Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to give officers gloves that deliver painful electric shocks faced criticism Wednesday from Democratic elected officials and civil rights advocates, who called it unnecessary and cruel. ICE plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million to outfit officers and agents with “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices,” according to a […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Justice has charged nearly a dozen people with participating in a multimillion-dollar scheme to help hundreds of Chinese nationals fraudulently obtain green cards through sham marriages to U.S. citizens, officials said Wednesday. American citizens were paid as much as $30,000 to enter into bogus marriages with immigrants seeking lawful […]
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A small Texas law firm with ties to the Trump administration declined a $150 million federal contract it was offered to represent migrant children traveling alone to the U.S., authorities said Wednesday, raising long-term questions about who would represent them. The administration last week announced plans to award the contract to […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave at month’s end, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday. Leavitt, 28, just recently returned to the White House after taking a brief leave for the birth of her second child in May. Leavitt, who served Trump as a […]
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A small Kansas town has agreed to pay $850,000 to a former reporter at its weekly newspaper to end her federal lawsuit over a police raid of the paper’s offices in 2023 that ignited a national furor over press freedom. Now-retired Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn said in her lawsuit […]
Washington (AP) — U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year killed more than 150 civilians, according to a Pentagon review of the attacks, which comes as concerns rise over civilian casualties during military campaigns under the Trump administration. The unclassified assessment, obtained by The Associated Press, was sent to Congress as part […]
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: ___ Aug. 10 The Washington Post says America’s budget is on the precipice of catastrophe The budget of the federal government is the largest of any organization in human history. It’s larger than the entire economy of every foreign country except China. And it mostly […]
Lawyers for the man charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk say he shouldn’t be eligible for the death penalty because the shooter “hit the intended target” during the assassination last year at a Utah event attended by thousands of people. Defendant Tyler Robinson’s attorneys say prosecutors have not proven that others who attended Kirk’s […]
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — David Crowley’s razor-thin primary win over a democratic socialist in swing state Wisconsin sets up a match against a congressman who has voted with President Donald Trump 100% of the time, a dream scenario for Democrats and a potential nightmare for Republicans. Crowley overcame Francesca Hong in dramatic, narrow fashion in […]
President Donald Trump says he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat he insisted didn’t scare him. Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents have taken secret overseas trips in the past for security reasons, with schedules and logistics kept classified until after the fact to protect the commander in chief. But not like the one President Donald Trump took in July. After a NATO summit in Turkey, Trump stowed away in an airport catering […]
President Donald Trump’s administration said that Medicaid will stop paying for gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender minors and the state Children’s Health Insurance Program won’t pay for the treatments for those under 19. The announcement is the latest in a series of policies from the administration aimed at transgender people that began the […]
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ruled against President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to create a federal voter list and directly involve the U.S. Postal Service in election operations in a way that would limit mail voting. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani had already halted the order Trump signed in […]
Civil rights groups and researchers at a public hearing Tuesday called on a federal agency to continue its annual collection of workplace demographic data, arguing that a proposal to end the practice will undermine efforts to fight discrimination. Twenty-two speakers testified at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s hearing, which lasted more than two hours. Most […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Is U.S. inflation stuck at a stubbornly high level or is it steadily cooling? The government’s latest report on consumer prices, to be released Wednesday, should provide some hints. It will be closely watched by the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve as well as Republicans facing tough midterm elections, not to mention […]
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Human Rights Watch and three other advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday to challenge its campaign against the International Criminal Court, arguing that sanctions against ICC judges and prosecutors are undermining the ability to prosecute people responsible for humanity’s worst crimes. The complaint — filed in the Southern District […]
Primary elections are taking place in six U.S. states on Tuesday — Alabama, Connecticut, Minnesota, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin. Minnesota voters will settle a moderate-versus-progressive Democratic U.S. Senate primary between centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. In the race for governor, Mike Lindell, known as the MyPillow Guy, leads […]
President Donald Trump on Monday said that since Iran is seeking compensation as part of any peace talks, he’ll demand the same. It’s part of a larger pivot by Trump, who’s arguing that Iran is on the cusp of financially collapsing, even though the decades of financial sanctions it faces aren’t an immediate conflict-ending tool. […]
PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has picked a Republican-turned-independent to be her running mate in a tough reelection campaign, setting up a bipartisan ticket as voters elect the state’s first lieutenant governor. Hobbs’ selection Tuesday of John Giles, a former mayor of Mesa, a Phoenix suburb that is Arizona’s third-largest city, is […]
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels renewed their attacks Tuesday on government-controlled areas in Yemen as ongoing violence threatened to reignite the country’s civil war and raised fears over new threats to shipping lanes. Iran’s foreign minister, meanwhile, underscored Tehran’s stance against reopening the Strait of Hormuz until the U.S. meets its conditions, in comments that came after […]
DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — Republicans aiming to flip Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District after redrawing the heavily Black district in their favor will pick their nominee Tuesday to challenge U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, the Democratic incumbent who is seeking a second term despite the political headwinds. The district is one of several Democratic-leaning districts across the […]
Connecticut Democrats are choosing whether to stick with U.S. Rep. John Larson, a longstanding fixture in the state’s politics, or embrace a generational change by choosing a far younger replacement. Larson, 78, has represented the Hartford and central Connecticut-based 1st Congressional District since 1999. After largely avoiding serious Democratic opposition during his time in Congress, […]
The latest battle over the Democratic ideological divide this year shifts to the upper Midwest on Tuesday as nominating contests for governor in Wisconsin and U.S. senator in Minnesota pit left-wing candidates against more traditional ones. In Wisconsin, state Rep. Francesca Hong, a self-described democratic socialist, is the front-runner for the party’s nomination for governor […]
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Just two months after nominating Lindsey Graham to return to the U.S. Senate, South Carolina Republicans are casting ballots Tuesday in a special primary to pick a replacement following the sudden death of the president’s close ally. Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, a political unknown tapped to serve out the final months […]
