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Fairfax County Board of Supervisors considering higher salaries for members

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors could see higher salaries in the future.Supervisors this week voted 8-2 to consider raising board members’ salaries.The increase would see board members’ annual salaries go from 90,000 to as high as $130,000, while the chairman’s salary would increase from the current $100,000 to a range of $140,000 to $145,000. The board last received a pay raise eight years ago, in 2015.Supervisor John Foust, who’s retiring after this year, introduced the motion, saying it’s important to consider the evolving nature and increasing demands of board members and the chairman.“In addition to counting base work, the job of a supervisor or chairman requires participation in a growing number of regional bodies, in which most board members participate but are not comp...

China condemns Japanese plan to release Fukushima water

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday condemned a Japanese plan to release treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, demanding that Tokyo first receive the approval of neighboring countries. China has made similar complaints on a regular basis in the past, but has not said how it would respond if Japan goes ahead with the planned release.China, which Japan invaded in the first half of the last century, has been a constant critic of Tokyo and its security alliance with the U.S., with the ruling Communist Party frequently invoking historical wrongs to rally domestic support and seek to undermine Japan’s global standing. Japan’s behavior is “extremely irresponsible,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Friday. “I would like to stress that Japan’s release of treated nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima plant concerns the global marine environment and public health, which is not a private matter for t...

Fire breaks out at building near White House, no injuries

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A fire broke out Friday at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, leading to the evacuation of workers as firefighters responded to the call, according to the U.S. Secret Service.D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services said at 8 a.m. on Twitter that a defective cooling motor in the basement caused the fire. It said there were no injuries in the response to the fire.Built between 1871 and 1888, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building towers over the West Wing, where President Joe Biden works. It houses a wide array of White House workers. An email to White House staff sent Friday morning said “URGENT: EVACUATION” with the order to leave the building at the direction of security officers.By 8:35 a.m., the White House grounds were relatively calm after the morning disturbance.A 2007 fire at the executive building damaged then Vice President Dick Cheney’s ceremonial suite of offices and led to the evacuation of 1,000 federal workers, ...

Man, teen dead after shooting in Southeast DC, 1 injured

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

A man and a teenage boy have died, while another man was injured following a shooting in Southeast D.C. on Tuesday.According to D.C. police, officers responded to the report of a shooting in the 2700 block of Bruce Place at around 7:45 p.m.More DC News More Local NewsWhen they arrived, D.C. police say officers found two men suffering from gunshot wounds.Dana Faulkner, 23, of Southeast D.C., died on the scene, while another man was taken to the hospital, police said.Later on, police responded to the intersection of Wheeler Road and Mississippi Avenue in Southeast for a report of an “unconscious person.”Officers found 15-year-old Abdul Fuller of Southeast D.C. with a gunshot wound and determined he was on Bruce Place when the shooting occurred. He was taken to the hospital on Tuesday and died of his injuries on Thursday.D.C. police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone that provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons res...

En EEUU se crearon 311,000 puestos de trabajo en febrero, pero sube la tasa de desempleo

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

WASHINGTON — Los empleadores de Estados Unidos crearon 311,000 puestos de trabajo en febrero, menos que la enorme ganancia de enero, pero suficiente para mantener la presión sobre la Reserva Federal para que eleve las tasas de interés agresivamente para combatir la inflación.La tasa de desempleo aumentó al 3.6 % desde un mínimo de 53 años del 3.4 %, ya que más estadounidenses comenzaron a buscar trabajo y no todos encontraron trabajo.El informe del gobierno de este viernes dejó en claro que el mercado laboral de la nación sigue siendo fundamentalmente saludable, con muchos empleadores aún ansiosos por contratar. El presidente de la Fed, Jerome Powell, dijo al Congreso esta semana que la Fed probablemente aumentaría sus aumentos de tasas si las señales continúan apuntando a una economía sólida y una inflación persistentemente alta. Un mercado laboral fuerte generalmente lleva a las empresas a aumentar los salarios y luego trasladar sus costos laborales más altos a los clientes a trav...

Iran, Saudi Arabia agree to resume ties, with China’s help

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and Saudi Arabia on Friday agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after years of tensions between the two countries, including a devastating attack on the heart of the kingdom’s oil production attributed to Tehran. The deal, struck in Beijing this week amid its ceremonial National People’s Congress, represents a major diplomatic victory for the Chinese as Gulf Arab states perceive the United States slowly withdrawing from the wider Middle East. It also comes as diplomats have been trying to end a yearslong war in Yemen, a conflict in which both Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply entrenched. The two countries released a joint communique on the deal with China, which brokered the agreement. Chinese state media did not immediately report the agreement. Iranian state media posted images and video it described as being taken in China of the meeting. It showed Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Secur...

Oscars vs. ‘The Last of Us’: What are you watching Sunday?

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

Will Joel and Ellie finally reach the doctors in “The Last of Us”? Will Michelle Yeoh take home the Oscar for best actress?Both questions will be answered this Sunday, but viewers will have to make a choice about which answer they want in real time. The season finale of the HBO hit is up against the live telecast of the Oscars on ABC.Of course, there’s an opportunity to see both. The Oscars begin at 8 p.m. Eastern; “ The Last of Us ” airs at 9 p.m. Viewers could begin their night watching the Oscars, click over to “The Last of Us,” and return for the ceremony’s last hour. That’s when the biggest categories are usually handed out, but that plan comes with the risk of missing any buzzy, unscripted moments. And if you choose to stick with the Oscars throughout? You risk spoilers on the fate of Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal’s characters.The debate essentially boils down to zeitgeist, says Robert Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University specializing in media and dir...

UK drops decade-long fraud case against security firm G4S

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

LONDON (AP) — U.K. authorities on Friday dropped fraud charges against three former executives of security firm G4S, saying it’s “no longer in the public interest” to continue the decade-old case.The Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation in 2013 into allegations the company had overcharged by millions of pounds on contracts to monitor offenders using electronic tags. In 2020, the company accepted responsibility for three counts of fraud and agreed to pay a financial penalty of 38.5 million pounds, plus legal costs. Shortly afterwards, three G4S executives were charged with fraud.They pleaded not guilty and had yet to stand trial. Then on Friday, prosecutors dropped the case.“The defendants have been under suspicion for 10 years and the prosecution are only too aware of the impact the proceedings will have had on them and their families,” prosecutor Crispin Aylett said. “We recognized the potential unfairness of asking that this should go on for a substantial period of f...

Cypriot president pledges 2% of GDP on defense spending

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus will earmark 2% of gross domestic product to defense spending in line with other European Union member states as a means to strengthen the east Mediterranean island nation’s foreign policy bargaining power, the new Cypriot president said Friday.Nikos Christodoulides told reporters after a visit to a Special Forces training camp that he aims to put Cyprus, along with other countries including Greece and France, “at the core” of a recent EU push to bolster its deterrent capabilities and defense infrastructure.“I also served as foreign minister and I know that without a strong deterrent force, without a strong defense, your say in foreign policy matters is clearly limited,” Christodoulides said.According to official figures, Cyprus’ GDP in 2022 was estimated at 27 billion euros. A 2% of GDP target would mark a slight increase in current expenditure on ethnically split Cyprus’ military. It’s also reflective of NATO members’ commitment to spend 2% of their G...

Hitting technology could help baseball’s struggling lineups

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:43:27 GMT

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Tim Anderson wanted to study his swing. After a season hampered by groin and hand injuries, the Chicago White Sox shortstop wanted to build a more fluid approach at the plate.That work brought him to Driveline Baseball, first at the company’s main facility in Washington, and then at its outpost in Arizona.“They showed me a lot of stuff. Just break it down all the way from ground up,” Anderson said. “Really anything that you want to see, they got it.”At places like Driveline and the Baseball Performance Lab in Louisiana, and behind closed doors in unlabeled buildings around the major leagues, the race is on. Some of baseball’s brightest minds are working on the gap between the technology available to Anderson and other big league hitters, and the technology behind a pitching renaissance.Forget about tinkering in the batting cage, looking for a lost swing. Hitters now have high-speed cameras to inform subtle mechanical adjustments. They&#...