Federal Reserve still foresees 3 rate cuts this year; French bulldogs remain remain on top; MLB season opens in South Korea
On the version of Hot off the Wire posted March 21 at 6 a.m. CT:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials signaled that they still expect to cut their key interest rate three times in 2024 despite signs that inflation was surprisingly high at the start of the year. Yet they foresee fewer rate cuts in 2025, and they slightly raised their inflation forecasts. The policymakers forecast that stronger growth and inflation above their 2% target level would persist into next year. As a result, they suggested that interest rates would have to stay slightly higher for longer. Chair Jerome Powell noted that inflation has cooled considerably from its peak. But, he added, “inflation is still too high, ongoing progress in bringing it down is not assured and the path forward is uncertain.”
CHANDLER, Arizona (AP) — President Joe Biden is celebrating an agreement to provide Intel with up to $8.5 billion in direct funding and $11 billion in loans for computer chip plants around the country. Biden talked up the investment in the political battleground state of Arizona and called it a way of “bringing the future back to America.” The funding will support computer chip plants in Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico and Oregon. It’s a cash infusion the government says should help the U.S. boost its global share of advanced chip production from zero to 20%. The Democratic president often says not enough voters know about his economic policies and they’d support him if they did.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden is grinding on but next steps are uncertain. Without strong support from within the Republican ranks to impeach the president, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee has signaled an interest in another direction. Republicans have yet to find hard evidence of presidential wrongdoing by Biden. But Rep. James Comer pushed ahead at Wednesday’s hearing as he’s eyeing potential criminal referrals of alleged Biden family wrongdoing to the Justice Department. It would be a largely symbolic step, but would potentially open the door to prosecutions by a future administration. But the president’s son Hunter Biden declined to appear after having testified privately in a deposition earlier this month.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Department of Corrections has penalized a county jail for depriving an inmate of food and water for more than two days as punishment after he smeared feces in his cell and refused to clean it up. The department ordered that the Otter Tail County Jail in Fergus Falls must transfer all of its current inmates to new facilities by the close of business Thursday. The jail can keep new inmates no more than 72 hours, excluding holidays and weekends, until the state approves. Sheriff Barry Fitzgibbons expressed regret Wednesday and said his staff will follow the state’s orders.
HAMBURG, N.Y. (AP) — The owner of an 34-year-old alligator seized by conservation officers near Buffalo is fighting for its return. Tony Cavallaro says the reptile he named Albert is a gentle giant he treated like family and who lived in a custom addition in his house. Officers a week ago sedated and seized the more than 11-foot, 750-pound alligator. State environmental officials say Cavallaro’s license to keep Albert had expired in 2021, and that he’d let children and others pet him, which is illegal. Cavallaro says he’s received an outpouring of support for the alligator’s return.
The billionaire philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott announced Tuesday she would give $640 million to more than 360 organizations in response to an application process she launched last year. The award is more than double the amount that she initially promised in an open call for applications. The selected organizations will receive grants of $2 million or $1 million. Previously, Scott and her team have selected organizations and provided them with large, unrestricted gifts. Scott has shaken up philanthropic giving since 2019 when she began giving away the fortune she came into after divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
NEW YORK (AP) — The American Kennel Club says French bulldogs are still the United States’ most commonly registered purebreds. The new standings were released Wednesday. Some say they make Frenchies the nation’s most popular canine. But is it a coup to be celebrated? Longtime fans say au contraire. They worry about what popularity is doing to the breed. The rankings are derived from puppies and other dogs that were added to the AKC’s registry last year. The club is the United States’ oldest dog registry. After Frenchies, the most common AKC breeds were Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers, German shepherds and poodles.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.N. agencies have warned that waste from electronics is piling up worldwide while recycling rates remain low and are likely to fall even further. The agencies are referring to “e-waste,” which is defined as discarded devices with a plug or battery, including cellphones, electronic toys, TVs, microwave ovens, e-cigarettes, laptop computers and solar panels. It does not include waste from electronic vehicles. In a new report released Wednesday, the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union and research arm UNITAR said nearly 62 million tons of “e-waste” was generated in 2022. They said some contained hazardous elements like mercury, as well as rare Earth metals coveted by tech companies. It’s on track to reach 82 million tons by 2030.
OSO, Wash. (AP) — Friday marks 10 years since the side of a mountain collapsed, raced across a river and buried an entire neighborhood in rural Washington state, killing 43 people in the nation’s worst landslide disaster. Since then, young alder trees have colonized the scarred landscape and a new memorial offers perspective on the scope of the loss. The federal government has advanced a national strategy for researching and understanding the dangers landslides pose. But the sort of trauma that engulfed Oso after the slide struck on March 22, 2014, is likely to afflict more and more people as climate change intensifies storms and catastrophic wildfires, destabilizing soil and increasing risk.
Major League Baseball has its curtain raiser, the NCAA basketball tournament is now at 64 teams, eight games are on the NBA schedule and three games are on the NHL slate.
—The Associated Press
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Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.
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