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Bakst: EPA targets Americans’ ability to choose their cars

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed tailpipe emission regulations for new cars, making it more difficult for Americans to buy gas-powered vehicles. The rule is part of an effort to transform how we live our daily lives, from how we get around town to what appliances we use in our kitchen, ostensibly to address climate change.The agency has stated that the rule could mean as much as 67% of all new cars sold in the country will be electric vehicles by 2032. To provide some context, despite receiving massive subsidies, EVs accounted for just 5.8% of all new vehicle sales in 2022. Less than 1% of all registered vehicles in 2021 were EVs.But through policies such as the EPA tailpipe rule and massive spending to entice EV production and purchase, the federal government is trying to fundamentally change the vehicle fleet, regardless of what consumers want. The end goal is to get rid of gas-powered vehicles, following in the footsteps of California, which is banning the sale of...

Pink eye could be sign you have COVID – what you should know

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

A common and relatively mild malady is yet another symptom people should watch for in the fight against COVID-19, experts say.Conjunctivitis — commonly known as pink eye and typically brought on by a virus, bacteria or allergies — can be a symptom of a COVID infection. And public health leaders are emphasizing the importance of taking note of the potential relationship between pink eye symptoms and the coronavirus as a new variant spreads.Here’s what to know about the connection between pink eye and COVID, what symptoms to watch for and when to seek treatment:Is pink eye a COVID symptom?“COVID conjunctivitis,” or pink eye, “is one of the ocular manifestations of the coronavirus,” per the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and it is a form of viral conjunctivitis.“There are reports in which conjunctivitis was the only sign of COVID-19,” the group says. “Other reports showed that the patients of COVID-19 developed conjunctivitis later in their course of disease after hospitalization.”...

Dear Abby: Wife furious she’s last to know about baby

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

Dear Abby: My son recently confided that his fiancee is pregnant with our first grandchild. He asked me not to share this information with my wife, his mother. He knew she would be upset because he was in the process of breaking up with his fiancee. I told him I would keep his confidence for a short while, but that he should please tell Mom soon.Two weeks went by before my son finally told his mom about the pregnancy. She was shocked. On the way home, she asked if I had known about it. Well, my life flashed before my eyes. I couldn’t lie, so I admitted I knew. She became furious with me and said I should have prepared her for this news and had thrown her under the bus. A big argument followed. Was I wrong to keep my son’s confidence? — In Retrospect in GeorgiaDear In Retrospect: No, you were not wrong. Because you were asked to keep this in confidence, it was not “your” news to share. Your adult son asked you to keep this to yourself, and it would have ...

Why did Oregon GOP senators stay home? A look at the tension

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — FOR MOVEMENT OVERNIGHT AT 1 A.M. EASTERNPartisan tensions in Oregon skyrocketed this week because Republican state senators didn’t show up to work on Wednesday, denying Democrats who control the chamber a quorum. The move cast doubt on planned votes on legislation about gun control, abortion rights and gender-affirming health care. Here’s what to know about where Republicans and Democrats are divided and what’s at stake.WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE OREGON LEGISLATURE?Republican state senators skipped a Senate floor session on Wednesday. According to the office of Democratic Senate President Rob Wagner, 10 Republicans and the chamber’s lone independent were absent. In Oregon, two-thirds of the state House and Senate members need to be present to conduct business — or 20 of the 30 current members. Currently, 17 senators are Democrats, 12 are Republicans and one is an independent.Two bills on gun control and access to abortion and gender-affirmi...

Artists to Russia: ‘Our Fire is Stronger Than Your Bombs’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. (AP) — As Ukrainian artists Jenya Polosina and Anna Ivanenko watched missiles descend on their country, the two decided to use their creativity to push back against Russia’s invasion. Working in the early days of the war from bunkers or sometimes without electricity and water in Kyiv, they and other artists started drawing. Some of their war posters are now on display in New Hampshire. In the exhibit entitled “Our Fire is Stronger Than Your Bombs,” posters from Ivanenko show children studying in a bomb shelter and Ukrainians fleeing the country soon after the war started. Polosina’s drawings celebrate a female gymnast and a young mathematician who were killed in missile strikes.“We understood that it’s a good pill, a good medicine for not panicking, for keeping yourself together. So, we started drawing,” Ivanenko told The Associated Press from the studio in Kyiv she shares with Polosina. They are among eight artists who contributed 20 posters to the...

Taiwan trade chief warns against ‘unnecessary fear’ of China

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taiwan’s chief trade representative says his country’s semiconductor makers will expand production in the U.S. as much as they can afford to do so, but he insists Taiwan remains an ideal place for that production and other U.S. trade, business and investment, despite tensions with China.John Chen-Chung Deng spoke to The Associated Press on a visit this week to Washington, where he is leading a Taiwanese trade delegation and meeting with U.S. trade officials.Deng’s visit comes at a time of intensifying efforts to harden the U.S. and Taiwanese militaries and economies against any threat from rival China. As part of this, President Joe Biden and Congress are moving to boost semiconductor production on U.S. soil in the event of any conflict disrupting exports from Asia, especially from Taiwan. Semiconductors make electronics ranging from phones to electric cars to advanced weapons run, and Taiwan produces more than 90% of the world’s more advanc...

Lula’s gun control push starts with counting Brazil’s guns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — Jonathan Schmidt arrived at Federal Police headquarters in the center of Rio de Janeiro with a travel bag carrying a golden pistol and seven rifles, one peeking out of the zipper.“I’m in love with guns,” said Schmidt. “I’d have over 2,000 if the government allowed.” Schmidt already has his firearms registered with the army, as required by law for sport shooters like him, but experts have cast doubt on the reliability of its database, and said lax oversight has allowed such guns to fall into criminal hands. Schmidt was adding his guns to the police registry on Wednesday to comply with a push by Brazil’s new left-wing president.Over four years in office, former President Jair Bolsonaro tried to convert a country with few weapons into one where firearm ownership and lack of regulation meant personal freedom. Now, his successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been moving to undo Bolsonaro’s pro-gun policies, and that starts with requiring gun owners to registe...

Ban social media for kids? Fed-up parents in Senate say yes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Katie Britt says she hears about it constantly when she is at home in Alabama — at school track meets, basketball tournaments and on her regular morning walks with friends. And when she was running for the Senate last year, Britt says, “parent after parent” came up to her wanting to discuss the way social media was harming their kids.Britt also navigates the issue in her own home, as the mother of a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old.“Enough is enough,” says Britt, a Republican who last week introduced bipartisan legislation with three other senators — all parents of young children and teenagers — to try and better protect children online. “The time to act is now.”Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, too, deals with it firsthand as a father to an 11-year-old and 14-year-old. Murphy says he’s seen the upsides to social media, like connection during the pandemic and silly videos that bring them joy. But he’s also seen the downsides, including children he knows who he says ...

Wisconsin judge to hear first arguments in abortion lawsuit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge was set to hear arguments Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the state’s 174-year-old abortion ban, a statute held in abeyance for nearly five decades until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year.State Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit in Dane County circuit court last June seeking to repeal the ban. Kaul argues that the 1849 law is so old it was essentially adopted without the people’s consent; or alternately, that narrower restrictions on abortion enacted in Wisconsin in 1985 supersede the older statute. The 1985 legislation permits terminating pregnancies up until a fetus can survive outside the womb, while the older law outlawed abortion except to save the mother’s life. Kaul initially sued Republican legislators but later dropped them from the case and named three district attorneys as defendants, seeking to prohibit them from enforcing the ban. Thursday’s hearing before Circuit Judge Di...

This May the Fourth, Carrie Fisher gets Walk of Fame star

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:20:42 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Carrie Fisher is receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a May the Fourth tribute to one of the “Star Wars” franchise’s most beloved figures.On Thursday, Fisher — who died in 2016 — joins “Star Wars” co-stars Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill on the Hollywood tourist attraction that recognizes luminaries from film, television, music and other entertainment industries. The trio’s stars are all located on the 6,800 block of Hollywood Boulevard, near where the original film debuted in 1977.Fisher played Leia Organa, who over six films morphed from a princess to a general leading the forces of good in its fight against oppressive regimes aiming to control a galaxy far, far away. Billie Lourd will be accepting the star on behalf of her mother.Fans have long campaigned for her to receive a Walk of Fame star. The honor comes on May the Fourth, essentially an official holiday for Star Wars fans that’s a play on a line that Fisher said often in the fi...