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Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Gov. Ron DeSantis' proposals for Florida's ballot initiative process could effectively end it

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — For years, Floridians have used the ballot initiative process to pass popular measures that have been otherwise stymied by the state’s political leaders.

That process is how Florida got its $15 minimum wage, medical marijuana and felon voter rights restoration. It’s the reason why Florida’s governor and lawmakers ...Read more

Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/TNS

'Dignity for all': Idaho bill proposes firing squad as state's primary execution method

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BOISE, Idaho — Eleven months after Idaho failed to execute a prisoner for the first time in state history using lethal injection, Republican lawmakers have their targets set on adopting a firing squad as the primary execution method.

Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, introduced the bill Tuesday, which would make Idaho the only U.S. state to give ...Read more

Doug Collins tells Senate committee he will put veterans first if confirmed as VA secretary

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WASHINGTON — For nearly three hours, former Georgia Congressman Doug Collins faced questions from the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee about how he would improve the federal agency tasked with providing health care and other services to former members of the military.

Members of both parties said they were pleased with his answers, and ...Read more

Matt Stone/Boston Herald/TNS

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey files $2.5 billion borrowing bill to improve public higher education infrastructure

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BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey filed a $2.5 billion borrowing bill Tuesday that would dump cash into Massachusetts’ public higher education system to update aging infrastructure that the first-term Democrat argued has suffered from years of neglect.

Healey pitched her plan only days before she was expected to file her fiscal year 2026 budget ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump replaces acting U.S. attorneys in Manhattan, Brooklyn

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NEW YORK — Donald Trump has replaced the acting U.S. attorneys in Manhattan and Brooklyn with temps as his nominees for the prestigious posts await Senate confirmation — after a cadre of House Republicans last month urged the president to fill top federal prosecutor jobs with loyalists quickly.

The Trump administration tapped Danielle ...Read more

Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images North America/TNS

Taliban rebuff Trump's call to return US arms worth billions

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The Taliban won’t return any of the military equipment left behind by the U.S. troops while exiting Afghanistan in 2021, a person familiar with the matter said, as relations between Kabul and the Donald Trump administration start on a wobbly note.

Instead of taking back the weapons, the U.S. should provide Taliban with more advanced weapons ...Read more

Ana Ramirez/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Migrants waiting in Tijuana feel immediate sting of Trump's border crackdown

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Word began to spread quickly in the Tijuana migrant shelter Monday, even as President Donald Trump continued to deliver his inauguration speech.

Nidia Montenegro, an asylum seeker from Venezuela, checked her cellphone to see if the asylum screening appointment she’d waited so long to secure was still good for Wednesday morning. Those around ...Read more

Families of Monterey Park shooting victims sue gunman's estate, studio where attack took place

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LOS ANGELES — Relatives of four victims of a Monterey Park shooting are suing the gunman’s estate and the dance studio where the attack took place, claiming wrongful death.

The lawsuits were filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court by the relatives of Xiujuan Yu, Yu Lun Kao, LiLan Li and Mymy Nhan, who were among those killed when ...Read more

Kai Eiselei/Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS

Pivotal hearings set as Kohberger defense tries to nix key evidence in Idaho murder trial

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BOISE, Idaho — In hearings this week that will likely set the table for his summer murder trial, Bryan Kohberger and his attorneys will return to the courtroom for the first time in more than two months to argue for excluding a host of evidence.

Since November, the defense and prosecution have traded legal briefs over the disputed evidence ...Read more

Melina Mara/Abaca Press/TNS

Trump moves to roll back Biden diversity initiatives

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to halt federal recognition of transgender individuals late Monday as part of broader executive actions rolling back efforts to promote diversity and combat discrimination enacted during the Biden administration.

The order specifies that the federal government would recognize only two, ...Read more

Glynn County Sheriff’s Office/TNS/TNS

Ahmaud Arbery case: Former DA's trial delayed by threat of coastal snow

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BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The long-awaited trial of former district attorney Jackie Johnson officially began Tuesday morning as hundreds of Glynn County residents showed up for the start of jury selection.

But prospective jurors in the high-profile case were sent home at lunchtime and instructed not to return until Thursday as Coastal Georgia braces ...Read more

Jose Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS

1 dead, several wounded in Haiti after armed gangs target consular corp armored vehicles

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A day after opening fire on an armored U.S. embassy van and wounding a local hire, armed gangs in Haiti on Tuesday fired on three vehicles, two of them armored and fitted with diplomatic plates, and left five people injured with gunshot wounds and a sixth person dead, a local security firm said.

Among the injured is a family member of the ...Read more

David Dee Delgado/Getty Images North America/TNS

Do sanctuary cities cooperate with ICE? What to know as Trump talks mass deportations

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President Donald Trump’s appointed “border czar,” Tom Homan, has promised to conduct the “largest deportation operation in history” as Trump assumes his second term, ABC News reported, but leaders of some sanctuary cities have pushed back.

In general, the term “sanctuary city” describes jurisdictions that won’t share information...Read more

Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS

Here's the drama that went on behind the scenes with Melania's viral inauguration hat

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It doesn’t have its own X account, at least not yet. But the hat Melania Trump wore to her husband’s inauguration Monday is getting a lot of attention.

The chic wide-brimmed wool creation was by none other than Miami-based designer Eric Javits.

How viral was this thing? Global searches about what she had on her head were briefly higher ...Read more

Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS

'Very disrespectful': Lauren Sanchez's outfit to inauguration raises eyebrows

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Ouch. Another fashion don’t for Lauren Sanchez. And this time on the world stage.

Jeff Bezos’ fiancée briefly managed to take the attention off of Donald Trump being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday.

Sanchez showed up to the inauguration at the United States Capitol Rotunda in an all-white pants suit by ...Read more

Jim Watson/Getty Images North America/TNS

Several states sue to block Trump executive order on birthright citizenship

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California, a coalition of other states and the city of San Francisco sued the federal government Tuesday over President Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship via executive order — calling it an unconstitutional directive that flies in the face of long-standing legal precedent.

“I have one message for President Trump: I’...Read more

Win McNamee/Getty Images North America/TNS

Sen. John Fetterman had 'zero clue' that he took a photo with a Jan. 6 rioter, his office says

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Sen. John Fetterman inadvertently took a photo Monday with the rioter who grabbed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern and posed with it during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The photo came the same day President Donald Trump took the oath of office and hours before Trump issued an unconditional pardon to most participants...Read more

Apu Gomes/Getty Images North America/TNS

With rain possible for the weekend, LA Mayor Karen Bass works to shore up burn areas

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LOS ANGELES — Mayor Karen Bass issued an emergency executive order Tuesday morning to shore up Los Angeles burn areas and protect watersheds ahead of potential rain this weekend.

The forecast, which could bring some rain as soon as Saturday, comes as the Los Angeles area continues to battle a catastrophic firestorm that has devastated a wide ...Read more

Luis Robayo/Getty Images North America/TNS

Turkey declares day of mourning after ski hotel fire kills 76

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Turkey declared a national day of mourning after a fire at a hotel in a popular ski resort killed 76 people.

At least 51 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out around 3:30 a.m. on a restaurant floor of the 12-story Grand Kartal hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in northern Turkey. It quickly engulfed the rest of the building, which ...Read more

Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Judge refuses to dismiss case against Tupac Shakur slaying suspect

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LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas judge refused to dismiss a murder charge on Tuesday against Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the man accused of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur.

Davis, 61, has been in custody since he was indicted in September 2023 on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or ...Read more