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USA: Michigan teen shooter eligible for life in prison, no parole, for killing 4 students, judge rules

DETROIT (AP) — A teenager who killed four fellow students at Michigan’s Oxford High School is eligible for life in prison with no chance for parole, a judge ruled Friday, finding only a “slim” chance for rehabilitation after the 2021 attack.

Judge Kwamé Rowe announced the decision over video conference, weeks after hearing from experts who clashed over Ethan Crumbley’s mental health and witnesses who described the terror of the day in sharp detail.

USA: United Auto Workers strikes spread to Chicago and Lansing as 7,000 more workers join the picket line

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers expanded its two-week strikes against Detroit automakers Friday, adding 7,000 workers at a Ford plant in Chicago and a General Motors assembly factory near Lansing, Michigan.

Union President Shawn Fain told workers on a video appearance Friday that negotiations haven’t broken down, but the strikes were escalated because Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress in contract talks.

Jeep maker Stellantis was spared from the third round of strikes.

USA: Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, an advocate for liberal priorities, dies at age 90

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat and champion of liberal causes who was elected to the Senate in 1992 and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90.

Feinstein died on Thursday night at her home in Washington, D.C., her office said on Friday. Opening the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that “earlier this morning, we lost a giant in the Senate.”

Travis King: US soldier released by North Korea arrives in Texas

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Army Private Travis King faces an uncertain future following his arrival at a U.S. military base in Texas on Thursday after being expelled from North Korea.

A U.S. military flight carrying King, who in July made a surprise dash across the heavily militarized Korean border, landed at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston at about 0530 GMT, a U.S. defense official told Reuters. Television footage showed a group of people leaving a plane at the base at that time.

US government estimates economy grew last quarter at a 2.1% rate, unchanged from previous projection

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a 2.1% annual pace from April through June, extending its sturdy performance in the face of higher interest rates, the government said Thursday, leaving its previous estimate unchanged.

The second-quarter expansion of the nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — marked a modest deceleration from the economy’s 2.2% annual growth from January through March.

Consumer spending, business investment and state and local government outlays drove the second-quarter economic expansion.

USA: Biden is targeting Trump’s ‘extremist movement’ as he makes democracy a touchtone in reelection bid

PHOENIX (AP) —

President Joe Biden is arguing that “there is something dangerous happening in America” as he revives his warnings that Donald Trump and his allies represent an existential threat to the country’s democratic institutions.

“There is an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy. The MAGA movement,” Biden says in excerpts of the speech Thursday in Arizona, released in advance by the White House, referring Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan.

A key US government surveillance tool should face new limits, a divided privacy oversight board says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI and other government agencies should be required to get court approval before reviewing the communications of U.S. citizens collected through a secretive foreign surveillance program, a sharply divided privacy oversight board recommended on Thursday.

USA: House Republicans make their case for President Biden impeachment inquiry at first hearing

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans launched their formal impeachment hearing Thursday against President Joe Biden, saying they intend to “provide accountability” as they make their case to the public, their colleagues and skeptics in the Senate.

USA: Donald Trump skipped the GOP debate again. This time, his rivals took him on directly

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Several of Donald Trump’s rivals stepped up their attacks against him in the second Republican presidential debate, urgently trying to dent the former president’s commanding primary lead during an event that often seemed like an undercard without him.

USA: Man wanted in killing of Baltimore tech entrepreneur Pava LaPere is arrested, police say

BALTIMORE (AP) — Police had been searching for the man arrested in the killing of a Baltimore tech entrepreneur since last week as a suspect in a separate rape and arson, officials said Thursday.

Jason Billingsley, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Pava LaPere, was released from prison last October after earning good behavior credits to reduce the time he served for a 2013 sexual assault.

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