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McCaughey: China in control of Americans’ medications

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

Democrats and Republicans battered TikTok’s CEO at a House of Representatives hearing last week — for good reason. The Chinese app poses a national security risk, accumulating troves of data on its American users. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s comment that “I don’t think spying is the right way to describe it,” only heightened concerns.Too bad another Chinese threat — bigger and more immediate — isn’t getting the same attention. China has a chokehold on our medication supply chain. Beijing controls many — in some cases, all — active ingredients for the remedies in our medicine chests, the drugs used in emergency rooms and even antibiotics administered to soldiers on the battlefield.The med bottles in your cabinet don’t say “Made in China,” but nearly all are, including 97% of U.S. antibiotics, by some estimates.In a tense situation, Beijing could simply cut off shipments of antibiotics, cancer drugs and other meds, forcing the U.S. t...

Antoni: Debt ceiling could prevent the next banking crisis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

With the collapse of several banks in the last few weeks, many fear that their deposits aren’t safe and another financial crisis is looming. Worse, the fight in Washington over raising the debt ceiling threatens to strain the system still more. These two issues may seem worlds apart, but both flow from the same source: excessive government spending.Beginning in 2020, Congress suspended the debt ceiling limit on government borrowing and began spending trillions of dollars that it didn’t have – and that was atop the existing budget deficit. Like a family living beyond its means and running up credit-card debt, the government borrowed the money by selling bonds.But the government not only borrowed trillions, it printed that much money at the same time. To prevent the new government bonds from crowding out private borrowing and driving up interest rates in a recession, the Federal Reserve essentially created the money for the government.But this flood of new money caused inflation and e...

Ali Wong, Steven Yeun are riled up in Netflix’s ‘Beef’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

Ali Wong and Steven Yeun co-star in “Beef,” Netflix’s wild and wooly road rage series. Surprisingly both Wong and the show’s creator and showrunner Lee Sung Jin have experienced the phenomenon themselves.“When I was 16 years old,” Wong, 40, recalled during a virtual discussion, “this guy was drunk and I don’t know why he was angry at me all of a sudden.  But he was so angry he did pull up on the driver’s side, in the lane that was going the opposite side of traffic, and looked me in the eye in his truck and then he was screaming at me. He threw all sorts of expletives at me. All I could focus on was losing him.“But,” she concluded with a laugh, “I don’t think that influenced my performance.”“Mine was a typical road rage thing,” Lee, 38, said, “where the light turned green and I didn’t go fast enough and he honked at me, said a bunch of things, and raced off.“For some reason that day I was ‘I’ll follow you!’ I didn’t really have a plan. In my mind I was justifying it, like I’m on my ...

Padres fans set new attendance record at Petco Park opening weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego really showed up for the Padres during opening weekend.A record-breaking number of Padres fans flocked to Petco Park this weekend for the team's opening series against the Colorado Rockies, the ballpark announced Sunday night.Approximately 174,915 fans were in attendance during the opening four-game series, setting a new high for the total number of fans in Petco Park for a four game series. A bit of luck: Padres pride in full bloom at this Del Mar garden Petco Park, which has a capacity of 42,445, was jam-packed with fans during each game of the series, some of which were practically sold-out on Ticketmaster.The excitement for the Padres this year is palpable across the county, with demand for tickets that the team has described as "unprecedented."Earlier this year, season ticket memberships had to be capped for the first time in team history due to fans clamoring for the packages offered -- all stoked for to watch the Friars try again for the team's first ...

‘Son of a Sinner’ Jelly Roll reigns at CMT Music Awards show

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — “Son of a Sinner” singer Jelly Roll was the big winner at the CMT Music Awards, as the rapper-turned-country singer took home three awards on Sunday as an outsider who won over fans with his confessional songs. The tattooed singer got emotional during the show in Austin, Texas, which aired on CBS, as he thanked the country radio industry for its acceptance and shouted out to those who felt like him. “You can be whatever you want to be. I promise you that. I told them that I wanted to be a country singer and I am standing here at the CMT Awards with the male video of the year, baby,” he shouted.Earlier in the night, he brought a choir out for his prayer-themed song “Need a Favor” and got the crowd to raise their hands to the roof. The show started off with a somber tone as country singer and co-host Kelsea Ballerini read off the names of six victims of a school shooting killed Monday in Nashville, Tennessee. She noted how she shared their pain, explaining that...

Oil prices soar on producer output cuts; Asian shares mixed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices soared more than 5% after Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers said they will cut production by 1.15 million barrels per day from May until the end of the year. Shares in Asia were mixed on Monday and the dollar rose against the Japanese yen. U.S. benchmark crude oil rose $4.14 to $79.81 per barrel, or 5.5%, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose $1.30 to $75.67 per barrel on Friday, ahead of the weekend meeting where members of the so-called OPEC+ group of oil exporting countries decided on the cuts, which are in addition to a reduction announced last October that infuriated the Biden administration. The cuts immediately pushed prices higher and were expected to also lead to higher gas prices, adding to strains in many countries where high fuel prices are a heavy burden. Higher oil prices also will complicate the efforts by central banks to rein in inflation. “This will create both political waves across Europe and even hi...

Trump faces setbacks in other probes as NY case proceeds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump faces the most urgent legal challenge of his life this week in New York, where he’s set to be arraigned Tuesday on charges arising from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign. But as much of the attention will be on the courthouse in lower Manhattan, investigations from Atlanta to Washington will press forward, underscoring the broad range of peril he confronts as he seeks to reclaim the presidency. The vulnerability Trump faces in Washington alone has become clear over the past month, as judges in a succession of sealed rulings have turned aside the Trump team’s efforts to block grand jury testimony — including from his own lawyer and his former vice president — from witnesses who were, or still are, close to him and who could conceivably offer direct insight into key events.The rulings directing advisers and aides to testify don’t suggest that the Justice Department is close to bringing criminal charges, nor do they guara...

Immigration reform stalled decade after Gang of 8’s big push

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Ten years ago this month, Sen. Chuck Schumer declared, “We all know that our immigration system is broken, and it’s time to get to work on fixing it.” Sen. John McCain quoted Winston Churchill. But it was Lindsey Graham who offered the boldest prediction. “I think 2013 is the year of immigration reform,” the South Carolina Republican said.It wasn’t. And neither has any year since those “Gang of Eight” senators from both parties gathered in a Washington auditorium to offer hopeful pronouncements. In fact, today’s political landscape has shifted so dramatically that immigrant advocates and top architects of key policies over the years fear that any hope of am immigration overhaul seems further away than ever.Many Republicans now see calling for zero tolerance on the border as a way to animate their base supporters. Democrats have spent the last decade vacillating between stiffer border restrictions and efforts to soften and humanize immigration policy — exposing deep rift...

Members of Congress on TikTok defend app’s reach to voters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Jeff Jackson of North Carolina has used it to explain the complex fight over raising the debt limit. Rep. Robert Garcia of California has used it to engage with members of the LGBTQ+ community. And Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania has used it to give an overview of Election Day results. As pressure against TikTok mounts in Washington, the more than two dozen members of Congress — all Democrats — who are active on the social media platform are being pushed by their colleagues to stop using it. Many defend their presence on the platform, saying they have a responsibility as public officials to meet Americans where they are — and more than 150 million are on TikTok.“I’m sensitive to the ban and recognize some of the security implications. But there is no more robust and expeditious way to reach young people in the United States of America than TikTok,” Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota told The Associated Press. Yet the lawmakers active on TikTok remain a ...

Teen victim injured in violent Boyle Heights hit-and-run speaks out 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:13:59 GMT

Authorities are searching for a motorcyclist who severed the leg of a teenage boy during a violent hit-and-run Thursday in Boyle Heights.  An eighth grader at Hollenbeck Middle School, Joshua Mora, 13, was attempting to cross the street at the intersection of Whittier Boulevard and Orme Avenue just before 3:30 p.m. on Mar. 30 when the hit-and-run occurred, officials with the Los Angeles Police Department said. The impact severed the teen’s right leg.  The collision caused the motorcyclist, described as a white male, to slide “approximately 80 feet before stopping,” after which, he got back on his bike and sped off, leaving the injured boy lying in the road.   Mora, speaking to KTLA from his hospital bed at County USC Medical Center, said he will eventually need a prosthetic leg to get around. The teen also had this message for the motorcycle driver.  “I would’ve forgave him if he would’ve stopped and checked if I was okay because I know accidents happen if y...