Current News

/

ArcaMax

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS

Trump-connected group bashes Maura Healey, Michelle Wu for creating sanctuaries in Massachusetts

Current News / News & Features /

BOSTON — A Trump-connected nonprofit has warned Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu that it has identified the Bay State and Boston as sanctuaries for illegal immigrants, urging them to undo the policies that it says “make a mockery of American democracy.”

America First Legal Foundation, a national nonprofit working to ...Read more

Kent Nishimura/Getty Images North America/TNS

California cities get letters from Trump adviser warning about interfering with immigration enforcement

Current News / News & Features /

California officials, along with dozens of others across the country, received letters this week from Stephen Miller’s nonprofit, America First Legal, warning them of the consequences for interfering with or impeding illegal immigration enforcement.

Miller has been named President-elect Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy. In a ...Read more

Samuel Corum/Getty Images North America/TNS

Elon Musk causes stir with post insulting American tech workers, supporting H-1B visas

Current News / News & Features /

Trump administration adviser Elon Musk angered MAGA supporters with his approval of a social media post sarcastically explaining that immigrants are needed for tech jobs because U.S. workers aren’t qualified enough.

Using the X social media platform owned by Musk, an account called Autism Capital summed up the debate over H-1B visas allowing ...Read more

News briefs

Current News / News & Features /

Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro is part of a rising group of Democrats who are proudly showing their faith

PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Josh Shapiro had a big 2024 — from his star turn as a contender for the vice presidential ticket to his campaign trail cameos as a prominent Democratic election surrogate, and as a vocal supporter of Israel.

As the year ...Read more

Alex Kormann/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Judge rules new copper wire theft law can take effect Jan. 1, despite lawsuit to block it

Current News / News & Features /

MINNEAPOLIS — A new state law designed to combat copper theft will take effect Jan. 1, after a judge denied a request to suspend the law as part of an ongoing lawsuit.

The ruling by Ramsey County District Judge Sara Grewing was issued Dec. 18 in the suit filed by the Upper Midwest chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc., ...Read more

MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump asks Supreme Court to pause law threatening TikTok ban

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump thrust himself into the high-stakes fight over the fate of TikTok in the U.S. by urging the Supreme Court to pause a law that would ban the social media platform if it isn’t sold by its Chinese parent company.

Trump said the court should give him time after his Jan. 20 inauguration to “seek a ...Read more

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Hochul balks at MTA plan to hike congestion pricing during heavy traffic days

Current News / News & Features /

NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul put the kibosh on the MTA’s plan to boost congestion pricing in Manhattan during times of extreme gridlock.

The MTA has floated plans to charge an additional 25% on top of the $9 it plans to tax drivers heading into the Big Apple’s congestion relief zone — an area that extends from 60th St. down to the ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Nevada court rules that Las Vegas Hells Angels can face gang prosecution

Current News / News & Features /

LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas Hells Angels motorcycle club members accused of targeting a rival club in a Henderson highway shooting can be prosecuted as gang members under state law, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The 2022 Memorial Day shooting on Interstate 11 — which Clark County prosecutors alleged targeted Vagos Motorcycle Club ...Read more

Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Israel's next target in its battle with Iran: The Houthi rebels of Yemen

Current News / News & Features /

After dealing devastating blows to militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel is now directing its military prowess at another key force backed by Iran: the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

On Friday, Israel said it had attacked Yemen's international airport in the capital of Sanaa as well as several power plants and seaports, all under Houthi control....Read more

Issa Tazhenbayev/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Suspected Russian downing of Azerbaijan passenger plane reflects Ukraine war's growing footprint

Current News / News & Features /

The deadly crash this week of an Azerbaijani passenger jet — with Russian air defenses as the suspected culprit — brings into focus a little-noticed aspect of the war in Ukraine: a battle zone that extends deep into Russia.

Ukraine for months has been using domestically tooled drones to strike Russian targets hundreds of miles from the ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Gov. Gavin Newsom doubles down on opposition to Prop. 36

Current News / News & Features /

Gov. Gavin Newsom doubled down Friday on his opposition to Proposition 36, the newly enacted statewide anti-crime initiative, and claimed that recent progress cracking down on retail theft can be attributed to his support for a statewide California Highway Patrol anti-organized retail theft task force.

At a press conference in Oakland, Newsom ...Read more

MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump asks Supreme Court to pause law threatening TikTok ban

Current News / News & Features /

President-elect Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a law that would ban the TikTok social media platform on Jan. 19 if it isn’t sold by its Chinese parent company.

Trump said the court should give him time after his Jan. 20 inauguration to “pursue a political resolution” of the dispute. He didn’t take a position on the ...Read more

Leila Navidi/Star Tribune/TNS

Crews in a Twin Cities suburb dug up soil sacred to the Dakota people. Now, they're trying to find a solution

Current News / News & Features /

Pockets of land around Lake Minnetonka served for thousands of years as the sites of sacred burial for the Dakota people.

Now, some of that soil sits in giant piles outside Tonka Bay City Hall as local officials and tribal leaders try to figure out how to most respectfully handle material that was unearthed during a road construction project.

...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Josh Hawley thinks America needs a religious revival. Is this man helping him find it

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — H.W. Crocker III thinks Western civilization is in trouble.

He supports conservative Christian moral values and has decried the rise of a new, secular America where a growing number of people answer “none” to surveys asking which religion they practice. He’s lauded the Confederacy and its soldiers and generals in books ...Read more

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Former Morrison Hotel, made famous by a Doors album, destroyed by fire in downtown LA

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — It was a building immortalized as the album art and title for the Doors' fifth album.

But on Thursday, the former Morrison Hotel — most recently slated to be used for affordable housing — went up in flames.

The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the blaze around 11 a.m. on South Hope Street, arriving to find the four-...Read more

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Michigan mom decries Biden's death row commutation in daughter's 'heinous' 1997 murder

Current News / News & Features /

DETROIT — In the weeks before Rachel Timmerman’s murder in 1997, she warned police and prosecutors that Marvin Gabrion would kill her to stop the 19-year-old from testifying that she’d been raped by Gabrion.

Her mother and others in the Newaygo County community echoed the same concerns during the 1997 case. And their warnings proved ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Gov. Newsom visits Oakland to pressure city to scale back pursuit policy, allow more police chases in town

Current News / News & Features /

OAKLAND, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom held a news conference Friday to pressure Oakland officials to scale back a policy that only allows the cops to chase someone if there’s reasonable suspicion they have committed a violent crime.

Calling the city’s policy an “extreme outlier,” Newsom first announced plans to extend a “surge” in ...Read more

Ellen M. Banner/Seattle Times/TNS

Another Delta Airlines stowaway is caught on flight from Seattle

Current News / News & Features /

A person was captured attempting to sneak onto a Delta Airlines flight from Seattle to Honolulu on Christmas Eve, authorities said this week.

The unidentified stowaway made it on board Delta Flight 487 on Tuesday, but the crew was alerted to the person's presence before takeoff, ABC News reported.

Delta personnel decided to deplane the entire ...Read more

California Department of Justice investigating shooting of parolee on Christmas Eve

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — A fight between a parole agent and an unarmed parolee during a home check on Christmas Eve led to an officer-involved shooting that left the 26-year-old parolee dead, officials said.

The California Department of Justice is now investigating the deadly shooting as part of a state law that requires the agency to investigate ...Read more

Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Judge dismisses lawsuit from families of Baltimore firefighters killed in rowhouse blaze

Current News / News & Features /

BALTIMORE — A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the families of three Baltimore firefighters who died in 2022 after being wounded while fighting a Stricker Street blaze.

The lawsuit, filed by the families of the deceased firefighters as well as another who survived the vacant rowhouse collapse, alleged that Baltimore officials had ...Read more