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David Brooks: The power of American capitalism

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

The mighty Mississippi rolls on. If you don’t live near it, you might never think of that wide, powerful river. You may associate it with old Mark Twain stories. But every day, 24/7, it rolls on.American capitalism is kind of like that. You can invent fables about how America is in economic decline. You can rail against “neoliberalism.” But the American economy doesn’t care. It just keeps rolling on.The Economist magazine published a report on American economic performance over the last three decades. Using an avalanche of evidence and data, the main thrust of the article is that far from declining, American capitalism is dominant and accelerating.Back in 1990, for example, America’s gross domestic product per capita was nearly neck and neck with that of Europe and Japan. But by 2022 the U.S. had raced ahead.In 1990, the U.S. economy accounted for 40% of the nominal GDP of the G-7 nations. By 2022 the U.S. accounted for 58%.In 1990, American income per person was 24% higher than the...

Ask Amy: A woman wants partner’s permission to roam

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

Dear Amy: I am a woman in a sexless relationship, which is also lacking in affection. We’ve been together off and on (mostly on) for 25 years.Our relationship is just sharing a home which he owns, and I pay half of the expenses.We can have a decent home this way, as housing is so expensive.We are both recently retired.I have spent the last 11 years trying to get him to be intimate again, and he will not. He says it’s his ED and COPD. He has literally no desire to give or receive any affection, except for an occasional hug and a peck on the cheek.I’ve given up and have a lot of anger over it.Well, I met a guy in Vegas in 2009 and had the best sex ever. We have remained in touch.He’s on the East Coast and I’m in the Southwest.The man I live with has also never wanted to get married and, now, neither do I.I like being my own boss.I want to visit the other guy, and he also wants me to.Related ArticlesAsk Amy | Ask Amy: A man’s choice to use a slur riles the family Ask Am...

Senior Azerbaijan diplomat urges Armenia to embrace a future of peace and prosperity

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

One of Azerbaijan’s top diplomats visited Brussels this month. Elchin Amirbayov, who is Assistant to the First Vice-President, spoke to EU Reporter about the role of the EU -and personally by Council President Charles Michel- in the efforts to end the confrontation between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In a wide-ranging interview with Political Editor Nick Powell, Mr Amirbayov also discussed his country’s role in Europe’s energy security and as part of the Middle Corridor trade route.Elchin Amirbayov came to Brussels with a busy schedule, aimed at strengthening relations not just with the EU as a whole but with Belgium in particular, mindful that the country will hold the presidency of the European Council for the first half of 2024. As well as talking about the potential for boosting trade he was taking the opportunity to brief ministers, parliamentarians and other stakeholders about the efforts to finally normalise relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.EU-Azerbaijan relations grew la...

Grisly details emerge during prelim for Bay Area man charged with 2013 killing

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

Using a semi-automatic firearm with an extended magazine, he allegedly shot a 27-year-old man 25 times, yielding a dozen wounds to the victim’s head, with other bullets riddling his neck, torso, a hand, and lower extremities.But one of the wounds could have been caused by “blunt force injury,” suggesting a pistol-whipping, with the violence occurring at a Feb. 4, 2013, Super Bowl party in a Vallejo residence.Those details were among the testimony and evidence aired Friday during the second day of a Solano County Superior Court preliminary hearing for a 41-year-old Vallejo man accused of the killing and who later fled to Peru but was eventually extradited to the United States four years ago.Shackled at the waist and legs, clad in a striped jail jumpsuit, William Bruce Cordoba sat at the defense table in Department 23 while forensic pathologist Dr. Arnold Josselson, on the witness stand, offered his opinion on the autopsy performed Feb. 5, 2013, on Jimmie Richardson.A twice-convicted ...

5 NFL players suspended for violating gambling policy

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

Three NFL players were suspended indefinitely Friday for betting on NFL games in the 2022 season, while two other players, including the 12th overall draft pick a year ago, received six-game suspensions for betting on non-NFL games at a league facility.Detroit Lions wide receiver Quintez Cephus, Lions safety C.J. Moore and Washington Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney are sidelined for the entire 2023 season and may petition for reinstatement afterward.Lions wide receivers Stanley Berryhill, a former first-team All-County all-purpose player from Orange Lutheran High, and Jameson Williams each received a six-game suspension, though they will be able to participate in all offseason and preseason activities, including preseason games. Their suspensions will start at the final roster cutdown.The NFL said that a “league review uncovered no evidence indicating any inside information was used or that any game was compromised in any way.”Gambling incidents have been relatively rare for th...

Correctional officer charged with smuggling meth, heroin across US-Mexico border

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

An Arizona correctional officer and Army National Guardsman allegedly smuggled more than 20 kilograms of methamphetamine and a kilogram of heroin across the United States/Mexico border, all with his wife and three children in the car with him, authorities say.Fernando Urrutiaguillen, 34, from Chandler, Arizona was pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers on the 5 freeway in Irvine on April 18 for a traffic stop.Officers say a K-9 alerted them to drugs stashed in the gas tank of Urrutiaguillen’s vehicle. They believe Urrutiaguillen was attempting to drive the drugs over the border and into California.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Prosecutors: Los Gatos party mom tried to flee justice, hide assets, smuggle drugs into jail Crime and Public Safety | GOP senator demands DEA boss defend no-bid contracts Crime and Public Safety | Drug suspect puts meth between buttocks, hides it in jail cell, gets busted again Crime and P...

Texas man indicted for alleged threat to kill California Rep. Maxine Waters

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

LOS ANGELES — A federal grand jury indicted a Houston man Friday for allegedly calling the office of California Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters several times last year and leaving threatening voicemails, including saying he intended to “cut your throat.”Brian Michael Gaherty, 60, was charged in the indictment with four counts of making threats in interstate communications and four counts of threatening a U.S. official, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said in a statement.Gaherty was arrested April 13 after prosecutors filed a criminal complaint alleging that he had threatened Waters, other elected officials and a news reporter in Houston.The indictment says Gaherty called the congresswoman’s office four times — twice in August and twice in November — and each time left a threatening message.Prosecutors said that in one, he told the congresswoman he intended to “cut your throat.”The indictment alleged Gaherty “knowingly threatened to assault and kill” Waters while she was...

2 women get life in prison for killing 84-year-old woman in California casino

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

Two Moreno Valley women were sentenced to life in prison without parole on Friday, April 21, for killing an 84-year-old Long Beach woman who was found unconscious with a cracked skull on the floor of a Pechanga Resort Casino bathroom in 2019.Kimesha Monae Williams, 39, and Candace Tai Townsel, 42, who both have long rap sheets for theft, were convicted in February at Southwest Justice Center in French Valley of murder, robbery and elder abuse, along with a sentencing enhancement of committing a robbery during a murder, after a monthlong trial.Their sentences for robbery and elder abuse were stayed under the legal tenet that those crimes were part of a single act, the murder of Afaf Assad.“This has been a long, painful journey through the criminal court justice system,” Assad’s daughter, Mary Assad, said in the victim impact statement she read to the court. “I still can’t believe my mother was the victim of a violent crime. … Part of me died in that hospital room with her.“My father ...

California’s only NCAA lacrosse team is shuttering. Here’s why

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

Just the image of a lacrosse player, stick held high, charging helmet-first across the field evokes “East Coast boy’s prep school.”And that mid-Atlantic bias has existed for almost as long as lacrosse — dubbed the oldest organized sport in North America — has existed.Since Native Americans from Iroquois tribes in Upstate New York began playing the game in the 12th century, lacrosse has been popular in the East and Midwest, but not so widespread in the West.Lacrosse’s popularity in western states has accelerated in more modern times, but now, with the shuttering of the only men’s National Collegiate Athletic Association team in California, that slow march is at a standstill.The Whittier College Poets put down their sticks for good on Saturday, April 22. The loss of Whittier College men’s lacrosse, an NCAA team since 1980, means there are no NCAA men’s teams left in California, according to Matt Holmes, NCAA’s assistant director of media coordination and statistics. In the West, there...

Word Game: April 22, 2023

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:17 GMT

TODAY’S WORD — HEMATOMAS (HEMATOMAS: hee-muh-TOH-muz: Swellings filled with blood from a break in a blood vessel.)Average mark 34 wordsTime limit 45 minutesCan you find 47 or more words in HEMATOMAS? The list will be published Monday.YESTERDAY’S WORD — VAGARIES varia varies vase vier virga visa visage vise aegis agar ager area aria arise aver gave gear give giver grave gravies rage raise ravage rave rise rive egis saga sage sager sari savage save saver sear sireTo purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last!RULES OF THE GAME:1. Words must be of four or more letters.2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible.4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are...