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“Ozarks Devil” murderer pleads not to commit crimes in escape from prison

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The former police chief, who was recaptured earlier this month, pleaded not guilty in connection with a famous escape from the Arkansas prison.

Grant Hardin, known as the “Ozarks Devil,” appeared in the first courthouse on June 17th via video call, according to court records. He pleaded not guilty to the second escape.

During the hearing, 56-year-old Hardin was found poor and a public defense counsel was assigned to his case, court records show. A hearing for the trial was scheduled for October 21st, and a ju trial was scheduled to be held from November 5th to November 7th.

On June 6, Hardin was captured a mile and a half west of the North Central Unit Prison in Calico Rock, Arkansas, according to the State Department of Corrections spokesmanland Champion. He escaped the facility on May 25 by leaving it to a corrections officer.

The search for Hardin, which lasted about 12 days, was challenged by the mountainous and rough terrain of the Ozark Mountains. After his capture, Hardin was transferred to the Burner squad, the largest security prison, about 75 miles southeast of Little Rock.

Hardin, a former police chief at Gateway, a small town near the Arkansas Missouri border, served decades of prison for murder and rape. He gained notoriety after becoming the subject of “The Devil of the Ozarks,” a 2023 television documentary about his crimes.

Authorities say Hardin’s escape remains under investigation. The escape followed the May 16 escape of 10 New Orleans prisoners, which sparked fear and anger among the community and called for accountability. Eight of them were subsequently captured, with at least 16 accomplices arrested.

Who is Grant Hardin?

Between 1990 and 2016, Hardin was bouncing around the police station, USA Today reported earlier. He then became Gateway’s police chief in January 2016.

He resigned from his position in April 2016 and was later hired at the Northwest Arkansas Community Correctional Center in Fayetteville, where he even worked for an arrest.

In 2017, Hardin pleaded guilty to first-degree murder to the shooting and murder of James Appleton, a Gateway water department employee, according to court records. The fatal shooting occurred in February of the same year. Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder.

Following his murder conviction, DNA testing connected Hardin to rape a school teacher in Rogers, near Rogers, Arkansas, according to an affidavit filed in the case. Court records show Hardin pleaded guilty to two counts of rape in 2019 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a consecutive count.

Before 3pm local time on May 25th, Hardin fled Calico Rock Prison. Court records show that he disguised himself as an amendment officer and walked to the exit gate.

He then tricked a real officer into opening the gate and allowed him to walk away from the medium security facility, court records said.

Hardin’s escape caused a widespread manhunt involving hundreds of local, state and federal law enforcement officials, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections. The FBI was offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information that led to an arrest.

On June 6, Hardin was discovered just west of Calikorock Prison, Champion said. In the photo of his arrest, Hardin sat on the ground in the vegetation area with his hands behind his back in a baseball cap, dirty T-shirt and pants.

Authorities investigating escape, 12 days of avoidance

Authorities are still investigating how Hardin escaped law enforcement for about 12 days. The champion told NBC News that authorities do not believe they receive assistance from within or outside the prison.

In an interview with the New York Times, the champion said authorities believe Hardin used his experience in the Karico Rock prison kitchen to help him escape and execute. He added that Hardin may have used kitchen assignments to observe staff movements, access restricted areas and obtain materials for his disguise, the newspaper reported.

Authorities also believe Hardin spent months preparing for the escape. This includes watching prison routines from within the facility, according to the Times.

“This wasn’t something he came up with that Sunday morning when he woke up,” the Champion told The Times. “This was well thought out and something he had planned for a while.”

The Arkansas Department of Corrections did not respond to a request for comment from USA Today on June 17th.

Contributors: Michael Loria, Janine Santic, James Powell, USA Today



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India and Canada show a reset of relations almost two years after the assassination of Sikh separatists

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CNN
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India and Canada signaled a reset of relations on Tuesday, agreeing to reestablish a high committee of each other’s capital following the Ottawa charges that New Delhi allegedly involved in the killing of Sikh separatists in the soil.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian Countermark Carney, who took office in March, announced the move after meeting bystanders of groups of seven summits in the Rockies, Canada.

Ottawa and New Delhi have agreed to “designate new high commissioners with the aim of returning to regular service to citizens and businesses in both countries,” according to a statement from Carney’s office.

The move comes after former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Canadian officials publicly accused New Delhi of being involved in the murder of prominent Sikh separatists and Canadian citizen Harpi Singh Nijar in the suburbs of Vancouver in 2023.

Canadian authorities said they shared the evidence with Indian authorities. However, Indian officials repeatedly denied Canada’s provision of evidence, calling the allegations “absurd and motivated.”

Relations between the two countries have plummeted after the accusations, urging claims from Canada’s India, which has a “terrorist” banishment, urgent ban on TAT diplomatic stolen, a temporary suspension of visa services, and “terrorists” and encourage “anti-Indian activities.”

According to CNN affiliate CBC, Carney said earlier this month it makes sense to have leaders in the world’s most populous country around the table when there were “big challenges.”

Carney also attended this year’s rally, inviting leaders from several other non-member countries in Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Ukraine, Australia and South Korea.

There were no signs of tension on Tuesday as the Canadian Prime Minister shook hands in Alberta, Western Canada, which he calls “great honor” to host Indian leaders in the G7.

“India has arrived at the G7 since 2018. And it is a testament to the importance of your country, your leadership and the issues we aim to tackle together,” Carney told reporters.

Modi’s comments on Kearney were equally welcomed.

“We had a great meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney,” he wrote about X. “India and Canada have led to strong belief in democracy, freedom and the rule of law. Prime Minister Carney and I look forward to working closely to add momentum to the friendship between India and Canada.”

The Canadian Prime Minister’s Office said the two discussed opportunities to “deepen engagement” in areas such as technology, digital transition, food security and key minerals.

Neither leader has publicly mentioned the recent tensions in relations or discussion of Nijar’s murder.

Nijar, who was shot outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, was shot by a masked man in June 2023, is a prominent campaigner in the homeland of independent Sikhs in northern India and is known as Khalistan.

The campaign for the creation of Kalistan has long been considered a national security threat by New Delhi and has been banned in India. And many groups associated with the movement are listed as “terrorist organizations” under Indian law.

However, the movement has achieved a level of sympathy from some of the Sikh community, particularly in the diaspora.

CNN affiliate CTV has seen scores of Sikh protesters waving the Kalistan flag in Calgary, Alberta, since the start of the summit on Sunday.

Some protesters expressed their anger at Modi’s visit, while others demanded justice in the murder of Nijar.

When asked about Nijjar’s murder at a press conference after speaking to Modi, Carney said: “There’s an ongoing judicial process and we need to be more careful about commentary.”

Carney told CBC’s Radio Canada last week that he spoke with Modi about Nijar when asked about Sikh separatists and ongoing police investigations last week.



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Is the stock market open in June? 2025 Holiday Schedule

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The US stock market will close on Thursday, June 19th.

The NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange will close on Thursday and reopen on Friday, June 20th. The US bond market will also close on June 19, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

June, known as America’s second Independence Day, has been commemorated as a federally recognized holiday since 2021, offering millions of Americans the opportunity to commemorate the end of slavery.

Holiday celebrated the date Major General Gordon Granger’s arrival in Galveston Bay, Texas in 1865, declaring that blacks, who had been enslaved by 2,000 Union forces, were free.

After closing in June, it will be business as usual on Wall Street until early July. The next scheduled stock market closure is Friday, July 4th, in compliance with Independence Day.

US Stock Market 2025 Holiday Schedule

The market will be closed on the next public holidays.

  • June: Thursday, June 19th
  • independence day: Friday, July 4th
  • labor day: Monday, September 1st
  • Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 27th
  • Christmas: Thursday, December 25th

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter for USA Today. You can follow him with X @geuna Alternatively, email him at gdhauari@gannett.com.





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One number can define the outcome of the Iran-Israel conflict

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CNN
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The consequences of the critical conflict between Iran and Israel can depend on one simple number.

Iran has fired about 700 medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) in Israel over the past 14 months, leaving 300 to 1,300 remaining in its stockpile, according to Israeli military data and expert analysis.

This remaining Arsenal has been the subject of Israel’s heavy air attacks over the past five days, with the IDF targeting at least a third of its surface-to-surface launchers launching MRBMS, possibly further reducing Iran’s ability to return to Israel.

That Arsenal depletion could exacerbate Iran’s desire to get Iran out of the conflict and strengthen the violent nature of Israeli campaigns in the coming days, analysts said Israeli air forces have been barely challenged and Israeli Iran’s nightly assaults appear to be present recently.

While there are few reliable estimates of Iran’s stockpiles, Commander Kenneth MacKenzie, US commander of Centcom, said in 2023 that more than 3,000 missiles have different ranges. Ben Ben Tareble, a senior fellow at the Democracy Foundation, said these 1,000-2,000 people were medium distance and could span 1,400 kilometers between Iran and Israel. He called the estimate “at best it was envelope calculations.”

According to the IDF, Iran used 120 MRBMS in Israel on April 13 last year, with another 200 on October 1, with a total of 380 over the past five days. This tally would deplete the overall known Arsenal at a total of 700. But whether or not Tehran will leave an existential crisis on missile deterrence will depend on both the size of its initial stockpile and the damage Israel has inflicted on Iranian military infrastructure since it began to snag across the country on Friday.

Ben Talebri suggested that this could leave Iran with 1,300 MRBMs. Other estimates were more pessimistic. Dr. Eir Pino, a retired Israeli Navy Intelligence agent, said he is currently a senior researcher at the Sedat Center for Strategic Studies.

Motorcyclists will observe ballistic missiles burning solid fuel from Iranian Sedil on display in a square in southern Tehran at the military exhibition on September 26, 2023.

It brought serious casualties by glimpses of some of the damage caused to Iran’s air defense and missile production from the Israeli attack on October 26th. Admiral Tony Radhakin, chief of British defense staff, said in a December speech that 100 Israeli aircraft launched many missiles from miles away, “threw down almost the entire Iranian air defense system, destroying Iran’s ability to produce ballistic missiles for a year.”

However, recently Israel has amplified the threat posed by Iranian missile production. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Iran could increase the production of ballistic missiles to 300 a month, leaving 20,000 in six years as Israel launched an air campaign. He provided no evidence of his claim.

Pinko said the 2024 strike “destroyed major facilities for the manufacture of ballistic missile motors” in Iran, creating severe restrictions on the country’s supply chain. Still, he points out that potential support from China over the next few months could once again boost production.

Iran would not want to sink “less than four digits” into the MRBMS arsenal, Ben Tareble said.

“For the Islamic Republic, quantity has its own quality,” he said, adding that Iran “is actually a traditional fighter jet in crisis management, and that these ballistic missiles must be spent in times of war, not in times of crisis.”



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Trump reverses the course of ice raids at farms, hotels and restaurants

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President Trump had promised changes to protect some migrant workers in the Truth Social Post on June 12th, but his administration changed course

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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration will continue to raid immigrants at farms, hotels and restaurants, quickly overturning the course after President Donald Trump vowed to protect immigrants in these industries due to a labor shortage last week.

The move, confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, was first reported by the Washington Post. The Washington Post detailed the White House rifts over the exemption policy that Trump discussed in his remarks and social media posts on June 12.

On one end was Trump’s agricultural secretary, Brooke Rollins, who communicated to Trump concerns in the agricultural industry about losing workers due to the president’s massive deportation. But Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at White House and the top architect of Trump’s immigration agenda, reported opposed sculptures in certain industries.

“The president was incredibly clear. There is no safe space for industries that embrace violent criminals or deliberately undermine ice efforts,” DHS Deputy Secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement to USA Today.

“Workplace enforcement is the basis of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability,” she added. “These businesses target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize the labour market and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation.”

Trump pledged changes to protect immigrants in the agriculture, hotel and leisure industries in the Truth Social Post on June 12th. This admitted that ice officials extended their arrests beyond immigrants convicted of violent crimes.

“Our farmers are seriously hurt,” Trump said in a statement later that day, reflecting the concerns raised by Rollins. “You know, they have very good workers. They’ve been working for them for 20 years. They’re not citizens, but they turn out you know.”

Trump’s new stance appeared to undermine his long-standing massive deportation policy, which was a hallmark of his 2024 campaign.

About 42% of U.S. farm workers lacked legal status between 2020 and 2022, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

According to the mail, DHS officials sent an email on June 12th telling agents to “hold all enforcement investigations/operations of the farm facility (including aquaculture and meat packaging plants), restaurants and operating hotels.”

But over the weekend, ICE and the agency’s Homeland Security Research Division began learning that new policies would be reversed. ICE officials confirmed in a June 16 call to agency leaders that migrant raids must continue at farms, hotels and restaurants.

Democrat critics of Trump’s hard-pressed immigration agenda laughed at Trump’s changing position. “In the end, Stephen Miller looks like a boss. Trump stepped into his own staff, pathetic,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an X post.

White House officials confirmed the changed course and told USA Today that everyone in the United States is at risk of deportation.

Three days after Trump announced short-lived sculptures for certain immigrants, Trump instructed ice officials on June 15 to intensify efforts to detain and deport immigrants from large democratic cities. It marked an escalation of his crackdown on illegal immigration despite millions of demonstrators opposed the policy during the recent “No Kings” protests.

In a post about True Society, Trump challenged ice officers to “do everything in their power to achieve the very important goal of providing the largest deportation program in history.” He urged them to increase their activities in Democrat-led cities, and picked out Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

The Trump administration budget document released last week was released by US immigration and customs enforcement agencies that aimed to deport one million migrants a year, according to Reuters.

ICE arrested more than 100,000 people suspected of violating immigration laws from January 20th to the first week of June, according to the White House. This figure amounts to an average of 750 arrests per day. It’s twice the average over the past decade.

Still, the pace of arrests is far below what Trump needs to banish millions of people. In late May, Miller set a quota for at least 3,000 arrests per day, telling ICE leadership should target people without legal status.

Contribution: Reuters

Reach Joey Garrison with X @joeygarrison.



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Senator Mike Lee’s post on GOP Senator Minnesota shooting

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Washington – The backlash began after several posts on X.

A day after Minnesota Democratic state Sen. Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in their home on June 14th, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee pretended that their assassination would lead to a political leftist.

“This is what happens, when Marxists don’t give way,” he wrote in his personal X account in the image of suspect Vance Bolter. In a follow-up tweet, he wrote, “The Nightmare of Waltz Street.”

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith and Hortman’s friend Tina Smith later confronted Lee at Capitol.

“I wanted him to approach him from a respectful position and to understand what I was thinking. He didn’t have that much.

“He’s spreading that misinformation to show that somehow this is some sort of Marxist leftist attack that causes violence. He should fix it.

According to the Associated Press, Bolter’s friend described him as a devout Christian who attended President Donald Trump’s campaign rally. He was registered to vote as a Republican in 2004 while he was resident in Oklahoma, the outlet reported.

Refusing to answer reporters’ questions about his controversial posts and conversations with Smith, Lee took revenge from the entire aisle.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote that he was “fed up” to see Lee assassinate using the assassination, “take cheap political shots, risking escalating dangerous moments, and incite a flame of lies.”

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele wrote Lee to Lee for X.

Belter, who was allegedly disguised as a law enforcement officer during the attack, was arrested on June 15th after a fierce manhunt and faced both state and federal murder charges. Waltz says the attack is “politically motivated.”



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Pistachio cream reminded me after being linked to the salmonella outbreak

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The pistachio cream tub has been recalled after nearly half a dozen people reported getting sick with Salmonella infections, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Emek-Brand Pistachio Cream is a product sold online at wholesale distributors, restaurants and foodservice locations nationwide, and is linked to the outbreak of salmonella in at least two states.

This product is a nut butter spread used in desserts containing ice cream, manufactured by the Turkish Emek Dogal Saglik Urunleri Iklim Gida Insaat San Tic Ltd STI and imported to the US.

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are working with state and local partners to investigate multi-stage outbreaks.

As of May 19, three of them reported that four people from one North Central state had become ill after eating the affected product, the FDA wrote in an updated June 13 post. The FDA said it was working to determine whether other lots or products from this company could be affected.

Here’s what you need to know about cream recalls:

Which state has people become ill due to the recalled pistachio cream?

So far, people from two states have reported getting sick from their products, according to the FDA and CDA.

  • Minnesota (3 people)
  • New Jersey (one person)

Which pistachio cream is being recalled?

The FDA recalls the Emek-Brand Pistachio cream packaged in a 5-kilogram white bathtub.

The recalled cream has a date of use on October 9, 2026 and a production code of 241019 (PNO:).

How many people have gotten sick from the recalled pistachio cream?

According to its online post, the FDA was notified by the Minnesota Department of Health about “clusters of salmonella disease and two positive salmonella samples consistent with clinical cases (WGS) by whole genome sequencing (WGS) at the time of this outbreak.”

As of June 13th, four cases of salmonella had been reported from two states. Of these cases, all four reported eating pistachio cream, the FDA said, and three of the four cases reported eating pistachio cream in the same restaurant.

One of the people who consumed the affected cream had to be hospitalized, the FDA said.

What is Salmonella?

Salmonella is a creature that can cause serious and fatal infections in children, the elderly and other people with weakened immune systems, according to the CDC.

Most people infected with salmonella begin to develop symptoms 12-72 hours after eating contaminated products. The main symptoms are diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps.

Most people recover without treatment, but in rare circumstances, the CDC says infection may require hospitalization. Pregnant women are also at a higher risk of developing an infection through IT and should see a doctor if symptoms develop.

Consumers experiencing illness due to affected products should contact their healthcare provider to report symptoms and report them for medical care.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter at USA Today. Contact her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at x @nataliealund.



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Kate Spade co-founder remembers the struggle against the fame of the late designer

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The name “Kate Spade” refers to both the iconic fashion brand and its founder, but there was far more to the story than a single woman.

Elyce Arons is also at the heart of Kate Spade’s history, where she recalls her late friend and tells her side in a new memoir. “After all, we might make it: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade” comes from Simon & Schuster.

Aron and Spade met as freshmen at Kansas University and later transferred together to Arizona State University, where Spade met her husband Andy Spade (brother of comedian David Spade). The trio combined iconic affordable luxury handbag companies together.

Arons and Spade were inseparable in much of their adult life until Spade’s death in 2018. Her memoirs reveal that Arons calls her Spade “a real show that the first person in my life feels truly loved.”

Kate Spade was “mortal” as a public figure

Aron’s memoirs document Kate Spade’s humble early days beginning with the “aha! moment” of spade after the magazine’s editor’s job failed to find the right handbag for fashion shoots. She and Andy lay the foundations for a new company and persuade Aron to return to New York City and join. Their fledgling company developed from Spade’s New York apartments and partnered with local textile manufacturers who they thought were “a bit crazy,” Aron wrote. When their operations were too big for a Spade apartment, they moved to the office and procure dozens of discarded desks they found on the sidewalk.

None of her early partners were eager to become the public face of the brand, but Task went to her as Spade, known in her personal life as Katie, had a name on the label.

“Katie never wanted to be a public face of anything. On the contrary, she was worried about fame. But by creating the aesthetics of the brand, she was a designer,” writes Aron. “In spite of her embarrassment, Katie had charisma, authenticity, appearance and the X-factor that made her the front and face of the brand. Her name was on the label. We were mostly happy with it.

Arons writes that Spade “had been patient and became an expert in being the face and voice of the company,” but she still suffered from public opinion. She was naturally “slightly introverted” and was uncomfortable with celebrities.

She also often had to travel as the face of the company and went on tours to represent her new accessory lines and products. Arons describes this as Spade’s “disastrous” experience. When they launched their first perfume, Spade toured alone and eventually confronted Aron on a phone call that she felt “abandoned” by her team.

“I know it’s not your fault that you’re not here, but I feel abandoned by you. You guys put me in this. You should do this tour with me,” Spade said.

Ellis Aron’s final conversation with Kate Spade: “Unthinkable”

A few years after selling their company, Arons and Spade started Frances Valentine, a shoe and wallet company, together. Their sales were strong and looked like Aron, like “Lightning might attack twice.”

Spade passed away a year later.

“I talked frequently about Katie and her battle with depression. She knew she had been actively seeking help with experts over the past few years, and we understood that it was to ease the time when Katie was carrying deep sadness that she seemed to not shaking,” Aron Leitt said. “Most of the time, she was herself and we worked and socialized together as usual.

Still, Aron says he didn’t know how deep Spade’s deep depression was. She writes that Spade’s death “leaved us many questions.” She was talking to Spade the day before about Spade’s summer trip plans, when Spade later said he had to answer a call from her father and would call Arons back. It was “unthinkable” for Aron to have it become their final conversation.

“Losing my best friend – the woman who shared my sense of humor, the woman who was my constant companion on school, at work, at dinner, at phone, at my house, on vacation, it was like losing her face in the mirror,” Aron wrote. “It was confusing, intrusive and very lonely.”

Kate Spade and her husband Andy lived apart, but “loved each other.”

Spade and her husband were separated at the time of her death, but “we needed a break” and “we never even discussed divorce,” Andy told people in a posthumous statement.

“After all, we might make it,” writes Aaron, the pair “loved each other all the way to the edge of the earth.” She also denounces those who wrote “superficial ready-made explanations” for Spade’s death, like marriage and company issues.

“A very sensitive person, she felt things deeper than most,” writes Aron. “But I’m sure she’s not that angry about the pair of shoes we’ve sold that we’ll take her own life. We all have dark moments and periods. In one of those moments, she lost hope.”

This article discusses suicide and suicidal thoughts. If you or someone you know is struggling or in a crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Clare Mulroy is USA Today’s Books Reporter, covering Buzzy releases, chatting with authors and diving into the culture of reading. Find her On Instagramsubscribe every week Book Newsletter Or tell her what you’re reading cmulroy@usatoday.com.





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These healthcare sites shared sensitive information with Google, LinkedIn

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This story was originally published by The Markup. It is currently part of Calmatters. sign up For their newsletter.National Healthcare websites across the country are intended to provide an easy way to shop for insurance, quietly sending sensitive health information from visitors to Google and social media companies. Data including prescription drug names and dosages were sent by state exchange web trackers set up under the Affordable Care Act to help Americans purchase health insurance. The Exchange website asks users to answer a set of questions about their health history to find the most relevant information about their plans. However, in some cases, when a visitor answered a sensitive question, an invisible tracker sent the information to platforms such as Google, LinkedIn, Snapchat and others. Markup and Calmatters have audited websites in all 19 states that operate their own online health exchanges independently. While most sites contained some sort of ad tracker, Markup and Calmatters found that four states were exposing sensitive health information from visitors. Nevada Health Link, a Nevada exchange, helps you ask visitors for a prescription that includes the name and dosage of the medication and find the best option for your health insurance. When visitors begin typing, it suggests certain medications such as antidepressants, birth control, and hormone therapy. When visitors answered questions, their responses were sent to LinkedIn and Snapchat, according to tests conducted by Markup and Calmatters in April and May.

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On the other side of the country, CoverMe.gov, a Maine exchange, sent information on drug prescriptions and administration to Google via an analytical tool. They also sent out names of doctors and hospitals that people visited before.

Exchange, HealthSource RI, Rhode Island, has sent prescribing information, dosage and doctor’s name to Google.

Another exchange, Massachusetts Health Connector, told LinkedIn whether the visitor said he was pregnant, blind or disabled.

Nevada Health Exchange stopped sending visitors data to Snapchat after contacting Markup and Calmatters, and Massachusetts stopped sending data to LinkedIn. Additionally, Markup and Calmatters discovered that Nevada stopped sending data to LinkedIn early May when the tests were conducted.

Markup and Karmatta discovered the share after discovering that the California exchange, which covered California, told LinkedIn when visitors showed they were blind, pregnant or victims of domestic violence.

Experts said that the state health exchanges use the use of advertising trackers was awkward, if not entirely surprising. Tools like this help organizations reach visitors and coordinate their ads. Google Analytics allows website operators to better understand who is coming to their site and optimize their ad campaigns. LinkedIn and Snap Trackers are targeting social media ads by businesses, just like Meta’s similar products.

Nevada Exchange, Russell Cook, executive director of the state agency that operates the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, says Nevada uses trackers to help target marketing for uninsured residents.

However, healthcare services need to pay particular attention to these tools, says John Haskell, a data privacy lawyer who previously worked as an investigator for the Department of Health and Human Services.

“It’s not surprising that organizations with these large tech stacks that rely on third-party resources don’t fully understand what configuration is, the flow of data, and what that data is being used when they go to someone. “It’s something that needs to be addressed.”

How did national exchange data tie into user identity?

After Markup and Calmatters reported on the sharing of health data between California and LinkedIn, Exchange said it would remove the tracker and review data practices. The news sparked class action lawsuits and questions from federal lawmakers.

Markup and Calmatters then looked at websites run by 18 states outside of California and Washington, DC, to see what information users shared as they navigated them. This site was established under the Affordable Care Act. This requires the state to provide health insurance either through their own exchanges or through federally operated exchanges.

To test them, Markup and Calmatters first ran the site through Blacklight, a tool they developed to reveal web trackers. We then looked at the site’s network traffic and looked at the data the tracker received when the visitors filled out the form.

The results showed that 18 used some type of tracker. Some were filled with them. Nevada, for example, used nearly 50. In contrast, Blacklight was unable to find any kind of tracker in the Washington, DC exchange. Popular websites use an average of seven trackers, according to Blacklight scans of most 100,000 people on the web.

Many of the sites used trackers in relatively harmless ways, such as counting page views.

Four exchange markups and Calmatters found that they share sensitive health data, which sent out various answers to questions about tracking.

In a statement, Cook said the tracker, located by his Nevada agency, “incorrectly obtains information about the name and dosage of a prescription drug,” and sent it to LinkedIn and Snapchat.

Cook acknowledged that such data was “completely unrelated to marketing activities,” and said the audit disabled pending tracking software.

“Personally identifiable information is not part of the tool’s structure, and no personally identifiable information is shared in any way through the tool’s user’s IP address,” Massachusetts Health Connector spokesman Jason Lefferts said in a statement. However, LinkedIn’s tracker documents reveal that the information they receive correlates with a specific LinkedIn account, allowing businesses to use their data for features such as website visitors retargeting. The company’s documents also state that it would obscure this information later and would eventually delete it.

A spokesmouth for Rhode Island and Main Health Exchange said they will pay in the vendor’s consumer checkbook to implement another site where visitors can explore plans available through the state exchange. Confidential information has been shared with Google from these sites. The consumer checkbook site is located on a different web address than the exchange site, but is prominently linked on the Exchange site and displays the same brand, like the State Health Exchange logo, so the average visitor won’t notice that the state is not in the state-run domain.

HealthSource RI spokesman Christina Spaight O’Reilly said that the company uses Google Analytics to study trends, but rather than serving ads, “disable Google Signals Data Collection to ensure that it is not shared with Google Ads for viewers creation and personalisation, and is not linked to Google Ads cookies or identifiers.” She noted that HealthSource RI’s terms of service refers to the use of Google Analytics. A spokesman for CoverMe.gov cited a similar point, saying that he “does not collect or retain data entered into the tool.”

The consumer checkbook declined to comment beyond the exchange’s statement.

All exchanges said that no individually identifiable health information such as names or addresses has been sent to third parties. However, the point of the tracker is to enhance information about users that the platform already has for that user, with all trackers found in markup and Calmatters recording details about individual visitors, including their operating system, browser, device, and visit times.

In response to requests for comment, tech companies whose trackers have been uniformly researched have said they do not want to send potentially sensitive health data to their organizations, and doing so is against their terms of service.

“By default, data sent to Google Analytics does not identify individuals, and we have strict policies against collecting private health information and advertising based on sensitive information,” said Steve Ganem, head of product management at Google Analytics. LinkedIn spokesman Brionna Ruff said advertisers are not allowed to “target ads based on sensitive data categories” such as health issues. A spokesman for Snapchat owner Snap said the same, noting that sending out a purchase of consumables like a prescription would violate the company’s rules regarding sensitive data.

The Google Analytics Information page provides specific information on how organizations using the company’s tools comply with the Portability and Accountability Act of Health Insurance, which protects health data. The page states, “Google does not represent that Google Analytics meets the HIPAA requirements.”

“It is important to ensure that the implementation of Google Analytics and the data on which visitors are collected meets all applicable legal requirements,” the page reads.

More incidents

It’s not just health sites that send medical information to social media companies. In 2022, Markup revealed that numerous hospital websites were sharing information with Facebook’s parent company Meta via a tool called the Meta Pixel. The hospital faced scrutiny and legal action from Congress. Another markup survey found that trackers about online drugstore visitors recorded information about HIV testing and purchasing Plan B. In 2023, New York hospitals agreed to pay a $300,000 fine for violations of the Health Insurance Portable and Accountability Act. The law can be applied to businesses that use these trackers. Some plaintiffs argue that they should use state laws like California to compensate for sending health data to third parties without their consent. Others argue that this type of pursuit violates the eavesdropping and assault laws. “The organization has not invested enough time and resources to properly review everything,” Haskell said. Haskell advises clients to be extremely careful about the information they track on their site. “When the organization was saying, “We didn’t understand that there was a specific configuration of this tool that we’re using.” do not have Leave it to you. ”



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Former Senator Bob Menendez reported 11 years of bribery to prison

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Sen. Bob Menendez, a former Democrat from New Jersey, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in a bribery scheme.

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Sen. Bob Menendez began sentenced to 11 years in a federal prison in Pennsylvania on June 17th for bribery.

The 71-year-old was convicted of 16 counts in July 2024, including coercion, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent. The prison inmate search shows Menendez’s prisoner number 67277-050, but he is not yet in custody.

The former senior New Jersey senator and the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee have been found guilty of joining a bribery scheme that was rewarded with hundreds of thousands of dollars of gold and a pile of cash.

In exchange, the senator took action, including affecting businessmen in New Jersey and criminal investigations that benefited the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

His co-defendants, businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Dave, were also found guilty of all counts.

He is the first US Senator to be convicted of acting as a representative of a foreign government. Menendez represented New Jersey in the US Senate for over 18 years. He resigned after his conviction.

Nadine Menendez was found guilty in another trial. Her case was isolated for cancer diagnosis. Her sentence is scheduled for September.



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Do I need to open the door to the police?

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It’s midnight and someone is banging at your front door. You see the flashing light of the police and hear them say, “This is the police. Open!”

Would you like to open the door?

Many Americans are asking themselves what their options are in such circumstances after prosecutors called it a “political assassination” in a series of attacks in which other lawmakers, Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were injured after prosecutors called it a “political assassination” of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband.

The suspect, Vance Boerter, 57, was dressed like a police officer, wearing a black tactical vest and carrying a flashlight as officers would. Bolter was also driving an SUV equipped with a fake “police” license plate and “law enforcement style emergency lighting,” the affidavit said.

“This is police. Please open the door,” according to Hoffman’s family, Belter cried outside around 2am on June 14th.

They opened it.

Criminologist George Kirkham, professor emeritus at Florida State University and former police officer, said:

Kirkham said he probably would have opened the door, even with his expert background.

“These were very clever people, this MP and her husband, I’m sure they were the recipients of the threat, and they were probably far more cautious than the average person,” he said. “It’s Clarion’s call to ensure that we all are more aware.”

So, what should you do?

Discover Witnesses: Visit our exclusive collection of true crime stories, podcasts, videos and more.

The police are knocking and I want you to open the door.

If an officer is knocking on your door, the American Civil Liberties Union recommends discussing through the door and asking for identity verification.

“You don’t need to take them with you unless you list your address as a place to search or show you a warrant signed by a judicial officer who holds your name as the subject of an arrest warrant,” says the ACLU.

If the officer says he has a warrant, he should asks him to look through the window. Or, if it’s a paper copy, have it slide under the door for proof. Many recent guarantees are electronic, and police can do it even in text, Kalkham said.

Mark Lopez, a former prosecutor and now a defense attorney specializing in domestic violence and drunken driving cases in Indianapolis, said there are few circumstances in which officers need to knock your door from anywhere and enter.

These situations include felony pursuits, screams, or signs of an internal emergency, or warrants.

“Without those emergency situations, they can’t come to your home,” he said. “I advise anyone: don’t open your door. You have no obligation to respond.”

If you feel you have to respond, he said he should avoid opening the door at all costs unless there is a warrant from the police. If so, he would recommend asking them to see it, but he pointed out that in some states, such as Indiana, officers do not need to prove that they have a warrant.

“It could be a bit tricky,” he said.

A story of justice and action across the nation: Sign up for USA Today’s This Is America Newsletter.

Another option: Call 911

Minnesota State Police advised nervous people that if someone appears in a home that claims to be police, they can call 911 to confirm that they are legitimate.

“It’s okay to stay in your car or home and not open windows or doors from the time you receive a confirmation,” the Litchfield Police Department posted on June 14th on Facebook.

Kirkham agreed that it was a good option and as a former officer, he would not mind waiting for such a call.

Lopez noted that some police may not be patient. And there was a lot of misconception between police knocking on the door at night and nervous people who don’t know who it is.

On April 5, 2023, the New Mexico Department of Justice went to the wrong house, responding to a call for domestic violence in Farmington just before midnight. According to police and body camera footage, homeowner Robert Dotson answers the door with a gun, and officers kill him and kill him.

And there is the case of Breana Taylor, an unarmed woman killed by police who served as a Nocon search warrant in Louisville, Kentucky around midnight on March 13, 2020. Plaincross police officers abused him to open an apartment as part of a drug trafficking investigation. Apartment. No drugs were found.

Should you have a gun by your door?

If you’re nervous about the person at the door, Carcam said it’s not necessarily a bad idea to have a gun on hand. He remembered one night a few years ago when his doorbell rang at 3am.

He grabbed a pistol from his nightstand and flashlight, then left the front door and stood there. He heard the woman’s voice identify herself as police.

Kirkham lit up his pouch, looked at his peephole and looked at the officer in uniform. He quickly put the gun on the floor, slid it, and opened the door.

In light of the events in Minnesota, he said he might be thinking about trying it again and again.

“The safest thing to do is dial the 911.”

Contribution: n’dea yancey-bragg

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter at USA Today. Follow her on x at @amandaleusat.



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A partner with GROQ for inference of ultra-fast AI models

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The embracing face added GROQ to the AI ​​model inference provider, bringing lightning treatment to the popular model hub.

Speed ​​and efficiency are becoming increasingly important in AI development, and many organizations struggle to balance model performance.

Rather than using traditional GPUs, GROQ designs chips built for language models. The company’s Language Processing Units (LPUs) are special chips designed from the ground up to process unique computational patterns of language models.

Unlike traditional processors that combat the continuous nature of language tasks, GROQ’s architecture accepts this feature. result? Dramatically reduced response times and higher throughput for AI applications that require text processing quickly.

Developers now have access to a number of popular open source models through GROQ’s infrastructure, such as Meta’s Llama 4 and Qwen’s QWQ-32B. This range of model support ensures that teams do not sacrifice their performance capabilities.

Users have multiple ways to incorporate GROQ into their workflows, depending on their preferences and existing setup.

For those already associated with GROQ, hugging Face makes it easy to configure your personal API key in your account settings. This approach directs requests directly to Groq’s infrastructure, while maintaining the familiar embracing face interface.

Alternatively, rather than requiring a separate billing relationship, users can choose more handoff experiences by showing fees on their hugging face accounts, allowing their hugging faces to handle the connections completely.

The integration works seamlessly by hugging Face’s client libraries for both Python and JavaScript, but the technical details remain refreshing. Without diving into the code, developers can specify GROQ as their preferred provider with minimal configuration.

Customers using their own GROQ API keys will be billed directly through their existing GROQ accounts. For those who prefer an integrated approach, you can hug the standard provider rates without adding markup, but we note that revenue sharing agreements may evolve in the future.

The embracing face offers a limited inference quota for free, but the company naturally encourages an upgrade to PRO for those who use these services regularly.

This partnership between embracing faces and GROQ appears against the backdrop of an intensifying competition in AI infrastructure for model inference. As more organizations move from experiments to production deployment of AI systems, bottlenecks with inference processing are becoming increasingly apparent.

What we see is the natural evolution of the AI ​​ecosystem. First came races for larger models, then came in a hurry to make them practical. GROQ represents the latter. It not only creates existing models, it works faster.

For businesses weighing AI deployment options, there is another option to balance performance requirements and operational costs by adding GROQ, which embraces Face’s provider ecosystem.

Importance goes beyond technical considerations. Fastest inference means more responsive applications. This will lead to improved user experience across countless services that currently incorporate AI support.

Sectors that are particularly sensitive to response times (e.g. customer service, healthcare diagnosis, financial analysis, etc.) benefit from improved AI infrastructure that reduces lag between questions and answers.

As AI continues to march towards everyday applications, such partnerships highlight how the technology ecosystem is evolving to address the practical limitations that have historically been constrained by real-time AI implementation.

(Photo: MichałMancewicz)

reference: Nvidia helps Germany lead the European AI manufacturing race

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out the AI ​​& Big Data Expo in Amsterdam, California and London. The comprehensive event will be held in collaboration with other major events, including the Intelligent Automation Conference, Blockx, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber ​​Security & Cloud Expo.

Check out other upcoming Enterprise Technology events and webinars with TechForge here.



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When the Iran-Israel conflict spirals, the US will drive fighter jets and ship them to the Middle East

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said the US is “defensively stance” as more fighter and larger aircraft carriers move into the area.

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WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has shifted fighter and aircraft carriers to the Middle East as the Israeli-Iran conflict continues to rage, but the move was essentially defensive as the US observes, rather than the US taking part in Israel’s punishment campaign, according to US officials.

The moves by the US military were made with an eye to protecting American troops stationed in the Middle East, senior officials said. There are about 40,000 US service members there.

“We are protected as we become more defensively stronger in the region in pursuit of a peace agreement,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegses told Fox News in an interview on June 16th.

Norm Holly R., the second approved US official said the Pentagon was not involved in Israel’s offensive strike against Israel. Iran has been warned that strikes against the US forces will lead to a strong response. Its formula characterized the movement of additional forces into the region as a show of force.

Although US troops are sometimes targeted by Iran, there were signs that the attacks were not continuing, officials said.

The aircraft, which is being moved to the Middle East, includes air refueling tankers from Europe, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Fighters cover ground troops and equipment, and require refuelers to keep the fighter high.

The US Department of Defense also shifted 21 US-based refueling to Europe to make up for what was sent to the Middle East, US officials said. The move suggests that the war between Israel and Iran can last for some time.

The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier is equipped with dozens of fighter jets. US officials said it was about a week away from the Middle East.

The US has already moved another large aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, into the region in April, to participate in the Trump administration’s strike against Yemen’s Hooty forces.

In May, the B-52 bomber joined the B-2 bomber at Diego Garcia, a naval base off India’s tip, about 2,300 miles from Iran. The B-2 aircraft can carry bunkerbuster bombs that can be used to target Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, US ballistic missile interceptors remain on the ground in Israel and in seas in warships near the Mediterranean Sea.

Israel has created a major dent in Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and its air defense, US officials said.

Israel takes Iran to avoid the iron dome

The ongoing aviation war between Israel and Iran entered the fifth day on June 17th as Israel slammed Iranian cities with bombs and Iranian missiles to avoid Israel’s iron dome defense system.

Iranian state media reported that more than 220 Iranians have been killed and at least 1,200 have been injured since the artillery began. 20 Israelis were killed in an Iranian missile attack, officials said.

A day ago, President Donald Trump hurried off the G7 summit in Canada, citing the escalating crisis in the Middle East. In a true social post, he urged people to “evacuate Tehran soon.”

After French President Emmanuel Macron said that President Trump was on his way to a ceasefire, the US president said in another post, “I don’t know if I’m on my way to Washington right now, but that certainly has nothing to do with the ceasefire. It’s much bigger than that.”



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Gaza: Dozens of people killed in Israel’s fires desperately seeking necessary assistance, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says

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CNN
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At least 51 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in an Israeli fire as they waited for aid trucks to arrive at Khan Eunice in southern Gaza early Tuesday morning, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The incident marks the most reported number of people killed during their last few weeks in Enclave while seeking assistance. In total, nearly 400 Palestinians have been killed near the aid centre as Israel lifted its 11-week total lockdown in Gaza and obtained drops of aid.

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said in a statement Tuesday that “a rally was identified in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area, adjacent to the area’s aid distribution trucks trapped in the Khan Yunis region.”

The IDF said “we are aware of reports of many individuals injured from the IDF fire following the crowd’s approach,” saying “details of the incident are under review” and “remorse to individuals not involved and are undergoing surgery to minimize harm to them while maintaining the safety of the military.”

Witness Mohammed Abu Abed said a group of people had been hit by air strikes. He told CNN: “We were waiting for a flour truck. Suddenly we were among the people and we were hit by two missiles that tore people’s bodies.

The injured Palestinian will be transported to the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza on June 17, 2025.

“They took bread for the kids and brought only bread and flour. They killed us with cold blood,” Abu Abed said.

Video of Karn Yunis’ scene on Tuesday shows dozens of bodies lying on blood-covered ground.

The latest scenes of death, violence and despair highlight the harsh presence of more than 2.1 million people living in Gaza.

Humanitarian organisations say aid that is now entering the enclave is only a small part of what is needed as the contentious Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) (the major supplier of Gaza aid) has been undergoing global scrutiny since opening its distribution point later last month.

According to the Ministry of Health, Palestinians on their way to the GHF distribution site have been repeatedly fired since its inception, with around 3,000 people injured in addition to the deaths. Eight people were also killed on Tuesday after coming under an Israeli fire near aid distribution site in western Rafa, the ministry said.

CNN contacted the IDF for comment.

The Israeli US-backed private contractor, GHF, has been criticized by several international aid agencies for establishing distribution centres within an active combat zone. The organization has repeatedly said there was no violence on their site. However, the GHF confirmed earlier this month that Palestinian casualties were found in the surrounding area. This was described by the organization as “a lot beyond our secure distribution sites.” The spokesman introduced further questions to the Israeli military.

On Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in X:

One of the people killed at Khan Eunice on Tuesday was a 20-year-old man who traveled there in the hopes of bringing food back for his family.

With tears in her eyes, his mother said: “He didn’t go to the picnic. He brought food for his brother and father.”

The young Palestinian injured while seeking assistance will be treated at Nasser Hospital in Khan Eunice in southern Gaza on Tuesday.

At a nearby Nasser Medical Complex, hospital staff said the entire ward was crowded with casualties. Hospital video shows dozens of people arrived wounded and others in the hospital were waiting for treatment as they were placed on the floor.

A doctor in an intensive care unit told medical assistance to the UK-based aid organization, Palestinians (MAP), that the hospital received on Tuesday “injured and killed by a target at the aid distribution point of Israeli Army Khan Yunis.”

“The situation here is beyond imagination and devastating,” the doctor said, adding that the morgue was completely full and additional bodies were placed outside the building.

“We’re trying our best, but the numbers are overwhelming,” he said.

CNN’s Oren Liebermann will donate the report.



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Standalone Costco gas station

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good morning! It’s Daniel de Vis with your daily money.

Summer is coming. We thought that might never happen, but here the news cycle was a bit slower with the daily money desk. And today we are reviving the “Great Read” feature, bringing back stories that have been popular since the beginning of the year, along with daily news doses.

Costco’s upcoming location in California doesn’t have the famous $1.50 hot dog, rotisserie chicken, or even a warehouse to browse. There are only a few dozen gas pumps.

Membership-only retailers are set to open their first standalone gas station in the spring of 2026.

Here’s the full report on Costco’s plans:

Trump organization launches phone

The Trump Organization, the holding company of President Donald Trump’s business venture, has announced the launch of new mobile phone services and mobile phones. The launch marks the 10th anniversary of the start of Trump’s first presidential election.

The network, called Trump Mobile, will provide 5G services through “The 47 Plan,” which nods to the second term of the president.

Here’s all the details.

📰 More Stories You Shouldn’t Overlook 📰

📰 Amazing reading 📰

Finally, there is a popular story from 2024. Read it! share!

Large-scale research on financial literacy shows that many American consumers are unable to grasp the basic mathematics of inflation.

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation, a nonprofit in financial education, has managed a seven-question quiz to 25,500 adults in recent months to test their knowledge about consumer finance. Results: Three in ten test takers missed a simple question about interest rates. Two out of five asked about inflation.

Here is the quiz question that has confusing consumers.

About daily money

Every day, Daily Money will provide you with the best consumer and financial news from USA Today, breaking complex events, providing you with the TLDR version, and explaining how everything from the Fed rate to bankruptcy will affect you.

Daniel de Visé covers USA Today personal finance.



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Who will get Pope Leo’s childhood home outside Chicago?

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The first American pope’s hometown is growing in division. What’s at stake is who will take Leo’s childhood home and how much it will cost. The home auction closes on June 18th.

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DALTON, Illinois – Chicagoland’s home town of America’s first pope, with rifts growing. The baseball team has not surpassed what he gets his blessing. Or whether the Ketchup stance in the area could become Canon. But on the house in his childhood.

Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago in 1955 and was booming in the postwar era, but grew up in a squat brick house just south of the city of Dalton, a town that was as desolate as many rusty belt towns.

212 E. 141st Pl. The fate of a small ranch house. But the place he played the priest is in the air. Local leaders want it for Dalton. The owner wants to auction it off to the highest bidder.

“This is not just a local purchase, it’s a global purchase and a global opportunity,” owner real estate broker Steve Budzik told USA Today. “We knew we might put it in the open market and attract bidders who are most willing to pay.”

Paramount Realty, a New York-based company behind the auction, is known for auctioning President Donald Trump’s childhood home for over $2 million. Other properties for sale now include Pennsylvania castles valued at $1.9 million, and Long Island Houses designed by architect Richard Meyer, who previously sold for $9.45 million.

Dalton officials are threatening to threaten the judge to sell the house to owner Paweładzik. They aim to use it on the village, but they haven’t said exactly how. The government’s process of claiming private property for public use is called a prominent domain.

“We can’t imagine any better public use than preserving a home for public viewing and use by the public, so we meet the definition,” village lawyer Bert Odelson told USA Today. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us in the United States.”

The Pope election raised by Dalton comes as his hometown has experienced decades within a corrupt mayor whose hometown has won the loss of manufacturing jobs and the massive debt of around 20,000 villages.

Villagers hope that Leo and its connection will trigger its revival. The Dalton revival centered around the house where Robert Francis Prust learned his faith from his parents and siblings.

Father Stephen Köcke, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, said: “His upbringing looks like so many Americans, if he could grow in this context and pursue holiness.

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Legal experts and scholars say the conflict over the leadership of the Catholic Church’s childhood home presents a distinctive American clash over the country’s nearby Saxant’s belief in property rights promoted by the constitution.

“Here in America, we have very strong feelings about the right to own property, own it and do what you want,” said Allison K. Bethel, professor of clinical law at the University of Illinois University of Chicago. “The power to just go in and take it away refutes to that. But when you think about it, doing so also goes back to taking property from Native Americans. This is how we do it here in America.”

According to Budzik, auctioneer Paramount Realty opened his house on May 15th to bid. According to the list, bids will end on June 18th. The minimum bid is $250,000.

What is the Pope’s worth?

The first American Pope’s childhood home was on the market for $219,000 for about four months when Leo became Pope. Budzik deleted the list within a few days.

According to Cook County real estate records, the parents of the future Pope bought the house when it was completed in 1949 and held it until 1996. Leo lived there and moved to high school and to a seminary in Michigan.

According to Cook County Real Estate Records, Razic bought the 1,050-square-foot home in 2024 for $66,000. He looks like countless others who rose across the country during the postwar era. However, he converted the interior into a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home.

Remodeling means that the interior is nothing like when Leo lived there, and Rajc wants to be responsible for turning it into a museum.

“It sounds great in theory,” Budzik said. “But I said, ‘Paweł, are you going to do some research and find out which cabinets were popular in the 1960s?” Perhaps it would cost twice as much as he needed to renovate to the 2025 standard. ”

Budzik said he hopes the buyers will honor Leo’s legacy.

“It’s a truly unique opportunity. This beautifully updated home is more than just a charming 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom residence.

The American Pope of History reads a pamphlet containing the seal of Leo. Now you have an unusual opportunity to own a concrete part of his inspiring heritage. ”

Can Dalton claim the house?

According to legal experts, Dalton’s path to asserting prominent territory above the House is difficult.

According to Professor Alejandro E. Camacho of the University of California Irvine, the notion of prominent territories dates back to ancient Rome. Importantly, the government must prove that private property serves public purposes. Typical cases in the US include situations where the government says certain property is needed to build roads and parks.

According to Camacho, Dalton will have a hard time meeting the standards of public purpose, as the village has decided to chase after the property in response to news about his connection with Leo.

A judge recognising the power of Dalton’s prominent domains would create “slippery slopes” for future prominent domain cases, Camacho said.

“The reason they seem to be saying is, “The Pope’s house is precious and we are committed to the action,” Camacho said. “Why would a city take all its precious assets and not turn it over?”

Leo’s status as Pope only complicates the issues of countries where governments are not supposed to support a particular religion.

“If it was Abe Lincoln’s house, you could probably argue that federal law is involved, but the historical value is very enveloping in individual religions,” Camacho said. “I don’t know if it’s a violation, but it’s worth at least saying I’ll raise a question.”

What happened to the other Pope’s childhood homes?

According to a USA Today investigation into Leo’s predecessor, other Pope’s childhood homes caused the prosperity of unknown small towns. The sense in Dalton that Leo’s childhood home could lead to an economic boom in the area is bo-bo in the homelands of other popes.

According to Piotr Pollack, a guide to the museum of John Paul’s childhood home, Wadowice, a town in Poland where Pope John Paul II grew up, has benefited greatly.

“There are at least dozens of Wadwas-like towns in southern Poland,” Pollack told USA Today in Poland. “None of them has attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world.”

Pollack said it was a tenement museum that was opened in 1984 by Karol Watiwa at the time. According to Pollack, around 200,000 people visit the museum every year.

“If JP2 weren’t there, there wouldn’t be anyone here from outside of the local area,” the guide said. “One of the biggest blessings the town has is the fact that Karol Wotiwa spent the first 18 years of his life here.”

According to Pollack, when John Paul became Pope in 1978, pilgrims began to arrive in tenure almost immediately. The local priest helped the family find another place to live. Eventually, the town and local church leaders transformed the tenements into museums, and Polish businessmen purchased the building and donated it to the church.

What Dalton wants

Pilgrims from across the country began arriving at Leo’s old house in Dalton when Pope Chicagoland was announced on May 8th.

For Leo’s old neighbours, it was totally amazed when they saw the beatific look on their faces, just as they looked at a small brick house in the middle of the block.

“This was a house that wasn’t at all peaceful,” recalled Nextdoor’s neighbor Donna Sagna, who recalled the day the area was a hotbed of drug trafficking and violence.

Saguna, 50, hopes that the Pope’s home will be the beginning of a completely different outlook for the people of Bullock and Dalton.

Since Leo’s book of Exodus, the small town has been very difficult.

Dalton committed dozens of murders in 2023, according to the Cook County Medical Inspector’s office. Approximately 20,000 people live in the village. In other words, the homicide rate is about 10 times the national average. Census data shows the average income in the region is under $30,000. About a fifth of the population is suffering from poverty.

“We want to see this as a landmark with community programs. For those struggling,” Sagna said. “I want to see such a change, and the violence will fall.”



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Trump will revive the Social Security decoration. Can it be legally avoided?

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President Donald Trump’s administration aims to curb overpayments from social security beneficiaries.

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In May, nearly 53 million retired workers made history by taking home Social Security checks and earning $2,000 for the first time the average payment was made. This is a relatively modest monthly income, but it is essential to the financial well-being of most older Americans.

For more than 20 years, Gallup, a national researcher, has voted for retirees each year to assess their dependence on social security income. Never, 80% to 90% of retirees consistently responded that their monthly checks were necessary to interact with them, in some capacity.

For beneficiaries, nothing is more important than knowing how much they receive each month and responding to the inflationary pressures that fight for their payments annually.

However, based on a new policy recently implemented under President Donald Trump, more than one million beneficiaries can expect social security checks to be reduced by up to 50%. This is income that you can’t afford to lose some income, as there are so many beneficiaries to rely on social security income to cover costs.

The Trump administration aims to curb social security overpayments

Since Trump took office for his discontinued second term, he has overseen many important changes to America’s major retirement programs. This includes strengthening personal identification methods, signing an executive order to eliminate paper Social Security checks, and creating a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which encouraged the Social Security Agency (SSA) to cut 7,000 jobs and shut down some of the locations to reduce administrative costs.

But what makes the headlines above all are two social security ornaments that have been improved by the Trump administration.

For example, by “this summer,” it is expected that the 15% decoration will be revived each month for the roughly 452,000 late federal student loan borrowers currently receiving Social Security benefits. Federal student loan payments stopped at the height of the pandemic in March 2020 and are not recommended.

Between 2017 and 2023, the number of federal student loan borrowers over the age of 62 increased by 59% to about 2.7 million, based on data from the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

However, the 15% monthly decoration is peanuts compared to the ongoing 50% ornament rate for overpaid beneficiaries. Note that “beneficiaries” include retired workers, survivors of deceased workers, and disabled workers.

Under the Joe Biden administration, Social Security clawbacks for overpayments have dropped to 10% per check. This fell from the 100% clawback rate that existed when President Barack Obama took office and during Donald Trump’s first term.

In 2023, based on a statement from then SSA Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi, the agency overpaid more than 1 million beneficiaries from 2022 (the federal fiscal year ends on September 30th) and 2023. It seems safe to assume that more than 1,000,000 beneficiaries are still doing well with overpayments.

Beneficiaries may be able to legally avoid or reduce Social Security decorations.

Social Security overpayments can occur for several reasons. Sometimes these errors are totally an obstacle to SSA, leading to too many beneficiaries per month. However, they can also be caused by the recipient not renewing their income.

For example, open-label workers without disabilities could earn $1,620 a month in wages and salaries without halting long-term Social Security disability benefits in 2025. If a disabled worker starts raising $3,000 in monthly income and fails to report this income change to the SSA, the federal tax return will currently receive a federal tax application.

For the over 1,000,000 beneficiaries who received letters from the SSA, let them know that they are overpaid and there teeth option.

The most desirable of these options is to request and approve an overpayment exemption (Form SSA-632BK, “Request for an overpayment exemption”). In the case of overpayment It wasn’t your fault And repaying the additional benefits received will lead to financial difficulties – you will often need to provide documentation of your income and qualifying expenses – the SSA may acknowledge your request and waive the need to refund your overpayment.

In line with these same policies, beneficiaries may also submit Form SSA-561. This is officially known as the “request for rethinking.” This route is made by people who do not agree to the SSA decision, who have overpayments and are essentially disagree with the decision to sue, and who are allowed to overpayment but do not agree to the amount offered by the SSA. If your appeal is granted, you do not need to refund one dime to a major US retirement program. Your charm may also reduce the amount you need to pay back.

The third option available to beneficiaries who receive notifications of final clawbacks due to overpayments is to negotiate different payment rates. Going this route is to admit that you are overpaying, but removing 50% from your check each month will result in financial difficulties.

Submitting an SSA-634 (“Request for Change in Overpayment Recovery Rate”) using an SSA requires that you provide a financial statement, including documents of income and eligible expenses. SSAs usually aim to recover from overpayments within 12 months, but some payment plans are extended up to 60 months (5 years).

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NAACP invites Trump to customs and will not break 116 years of tradition

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NAACP invites Trump and Vance to conventions and will not break 116 years of tradition

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For the first time in 116 years, the US president has not announced that it has announced June 16th to NAACP National Conference NAACP Chairman and CEO Derrick Johnson.

The national tournament will be held in Charlotte from July 12th to 16th.

“We are nonpartisans and we are always welcome people who believe in democracy and the constitution,” Johnson said in a statement. “But it’s clear now. Donald Trump is attacking our democracy and civil rights.”

Trump and the NAACP repeatedly clashed during his first term, some of which led to a legal battle. Trump refused to speak on the NAACP as a presidential candidate in 2016 or as president in 2017, 2018 or 2019.

White House spokesman Harrison Fields rejected the break in tradition in a statement.

“While the NAACP has made no progress other than hatred and division, the president is focused on uniting our nation, improving our economy, securing borders and establishing peace around the world. This is the same vision for America for the record number of black Americans supported by President Trump’s overwhelming re-election.

Destroy tradition

In a statement, Johnson said Trump “believes more fascist playbooks than the US Constitution. This playbook is radical and non-American.” He pointed to an executive order that Johnson said was intended to suppress voters, restore civil rights and use the military against American citizens.

In a statement, Johnson said the treaty is intended as a safe space where people can map multi-ethnic advocacy that promotes civil rights and democracy for all.

“To that end, the NAACP has decided this year to break the tradition of not inviting Donald Trump or JD Vance. This administration does not respect the constitution or the rule of law. Giving a platform to fascism is a waste of our time and energy.



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rKelly was hospitalized after overdose, lawyers say

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R. Kelly’s lawyers allege the singer was overdose from the drugs given to him by prison staff last week.

In a June 17 filing obtained by USA Today, the legal team of “Ignition” singers claimed that after being placed in isolated confinement, prison staff provided “overdoses” on June 12 compared to his usual anxiety and sleep dosage, leading to his hospitalization on Friday, June 13.

The Prison Bureau declined to comment on the “pending lawsuit.”

The 58-year-old singer, Robert Kelly, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison since 2022 for assault and sex trafficking. He is sentenced at a facility at the Federal Corrections Institute in Butner, North Carolina.

Lawyers say Kelly was placed in solitary cell on June 10 “against his will” until he overdose. In that motion, Kelly’s team allegedly devised a conspiracy to kill him to another inmate.

Then, in the early hours of June 13th, Kelly woke up feeling “slightly” and “dizzy,” according to the filing.

“He began to see black spots in his vision. Mr. Kelly tried to get up, but it fell to the ground,” the updated move said. “He raw at the cell door and lost consciousness.”

The onsite prison medical staff were unable to help him, so he was taken to Duke University Hospital by ambulance, the submission continued. He was hospitalized for two days.

Kelly’s team was only able to speak to him late June 16 after his previous phone call was cancelled “without explanation.”

This story is developing.



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German tourist carrying ancient Roman artifact on e-scooter chased by Italian police

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Rome
CNN
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Italian police say they chased down a German tourist after spotting him transporting an ancient Roman artifact on a rented e-scooter.

Officers apprehended the 24-year-old on Wednesday evening after he was spotted zipping down the historic Via Veneto near the US Embassy with the 30 kilogram (66lbs) marble base of an ancient column between his feet.

Rome’s archeological superintendent described the artifact as being of “historic interest.”

Police said the tourist had told them that he obtained it as a “souvenir,” but it is unclear if he paid someone for it.

Police said the man has not been charged but is under investigation for “receiving stolen cultural goods.” They did not release his name.

Archeological experts are still studying the artifact to determine where it was taken from.

Tourists behaving badly have long been a cause of annoyance to Italian authorities.

In recent years, tourists have been arrested for driving e-scooters and a Maserati down the Spanish Steps, carving initials into the Roman colosseum, and riding a moped into the ancient ruins of Pompeii.

In February a tourist from New Zealand was fined for diving into the Trevi Fountain.

Earlier this month, an American tourist had to undergo emergency surgery after he was impaled on a spire after trying to climb over a fence surrounding the ancient Roman colosseum.



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