A U.S. immigration judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration can move forward with its deportation case against Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and prominent pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested in New York City last month. Judge Jamee Comans of the LaSalle Immigration Court in Louisiana stated she did not have the authority Read More…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday the termination of $5.1 billion worth of Pentagon IT and consulting contracts, targeting major firms such as Accenture, Deloitte, and Booz Allen Hamilton. The move, he said, is aimed at eliminating “wasteful spending” and redirecting funds toward core defense priorities. In a Department of Defense memo, Hegseth ordered the Read More…
The U.S. Senate confirmed retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a 60-25 vote on Friday, officially filling the nation’s top military post nearly two months after President Donald Trump ousted the previous chairman. The confirmation vote came just before lawmakers departed Washington Read More…
(The Center Square) – Billionaire Alex Meruelo is looking to use nearly $100 million in Reno city redevelopment funding for a new multi-use stadium at the University of Nevada, Reno. The public funds would come from a property tax cut, called Tax Increment Financing, which would take off a significant portion of Meruelo’s $1 billion Read More…
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced on Thursday that Mexican and U.S. officials have agreed to keep border crossings open. This decision follows a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, focusing on securing Mexico’s cooperation to address the record-high migration levels. Earlier this month, the United States temporarily closed several crossings, including Read More…
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has verified that actor Daniel Masterson, known for his role in “That ’70s Show,” has been incarcerated at North Kern State Prison in Delano following his conviction for rape earlier this year. Masterson is currently undergoing the classification and reception process, as confirmed by the CDCR on Wednesday. Read More…
General Motors (GM) has acquired approximately half of its Buick dealerships across the United States as a result of their reluctance to promote electric vehicles (EVs) during GM’s transition to an electric future. Roughly 1,000 of GM’s 2,000 Buick dealerships opted for the voluntary buyout, which remains open for additional dealers to choose instead of Read More…
On Tuesday, Hamas released an additional 10 Israeli hostages and two Thai nationals as part of an agreed-upon extension of the pause in fighting with Israel in Gaza. CIA director Bill Burns is in talks with Mossad director David Barnea, Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani to Read More…
Families of the Sandy Hook victims, who secured legal judgments totaling almost $1.5 billion against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for dismissing the 2012 school shooting as a hoax, have proposed a settlement in his personal bankruptcy case in Houston. The families are willing to accept around $85 million over a 10-year period, offering this compromise Read More…
Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court and a pivotal swing voter in major court cases, passed away at the age of 93 on Friday in Phoenix. The court revealed in a statement that she succumbed to complications linked to advanced dementia, likely Alzheimer’s, and a respiratory ailment. Read More…
Over the past three decades, the local adoration for Homeboy Industries has nearly been matched by the nonprofit’s innovation and ability to form high-level connections. Founded by Father Gregory Boyle in East Los Angeles in 1988 with the aim to help gang members change their lives, it has gained legendary status. The program that early on was Read More…
The Federal Reserve raised the target range for its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% on Wednesday while leaving its options open on future rate hikes. The central bank’s move pushed its benchmark policy rate, the fed funds rate, to a new range of 5%-5.25%, the highest since September 2007. The Fed said future rate hikes Read More…
A McDonald’s franchisee in Kentucky employed two 10-year-old children in violation of federal labor laws, the Department of Labor said Tuesday. Bauer Food, LLC, a Louisville-based operator of 10 McDonald’s franchise locations across two states, employed the children, the DOL said in a news release. Officials said the children were not paid, yet sometimes worked as late Read More…
Republican state attorneys general are sounding alarms about money management and left-wing bias at the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). The flagship organization for top state legal officers controls tens of millions of dollars in settlement funds, which it disperses to support consumer protection training and enforcement. Some Republican attorneys general fear those accounts Read More…
Most people will need to get a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose to be protected from the virus, the head of Pfizer said on Sunday. “It is necessary for most” people, CEO Albert Bourla said during an interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation” when asked if Americans can expect to get annual COVID booster shots every fall. The Read More…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address the U.S. Congress Wednesday morning. In a letter to lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited members of both the House of Representatives and Senate to attend the virtual event at 9 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. READ THE FULL STORY
Russian troops slaughtered a Ukrainian policeman’s family, including his newborn baby and 6-year-old daughter — all while his brother heard it in a phone call, according to reports. Policeman Oleg Fedko, 30, was working in the Kherson region when his parents and partner picked up his kids to keep them safe last Thursday, the day Read More…
More than 1 in 6 teenagers who gave birth in Texas in 2020 already had a child. Texas does not require sex education and has the strictest abortion law in the nation. Like a lot of teenagers, Iryanna Rodriguez’s day starts early and ends late, and she’s often running behind from the moment she wakes Read More…
A lawyer for Elon Musk blasted the Securities and Exchange Commission and accused the agency of using its power to harass the Tesla founder. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, described a “pattern of conduct” by the SEC that “has gone beyond the pale.” He said that the regulator, which is led by Chairman Gary Read More…
St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard made his case for a rapid move higher in interest rates, saying Monday that the central bank needs to react to accelerating inflation. “I do think we need to front-load more of our planned removal of accommodation than we would have previously. We’ve been surprised to the upside Read More…
The Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo was hacked, with reportedly tens of thousands of names leaked of those who donated to the site’s page for the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. The hack redirected GiveSendGo.com to a webpage with the domain GiveSendGone[dot]wtf, where a video of Disney’s Frozen was posted along with a manifesto condemning the website. GiveSendGo’s webmasters eventually fixed the website redirect, Read More…
A stowaway was found alive on Sunday in a wheel well in the nose of a cargo plane that flew 11 hours from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, Dutch police confirmed. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a local hospital after authorities discovered him at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The man is in stable condition Read More…
Hard-hitting investigative journalist and former NYPD detective John Connolly passed away on Saturday at 78. The cop-turned-scribe was known among media insiders for his unending Rolodex, and a unique ability to mix among Hollywood execs and stars, Wall Street rainmakers, pols, police and wiseguys alike. Connolly was a co-author with James Patterson of the 2017 book “Filthy Rich: The Read More…
CNN — Photos and videos showing piles of empty boxes littered alongside rail tracks in Los Angeles County, California have gone viral as shipping companies say they’ve seen a dramatic spike in railroad theft. Some of the boxes are packages from companies like UPS, Amazon and FedEx. Union Pacific, one of the country’s largest railroad companies, Read More…
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said Monday he will be leaving his post with just a few weeks left on his term and amid revelations regarding his trading of stock funds. In an announcement released Monday afternoon, Clarida said he will be stepping down from his post this Friday. His term expires on Jan. 31. The Read More…
Los Angeles lawmakers over the past few years have allowed the homeless to overtake a city-owned historic town square that has been a tourist destination for a century. When Sheriff Alex Villanueva discovered that famed Olvera Street was becoming a ghost town as merchants and restaurant owners fled the homeless encampment, he took it personally. Villanueva used to visit the city’s oldest Read More…
A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a Harvard University professor of lying to the U.S. government about payments he received from a Chinese university. Charles Lieber, the former chairman of Harvard’s chemistry department, in 2011 agreed to establish a research lab at the Wuhan University of Technology in exchange for more than $1.5 million and Read More…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has drastically reduced its estimate of Omicron cases in the US, saying the variant accounted for about 59 percent of COVID-19 infections as of Christmas Day — a massive drop from the 73 percent previously reported. The CDC also significantly lowered its estimate for the week before Christmas, Read More…
NEW YORK — Under pressure to improve worker rights, Amazon has reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board to allow its employees to freely organize — and without retaliation. According to the settlement, the online behemoth Amazon said it would reach out to its warehouse workers — former and current — via email Read More…
The U.S. has had a massive surge in immigration this year, with as many as 1.5 million newcomers and a record 46.2 million foreign-born people, according to a report for the Center for Immigration Studies. After a deep trough last year, likely because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the travel and migration restrictions imposed to Read More…
Major hospital systems across the country are quietly scrapping their vaccine mandates amid worker shortages and growing confusion as to whether such requirements on the national level are even legal. Two separate federal courts found in late November that President Joe Biden’s attempt to impose a nationwide vaccine requirement for healthcare workers likely exceeded the authority of Read More…
A CNN staffer was arrested on three charges related to sexual abuse Friday after allegedly enticing women over the internet to allow him to teach their daughters sexual acts. John Griffin, a CNN producer who has since been suspended, was indicted by a grand jury in Vermont of “using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage Read More…
A Norwegian Cruise Line ship docked in New Orleans over the weekend with at least 17 passengers and crew members infected with the coronavirus, according to local health officials, including one probable case of the omicron variant among the crew. The Norwegian Breakaway departed from New Orleans on Nov. 28 with more than 3,200 people Read More…
WORCESTER (CBS) – About 200 UMass Memorial Health employees are out of a job because they missed the health care system’s COVID vaccination deadline. UMass Memorial announced the mandate over the summer with a deadline to get vaccinated or receive an exemption by November 1. Employees were let go on December 1 if they did Read More…
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Mayor Bill de Blasio announced what he called a first-in-the-nation vaccine mandate for private companies Monday. He said the combination of the Omicron variant and holiday gatherings forced him to take “bold” steps. He’s giving businesses just three weeks to make sure their workers are vaccinated. “We in New York City have decided to use a preemptive strike Read More…
Nearly half of American households say inflation is causing financial hardship, according to a Gallup poll. Forty-five percent of Americans say inflation is responsible for their current financial difficulties—10 percent of whom describe those difficulties as “severe.” Among those most affected are Americans in the lowest income bracket, with 71 percent of households making $40,000 or less Read More…
Jussie Smollett’s legal team will get its chance on Thursday to poke holes in the credibility of Abimbola Osundairo, one of two Nigerian brothers who claimed the Empire actor paid them to stage a phony hate crime. Osundairo testified Wednesday in a Chicago courtroom that Smollett gave him and his brother instructions and money in advance of the Jan. 29, Read More…
Scientists claim to have discovered a “potential mechanism” that triggers rare blood clots in some people who receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine. Links between the vaccine and rare, sometimes fatal, blood clots have prompted some countries to restrict its use to older adults or favor alternative shots. To be sure, medical experts have repeatedly said the benefits of the Read More…
VAN HORN, Texas — Texas state troopers deployed to the border in remote West Texas to serve as backup to the overstretched Border Patrol are overwhelmed responding to the increasing number of illegal migrants who try to outrun them. The Texas Department of Public Safety has rerouted more than 1,000 officers from their normal duties to the border Read More…
Jerome Powell, who guided the Federal Reserve and the nation’s economy through the staggering and sudden Covid-19 recession by implementing unprecedented monetary stimulus, is being nominated for a second term as chairman of the U.S. central bank. President Joe Biden made the announcement Monday morning following weeks of speculation that a push from progressives might Read More…
ALBANY, N.Y. — On Monday morning, the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee released its findings from its investigation into former Governor Andrew Cuomo. The investigation, which started before Cuomo’s resignation in August, sought to examine allegations of sexual harassment against the former governor. READ FULL STORY
Thousands of Massachusetts parents opted their children out of a federally funded sex education curriculum that teaches kindergartners about genitalia. Worcester Public Schools this week announced that 13 percent of its students opted out of sex education, including 20 percent of K-4 students. The “Rights, Respect, Responsibility,” or “3Rs,” curriculum teaches elementary students about gender Read More…
At a press conference WHO Europe head Hans Kluge said the continent could see half a million more deaths by February. He blamed insufficient vaccine take-up for the rise. “We must change our tactics, from reacting to surges of Covid-19 to preventing them from happening in the first place,” he said. The rate Read More…
Within hours of the Biden administration unveiling a Jan. 4 deadline for 100 million workers to get vaccinated, a small business advocacy group announced it is filing a lawsuit seeking to block the measure. “The Biden administration’s vaccine mandate is clearly illegal and will have a devastating impact on our small business community and our entire economy,” Read More…