Politics

Hunter Biden accuses George Clooney of undermining his father in 2024 presidential election

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter isn’t hiding his feelings about actor and Democratic Party donor George Clooney’s decision to call on the elder Biden to abandon his 2024 reelection bid. In a rare online interview, Hunter Biden used a string of expletives to describe Clooney when discussing the actor with Andrew […]
1 year ago

UN says booming solar, wind and other green energy hits global tipping point for ever lower costs

NEW YORK (AP) — The global switch to renewable energy has passed a “positive tipping point” where solar and wind power will become even cheaper and more widespread, according to two United Nations reports released Tuesday, describing a bright spot amid otherwise gloomy progress to curb climate change. Last year, 74% of the growth in […]
1 year ago

Justice Department wants to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Justice wants to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, who was convicted of helping the financier sexually abuse underage girls and is now serving a lengthy prison sentence, a senior official said Tuesday. If Ghislaine Maxwell “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the […]
1 year ago

The Latest: Trump deflects questions about Epstein files and revives old grievances

President Donald Trump on Tuesday deflected questions over the Justice Department’s decision to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping the financier sexually abuse underage girls and is now serving a lengthy prison sentence. Trump instead lashed out at old grievances following a new report from his intelligence director aimed […]
1 year ago

US says it’s leaving UN cultural agency UNESCO again, only 2 years after rejoining

PARIS (AP) — The United States announced Tuesday it will again pull out of the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias, only two years after rejoining. This will be the third time that the United States leaves UNESCO, which is based in Paris, and the second […]
1 year ago

In the Bronx, the nation’s poorest Congressional district, federal funding cuts create perfect storm

NEW YORK (AP) — On a sweltering summer day, children leap between rocks along the Bronx River while cyclists pedal on newly paved paths. Kayaks rest on what was once an industrial dumping ground, now transformed into a bustling promenade along the city’s only freshwater river. The Bronx River Greenway, a series of stitched-together waterfront […]
1 year ago

McDowell County, West Virginia, birthplace of food stamps, faces a disappearing safety net

For nonprofits in McDowell County, West Virginia, the federal cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten a lifeline. Many of McDowell’s 17,000 residents rely on federal programs and the nonprofits they fund to get by. The county’s tax base and population have significantly declined since 1950, when McDowell was the top coal-producing county […]
1 year ago

Takeaways from AP’s report about cuts to government grants for nonprofits

President Donald Trump’s policies are poised to upend decades of partnerships the federal government has built with nonprofits to help people in their communities. Since the 1960s, presidential administrations from both parties have used taxpayer dollars to fund nonprofits to take on social problems and deliver services. A vast and interconnected set of federal grants […]
1 year ago

The government was once a steady partner for nonprofits. That’s changing

Dawn Price signs rent checks worth about $160,000 every month for 79 people that her nonprofit helps house in Laguna Beach, California. Usually, she logs into an online portal to withdraw enough from an account funded by a grant from the federal housing agency. But in February, she couldn’t. Access had been temporarily cut off […]
1 year ago

Trump and Philippine leader plan to talk tariffs and China at the White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to host Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday at the White House, as the two countries are seeking closer security and economic ties in the face of shifting geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region. Marcos, who met Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on […]
1 year ago

There are many illegal marijuana farms, but federal agents targeted California’s biggest legal one

LOS ANGELES (AP) — There are thousands of illegal marijuana farms around the country. But when the federal government decided to stage one of its largest raids since President Donald Trump took office in January, it picked the biggest legal grower in California. Nearly two weeks later, the reason for the federal raid at two […]
1 year ago

US immigration says it did not deport Chilean man living in Pennsylvania, refuting report

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. immigration authorities on Monday denied reports that they detained or deported a Chilean man living in the country on a green card. The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania, reported that Luis Leon, 82, ended up in Guatemala after being handcuffed in a Philadelphia immigration office, where he went to replace his […]
1 year ago

Trump’s Labor Department proposes more than 60 rule changes in a push to deregulate workplaces

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Department of Labor is aiming to rewrite or repeal more than 60 “obsolete” workplace regulations, ranging from minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities to standards governing exposure to harmful substances. If approved, the wide-ranging changes unveiled this month also would affect working conditions […]
1 year ago

Texas GOP lawmakers lead summer sprint to redraw US House maps and address deadly floods

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Democrats showed up Monday for a special session but left open the possibility of walking out as a means to derail an unusual summer redrawing of U.S. House maps that would help protect Republicans’ slim majority in the 2026 elections. President Donald Trump wants Republicans in the coming weeks to […]
1 year ago

Banishing a reporter: Trump escalates battle with Wall Street Journal over Epstein story

President Donald Trump on Monday followed up his lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over last week’s Jeffrey Epstein story by banishing one of the newspaper’s reporters from Air Force One for an upcoming Scotland trip. The moves reflect Trump’s aggressiveness toward media who displease him — even a media magnate, Rupert Murdoch, with outlets […]
1 year ago

Budget office says Trump’s tax law will add $3.4 trillion to deficits, leave 10 million uninsured

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law will add $3.4 trillion to federal deficits through 2034, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday, a slight increase in the projection that takes into account the final tweaks that Republicans made before getting the legislation over the finish line. More than 10 million people will […]
1 year ago

Federal agents in Miami arrest a prominent Haitian businessman and once presidential hopeful

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Federal agents in Miami have arrested Pierre Réginald Boulos, a well-known Haitian businessman, doctor and former presidential hopeful. The arrest occurred at Boulos’ home in South Florida late last week, a person familiar with the arrest said Monday. Boulos was born in the United States but renounced his citizenship […]
1 year ago

Minnesota lawmaker to resign after being convicted of felony burglary

A Minnesota state senator convicted of burglary for breaking into her estranged stepmother’s house plans to resign by early August, her lawyer said Monday. Democratic state Sen. Nicole Mitchell has faced calls from fellow Minnesota lawmakers for her immediate resignation since her conviction on Friday. The jury deliberated for three hours before finding her guilty […]
1 year ago

Judge gives ex-officer nearly 3 years in Breonna Taylor raid, rebuffs DOJ call for no prison time

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former Kentucky police officer to nearly three years in prison for using excessive force during the 2020 deadly Breonna Taylor raid, declining a U.S. Department of Justice recommendation that he be given no prison time. Brett Hankison, who fired 10 shots during the raid […]
1 year ago

The history of Native American sports name changes, from the Obama era to Trump’s latest comments

President Donald Trump’s social media posts calling for the NFL’s Washington Commanders and Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians to revert to their old names has revived the conversation about Native American imagery in sports. Each team has indicated it has no plans to go back to names that were abandoned years ago in the aftermath […]
1 year ago

Environmentalists’ lawsuit to halt Alligator Alcatraz filed in wrong court, Florida official says

Florida’s top emergency official asked a federal judge on Monday to resist a request by environmentalists to halt an immigration detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz in the middle of the Florida Everglades because their lawsuit was filed in the wrong jurisdiction. Even though the property is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida’s southern district is […]
1 year ago

Zohran Mamdani visiting Uganda during NYC mayoral campaign

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is visiting his native country of Uganda to celebrate his recent marriage, taking a short break from the campaign trail ahead of the November election. Mamdani announced the visit in a video posted to social media on Sunday and said he would return […]
1 year ago

Ex-NYPD commissioner accuses NYC mayor of ‘character assassination’ in $10 million defamation claim

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s former interim police commissioner has filed a $10 million defamation claim against Mayor Eric Adams for reportedly suggesting he was mentally unfit for the job of top cop. The filing comes less than a week after the ex-commissioner, Thomas Donlon, sued Adams and his top deputies, accusing them […]
1 year ago

5 years after Ohio’s $60M bribery scandal, critics say more could be done to prevent a repeat

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Five years after a $60 million bribery scheme funded by FirstEnergy Corp. came to light in Ohio, expert observers say the resulting prosecutions, lawsuits, penalties and legislation haven’t led to enough change and accountability to prevent politicians and corporate executives from cutting similar deals in the future. The scheme — whose […]
1 year ago