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Bill Maher will win the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain humor prize

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bill Maher will win the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center said Thursday, less than a week after the White House forcefully denied that the comedian, who has had a hot-and-cold relationship with President Donald Trump, would win it. “For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,” Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said in a statement. “For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse — one politically incorrect joke at a ...

Political instant replay

In sports, the instant replay was invented and first used by a man named Tony Verna on the Dec. 7, 1963 broadcast of the Army-Navy football game on CBS. The political “instant replay” has no single author or starting date, but its overuse has produced few resolutions of the major problems confronting the country. What it has produced is a deepening cynicism about politics and so much else. Too many Americans now see their fellow Americans who are of a different party or persuasion as a bigger enemy than Iran or Russia. Long-term friendships have been destroyed over whether one ...

Social media addiction

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are running content very harmful to children. So said a jury in New Mexico that just slapped their owner, Meta, with a $375 million fine. The state accused the company of spreading pornographic images and helping adults contact vulnerable children. Meta faces thousands of suits, but in a landmark case decided in California on Wednesday, the company was told to pay 20-year-old plaintiff Kaley G.M. $4.2 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages. Kaley blamed its products on a variety of mental health issues, including depression and distress ...

Who will pay the bill for the war in Iran?

Whatever you think of the war in Iran, there’s a separate question— independent of the military merits — that Congress must answer: How will it be paid for? The Pentagon has requested $200 billion to fund the campaign. While circumstances could change the price tag, interest payments on that much debt would add $87 billion over 10 years. So that’s roughly $300 billion. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, asked about this number, offered a memorable contribution to the fiscal debate: “Obviously, it takes money to kill bad guys.” That’s true. It’s also true that the money ...

Dem lawmaker asks judge to take Trump’s name off Kennedy Center

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic lawmaker is asking a federal judge to force the Kennedy Center to block and reverse efforts to attach President Donald Trump’s name to the historic performing arts venue. In a motion filed Wednesday, Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio argues that Congress was clear in its intent that the Kennedy Center is named for the late President John F. Kennedy — and no one else. “Renaming the Kennedy Center for President Trump — without any authorization from Congress — undermines the Center’s raison d’être, and frustrates its purpose as the only memorial ...

FEMA will resume major grant program after yearlong hiatus

(AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday opened applications for a major resilience grant program that the agency canceled last year, less than three weeks after a federal judge ordered FEMA to make the funding available. FEMA will make $1 billion available for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which helps states, local governments, territories and tribes take on preparedness projects to harden against natural hazards like fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. “When done correctly, mitigation activities save lives and reduce ...