News briefs

Tribune News Service on Apr 15, 2025

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Jeffries, AOC slam Marjorie Taylor Greene for stock trades amid tariff turmoil

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are slamming Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for what they called profiteering over wild market swings sparked by President Donald Trump’s unpredictable tariffs campaign.

The New York Democrats called for an investigation into reports that Greene bought stocks before Trump announced a 90-day delay of his tariffs against almost all trading partners, a move that sent Wall Street soaring.

Greene also sold Treasury bonds, benefiting from a dip in their price sparked by the same dramatic Trump actions. “So many of these people are crooks, liars and frauds. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is, of course, Exhibit A,” said Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is House Minority Leader. “We are seeing corruption unfold before us in real time.”

Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who represents parts of Queens and the Bronx, also trashed Greene at a rally Monday night in Boise, Idaho.

—New York Daily News

Books with sexual activity could be banned from NC school libraries in this bill

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina House Republicans are moving ahead a bill that would allow the public to sue schools for having library books that they feel are harmful to minors.

Two House committees backed a bill Tuesday that says schools will not have books in school libraries that include “descriptions or visual depictions of sexual activity or is pervasively vulgar.”

The “Promoting Wholesome Content for Students” bill would allow people to seek damages of up to $5,000 per violation of the bill.

The bill comes amid a raging debate in North Carolina and nationally about whether school libraries contain books that are too sexually explicit. Many of the targeted books feature LGBTQ+ themes and characters.

—The News & Observer

In cinema-style heist, tunneling thieves steal millions in gold, jewels from downtown LA

LOS ANGELES — The FBI is now investigating a jewelry heist that involved thieves tunneling through multiple walls to break into a downtown Los Angeles jewelry store over the weekend.

Millions of dollars in gold and jewels were stolen from a downtown jeweler's two enormous safes after burglars tunneled into the Broadway shop through multiple reinforced walls, police said.

In security video of the weekend break-in, a massive drill can be heard carving through the main castlelike wall, making a hole big enough for a person to slip through to enter Love Jewels, Reina de Oro at Broadway and 5th Street.

Los Angeles Police say the thieves on Sunday night cut through a room next to the gold merchant in the 500 block of Broadway. LAPD officials said the owners informed the department that the thieves took about $10 million worth of merchandise. LAPD Capt. Raul Jovel, who oversees the department's central division, said the thieves tunneled into the building through the Roxy, a small movie theater next door.

—Los Angeles Times

Netanyahu, Macron spar over recognition of Palestinian state

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparred with Emmanuel Macron over the French president’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state and encourage other countries to do the same.

A Palestinian state would be “a bastion of Iranian terrorism,” Netanyahu said on a call with Macron on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Israeli leader. “The prime minister expressed fierce opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and said that this would constitute a huge prize for terrorism.”

Macron has said France could recognize Palestinian statehood as early as June at a United Nations conference meant to help end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. The dispute exemplifies the growing tension between Israel and some of its closest allies over the 18-month war, which has destroyed much of Gaza.

France would be the first Group of Seven member to make such a move. The likes of the U.K. and U.S. formally support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but only after negotiations between the sides.

—Bloomberg News