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The Great Grift: Five things to know about how COVID-19 relief aid was stolen or wasted

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The greatest grift in U.S. history was brazen, even simple. Criminals and gangs grabbed the money. So did an U.S. soldier in Georgia, the pastors of a defunct church in Texas, a former state lawmaker in Missouri and a roofing contractor in Montana.Over the last three years, thieves plundered billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief aid intended to combat the worst pandemic in a century and to stabilize an economy in free fall.Here are some key takeaways from an Associated Press analysis of what may have been stolen or wasted.How much was stolen?An Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents a jarring 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID-relief aid.That number is certain to grow as investigators dig deeper into thousands of potential schemes.There are myriad reasons for the sta...

School’s out and Jill Biden is gearing up to raise money for President Biden’s reelection campaign

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — At almost every stop last year, Jill Biden delivered a clear message to supporters as she campaigned for Democrats in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections: Put voting on your “to-do” list, she’d say. “Like a lot of educators, to stay organized, I use to-do lists,” said Biden, a community college English professor. “So this election is going to be won or lost by where voting falls on your to-do list.”“Put voting at the top of your to-do list,” she implored.This year, the first lady has a new task atop her list. Though the 2024 election in which President Joe Biden is seeking reelection is more than a year away, helping him win a second term is a top priority for the first lady now that school’s out for the summer.A week after she returned from a grueling six-day trip abroad, the first lady is ready for her first solo outing of the 2024 campaign season. She heads out Monday on a three-day fundraising swing to New York City, San Francisco and Los Angel...

Biden to host outgoing NATO secretary-general Stoltenberg as competition to replace him heats up

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is welcoming outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to the White House for talks on Monday as the competition to find his successor to lead the military alliance heats up.Stoltenberg, who has led the NATO since 2014 and has had his tenure extended three times, said earlier this year he would move on when his current time expires at the end of September. The jockeying to replace him is intensifying as leaders of the 31-member military alliance are set to meet next month for their annual summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.Last week, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the case for U.K. Defense Minister Ben Wallace directly to Biden. The U.S. president also met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, another potential contender.Asked about the NATO job at a news conference with Sunak by his side, Biden called Wallace “very qualified” but noted that the conversation among NATO leaders to find a “consensus” pick to replace Stoltenberg w...

Trump, allies escalate attacks on criminal case as history-making court appearance approaches

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump and his allies are escalating efforts to undermine the criminal case against him and drum up protests as the former president braces for a history-making federal court appearance this week on dozens of felony charges accusing him of illegally hoarding classified information.Trump’s Tuesday afternoon appearance in Miami will mark his second time in as many months facing a judge on criminal charges. But unlike a New York case some legal analysts derided as relatively trivial, the Justice Department’s first prosecution of a former president concerns conduct that prosecutors say jeopardized national security and that involves Espionage Act charges carrying the threat of a significant prison sentence in the event of conviction.Ahead of his arraignment, Trump ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Justice Department special counsel who filed the case, calling Jack Smith “deranged” and his team of prosecutors “thugs” as he repeated with...

Rape and torture: Transgender women open up about their suffering under Argentina’s dictatorship

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Julieta González stepped inside the blocky white building where the Argentine military dictatorship held her for a month, and the flashbacks began.Blood stains on the mattresses. Hearing screaming as she was inside her cell. Being forced to wash blood out of cars. The endless sexual abuse.Transgender women like González often pretended to be asleep when a guard appeared in the middle of the night, she remembered.“I was always the one who bore the brunt,” González, 65, told AP journalists during a visit to the cell where she was held. “I was younger.”González and four other transgender women testified at the trial of former security officers in April on charges of crimes against humanity, part of what human-rights lawyers and activists call Argentina’s long-overdue effort to recognize the suffering of the trans community under military rule from 1976 to 1983. Members of the community took part in a demonstration last month in support o...

60 years after Medgar Evers’ murder, his widow continues a civil rights legacy

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — At 90, Myrlie Evers-Williams still speaks in a clear, strong voice as she says she terribly misses her first love, civil rights icon Medgar Evers, as she reflects on his work to push the U.S. toward a promise of equality and justice for all.It’s been 60 years since a white supremacist hid in the darkness of night and assassinated Evers outside the family’s Jackson home, shooting the Mississippi NAACP leader hours after then-President John F. Kennedy gave a televised speech advocating civil rights legislation. Evers-Williams and the couple’s three young children were in the house. After hearing the crack of a rifle, she rushed to her mortally wounded husband, who lay bleeding in the carport.“Medgar is so very much a part of me, and he’s here,” Evers-Williams told about 200 people who gathered on a hot and humid morning last week for the ceremonial opening of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, a unit of the National Park Service...

Texas baseball falls Sunday; set for decisive Game 3 against Stanford

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA (KXAN) - Texas baseball came back late to win Game One of the Super Regionals against Stanford but couldn't do the same Sunday night, losing to the Cardinal 8-3.Stanford evens the series at a game a piece, forcing a decisive final game Monday afternoon slated for 7:00 p.m.The hosting team scored first against Texas starter Lebarron Johnson Jr. but the Longhorns quickly picked up their pitcher. A Jared Thomas RBI triple and Dylan Campbell sac fly in the third gave Texas a 2-1 lead.Johnson Jr. threw a complete game in the Coral Gables Regional last weekend but was chased after 4.1 innings Sunday giving up four runs. Travis Sthele came in relief allowing three runs in four innings. Stanford led 5-2 until the seventh when Mitchell Daly crushed a solo home run to left. The long ball gave the Longhorns their third and final run.The Cardinal added some insurance in the top half of the ninth with three runs to make it 8-3, the final score. Stanford pitcher Quinn Matthe...

9-year-old falls off tube, drowns in Boulder Creek

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

A 9-year-old boy was pulled from Boulder Creek by emergency workers Sunday evening and later pronounced dead, city officials reported.Police and fire units responded to a 911 call just before 5 p.m. on a report of a child who had fallen from an inner tube into Boulder Creek and was missing. Searchers saw him minutes later and pulled him from the creek near Broadway and Canyon Boulevard. First responders administered CPR before transporting him to Boulder Community Hospital. The boy was pronounced dead in the hospital’s emergency department at 5:41 p.m.“This is an unspeakable tragedy for everyone involved, especially the boy’s family,” said Jeff Long, deputy fire chief of operations. “All our responders were there — police, fire, medics, our swiftwater crew. We got to him as quickly as possible, and it’s a terrible feeling to not be able to save someone. Especially when that someone is a child.”The child’s parents sustained minor injuries and were also treated by medics a...

NCAA Super Regional: Stanford lefty throws staggering number of pitches in win over Texas

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

Quinn Mathews’ unforgettable performance Sunday night has Stanford within one win of advancing to the College World Series for the second straight year.Mathews, a senior left-hander, recorded a career-high 16 strikeouts and threw a staggering 156 pitches in a complete game performance to help lead the host Cardinal to an 8-3 win over Texas, leveling the best-of-three Super Regional at one win apiece.Every player in the Longhorns lineup struck out at least once.“I told (the coaches) I was good to go. It wasn’t like they were trying to take the rock out of my hand,” Mathews told ESPN after the game. “Did the job, got the win, but we’re not done yet.”The third and deciding game is Monday at 5 p.m. The winner advances to play top-ranked Wake Forest in the opening round of the College World Series on Friday in Omaha, Neb.Stanford is now 8-0 when it has faced elimination in Regional and Super Regional games this season and last.“We never like to m...

Quinn Mathews has 16 Ks, Stanford beats Texas 8-3, forces Game 3 at super regional

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Quinn Mathews threw 156 pitches and had 16 strikeouts — both career highs — in a complete game, Drew Bowser hit a two-run home run and Stanford beat Texas 8-3 Sunday night to avoid elimination at best-of-3 Stanford Super Regional. The Cardinal (43-18) forced a decisive Game 3 on Monday with the winner advancing to the College World Series. Stanford and Texas, which used a five-run top of the ninth to win 7-5 in Game 1, are both trying to make their third consecutive trip to Omaha. Mathews (10-4), who has thrown at least 100 pitches in 15 of his 17 starts this season, scattered eight hits and a walk to get the win. After fouling off a pair of two-strike pitches, Malcolm Moore hit an RBI double to left that gave Stanford it first lead of the game in the top of the fifth. Travis Sthele replaced starter Lebarron Johnson, with one out and Moore on second, to face Bowser, who hit a two-run shot over the wall in left and stretched the Cardinal’s lead to 5-2. Alberto...