On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Jan. 5 at 6 a.m. CT:
PERRY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 17-year-old student with a shotgun and a handgun opened fire at a small-town Iowa high school, killing a sixth-grader and wounding five others. Thursday's shooting had students at Perry High School barricading themselves in offices, ducking into classrooms and fleeing. Authorities say one of the wounded was a school administrator and the suspect was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. investigators are looking at possible motive and reviewing the suspect’s social media posts. Two friends and their mother who spoke with The Associated Press said the suspect was a quiet person who had been bullied for years.
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Officials say South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has been released from prison on parole after serving nearly nine years in prison for killing his girlfriend. The Department of Corrections gave no more details of Pistorius’ release. The announcement came around 8:30 a.m., indicating that officials released the world-famous double-amputee Olympic runner early in the morning. Pistorius has served nearly nine years of his almost 13-and-a-half-year murder sentence for killing model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. He was approved for parole in November. Serious offenders in South Africa are eligible for parole after serving at least half their sentence.
BERLIN (AP) — Police say four people have died after a fire broke out at a hospital in northern Germany and spread to several patients’ rooms. Emergency workers saw flames on the fourth floor of a wing of the hospital in Uelzen, southeast of Hamburg, when they arrived at the scene late Thursday evening. They could hear calls for help and evacuated several people, and were able to stop the fire spreading any further. Police said Friday that three patients died at the scene and a fourth after being taken to another hospital. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were injured, nor what caused the fire.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Labor Department is expected to report that employers added a solid 160,000 jobs last month, according to the data firm FactSet. That would mean that the economy had added 2.7 million jobs in 2023. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned of hard times ahead after the Fed began jacking up interest rates in the spring of 2022 to attack high inflation. Economists predicted that the much higher borrowing costs would cause a recession. But that didn't happen and the nation’s labor market is still cranking out enough jobs to keep the unemployment rate near historic lows.
SYDNEY (AP) — The largest male specimen of the world's most venomous spider that boasts fangs powerful enough to pierce a human fingernail has found a new home after being discovered north of Sydney, Australia. The Sydney funnel-web spider, found only in Australia, has been donated to the Australian Reptile Park to help save lives by contributing to the park's antivenom program. The spider, given the moniker “Hercules.” was initially delivered by a member of the public to a local hospital. But park experts retrieved it and soon realized it was the largest male specimen ever received by the public in Australia. “Hercules” measures 7.9 centimeters (3 inches) from foot to foot, surpassing the park’s previous record-holder from 2018, the male funnel-web named “Colossus”.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump plans to spend the third anniversary of the Capitol riot by campaigning in Iowa as he tries win back the White House. The former Republican president has two events planned for Saturday in the leadoff voting state Iowa as he marks the anniversary of what he has called “a beautiful day.” President Joe Biden will be at a site near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on Friday where he's expected to press his case that Trump and top supporters of his “Make America Great Again” movement are threats to American democracy. Biden's visit has been moved up from Saturday due to weather concerns. The Capitol riot is increasingly viewed differently along partisan lines.
New York (AP) — New York City is suing more than a dozen charter bus companies for their role in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s operation to send tens of thousands of migrants to urban areas. The lawsuit, filed Thursday, claims the 17 bus companies “knowingly implemented” Abbott’s busing plan in violation of a New York law that limits transferring “needy persons” across state lines. It seeks more than $700 million in damages to recoup the cost of caring for an estimated 33,000 migrants who have arrived in the city on charter buses since April 2022. Abbott said in response that the suit was a violation of the commerce clause, which guarantees the constitutional right to travel.
DALLAS (AP) — The family of former U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson says the trailblazing Texas congresswoman died after getting an infection and accused a Dallas rehabilitation facility of neglect. Johnson, the first registered nurse elected to Congress, died on Dec. 31 at the age of 89. Les Weisbrod, her family’s attorney, said at a news conference that her death was caused by an infection in her spine that developed after she was left in her own feces at Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation following back surgery. In a statement Thursday, Baylor Scott & White Health said they are committed to working with her family and attorney.
A buzzer beater from Nikola Jokic and a matchup between top European stars in the NBA, two NHL standouts lead their teams to wins among a busy hockey slate, and a decorated running back signs with a contending team before Week 18.
The NBA fined the Brooklyn Nets $100,000 on Thursday, marking the first time a team was sanctioned for violating the league’s player participation policy that went into effect this season. The Nets held out four rotation players — starters Spencer Dinwiddie, Nic Claxton and Cam Johnson, along with key reserve Dorian Finney-Smith — in what became a 144-122 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 27. Three of the players Brooklyn started that night logged 12 minutes or less.
ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Braves have reworked the contract for newcomer Chris Sale, announcing a $38 million, two-year deal with the left-handed pitcher who was acquired last weekend from the Boston Red Sox. The contract also includes an $18 million club option for 2026. It supersedes his previous deal which called for a $27.5 million salary in 2024, with $10 million of that figure deferred until 2039. In essence, the seven-time All Star gets an additional $10.5 million in guaranteed money without having to wait for a deferred payment, in exchange for committing to at least two seasons with the Braves rather than one.
The NCAA and ESPN have agreed to a $920 million, eight-year deal that will give the network exclusive rights to 40 championships, including the Division I women’s basketball tournament. The women's side of March Madness has been growing in popularity and the association has been accused of undervaluing it in the past. NCAA President Charlie Baker told The Associated Press the deal has an average annual value of $115 million. That's an increase of more than 300% per year on what the previous 14-year deal with ESPN was paying the association. The deal covers 21 women’s and 19 men’s sports.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Fire officials say a child playing with a cigarette lighter started a fire at the $6.9 million home owned by Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill. Davie Fire Marshal Robert Taylor tells The Associated Press that the fire was accidental. He did not provide the age of the child, or the amount of damage caused by the fire. Hill was at Dolphins practice when the fire broke out. He left when he got word about the blaze. Miami television station WSVN showed a large amount of black smoke coming from the roof as firefighters doused the house with water. No one was injured in the fire.
Scandals have led to a membership revamp and CBS to take over as broadcaster for the Jan. 7 Golden Globe Awards show, but a key question remains: Will viewers tune in? Comedian Jo Koy is hosting the ceremony, which will be broadcast live from Beverly Hilton Hotel beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern.
NEW YORK (AP) — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie “Mary Poppins” and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100. Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in “A Little Night Music,” for which she won a Tony in 1973. Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song “Send in the Clowns” to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part in the 1977 film version to Elizabeth Taylor.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An armed unmanned surface vessel launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen got within a “couple of miles” of U.S. Navy and commercial vessels in the Red Sea before detonating. Thursday's attack took place just hours after the White House and a host of partner nations issued a final warning to the Iran-backed militia group to cease the attacks or face potential military action. Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, who heads U.S. Navy operations in the Middle East, said it was the first time the Houthis had used an unmanned surface vessel, or USV, since their harassment of commercial ships in the Red Sea began after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia has acquired ballistic missiles from North Korea and is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran as Moscow struggles to replenish arms for its war with Ukraine. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that recently declassified intelligence found that North Korea has provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles. Kirby said a Russia-Iran deal had not been completed. But, he said, the U.S. “is concerned that Russia's negotiations to acquire close range ballistic missiles from Iran are actively advancing.”
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations has issued a somber global economic forecast for 2024, pointing to challenges from escalating conflicts, sluggish global trade, persistently high interest rates and increasing climate disasters. In its flagship economic report launched Thursday, the U.N. projected that global economic growth would slow to 2.4% this year from an estimated 2.7% in 2023, which exceeds expectations. But both are still below the 3.0% growth rate before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, it said. The U.N. forecast is lower than those of the International Monetary Fund in October and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in late November.
—The Associated Press
About this program
Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.
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