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Through the roof: Home mortgage rate hits 20-year high at 7.09%

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

The average 30-year home loan has hit a 20-year high slamming the door shut on some would-be homebuyers.The rate is now at 7.09% — up from 6.96% last week and 5.13% this time last year.It’s connected, in part, to the  Federal Reserve’s seemingly never-ending rate hikes to cool inflation, but the approach is hurting both buyers and home sellers. With mortgage rates so high, nobody wants to move now.“It’s ill-advised to keep raising rates,” said UMass Amherst economics professor emeritus David Kotz. “The Fed ought to ease up.”Kotz told the Herald Thursday there’s not enough supply of housing and the economic stresses of the pandemic and war in Ukraine have shifted.He called the Fed’s rate hikes a “painful tool” that should be put away.High inflation drove the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate 11 times since March 2022, lifting the fed funds rate to the highest level in 22 years.Now mortgage lend...

Nets 2023-24 schedule: Brooklyn hosts Donovan Mitchell, Cavs on opening night, faces 14 back-to-backs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

The Nets’ 2023-24 regular-season schedule is finally here.The Nets will open their season at home against Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at Barclays Center. They will then embark on a four-game road trip — at Dallas, Charlotte, Miami and Chicago — before returning to the borough for a hellacious, early-season three-game homestand against the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers.Three bona fide championship contenders to test the Nets in the opening weeks of the season.Of the Nets’ first 19 games of the season, four will be In-Season Tournament Group Play games that determine the seeding for the NBA’s new In-Season Tournament: Nov. 3 against the Chicago Bulls, Nov. 10 in Boston against the Celtics, Nov. 14 at home against the Orlando Magic, and Nov. 28 in Brooklyn against the Toronto Raptors.The In-Season Tournament Knockout Rounds stretch from Dec. 4-9.The Nets do not play on Christmas Day, Christm...

West Kelowna, B.C., declares state of emergency over encroaching wildfire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

WEST KELOWNA, B.C. — A threatening wildfire has prompted a local state of emergency for the City of West Kelowna, B.C., and part of the nearby Westbank First Nation as fire crews prepare for the “most challenging” few days of the season in the province. Central Okanagan Emergency Operations has also placed 68 properties on evacuation order and another 5,700 properties on alert due to the nearby McDougall Creek wildfire, which grew to three square kilometres in a matter of hours after it started on Wednesday. Cliff Chapman, director of the BC Wildfire Service, said at a news conference that they were seeing extreme behaviour by the fire that is just a few kilometres away from the community. “We rarely see that type of fire behaviour, you know, pre-breakfast time in B.C., and we’re seeing it today and we’re going to see it continue through today,” he said during a news conference on Thursday. Most of the southern half of the province has been baking...

Twila Kilgore tapped as interim coach for US women’s national soccer team

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

Twila Kilgore will serve as interim coach of the U.S. women’s national soccer team following the resignation of coach Vlatko Andonovski, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced on Thursday. Kilgore, the first American-born woman to earn U.S. Soccer’s top-level Pro License, was an assistant under Andonovski for 1 1/2 years and will lead the team while a search for a permanent coach is conducted. Andonovski’s resignation comes less than two weeks after the United States was knocked out of the Women’s World Cup earlier than ever before.“While we are all disappointed by the outcome at this year’s World Cup, I am immensely proud of the progress this team has made, the support they’ve shown for each other, and the inspiration they’ve provided for players around the world. I will be forever thankful to the U.S. Soccer Federation for giving me the chance to coach this remarkable team,” Andonovski said in a statement. Previously, Kilgore was an assistant coach with the Houston...

District attorney drops at least 30 cases that involved officers charged in death of Tyre Nichols

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A district attorney in Tennessee said Thursday that his office has dropped 30 to 40 cases involving the five former officers who have been charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of Tyre Nichols.In a statement, Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy’s spokesperson also said charges were reduced in about a dozen other cases involving the former Memphis Police officers. Four cases were referred to the U.S. attorney’s office for allegations of excessive force, the district attorney’s office added.The decisions follow a review by Mulroy’s office of about 100 cases shared among the officers.“DA Mulroy cites that the dismissals came down to the lack of credibility from the five officers since the charges,” Mulroy’s spokesperson, Erica Williams, said in the statement.Caught on police video, the beating of the 29-year-old Nichols was one in a string of violent encounters between police and Black people that sparked ...

Brazilian hacker claims Bolsonaro asked him to hack into the voting system ahead of 2022 vote

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian hacker claimed at a congressional hearing Thursday that then-President Jair Bolsonaro wanted him to hack into the country’s electronic voting system to expose its alleged weaknesses ahead of the 2022 presidential election.Walter Delgatti Neto did not provide any evidence for his claim to the parliamentary commission of inquiry. But his detailed testimony raises new allegations against the former far-right leader, who is being investigated for his role in the Jan. 8 riots in the capital city of Brasilia.Delgatti told lawmakers he met in person with Bolsonaro on Aug. 10, 2022, for between 90 minutes and two hours at the presidential residence. He said he told the leader he could not hack into the electronic voting system because it wasn’t connected to the internet.The Associated Press asked for comment from Bolsonaro’s lawyers, but they had not responded. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing. Bolsonaro’s political nemesis, leftist Luiz Inác...

Montreal Chinatown residents urge city to act against crime, drug use

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

MONTREAL — Residents of Montreal’s Chinatown say they’re feeling vulnerable and afraid because of rising crime and drug use in their neighbourhood, and they are urging the city to deploy more police to tackle the problem.A group of residents and merchants told a news conference Thursday they’re being exposed to acts of vandalism, harassment and violence as a result of an increase in drug trafficking and homelessness.John Liu, the priest at the local Chinese Catholic church, said he was kicked by a woman outside his church last month. His church doors have been vandalized, and parishioners have had their car mirrors smashed, he added.“Even our parishioners are afraid of going to church,” said Liu, who also manages an organization that helps seniors.Several residents and business owners at the news conference blamed a homeless shelter, opened during the COVID-19 pandemic, that they say has attracted drug dealers to the neighbourhood and has increased crim...

US escalates trade dispute with Mexico over limits on genetically modified corn

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. government said Thursday it is formally requesting a dispute settlement panel in its ongoing row with Mexico over its limits on genetically modified corn.Mexico’s Economy Department said it had received the notification and would defend its position. It claimed in a statement that “the measures under debate had no effect on trade,” and thus do not violate the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, known as the USMCA.The U.S. Trade Representatives Office, or USTR, objected to Mexico’s ban on GM corn for human consumption and plans to eventually ban it as animal feed. The USTR said in a statement that “Mexico’s measures are not based on science and undermine the market access it agreed to provide in the USMCA.”The panel of experts will now be selected and will have about half a year to study the complaint and release its findings. Trade sanctions could follow if Mexico is found to have violated the U.S.-Mexico Canada free trade agreem...

Dominican officials say it may take months to identify all 27 people killed in this week’s explosion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Authorities in the Dominican Republic said on Thursday that it could take months to identify all of the 27 victims who died in a powerful explosion near the country’s capital this week.The announcement came as friends and family keep trying to confirm whether their loved ones died in Monday’s explosion at a bakery in the city of San Cristobal, just west of Santo Domingo. Fifty-nine people were injured, with the majority of them still hospitalized.The explosion took place mid-afternoon in a bustling commercial area in the city center, filled with businesses, including a bank and a hardware store. An investigation is still underway as to what caused the explosion, and authorities have said they will hold accountable any business that was not operating properly. It took firefighters three days to extinguish the blaze, which officials said spread from the bakery to the hardware store next door, and then to a nearby furniture store.Only seven of t...

Officials 'reasonably confident' body recovered from Wilmette Harbor is swimmer who went missing Tuesday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:45:32 GMT

WINNETKA, Ill. — Officials said they are "reasonably confident" a body recovered Thursday afternoon from Wilmette Harbor is the body of a swimmer who went missing early Tuesday morning.The man's identity hasn't been confirmed yet by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. PREVIOUS: Search called in Winnetka for missing swimmer in Lake Michigan "We extended our condolences to his family and friends for their loss," a spokesperson for the Village of Winnetka said.The search for the man began early Tuesday morning after he and two others went swimming in Lake Michigan in Winnetka. Around 2:15 a.m., authorities were called after one of the men was pulled under the water and didn't resurface.Emergency personnel, including the U.S. Coast Guard, tried to launch a boat, but high waves made it too dangerous.They continued searching on Wednesday.