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The Recording Academy made a surprising announcement just 10 days before the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. Dugan replaced former President and CEO of The Recording Academy Neil Portnow on August 1, 2019, becoming the first woman in the Recording Academy's history to hold the position.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 11:59:27 -0500

Jan 17 (Reuters) - The White House on Friday named members of U.S. President Trump's defense team for his impeachment trial, which will begin in earnest next week. * If the Democratic-led House of Representatives wants to file a trial brief laying out its arguments supporting charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress against Trump, it must do so by 5 p.m. (2200 GMT) on Saturday. * Trump has until 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) to file a response to the impeachment charges.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 11:51:51 -0500

Key world equity indexes scaled new highs on Friday as the latest U.S. data - a surge in housing starts to the highest level since 2006 - drove stocks on Wall Street to records and investors away from risk-adverse assets such as the yen. Optimism over corporate earnings and indications of resilience in China's economy also lifted equities, led the dollar to gain further against the euro and pushed government debt yields higher. Housing starts jumped 16.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.608 million units in December, a 13-year high suggesting the industry has recovered amid low mortgage rates that also can help support the longest U.S. economic expansion.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 11:41:42 -0500

The driver of a pickup truck that slammed into an Illinois Starbucks had a “medical emergency” before the crash that injured several people, police said Friday. Police said the pickup truck ran off the roadway in McHenry, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Chicago, and struck a vehicle at the drive-thru window before colliding with the building. Others injured included a 21-year-old Starbucks employee whose condition had been upgraded from critical to fair by Friday morning, the police statement said.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 11:41:38 -0500

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor is denying accusations that he misled the school about two $50,000 gifts he facilitated from Jeffrey Epstein in 2012, arguing that institute officials had “full knowledge” Epstein was the donor. In an online statement published Thursday, Professor Seth Lloyd called the accusations “completely false” and said he followed the school's policies “to the letter” when he accepted Epstein's offer to support his scientific research. It was Lloyd's first public comment since MIT placed him on paid administrative Jan. 10.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 11:33:58 -0500