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The average long-term US mortgage rate rose to 6.39% this week, Freddie Mac says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

By ALEX VEIGA (AP Business Writer)LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate edged higher this week after a two-week drop, a modest move in line with a mostly moderate shift in home-loan rates in recent weeks.Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan rose to 6.39% from 6.35% last week. The average rate a year ago was 5.25%. The average benchmark rate has moved lower in seven of the last 10 weeks since reaching a high for this year of 6.73% in early March. Still, it remains elevated relative to 2020 and 2021, when the average rate fell below 3%.High rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for homebuyers, limiting how much buyers can afford at a time when the housing market has slowed, but remains unaffordable to many Americans after years of soaring home prices.“Higher mortgage rates have slowed home purchase activity during a time in the year when typically home shoppers are out in full f...

Watch: MLS expected to announce San Diego as location for expansion team

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO — The Commissioner of Major League Soccer is holding a news conference Thursday at Snapdragon Stadium, where San Diego is expected to be announced as the location for the league's 30th team.Joining MLS Commissioner Don Garber will be San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, Sycuan Tribe Chairman Cody Martinez and Mohamed Mansour, chairman of Man Capital and Right to Dream.The San Diego expansion team is expected to play at Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley, which is also the home field for the San Diego Wave FC and San Diego State University football. Excitement grows ahead of expected MLS team expansion in San Diego The addition of an MLS team to America's Finest City has become a point of excitement in recent days around San Diego.“I think they’re going to have a really loyal support group in town and it’s exciting that MLS sees that as well,” said Sports San Diego CEO Mark Neville.It was not announced ahead of the Thursday news conference what the team's official name, crest a...

Man accused of killing 2 sisters on Mother's Day pleads not guilty

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The man accused of killing two sisters in a hit-and-run crash in the Bay Terraces neighborhood on Mother's Day made a video appearance before a judge Wednesday afternoon. It left raw emotion both in and outside of a San Diego courtroom as family and friends of the victims gathered for the arraignment of the man in question, 53-year-old Tony Garcia. "I know she’s in a better place right now, she’s watching over us. And what I want to say is that no matter how much time passes, she was my first love," shared Andrew Guttierez, boyfriend to 23-year-old victim Jazmin Higuera Cano. She and her 25-year-old sister Elizabeth Cano, a wife and mother, both died in the hit-and-run crash early Mother's Day morning. Two killed, two hospitalized in crash; one driver fled the scene Garcia of San Diego was driving the F150 that killed the two sisters and injured two others. After running away, he turned himself into police 14 hours later. Authorities say the Honda, which was driven b...

‘Indiana Jones’ swings into Cannes Film Festival; Harrison Ford to be honored

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

CANNES, France (AP) — Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford swung into Cannes on Thursday for the world premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” in one of the most anticipated events of the French Riviera festival.Fedoras abounded in the throngs of onlookers who watched Ford and company hit the red carpet.Ford walked hand in hand with his wife, Calista Flockhart, and later joined his cast mates as John Williams’ score played across the red carpet. Among those in attendance were Disney chief Bob Iger, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and filmmaker Steve McQueen.Ford, 80, who has said “Dial of Destiny” will be his last performance as the character, is also set to receive an honorary Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival. Last year, Cannes feted “Top Gun Maverick” and Tom Cruise in a similar manner. It’s not the first “Indiana Jones” film to premiere in Cannes. The fourth installment, “Indiana and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” launched at the 2008 edition of the fes...

False claims of a stolen election thrive unchecked on Twitter even as Musk promises otherwise

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In an interview this week, Twitter owner Elon Musk said users making false claims of stolen elections “will be corrected” on the platform.Prompted by a CNBC reporter for extra assurance that would happen, Musk responded, “Oh yeah, 100%.”Yet many such claims have thrived on Twitter in the week since former President Donald Trump spent much of a CNN town hall digging in on his lie that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him. Twitter posts that amplified those false claims have thousands of shares with no visible enforcement, a review of posts on the platform shows.The contrast between Musk’s promise and the extent the claims are spreading on Twitter underscores a major challenge for social media companies trying to call out election conspiracies and falsehoods that Trump and his supporters continue to promote. That will only grow as the nation prepares for a presidential election next year in which Trump is again vying to be the Republican nominee.It’s unclear whet...

Why a government default could be worse than a government shutdown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — All the hand-wringing over a potential government default if Congress doesn’t increase the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling has conjured up images of past government shutdowns. In shutdowns, “essential” workers — TSA agents and such — showed up, but most federal employees stayed home. Work piled up in offices, and litter piled up in untended national parks.However, there’s a big difference between a government shutdown and a default on the nation’s debts.America very well knows what happens in a shutdown — it’s had four of them in the past 30 years. There’s a lot more uncertainty about a default, which could well have more wide-ranging and devastating impacts, at home and around the world. There’s never been a default, and negotiators are trying to find a way to avoid one now. A look at what is known — and not — about both:GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNA shutdown occurs when Congress doesn’t approve funding legisla...

Montana judge temporarily blocks enforcement of abortion ban; hearing next week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a new ban on the type of abortion most commonly used after 15 weeks of gestation until he can hear arguments on the law next week.District Court Judge Mike Menahan issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against a law that bans the use of dilation and evacuation abortions. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law on Tuesday and it took immediate effect. The law would cause immediate and irreparable harm and damage to Planned Parenthood and its patients if it was allowed to remain in effect while the challenge played out in court, the order states.Planned Parenthood of Montana filed a legal complaint over the constitutionality of the law on Tuesday, just hours after it was signed.Martha Fuller, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Montana, said she was glad the judge recognized the harm that anti-abortion laws cause to patients seeking basic health care.“Politics has no pl...

Videos show purported ivory-billed woodpeckers as US moves toward extinction decision

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

New video and photographs purporting to show ivory-billed woodpeckers flying in a Louisiana forest were published by researchers on Thursday, as government officials said they will make a final decision on whether the birds are extinct by the end of the year.The images — grainy and taken from a distance by drones and trail cameras — offer tantalizing hints the large woodpecker may yet exist almost 80 years after the last agreed-upon sightings, in Louisiana.Several experts said it adds to prior indications of their survival. They called on the government to drop the pending proposal to write off the so-called Lord God Bird — a nickname derived from the exclamation some viewers made upon seeing one.But others dismissed the new research as inconclusive, including a scientist who said some of the footage clearly depicts another type of woodpecker that many amateurs mistake for the ivory-billed.The peer-reviewed research in the journal Ecology and Evolution comes from a group that’...

ChatGPT makes its debut as a smartphone app on iPhones

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

ChatGPT is now a smartphone app, which could be good news for people who like to use the artificial intelligence chatbot and bad news for all the clone apps that have tried to profit off the technology. The free app started to become available on iPhones in the U.S. on Thursday and will later be coming to Android phones. Unlike the web version, you can also ask it questions using your voice.The company that makes it, OpenAI, said it will remain ad-free but “syncs your history across devices.” “We’re starting our rollout in the U.S. and will expand to additional countries in the coming weeks,” said a blog post announcing the new app, which is described in the App Store as the “official app” by OpenAI.Matt O’brien, The Associated Press

WestJet cancels 100-plus flights as pilot strike looms, negotiations in stalemate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:32:00 GMT

MONTREAL — WestJet has cancelled more than 100 flights on Thursday as talks with the pilots’ union have hit a “critical impasse,” the company said, jeopardizing travel plans for thousands of passengers ahead of the May long weekend.Some 1,800 pilots at the carrier and its Swoop subsidiary are poised to walk off the job as of 3 a.m. MT after the Air Line Pilots Association served a strike notice Monday.WestJet issued a statement early Thursday saying negotiations were stuck “in a stalemate.”“We remain at a critical impasse with the union and have been left with no choice but to begin taking the painful steps of preparing for the reality of a work stoppage,” CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said in a release.The Calgary-based company has begun to park the bulk of its fleet using a “measured, phased and safe approach,” the statement read.As of early Thursday afternoon, the carrier had cancelled 111 flights or 31 per cent of those scheduled for the day, according to tr...