White House Border Czar Tom Homan held a press conference in Minneapolis to update the public on ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, emphasizing the removal of dangerous criminal aliens and reaffirming the Trump administration’s commitment to public safety. “These targeted operations continue to remove the worst of the worst illegal alien killers, rapists, gang Read More…
A new federal investment initiative dubbed “Trump Accounts” was unveiled this week as a signature economic policy aimed at expanding private ownership and long-term wealth building for American families, with supporters calling it a transformative step toward a nationwide “shareholder society.” In a wide-ranging speech, administration officials and allies framed the program as one of Read More…
The Internal Revenue Service today confirmed that the $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” more than 1.5 million service members received last year, at the direction of President Donald J. Trump, would be tax-free. In a press release posted today, the IRS confirmed the tax-free status of the dividend. “The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Read More…
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a major action against a Costa Rica-based cocaine trafficking and money laundering network, designating five Costa Rican nationals and five entities for their role in transporting, storing, and distributing multi-ton shipments of cocaine to the United States and Europe. Luis Manuel Picado Read More…
WELLINGTON, New Zealand—New Zealand is ending its effort to keep Covid-19 out of the remote South Pacific country as the economic costs mount and after its latest lockdown failed to halt the spread of the virus. Pandemic restrictions in the country’s largest city, Auckland—in place after a Covid-19 outbreak in mid-August—will be eased in stages starting this week, Read More…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether three Federal Reserve leaders violated insider trading rules in 2020, when they bought and sold assets as the central bank ramped up efforts to save the U.S. economy from economic turmoil. Warren, who sits on the congressional committee that oversees the Fed, pressed Read More…
A capital murder trial began Tuesday for a nurse accused of killing four patients at an East Texas hospital in 2017. William Davis, 37, allegedly killed four men who had been recovering from heart surgery at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler by injecting air into their arteries, prosecutors allege. “No one expects this is going Read More…
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. told staff at Rikers Island on Monday not to ask for bail in many nonviolent cases, even though the policy could result in additional “low level” crimes. Under the new directive, trial division attorneys should avoid asking for bail when “the threat of confinement under these conditions outweighs the threat to Read More…
United Airlines Holdings Inc. is moving ahead with plans to terminate close to 600 employees who didn’t meet its Covid-19 vaccination deadline, company officials said Tuesday. United in August said it would require all of its 67,000 U.S. employees to be vaccinated—the first major U.S. airline and one of the first large U.S. companies to do Read More…
NEW YORK (AP) — Matt Amodio’s historic run on “Jeopardy!” has now netted him more than $1 million in non-tournament play, making him the third person in the show’s history to pass that mark. The only other contestants to win more than $1 million in regular season games are Ken Jennings, whose 74-game streak netted Read More…
The FDA shopped from a menu of aborted fetus organs to insert into lab mice as part of taxpayer-funded experiments, according to government records—a practice that watchdogs said may violate federal law. From 2012 to 2018, Advanced Bioscience Resources, a nonprofit fetal tissue supplier, charged the FDA $340 per aborted fetus liver and $515 per Read More…
DEL RIO, Texas — State troopers deployed to the border by Gov. Greg Abbott are being credited for doing the federal government’s job and stopping thousands more migrants in Mexico from illegally crossing into the United States after well over 15,000 made it through here late last week. A swarm of Texas Department of Public Safety officers, known Read More…
(Bloomberg) — Most people don’t give fertilizer a second thought — except maybe when driving through a particularly fragrant agricultural area. But with prices for some synthetic nutrients at their highest levels since the financial crisis, it could mean weaker harvests and bigger grocery bills next year, just as the world’s supply chains start to Read More…
Arkansas is using federal coronavirus relief funds to buy children’s books about the coronavirus for distribution to schools in the state that are produced by a company co-founded by former Gov. Mike Huckabee. The Department of Education inked a $245,300 deal with the Florida-based business EverBright Media to distribute “The Kids Guide to Coronavirus” booklets Read More…
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A Maryland Eastern Shore judge who was about to be arrested at his home on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child was found dead Friday, officials said. FBI agents went to the residence of Caroline County Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Newell in Henderson, Maryland, early Friday. “Upon entering the residence Read More…
Dr. Anthony Fauci has expressed his support for COVID-19 vaccination requirements for air travel – as the Biden administration did not rule it out. “I would support that if you want to get on a plane and travel with other people that you should be vaccinated,” the White House chief medical adviser said in an Read More…
Car manufacturers including Ford, Volkswagen and Daimler are still struggling to deal with the impact of the global chip shortage, with executives from each of the companies warning a lack of silicon is likely to remain a problem. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius and Ford Europe chairman of the management board Gunnar Herrmann told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach Read More…
The Biden administration on Monday unveiled a major permanent increase to the food stamp benefits that help 42 million Americans buy groceries — a record bump up for one of the country’s largest safety net programs. The average monthly benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will be roughly 27 percent higher than they were Read More…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys for three former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s death asked a judge Thursday to bar their upcoming trial from being livestreamed, saying some witnesses won’t testify if the proceedings are broadcast. The request from attorneys for Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao is an about-face from their earlier request to Read More…
“One of the first things he asked me … was whether or not I was vaccinated,” Firlit, 39, told the Chicago Sun-Times. She was not, she said, explaining that she has had “adverse reactions to vaccines in the past” and that a doctor advised her against getting inoculated against the coronavirus. “It poses a risk,” she Read More…
NEW ORLEANS, La. — All of New Orleans is without power as Hurricane Ida continues to hit Louisiana with high winds, heavy rain, and storm surge. Entergy New Orleans said Sunday evening that all of Orleans Parish was without power due to “catastrophic damage” to its transmission system. Entergy’s outage tracker on its website showed more Read More…
U.S. troops do not currently have the capability to help people reach Kabul airport to be evacuated from Afghanistan because they are focused on securing the airfield, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday. The speed with which Taliban forces retook Afghanistan, as U.S. and other foreign forces withdrew after a 20-year war, has Read More…
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials on Wednesday announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines’ effectiveness is slipping. The plan, as outlined by the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top health Read More…
President Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan Wednesday, blaming the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country squarely on the Afghan army and a peace deal brokered with the Taliban by the Trump administration. In an interview with ABC News‘s George Stephanopoulos, Biden argued that there was no way the intelligence community could Read More…
Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates said his climate investment fund will commit $1.5 billion for joint projects with the U.S. government if Congress enacts a program aimed at developing technologies that lower carbon emissions. A roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the Senate this week would give the Energy Department $25 billion for demonstration projects funded Read More…
The Army recently inked a $3.5 billion contract with Pfizer Inc. for the pharmaceutical company to produce 500 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine. But those shots are not planned for soldiers’ shoulders. Instead, the contract award states, they are for “international donation” and procurement is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2022, according Read More…
The district attorney of Albany County, New York, said Tuesday that his office is criminally investigating Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been accused of sexually harassing multiple women. DA David Soares also said his office would “welcome any victim to contact our office with additional information” about Cuomo. And Soares said he plans to request investigative Read More…
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked businesses in the state to only serve customers who are completely vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to avoid a “worst case scenario,” the governor said on Monday. “I am asking them, and suggesting to them, go to vaccine-only admission,” Cuomo said during a press conference, referring to private Read More…
More than 50 prominent medical organizations Monday called for all health-care employers and long-term care facilities to require COVID-19 vaccinations for their entire staffs. The call for action comes as the delta variant fuels a nationwide surge of COVID deaths and infections among unvaccinated Americans. Last week, the American Hospital Association and America’s Essential Hospitals Read More…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the second consecutive year, U.S. adults’ positive ratings of relations between Black and White Americans are at their lowest point in more than two decades of measurement. Currently, 42% of Americans say relations between the two groups are “very” or “somewhat” good, while 57% say they are “somewhat” or “very” bad. Read More…
A New Jersey health system fired six supervisors who refused to get vaccinated for COVID-19. RWJBarnabas Health announced that over 99% of its nearly 3,000 management staff have been vaccinated against COVID-19 but that six supervisors who were not “are no longer employees of RWJBH.” READ FULL STORY
Government employees are suing Connecticut to avoid returning to work, arguing that commutes contribute to climate change. Public employee unions in Connecticut are insisting their members continue to have the option to work full time from home, citing environmental and legal concerns. Democratic governor Ned Lamont allowed government employees to work exclusively from home during Read More…
TOKYO (AP) — Kara Eaker, an alternate on the United States women’s gymnastics team, has tested positive for COVID-19 in an Olympic training camp in Japan. Al Fong, the personal coach for both Eaker and fellow Olympic alternate Leanne Wong, confirmed the positive test in an email to The Associated Press on Monday. The coach Read More…
Ten people were wounded in two mass shootings in Chicago Wednesday — just 12 hours apart, police said. The first of two mass shootings occurred in West Garfield Park on the city’s West Side, where a gunman approached a group standing outside and opened fire, striking four women and a man, police said. The victims, Read More…
Based on data from the Wyoming department of administration and information, the state’s economy continues to struggle to recover, as taxable sales are still negative, while some counties see greater gains. Dr. Wenlin Liu, Chief Economist with the state of Wyoming, Economic Analysis Division, said: “As the resurgence of the virus diminished, Wyoming’s economy continued to Read More…
Gen. Austin Miller, the commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, is stepping down on Monday — a symbolic end to America’s longest war that comes as the Taliban continue to gain territory in the absence of American troops. Miller, who has been commanding the coalition since 2018, will relinquish his post during a ceremony at Read More…
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A Haitian man arrested under suspicion of playing a leading role in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse appears to have presented himself as a potential leader of the impoverished Caribbean nation for as long as a decade. Police say Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, planned to assume the presidency and hire some of the men involved Read More…
Protesters took to the streets in Cuba on Sunday to protest shortages and the high cost of food amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Associated Press, protesters believe the Cuban government isn’t doing enough to help. The protests, which began around 2 p.m. local time, saw hundreds take to the street of San Lázaro, the Read More…
Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who became famous for representing adult film star Stormy Daniels and publicly sparring with then-President Donald Trump, was sentenced in New York Thursday to 30 months in prison for trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike. Avenatti, 50, was convicted last year on charges that he tried to extort up to Read More…
Two men arrested over the shooting of Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who is fighting for his life in an Amsterdam hospital, will appear in court later this week, police said Wednesday. De Vries, a star reporter who had received multiple threats for his work covering the criminal underworld, was shot five times, Read More…
A federal judge has sentenced Allison Mack to 3 years in prison, along with a $20,000 fine, for her involvement in the NXIVM case. Mack was one of the lead deputies and recruiters for NXIVM — the cult group that masqueraded itself as a self-help organization. The group’s leader, Keith Raniere, was sentenced to 120 Read More…
Bill Cosby was released from prison Wednesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction and barred him from being retried. The 83-year-old comedian was released from custody just before 2:30 p.m., roughly two hours after the divided high court issued its decision, upending the first high-profile celebrity conviction of the #MeToo era. Read More…
Walmart announced Tuesday it will start selling private-label insulin this summer at a much lower price for the lifesaving diabetes drug than branded varieties in vials and pens. The new brand, called ReliOn NovoLog, includes analog insulin vials for $72.88 and $85.88 for a package of prefilled insulin pens. READ FULL STORY
Eleven people were struck by a barrage of gunfire in the Marquette Park neighborhood late Sunday, leaving a woman dead in the second of two mass shootings of the night in Chicago, according to police. The attack happened in the 6300 block of South Artesian Avenue about 10:55 p.m., police said in a media notification. Read More…