Author: admin

Jonathan Rinderknecht, accused of setting a blaze that became the destructive Palisades fire, wanted to talk to the U.S. District Court judge in downtown Los Angeles about being locked up. “Can I actually say something about the detainment?” the 29-year-old said Thursday afternoon, Oct. 23, before his attorney, Steve Haney, cut him off and asked the judge for a break to speak to Rinderknecht in private. Ten minutes later, Rinderknecht returned, extended his left hand to a hand sanitizer bottle and wiped his hands behind his back. Both he and Haney then responded, “Not guilty” to three federal charges of…

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday finalized plans to open the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to potential oil and gas drilling, renewing a long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation’s environmental jewels. U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the decision Thursday that paves the way for future lease sales within the refuge’s 1.5 million-acre coastal plain, an area that’s considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in. The plan fulfills pledges made by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to reopen this portion of the refuge to possible development. Trump’s bill…

Mackenzie Dern arrived in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 13, a full 12 days before the biggest fight of her life. And who can blame her? There’s something to be said for getting acclimated to her new environs. And there just might also be something about the capital of the United Arab Emirates that works well for Dern. Ten years after stunning the combat sports world, the Huntington Beach strawweight returns in a full-circle moment of her fighting career to challenge Virna Jandiroba for the vacant 115-pound championship at UFC 321 on Saturday. “I couldn’t pick a better place than to be…

By JOSH FUNK OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific delivered 7% growth in its third-quarter earnings Thursday as its CEO continues to make the case for the potential benefits of acquiring one of the railroad’s eastern rivals. The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad said it earned $1.79 billion, or $3.01 per share, in the quarter. That’s up from $1.67 billion, or $2.75 per share, a year ago. And without $41 million in merger costs the railroad would have made $3.08 per share but either number would have beat the Wall Street estimates of $2.97 per share. Union Pacific wants to buy Norfolk…

By Tom Schoenberg, Bloomberg News WASHINGTON — It’s one thing to be cleared by the president. It’s another to be cleared by the bank. Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy was pardoned at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term after a conviction for violating a U.S. lobbying law. Yet when he applied for an American Express Co. credit card this year, the lender denied him, citing his criminal history. Mahmoud Reza Banki, the former chief financial officer of social media company X, says he ran into a similar problem. He claims JPMorgan Chase & Co. sought to close his accounts,…

SAN BERNARDINO — The plan. It was the plan that changed Asaad Chapman’s college plans. The plan he hadn’t planned on until James Griffin-Avant laid it all out in 3D living color for him. The first-year San Bernardino Valley College football coach knew a gift when he saw one. And standing before him was a true gift missing only the ornate bow: a 6-foot-4, 190-pound cornerback with the speed of a gazelle and the wingspan of a pterodactyl. Gifts like this didn’t drop through the chimneys of moribund football programs like SBVC’s, programs that hadn’t won a football game in…

By MATT OTT, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Oil prices spiked Thursday after the U.S. announced massive new sanctions on Russia’s oil industry in an attempt to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and end Moscow’s brutal war on Ukraine. U.S. benchmark crude jumped 6%, to $62 per barrel midday Thursday and analysts say if the situation remains static, U.S. consumers will soon be paying more at the pump. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said while it was difficult to predict with certainty because of the number of moving parts, consumers will likely see a bump…

By GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA, Associated Press President Donald Trump approved major disaster declarations for Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe late Wednesday, while denying requests from Vermont, Illinois and Maryland and leaving other states still waiting for answers. The decisions fell mostly along party lines, with Trump touting on social media Wednesday that he had “won BIG” in Alaska in the last three presidential elections and that it was his “honor” to deliver for the “incredible Patriots” of Missouri, a state he also won three times. The disaster declarations authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency…

Here are the Inland area high school football leaders heading into Week 9 games. Leaders are taken from the MaxPreps.com database and will be posted Thursday afternoon. For players to be included in the leaders, stats need to be updated by Wednesday evening. RUSHING Player, School Rush Yards Avg. TD Sims, Ramona 151 1,518 10.1 19 Ortiz, Rim of the World 193 1,465 7.6 21 Watson, Murrieta Valley 146 1,237 8.5 20 Kelly, Cornerstone Christian 74 1,260 17.0 19 Galiza, Patriot 163 1,124 6.9 15 Hamala, San Jacinto Valley Academy  132 1,059 8.0 10 Huffman, Cornerstone Christian 74 1,027 13.9…

Can you make homeownership more affordable by waiting out an interest rate drop? Plenty of borrowers are sitting on the sidelines waiting for home prices to flatten or drop further in ZIP codes already experiencing drops. Buyers are also expecting the Federal Reserve to drop short-term interest rates. (Long-term mortgage rates are not directly related to short-term rates but may be indirectly influenced by short-term rates going down.) So, buyers essentially are hanging onto this one-two punch for more affordability: cheaper prices and cheaper payments. A lot of refinance candidates with mortgage rates over 6.75% are sitting on the fence,…