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Dear Abby: House-sitting pal’s been snooping around

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

Dear Abby: A close friend takes care of my home when I travel several times a year. It involves picking up my mail, watering my indoor and outside plants and checking through the house for anything that might need attention in my absence. I return the favor for her each time she’s out of town. I don’t have anyone else near where I live who can do this for me.The problem is, when she’s here, she snoops through my things. I know because I keep things in a certain order (I’m neat and organized), and it’s very noticeable when my belongings have been rearranged. It bothers me because it’s an invasion of my privacy and just plain wrong. I would never think of doing this in her home. I have no desire to see her personal items.Over the years of our friendship, this person has become increasingly possessive and clingy to the point that it’s uncomfortable. I have overlooked it to avoid hurting her feelings. How do I handle this? Do I continue to lock ...

Search on for Australian overboard on cruise ship in Pacific

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday it was searching for a cruise ship passenger from Australia in waters south of Hawaii. The ship Quantum of the Seas notified the Coast Guard of a man overboard at 11:03 p.m. Tuesday. A C-130 air crew took off at 7 a.m. the next morning and arrived two hours later at the scene about 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of the Big Island town of Kailua-Kona. After six hours on site, the air crew returned to Air Station Barbers Point on Oahu to refuel. Coast Guard crews will resume searching Thursday morning. The Coast Guard said the cruise ship has been at sea for 15 days and is expected to dock in Honolulu on Friday. Information on the missing individual was not immediately available. Quantum of the Seas is operated by Royal Caribbean International. The company didn’t immediately respond to an email message. The Associated Press

Stock market today: Bank fears send Asia shares mostly lower

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly fell Thursday, echoing the drop on Wall Street, as worries about the U.S. banking sector and inflationary pressures weighed on investor sentiment. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 declined 0.2% in morning trading to 28,349.95. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4% to 7,288.70. South Korea’s Kospi rose nearly 0.1% to 2,486.90. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.1% to 19,730.31, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.3% to 3,274.59. “Asian equities were lower on Thursday as turmoil in the banking sector looms large,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a markets commentary. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 dropped 0.4% to 4,055.99. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7%, to 33,301.87, while the Nasdaq composite led the market with a gain 0.5%, to 11,854.35.Wall Street was coming off its worst day in a month, hurt by concerns about the strength of U.S. banks. The spotlight has been harshest on First Republic Bank, which lost another ...

Montana lawmaker silenced but not silent, vows to fight on

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Moves to stifle the voice of the first transgender woman elected to Montana’s legislature over her stand on gender-affirming care for children may have silenced her in the chambers of the state House, but Rep. Zooey Zephyr said she’s confident they’ve only amplified her message to constituents at home and others watching across the nation.“There are many more eyes on Montana now,” Zephyr said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But you do the same thing you’ve always done. You stand up in defense of your community and you … stand for the principles that they elected you to stand for.”Zephyr was thrust into the national spotlight last week when she was prevented from speaking in the House after telling lawmakers backing a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors that they would have blood on their hands. The Republican response to her comments, and her refusal to apologize for them as demanded, have transformed th...

Thai party hopes protesters will become pro-reform voters

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Three years ago, tens of thousands of mostly young people in Thailand took to the streets in heated demonstrations seeking democratic reforms. Now, with a general election coming in three weeks, leaders of the country’s progressive movement are hoping to channel the same radical spirit for change though the ballot box.One of those activists, Chonthicha Jangrew, is a candidate for the Move Forward Party. On the campaign trail on a recent morning at a market on the outskirts of Bangkok, she politely touted her party’s pro-reform agenda. It covers much of the same ground that riled Thailand’s traditional conservative establishment and triggered violent street confrontations between militant demonstrators and the authorities in a series of protests that gained traction in 2020.An activist since her days in college almost 10 years ago, Chonthicha became a high-profile figure in the youth-dominated movement by fearlessly confronting the police during the mass street protest...

Why the US evacuation from Sudan left Americans behind

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Warring factions trying to seize control of the east African nation of Sudan have plunged the country into chaos, and thousands are fleeing the capital of Khartoum and nearby battle zones. Some countries, including the U.S., have shuttered their embassies and many are coordinating daring evacuations of their staffs and other residents in an array of convoys, flights and frantic getaway drives.But over the past week there have been dramatically different responses by various governments as they try to get their citizens and embassy personnel to safety. The U.S. has come under scrutiny for evacuating roughly 70 embassy staff in a helicopter mission by elite SEAL commandos over the weekend, while warning thousands of private American citizens in Sudan there would be no similar evacuation for them.The State Department, which has advised U.S. citizens for years not to travel to Sudan, continues to advise Americans to shelter in place. Most of the estimated 16,000 Americ...

Harris faces new test of political skills in 2024 campaign

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — She swaggered, she jabbed, she inspired. She even joked. Anyone looking for a glimpse of what Vice President Kamala Harris could bring to the campaign trail would have found it this week at Howard University, where she headlined a rally for reproductive rights. After two years of tightly scripted, uneven performances that often dismayed Democrats and cheered Republicans, Harris is looser, more forceful and more willing to speak off the cuff following her trip to Africa a month ago.“That is the vice president that America is going to get a chance to get to know for the first time,” said Laphonza Butler, a former adviser to Harris who leads EMILY’s List.Now Harris, the first woman and person of color in her position, will be put to the test as President Joe Biden seeks a second term. Although vice presidents are rarely decisive in reelection efforts, Harris is poised to be an exception. Not only is she leading the charge on Democrats’ most potent issue, the bat...

US economic growth likely slowed in January-March quarter

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite surging interest rates, punishing inflation and global turbulence, the U.S. economy stood firm last year. From employers to consumers, the picture was one of surprising resilience.This year may be shaping up as a more downbeat story. The economy is widely expected to decelerate steadily and to slip into a recession sometime this year.Some early such signs could begin to emerge Thursday, when the Commerce Department will issue its first estimate of the economy’s performance in the first three months of 2023.Forecasters have predicted that the gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic output — grew at a 1.9% annual rate from January through March, according to a survey by the data firm FactSet. That would mark a significant slowdown from the 3.2% growth rate from July through September and the 2.6% rate from October through December.The obstacles the economy faces are growing more troublesome. The biggest among them is the dramatically higher ...

Releasing leak suspect a national security risk, feds say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

Federal prosecutors will urge a judge Thursday to keep behind bars a Massachusetts Air National guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents, arguing he may still have access to secret national defense information he could expose. In court papers filed late Wednesday, the Justice Department lawyers said releasing 21-year-old Jack Teixeira from jail while he awaits trial would be a grave threat to the U.S. national security. Investigators are still trying to determine whether he kept any physical or digital copies of classified information, including files that haven’t already surfaced publicly, they wrote. “There simply is no condition or combination of conditions that can ensure the Defendant will not further disclose additional information still in his knowledge or possession,” prosecutors wrote. “The damage the Defendant has already caused to the U.S. national security is immense. The damage the Defendant is still capable of causing is extraordinary.” A...

Brief Surge in Temps Due Thursday after Frosty Nights; Showers in Forecast

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:45 GMT

FROST ADVISORY OUT AGAIN Wednesday Night—BRIEF SURGE IN TEMPS DUE THURSDAY--TEMPS HEADED 12° HIGHER—BUT WITH COOLING SHORELINE LAKE BREEZES.Chicagoans shivered through the 2nd chilliest night of April overnight with a 31-deg low at O'Hare (34 Midway)--but inland readings as low as 24 at Richmond in McHenry County Wed morning and 25-deg lows at McHenry, Sugar Grove and Pell Lake, WI and widespread mid to upper 20s away from the city and in northwest Indiana.Another Frosty Night Overnight WednesdayLimited cloud cover and light winds favor another night of freezing temps many area promoting frost development tonight—thus A FROST ADVISORY is out across the Greater Chicago area in all but lakeside areas of Cook County.Thursday sees a 12-deg temp rebound and the first 60+ degree highs here since last Friday. But its a temporary reprieve and the day as a whole will post another temp deficit given its chilly morning startDESPITE THE CURRENT CHILL---CHICAGO WEATHER HISTORY TELLS WARM SPELLS ...