Morning Headlines - Friday, Aug. 23, 2024 | Recent News

U.S. and World Headlines

5 Takeaways From Kamala Harris’s DNC Speech

Vice President Harris accepted the Democratic nomination here on Thursday with a speech wrapped in an intense tone of patriotism.

But she also took the fight to former President Trump in pugnacious style.

Harris has arrived at this point after an extraordinary sequence of events ignited by President Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate with Trump.

Since Biden announced on July 21 that he would abandon his bid for a second term, Harris has been transformed from a vice president with tepid approval ratings and an uncertain future to the narrow frontrunner in a race that could make her the first female president.

The vice president delivered a speech just short of 40 minutes’ duration to a United Center packed to the rafters with cheering Democrats.

Here are the main takeaways:

USPS Says It Wants To Save $3 Billion A Year. The Result Could Be Slower Delivery For Some Mail

The U.S. Postal Service on Thursday said it needs to shave more costs from its operations to get into better financial shape. To do that, the postal agency wants to overhaul its delivery logistics, resulting in some customers likely seeing a slowdown in their mail delivery.

The new plan, which will be filed with the USPS' regulatory commission, comes about three years after the mail service embarked on a 10-year plan to stanch billions of dollars in losses and put the agency on the path to profitability. The 10-year plan, implemented by Postmaster Louis DeJoy, also slowed delivery standards, with the service guaranteeing five-day delivery instead of its previous three-day delivery window.

FDA Approves New COVID Shots From Moderna, Pfizer

The Food and Drug Administration approved new formulations of both Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday.

The approval comes as the number of COVID infections grows in more than two dozen states and respiratory virus season fast approaches.

Supreme Court Limits Arizona Voting Without Citizenship Proof

The US Supreme Court has granted a Republican request to partially reinstate an Arizona law demanding proof of American citizenship for voter registration.

In a 5-4 ruling, justices reinstated part of a 2022 law that rejected such forms if the voter did not provide proof of citizenship.

The law's full revival would have excluded more than 41,000 people from voting in November's election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

The administration of President Joe Biden, who won Arizona in 2020 by just over 10,000 votes, had sued to stop the law.

US Sending $125 Million In New Military Aid To Ukraine

The Biden administration will send about $125 million in new military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Thursday, even as Washington works to get a better understanding of Kyiv's incursion into Russia and how it advances the broader battlefield goals more than two years into the war.

U.S. officials said the latest package of aid includes air defense missiles, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Javelins and an array of other anti-armor missiles, counter-drone and counter-electronic warfare systems and equipment.

UW Regents Agree To Ask Evers For $855 Million Increase In State's 2025-27 Budget

Universities of Wisconsin regents agreed overwhelmingly on Aug. 22 to ask Gov. Tony Evers for an additional $855 million for the cash-strapped system in the 2025-27 state budget.

UW system President Jay Rothman has promised he won’t seek to raise tuition during the life of the two-year spending plan if the system gets the money.

4 Years After Kenosha Unrest, Community Still Rebuilding

In August of 2020, Abel Alejo received a phone call from Yolanda Hernandez.

His business, La Estrella Supermarket, was on fire.

“When I got to Kenosha, everything was chaos. There was big flames,” Alejo said. “The fires just went from one business, to the next, to the next.”

The damage to those businesses came in the wake of the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Marquette Student Wins Wisconsin Open

The Wisconsin Open was this week in Minocqua and a Marquette student took home the title. Max Lyons took home the cup after an interesting journey to the green.

In eighth grade Max was playing hockey and basketball, only golfing on the weekends with his dad. Unfortunately he broke his collarbone while playing hockey which required surgery. After that he decided that he would quit both sports and focus on becoming a golfer.

"Jazzed As Hell": Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers Fumbles Through DNC Roll Call

"I'm here because I'm jazzed as hell," Evers continued, "to announce that Wisconsin casts one vote present and 94 votes for ... for ... for ... whoa, where are we at? Got me going here. Former Wisconsinite, former state ... oh my god ..."

Evers trailed off and looked up at the secretary of the DNC Jason Rae on stage, at which point the cheesehead-wearing crowd started cheering "we love you Tony!"

Wisconsin Department Of Natural Resources Reports New Invasive Insect

Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are reporting a new invasive species that is taking aim at trees across the state.

According to a release from the DNR, the elm zigzag sawfly, named for the distinctive zigzag pattern its caterpillars chew in elm leaves, originated in eastern Asia and was first detected in the United States in 2021 in Virginia.