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Mortgage bite: Average rates hits 7.49%, highest since 2000

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

The cost of financing a home surged again this week as the average long-term mortgage rate climbed to its highest level since December 2000, further dimming the affordability outlook for many would-be homebuyers.The average rate on the 30-year home loan rose to 7.49% from 7.31% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.66%. The average rate  is now more than double what it was two years ago, when it was just 2.99%.Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loan, also increased. The average rate rose to 6.78% from 6.72% last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.90%, Freddie Mac said.The combination of elevated rates and low home inventory has worsened the affordability crunch by keeping home prices near all-time highs even as sales of previously occupied U.S. homes have plummeted 21% through the first eight months of this year versus the same stretch in 2022.Home loan applications fell to the l...

A man seeking Wisconsin’s governor illegally brought guns to the state Capitol – twice in one day

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A man illegally brought a loaded handgun into the Wisconsin Capitol, demanding to see Gov. Tony Evers, and returned at night with an assault rifle after posting bail, police said Thursday.The man, who was shirtless and had a holstered handgun, approached the governor’s office on the first floor of the Capitol around 2 p.m. Wednesday, state Department of Administration spokesperson Tatyana Warrick said. The 43-year-old man said “he would not leave until he saw Governor Evers” so he could talk about “domestic abuse towards men,” Capitol police said in a bulletin sent to lawmakers and their staffs.Evers was not in the building at the time, Warrick said.A Capitol police officer sits at a desk outside of a suite of rooms that includes the governor’s office, conference room and offices for the attorney general. The man was taken into custody for openly carrying a firearm in the Capitol, which is against the law, Warrick said. Weapons can be brought into th...

Ramaswamy says protesters slammed a car into his vehicle while he was campaigning in Iowa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says protesters in Iowa slammed a car into his vehicle while he was campaigning in the early voting state Thursday.“Had a civil exchange with protestors today, right before two of them then got into their car & rammed it into ours,” he posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Those two should be held accountable, but the rest of the peaceful protestors shouldn’t be tarred by the behavior of two bad actors.”Ramaswamy was campaigning in Grinnell, a small city in central Iowa east of Des Moines and home to Grinnell College, a small liberal arts school with an enrollment of about 1,700 in Poweshiek County. A message left with the Grinnell police chief wasn’t immediately returned Thursday afternoon. Thomas Beaumont, The Associated Press

US Customs officials seize giraffe feces from woman at Minnesota airport

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal customs agents pooh-poohed the plans of a Iowa woman who wanted to make jewelry from giraffe feces she picked up on a trip to Kenya and brought back to the U.S. in her luggage. The woman declared the small box of feces when she was selected to have her belongings inspected upon arriving at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport on Sept. 29, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The woman, who was not identified, told officials she planned to use the waste to make a necklace, as she had done in the past with moose poop. The agency’s agriculture specialists seized the small box and destroyed the giraffe poop.“There is a real danger with bringing fecal matter into the U.S.,” Customs and Border Protection’s Chicago field Director LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke said in a statement. “If this person had entered the U.S. and had not declared these items, there is high possibility a person could have contracted a disease from this jewelry and developed seriou...

Nobel Peace Prize guesswork focuses on the Ukrainian war, protests in Iran and climate change

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who will join the ranks of Elie Wiesel, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, will be revealed on Friday and the annual guessing game has reached its climax.As usual, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has dropped no hints about who’s in the running this year, leaving those speculating with very little to go on.Bookmakers who take bets on prospective winners are giving the lowest odds to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. However, guessing a winner is notoriously hard and the bookies rarely get it right. Zelenskyy would seem like an unlikely choice, as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to spread death and destruction. When the committee has picked world leaders embroiled in conflicts in the past, it has usually been after they reached a peace agreement.“I don’t think the panel can give it to a national leader in the midst...

Ex-treasurer for Rep. George Santos pleads guilty to conspiracy, tells of bogus loan and fake donors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The ex-treasurer for U.S. Rep. George Santos pleaded guilty Thursday to a fraud conspiracy charge and implicated the indicted New York Republican in a scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors.Nancy Marks, who was a close aide to Santos during his two congressional bids, entered the plea at a federal courthouse on Long Island, where she was a longtime political operative and bookkeeper for multiple candidates.Speaking to the judge, Marks said that among other things, she and Santos had submitted bogus campaign finance reports falsely saying he had loaned his campaign $500,000 even though in reality he didn’t have that kind of money and the loan didn’t exist. She said the purpose of the fake loan was to make it look like he was richer than he really was, which might attract other donors including a Republican committee. Reading from a prepared statement, Marks also said she had provided the Federal Elections Commissi...

Accused in secrets case was expected to achieve ‘significant outcomes’ for RCMP

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

OTTAWA — Evidence at the trial of a former RCMP intelligence official charged with breaching Canada’s secrets law reveals he led a unit expected to work in a complex, high-pressure environment.A detailed job description for Cameron Jay Ortis says he became director of the national police force’s Operations Research group in 2013. The unit had the task of assembling and developing classified information on terror cells, transnational criminal networks, cybercrime actors and commercial espionage.“Given the perspective of imminent national security threats, the unit must evolve in a no fail operational environment that demands that its outputs lead to significant outcomes,” says the job description, filed in Ontario Superior Court as part of a statement of agreed facts in the case.The unit director is expected to manage a high-risk program that provides actionable packages of information to senior RCMP executives, the description says.It adds the director is key...

Quebec tables bill to sue drug companies for health-care costs linked to opioids

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

QUEBEC — The Quebec government has introduced a bill that would allow it to join a proposed class-action lawsuit against more than 40 pharmaceutical companies and retailers accused of downplaying the harmful effects of opioids. Quebec’s bill, introduced Thursday, would permit the province to sue opioid makers, wholesalers and consultants for health-care costs resulting from their alleged failure to warn the public of the risks associated with their drugs. The legislation also grants Quebec the ability to join lawsuits launched by other provinces.“The opioid crisis is hitting hard in Quebec,” Lionel Carmant, minister responsible for social services, told reporters in Quebec City after he tabled the bill. “Today, we’re seeing more and more people affected, particularly in Montreal. It’s very concerning.”The class-action lawsuit application, launched in 2018 by the British Columbia government on behalf of the federal government and the province...

Dominican authorities are searching for caretaker after bodies of 6 newborns are found near cemetery

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Police in the Dominican Republic said Thursday they are looking for a cemetery caretaker as part of an investigation into the bodies of six newborns found discarded near a cemetery in the capital of Santo Domingo.Earlier this week, the spokeswoman for a nearby hospital said the institution had turned over the bodies of six newborns to funeral home El Popular for proper burial.The country’s National Health Service confirmed to The Associated Press that the bodies turned over on Tuesday were the same ones found early Wednesday near the cemetery.The owner of the funeral home, identified as Julián Encarnación Montero, told Noticias SIN that the bodies were taken to the cemetery and given to the missing caretaker.He told the TV news station that he has a copy of the conversation in which the unidentified caretaker allegedly said he received the bodies and then forgot about them.Authorities have said the babies died on different dates of different ...

A homeless man is charged with capital murder and rape in the death of a 5-year-old Kansas girl

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:33 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 25-year-old homeless man was charged Thursday with murder and rape in the killing of a 5-year-old girl in Topeka, Kansas. Mickel Cherry faces one count each of capital murder, first-degree murder and rape in the death of Zoey Felix on Monday. He was jailed in Topeka on a $2 million bond and his next court appearance has not yet been determined.Mark Manna, of the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit, said his office would represent Cherry, but that he had no further comment. Cherry’s family didn’t respond to messages. A capital murder charge would allow prosecutors to seek the death penally, but Shawnee County prosecutor Michael Kagay didn’t respond to an email from The Associated Press asking about his plans. Kagay said in a news release that Topeka police rushed to a gas station where fire crews were attempting to save Zoey’s life. She was later pronounced dead. A medical examination at the hospital revealed injuries consistent with sexual assault. Au...