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Jim Biden’s last name has helped open doors. It’s also made him a Republican target

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

ELLWOOD CITY, Pa. (AP) — When a healthcare startup dreamed of building a network of rural hospitals several years ago, it turned to Jim Biden.Although he wasn’t a public health consultant or a medical expert, Jim Biden was the brother of Joe Biden, who had recently finished his term as vice president. The firm’s chief executive believed Jim Biden would help provide the enterprise with “serious horsepower.”But Jim Biden wasn’t the secret weapon that Americore Health Services was counting on. The company imploded in 2019, filing for bankruptcy amid a pile of lawsuits and a federal investigation into fraud allegations. Americore also accused Jim Biden of failing to repay $600,000 in loans.Some of the Florida-based company’s hospitals closed, including one here in Ellwood City, near the western edge of Pennsylvania, where medical equipment gathers dust and plywood covers broken windows. The only reminder of the bankrupt company’s brief tenure as the town’s biggest employer is a pl...

Biden and Xi are to meet next week. There is no detail too small to sweat

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, there will be no such thing as a small detail.How they greet? If they eat? Where they sit? Will there be flowers? Bottled water or in a glass? “Pretty intense,” senior administration officials say of navigating delicate protocols. Any encounter involving the president and a foreign leader means managing tricky logistics, political and cultural, and every occurrence or utterance can potentially jolt the world order. But few nations are more attuned to etiquette than the Chinese, and Washington and Beijing’s often-conflicting interests might mean the seemingly trivial becomes meaningful. There’s probably “very detailed planning of the actual choreography of who enters a room where, if there will be pictures taken and all of that,” said Bonny Lin, senior fellow for Asian security and director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Biden and Xi ...

Projects featuring Lady Bird Johnson’s voice offer new looks at the late first lady

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — Texas college student Jade Emerson found herself entranced as she worked on a podcast about Lady Bird Johnson, listening to hour upon hour of the former first lady recounting everything from her childhood memories to advising her husband in the White House.“I fell in love very quickly,” said Emerson, host and producer of the University of Texas podcast “Lady Bird.” “She kept surprising me.”The podcast, which was released earlier this year, is among several recent projects using Johnson’s own lyrical voice to offer a new look at the first lady who died in 2007. Other projects include a documentary titled “The Lady Bird Diaries” that premieres Monday on Hulu and an exhibit in Austin at the presidential library for her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, who died in 1973.Lady Bird Johnson began recording an audio diary in the tumultuous days after her husband became president following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Th...

Nonprofits making progress in tackling homelessness among veterans, but challenges remain

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Along a busy Atlanta residential road, a 68-year-old Vietnam War-era Army veteran has found what he calls a “match made in heaven.” Harold Tilson Jr. found himself homeless earlier this year but for the past few months has been living in transitional housing run by the nonprofit Veterans Empowerment Organization, or VEO. It provides emergency and permanent housing for dozens of previously homeless military veterans.“If you’re homeless and you need help, you couldn’t ask for a better place to go because they take care of just about everything,” Tilson said.It’s part of a years-long effort by government agencies and nonprofits around the country to address homelessness among veterans. Since January 2020, the numbers of homeless veterans have fallen 11% and have gone down 55% over the past 13 years, according to a government count. That’s in sharp contrast with the general homeless population. Authorities credit the Obama administration’s work to make h...

Mexico City imposes another round of water restrictions in the face of drought ‘crisis’

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican officials imposed severe, months-long cuts to Mexico City’s water supply at midnight Friday, acting just a month after initial restrictions were ordered as drought dries the capital’s reservoirs.The Mexican National Water Commission and mayor announced the moves at a news conference, but officials did not report the cuts on social media until just four hours before they took effect.Abnormally low rain has dropped the Cutzamala system — a network of three reservoirs serving over 20 million residents in the Valley of Mexico — to historic seasonal lows. The system is 44% lower than it should be at this time of the year.Officials began restricting water from Cutzamala by roughly 8% on Oct. 17. Friday’s cuts are much more drastic, representing a further 25% of the system’s total flow. Twelve boroughs, mostly in the west of the city, can expect lower water pressure until the restrictions lift, officials said.Officials did not specify when...

Biden’s movable wall is criticized by environmentalists and those who want more border security

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration’s plan to build new barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas calls for a “movable” design that frustrates both environmentalists and advocates of stronger border enforcement.The plans for the nearly 20 miles (32 kilometers) of new barrier in Starr County were made public in September when the federal government sought public input. The following month, the administration waived 26 federal laws protecting the environment and certain species to speed up the construction process. “The United States Border Patrol did not ask for this downgraded border wall,” Rodney Scott, a former U.S. Border Patrol chief said.Construction is moving forward despite President Joe Biden’s campaign promise not to build more wall and amid an increase in migrants coming to the nation’s southern border from across Latin America and other parts of the world to seek asylum. Illegal crossings topped 2 million for the second year in a ro...

Texas high school football playoff scores for Friday, Nov. 10

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The bi-district games in the Texas high school football playoffs concluded Friday, but that's where some of the chaos began.Lake Travis knocked off 2022 Class 6A Division II runner-up Vandegrift Vipers 13-10 on a Braydon Doane field goal with 0:01 remaining to pull off the upset. REPORT YOUR SCORE: We'd love to post your team's score on our website, but we need your help to do it. Email the score of your game to [email protected] and we'll get it on our websiteMcNeil, making its first playoff appearance in 19 years, picked up a 17-14 win over Bowie and Dripping Springs topped Vista Ridge 34-14. LBJ shut out Pflugerville 20-0 to advance in the 5A Division II playoffs.Check out all the scores from the viewing area and Texas below:Bi-district scores from around the KXAN viewing areaAlamo Heights 69, Lockhart 21Bandera 32, Jarrell 27Cedar Hill 62, Weiss 0Cedar Park 20, Canyon 16Crockett 14, Waco University 13Dripping Springs 34, Vista Ridge 14Duncanville 63, Hutto 7Hill Co...

No. 18 Texas shoots its way to 86-59 blowout win over Delaware State

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Max Abmas scored 19 points, Ithiel Horton added 18 and No. 18 Texas used a flurry of 3-pointers to pull away for an 86-59 victory over Delaware State on Friday night.The Longhorns (2-0) made seven 3-pointers in the second half, finishing the game 12 for 22. Texas high school football playoff scores for Friday, Nov. 10 Some of those long-distance shots keyed a 27-2 push for Texas after the Longhorns led by just seven midway through the second half. Delaware State (0-2) went nearly 8 1/2 minutes without a field goal.Horton, who transferred this season from Central Florida, was 5 of 6 from behind the arc. He is 8 of 13 in two games as a Longhorn.Abmas, who transferred from Oral Roberts this season, made 4 of 8 3-pointers.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newslettersThe three starting guards — Tyrese Hunter (13 points) and newcomers Abmas and Horton — are learnin...

Concert review: Odd couple Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks offer fun night at U.S. Bank Stadium

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

If Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks seem like an odd combination, well they are. He’s a steely, populist New Yorker, while she’s a dramatic hippie witch from Phoenix. And yet, the pair delivered a delightful and nostalgic evening Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, even if they took two quite different approaches.Nicks amped up the moody atmosphere for her set, a blend of her solo hits and some of the songs she wrote for Fleetwood Mac, and wore a series of her famous shawls. Early on, she told the crowd one of her backup singers tested positive for COVID that morning and Nicks’ vocal coach was filling in. Nicks said it would sound a little different and it did, particularly during “Edge of Seventeen” and “Landslide.” A bit distracting, but not enough to be a game changer.As for Nicks, she sounded terrific. Now 75, she twirls slower than she used to, but she can still sing. Whether she was belting out “Stand Back” or bringing the audience in with “Dreams,” Nicks ...

Man found guilty of stabbing death in Santa Ana

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:06:06 GMT

A suspect was found guilty of murder after a man was found stabbed to death in Santa Ana.The suspect was identified as Kevin Ivan Herrera, 23, by the Santa Ana Police Department.On Jan. 6, 2022, officers responded to reports of a man down on the 1200 block of West Pine Street around 7:05 p.m.Arriving officers discovered an unresponsive man who was suffering from an apparent stab wound to his upper torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene.Kevin Ivan Herrera, 23, was found guilty of stabbing a man to death in Santa Ana on Jan. 6, 2022. (Santa Ana Police Department)As detectives investigated the case, they found surveillance footage of Herrera approaching the victim and stabbing him in the chest, police said.Herrera was located and arrested. On Oct. 25, Herrera stood trial for murder at the Orange County Superior Court. Local state of emergency declared after historic hangar fire in O.C. On Nov. 8, he was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury. He remains in custody and will...