Town Hall News

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii lawmakers began a new legislative session Wednesday with a vow to try to stabilize the state’s property insurance market as hurricanes, wildfires and other climate change-influenced disasters at home and elsewhere prompt insurance carriers to raise rates. Hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina and wildfires in California affect the insurance business in Hawaii because insurance companies buy reinsurance — insurance for themselves — on the global […]

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Authorities have begun evacuating 3,000 residents near the Mount Ibu volcano on Indonesia’s eastern island of Halmahera, the disaster agency said on Thursday, after an eruption this week sent a cloud of thick grey ash as high as four-km (2.5-mile) into the sky. Ibu erupted on Wednesday morning for about two minutes, Indonesia’s volcanology agency said, forcing authorities to raise the alert level in the surrounding areas […]

The NBA issued a one-game suspension to Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin for bumping a referee in a Tuesday game. In a ruling announced Wednesday by the league’s head of basketball operations, Joe Dumars, the NBA cited Mathurin “for making inappropriate contact with and verbally abusing a game official.” With 3:58 left in the Pacers’ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Mathurin was whistled for fouling Evan Mobley. Mathurin then ran […]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Lawyers representing South Korea’s impeached president said Thursday he will refuse further questioning after being detained by anti-corruption officials over his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month, maintaining that the investigation is illegal. President Yoon Suk Yeol exercised his right to remain silent as he underwent more than 10 hours of questioning on Wednesday at the headquarters of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking […]

Nevada’s Republican governor extended a hand Wednesday to the Democratic-controlled state Legislature, saying they need to come together to find solutions for urgent issues like affordable housing and access to adequate health care. Gov. Joe Lombardo’s address in the state capital of Carson City sets the tone for how he plans to advance his policies even as his party is outnumbered. “I would ask that before some of you say […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — With only days left in the White House, President Joe Biden was saving a few surprises for his farewell address Wednesday evening. Instead of simply summing up his term in office, he used the opportunity to issue dire warnings about the future and call for deep changes to the country’s foundational document. Biden’s term ends Monday, when he’ll be replaced by Donald Trump, a man he has […]

By David Shepardson (Reuters) -Toyota Motor unit Hino Motors has agreed a $1.6 billion settlement with U.S. agencies and will plead guilty over excess diesel engine emissions in more than 105,000 U.S. vehicles, the company and U.S. government said on Wednesday. The Japanese truck and engine manufacturer was charged with fraud in U.S. District Court in Detroit for unlawfully selling 105,000 heavy-duty diesel engines in the United States from 2010 […]

By Shrivathsa Sridhar MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Iga Swiatek charged into the third round of the Australian Open on a bright and sunny Thursday before fellow Grand Slam winner Emma Raducanu booked an intriguing encounter against the second seed with a convincing victory. It was the end of the road for Swiatek’s Polish compatriot Hubert Hurkacz, however, as the 18th seed went down in straight sets to Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, while […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scott Bessent, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Treasury Department, on Wednesday vowed to ensure that the dollar remains the world’s reserve currency as he laid out a vision for a “new economic golden age”. Bessent, who faces questioning before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, said in prepared testimony that the new Trump administration must prioritize productive investment that grows the economy over […]