WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers off Venezuela’s coast is raising new questions about the legality of his military campaign in Latin America, while fueling concerns that the U.S. could be edging closer to war. A blockade is illegal outside of warfare and would be considered an act of aggression. […]
The head of the U.S. agency for enforcing workplace civil rights posted a social media call-out urging white men to come forward if they have experienced race or sex discrimination at work. “Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to […]
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to reinstate a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz. Even as prosecutors prepare to retry the accused man, Pedro Hernandez, they are hoping the Supreme Court will short-circuit that process by reinstating his 2017 conviction. A federal […]
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday approved former Iraqi President Barham Salih as the next head of the U.N. refugee agency, its first from the Middle East since the late 1970s. The 193-member world body elected the 65-year-old Kurdish politician as the U.N. high commissioner for refugees by consensus and […]
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Four-term North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, a towering figure in North Carolina politics in the late 20th century who helped the Democratic Party focus nationally upon public education reform, died Thursday at the age of 88, his daughter Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt announced. Hunt, whose career provided a prototype for the […]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. business to three American investors — Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX — ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in the United States. The deal is expected to close on Jan. 22, according to an internal memo seen by The […]
President Donald Trump has directed his administration to work as quickly as possible to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Trump’s executive order on Thursday does not legalize marijuana under federal law. And it’s not the final word. The proposed change still requires federal regulatory approval. But the change could make the marijuana industry […]
Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle was believed to be on the plane that crashed outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, killing all seven people aboard. He joins a somber roll of athletes who died in plane or helicopter crashes, including fellow race car drivers Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison, who died in separate accidents […]
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Supreme Court has upheld a state law allowing nonunanimous juries to sentence people to death, cementing the lowest bar in the country for death sentences at a time when the state is driving a national increase in executions. In a decision released Thursday, the court affirmed a 2023 law that […]
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department sued three states and the District of Columbia on Thursday for not turning over requested voter information to the Trump administration. The latest lawsuits were filed against Wisconsin, Illinois, Georgia and the District of Columbia. The Justice Department has now filed 22 lawsuits seeking voter information as […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military has amassed an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off the coast of Venezuela since this summer, when the Trump administration first began to shift assets to the region as part of its anti-drug trafficking operations. In all, U.S. Southern Command says there are around […]
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday denied a request for a preliminary injunction to close an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” saying a detainee who asked for the order hadn’t shown he was suffering irreparable harm at the facility. U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek said the detainee, […]
MIAMI (AP) — Democrat Eileen Higgins was sworn in Thursday as Miami’s first female mayor, two weeks after defeating a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump. Higgins also becomes the first Democrat in almost 30 years to lead the city of 487,000 people. She replaces Republican Francis Suarez, who has served as the city’s mayor […]
Delivery company Instacart will pay $60 million in customer refunds under a settlement reached with the Federal Trade Commission over alleged deceptive practices. The FTC said Thursday that Instacart has been falsely advertising free deliveries. The San Francisco-based company isn’t clearly disclosing service fees, which add as much as 15% to an order and must […]
NASCAR driver and Washington native Greg Biffle was aboard a plane that crashed Thursday morning in North Carolina, a close friend of Biffle's wrote on Facebook.
A judge in Miami has dismissed a complaint challenging a college’s decision to gift prime downtown real estate for President Donald Trump’s future presidential library, clearing the way for the real estate developer-turned-president to build a towering monument to his political rise in an iconic stretch of the city. A local activist brought the lawsuit […]
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Crews were mopping up Thursday but still bracing for more after hurricane-force wind downed power lines and fanned wildfires along the Colorado Front Range and onto the Great Plains. Wind that in places topped 100 mph (160 kph) late Wednesday arrived after Xcel Energy protectively cut off power through much […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The “Warrior Dividend” that President Donald Trump announced during his televised address to the nation Wednesday is not a Christmas bonus made possible by tariff revenues, as the president suggested. Instead, the $1,776 payments to troops are coming from a congressionally-approved housing supplement that was a part of tax cut extensions and […]
CHICAGO (AP) — A commission formed to document alleged harassment and abuse by federal agents during an immigration crackdown in the Chicago area reviewed the wide use of chemical agents in its first public hearing Thursday. The immigration operation, which started in September, has been marked by aggressive tactics widely denounced by judges, elected leaders […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved legislation Thursday aimed at speeding up permitting reviews for new energy and infrastructure projects and limiting judicial review. The bill, dubbed the SPEED Act, would enact the most significant change in decades to the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law that requires federal agencies to consider a […]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — It’s been nearly a week since someone killed two students and wounded nine others inside a Brown University classroom before fleeing, yet investigators on Thursday appeared to still not know the attacker’s name. There have been other high-profile attacks in which it took days or longer to make an arrest or […]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s governor pardoned country star Jelly Roll on Thursday for his criminal past in the state, acknowledging the Nashville native’s long road back from drugs and prison through soul-searching, songwriting and advocacy for second chances. The rapper-turned-singer whose legal name is Jason Deford has spoken for years about his redemption arc […]
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Federal regulators will allow tech companies to effectively plug massive data centers directly into power plants, issuing a long-awaited order Thursday, as the Trump administration urges it to help the U.S. lead the world in artificial intelligence and revive domestic manufacturing. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s unanimous order is designed to […]
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona jury has sentenced a man to death in a string of killings in metro Phoenix during a three-week span in 2017. Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, was found guilty in late September of murder in the killings of eight people, including random victims and his own mother and stepfather. He also […]
