Morning Headlines - Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024 | Recent News

U.S. and World Headlines

House GOP To Begin 2024 With Focus On Border

House Republicans are beginning a crucial election year with a heightened focus on border issues as negotiations in the Senate on asylum policy changes drag on and the conference prepares to bring impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), in the first major event as part of that push, is leading a group of Republicans on a trip to the border near Eagle Pass, Texas on Wednesday.

Around 60 members are expected to join him in the area represented Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) — two of the men who would be at the center of any impeachment effort against Mayorkas.

Republicans Spend Over $100 Million On Iowa Ads, With More To Come

Republican presidential candidates and outside groups have blanketed the Iowa airwaves ahead of the first-in-the-nation caucuses, spending nearly $105 million on ads there in 2023.

And that figure is set to grow by at least another $7.5 million before the Jan. 15 caucuses, according to upcoming ad reservations tracked by the firm AdImpact. It’s being driven by former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s late push for a strong finish in Iowa, after former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent most of 2023 polling first and second there.

2024 Will Be A Breakout Year For Delivery Drones

After more than a decade of development, delivery drones are finally going mainstream this year.

With some (but not all) regulatory hurdles cleared, retailers, medical centers and logistics platforms will start offering drone delivery in many more suburban neighborhoods in 2024. That means receiving meals, prescriptions and household items at your doorstep in less than 30 minutes.

These Jobs Saw The Biggest Pay Hikes Across The U.S. In 2023

The ferocious inflation that slammed Americans during the pandemic was partially offset by the strongest pay gains in years. Even as people paid more for everything from groceries to rent, real weekly earnings for the typical U.S. worker rose 1.7% between 2019 and 2023.

Driven by a resilient labor market, some jobs saw particularly strong wage increases over the last year. Here are the 10 jobs with the hottest wage growth in 2023 compared with the prior year, along with median pay. The analysis is based on responses from more than 3,500 workers across 15 job titles.

ESPN Apologizes For Showing Video Of Woman Flashing Breast During Sugar Bowl

ESPN apologized Monday night for a video clip of a woman baring her breast that was shown during the broadcast of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

It was aired coming out of a commercial during the second half of Washington's 37-31 victory over Texas in a semifinal game of the College Football Playoff. A clip of people wandering on Bourbon Street in New Orleans showed a woman pulling down her top to expose her breast.

Committee To Vote On List Of Presidential Candidates For Wisconsin's April Primary

As more and more states are considering whether to take action to remove former president Donald Trump from their presidential primary ballots ahead of the 2024 election, the U.S. Supreme Court is receiving increased pressure to rule on whether his involvement in the January 6th attack on the capital bars him from office.

Election Officials in Wisconsin have shown no signs they will block Trump's candidacy for this year's election. On Tuesday, the Presidential Preference Selection Committee will meet for a vote to elect what names will appear on the ballot for Wisconsin's Presidential Preference list on April 2.

How Did The Dobbs Decision Affect The Birth Rate In Wisconsin?

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its historic June 2022 Dobbs opinion, all abortion providers in Wisconsin immediately stopped providing the service, citing fears that they could be charged with felonies under a state law first written in 1849 that still remains on the books.

For more than a year after, virtually no legal abortions took place in Wisconsin. Now, data is beginning to show how that affected birth rates.

Using provisional data from the first half of 2023, a new study from the IZA Institute of Labor Economics estimates that births in Wisconsin went up by about 2.5 percent. It estimates that 1,503 more babies were born in Wisconsin as a direct result of the Dobbs decision and the halting of abortion services in the state.

Republican Lawmakers Ask Wisconsin Supreme Court To Reconsider Redistricting Ruling, Maps Timeline

Republican lawmakers have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to stay and reconsider its finding that the state’s legislative district boundaries are unconstitutional.

Attorneys representing a host of Republican state Senators filed a motion with the court on Dec. 29 saying they can’t meet the court’s Jan. 12 deadline for new maps. They also argue the court didn’t listen to their arguments in the case and didn’t give them a chance to respond to the deadline for new boundaries. They asked the court to stay all proceedings until it decides on the motion.

DOJ: Officer Involved Critical Incident In Monona, Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is investigating an officer involved critical incident in the City of Monona, Wis. that occurred on the evening of Monday, January 1, 2024.

At approximately 9:01 p.m., Monona Police Department officers initiated a traffic stop for a suspicious vehicle at Nichols and Monona Drive and the vehicle fled. A Dane County deputy deployed a tire deflation device and the vehicle crashed near the intersection of Femrite Drive and Buckeye Road in the Town of Cottage Grove. The three occupants of the fleeing vehicle did not survive the crash and died on scene.

Involved law enforcement were not injured.

No. 13 LSU Rallies To Nip Wisconsin 35-31 In ReliaQuest Bowl

Garrett Nussmeier showed why LSU is confident he's capable of thriving as Jayden Daniels' successor.

The 13th-ranked Tigers (10-3) launched the team's post-Daniels era with a 35-31, come-from-behind victory over Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Monday, with a calm Nussmeier leading a 98-yard drive to produce the winning touchdown in the closing minutes.

“This hurts, We had every opportunity. This is what we wanted. We wanted an opportunity to get this thing to the fourth quarter and find a way to finish," Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell said. "That’s probably been our Achilles’ heel all year. We just couldn’t get it done.”