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The Justice Department sued Ticketmaster and its parent company Thursday, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly over live events in America and asking a court to break up the system that squelches competition and drives up prices for fans. Filed in federal court in Manhattan, the sweeping antitrust lawsuit was brought with 30 state and district attorneys general and seeks to dismantle the monopoly they say is squeezing out smaller promoters, hurting artists and drowning ticket buyers in fees. Ticketmaster and its owner, Live Nation Entertainment, have a long history of clashes with major artists and their fans, including...

Washington’s addiction to deficit spending — a rare bipartisan habit — is unlikely to change, no matter the electoral outcome in November. A deep conviction exists on both sides of the political divide that fiscal consolidation, whether achieved through less spending or higher taxes, reduces growth. What this political consensus misses, however, are situations in which the classic trade-off is suspended — when smaller deficits can counterintuitively deliver more growth. Today’s macroeconomic environment is ripe for such an approach. Compared to the years before the pandemic, fiscal policy — government spending and taxation — has kept a foot on the...

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government is pushing forward on intensifying military operations against Hamas in Rafah, despite increasing international isolation, deepening tensions with President Biden and pressure from Israeli society critical of efforts to free hostages held in Gaza. Israel describes the southern Gazan city of Rafah as the stronghold of the last pieces of Hamas’s conventional army, and it sees the border area with Egypt as a loose sieve where weapons and supplies flow freely to Hamas. Biden has said he has a red line against an Israeli military operation in Rafah that causes wide-scale destruction and death for...

President Donald Trump thanked Gov. Ron DeSantis for supporting him during a donor event hosted by the governor, raising over $3 million to benefit Trump’s 2024 campaign, Florida’s Voice has learned. The former president called into the Fort Lauderdale event and thanked DeSantis and the couple dozen supporters for their investment into his campaign efforts. The funding is going to Right For America, a super political action committee, a source familiar with the event told Florida’s Voice. A super PAC is technically separate from the campaign, and the organization supports Trump’s bid for presidency this year. Trump emphasized during a...

Within hours after Thomas Perez Jr. called police to report his father missing, he found himself in a tiny interrogation room confronted by Fontana detectives determined to extract a confession that he killed his dad. Perez had told police that his father, 71-year-old Thomas Perez Sr., went out for a walk with the family dog at about 10 p.m. on Aug. 7, 2018. The dog returned within minutes without Perez’s father. Investigators didn’t believe his story, and over the next 17 hours they grilled him to try to get to the “truth.” According to court records, detectives told Perez that...

New Orleans Saints @Saints Happy Birthday to Saints Legend, Jim E. Mora 🥳

Friends – Growing up in Cincinnati, faith was an integral part of my life. My family, church, school, and troop all provided a community that helped shape who I was and who I would become in life. Even today, the simple, quiet reverence of Scout Vespers moves me. I know many of you who have grown up in Scouting feel the same way. As a parent, I believe that faith should be an integral part of childhood. In an increasingly complicated world, faith helps young people develop a broader perspective on life. Faith gives them a sense of hope and...

A sitting state Supreme Court justice fought off a spirited challenge from a candidate who campaigned on protecting abortion rights in Georgia. The Associated Press called the race for Justice Andrew Pinson at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. As of Wednesday morning, Pinson had about 55% of the vote in the head-to-head race against John Barrow, whose efforts to make the race a referendum on abortion rights turned the contest into one of most closely watched on Tuesday’s ballot in Georgia.

The plane of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian former president of Ukraine who fled the country after the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, has arrived in Belarus. Source: Belaruski Hajun, an independent Belarusian military monitoring media outlet Quote: "Viktor Yanukovych's Dassault Falcon 900C (RA-09617) landed at Gomel airport at 12:50." Details: Analysts do not indicate who might be on board, but note that Yanukovych last visited Belarus in March 2022. At that time, Ukrainska Pravda's intelligence sources reported that the Kremlin was preparing Yanukovych for a special operation – following one of the scenarios, they could try to declare him "president...

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will undergo a “minimally invasive” and “non surgical” procedure at Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday night, Pentagon spokesman Major Gen. Patrick Ryder said on Friday. He will transfer his authorities temporarily to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, Ryder said. The procedure is related to a bladder issue Austin suffered as a result of a surgery he underwent to treat prostate cancer earlier this year.

Convicted fraudster and former Baltimore District Attorney Marilyn Mosby will avoid jail time for perjury and mortgage fraud after facing up to 40 years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby said the fact that Mosby is a mother of two daughters helped motivate her decision to sentence the former prosecutor to 12 months of home detention, three years of supervised release, and 100 hours of community service in lieu of prison, WBAL TV reported. Though Mosby has maintained her innocence, she was found guilty of taking advantage of the CARES Act — the first coronavirus relief bill...

Claim: A new campaign commercial from Joe Biden — narrated by Hollywood star Robert De Niro — revives the left’s Trump “bloodbath” hoax. The 30-second ad features a clip of former President Donald Trump saying, “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath.” The commercial displays the word “Bloodbath” in large font over the clip. Verdict: Misleading and false. The clip, which is from a March rally in Ohio, is taken out of context. Trump was using the word “bloodbath” to refer to the U.S. auto industry as well as the overall economy if he is not...

(RNS) — Since taking the pulpit at Legacy Baptist Church in Coolidge, Arizona, Pastor Rob Hudelson has not shied away from hot-button political issues, including disputing the results of the 2020 election. His taste for politicking has expressed itself in his two campaigns for state representative. Recently on X, formerly Twitter, Hudelson responded to a post from the conspiracy minded journalist Lara Logan about recent arrests of Jan. 6 rioters with a post that read: “Marxism will not be something that is debated… only taken by force. It cannot win in the battlefield of ideas.” That kind of rhetoric has...

The cost of living defines the 2024 presidential election, with voters in battleground states favoring former President Donald Trump and prioritizing the economy over abortion — Democrat President Joe Biden’s top campaign issue — a new survey found. The Swing State Project report released on Friday, a collaboration between the Cook Political Report, GS Strategy Group (a Republican polling firm), and BSG (a Democratic polling firm), found that the state of the economy ultimately outweighs the nation’s shifting abortion landscape going into November. The project surveyed 3,969 voters in seven battleground states from May 6 to May 13. “Right now,...

The shooting of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico seems likely to be recognised as a terrorist attack after the gunman admitted he shot the head of government for political reasons.Slovak prosecutors have published comments by the man who confessed to shooting Prime Minister Robert Fico last week for the first time, offering the first official insight into motivations behind the attack that rocked Europe. The confession opens the way for the Slovak authorities to reclassify the attack from mere attempted murder to a terrorist attack. (snip) While Cintula said he disagreed with several of Fico’s policies and political reforms, according...

A priest in Florida bit the forearm of a woman he says was desecrating the Eucharist in a Communion line at church this past Sunday and has now been charged with one count of battery. Father Fidel Rodriguez, 66, admitted to police that he bit the woman but said he did so only after she reached into the ciborium and tried to grab a host from it, damaging other hosts as she did so. “The only defense that I found to defend something that for us, for all of us, is sacred, was biting her. I have recognized that I...

Colorado has long drawn on its high-altitude sunshine and wintry winds for energy. Now Gov. Jared Polis (D) is determined to tap into another renewable resource: one simmering under the Centennial State’s surface. “The low-cost workhorses of the clean energy economy will always be solar and wind energy, especially in places like Colorado that have great wind and great sun,” Polis told The Hill in a Zoom interview this week. But as states strive to cut down on fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, they are left with an incomplete solution to the energy transition puzzle and need to...

Preeclampsia can be a life-threatening complication of pregnancy, but a new blood test can help predict a woman's risk for the condition while she is in her first trimester, the test's maker said Wednesday. It's the first test that can be used between 11 and 14 weeks gestation to determine the risk of preeclampsia before 34 weeks of pregnancy, Labcorp said in a news release announcing the launch of the test. Roughly one in 25 U.S. pregnancies is affected by preeclampsia, which poses an even greater risk for Black women, who experience the condition at a 60% higher rate than...

Foreign Minister Israel Katz in Jerusalem, February 19, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90) Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced Friday that the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem will no longer provide services to Palestinians from the West Bank following Spain’s announcement that it will recognize an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. “I have decided to sever the connection between the Spanish mission to Israel and the Palestinians, and to prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians from the West Bank,” Katz said in a statement. Referring to Spain’s Labor and Economy Minister Yolanda Díaz, who drew allegations of antisemitism for...

The House of Representatives on Thursday voted along bipartisan lines to advance legislation blocking the Federal Reserve from creating its own central bank digital currency (CBDC). Three Democrats joined all Republicans in voting for the bill — moderate Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine., Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash. The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act was led by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and backed by Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee. If passed in both chambers of Congress, the bill would be a significant step toward curbing the federal government's ability to regulate cryptocurrency, but it's...