, demanding their keys.The suspects proceeded to pull the victim out of the vehicle, ripping their shirt and removing their necklace during the struggle.The next day officers from York Region responded to a robbery call in the Hwy. 7 and Marycroft Avenue area where police say the same three suspects attended a pharmacy in the vehicle stolen the previous day.“Two of the suspects entered, went behind the pharmaceutical...

Illinois moves toward gender inclusivity as others move away

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:39 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois bills that would update existing laws to be more gender inclusive and add protections for LGBTQ marriages are ready for action by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said he will sign them.The trio of state bills passed last week are meant to move the state in the “opposite direction” of those restricting LGBTQ youth, said Sen. Mike Simmons, the bills’ sponsor and the first and only current “out” LGBTQ lawmaker in the Illinois Senate.Illinois is one of several U.S. states that have moved to counteract a surge of anti-LGBTQ legislation in mostly Republican-led states.On the same day just a few hours away, Indiana’s governor signed a bill that will require schools to notify a parent if a student requests a name or pronoun change at school, one of several bills this legislative session targeting LGBTQ people in the state. Illinois’ neighbors to the west, Missouri and Iowa, have gone in a similar direction by restricting gender-affirming care and the bathrooms transgender st...