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Luke Combs helping a fan who almost owed him $250,000 for selling unauthorized merchandise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Country singer Luke Combs is making amends to a disabled Florida woman who sells tumblers online after she was ordered to pay him $250,000 when she got snared in a crackdown his lawyers launched against companies that sell unauthorized merchandise with his image or name on it. Combs in an Instagram video posted Wednesday said he told his attorneys to remove Nicol Harness from a lawsuit they filed in an Illinois federal court and that he was sending her $11,000. She had sold on Amazon 18 tumblers she had made with his name and likeness for $20 each, grossing $360. The singer, who recently topped the country charts with his remake of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” also said he would start selling his own tumbler with the proceeds going to pay Harness’ medical bills — she has heart disease and was recently hospitalized. He also said he would fly Harness and her family to an upcoming concert so he could meet her. He said his lawyers we...

Ticker: Dow hits a record; New York removes medical debt from credit reports

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

A powerful rally across Wall Street sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve indicated that the cuts to interest rates investors crave so much may be coming next year.The Dow jumped 512 points, or 1.4%, to top 37,000 and surpass its prior peak of 36,799.65 set at the start of last year.Other, more widely followed indexes of U.S. stocks also leaped. The S&P 500 rose 1.4% and is within 2% of its own record. The Nasdaq composite gained 1.4%.Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they can relax the pressure on the economy and goose prices for all kinds of investments. Markets have been rallying since October amid rising hopes that cuts may be on the way.NY removes medical debt from credit reportsUnpaid medical debt will no longer appear in New York residents’ credit reports under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday.The law prohibits credit agencies from collecting information about or reporting medical debt...

How Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown have set the tone for Celtics with sacrificial play

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

Jayson Tatum’s scoring average is down. A year after he became the first player in Celtics history to average 30 points per game in a season, his average is down by nearly three points. Same goes for $300 million man Jaylen Brown, whose scoring average is down by more than four points and at its lowest in four years.They don’t care.“We’re winning,” Tatum said after the Celtics improved to a league-best 17-5 record with Tuesday’s win over the Cavaliers. “We’re the best team in the league, so winning takes care of everything.”With the most talented roster in the NBA following the acquisitions of Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday this offseason, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla has challenged his team to sacrifice their egos in the pursuit of a championship. His top two stars have embraced that.Tatum was reportedly the one who organized the preseason meeting to discuss who among their talented top six would come off the bench, a conversation that ultimately resulted in Al Horford being the...

Stranger charged with break-in and murder in slaying of Detroit synagogue leader

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

By ED WHITE (Associated Press)DETROIT (AP) — A stranger accused of breaking into the home of a Detroit synagogue leader was charged with her murder Wednesday, nearly two months after her body was found outdoors with multiple stab wounds, authorities said.There was not a “shred of evidence” that Samantha Woll was killed as a result of antisemitism or any hate crime, prosecutor Kym Worthy said.Michael Jackson-Bolanos, 28, of Detroit, was charged with murder, home invasion and lying to police. A not-guilty plea was entered during his appearance in 36th District Court, and he was subsequently returned to jail without bond.Attorney Brian Brown said he will vigorously defend Jackson-Bolanos.“I don’t necessarily agree with the charges,” Brown told The Associated Press. “We’ll wait for the evidence.”Woll, 40, was found dead outside her home, east of downtown Detroit, on Oct. 21, hours after returning from a wedding. Investigators believe...

Off-duty police officer indicted in death of man he allegedly pushed at a shooting scene

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

MONACA, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania police officer has been indicted on involuntary manslaughter and other charges after prosecutors say he pushed and fatally injured a man at a shooting scene.The state Attorney General’s Office announced the indictment Wednesday against John J. Hawk, 37, who served with the Center Township police department. Hawk also faces counts of aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment and perjury stemming from the November 2022 confrontation in the borough of Monaca.The 48-year-old victim, Kenneth Vinyard, was a bystander who approached an officer about potential evidence he wanted to provide to police, prosecutors said. Hawk, who was off duty and wearing casual clothing, confronted Vinyard and pulled him away from the officer.Hawk did not announce himself as an officer or display law enforcement credentials, prosecutors said, and was not heard or seen announcing that Vinyard was under arrest. A short time later, Hawk struck Vinyard in th...

Ohtani can opt out of Dodgers deal if execs Walter, Friedman lose roles with team, AP source says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani can opt out of his $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers if either of two key executives is no longer in place, a person familiar with the agreement told The Associated Press on Wednesday.Ohtani, who will officially be introduced by the Dodgers at a news conference on Thursday, would be allowed to terminate his deal if Mark Walter no longer is controlling owner or president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman no longer is with the team, the person said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms were not announced.Ohtani’s deal, announced Monday, provides that 97% of the money be deferred without interest and not fully paid until 2043.The Athletic first reported Wednesday that Ohtani’s deal contained a provision allowing him to opt out if the Dodgers made specific personnel changes. The deal is still in the form of a letter of agreement between Ohtani’s representatives and the team, and a f...

Berkshire can’t use bribery allegations against Haslam in Pilot truck stop chain accounting dispute

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will not be allowed to use allegations that billionaire Jimmy Haslam tried to bribe employees at the Pilot truck stop chain to inflate the company’s value as Berkshire defends itself in a dispute over the company’s accounting practices, a Delaware judge said Wednesday.The ruling came in a lawsuit in which Pilot Corp. claims that Berkshire Hathaway, which holds 80% of Pilot Travel Centers, has used accounting changes to try to artificially depress the price Berkshire would have to pay for the Haslam family’s remaining 20% stake in the truck-stop chain.Berkshire responded to the lawsuit by claiming that Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, tried to bribe more than two dozen Pilot employees to get them to inflate the company’s profits this year. Berkshire alleges that Haslam wanted to artificially inflate profits so Berkshire would have to pay more for the remaining stake in Pilot held by the Haslam family, which also i...

‘Deeply problematic’: Video appears to show Toronto officer kneeing protester’s neck

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

Concerns are mounting over a video circulating online that appears to show a Toronto officer kneeling on the neck of a protester during an arrest over the weekend, which the police force unequivocally denies.The rally on Sunday, Dec. 10, was organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto chapter (PYM) in the city’s downtown core.The video shows a man pinned to the ground face down. He’s surrounded by Toronto police officers, including one who appears to push his knee into the side of the man’s head, squishing it against the pavement.The officer’s knee appears to stay on the protester’s head and neck area for several seconds, while the other boot is stomping in front of the man’s face, smashing his glasses.A spokesperson for PYM issued a statement, claiming the man was “brutalized and arrested” by the officer. Alok Mukherjee, a human rights advocate and the former chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, tells CityNews he was st...

Dick Nunis, who helped expand Disney’s theme park ambitions around the globe, dies at age 91

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Dick Nunis, who helped expand The Walt Disney Company’s in-person entertainment ambitions from a single theme park in California to locations around the world during a four-decade career with the entertainment giant, has died. He was 91.Disney said in a statement Wednesday that Nunis died in Orlando, Florida, surrounded by family. It gave no cause of death.Nunis began his career at Disney in 1955, training future employees of the soon-to-open Disneyland in Anaheim, California, alongside Walt Disney, who was the father-in-law of Nunis’ college friend, Ron Miller, an eventual company CEO. By the time Nunis retired in 1999 after 44 years at the company, he was chair of Walt Disney Attractions, overseeing a theme park empire that spanned around the world, from Florida to France to Japan.“What started as a summer job training future Disneyland employees would ultimately become a storied 44-year career at Disney,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in the stat...

Costa Rican president expresses full support for Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arévalo

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:56 GMT

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves on Wednesday welcomed Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arévalo and offered his country’s full support as the elected leader continues to face legal challenges from prosecutors who attempt to derail his inauguration.During a welcoming ceremony in the capital, San Jose, Arévalo personally invited Chaves to his swearing in, scheduled for Jan. 14.Guatemalan prosecutors continue to pursue criminal cases against Arévalo’s Seed Movement party and, last month, said they would ask a court to strip Arévalo of his immunity so that he can be investigated for allegedly sending messages of support on social media to protesters who took control of a public university last year and for election irregularities.International observers and Arévalo himself have said his election victory was clean and that prosecutors’ investigations are only an attempt to derail his inauguration.Arévalo on Tuesday publicly protested prosec...