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Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Downward trend in homicides continues in Chicago, but officials aren't celebrating

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Despite recording more than 570 homicides in 2024, Chicago actually saw signs of improvement, with that total marking the third consecutive year the city recorded fewer killings than the one prior.

In fact, 2024 was the first year since the COVID-19 pandemic that the city had fewer than 600 slayings before the turn of the calendar. The official...Read more

Ana Ramirez/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

More people can be held against their will under new California law taking effect Jan. 1

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Imagine standing on a street corner and trying to decide whether someone has a severe, moderate or mild substance use disorder, whether their medical condition is serious and likely to deteriorate, or whether their personal safety is so compromised that they are likely to die if they are not detained.

Such weighty decisions are usually the ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Women's prisons are rife with trauma. Can California set a new course at Chowchilla?

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CHOWCHILLA, Calif. — Gazing across the crowd of women, fresh from county jail in their orange prison jumpsuits, Lena Coleman wishes she could save them all.

And it's her job to try.

In July, after 20 years in prison for attempted murder and a gun enhancement, Coleman, 47, became one of three dozen prisoners at the Central California Women's...Read more

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/TNS

Why one Colorado county -- alone among large communities -- has seen a steady drop in its suicide rate over five years

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DENVER -- Over the last five years, Larimer County in northern Colorado has seen what appears to be a steady, sustained drop in its suicide rate — a potentially significant breakthrough in a state that consistently ranks in the top 10 nationally for its high rate.

How the county got there was a decade-long affair in which local officials, ...Read more

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Disney cut back accommodations. What's it like to attend while disabled?

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Mary Benhart’s family gushed about Disney World’s willingness to accommodate people with disabilities in an ad for the company last year.

“You can actually relax as a special-needs family,” Benhart said, perched beside her husband, who uses a wheelchair, and their two young sons. “It’s everything.”

But those same accommodations ...Read more

Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Trump's nomination put Mehmet Oz back in the political spotlight -- and on track to oversee health care for more than 160 million Americans

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Mehmet Oz stood in front of a camera in July and filmed a TikTok about “how to conquer your constipation.”

“Here’s the scoop on the poop brain loop,” Oz said confidently, delving into an enthusiastic pitch for probiotic supplements to keep you regular.

In the two years since losing his 2022 Senate bid to Democrat John Fetterman — a...Read more

Igokapil/Dreamstime/TNS

Feds: NYC Bengali kidnappers threatened to pour chili powder in victim's wounds

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A Queens kidnapping ring that targeted fellow members of the Bengali community tortured one victim for spreading gossip about the ringleader’s wife, new court documents reveal.

Supermarket owner Abu Chowdhury, 35, his wife, Iffat Lubna, 24 — already accused in a pair of brutal kidnappings — were hit with new charges earlier this month ...Read more

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Biden on Jimmy Carter: 'I think he's happy with Rosalynn'

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President Joe Biden paused his vacation in the Virgin Islands to address the nation just hours after the passing of a political mentor whom he had grown close to over the decades, former President Jimmy Carter.

“America and the world, in my view, lost a remarkable leader,” Biden said. “He was a statesman and humanitarian, and Jill and I ...Read more

Jason Vorhees/The Telegraph/TNS

Jimmy Carter, tireless humanitarian admired as model ex-president, has died at 100

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Jimmy Carter, 100, the peanut farmer who became the commander in chief, whose ceaseless humanitarian work around the globe superseded his one tumultuous term as 39th president of the United States, died Sunday, Dec. 29, in hospice care at his longtime home in Plains, Ga., according to his nonprofit organization.

Born Oct. 1, 1924, Carter died ...Read more

NICOLAS KHAYAT/Abaca Press/TNS

Georgia, national leaders react to Jimmy Carter's death

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ATLANTA — In the wake of Former President Jimmy Carter’s death, national and local leaders are sharing their reactions and celebrating the life of a man who set a new standard for post-presidencies.

Carter died at his home in Plains about 3:45 p.m. Sunday, nearly two years after entering home hospice care. He was 100.

U.S. President Joe ...Read more

STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was marked by a complicated relationship with Congress, dies at age 100

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Jimmy Carter, a former peanut farmer who rose from rural Georgia to the White House and went on to a storied post-presidency that included winning the Nobel Peace Prize, died Sunday at his home in Plains, Ga. He was 100.

An outsider, free from the baggage of Washington, Carter defeated President Gerald R. Ford in 1976, a victory seen as ...Read more

Ben Gray/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Breakfast with Jimmy Carter in a tense Khartoum

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Jimmy Carter wore a button-down shirt in Khartoum. It was a sweltering morning and the sun shone on the Nile as the clamorous city was rousing to life. Carter was in the Sudanese capital to monitor the 2010 election that was certain to extend the rule of autocrat Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, who had been indicted on international charges of crimes...Read more

Jason Vorhees/The Telegraph/TNS

'One of my heroes.' Politicians across GA, US offer condolences after Jimmy Carter's death

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The death of former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday led to a swift outpouring of support and condolences from notable figures in both political parties.

President Joe Biden and president-elect Donald Trump issued statements Sunday, and both said Carter was a president who worked to better Americans’ lives.

“He was a man of great character...Read more

Andy Rathbun/Pioneer Press/TNS

Bans on 'junk fees,' forever chemicals and binary triggers among new Minnesota laws as of Jan. 1

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A slate of new Minnesota laws is set to go into effect on Jan. 1.

Here are some of the bigger changes:

‘Taylor Swift bill’

Ticket purchasers will get more transparency from sellers under a bill signed into law earlier this year. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview, who was frustrated after she said she couldn...Read more

John Autey/Pioneer Press/TNS

Statewide copper wire theft law will take effect Jan. 1 despite lawsuit from scrap metal industry

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Statewide requirements to help prevent copper wire theft will become law on Jan. 1 despite a lawsuit by the scrap metal workers claiming the legislation will effectively shut down their industry.

The new law requires anyone recycling scrap metal copper for profit to obtain a state-issued license. Licensed electricians and other trade and ...Read more

MICHELLE PATTERSON-THOMAS/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS

Jimmy Carter's legacy in Baltimore: hundreds of houses in Sandtown

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Dignitaries and the media had gathered in Baltimore’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood to meet him, but on June 16, 1992, Habitat for Humanity’s most celebrated volunteer was focused on the task at hand.

“Jimmy said, ‘We’re going out back, and we’re building you a deck,’” Sonia Street recalled in an interview with The Baltimore ...Read more

-/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Carter's foreign policy toward Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti left huge marks on South Florida

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The Carter administration era opened the floodgates to Miami.

President Jimmy Carter’s name is indelibly tied to one of the largest sea exoduses in history, one that shaped Miami for years to come and arguably played a part in his reelection defeat: the Mariel boatlift.

Between April and October of 1980, about 125,000 Cubans came to South ...Read more

Jimmy Carter’s lasting Cold War legacy: His human rights focus helped dismantle the Soviet Union

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Former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Dec. 29, 2024, at age 100 at his home in Plains, Georgia, was a dark horse Democratic presidential candidate with little national recognition when he beat Republican incumbent Gerald Ford in 1976.

The introspective former peanut farmer pledged a new era of honesty and forthrightness at home ...Read more

Alex Brandon/Pool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Jimmy Carter, who built a humanitarian legacy after presidency marked by crises, dies at 100

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Jimmy Carter, the longest living former president, whose term was marred by the Iran hostage crisis and rampant inflation but who went on to build a humanitarian legacy that was recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize, died Sunday. He was 100.

No cause was announced. In February 2023 he entered hospice care.

The peanut farmer from Georgia was a ...Read more

Scott Cunningham/Getty Images North America/TNS

Carter's presidency started well, but stalled amid challenges

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The summer of 1979 featured disco in the nightclubs, “Saturday Night Fever” on the radio, and long lines at the gas pumps, where prices were high and supply was short.

High unemployment, inflation and the energy crisis engendered by foreign oil producers crippled the country. The 444 days of the crisis when a newly revolutionary Iran took ...Read more