Current News

/

ArcaMax

Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Hurricane relief, tax refunds, prison fixes included in final Georgia budget headed to Kemp

Current News / News & Features /

ATLANTA — The Georgia General Assembly on Monday approved an amended 2025 budget that includes hundreds of millions of dollars for hurricane relief, tax refunds, prison security and other priorities. Here’s what you need to know.

—Hurricane relief: The budget includes $862 million for expenses related to last September’s Hurricane ...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

SpaceX set for Starship launch 2 months after explosive test flight

Current News / News & Features /

The last time SpaceX launched its Starship and Super Heavy rocket, the upper stage disintegrated spectacularly over the Atlantic. Two months later, SpaceX is set to try again today, Monday, with less explosive results.

The Jan. 16 launch saw a successful catch of the Super Heavy booster back at the Texas launch site, but the Starship spacecraft...Read more

Arvin Temkar/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Georgia moves to ban medical treatments for transgender minors

Current News / News & Features /

ATLANTA — Two years after assuring parents of transgender children that legislation passed in 2023 to ban certain procedures to assist minors in their gender transition was “just a pause,” Republican senators voted Monday to restrict more treatments available to children.

The legislation, sponsored by Senate Health and Human Services ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Conn. Gov. Ned Lamont to veto spending for special education, nonprofits targeted by Trump

Current News / News & Features /

HARTFORD, Conn. — Setting up a showdown with the Legislature, Democratic Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced Monday that he would veto $40 million in spending for special education and $2.8 million for nonprofits that are threatened with spending cuts by Republican President Donald Trump.

Lamont is employing his powers by using a line-item ...Read more

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Some Republicans question approach to immigration case backlog

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Congress for years backed additional immigration judges to address a yearslong backlog of deportation and asylum cases, but the sharply different views of two of the newest members of the Senate Homeland Security panel show a consensus on that approach has fractured.

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said in an interview about joining the ...Read more

Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune/TNS

Minnesota veteran recently fired as part of DOGE cuts to be Rep. Omar's guest at State of the Union

Current News / News & Features /

Chris Wicker isn’t quite sure which emotions will bubble to the top when he walks into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday night for President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress.

He knows he’ll be humbled. As a six-year Air Force veteran who has saluted the American flag more times than he can count, the 40-...Read more

Trump administration renames Georgia military base Fort Benning

Current News / News & Features /

ATLANTA — The Trump administration on Monday renamed Fort Moore as Fort Benning, reverting the Georgia military base to its earlier name.

The name change, according to the Pentagon, honors Cpl. Fred G. Benning, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism during World War I in France.

Fort Benning, which sits just outside of ...Read more

Richard Tsong-Taatariii/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Supporters of bill banning trans girls from sports rally at Minnesota State Capitol

Current News / News & Features /

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Republican-led bill to bar transgender girls from competing on girls and women’s elementary and secondary school sports teams in Minnesota is expected to be hotly debated on the state House floor Monday afternoon.

And if the morning’s events at the Capitol are any indication, the battle lines are starkly partisan.

The...Read more

Georgia Forestry Commission/TNS/TNS

Wildfires are burning across the South. Here's why more could be on the way

Current News / News & Features /

ATLANTA — Fed by blustery winds and dry conditions, more than 100 wildfires sparked across Georgia over the weekend, scorching roughly 2,390 acres.

The Carolinas were hit even harder. Firefighting crews on Sunday were battling more than 175 blazes that had erupted in recent days, prompting evacuations in several counties, including near ...Read more

Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS

Trump says 'no room left' for Canada, Mexico to duck tariffs

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he would plow ahead with new tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Tuesday, a broadside against the two biggest U.S trading partners that underscores his push to remake global trade.

“No room left for Mexico or for Canada,” Trump told reporters Monday when asked if the United States' North American...Read more

Alex Kent/Getty Images North America/TNS

Barnard College student expelled for role in Columbia Hamilton Hall takeover over Gaza

Current News / News & Features /

NEW YORK — Ten months after pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, a student at its sister school, Barnard College, has been expelled, the campus protest group Columbia University Apartheid Divest announced Monday. Another student was suspended.

Barnard administrators reportedly told the individual they ...Read more

Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

How much influence should DOGE have on government spending? What a new poll found

Current News / News & Features /

Americans are divided over the scope of the Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting task force established by President Donald Trump, according to new polling.

The latest CBS News/YouGov poll asked respondents how much influence DOGE should have on government spending and how much access it should have to government data.

The ...Read more

Sgt. Elizabeth A. Schneider, South Carolina National Guard/U.S. Army Photo/TNS/TNS

Wildfires prompt evacuations in Western NC, SC, after dry and windy conditions

Current News / News & Features /

Fire crews battled hundreds of wildfires that prompted evacuations across the Carolinas on Monday, including a 400-acre fire in Western North Carolina.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued a state of emergency. Heavy, low-hanging smoke blanketed parts of the Myrtle Beach area.

In North Carolina, families in Tryon, a town of about 1,500 in...Read more

Clarence Tabb Jr./The Detroit News/TNS

Judge sides with Michigan's cannabis agency in longstanding dispute with pot testing company

Current News / News & Features /

LANSING, Mich. — An administrative law judge has sided with the state in a longstanding legal battle between the Cannabis Regulatory Agency and one of Michigan's largest marijuana testing facilities, Viridis.

In a proposal for decision issued last month, the judge found the state’s actions, which triggered a massive marijuana recall in 2021...Read more

Jason Getz/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Georgia crime victims decry Kemp's bill limiting lawsuit damages

Current News / News & Features /

ATLANTA — A group of crime victims, attorneys and security experts on Monday denounced Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposed overhaul of the state’s civil litigation system, saying the bill would make it harder for victims to get justice in the courts.

Advocates say Senate Bill 68 would limit excessive claims while still allowing people to recover ...Read more

Georgia Forestry Commission/TNS/TNS

Wildfires are burning across the South. Here's why more could be on the way

Current News / News & Features /

ATLANTA — Fed by blustery winds and dry conditions, more than 100 wildfires sparked across Georgia over the weekend, scorching roughly 2,390 acres.

The Carolinas were hit even harder. Firefighting crews on Sunday were battling more than 175 blazes that had erupted in recent days, prompting evacuations in several counties, including near ...Read more

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey says Dems need to rebrand but keep up the fight for diversity, equity, and inclusion

Current News / News & Features /

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey took her fight against Donald Trump and the onslaught of policies released by his administration to the national stage over the weekend, telling the New York Times in a featured interview that it’s time for Democrats to rebrand and reclaim their working class base co-opted by the president.

“Let’s take this ...Read more

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump challenges Zelenskyy for saying war's end is far away

Current News / News & Features /

President Donald Trump tore into Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again Monday, saying, “This guy doesn’t want there to be peace.”

The comment came after Zelenskyy expressed a willingness to meet with Trump again, despite Friday’s open confrontation at the White House, if the U.S. president invites him for a “serious” ...Read more

National Archives/Hulton Archive/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

What will Trump say in his speech? Don't ask Grover Cleveland

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Donald Trump will become the first president to walk into the House chamber and deliver a second first address to a joint session of Congress.

“What the heck happened to Roll Call’s fact-checking standards?” some of you might be thinking. “Surely, they haven’t forgotten about Grover Cleveland, the first man ...Read more

E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Robert Crimo III pleads guilty to Illinois parade shooting; '1,000%' better than a trial

Current News / News & Features /

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — Robert Crimo III nearly pleaded guilty in June to the Highland Park mass shooting, but then changed his mind in court. On Monday, on the eve of trial in the July 4, 2022 parade shooting, he did another about-face and this time pleaded guilty to 69 felonies.

Crimo’s 11th-hour decision to plead guilty to 21 counts of first-...Read more