1 dead, 4 hurt in shooting inside Atlanta medical facility
ATLANTA (AP) — Police say a shooter opened fire inside the waiting room of an Atlanta medical facility, killing one and injuring four others as authorities swarmed the city’s bustling midtown neighborhood in search of the 24-year-old suspect. Atlanta police said the shooting occurred inside a Northside Medical building on Wednesday afternoon. Authorities identified the suspect as Deion Patterson and said he is considered armed and dangerous. Four hours after the shooting, police said they believed Patterson had left the area. Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum told reporters that a 39-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The four injured victims were also women, aged 25, 39, 56 and 71.
Fed raises key rate but hints it may pause amid bank turmoil
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve reinforced its fight against high inflation by raising its key interest rate by a quarter-point to the highest level in 16 years. But the Fed also signaled that it may now pause its streak of 10 rate hikes, which have made borrowing for consumers and businesses steadily more expensive. In a statement, the Fed removed a sentence from its previous statement that had said “some additional” rate hikes might be needed. It replaced it with language that said it will weigh a range of factors in “determining the extent” to which future hikes might be needed.
Sheriff: Wife of suspected Texas gunman has been arrested
CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — Authorities say a woman identified as the wife of a Texas man suspected of killing five of his neighbors has been arrested for hindering his capture. Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson says 53-year-old Divimara Lamar Nava was taken into custody on Wednesday. He identified Lamar Nava as the wife of suspect Francisco Oropeza, who was captured Tuesday night in the closet of a house after a four-day manhunt. Jail records do not list her as being married. Oropeza was arrested about 20 miles from his home in the town of Cleveland, where authorities say he shot his neighbors with an AR-style rifle on Friday.
Victims' families question release of Oklahoma sex offender
HENRYETTA, Okla. (AP) — Authorities in Oklahoma haven't said whether a convicted sex offender whose body was found among seven people shot to death on a rural property was responsible for the killings. But in a series of ominous text messages, he blamed a young woman who accused him of child sex abuse for ruining his life and suggested that he was determined not to go back to prison. Now relatives of the teenage girls who were killed are questioning why Jesse McFadden was ever allowed to go free. McFadden was released early from a 20-year rape sentence even though he faced new charges of grooming a teenage girl to send him nude images in prison.
Florida Republicans pass pronoun, diversity bills
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Republicans have approved two bills that will restrict the use of preferred pronouns in schools and ban diversity programs in colleges. The proposals were given final passage by the Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate on Wednesday. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign the bills into law. DeSantis has driven a hardline conservative agenda as he seeks to bolster support of Republican primary voters ahead of his expected White House run. The state’s Legislative session, which is scheduled to end this week, has been dominated by divisive cultural issues.
Ukraine denies Russian claim Kyiv sent drones to hit Kremlin
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia claimed it foiled an overnight attack by Ukrainian drones on the Kremlin, calling it an unsuccessful assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin and promising retaliation for what it termed a “terrorist” act. The Ukrainian president denied it, saying: “We don’t attack Putin or Moscow.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin wasn’t in the Kremlin at the time. There was no independent verification of the reported attack, and Russia supplied no evidence to support it. Nor did officials say why it took more than 12 hours to report. If true, the alleged attack is a significant escalation in the 14-month-old conflict.
Trump lawyers say they won't call witnesses at rape trial
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers say they will not call any witnesses at the New York civil trial arising from writer E. Jean Carroll’s claims that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s. Trump lawyer Joseph Tacopina said they decided not to put on a defense case after learning that health issues were preventing their expert witness, a psychiatrist, from testifying. Tacopina previously disclosed that Trump would not testify at the trial, in federal court in Manhattan. Carroll’s lawyers said they could finish presenting their case on Thursday.
Report: Racist text helped spur Fox to oust Tucker Carlson
NEW YORK (AP) — A published report says a racist text message from Tucker Carlson helped drive the commentator's ouster from Fox News' The New York Times says that in a text uncovered as part of a recent defamation lawsuit, the former Fox host lamented how supporters of former President Donald Trump ganged up to beat a protester. “It's not how white men fight,” Carlson wrote. The message was found during a lawsuit brought against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems over the network's repeated airing of false claims that the company's voting machines rigged the 2020 election against Trump. Fox parted ways with Carlson after it settled the lawsuit for nearly $800 million.
4 dangers that most worry AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist known as the “godfather of artificial intelligence,” recently resigned his high-profile job at Google specifically to share his concerns that unchecked AI development could threaten humanity. It's a big switch for an award-winning researcher who helped pioneer critical AI technologies such as neural networks and “deep learning,” the process AI systems use to absorb and apply new information. In recent interviews, Hinton said his change of heart reflects AI's rapidly growing intelligence and the various ways such systems might upend — or simply end — humanity.
Galactic gobble: Star swallows planet in one big gulp
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists for the first time have caught a star in the act of swallowing a planet. And it's not just a nibble or bite, but one big gulp. Astronomers reported their observations Wednesday of what appears to be a gas giant around the size of Jupiter or bigger being eaten by its star. The sun-like star had been puffing up with old age for eons and finally got so big that it engulfed the close-orbiting planet. It's a preview of what will happen to Earth when our sun morphs into a red giant. The good news is it won't happen for 5 billion years.
