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Fed hikes rates despite concerns over banking crisis

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 0.25 percentage points on Wednesday after numerous failures in the banking sector had prompted some analysts on Wall Street to call for a pause.The quarter-point hike is the ninth consecutive rate increase by the Fed since March of last year as part of the U.S. central bank’s program of quantitative tightening undertaken in response to high inflation. The Fed's baseline interest rate range is now set to 4.75 to 5 percent.The move shows that the Fed’s first priority remains bringing down elevated price levels, even as the bank’s rate increases have strained portfolios in the banking sector, triggering some poorly managed banks to collapse.New forecasts by the Fed put the terminal interest rate for 2023 at 5.1 percent, the same as the forecast made in December. The Fed revised the projected unemployment rate for this year down to 4.5 percent to 4.6 percent, which is still much higher than the current rate of 3.6 percent.The bank also expects...

Number of monarch butterflies migrating to Mexico for winter is on the decline

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – A new report shows a sharp decline in monarch butterflies migrating to Mexico as well as a loss of habitat in the forests they spend their winter each year.Eastern monarch butterflies once migrated to a wintering site in Mexico that spanned 45 acres of forest, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). But their population during the winter months has been on the decline for the last 25 years. Most recently, the presence of monarch butterflies in Mexico has dropped 22% in only one year, from 7.02 acres to 5.46 acres, according to recent reports cited by the WWF. La Niña is officially over, NOAA announces: What does that mean? Eastern monarch butterflies travel up to 2,800 miles from as far as Canada and New England to their winter sites in Mexico forests using a combination of the magnetic pull of the planet and the position of the sun. This is one of the longest migrations of insect species known to scientists.They then return to the north once winter en...

'A couch!': Video shows furniture flying through the air in San Francisco

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Strong winds in San Francisco on Tuesday led to trees falling to the ground, a big rig blowing over and airborne furniture crashing down on the sidewalk.Video shared with Nexstar's KRON (above) appears to show a large outdoor couch flying through the air and falling to the ground as a high-rise resident observes from his apartment. The video, filmed by Brandon Au at Main and Folsom streets, showed the couch eventually landing on the sidewalk."It almost hit that guy," Au can be heard saying. Another storm hits Bay Area: 193k customers lose power Tuesday's storm blasted the San Francisco Bay Area with powerful gusts and downpours, pounded Sacramento — the state capital — with intense hail and triggered a rare tornado warning on the Southern California coast.In downtown San Francisco, pieces of glass fell off a high-rise.The winds were so strong, a big rig overturned on the Bay Bridge, causing a huge traffic jam and massive delays. A tornado warning base...

Indeed laying off 15% of staff, around 2,200 people

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

Editor’s Note: The video above shows KXAN News Today’s top headlines for March 22, 2023.AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Indeed, an employment company co-headquartered in Austin, is letting go of roughly 15% of its staff, according to a letter from CEO Chris Hyams. The cuts come from nearly every team, function, level and region at Indeed and Indeed Flex, according to the letter, which was sent to employees Wednesday. Despite uptick in tech layoffs, Austin hasn’t yet seen job carnage The reason for the cut is due to a decrease of job openings following a recent post-COVID boom, according to the letter."Your last day of active employment is today [Wednesday]. Your regular pay will continue through March 31, 2023," the letter reads.Last quarter, U.S. total job openings were down 3.5% year over year, while sponsored job volumes were down 33%, according to Indeed.The specific decisions on who and where to cut were "extremely difficult, but they were made with great care," the letter said. The letter ...

Xylazine, a sometimes deadly animal tranquilizer, detected in Texas supply

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) –  The Texas Department of State and Health Services (DSHS) said that xylazine, an animal tranquilizer increasingly showing up Nationally in illicit drug supplies, has been found in Texas. Texas law enforcement discovered a batch of illicit fentanyl in West Texas and detected xylazine in the supply. DSHS said that xylazine, commonly referred to as “tranq,” was combined with other benzodiazepines and has led to four reported xylazine-related deaths. DSHS said this is the first incident of illicit drug supplies testing positive for the tranquilizer in the state. “We started hearing some rumblings of this late last year, and you started seeing some of those stories nationally as well,” said Chris Van Deusen, Director of Media Relations for DSHS. “[DSHS] wanted to let the public know, [and] healthcare providers know, that this was out there – in case they encounter someone coming into the ER, or some other kind of healthcare setting, [who] may be experi...

How many light rail riders does Project Connect anticipate under each new option?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — After unveiling five new options on the table for the future of light rail transit in Austin, Project Connect leaders have released new projections for anticipated ridership under each version.Austin Transit Partnership — the entity created to oversee the construction of the Project Connect light rail system — displayed the newest designs during an in-person and virtual open house Tuesday evening. ICYMI: Project Connect debuts 5 scaled down light rail options The transit agency is expected to announce the final version by June, ATP Executive Director Greg Canally told KXAN, as part of an initial investment phase.In the meantime, Tuesday's open house documents broke down, by option, the length of the proposed route. ATP officials also provided estimates on the number of daily riders for each model.38th Street to Oltorf Street to Yellow Jacket LaneAustin Transit Partnership has unveiled five options for Project Connect's light rail system. (Courtesy: Austin Transit ...

This five-cheese mac & cheese (with bacon!) will make dinner grate again

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

Amy Drew Thompson | Orlando Sentinel“This is the best mac and cheese I’ve ever had,” The Beau joked.I say “joked” because he was eating tteokbokki. So for the record, right now, Doshi, a Korean restaurant — and its molten cheese-smothered rice cakes — is his pick for the best “mac and cheese” in Orlando. And mine, too.Outside my kitchen, that is.Best mac and cheese recipe I’ve ever made. Even stays creamy on the reheat. That’s winning! (Amy Drew Thompson/Orlando Sentinel)I’m not going to brag about this recipe at all. It’s not mine. But the cheesy tteokbokki incident (which I’ll discuss further in a future piece about Doshi) got me thinking about the preponderance of subpar mac and cheese out there — so much that it is a common topic of discussion in my circle — and it inspired me to dig out a recipe I hadn’t made in forever.Because mac and cheese is not a diet food. Especially this one. And I eat enough already.I discovered this recipe the same way I imagine many at-hom...

An inside look at the incredible Matt Boldy goal that lifted Wild into first place

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

PHILADELPHIA — Matt Boldy probably could have gone for a line change a couple of times during overtime Tuesday night at Prudential Center. If he did, however, The winger would not have scored the incredible goal that lifted the Wild to a 2-1 overtime win over the New Jersey Devils, and into a first place tie with Dallas in the NHL’s Central Division.“It’s weird how it works like that,” Boldy said with a smile. “I was able to get down there and get a chance.”After hopping the boards with 1 minute, 12 seconds left, Boldy twice made the decision not to go back to the bench.As a result, he grew visibly more exhausted as his marathon shift progressed, looking so dead on a particular backcheck that teammates Mason Shaw, Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar started chirping him, joking that it looked like he was skating with a piano on his back.“I’m glad the bench wasn’t mic’d up,” Shaw said with a laugh before giving credit whe...

DEA warns horse tranquilizer xylazine is making fentanyl overdose crisis worse

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

Joseph Wilkinson | (TNS) New York Daily NewsThe drug xylazine, which has been linked to an increase in overdoses, has now been seized in 48 of 50 states, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced Monday in an alert.Xylazine, also known as tranq, is often cut with fentanyl. Xylazine is legal as a horse tranquilizer, but it’s not approved for human use.“Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier,” DEA boss Anne Milgram said in the alert. “The DEA Laboratory System is reporting that in 2022 approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained xylazine.”Fentanyl is cut with xylazine to extend the high that users feel. The average fentanyl high is relatively short, but the sedative effects of xylazine can make it last longer.However, xylazine itself is not an opioid, meaning that overdose-reversal drug naloxone, better known by the brand name Narcan, does not work on it.Because xylazine is ofte...

Gophers point guard Katie Borowicz retiring from basketball

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:57 GMT

Katie Borowicz, the Roseau point guard who left high school early to join the Gophers basketball team only to miss her second season after surgery to relieve pressure in her brain, is retiring from basketball.A 5-foot-7 sophomore whose ball-handling skills made her an uncommon threat when driving to the rim, made the announcement on her Twitter account Wednesday morning. She called the decision “the most difficult and painful one I’ve ever had to make.”As a redshirt freshman this season, Borowicz averaged 8.5 points and 3.0 assists a game and shot 37 percent from 3-point range for the Gophers (11-19, 4-14). She missed all of last season after surgery to repair an injury to the back of her skull that was putting pressure on her spine, ultimately causing nerve damage that resulted in tingling, numbness and weakness in her legs.“When I play,” she wrote Wednesday, “it only gets worse and I’ve come to associate basketball with pain. I have been struggling for the past year to push throug...