Featured Articles in National News

Judge Allows U.S. Deportation Case Against Pro-Palestinian Columbia Student to Proceed

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…

Pentagon Cancels $5.1 Billion in Contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

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…

Senate Confirms Lt. Gen. Dan Caine as Next Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff

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…

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SALES IN WYOMING SLOW TO RECOVER FROM PANDEMIC

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…

Mystery surrounds suspected mastermind of Haiti presidential assassination plot

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…

Hundreds take to the street to protest in Cuba

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…

Bill Cosby released from prison after Pa. Supreme Court overturns sexual assault conviction

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 to launch its own low-price brand of insulin

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

MS-13 Member Pleads Guilty To Brutal Murder in Maryland

A drug dealer and MS-13 member pleaded guilty in a Maryland federal court on Thursday to charges stemming from the brutal murder of a rival gangster just outside Washington, D.C. Moises Alexis Reyes-Canales, known to fellow gang members as “Sicopita,” admitted to his involvement with the 2016 stabbing death of Jose Hernandez-Portillo in a Maryland Read More…

Tokyo Olympics: Kiwi weightlifter Laurel Hubbard to become first transgender athlete to compete at the Games

Kiwi weightlifter Laurel Hubbard will make history at the Tokyo Olympics by becoming the first transgender athlete to compete at the Games. Hubbard has been named among five weightlifting athletes selected to the New Zealand Team. Hubbard, who won silver at the 2017 world championships and represented New Zealand at the 2018 Commonwealth Games before Read More…

Saudi talks up strength after US cuts military assets

Washington on Friday said it was cutting the number of troops and air defence units deployed to the Middle East, including Patriot batteries and an anti-missile system, called THAAD, from Saudi Arabia. “This will not affect the Saudi air defences,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki told reporters. “We have a strong understanding with… our allies about Read More…

Federal prisoners hold $100 million in government-run accounts, shielded from some criminal scrutiny and debt collection

Federal prison inmates are keeping large sums of money — in some cases more than $100,000 each — in government-run deposit accounts effectively shielded from court orders for things like child support, alimony or other debts, and not subject to the same scrutiny as accounts owned by non-incarcerated citizens, according to court documents and interviews. Read More…

Despite her vow of poverty, nun stole more than $835,000 from a Catholic school, prosecutors said

With each new school year, fresh checks for tuition and fees streamed into the principal’s office at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, Calif. But for 10 years, those checks, along with donations, scarcely made it to the school’s bank account. Instead, the school’s principal, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was stealing the money and Read More…

Ex-CDC Director Robert Redfield Says He Received Death Threats From SCIENTISTS After Embracing Wuhan Lab Leak Theory

Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said he received “death threats” from other scientists for broaching the possibility that Covid-19 leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The former CDC director said the threats came after a March 26 CNN interview, when he told the network, “I am of the point of Read More…

MLB sued for $100M after pulling All-Star Game from Atlanta

ATLANTA (SBG) — A small business advocacy organization filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Major League Baseball, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, the Major League Baseball Players Association and executive director Tony Clark. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by the Job Creators Network. READ FULL STORY  

EU summit to discuss Belarus sanctions after ‘state-sponsored hijacking’ of passenger plane

European Union leaders will discuss retaliatory measures against Belarus at a summit dinner on Monday night, after the country’s president Alexander Lukashenko scrambled a jet fighter to force a Ryanair RYAAY, -0.13%   RYA, -1.13% flight carrying a dissident journalist to land in Minsk on Sunday. The Irish plane was on a regular flight from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, and was forced to Read More…

Bill Gates faces misconduct allegations

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Bill Gate’s resignation from Microsoft’s board was because of a romantic relationship with an employee. The Journal reported Sunday that a female Microsoft engineer alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship over the years with Gates. READ FULL STORY

Hackers behind Colonial Pipeline attack reportedly received $90 million in bitcoin before shutting down

LONDON — DarkSide, the hacker group behind the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, received a total of $90 million in bitcoin ransom payments before shutting down last week, according to new research. Colonial Pipeline was hit with a devastating cyberattack earlier this month that forced the company to shut down approximately 5,500 miles of pipeline in the Read More…

Josh Duggar, star of 19 Kids and Counting, pleads not guilty to child pornography charges

The eldest child in the former reality television family, the Duggars, was arrested Thursday for charges related to child pornography. The U.S. Marshals Service in Arkansas arrested Josh Duggar, whose family had been the center of the TLC show 19 Kids and Counting. He was charged with possession of and receiving child pornography and pleaded not guilty Friday. Read More…

Female track stars appeal decision forcing competition with transgender athletes

A group of female high school track athletes is appealing a Sunday federal district decision forcing them to compete against transgender athletes. The case was dismissed by Judge Robert Chatigny on procedural grounds because the two transgender athletes in question have since graduated from high school, making the case moot. Chatigny wrote, however, that if Read More…

Armed Groups Step Into Venezuela as Lawlessness Grows

GUARERO, Venezuela — They bring drinking water to residents in the arid scrublands, teach farming workshops and offer medical checkups. They mediate land disputes, fine cattle rustlers, settle divorces, investigate crimes and punish thieves. They’re not police officers, civil servants or members of the Venezuela government, which has all but disappeared from this impoverished part Read More…

Former Vice President Walter Mondale dies at 93

Walter Mondale, who transformed the role of U.S. vice president while serving under Jimmy Carter and was the Democratic nominee for president in 1984, died Monday at 93, according to a family spokesperson. The big picture: President Biden, who was mentored by Mondale through the years, said in 2015 that the former vice president gave him a “roadmap” Read More…

J&J faces more scrutiny after CEO’s $30 million payday

The fight over Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky’s $30 million payday is heating up. The state of Illinois, charitable organization OxFam and several religious organizations have filed letters with the Securities and Exchange Commission opposing his pay. The letters urge shareholders to vote no on a “say on pay” proposal set for consideration at Read More…

Biden’s DOE just canceled $1.3 billion of student debt for 41,000 borrowers with disabilities — and ended a rule requiring 230,000 to submit paperwork to qualify

After he canceled student debt for about 72,000 defrauded borrowers two weeks ago, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced on Monday relief measures for borrowers with total and permanent disabilities. Under the previous rule, established under President Barack Obama, anyone determined permanently disabled by a physician, the Social Security Administration, or the Department of Veteran Affairs was eligible for federal Read More…

The Supreme Court will consider reinstating Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence

The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after it was vacated by a lower court last year. Tsarnaev was convicted of planting pressure-cooker bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon with his brother, which killed three people and injured hundreds of others. He was sentenced Read More…