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New Jersey senator Cory Booker fasted, stopped hydrating before 25-hour floor speech

Current News / News & Features /

New Jersey senator Cory Booker broke a nearly 70-year-old record Tuesday with a marathon speech on the Senate floor criticizing Trump administration policies, which he spent days preparing for.

“I didn’t know how long I could go. I’m so grateful I lasted for 25 hours [and four minutes],” Booker told reporters after leaving the floor.

...Read more

Lloyd Fox/The Baltimore Sun/TNS

Rachel Morin case: As day 2 of murder trial begins, nearly half of jury pool eliminated

Current News / News & Features /

BALTIMORE – As day two of the trial for Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez begins in Harford Circuit Court, there are 65 potential jurors left from a pool of 124, Harford State’s Attorney Alison Healy said Wednesday morning. Healy said that the aim is to seat the final members of the jury today in the trial of the man charged with rape and ...Read more

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/TNS

Jailed University of Minnesota student from Turkey asks court to free him, restore visa

Current News / News & Features /

MINNEAPOLIS — A jailed University of Minnesota student from Turkey alleges in a court petition that federal agents illegally arrested him last week and stripped him of his student visa.

Dogukan Gunaydin, 28, filed the petition in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Sunday. It names as respondents President Donald Trump and Cabinet members, ...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Judge restores funds for lawyers representing children in immigration court

Current News / News & Features /

A federal judge in Northern California ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore legal funding for migrant children in immigration court.

Nonprofits representing unaccompanied minors challenged the administration in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California after the government notified them on March 21 that ...Read more

World braces for 'Liberation Day' as Trump set to reveal sweeping tariffs

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Markets and foreign capitals have braced themselves for a broad set of tariffs from President Donald Trump on Wednesday, anxious for details on a dramatic shift in U.S. trade policy that is expected to supercharge the costs of cars, houses and everyday goods for Americans.

It is unclear whether the Trump administration plans to ...Read more

Ying Feng Johansson/Dreamstime/TNS

Colorado school district rejects donation of “banned” books to be returned to library shelves

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DENVER — The Elizabeth School District has yet to return 19 books that a federal judge last month ordered be put back on library shelves as district leaders appeal the ruling — and despite a law firm’s unsolicited donation of the titles in question.

The order followed a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado and...Read more

File photo/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Mayor Brandon Scott releases budget plan to close Baltimore's $85 million deficit for FY 2026

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BALTIMORE — Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott unveiled Wednesday his $4.6 billion budget plan to close the city’s $85 million deficit for the upcoming 2026 fiscal year.

The mayor’s proposal seeks to fill the gap between revenues and expenditures by increasing fees on landfill use, emergency medical services transports and ride-sharing/taxi ...Read more

Kevin Richardson/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Maryland reparations commission gets preliminary approval

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BALTIMORE — The Maryland House of Delegates gave preliminary approval Tuesday to legislation creating a statewide reparations commission to study and make recommendations on benefits to Marylanders whose ancestors were enslaved or impacted by inequitable government policies.

“Maryland has a long history of racial inequities, from slavery to...Read more

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

Federal Judge Ho dismisses public corruption case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams 'with prejudice'

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NEW YORK — A federal judge on Wednesday permanently dismissed the sweeping public corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams — outright denying “with prejudice” an effort by Donald Trump’s Justice Department to keep open the possibility of bringing them again.

Manhattan Federal Judge Dale Ho’s decision was not based on the merits ...Read more

Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS

Gov. Andy Beshear declares state of emergency before severe, 4-day weather event in Kentucky

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Gov. Andy Beshear has declared a state of emergency before a severe and life-threatening storms arrives in Kentucky Wednesday and lingers through Saturday.

The storms are expected to arrive in the farthest areas of Western Kentucky around 6 p.m. EDT and push eastward across the state, according to the National Weather Service. A few Western ...Read more

Hannah Wiley/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'I want to be remembered.' Death row inmate auctions his San Quentin journals, art for $80,000

Current News / News & Features /

SAN FRANCISCO — In early 2020, Albert Jones was sitting in his cell on San Quentin's death row, as he had every day for nearly three decades, when reports of a mysterious respiratory illness started to circulate.

In the following months, hundreds of death row inmates fell sick as COVID-19 swept through San Quentin State Prison's east block, ...Read more

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS

Karen Read murder retrial day 2 has begun

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BOSTON — Day two of the Karen Read murder retrial has begun, with attorneys hoping to add more members to the final jury pool.

On Tuesday, the first day, attorneys agreed to two potential jurors, a man and woman, to add to the final jury pool.

Read, 45, is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years and a 16-year Boston ...Read more

Schools and communities can help children bounce back after distressing disasters like the LA wildfires

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The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires reduced more than 15,000 structures to ash in a matter of days. Among the devastation were 11 public and private schools and 30 child care facilities. In all, the fires disrupted the education and daily lives of over 700,000 students.

The fires first erupted on Jan. 7, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades, a ...Read more

Christian Zionism hasn’t always been a conservative evangelical creed – churches’ views of Israel have evolved over decades

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During confirmation hearings, Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s nominee as ambassador to Israel, told senators that he would “respect and represent the President,” not his own views. But the Baptist minister’s views on the Middle East – and their religious roots – came through.

“The spiritual connections between ...Read more

Research shows that a majority of Christian religious leaders accept the reality of climate change but have never mentioned it to their congregations

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Nearly 90% of U.S. Christian religious leaders believe humans are driving climate change. When churchgoers learn how widespread this belief is, they report taking steps to reduce its effects, as we found in our research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We examined data collected in 2023 and 2024 from a...Read more

23andMe is potentially selling more than just genetic data – the personal survey info it collected is just as much a privacy problem

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As soon as the genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy on March 23, 2025, concerns about what would happen to the personal information contained in its massive genetic and health information database were swift and widespread. A few days after, a U.S. judge ruled that the company could sell its consumer data as part of the ...Read more

Eyad Baba/Getty images North America/TNS

Israel expands ground operations against Hamas in Gaza

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Israel is expanding military operations in Gaza, days after ordering people in southern parts of the Palestinian territory to leave in preparation for more intense conflict with Hamas.

On Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said troops will broaden ground incursions and that land seized by Israel in Gaza will be turned into buffer zones. ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Convicted rapist spray-painted swastikas in California while on parole, police say

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LOS ANGELES — A convicted rapist has been rearrested in Ventura on suspicion of spray-painting swastikas throughout the city and then documenting the hate crimes on social media in an effort to sow fear, authorities said.

John Williams, 30, was arrested Sunday and booked at the Ventura County Jail on suspicion of vandalism, a hate crime and a...Read more

Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

French far right to keep up pressure as Le Pen gets lifeline

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France’s National Rally plans to protest against what it has called the “tyranny of judges” even after an appeals court said in a surprise statement late Tuesday that it should be able to rule by mid-2026 on a challenge by Marine Le Pen over her conviction this week.

Le Pen was found guilty of embezzlement on Monday and given an immediate...Read more

Ken James/California Department of Water Resources/TNS

For the first time in 25 years, California has a snowpack trifecta

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LOS ANGELES — The year may have started with a dry spell, but the end of California’s storm season has brought more fresh snow to the Sierra Nevada, pushing the state’s snowpack to 96% of average on April 1, when the snow season typically reaches its peak.

The near-average snowpack has given the state a third straight year of ample water ...Read more