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Texas Rep. Kay Granger won’t seek reelection in 2024 after nearly 30 years in Congress

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — U.S. Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, the Republican chairwoman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday she will not seek reelection in 2024 after nearly three decades in Congress.Granger, 80, is the nation’s longest-serving GOP congresswoman and was first elected in 1996. Her district, which includes Fort Worth, is heavily Republican and is likely to remain out of reach for Democrats next yea r. “It’s time for the next generation to step up and take the mantle and be a strong and fierce representative for the people,” Granger said in a statement. Her decision ends a barrier-breaking career that included serving as Fort Worth’s first female mayor and Texas’ first GOP congresswoman. Her district includes a Lockheed Martin plant that builds the F-35 fighter jet, and over the years, she has been a key force in securing more military funding.Granger was among the Republicans who opposed Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid to become Hou...

Denmark drops cases against former defense minister and ex-spy chief charged with leaking secrets

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish prosecution dismissed Wednesday two separate cases against a former defense minister and an ex-head of the country’s foreign intelligence service due to the inability to divulge classified information in court. Both were charged with leaking state secrets,Last week, Denmark’s highest court ruled that the two cases which have been shrouded in secrecy, should be made public and sessions were to be closed off whenever sensitive information was presented.In a statement, Denmark’s prosecution authority said that “in the interests of the state’s security, it is no longer safe to make highly classified information available in criminal proceedings.” Prosecutor Jakob Berger Nielsen said in the statement that the legal process would have forced “the disclosure of confidential information.” Former defense minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen, 76, had in several interviews in 2020 and 2021, alleged that the Danish Defense Intelligence Service — which is responsibl...

Prosecutor cites ‘pyramid of deceit’ in urging jury to convict FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In a closing argument, a prosecutor told a New York jury Wednesday to follow overwhelming evidence and the “pyramid of deceit” that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried constructed to conclude he’s guilty of defrauding his customers and investors of at least $10 billion.Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos launched a day of closings in Manhattan federal court by saying Bankman-Fried was at fault for stealing billions of dollars from investors worldwide despite four days of testimony in which Bankman-Fried insisted that he was unaware that his customers’ deposits were at risk until weeks before his companies collapsed.“He told a story and he lied to you,” Roos told jurors just a day after Bankman-Fried concluded his testimony at the monthlong trial.The prosecutor said Bankman-Fried wanted jurors to believe that he had no idea what was happening at his companies or what was happening was wrong, but that his words conflicted with the testimony of his fellow executives, h...

Montreal police arrest 17 people for alleged real estate fraud worth over $5 million

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

Montreal police say they’ve arrested 17 people in connection with an alleged real estate fraud scheme worth more than $5 million.Police say members of the alleged fraud ring used fake IDs to borrow against the value of five properties they didn’t own.They say the fake IDs were used to sign legal documents and open bank accounts in the names of the real owners. The financing — obtained from private lenders — was withdrawn soon after it was deposited in the bank accounts.Police say the real owners of the properties have found themselves tied to mortgages they never took out and the lenders have lost all the money they lent out.The seven women and 10 men are expected to appear in a Montreal court today where they could face charges including fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and possession of property obtained by crime, depending on their alleged level of involvement in the scheme. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2023. The Canadian Press

Libya’s eastern government holds conference on reconstruction of coastal city destroyed by floods

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — An international conference on reconstruction of one of Libya’s coastal cities, decimated in a fatal flood in September, began Wednesday, one of Libya’s rival governments announced.In the early hours of Sept. 11, two dilapidated dams in the mountains above the eastern city of Derna collapsed, sending floodwaters roaring down the Wadi Derna river and through the city center, sweeping away entire city blocks. Government officials and aid agencies have given estimated death tolls ranging from more than 4,000 to over 11,000.The two-day conference marks a tentative step toward the rebuilding of the city, with a total of 400 participants convening in Derna on Wednesday and in Benghazi on Thursday, Libya’s eastern government said. Most of the attendees are representatives from international delegations or companies specializing in infrastructure development and housing, the government said in an online statement.The oil rich country has been divided between rival g...

Bulgaria expels Russian journalist as an alleged threat to national security

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria has expelled a Russian journalist for allegedly engaging in activities that pose a threat to the country’s national security, authorities said Wednesday.The State Agency for National Security said Alexander Gatsak, a correspondent for Russian state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, was stripped of his residency rights and barred from entering Bulgaria and other European Union member nation.The agency said Gatsak was summoned Sept. 29 to receive the expulsion order at the Interior Ministry migration office, but he did not show up and instead took refuge inside the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia.The agency said in a statement that it sought the assistance of the Foreign Ministry and the journalist left Bulgaria on Wednesday. The statement did not elaborate on Gatsak’s alleged activities but said his removal was carried out in strict compliance with European democratic norms and values.“The agency’s actions are aimed at pr...

Trump tells judge in fraud case to leave his children alone

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

(The Hill) - Former President Trump wrote a social media post Wednesday railing against the judge overseeing his New York civil fraud case and told him to leave his children alone. He also argued that there is enough evidence for the case to be thrown out.“This Rigged Trial, brought by the Racist New York State A.G. Letitia James before Trump and developer Hating Judge, Arthur Engoron, which should have never been brought in that the so-called STAR WITNESS, SleazeBag Lawyer (for many people) Michael Cohen, admitted last week on the stand that he LIED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referencing his former personal lawyer.“Therefore, on that fact alone, this Fake Case should be dismissed,” he added.The former president claimed in his post that the financial statements from his businesses were actually lower than the true value — contrary to some of the testimony presented in the trial. He also reiterated the defense’s argument that there was a "disclaimer clause" on the statements and ...

North Dakota woman accused of fatally poisoning boyfriend over $30 million inheritance

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

MINOT, ND (KXNET) – A woman accused of fatally poisoning her boyfriend in North Dakota may have been hoping to steal his sizeable inheritance, according to new details.Ina Thea Kenoyer, 47, was arrested Monday and charged with Class AA felony murder in connection with the September death of a 51-year-old Minot man.An arrest affidavit indicated that the boyfriend, identified by Minot police as Steven Edward Riley Jr., was in line to inherit over $30 million and was planning to leave Kenoyer, whom he had been dating for about 10 years.On Sept. 3, Riley had planned to meet a lawyer at an airport to finalize the transaction, according to the affidavit. Kenoyer and many of the man's friends accompanied him to the airport, but friends began to notice his health rapidly decline and him acting as though he were drunk despite not drinking any alcohol, the documents said. He also experienced stomach pain and began having trouble walking.Friends say they tried to get Riley medical treatment, b...

What's Brad Underwood looking forward to from Illinois basketball in 2023-2024

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

CHICAGO — Over the past few seasons, he's helped return the program to the top of the Big Ten conference. In 2021, Illinois won the Big Ten Men's Basketball tournament and then next year got a share of the regular season championship for the first time since 2005. After the program missed the NCAA Tournament for nearly a decade, they've gone to the "Big Dance" the last three seasons. Now Brad Underwood is hoping Illinois takes its next step toward the program's first national championship with a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, something that's escaped the Illini so far in his tenure at the school.That journey in 2023-2024 included an exhibition game win over No. 1 Kansas on Sunday, but really begins on Monday when they open the season against Eastern Illinois at the State Farm Center. Before that happens, Underwood joined GN Sports to talk about what's ahead for the team with Jarrett Payton. You can watch that conversation from the October 31 show in the video above.

60 years later, new documentary colorizes JFK's final hours

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:07:13 GMT

DALLAS (The Hill) — Nearly 60 years after his shocking death on a November day in Dallas, Texas, the story of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination is being newly told in vivid color by some of the figures who lived through it. The aim of “JFK: One Day in America,” says producer Charlotte Rodrigues about the three-part series premiering Sunday on National Geographic and streaming the following day on Hulu and Disney+, is to experience the moments in time leading up to and following Kennedy’s death by seeing it “through [witnesses’] eyes in a very visceral and a very emotional way.” The documentary, from the same team that created the Emmy Award-winning “One Day in America” franchise focused on the Sep. 11, 2001, terror attacks, utilizes archival footage from 1963 that was colorized for the first time. “We wanted to be able to present the theories and the subject matter to a younger audience and bring it to life in a different way that hadn't been seen before,” said Ale...