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Hunter Biden will plead guilty in a deal that likely avoids time behind bars in a tax and gun case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has reached a deal with federal prosecutors on charges he failed to pay federal income tax and illegally possessed a weapon, according to a letter in U.S. District Court in Delaware, and will plead guilty to tax offenses but likely avoid time behind bars. Hunter Biden will plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as part of the agreement made public Tuesday. The agreement will spare him prosecution on a charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user if he adheres to conditions set by prosecutors. It is somewhat unusual to resolve a federal criminal case at the same time the charges are filed in court, though it is not totally unheard of.The deal ends a long-running Justice Department investigation into Biden’s second son, who has acknowledged struggling with addiction following the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden. It also averts a trial that would have gener...

Peter Jensen: Oriole’s players should be the next ‘Real Housewives’; bring reality TV to the MLB | COMMENTARY

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

. My most memorable experience in sports writing, which I’m no expert in, was helping cover Pete Rose when he surpassed Ty Cobb’s career base hits mark in 1985. I was a young reporter working for the now-defunct Cincinnati Post, and it was quite the jaw-dropping moment to walk into a real Major League Baseball locker room and ask questions of a legend like Rose. But I quickly learned something about baseball that everyone involved with the game no doubt takes for granted: The players were a bunch of kids. They acted like kids. They were excited by kid things. They had little awareness of the world around them, just about their game.Oh, they’d straighten up like they were in Sunday school for their on-camera moments with TV reporters or when the ballclub’s public relations staff dragged them to the podium to deal with the rest of the media. And their juvenilia wasn’t about chronological age. Rose was 44 years old on Sept. 11, 1985, when he officially rec...

Patriots cornerback Jack Jones pleads not guilty on weapons charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

Patriots cornerback Jack Jones pleaded not guilty to a medley of firearms-related charges and continues to be released on bail following his arraignment.Jones, 25, was arrested by Massachusetts State Police on Friday after they say two pistols were found in his carry-on bag as he was going through a TSA security checkpoint at Boston Logan International Airport, where MSP has jurisdiction, at around 5:30 p.m. He was planning to board a flight to Los Angeles, according to the initial TSA information of the incident which did not mention him by name.He was charged with two counts each of possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of an airport, possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm and possession of a large-capacity feeding device. He posted $30,000 cash bail.Jones appeared in municipal court in East Boston Tuesday morning with his attorney, Rosemary Scapicchio.Related Articles Will P...

Hunter Biden agrees to plea agreement on federal tax, gun charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, will plead guilty to tax crimes in a plea deal with prosecutors, and he reached a diversion agreement relating to unlawful possession of a weapon, according to court papers filed Tuesday.The plea deal, which must be accepted by a judge, likely would keep Hunter Biden out of jail.Biden, 53, has been under investigation for tax matters since 2018. He reportedly paid off his tax liability in 2020, a sum that surpassed $1 million.Biden was charged with two counts of willful failure to pay income tax. The third charge stems from possession of a firearm in 2018, a weapon he was in possession of while using crack cocaine. Biden denied drug use when applying to secure the gun.In a separate agreement on the gun charge, the president's son will be entered into a pretrial diversion program, meaning those charges are likely to be removed from his record if he complies with the terms of the program. “With the announcement of two agreements between my cli...

Belarus human rights activist gets 7-year prison term for work documenting police crackdown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Belarus convicted a prominent human rights activist Tuesday of “inciting social hatred” for her work documenting alleged police abuses against political opposition groups. The Minsk City Court sentenced Nasta Loika, 34 to seven years in prison. She rejected the charges as trumped up and said during her closed-door trial that police used an electroshock weapon on her during her arrest. Loika, who has spent nine months in custody, also said that she was once kept in the prison yard for eight hours without warm clothes in freezing winter temperatures and became gravely ill.She protested her treatment to the United Nations, and the U.N. human rights watchdog demanded last week that Belarusian authorities ensure her access to independent medical care.Loika’s prosecution came amid a relentless crackdown on dissent in Belarus, a Russian ally which President Alexander Lukashenko has led with an iron fist since 1994. Viasna, a Belarusian human rights ...

OSFI raises capital requirements for big banks to 3.5% amid higher debt levels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s financial regulator is raising the amount of capital the country’s major banks need to have on hand to cover potential losses as it says financial system vulnerabilities remain elevated and in some cases have continued to increase.The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said Tuesday that the domestic stability buffer will increase by half a percentage point to 3.5 per cent, effective Nov. 1.It follows a move in December by the regulator to increase the buffer by half a percentage point to three per cent.The federal regulator said current vulnerabilities facing the banking industry include high household and corporate debt levels, the rising cost of debt and increased global uncertainty around fiscal and monetary policy.Peter Routledge, the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, said households and companies remain highly indebted, making them more vulnerable to economic shocks. “At the same time, the Canadian financial sector...

Why haven’t China and the U.S. agreed to restore military contacts?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has wrapped up a closely watched visit to Beijing during which he and President Xi Jinping pledged to stabilize plunging U.S-China ties. But China refused the biggest U.S. request: restoring military-to-military contacts.Blinken said he raised the issue of military communications “repeatedly” but was rebuffed by the Chinese. “It is absolutely vital that we have these kinds of communications,” he said, adding that it was something the United States will “keep working on.”Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and President Joe Biden have called often over the past few months for China to reestablish military communication channels with the U.S.WHY DID CHINA HALT MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS?China suspended regular contacts with the U.S. military last August after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, challenging Beijing’s principle that other countries should refrain from official exchanges with self-governing Taiwan, whi...

Palestinian attacker opens fire at West Bank gas station, kills at least 4 people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian attacker opened fire at a gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank on Tuesday, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics said, as violence continued to roil the occupied territory.Israeli security forces said they shot the gunman and were still searching for other attackers near the Jewish settlement of Eli north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Palestinian media reported that the attacker’s driver had fled the scene.The condition of the attacker was not immediately clear. Photos circulated of a man lying bloodied and face-down in the street beside an automatic rifle.The Israeli rescue service said it had evacuated two seriously wounded men, ages 20 and 38, to nearby hospitals for treatment. It said that four more people were wounded at the scene, three of them unconscious. The identities of the victims were not immediately clear. Tuesday’s shooting followed a deadly Israeli military raid into the...

Supreme Court turns away veterans who seek disability benefits over 1966 hydrogen bomb accident

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal on behalf of some U.S. veterans who want disability benefits because they were exposed to radiation while responding to a Cold War-era hydrogen bomb accident in Spain.The justices not did comment in turning away an appeal from Victor Skaar, an Air Force veteran in his mid-80s.Skaar, of Nixa, Missouri, filed class-action claims seeking benefits for him and others who say they became ill from exposure to radiation during the recovery and cleanup of the undetonated bombs at the accident site in Palomares, a village in southern Spain, in 1966.A federal appeals court rejected the class-action claims. The Supreme Court’s action leaves that ruling in place.The Justice Department, arguing against high-court review, noted that Congress last year enacted legislation that expands eligibility for benefits for many Palomares veterans. But the department also acknowledged that Skaar is not covered by the legislation.SkaarR...

Electric vehicle maker Rivian to join Tesla charging network as automakers consider company’s plug

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:22 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Electric vehicle maker Rivian says it will follow General Motors and Ford and join Tesla’s charging network next year.The startup truck, SUV and delivery van maker says Tuesday that like GM and Ford, it will include ports with Tesla’s connector on future Rivian vehicles starting in 2025. It also will offer an adapter for owners of current Rivian EVs.It is another domino to fall as the auto industry considers switching to Tesla’s connector, which it calls the North American Charging Standard. At present, nearly all automakers other than Tesla use what is called a CCS connector developed with the Society of Automotive Engineers.Tesla has more direct current fast-charging plugs in the U.S. than any other network, and its stations are in prime locations along freeway travel corridors.Other automakers also are looking into the switch. Last week, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said his company’s U.S. teams are studying the change and will make a decision in...