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Hooray, We Now Have Medicare for All (Bank Deposits)!

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

Customers in line outside the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., on March 13, 2023.Photo: David Paul Morris/Getty ImagesFor everyone who’s fought and bled for years to get Medicare for All in the United States, I’ve got some great news: The government just created it on Sunday!Yes, this is Medicare for All Bank Deposits, rather than Medicare for All People. But if we think this through, we’ll see that both these things are great ideas and make sense for the same reasons — and there’s no reason that if we have one, we can’t have the other.First of all, it’s important to understand what happened yesterday. Banks are intrinsically vulnerable to runs. They accept deposits from regular people and businesses, which is good, so we don’t have to keep sacks full of cash in our closet and pay armed men to guard them.The problem is that we want to be able to come get our money out of the bank at any time. However, banks don’t keep sacks of all our cash in their vaults wai...

Gun laws, campus policies perplex college sports programs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

At Alabama, one of the team’s best players allegedly delivered a gun that was used in a fatal shooting. At New Mexico State, a player avoided charges for shooting and killing a student in what he said was self-defense, even though he was carrying a gun in violation of school rules. At Michigan State, sports were suspended after gun violence on campus left three students dead. At LSU, the team’s leading wide receiver was arrested, but not charged, for carrying a gun through the French Quarter in New Orleans. The headlines over the past few months illustrate the challenge for athletic departments in determining how gun laws in their states and regulations at their schools should be applied to their programs and communicated to their players. An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen schools in the NCAA tournaments shows a wide range of policies that govern guns at those schools and uneven efforts to regulate them.“I have no idea,” Michigan State basketball coach To...

Confirmed: Global floods, droughts worsening with warming

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Water. These aren’t merely tough weather events, they are leading to extremes such as crop failure, infrastructure damage, even humanitarian crises and conflict. The big picture on water comes from data from a pair of satellites known as GRACE, or Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, that were used to measure changes in Earth’s water storage — the sum of all the water on and in the land, including groundwater, surface water, ice, and snow.“It’s incredible that we can now monitor the pulse of continental water from outer space,” said Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved with the study. “I have a feeling when future generations look back and try to determine when humanity really began understanding the planet as a whole, this will be one of the studies highlighted,...

Indicted aide to former Maryland governor misses court date

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A federal judge issued an arrest warrant on Monday for Roy McGrath, the one-time aide to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, after McGrath failed to appear in court as his trial on federal fraud charges was set to begin.U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued the arrest warrant in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Monday morning. McGrath had an arraignment scheduled for 9 a.m. in a superseding indictment in his federal case. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday morning.McGrath faces an eight-count federal indictment. Charges include wire fraud, including securing a $233,648 severance payment equal to one year of salary as the head of Maryland Environmental Service. He also faces fraud and embezzlement charges connected to roughly $170,000 in expenses. McGrath has pleaded not guilty.McGrath did not return cellphone calls or emails Monday morning.McGrath resigned in August 2020 when he was just 11 weeks into the job as Hogan’s top aide, after the paym...

Volkswagen to build electric vehicle battery plant in Canada

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

ST. THOMAS, Ontario (AP) — Volkswagen announced Monday it plans to build a major plant for electric vehicle batteries in Canada.The European automaker said the Volkswagen Group and its battery company PowerCo will establish its first overseas “gigafactory″ for battery cell manufacturing in St. Thomas, in southwestern Ontario. The start of production is planned for 2027.The company signed an agreement last year with the Canadian government to work to identify suitable sites for such a facility in Canada. It also had committed to investigate ways for Canada to contribute to Volkswagen’s battery supply chains, including raw materials and assembly.The province of Ontario set the stage last month for the announcement, introducing and quickly passing a law adjusting the municipal boundaries for a 1,500-acre “mega site″ in southwestern Ontario.The province’s Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli said at the time that the piece of land had straddled two municipalities, ...

Alabama, Houston top final AP Top 25 ahead of March Madness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

The overall No. 1 seed for March Madness is No. 1 in the final AP Top 25, too.Alabama, fresh off an SEC Tournament title to go with its regular-season crown, ascended to the top spot Monday, earning 48 of 61 first-place votes to jump Houston, which lost in the American Athletic Conference final without star guard Marcus Sasser. Alabama also spent a week at No. 1 last month.“We set goals over the summer: regular season, (league) tournament, obviously a national championship,” Crimson Tide guard Jahvon Quinerly said. “I’m going to make sure our guys are ready to go no matter who we match up with.”That will be Texas A&M-Corpus Christi or Southeast Missouri State, who meet in a First Four game Tuesday night. The winner will play the Crimson Tide on Thursday in Birmingham, an hour down the road from their Tuscaloosa campus. The top seed in the South Region, Alabama would face West Virginia or Maryland for a spot in the Sweet 16 with a win.And how sweet that would be for a team that&#...

Bryant Street, DC’s newest food hall, is ready for its close-up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

The newest addition to MRP Realty’s expansive community and entertainment center development in Northeast D.C.’s Edgewood neighborhood is the Bryant Street Market food hall.It officially opens on March 17, with five food vendors and a sixth coming soon.A rendering of the soon-to-open Bryant Street Market Food Hall in D.C. (Courtesy MRP Realty)Neighbors got a preview of the food hall and sampled food from some of the vendors a week before the scheduled opening.Initial vendors at Bryant Street Food Hall are:Taqueria HabaneroTiger SugarGrassfed GriddleBlowfish PokeAlegria BarBold Dumpling (coming soon)The food hall has room for more than a dozen food vendors eventually.Bryant Street Market is on the street level of the residential building The Chase. In addition to the food hall, a 2,400-square-foot event space will open soon as part of Bryant Street Market to host pop-ups for local businesses.This is the second food hall project for MRP, which also operates Western Market in Fog...

POLL ALERT: Alabama, Houston top final AP Top 25 poll of the season ahead of March Madness; Memphis cracks rankings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — POLL ALERT: Alabama, Houston top final AP Top 25 poll of the season ahead of March Madness; Memphis cracks rankings.Source

Inzaghi under pressure as Inter Milan visits Porto in UCL

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

MILAN (AP) — After another disappointing loss in Serie A, Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi is under increasing pressure to deliver in the Champions League as his team visits Porto in the round of 16 on Tuesday. Inter is carrying a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg and Inzhagi’s long-term future at the club could depend how the team performs this week after falling out of contention for the Serie A title. While Inter is still in second place in the Italian league, a 2-1 loss at relegation-threatened Spezia on Friday cast further doubts on Inzaghi’s position, with his team 18 points behind Ieader Napoli. A home game against bitter rival Juventus is up next on Sunday, and Inzaghi’s job could come under serious threat if Inter loses both games this week. Some Inter fans are already clamoring for Antonio Conte’s return, with the Italian coach’s future at Tottenham unclear after this season. “A coach always has all the responsibility, when he wins and when he lose...

Drake, 21 Savage to bring ‘It’s All a Blur Tour’ to DC

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:07 GMT

Grammy Award-winning artist Drake announced Monday that he’ll speed through the District’s Capital One Arena this summer for the rapper’s 2023 North American tour with 21 Savage.The “It’s All a Blur Tour” will stop in D.C. on Friday, July 28, bringing the two collaborators together for a shared tour. The artists will also makes stops in Toronto, New York, Miami and several other locations. It will be Drake’s first time headlining a tour since before the pandemic.More DC NewsMore Local NewsMore Entertainment NewsDrake first hinted that he would pull off a new set of songs, and a potential tour, in early 2023 during a weekend show set at the Apollo Theater in New York.“I thought about a bunch of things in life, but at this moment in time, none of those things are stopping making music for you,” Drake said. “I hope I can strike up some more emotions for you, maybe this year — I might get bored and make another one.”This tour will mark the secon...