Author: admin

By STEPHEN GROVESWASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people, setting up potential passage in the final days of the lame-duck Congress.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he would begin the process for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people.Schumer said the bill would “ensure Americans are not erroneously denied their well-earned Social Security benefits simply because they chose at some point to work in…

President-elect Donald Trump will have a busy Day One given the many policies he has promised to implement immediately, but there is a possible day-one policy that has gotten more than usual attention. Trump has toyed with the idea of using an executive order to end birthright citizenship.That’s the policy that grants citizenship to anyone born on American soil, including the children of people here visiting or illegally. Typically, conservatives decry the misuse of executive orders and claim to be devoted adherents to the words of the U.S. Constitution, but apparently their principles are malleable when it comes to immigration.In…

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology WriterNearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly” despite concerns about the effects of social media and smartphones on their mental health, according to a new report published Thursday by the Pew Research Center.As in past years, YouTube was the single most popular platform teenagers used — 90% said they watched videos on the site, down slightly from 95% in 2022. Nearly three-quarters said they visit YouTube every day.There was a slight downward trend in several popular apps teens used. For instance, 63% of teens said they used TikTok, down from 67% and Snapchat…

A divorce battle that spanned 15 years between a Woodland Hills doctor and his ex-wife included financial and custody disputes as well as a series of restraining orders with claims of threats of violence, according to some of the court records reviewed by the Southern California News Group.Dr. Hamid Mirshojae was shot and killed on Aug. 23 while walking to his SUV from his Woodland Hills-based medical clinic. On Thursday, his ex-wife, 53-year-old Ahang Mirshojae, was among five people arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit his murder. She was being held without bail, police said.On Friday, the Los Angeles…

By DARLENE SUPERVILLEWASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is “so proud” that a women’s health research initiative he launched last year at his wife’s urging has already invested nearly $1 billion because a healthy female population improves U.S. prosperity.“That’s a fact,” he said in closing remarks at the first White House Conference on Women’s Health Research. “We haven’t gotten that through to the other team yet,” Biden said, referencing President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration.Trump’s three conservative nominees to the Supreme Court from his first term as president voted to overturn a woman’s constitutional right…

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (AP) — Freddie Freeman’s historic walk-off grand slam ball from Game 1 of the World Series has sold for $1.56 million at auction.The bidding at SCP Auctions went into the late hours of Saturday night, according to a statement from the auction house on Sunday. It didn’t say who bought the ball.Freeman, the Dodgers first baseman, came to the plate on a sprained right ankle with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning against the New York Yankees. He hit the first pitch from Nestor Cortes 413 feet for the first…

SACRAMENTO – The most telling sentence in a lengthy Wall Street Journal article about Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League educated scion of a prominent Maryland family who is suspected of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is surprisingly banal: “It wasn’t clear what dealings he had with health-insurance companies.”As Business Insider reported, Mangione complained about terrible back pain in social-media posts “and what he felt to be the healthcare system’s inadequate response.” None of those posts “blame UnitedHealthcare – or Thompson – for his health issues.” So we don’t know about his personal healthcare experiences, but it is clear from the handwritten…

Rachel Christian | (TNS) Bankrate.comJust because retirement planning involves some guesswork doesn’t mean it has to be a total mystery.Whether you’ve been saving since your first job or you’re getting a late start, you can leverage expert-recommended strategies to gauge your progress on the road to retirement. And if you’re not quite on track, don’t sweat it — the experts we spoke to offered actionable tips to help you close the gap.5 ways to tell if you’re on track for retirementYou might have a general idea of how much money you need to save for retirement. A few quick calculations…

Authorities on Friday were anticipating significant progress as fire crews continued to work to fully contain the Franklin fire in Malibu amid improving weather conditions. “The weather is expected to continue to be favorable with higher humidity and lower temperatures,” Chief Chris Thompson said Friday. “We’re expecting to get some really good progress on containment.” The blaze, pushed forward this week by strong Santa Ana winds, has scorched 4,000 acres in Malibu since it erupted on Dec. 9. It remained at 30% containment four days later. Despite stopping forward progress, there is quite a bit of smoldering in the interior,…

By MICHELLE L. PRICENEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange after being recognized for the second time by Time magazine as its person of the year.The honors for the businessman-turned-politician are a measure of Trump’s remarkable comeback from an ostracized former president who refused to accept his election loss four years ago to a president-elect who won the White House decisively in November.Before Trump rang the opening bell at 9:30 a.m., a first for the native New Yorker, he spoke at the exchange and called it “a tremendous honor.”President-elect Donald…