Morning Headlines - Monday, July 29, 2024 | Recent News

U.S. and World Headlines

2024 Paris Olympics Live Updates

Team USA's male gymnasts are hoping to take home their first medal in the team event since 2008 and this afternoon, the U.S. women's basketball team will play Japan in its first group stage.

The rain-delayed men's street skateboarding final is also set to take place this morning with three Americans expected to compete.

Mcdonald's Same-store Sales Fall For The 1st Time Since Pandemic, Profit Slides 12%

McDonald's posted weak sales in the second quarter as increasingly value-conscious consumers in the U.S., China and paid fewer visits to restaurants.

Sales at locations open at least a year fell 1% worldwide across every company segment in the April-June period, the first decline since the final quarter of 2020 when the pandemic shuttered stores and millions stayed home.

Venezuela's Maduro Declared Winner In Disputed Vote

President Nicolás Maduro has won Venezuela's presidential election, according to partial results announced by the electoral council.

The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso - who is a close ally of Mr Maduro - said that with 80% of ballots counted, President Maduro had 51% of the vote, compared to 44% for his main rival.

The Venezuelan opposition dismissed the CNE's announcement as fraudulent and promised to challenge the result.

Biden Calls For Sweeping Supreme Court Reforms

President Joe Biden called for major changes to the Supreme Court on Monday, including a constitutional amendment that would limit immunity for presidents, impose term limits for justices and stipulate an enforceable code of ethics.

In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Biden said "no one is above the law."

“Not the president of the United States,” he wrote. “Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one.”

Accused Drug Trafficker Dubbed "Pirate Of The Unknown" Extradited To NYC

A citizen of Montenegro nicknamed the "Pirate of the Unknown" has been extradited to New York City from Italy to face charges connected to what U.S. authorities called an international drug ring that transported tons of cocaine around the world. The extradition comes after Milos Radonjic was arrested in Italy where authorities say he planned to captain a yacht in an international race.

Radonjic, 34, arrived in Brooklyn on Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Monday, according to federal prosecutors and officials with the Department of Homeland Security and FBI. A federal grand jury indicted him and several other people last year on charges of conspiracy and attempt to violate the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act.

Rice Lake Sprinter Kenny Bednarek Confident Going Into His Second Olympic Games

Sprinter Kenny Bednarek can outrun the fastest athletes in the world. But before the track and field star won a silver medal in the men’s 200 meter event in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, he was a kid racing his brother in Rice Lake.

“We used to run to the library all the time in the snow,” said Bednarek. “When the lake froze over and everybody had their ice shacks out there, we would say, ‘Hey, we’re bored at home. Let’s go to the library real quick.’ So instead of taking the long path, we’d take the short path. We’d just go across the lake.”

Pilot Makes Emergency Landing In Dodge County Farm Field

A pilot of a single-engine aircraft made an emergency landing Sunday morning in a farm field, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

DCSO received numerous reports around 8:30 a.m. of a low flying plane with what sounded like engine issues. Shortly after, it was reported that the plane had landed in a farm field in Hubbard.

Wisconsin Republicans Ask Voters To Take Away Governor's Power To Direct Spending Of Federal Money

Wisconsin Republicans are asking voters to take away the governor’s power to unilaterally spend federal money, a reaction to the billions of dollars that flowed into the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was free to spend most of that money as he pleased, directing most of it toward small businesses and economic development, angering Republicans who argued the Legislature should have oversight.

Tammy Baldwin Looks To Maintain Edge Over Top Of The Ticket In Battleground Wisconsin

When Kamala Harris held her first campaign rally as the presumptive Democratic nominee last week, one of the most vulnerable senators in the country was on hand to welcome her.

Tammy Baldwin, the two-term Wisconsin Democrat, didn’t attend President Joe Biden’s post-debate rally in the state earlier this month. But her appearance with Harris signaled the new excitement Democrats are feeling from their base.

New Report Finds Housing Permitting In Wisconsin Lagging Behind Pre-2008 Levels

A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum finds that while permitting rates for building new housing have increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they still trail permitting levels in the early 2000s.

Mark Sommerhauser, policy researcher and communications director for the Wisconsin Policy Forum, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that building levels stayed relatively low for years after the 2008 financial collapse.

“We’re still way behind where we were in the early 2000s,” Sommerhauser said. “Most critically, our housing inventory is feeling the impacts of years and years of very low levels of new construction, basically from 2008 onward for more than a decade.”