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Trump says he aced a cognitive test during physical exam

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he underwent and passed a cognitive exam during a roughly four-hour physical exam conducted Friday by his physician.

“I took a cognitive test and I don’t know what to tell you other than I got every answer right,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Florida.

Trump, in response ...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

US economists brace for sharp slowdown despite Trump's pivot

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Wall Street economists maintained their forecasts for a sharp slowdown in U.S. economic growth and warned recession risk is still elevated despite the Trump administration’s decision this week to delay major tariffs on a wide range of trading partners.

Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, RBC Capital Markets, Barclays Plc and UBS issued updated ...Read more

News briefs

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RFK Jr. warns FDA staff of ‘deep state’ in all-hands meeting

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned Food and Drug Administration staff about the influence of the “deep state” on the agency in an all-hands meeting Friday where he also made off-color comments about children with developmental disabilities.

FDA employees gathered at...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

Company operating helicopter that crashed in Hudson has history of close calls, bankruptcy filing, records show

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NEW YORK — The company operating the helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River carrying a family from Spain, killing them all, has a history of close calls and financial problems that resulted in a 2019 bankruptcy filing, records show.

In June 2013, a craft owned by the same company, New York Helicopter, experienced engine failure with ...Read more

Scott Heins/Getty Images North America/TNS

NY attorney general joins others from 18 states in fight against Trump student deportations

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NEW YORK — New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other AGs Friday threw their support behind professors seeking to halt the Trump administration’s efforts to deport international students.

In a friend of the court brief, the coalition accused the federal government of weaponizing immigration enforcement to crack down on speech ...Read more

Joel Saget/Getty Images North America/TNS

Ex-OpenAI staff oppose startup overhaul in Musk legal fight

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A dozen former OpenAI employees are objecting to the startup’s plan to restructure as a for-profit as Elon Musk wages a high-stakes legal challenge to the overhaul.

In the latest turn in a showdown between the world’s richest person and one of the most valuable startups, the data scientists and technicians argued in a court filing Friday ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Orlando announces Pulse tours for survivors, families before demolition

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Survivors of the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre and the families of those killed must now decide if they want to tour the property before it is demolished, leaving them a “hard” and “painful” choice about whether to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the shootings with a look inside the shuttered building.

Orlando ...Read more

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

LA County soil testing near Eaton, Palisades fires shows significant contamination

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LOS ANGELES — After months of questions in the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades fires, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has finally shared preliminary results from soil testing in and around the burn areas. The publicly available data are still somewhat vague — but they do show concerning levels of lead on properties ...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

'Everything is on the table' in NYC helicopter probe, NTSB says

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NEW YORK — The National Transportation Safety Board said it isn’t ruling anything out as it probes the deadly crash of a New York City tourist helicopter.

“Everything is on the table,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said Friday during a media briefing on the accident, in which a sightseeing helicopter plunged into the Hudson River.

The ...Read more

Rebecca Noble/Getty Images North America/TNS

RFK Jr. warns FDA staff of 'deep state' in all-hands meeting

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned Food and Drug Administration staff about the influence of the “deep state” on the agency in an all-hands meeting Friday where he also made off-color comments about children with developmental disabilities.

FDA employees gathered at the agency’s Maryland-based headquarters for a “viewing party...Read more

Rob Kim/Getty Images North America/TNS

Ghislaine Maxwell appeals sex-trafficking case to Supreme Court

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Lawyers for British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell said they asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction, arguing she was shielded from prosecution under a deal her former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein reached with the government in a separate case.

In her petition, which was provided by her lawyer, Maxwell argued she ...Read more

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections/TNS/TNS

Luigi Mangione's attorneys argue against death penalty, claim Trump administration politicizing CEO killing case

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Luigi Mangione’s attorneys argued Friday that federal prosecutors should be precluded from seeking the death penalty for the Towson, Maryland, native on charges that he killed a health insurance executive.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi’s announcement earlier this month directing prosecutors to pursue capital punishment in the case was “...Read more

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Trump threatens Mexico with more tariffs, this time over water

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MEXICO CITY — A war over water is brewing at the U.S.-Mexico border.

This week, President Donald Trump threatened Mexico with new tariffs for failing to deliver billions of gallons of water under a 1944 treaty governing the dispersal of three rivers that run through both countries.

“Mexico has been stealing the water from Texas farmers,�...Read more

Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Proposal to ban Native American school team names, mascots passes Illinois House

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Following a wave of schools and professional sports teams over the last 20 years scaling back usage of Native American-themed names, imagery, mascots and logos, the Democrat-led Illinois House has advanced legislation that aims to place a statewide ban on such usage from elementary through high schools.

The legislation has...Read more

Dennis Sandusky/Dreamstime/TNS

43 visas revoked, Northwest Missouri State students told to leave US 'immediately'

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The federal government has revoked the legal status of 43 international students associated with Northwest Missouri State University, the school said in a statement Friday afternoon.

Five of the people are current students and the remaining 38 are “optional practical training students” who graduated but remained in the ...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Trump loses bid to end 'Central Park Five' defamation case

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WASHINGTON — A federal judge denied President Donald Trump’s request to dismiss a lawsuit over comments he made last year about five men who were wrongly convicted in the 1989 jogger rape case and came to be known as the “Central Park Five.”

U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone on Thursday ruled that the case accusing Trump of defaming...Read more

Caroline Silva/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Georgia Walmart employee kills 2 co-workers, injures 1 in separate shootings, officials say

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ATLANTA — It was the middle of the night, and Walmart employees were just a few hours into their overnight shifts in an otherwise empty Newton County store when horror broke out.

One of their co-workers went on a multisite shooting rampage that would leave two people dead and seriously injure a third, the sheriff’s office said. The ...Read more

Evelyn Hocksteinamer/Amer Hilabi/Pool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Years of distrust hang over US and Iran as their negotiators head to Oman

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Officials from the U.S. and Iran are set to meet Saturday in Oman for the highest-level talks on the Islamic Republic’s advancing nuclear program since 2022, a sign of Tehran’s eagerness for sanctions relief and to avoid the crippling military attack that President Donald Trump has threatened.

Each side’s distrust of the other runs deep, ...Read more

Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/TNS

House GOP demands text messages, emails from DeSantis administration in spending probe

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida House Republicans on Friday issued letters to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, demanding text messages, emails and records that stretch back years as the chamber tries to investigate possible wasteful government spending in the executive branch.

The House is demanding administration officials turn over the ...Read more

Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/TNS

New Idaho law forbids Boise from flying LGBTQ+ Pride flag. But it's still up

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BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Gov. Brad Little on April 3 signed a law banning government entities, including cities, from flying non-“official” flags on their property.

In lawmakers’ debates over the bill, supporters shared pictures of the LGBTQ+ Pride flag outside Boise’s City Hall as an example of the flags they hoped the law would bring ...Read more