MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday that it has opened an investigation into whether a Minnesota state agency’s newly updated affirmative action policy violates civil rights laws. The Minnesota Department of Human Services’ policy requires supervisors to provide a “hiring justification when seeking to hire a non-underrepresented candidate.” Supervisors who don’t comply can […]
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A retired police sergeant in a New York suburb has been sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home confinement for repeatedly firing a Taser gun at a man suffering a health crisis. U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas told the retired Mount Vernon police sergeant, Mario […]
EASTPOINTE, Mich. (AP) — A McDonald’s employee returned to her Detroit-area restaurant after an argument Thursday and fatally stabbed a co-worker multiple times, police said. A breakfast customer licensed to carry a gun fired a warning shot and stopped the 26-year-old woman as she tried to flee, Eastpointe police Lt. Alex Holish said. “For a […]
BOSTON (AP) — Plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s campaign of arresting and deporting college faculty and students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations spent the first few days of the trial showing how the crackdown silenced scholars and targeted more than 5,000 protesters. The lawsuit, filed by several university associations, is one of […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — World leaders, lawmakers and even one Native American tribe are deploying a novel strategy for remaining on good terms with Presidential Donald Trump: Praise his peacemaking efforts and nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize. The announcements of nominations are piling up for the mercurial Republican president, who has long coveted the […]
DENVER (AP) — A Denver museum known for its dinosaur displays has made a fossil bone find closer to home than anyone ever expected, under its own parking lot. It came from a hole drilled more than 750 feet (230 meters) deep to study geothermal heating potential for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. […]
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Five state lawmakers who were denied access to a new immigration detention center built by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in the Florida Everglades have sued the governor, arguing that he overstepped his authority in blocking legislative oversight of the facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” Thursday’s filing with the state Supreme Court […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel pledged at his confirmation hearing that the bureau would not look backward, but the Trump administration’s fresh scrutiny of the Russia investigation has brought back into focus a years-old inquiry that continues to infuriate the Republican president. The Justice Department appeared to acknowledge in an unusual statement this […]
As the Guadalupe River swelled from a wall of water heading downstream, sirens blared over the tiny river community of Comfort — a last-ditch warning to get out for those who had missed cellphone alerts and firefighters going street-to-street telling people to get out. Daniel Morales, assistant chief of the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department, believes […]
WAYNE, Mich. (AP) — As Richard Pryor watched the armed man push toward CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, he realized his options to stop the gunman were few. Pryor, a deacon at the church about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Detroit, was on his cell phone with a 911 dispatcher who was relaying […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday opened a civil rights investigation into the hiring practices at George Mason University, expanding a national campaign against diversity policies to Virginia’s largest public university. The Education Department said it is responding to a complaint from multiple professors at George Mason who accuse the university of favoring […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Two men who went to prison as teenagers for a 1994 killing were exonerated Thursday, after prosecutors said new DNA testing and a fresh look at other evidence made it impossible to stand by the convictions. Brian Boles and Charles Collins served decades behind bars before they were paroled; Collins in […]
Over just two hours, the Guadalupe River at Comfort, Texas, rose from hip-height to three stories tall, sending water weighing as much as the Empire State building downstream roughly every minute it remained at its crest. The force of floodwater is often more powerful and surprising than people imagine. Comfort offers a good lens to […]
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, the wife of Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, filed for divorce on Thursday, seeking to end 38 years of marriage as her husband campaigns for the U.S. Senate. Angela Paxton had stuck by her husband through a decade of legal troubles that included state and […]
The U.S. has closed its southern border again to livestock imports, saying a flesh-eating parasite has moved further north in Mexico than previously reported. Mexico’s president was critical Thursday, suggesting that the U.S. is exaggerating the threat to its beef industry from the parasite, the New World screwworm fly. The female flies lay eggs in […]
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Federal judges will weigh a request to bring Alabama back under the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act after ruling the state intentionally diluted the voting strength of Black residents when drawing congressional lines. Black voters and civil rights organizations, who successfully challenged Alabama’s congressional map, are asking a three-judge […]
Jane Towler was up late in a small cabin along the Guadalupe River as thunder boomed through a thrashing rain. It was 4 a.m. and water was pooling on the floor. Suddenly, her phone rang. It was her friend from a nearby cabin. “Jane, we’re f—ed!” Brian Keeper said frantically. “The water’s in my house! […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House budget director Russell Vought suggested in a Thursday letter that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is in violation of government building rules in the renovation of the Fed’s headquarters. Vought, in a letter he shared on social media, called the initial renovation plans featuring rooftop terrace gardens, VIP dining rooms […]
A secretive competition to pioneer a new way of communicating with artificial intelligence chatbots is getting a messy public airing as OpenAI fights a trademark dispute over its stealth hardware collaboration with legendary iPhone designer Jony Ive. In the latest twist, tech startup iyO Inc., which already sued Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked an attempt to reverse a little-noticed provision from their tax and spending cuts law that professional gamblers warn could be the end of their industry. Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada sought unanimous passage of a bill that would roll back the change on gambling tax […]
Days after flash floods killed over 100 people during the July Fourth weekend, search-and-rescue teams are using heavy equipment to untangle and peel away layers of trees, unearth large rocks in riverbanks and move massive piles of debris that stretch for miles in the search for the missing people. ___ This is a photo gallery […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Ford is recalling more than 850,000 of its cars across the U.S. because the low-pressure fuel pump inside the vehicles may fail — and potentially cause an engine stall while driving, increasing crash risks. The recall covers a wide range of Ford and Lincoln-branded vehicles made in recent model years. That […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a memorial service on Thursday for two slain Israeli Embassy staffers as he wraps up a four-day visit to Washington in which talks with President Donald Trump, White House aides and lawmakers focused on finding a pathway to a ceasefire deal in Gaza. But as Netanyahu gets […]
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The top Democrat in the U.S. House is holding a town hall Thursday in Louisiana, home to Republican Speaker Mike Johnson and his deputy, to rally against the health care cuts in the GOP bill that President Donald Trump signed into law. Led by New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democrats are […]
