US news

US news

Investigators laid out their findings in a meeting at the NTSB's headquarters, compiling a long list of factors that likely contributed to the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in decades. The board did not identify a single cause for the collision on January 29th, 2025. Instead, investigators placed the blame on multiple overlapping problems including the location of a helicopter route in some of the nation's most congested airspace, along with critical equipment failures and human errors.

The Department of Justice has reportedly withdrawn its request for an arrest warrant for ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon in connection with a Minnesota church protest, but he may not be out of the woods yet. Prosecutors dropped the bid to charge Lemon and four others after a judge rejected criminal complaints them for entering the Cities Church in St. Paul on January 19 while a service was going on, CNN reported.

A former West Coast biotech CEO has just been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for misleading investors and stealing millions of dollars, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland announced on Monday. According to court documents and news releases, 62-year-old Oregon resident Nader Pourhassan, who was once the CEO of CytoDyn, defrauded investors from 2018 to 2021 regarding the commercialization of CytoDyn's product, a monoclonal antibody called Leronlimab.

Wendel Seney, 32, is charged with strangulation or suffocation, two counts of assault and battery on a family or household member, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, and a firearm possession felony, court records show. Earlier this month, Seney's law enforcement certification was suspended by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, Commission. He was ordered to surrender his Massachusetts State Police credentials and equipment, according to the Jan. 14 suspension order.

It's just about showtime for the thousands of athletes who qualified for the Winter Olympics next month in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The XXV Winter Olympiad runs from Feb. 6-22 and will include Northern California stars such as Oakland figure skater Alysa Liu and the youngest member of Team USA's ski/snowboard roster, 15-year-old Abby Winterberger of Truckee, who competes in freestyle halfpipe skiing. In all, eight Northern California athletes will represent the United States, including three from the Bay Area.

OAKLAND Police here have arrested a suspect in an ambush-style shooting that targeted two brothers who operated a late-night lingerie store in an area known for prostitution, according to jail records. But what authorities can't explain thus far is why it was so important for 30-year-old Christian Mendoza to wait in an alleyway on the 1600 block of Solano Way, then fire several shots into a Toyota Prius, killing 28-year-old Zinatullah Hedayet. The shooting happened around 3:15 a.m. on Dec. 19.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index cratered 9.7 points to 84.5 in January, falling below even the lowest readings during the COVID-19 pandemic. A measure of Americans' short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market tumbled 9.5 points to 65.1, well below 80, the marker that can signal a recession ahead. It's the 12th consecutive month that reading has come in under 80. Consumers' assessments of their current economic situation slid by 9.9 points to 113.7.

the lawsuit accuses several medical providers of a "catastrophic failure" to properly diagnose, treat, and monitor Clancy as her postpartum mental health rapidly declined. Instead, the suit alleges, they subjected Clancy to a "disorganized, uncoordinated course of polypharmacy" that only made her worse. Clancy had been experiencing auditory hallucinations for weeks leading up to the killings, according to the complaint, but the commanding voice took on a new urgency after her husband left to pick up dinner on Jan. 24, 2023.

"It's clear when people don't have experience in a city like New York. For example, the social worker says, "there are certain things that nurses in the intensive-care unit know that should be very normal for ICU nurses to know how to do. But I'll go in to check on a patient, and there are five travel nurses at their bedside just trying to crack the code of how to do this thing."

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh recap NFL conference championship weekend, where the Patriots braved a blizzard better than the Broncos, and Sam Darnold proved that resurrected quarterbacks really can win it all. Later, they get into Trinity Rodman's three-year NWSL deal that keeps her in D.C., but has caught the ire of the players' union. The panel wraps with a breakdown of the Mets' busy offseason and whether they can actually come out on top in 2026.

That's too big of a risk to take, to play with no insurance.

In an early preview of Super Bowl LX between the Patriots and Seahawks that was released on Monday, ESPN included a list of 12 analysts and experts' predictions for the game's outcome. While not a total surprise - Seattle is favored by Vegas oddsmakers - it was still notable that all 12 predictions were for a Seahawks victory. Titled "gut-reaction predictions," the list reflects the initial opinions of the group.

So a larger COLA versus a smaller one could spell the difference between being able to cover retirement expenses versus having to skimp on essentials. To put it even more bluntly, a stingy Social Security COLA could mean that some seniors might have to skip meals, cut medication doses in half, and resort to other such extremes. So any time there's an inkling of a small COLA, it can be devastating for retirees who rely heavily on those benefits.