BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s GOP-dominated legislature passed tax cuts on personal and corporate income on Friday in exchange for a statewide sales tax increase, a mixed bag of success for Gov. Jeff Landry, whose original tax revision plans faced mounting resistance from lawmakers and lobbyists amid hard fiscal realities . The final passage of the bulk of Landry's proposed measures winds down a special legislative session called Nov. 6 by the governor and his allies. They said their purpose was to make the state’s tax code more business friendly, bring jobs and reverse trends of outward migration from the state. It was the third special legislative session called by Landry, a Republican, since he assumed office in January. The package of legislation includes a permanent $2,000 raise for teachers and doubles standard deductions for residents aged 65 and older. It raises the state sales tax to 5%, while granting Landry’s wish for lower personal and corporate income tax rates. It repeals the 0.275% corporate franchise tax, a levy on businesses operating on the state worth more than $500 million in annual revenue. The state's new corporate income tax rate will be a flat 5.5%, reducing the highest tier from 7.5%. Landry had wanted a 3.5% flat rate. Lawmakers approved a flat 3% individual income tax rate and nearly tripled the standard deduction for individuals. Previously, the personal income tax rate had stood at 4.25% for individuals earning $50,000 or more. “What I’m very confident in is that everyone’s going to have more money in their pocket at the end of the day with the personal income tax reductions,” said Republican Rep. Julie Emerson, who spearheaded legislation to flatten the income tax rate. With the personal income tax reductions reducing annual revenue by $1.3 billion, Landry’s original plan had called for applying sales taxes to dozens of services like car-washing, dog-grooming and lobbying. He also sought to eliminate large tax incentives for the restoration of historic buildings and the film industry. Those proposals were defeated, leading to a bigger sales tax hike than Landry initially proposed. Louisiana already had the highest combined state and average local sales tax in the country at 9.56%, according to the Tax Foundation, a think tank favored by conservatives. ___ Associated Press writer Kevin McGill contributed to this report. ___ _____ Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96 Jack Brook, The Associated PressIn golf, a great caddie helps tune a professional golfer's performance, matching their skill, choice of club and type of swing to the course and weather conditions. A of drilling records from the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy by Sandia National Laboratories researchers aims to provide this level of guidance to the art of selecting the right for geothermal well drilling, based on location and depth, to reduce drilling costs. FORGE is a field laboratory in southwestern Utah, dedicated to testing geothermal technologies to reduce risks and accelerate commercial viability. Geothermal power plants offer the advantage of providing clean electricity, all day every day, regardless of weather conditions, thus balancing intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind farms. However, the high startup costs for finding suitable locations and drilling the necessary wells have hindered commercial development. The FORGE project, alongside the Sandia analysis, aims to improve drill bit performance in the challenging conditions of geothermal sites and reduce drilling costs. "At the FORGE site, a number of wells were drilled to depths of approximately 10,000 feet, and they were largely drilled by polycrystalline diamond compact bits," said David Raymond, a Sandia mechanical engineer and leader of the analysis. "This is one of the largest applications of diamond bits for geothermal drilling in their 40-year history. We produced a compendium of all the drill bits used and how they performed." The Sandia research team, led by Raymond, analyzed drill rig data from the most recent wells drilled at the FORGE site, looking at the response data and post-operation photos of each polycrystalline diamond compact bit. The results of this analysis were recently shared with the geothermal community. Polycrystalline diamond compact bits have proven to be more cost-effective than roller bits for oil and gas drilling. This compendium could help do the same for geothermal drilling. Analysis for better bits At the University of Utah-managed FORGE site, four wells were drilled for injection, production and monitoring, primarily using polycrystalline diamond compact bits. These bits use the strength of lab-made diamonds in the form of disc-shaped cutters. Many of these cutters are embedded into the bit in a specific arrangement designed to best cut the rock. The industrial diamonds in these bits are tiny, grown in a lab for strength rather than aesthetics. "Two things afforded FORGE the ability to drill with these advanced diamond bits," said Doug Blankenship, a Sandia geothermal expert on detail with DOE's Geothermal Technologies Office as a senior adviser. "One is the advanced technology that the bit companies have developed so that the bits are more capable of drilling in hot, hard rock. Two is the approach to running these bits that Fred Dupriest and Sam Noynaert from Texas A&M brought to the drilling program." Raymond and his team, which includes Melanie Schneider, looked at the daily reports from the FORGE site. They collected four key parameters—the force applied to the drill bit by the rig, the rotation speed set by operators, the drilling speed, and the power needed to achieve that speed—and inserted those numbers into a computer model. They used the algorithm to model the interaction between the drill bit and the rock, comparing that with the response of a single standardized diamond cutter. The Sandia team also looked at the cost constraints, the balance between drilling speed and distance drilled and how that plays into the cost per foot drilled by each bit. One of the leading costs in geothermal well drilling is the daily expense of renting a drill rig, Raymond said. But that doesn't mean drilling faster is always the most cost-effective solution, Schneider said. Depending on the depth already drilled and the time taken to get a fresh bit to the bottom of the well, a slower, steadier approach may be more cost effective, Raymond added. "A big cost is truly how long it takes to get in and out of the hole when you're at depth," Schneider said. "A key take-away from our reporting is it's not necessarily about going fast or with more force; it's about trying to extend the bit's life and getting the most out of each one. We're already seeing a huge improvement in drilling performance throughout the course of the four wells at FORGE." History of diamond bits In the , on the heels of two oil crises and the advent of synthetic diamond manufacturing, research at Sandia took place to develop diamond-based bits for drilling in the hot, hard rock of geothermal systems, Raymond said. Polycrystalline diamond compact bits are made of many diamond cutters embedded into the bit in a proprietary configuration. Each cutter is a disc of lab-made diamond, sometimes less than 1/16-inch thick, bonded to a tungsten-carbide stud. More than 40 years ago, Sandia researchers, led by David Glowka, tested diamond cutters from various manufacturers in the lab, measuring the forces required to scratch rock depending on the cutting angle and other parameters, Blankenship said. Data from these experiments were fed into a computer model that allowed for the simulation of forces on any drill bit design, Raymond said. This code was publicly released and provided to drill bit companies to inform the design of cutters on their bits, which was instrumental in catalyzing the industry, Blankenship said. Since then, diamond bits have been used by the oil and gas industry due to their durability and faster drilling compared to roller bits, Raymond said. However, early generations of diamond bits wore out too fast in the hard rock and high temperatures of geothermal sites, he added. Another challenge of drilling in geothermal sites is the rock often contains fractures, Blankenship said, likening hitting these fractures to striking an unexpected pothole on a bicycle: the best-case scenario is a jolt that doesn't cause damage. Sandia has continued refining diamond bits for geothermal drilling over the years, including computational modeling of specific vibrations that can occur in hard rocks that can cause the drill bit to bounce and break, Raymond said. Sandia also participated in field tests of diagnostics to improve diamond bit usage in extremely hard rock. Raymond hopes this compendium of bit performance at the FORGE site will help bit manufacturers in designing even better performing bits and assist geothermal well drillers in selecting the best bits for their conditions. Both should help reduce startup costs for steady, clean electricity-producing geothermal power plants. "It's been a long road getting to this point where polycrystalline diamond compact bits are a viable solution for geothermal drilling," Raymond said. "It's not intuitively obvious how you should place the cutters across the bit to balance speed and lifetime, but that is what our analysis has accomplished. There's an incredible wealth of information here on what worked and what didn't work on these synthetic diamond bits."RICHMOND, Ky. (AP) — Matt Morrissey threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Calwise Jr. that ended the scoring midway through the fourth quarter and Eastern Kentucky beat North Alabama 21-15 on Saturday for its fifth straight win. TJ Smith drove North Alabama to the EKU 45-yard line before he threw an interception to Mike Smith Jr. to end the game. Smith threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Dakota Warfield to give North Alabama a 15-14 lead with 10:37 to play. Morrissey completed 9 of 15 passes for 154 yards and added 60 yards on the ground with a touchdown run. Brayden Latham added 103 yards rushing on 19 carries that included a 2-yard score for Eastern Kentucky (8-4, 6-2 United Athletic Conference). Smith was 23-of-39 passing for 325 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions for North Alabama (3-9, 2-5). Tanaka Scott had 109 yards receiving and a touchdown catch. ___ Get alerts on the latest AP Top 25 poll throughout the season. Sign up here ___ AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

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Mobile homes are a viable form of low-income housing. So, why isn’t it being factored in to solve the housing crisis? Subscribe to continue reading this article. Already subscribed? To login in, click here.Wake up the ghosts! Texas, Texas A&M rivalry that dates to 1894 is rebornVideo: Tyler Herro Discusses Amen Thompson Fight After Heat's Win vs. Rockets

Watch emotional moment that Barry McGuigan breaks down in tears over father’s death and family trauma on UnpackedDigi International Announces the Nomination of Two Accomplished Executives to its Board of Directors and the Pending Retirement of Sally Smith from the Board of DirectorsWorld Series vision that got Nathan Eovaldi to the Rangers is the same one that got him to re-sign

Georgia police fire tear gas, water cannons at pro-EU protesters

NEW YORK (AP) — Brian Thompson led one of the biggest health insurers in the U.S. but was unknown to millions of people his decisions affected. Then Wednesday's targeted fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk thrust the executive and his business into the national spotlight. Thompson, who was 50, had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group Inc for 20 years and run the insurance arm since 2021 after running its Medicare and retirement business. As CEO, Thompson led a firm that provides health coverage to more than 49 million Americans — more than the population of Spain. United is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, the privately run versions of the U.S. government’s Medicare program for people age 65 and older. The company also sells individual insurance and administers health-insurance coverage for thousands of employers and state-and federally funded Medicaid programs. People are also reading... The business run by Thompson brought in $281 billion in revenue last year, making it the largest subsidiary of the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. His $10.2 million annual pay package, including salary, bonus and stock options awards, made him one of the company's highest-paid executives. The University of Iowa graduate began his career as a certified public accountant at PwC and had little name recognition beyond the health care industry. Even to investors who own its stock, the parent company's face belonged to CEO Andrew Witty, a knighted British triathlete who has testified before Congress. When Thompson did occasionally draw attention, it was because of his role in shaping the way Americans get health care. At an investor meeting last year, he outlined his company's shift to “value-based care,” paying doctors and other caregivers to keep patients healthy rather than focusing on treating them once sick. “Health care should be easier for people,” Thompson said at the time. “We are cognizant of the challenges. But navigating a future through value-based care unlocks a situation where the ... family doesn’t have to make the decisions on their own.” Thompson also drew attention in 2021 when the insurer, like its competitors, was widely criticized for a plan to start denying payment for what it deemed non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms. “Patients are not medical experts and should not be expected to self-diagnose during what they believe is a medical emergency,” the chief executive of the American Hospital Association wrote in an open letter addressed to Thompson. “Threatening patients with a financial penalty for making the wrong decision could have a chilling effect on seeking emergency care.” United Healthcare responded by delaying rollout of the change. Thompson, who lived in a Minneapolis suburb and was the married father of two sons in high school, was set to speak at an investor meeting in a midtown New York hotel. He was on his own and about to enter the building when he was shot in the back by a masked assailant who fled on foot before pedaling an e-bike into Central Park a few blocks away, the New York Police Department said. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said investigators were looking at Thompson's social media accounts and interviewing employees and family members. “Didn’t seem like he had any issues at all,” Kenny said. "He did not have a security detail.” AP reporters Michael R. Sisak and Steve Karnowski contributed to this report. Murphy reported from Indianapolis. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email.

Jimmy Carter, 39th US president, Nobel winner, dies at 100As speed cameras help cut fatalities on Roosevelt Boulevard, Broad Street becomes Philly's deadliest road

Special Counsel Jack Smith on Monday moved to dismiss the case against US President-elect Donald Trump for allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden. Smith, in a filing with the judge in Washington presiding over the historic case, said it should be dropped in light of a long-standing Justice Department policy not to prosecute a sitting president. The special counsel asked District Judge Tanya Chutkan to dismiss the case "without prejudice" -- leaving open the possibility it could be revived after Trump leaves office four years from now. Smith paused the election interference case earlier this month after Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the November 5 presidential election. "The Government's position on the merits of the defendant's prosecution has not changed," Smith said in the filing with Chutkan. "But the circumstances have." "It has long been the position of the Department of Justice that the United States Constitution forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President," Smith said. "As a result this prosecution must be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated." Trump's communications director Steven Cheung welcomed the move to dismiss the case, calling it a "major victory for the rule of law." "The American People and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and we look forward to uniting our country," Cheung said in a statement. Trump is accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding -- the session of Congress called to certify Biden's win, which was violently attacked on January 6, 2021, by a mob of the then-president's supporters. Trump is also accused of seeking to disenfranchise US voters with his false claims that he won the 2020 election. Smith charged Trump with mishandling top secret documents after leaving the White House, but that case was tossed out by a federal judge in Florida, a Trump appointee, on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed. Smith had appealed that dismissal but is now expected to drop the appeal. Trump also faces two state cases -- in New York and Georgia. He was convicted in New York in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter. Judge Juan Merchan has postponed sentencing while he considers a request from Trump's lawyers that the conviction be thrown out in light of the Supreme Court ruling in July that an ex-president has broad immunity from prosecution. In Georgia, Trump faces racketeering charges over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in the southern state, but that case will likely be frozen while he is in office under the policy of not prosecuting a sitting president. cl/bgsGeorgia police fire tear gas, water cannons at pro-EU protestersSupreme Court will take up a challenge related to California's tough vehicle emissions standards WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it will take up a business-backed appeal that could make it easier to challenge federal regulations, acting in a dispute related to California’s nation-leading standards for vehicle emissions. The justices agreed Friday to hear an appeal filed by fuel producers who object to a waiver granted to California in 2022 by the Environmental Protection Agency during Joe Biden’s presidency. The waiver allows California to set more stringent emissions limits than the national standard. The case won’t be argued until the spring, when the Trump administration is certain to take a more industry-friendly approach to the issue. Musk says US is demanding he pay penalty over disclosures of his Twitter stock purchases DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk says the Securities and Exchange Commission wants him to pay a penalty or face charges involving what he disclosed — or failed to disclose — about his purchases of Twitter stock before he bought the social media platform in 2022. In a letter, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro tells the outgoing SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, that the commission’s demand for a monetary payment is a “misguided scheme” that won’t intimidate Musk. The letter also alleges that the commission reopened an investigation this week into Neuralink, Musk’s computer-to-human brain interface company. The SEC has not released the letter. Nor would it comment on it or confirm whether it has issued such a demand to Musk. Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer began the process on Thursday for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act. It would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people. The legislation has passed the House. The bill would add more strain on the Social Security Trust funds, which are already estimated to be unable to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035. The measure would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Saudi Arabia banned film for 35 years. The Red Sea festival is just one sign of the industry's rise JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — “My Driver and I” was supposed to be made in 2016, but was scuttled amid Saudi Arabia’s decades-long cinema ban. Eight years later, the landscape for film in the kingdom looks much different. And the star of “My Driver and I” now has an award. Roula Dakheelallah was named the winner of the Chopard Emerging Saudi Talent award at the Red Sea International Film Festival on Thursday. Both the award and the glitzy festival itself are signs of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to shaping a new film industry. The reopening of cinemas in 2018 after 35 years marked a cultural turning point for Saudi Arabia. Trump offers support for dockworkers union by saying ports shouldn't install more automated systems WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is offering his support for the dockworkers union before their contract expires next month at Eastern and Gulf Coast ports. He posted on social media Thursday that he met with union leaders and that any further “automation” of the ports would harm workers. He wrote that the “amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers.” The International Longshoremen’s Association has until Jan. 15 to negotiate a new contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies. The Maritime Alliance says the technology will improve worker safety and strengthen our supply chains, among other things. IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS leadership on Thursday announced that the agency has recovered $4.7 billion in back taxes and proceeds from a variety of crimes. The announcement comes under the backdrop of a promised reckoning from Republicans who will hold a majority over both chambers of the next Congress and have long called for rescinding the tens of billions of dollars in funding provided to the agency by Democrats. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said improvements made to the agency will help the incoming administration and new Republican majority congress achieve its goals of administering an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Unique among 'Person of the Year' designees, Donald Trump gets a fact-check from Time magazine Donald Trump got something this year that no other person designed Time magazine's Person of the Year had ever received. He got a fact-check of claims that the president-elect made in the interview accompanying the magazine's piece. Trump earned the recognition of the year's biggest newsmaker for the second time, also winning it in 2016 the first time he was elected president. But in a piece described as a “12-minute” read, Time called into question more than a dozen statements Trump made when speaking to the magazine's reporters, on issues like border size, autism and crowd size at a rally. Time said it has fact-checked other interviews in the past, but not for this annual feature. OpenAI's legal battle with Elon Musk reveals internal turmoil over avoiding AI 'dictatorship' A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and best avoid an artificial intelligence ‘dictatorship’ is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker’s ongoing conversion into a for-profit company. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. OpenAI is filing its response Friday. OpenAI's Altman will donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund LOS ANGELES (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships the incoming administration. A spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed the move on Friday. The announcement comes one day after Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it donated $1 million to the same fund. Amazon also said it plans to donate $1 million. China signals it's prepared to double down on support for the economy as Trump tariffs loom BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese leaders met this week to plot economic policy for the coming year and sketched out plans to raise government spending and relax Beijing's monetary policy. Analysts said the broad-brush plans from the annual Central Economic Work Conference were more of a recap of current policy than ambitious new initiatives at a time when the outlook is clouded by the President-elect Donald Trump's threats to sharply raise tariffs once he takes office. The ruling Communist Party did commit to raising China's deficit and to doing more to encourage consumer spending by bringing wage increases in line with the pace of economic growth. Here's a look at China's main priorities and their potential implications.

It looked like a recipe for disaster. So, when his country's swimmers were being accused of doping earlier this year, one Chinese official cooked up something fast. He blamed it on contaminated noodles. In fact, he argued, it could have been a culinary conspiracy concocted by criminals, whose actions led to the cooking wine used to prepare the noodles being laced with a banned heart drug that found its way into an athlete's system. This theory was spelled out to international anti-doping officials during a meeting and, after weeks of wrangling, finally made it into the thousands of pages of data handed over to the lawyer who investigated the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for that same drug. The attorney, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, refused to consider that scenario as he sifted through the evidence. In spelling out his reasoning, lawyer Eric Cottier paid heed to the half-baked nature of the theory. People are also reading... "The Investigator considers this scenario, which he has described in the conditional tense, to be possible, no less, no more," Cottier wrote. Even without the contaminated-noodles theory, Cottier found problems with the way WADA and the Chinese handled the case but ultimately determined WADA had acted reasonably in not appealing China's conclusion that its athletes had been inadvertently contaminated. Critics of the way the China case was handled can't help but wonder if a wider exploration of the noodle theory, details of which were discovered by The Associated Press via notes and emails from after the meeting where it was delivered, might have lent a different flavor to Cottier's conclusions. "There are more story twists to the ways the Chinese explain the TMZ case than a James Bond movie," said Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete. "And all of it is complete fiction." Something in the kitchen was contaminated In April, reporting from the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD revealed that the 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ. China's anti-doping agency determined the athletes had been contaminated, and so, did not sanction them. WADA accepted that explanation, did not press the case further, and China was never made to deliver a public notice about the "no-fault findings," as is often seen in similar cases. The stock explanation for the contamination was that traces of TMZ were found in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers were staying. In his 58-page report, Cottier relayed some suspicions about the feasibility of that chain of events — noting that WADA's chief scientist "saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities." But without evidence to support pursuing the case, and with the chance of winning an appeal at almost nil, Cottier determined WADA's "decision not to appeal appears indisputably reasonable." But how did the drugs get into the kitchen? A mystery remained: How did those traces of TMZ get into the kitchen? Shortly after the doping positives were revealed, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations held a meeting on April 30 where it heard from the leader of China's agency, Li Zhiquan. Li's presentation was mostly filled with the same talking points that have been delivered throughout the saga — that the positive tests resulted from contamination from the kitchen. But he expanded on one way the kitchen might have become contaminated, harkening to another case in China involving a low-level TMZ positive. A pharmaceutical factory, he explained, had used industrial alcohol in the distillation process for producing TMZ. The industrial alcohol laced with the drug "then entered the market through illegal channels," he said. The alcohol "was re-used by the perpetrators to process and produce cooking wine, which is an important seasoning used locally to make beef noodles," Li said. "The contaminated beef noodles were consumed by that athlete, resulting in an extremely low concentration of TMZ in the positive sample. "The wrongdoers involved have been brought to justice." New information sent to WADA ... eventually This new information raised eyebrows among the anti-doping leaders listening to Li's report. So much so that over the next month, several emails ensued to make sure the details about the noodles and wine made their way to WADA lawyers, who could then pass it onto Cottier. Eventually, Li did pass on the information to WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel and, just to be sure, one of the anti-doping leaders forwarded it, as well, according to the emails seen by the AP. All this came with Li's request that the noodles story be kept confidential. Turns out, it made it into Cottier's report, though he took the information with a grain of salt. "Indeed, giving it more attention would have required it to be documented, then scientifically verified and validated," he wrote. Neither Wenzel nor officials at the Chinese anti-doping agency returned messages from AP asking about the noodles conspiracy and the other athlete who Li suggested had been contaminated by them. Meanwhile, 11 of the swimmers who originally tested positive competed at the Paris Games earlier this year in a meet held under the cloud of the Chinese doping case. Though WADA considers the case closed, Koehler and others point to situations like this as one of many reasons that an investigation by someone other than Cottier, who was hired by WADA, is still needed. "It gives the appearance that people are just making things up as they go along on this, and hoping the story just goes away," Koehler said. "Which clearly it has not." Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!

DUP minister rejected suggestion licensing laws could be relaxed for jubileeTrump's lawyers rebuff DA's idea for upholding his hush money convictionBlame it on the food and drink?

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Victoria firefighters dive into Inner Harbour waters to rescue personDUP minister rejected suggestion licensing laws could be relaxed for jubilee