NPR Business: The U.S. economy grew faster in the summer compared to the spring, driven by consumer spending as well as investments in AI. Gross domestic product, which broadly measures economic activity, grew at an annual rate of 3.4% July through September, according to a report from the Commerce Department released Thursday. The previous quarter GDP grew at a 2.2% annual pace. A big driver for GDP growth in the third quarter was the strong investments from AI companies, which continue to build out data centers and spend big money in developing the technology. Meanwhile, consumer spending was another of the big drivers of GDP growth, led in part by higher-income Americans who are better able to withstand stubbornly high inflation. Read more
JACKSON, Tenn. -- A federal judge has ordered Austin Elrod, 30, of Somerville, Tennessee, to surrender his hunting license for 5 years and to pay a total of $60,000 for an illegal deer hunting operation, according to West Tennessee U.S. District Attorney, D. Michael Dunavant. An investigation by several law enforcement agencies revealed that Elrod was guiding white-tailed deer hunts in the Fayette County area without the required guiding license. The guided hunts were advertised on Facebook and resulted in the illegal harvesting of seven deer throughout the 2021 and 2022 hunting seasons. Elrod's clients included out-of-state hunters from Georgia. One of these hunters was Thomas Boswell, 39, of Barnesville, Georgia. Boswell participated in the guided hunts without a Tennessee hunting license and was responsible for the illegal harvesting of five of the deer. The harvested deer would then be transported to Georgia. Read more
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has accused a newly ousted three-star general of leaking sensitive information to the media just hours after officials confirmed his removal from a top military planning post. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia as head of strategy, plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a defense official said late Wednesday. Typically, the general in the position and their staff are responsible for generating and coordinating military plans for both the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the president. Read more
U.S. Supreme Court justices turned down a request to pause an agreement between Texas and the Department of Justice that removed a Biden-era rule allowing immigration judges to suspend some deportation proceedings.
One of President Donald Trump's "Front Row Joe" superfans has been indicted on 10 felony charges related to alleged possession of child sexual abuse material. A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Adam Radogna, 37, owner of Adamo's Italian Restaurant in Brook Park, Ohio, on Wednesday for allegedly possessing dozens of files containing child sexual abuse material, reported WEWS-TV. He faces two counts of illegal use of a minor or impaired person in nudity-oriented material or performance and seven counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor or impaired person, all second-degree felonies, along with one fifth-degree felony count of possessing criminal tools.
Republican state Sen. Terry Williams of Rutland pleaded not guilty to a domestic assault charge Wednesday. In a packed courtroom, family watched on as Williams, 74, faced a judge, charged with one count of domestic assault. According to court documents, Williams hit his adult daughter in the face during an argument at his home in Poultney on Monday night. She has been living there with him since July. The victim told police Williams said, "I should have punched you 40 years ago," and then hit her with an open fist. Her face was scratched.
James O'Keefe, founder of the far-right Project Veritas and a mouthpiece for Trump's election hoax nonsense, has been charged alongside conservative influencer Cam Higby for two felony counts: unlawful voting and identity theft.
President Donald Trump's administration is quietly weighing a fresh concession to Moscow, one the Kremlin has pushed hard behind closed doors.
During this Sunday's NYC Marathon kicking off at 0940 HRS, WQXR-FM will play all nine of Beethoven's symphonies. Thanks to Senile Satan who cut federal funding for public broadcasting, WQXR-FM is now completely reliant on donors to survive. For those of us on budgets and don't want to spend money on SiriusXM, Spotify, premium packages on YouTube, cable TV, or Apple Music, WQXR-FM plays classical music 24/7 commercial free. Their curators, such as Lauren Rico (formerly at SiriusXM), do an excellent job. Preference of conductors for 1 Nov: Beethoven's Third: Arturo Toscanini; the Sixth: Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein; the Seventh: Kent Nagano or Seiji Ozawa; and of course for the Ninth, Herbert von Karajan.
One of the NYC marathon runners
The 50-page report, released Monday, contains testimony from 11 women who either accuse Trump of rape or sexual assault or say that they had been offered to Trump for sex by Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell, with most cases happening in the 1990s. Read more
(snip) ... . Except, of course, El-Sayed is not an old-school liberal like Obama, but an apologist for antisemites and Islamists and terrorists"and voting against that doesn't make you Islamophobic.
U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico seemed to have settled on a strategy for dealing with his history of promoting dishonest and destructive ideas. The Texas Democrat, aware that his positions were far to the left of the average American, sought to run away from the most disturbing items on his agenda. But now a week before Election Day he's saying that he hasn't moderated his views at all. Voters beware
For two years, we've been trudging through sludge, trapped in Trump's MAGgoty reality-show rerun. We wake up every morning to the dread realization that a demented conman in a mangy rug still occupies the glitzed-up Oval Office (or as Obama put it, Saddam Hussein's version of a Cheesecake Factory) But is the Ceausescu balcony moment drawing near on Nov 3?
Conviction reinstated. Appeaks Court says Judge Sarah West's ruling rejected. Read more
A Republican candidate in Georgia running for the state House of Representatives has been arrested on charges of public indecency. According to Cobb County authorities, Andre Stafford is accused of public indecency and child molestation, a felony charge, in connection with an Oct. 15 incident in Smyrna. The arrest warrant said a girl walking to her bus stop was approached by a gray 2024 Kia Forte whose driver exposed himself. Police said Flock surveillance cameras tracked the car to Stafford, whom the victim identified in a photo lineup.
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage." The Buddha Read more
