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2 Las Vegas casinos fell victim to cyberattacks, shattering the image of impenetrable casino security

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

AS VEGAS — A persistent error message greeted Dulce Martinez on Monday as she tried to access her casino rewards account to book accommodations for an upcoming business trip.That’s odd, she thought, then toggled over to Facebook to search for clues about the issue on a group for MGM Resorts International loyalty members. There, she learned that the largest casino owner in Las Vegas had fallen victim to a cybersecurity breach.Martinez, 45, immediately checked her bank statements for the credit card linked to her loyalty account. Now she was being greeted by four new transactions she did not recognize — charges that she said increased with each transaction, from $9.99 to $46. She canceled the credit card.Unsettled by the thought of what other information the hackers may have stolen, Martinez, a publicist from Los Angeles, said she signed up for a credit report monitoring program, which will cost her $20 monthly.“It’s been kind of an issue for me,” she said, “but I’m now monitori...

UAW walkout could lead to car sticker shock, but not quite yet

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

Car shoppers are heading for a new round of sticker shock if the strike by the United Auto Workers doesn’t end soon, particularly for popular vehicles that are already in short supply.The number of vehicles on dealer lots will shrink the longer the walkout goes on. Dealers are likely to lose incentives that the manufacturers pay them to boost sales by cutting prices.And consumers might make things worse with panic-buying.Many analysts think it will take several weeks before dealer lots start to look a bit empty. Ford, General Motors and Stellantis built up inventories of vehicles ahead of Thursday night’s strike, and the UAW decided to limit the walkout to just three plants — at least for now.“Guys at the dealerships are going to tell you, ‘The UAW this and that,’ but their lots are full of cars now,” says Ivan Drury, the director of insights at Edmunds, a provider of information about the auto industry. He estimates that at current inventory levels and the pace of vehicle sales, mo...

Ticker: S&P 500 has 2nd losing week in a row on Wall Street

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 benchmark index losing 1.2% Friday for a second losing week in a row.The Dow fell 288 points and the Nasdaq composite gave back 1.6%. The market had posted some gains this week following several healthy indicators on the economy ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week, where it’s expected to hold interest rates steady. Tech stocks were the biggest drag on the market. Automaker stocks proved resilient after the United Auto Workers union walked off the job at several plants overnight. Treasury yields mostly rose.The market posted some gains earlier this week following several healthy indicators on the economy. Wall Street has been watching economic updates ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy meeting next week.Russia raises key interest rate again as inflation and exchange rate worries continueMOSCOW — Russia’s central bank has raised its key lending rate by one percentage point to...

Volume up: San Diego musicians collaborate to revive the mystic saints of India

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

SAN DIEGO --Described as a sublime meeting of East and West, a sacred "love story" is being told within the walls of Big Fish Recording Studio in Encinitas.Though produced in the same studio where multi-platinum albums by iconic artists like Blink 182 and Jimmy Eat World were created, a different kind of masterpiece is being collaborated by a group of San Diego musicians. Inspired by the sounds of her childhood, Vineetha Menon, a North County business owner and creator, pointed to her time in Kerala, India while drawing in a breath of creativity. She explained that "compositions from the mystic saints of India" are being retold through an album that's in the making.According to Vineetha, most of the recreated songs on the album are not available in the public domain. Many come from her memory -- an evocation of her mother's singing. "Exquisite melodies and poetic lyrics" she hopes to revive. "Something within me spoke to say it was my responsibility, my duty to preserve this music,"...

No longer a hurricane but still fierce, Lee pounds New England and Canada with rain, wind, waves

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) — Once a hurricane and still almost as strong as one, storm Lee brought high winds, rough surf and torrential rains Saturday to a large swath of New England and Maritime Canada, toppling trees, swamping coastlines and cutting power to tens of thousands.Many denizens shrugged off Lee, now a post-tropical cyclone, as not much worse than the region’s famous and frequent nor’easters, a similarity some meteorologists acknowledged even while warning people not to underestimate it.The storm ‘s center was expected to make landfall in Canada at near hurricane strength on Saturday afternoon, then weaken as it moved into New Brunswick and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, forecasters said.In the United States, a tropical storm warning was in effect for a 230-mile stretch from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to the eastern end of Maine. That included Bar Harbor, the touristy gateway to Acadia National Park, where officials closed a parking lot at a pier as high tide moved in and...

Police make 3rd arrest after 67-year-old man found dead in Weston apartment

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

Toronto police have arrested a third person in connection with the death of a man in the city’s west end last month.Officers were called to an apartment building near Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue West around 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 9.Police say a man was found dead in a unit inside the building. The victim has been identified as 67-year-old Ahmed Hassan of Toronto.The death was deemed suspicious and the Toronto police Homicide and Missing Persons Unit took over the investigation.Police arrested two men from Toronto in the week following the death. Both suspects were charged with first-degree murder.On Aug. 17, investigators identified a third suspect and issued a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest.The third suspect, 24-year-old Faysal Mohamed from Toronto, was arrested on Saturday and has also been charged with first-degree murder. The accused appeared in a Toronto courtroom on Saturday morning.Anyone with additional information is being asked to contact police.

The auto workers strike will drive up car prices, but not right away – unless consumers panic

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — Car shoppers are heading for a new round of sticker shock if the strike by the United Auto Workers doesn’t end soon, particularly for popular vehicles that are already in short supply.The number of vehicles on dealer lots will shrink the longer the walkout goes on. Dealers are likely to lose incentives that the manufacturers pay them to boost sales by cutting prices. And consumers might make things worse with panic-buying.Many analysts think it will take several weeks before dealer lots start to look a bit empty. Ford, General Motors and Stellantis built up inventories of vehicles ahead of Thursday night’s strike, and the UAW decided to limit the walkout to just three plants – at least for now.“Guys at the dealerships are going to tell you, ‘The UAW this and that,’ but their lots are full of cars now,” says Ivan Drury, the director of insights at Edmunds, a provider of information about the auto industry. He estimates that at current inventory levels and the pace of ve...

UN nuclear agency slams Iran for barring ‘several’ inspectors from monitoring its program

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The U.N. nuclear watchdog harshly criticized Iran on Saturday for effectively barring several of its most experienced inspectors from monitoring the country’s disputed program.The strongly worded statement came amid longstanding tensions between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is tasked with monitoring a nuclear program that Western nations have long suspected is aimed at eventually developing a nuclear weapon. Iran insists the program is peaceful.Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the IAEA, said Iran had withdrawn the designation of “several experienced Agency inspectors,” barring them from taking part in the monitoring of its program.“Iran has effectively removed about one third of the core group of the Agency’s most experienced inspectors designated for Iran,” he said.Grossi went on to “strongly condemn this disproportionate and unprecedented unilateral measure,” saying it “constitutes an unnecessary blow to an already ...

Mount Evans, a Colorado mountain tied to an 1864 atrocity, is officially renamed

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) – The U.S. Board on Geographic Names has renamed Mount Evans as Mount Blue Sky, making the new name official during the Council of Geographic Names Authorities conference Friday afternoon.The change was years in the making, gaining traction in 2020 as part of a widespread movement to address past atrocities. It was a popular national monument — until it was robbed to extinction During the meeting, officials had discussed six different options for the name of iconic 14,271 "fourteener" mountain peak."I think there's an overwhelming agreement that the name has to be changed," Chris Hammond, a member of the Domestic Names Committee, said."I do hope that whatever name we pick does start the healing process," member Andrew Flora added.Why was Mount Evans renamed?Mount Evans was named after Colorado Territorial Gov. John Evans in 1895. But attitudes toward Gov. Evans later soured due to his treatment of Native populations, and a push to rename the peak began gaining tracti...

Opposition leader: All Signs Point to the End of the Mullahs’ Regime in Iran

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:04 GMT

Addressing thousands of representatives of the Iranian diaspora in Europe, the Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi said on Friday that all signs point to the end of the ruling theocracy.Rajavi was addressing a major conference in Brussels on Friday on the eve of the first anniversary of the Iranian people’s uprising that began after the tragic death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini. According to Rajavi, the uprising highlighted the potential for the regime’s downfall and has put the Iranian people on the cusp of a new era in their history, backed by four decades of organized resistance.Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, former Colombian presidential candidate and former hostage Ingrid Betancourt, former German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, and the former French Foreign Minister Michèle Alliot Marie were among the international dignitaries who participated in the summit organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (...