For Celeste Michael, the transgender community is being used as a pawn in Missouri’s push to ban abortion.

When the 23-year-old went to vote in Lee’s Summit last November, signs outside her polling place falsely claimed an abortion rights amendment would legalize transgender surgeries for minors. Nearly 52% of voters approved the measure, ...Read more

Gov. Mike Kehoe on Thursday signed a bill into law repealing Missouri workers’ paid sick leave protections that voters overwhelmingly supported in November.

The rollback of Proposition A, which nearly 58% of voters favored, is the latest example of Missouri officials relitigating and undermining seemingly progressive policies enacted at the ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams took a shot Thursday at the lawyer representing four retired NYPD chiefs suing him and senior department officials over allegations of cronyism and corruption, claiming her ongoing criticism of him raises questions about the accusations.

Adams, who declined to address the substance of the ex-chiefs’ damning ...Read more

The Archbishop of Miami has some strong words about Florida’s new detention center for migrants in the Everglades.

In a statement posted to the Archdiocese of Miami website, Archbishop Thomas Wenski condemned Alligator Alcatraz, calling it “alarming” and “unbecoming of public officials.”

“It is alarming to see enforcement tactics ...Read more

ATLANTA – Georgia disability rights advocates are sounding the alarm about a change the U.S. Department of Energy is quietly trying to institute to a decades-old disability rights law.

The DOE is utilizing a rarely used process to try to rescind a building accessibility regulation for new construction funded by the agency. Though the DOE ...Read more

ATLANTA - President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill shifts a greater share of the financial burden of managing food assistance programs onto states, which means Georgia will have to either cut back on some programs or pay a larger share.

One potential target for cuts are free and reduced-price school meals, a program that ...Read more

MIAMI — With Miami-Dade County’s government facing a budget deficit of more than $400 million in 2026, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is considering historic spending cuts, as well as increases in transit fares, tolls and a sales tax on gasoline, according to multiple sources briefed on recent versions of the spending blueprint.

In private ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Budget cuts, staff reductions and other sweeping changes from the federal government are posing real threats to California’s environment and progress against climate change, state officials said Thursday.

At a gathering of the state’s top leaders in wildfire response, water resources, natural lands and clean energy, they ...Read more

President Donald Trump headed to Texas on Friday to survey the devastation from the July 4 flooding catastrophe as the death toll rose to at least 121 and questions swirl over glaring failures in the disaster preparedness plans.

As the commander-in-chief and First Lady Melania Trump get a firsthand look at the damage and recovery effort, Trump ...Read more

The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information about a person who appeared to “fire a gun” at ICE agents amid demonstrations in Southern California this week.

The alleged shooting unfolded on Thursday as federal officers raided a large cannabis farm in Camarillo, where they clashed with local activists blocking their access to the ...Read more

The Kurdish militant group PKK started laying down its weapons, marking the beginning of a disarmament process aimed at ending one of the Middle East’s longest-running insurgencies.

A group of 30 fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party burned their weapons at a ceremony in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region attended by observers ...Read more

President Donald Trump threatened a 35% tariff on some Canadian goods and raised the prospect of increasing levies on most other countries, ramping up his trade rhetoric in comments that weighed on stocks and boosted the U.S. dollar.

The tariff level on Canada would take effect from Aug. 1, the president said. The announced rate is an increase ...Read more

DENVER — Despite congressional Republicans’ stated intention to “defund” Planned Parenthood, the reproductive-health nonprofit expects to hold on in Colorado — though about 5,000 people who received primary care at its clinics will need to find new doctors.

H.R. 1, the GOP-backed tax-and-spending law previously known as the One Big ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The mass casualty event in Penn North that saw at least 25 people hospitalized on Thursday underscored the persistence of Baltimore’s overdose crisis, despite a recent drop citywide.

In 2025, overdoses in the city continue to decline after a significant drop last year, with most cases related to mounting fentanyl use, according ...Read more

GREENBELT, Md. — The family of mistakenly-deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia sought again during a hearing Friday to return him to Maryland, as his attorneys hoped a judge would help prevent him from being quickly deported for a second time.

Trump administration officials have said they plan to send the sheet metal worker to a not-yet-identified �...Read more

North Korea is now supplying as much as 40% of Russia’s ammunition for the war in Ukraine as the partnership between Pyongyang and Moscow deepens, according to the head of Ukrainian military intelligence.

Kim Jong Un’s regime is also sending other weapons to Russia, including ballistic missiles and artillery systems, Kyrylo Budanov said in...Read more

President Donald Trump threatened a 35% tariff on some Canadian goods and raised the prospect of increasing levies on most other countries, ramping up his trade rhetoric in comments that weighed on stocks and boosted the U.S. dollar.

The tariff level on Canada would take effect from Aug. 1, the president said. The announced rate is an increase ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Public health advocates won a big case in the Supreme Court on the last day of this year's term, but the victory came with an asterisk.

The decision ended one threat to the no-cost preventive services — from cancer and diabetes screenings to statin drugs and vaccines — used by more than 150 million Americans who have health ...Read more