Author: rpnadmin

An investigation by the U.S. Justice Department into Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has determined that the mammoth Hollywood media merger is not likely to harm competition in the industry or be harmful for consumers. The agency said Friday that it closed its probe into the deal, with regulators at its antitrust division concluding that the impact of the merger “will be to increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, with benefits for American consumers and workers.” David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance reached a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in late February. Paramount’s victory came after…

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A group of U.S. Democratic lawmakers promised Puerto Ricans on Friday that they would try to speed up the island’s sluggish recovery from destructive hurricanes and earthquakes, a process that relies heavily on federal funds. Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, ranking member of the House Committee of Homeland Security, said he and other legislators met with Puerto Rico mayors as part of a two-day trip to the U.S. territory and heard their concerns including delays in reimbursements and project approvals. “We’ll move some of those concerns into corrective actions,” he said at a news conference.…

TRACY, Calif. — Officials in a Northern California city urged people sensitive to smoke to keep indoors as firefighters spent a third day Saturday battling a fire in a huge medical equipment warehouse. Air quality on the south side of Tracy, a city of 100,000 people where the Medline warehouse fire has been burning since Thursday, was in the “unhealthy” range, according to air monitors. Firefighters expected the next few days to remain smoky amid a lengthy effort to put out the fire inside the building, South San Joaquin County Fire Authority Fire Chief Randall Bradley said in a statement.…

A medical examiner has ruled the death of a Haitian asylum seeker after being released from federal custody a homicide. An attorney representing her family said he expects her relatives to sue Immigration and Customs Enforcement in connection with her death. Daphy Michel, 31, died March 2. She was found at a bus shelter. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office found her cause of death to be hypothermia and ruled the manner a homicide, “indicating the death was caused by the actions of another individual” and should not be interpreted as a declaration of criminal guilt, the office said in…

Customs and Border Protection agents working at a border crossing near Buffalo, New York, found over 1,600 pounds of marijuana in a purported shipment of chocolate. The agents, working at the Peace Bridge crossing over the Niagara River, found the weed on Tuesday while examining a shipment listed on a manifest as chocolate. Upon further examination of the truck and trailer, they found 56 boxes containing vacuum-sealed packages, which in turn contained over 1,600 pounds of marijuana, CBP said in a release Friday. “In this case, it was manifested as a shipment of chocolate. It was sitting, appeared to be…

A plane slated to fly from London to Charlotte, North Carolina, had to double back and make an emergency landing after being struck by lightning. American Airlines Flight 735 took off from London Heathrow Airport just before 3:30 p.m. local time Wednesday, headed for Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The plane made a U-turn for London Heathrow while still flying over the U.K., landing back at its airport of origin just over an hour after taking off, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.  While mid-flight, the plane was struck by lightning, leading the pilots to send out a “code 7700” message,…

An Indiana man who scratched what appeared to be a $100,000 prize from a new state lottery game was informed it had been validated at only $20, as the Hoosier Lottery acknowledged a printing error, suspended sales of the game and said it is reviewing how to resolve affected tickets. Mike Fields, a forklift driver, purchased four tickets for the Space Invaders Cash Invasion scratch-off, which launched June 2. When he scanned what appeared to be a winning ticket — the game’s rocket ship symbol is supposed to trigger an instant prize — he was told the ticket was worth…

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Saturday that he will appoint one of his personal lawyers to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan after the attorney who holds the job was tapped this week for the role of director of national intelligence. James M. McDonald, a former federal prosecutor who served in the White House counsel’s office during President George W. Bush’s administration, is part of the legal team handling Trump’s pending appeal of felony convictions in New York related to hush money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election. Trump said Saturday he…

No nationwide environmental standards for artificial intelligence data centers will be implemented by the Trump administration, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said this week. Instead, he offered that responsibility to states and local governments to restrict water usage and air pollution. “Ten times out of 10, I’m not going to sit inside of an agency building in Washington, D.C., and that we say that we know that local community in Georgia or Florida or Arizona or elsewhere, better than everyone there locally,” Mr. Zeldin said at the POLITICO Energy Summit in Washington on Wednesday. Because each data center’s environmental…

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore sites changed under an executive order calling for the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks to not display elements that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Massachusetts also orders a pause on any additional changes, writing that the plaintiffs have shown that these efforts are meant “to rewrite the Nation’s history with a white-out pen.” “History cannot be faithfully told while excluding the experiences of communities whose contributions, struggles, and achievements form an important part of our Nation’s story,”…