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Leila Navidi/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Nonprofit leader says Feeding Our Future taught him how to defraud the government in exchange for $30K in monthly kickbacks

Current News / News & Features /

With federal prosecutors just days from wrapping up their case against Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and one of her alleged accomplices, they finally unveiled a witness Thursday who put Bock in the middle of the criminal conspiracy.

Mohamed Hussein, who in 2023 pleaded guilty to using his Faribault nonprofit to steal more than $3 ...Read more

Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS

Trump piles pressure on Xi with latest threat to raise tariffs

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President Donald Trump unveiled additional tariffs on Chinese imports, raising the risk of Beijing ramping up its retaliation and a spiraling of tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

Trump said Thursday in a social media post that China will be charged an additional 10% tariff on March 4, citing continued drug flows from North ...Read more

National Weather Service Boston meteorologist reportedly axed in NOAA cuts: 'Honor of a lifetime'

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A new meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office is reportedly among the hundreds of NOAA staff members who have been axed by the Trump administration.

Francis Tarasiewicz — who has been tracking snowstorms, damaging winds and other local weather at NWS Boston’s Norton office in the last month — has reportedly been ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

J&J talc settlement blasted by ex-FDA head over asbestos testing

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A Johnson & Johnson unit working to resolve massive cancer litigation in bankruptcy court was accused by a former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of making misleading claims that the company’s baby powder never contained asbestos.

David Kessler, who led the FDA for more than six years starting in 1990, took the stand at a trial ...Read more

Tesla/Tesla/TNS

Tesla sets sights on Waymo, Uber in California ride-hail bid

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Tesla Inc. is seeking approval to offer ride-hailing services in California, a key step by Elon Musk’s company to begin carrying paying customers while its traditional car-selling business falters.

The electric vehicle manufacturer applied late last year for what’s known as a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the California ...Read more

DOROTHEE BARTH/DPA/TNS

Could putting swamp rat on your dinner plate help save California marshland?

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They look like a cross between an otter and a gopher but they taste something like a rabbit or dark meat from turkey. And conservation officials want you to eat as many of them as you can.

The nutria, an invasive swamp-dwelling rodent, is wreaking havoc on California ecosystems, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. They ...Read more

Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Nations back $200 billion-a-year plan to reverse nature losses

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More than 140 countries adopted a strategy to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars a year to help reverse dramatic losses in biodiversity, though failed to decide on establishing a new global nature fund — a key demand of developing economies.

Nations attending the 16th United Nations Biodiversity Conference, known as COP16, in Rome ...Read more

NOAA/TNS

Mass firings across NOAA and National Weather Service ignite fury from scientists worldwide

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As federal job eliminations struck the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service on Thursday, scientists and environmental advocates denounced the cuts, saying they could cause real harm to Americans.

The full extent of the layoffs across NOAA were not immediately clear, but Democratic legislators said ...Read more

Eric Paul Zamora/Fresno Bee/TNS

Group targeting 'woke culture' sues Fresno Unified over programs helping Black students

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A group targeting “woke culture” and diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public education is suing Fresno Unified over its programs that aim to close its yawning African American student achievement gap.

The lawsuit by the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation targets the district’s Office of African American Academic ...Read more

News briefs

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Task force on government secrets hopes to interview doctors who treated JFK in Dallas

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., says her congressional task force on declassifying government secrets hopes to interview doctors who were at the Dallas hospital where President John F. Kennedy was taken after being fatally shot.

“We ...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Study estimates up to $8.9 billion in lost economic output from Palisades, Eaton fires

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LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County could lose $4.6 billion to $8.9 billion in economic output over the next five years from the Palisades and Eaton fires, a Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. study released Thursday predicts.

Federal, state and local governments are estimated to miss out on up to $1.4 billion in tax revenue from 2025...Read more

Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS

DOJ releases Epstein documents it says mostly 'leaked' before

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The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it officially released information related to deceased financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that was mostly “previously leaked.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi authorized the release of the documents, some of which were heavily redacted, following mounting pressure from congressional...Read more

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images North America/TNS

National Weather Service, NOAA layoffs hit hundreds of federal workers

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Hundreds of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service employees were laid off Thursday in the latest round of federal workforce cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration.

The layoffs were confirmed in a statement from California U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat, and reported by Axios and The Hill...Read more

Matt Stone/Boston Herald/TNS

Massachusetts pushes back on Trump anti-DEI policies, will keep education initiatives in place

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The Bay State will play by its own rules when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, a defiant governor and AG stated.

A letter from the Trump Administration sent earlier this month to the heads of education in every state and instructing them to do away with DEI policies can be ignored by institutions operating in ...Read more

Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group/TNS

'A powder keg': Lawsuit claims Texas company knowingly built dangerous battery plant at California's Moss Landing, leading to major toxic fire

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Texas company that built a huge battery storage plant at Moss Landing that burned in a major fire last month, causing the evacuation of 1,200 people and the closure of Highway 1 for three days, rushed to build the plant and cut corners resulting in unsafe conditions, a lawsuit filed Thursday alleges.

One of the largest ...Read more

Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Former LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley appeals her dismissal

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LOS ANGELES — Former Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley took the extraordinary step Thursday of appealing Mayor Karen Bass’ decision to dismiss her, in part, for her performance during a catastrophic wildfire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades.

The appeal, which would require the approval of 10 of 15 City Council members, is ...Read more

Samuel Corum/Getty Images North America/TNS

Slotkin, Espaillat to deliver Democratic responses to Trump's joint address

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WASHINGTON — Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a swing-state freshman whose victory was a rare bright spot for Democrats in November, will deliver the party’s response to President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday.

Democratic leaders also announced that New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat will give the Spanish-language response...Read more

Daniel Mears/The Detroit News/TNS

Judge says 9 delayed Michigan bills should be sent to Whitmer, but won't order it

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A state Court of Claims judge ruled Thursday that the Michigan Senate has a constitutional right to have nine bills passed during the last session presented to the governor for her signature or veto.

But Judge Sima Patel stopped short of issuing an official order requiring that the Republican-controlled House present the bills, noting that the ...Read more

Al Diaz/Miami Herald/TNS

Trial set for Alexander brothers' Florida rape cases. But getting them to Miami may be tough

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MIAMI — A Miami judge set a trial date Thursday for two of the Alexander brothers and their good friend, all facing sex crime charges in three Miami Beach cases dating back to 2016.

But the May 12 date is likely tentative for at least two of them.

That’s because jet-setting 37-year-old twins Oren and Alon Alexander are behind bars in a ...Read more

Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News/TNS

Alaskans say Medicaid cuts considered by US House could be 'catastrophic'

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Alaska lawmakers say a budget resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives late Tuesday could lead to funding cuts that would gut Medicaid programs used by a third of Alaskans — or exacerbate Alaska's fiscal crisis by forcing the state to step in and cover the cost of programs that underpin the state's health care system.

The budget...Read more