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Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Should dementia and other patients be able to choose death?

Current News / News & Features /

My grandfather would wipe down the walls of our kitchen — a flashback to his busboy days in New York after arriving from Italy in 1920 — then suddenly rocket from past to present. He’d stare in horror at the rag in his hands, then at us. His face would collapse. He’d cry.

Alzheimer’s is a brain disorder known to slowly destroy memory,...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Supreme Court OKs Trump's mass layoffs of federal employees across more than a dozen agencies

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The Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for the Trump administration to lay off tens of thousands of federal employees and downsize their agencies without seeking the approval of Congress.

In an 8-1 vote, the justices lifted an order from a federal judge in San Francisco who blocked mass layoffs at more than 20 departments and agencies.

The ...Read more

Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America/TNS

No alerts heard in deadly Texas flash flood as 161 still missing

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In the early hours of July 4, the only sound many of the vacationers along the banks of the Guadalupe River would have heard was pounding rain and thunder. They didn’t get any official warning of the rapidly rising waters that ultimately proved deadly to dozens of people swept away in central Texas flash floods.

Investigators sorting through ...Read more

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/AFP/TNS

Trump says he's weighing a federal takeover of Washington, DC

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said his administration is weighing whether to take control of the city of Washington, D.C., to help combat crime, in a move that would represent a dramatic upheaval to the capital’s half-century of home rule.

“We could run D.C. I mean, we’re looking at D.C.,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting ...Read more

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images North America/TNS

Lawmakers applaud resumption of US military aid to Ukraine

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Defense-minded lawmakers from both parties on Tuesday welcomed the news that the U.S. is resuming the delivery of military aid to Ukraine, following a pause that dismayed Kyiv and its Hill advocates alike.

The reactions came a day after President Donald Trump announced at the White House that the United States would send more “defensive ...Read more

Mark David Smith/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS

What we know about Prairieland, the Texas ICE detention center where officers were ambushed on July 4

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Tensions over the federal government’s immigration agenda erupted into violence 25 miles from downtown Fort Worth, Texas, last week.

A group of 10 to 12 people ambushed corrections and police officers outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, creating a distraction with fireworks and graffiti before firing upon ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump says Powell should 'resign immediately' if he misled Congress

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President Donald Trump said Jerome Powell should “resign immediately” if allegations from an administration official that the Federal Reserve chair misled lawmakers prove true, while deepening his personal attacks against the head of the central bank over interest rate policy.

Trump, speaking in a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, called Powell “...Read more

State of Minnesota/State of Minnesota/TNS

Couple pleads guilty to conspiring to commit voter registration fraud in Minnesota

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A couple charged in a conspiracy to commit election fraud has pleaded guilty to filling out hundreds of voter applications with fictitious identities that were submitted to county election offices in Minnesota.

Ronnie Williams, 58, of Nevada and formerly of Minnesota, was convicted Tuesday of conspiracy to engage in voter registration fraud in ...Read more

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/AFP/TNS

Trump lashes out at reporter for asking about Epstein 'client list'

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President Donald Trump angrily tried to shut down a reporter who inquired about disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.

The president’s reaction on Tuesday did little to quell the curiosity of critics who continue to ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Michelin-starred sushi, $2,500-a-seat dinners: Vice President Vance wraps up San Diego visit

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Vice President JD Vance spent the holiday weekend in San Diego, drawing protesters outside a high-end sushi restaurant Sunday evening a day after he was honored at a $2,500-a-seat dinner hosted by a conservative think tank.

According to The New York Times, Vance was also set to attend a fundraising roundtable in the San Diego area on Monday, ...Read more

Al Diaz/Miami Herald/TNS

Giant bugs, heat and a hospitalization: Inside Alligator Alcatraz's first days

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The calls from Alligator Alcatraz’s first detainees brought distressing news: Toilets that didn’t flush. Temperatures that went from freezing to sweltering. A hospitalization. Giant bugs. And little or no access to showers or toothbrushes, much less confidential calls with attorneys.

The stories, relayed to the Miami Herald by the wives of ...Read more

News briefs

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Rubio imposter used AI, Signal to contact foreign officials

WASHINGTON — Someone pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio used AI-generated voice technology and a fake Signal account to contact foreign officials and at least one member of Congress, the latest case of impostors mimicking senior U.S. officials.

A State Department cable ...Read more

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/AFP/TNS

Analysis: Trump slams Putin, touts self-made tariff deals and muses on gold leaf

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WASHINGTON — The White House has been in spike-the-football mode since President Donald Trump signed his sweeping tax and domestic policy agenda into law. But the jubilation was interrupted Tuesday as the president and his Cabinet members faced questions on the administration’s trade policy and response to deadly Texas floods.

The ...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

UN agencies in dire straits amid threatened US funding cuts

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If Congress this month approves the White House’s request to cancel $1 billion in federal funding for the United Nations system, experts say it will further exacerbate an already crisis-level financial shortfall for the global intergovernmental organization that the U.S. worked over decades to sustain.

The Trump administration included $1 ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Supreme Court lets Trump proceed with broad workforce cuts

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The U.S. Supreme Court let President Donald Trump move ahead with plans to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government, lifting a court order that had blocked 19 federal departments and agencies from slashing their workforces.

Granting a Trump request over one dissent, the justices on Tuesday cleared the administration to implement ...Read more

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump vows no tariff extension, hardens threats on copper, drugs

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President Donald Trump vowed to push forward with his aggressive tariff regime in the coming days, stressing he would not offer additional extensions on country-specific levies set to now hit in early August while indicating he could announce substantial new rates on imports of copper and pharmaceuticals.

The posturing on social media and at a...Read more

Shanna Madison/Chicago Tribune/TNS

State fines, reprimands Illinois abortion doctor accused of leaving half a fetus inside Indiana patient

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CHICAGO — A Champaign abortion provider accused in a lawsuit of perforating a patient’s uterus and leaving half a fetus inside her body has been reprimanded and fined in connection with that case by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, according to records obtained by the Tribune.

Dr. Keith Reisinger-Kindle of ...Read more

National Hurricane Center/National Hurricane Center/TNS

Chantal brought flooding and tornadoes to central North Carolina

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RALEIGH, N.C. — By the time Chantal had reached central North Carolina on Sunday, July 6, it had already been downgraded to a tropical depression.

The storm, which made landfall Sunday in South Carolina as a tropical storm, brought heavy rain to central North Carolina, with areas in Alamance, Orange, Durham and Chatham counties seeing the ...Read more

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images North America/TNS

Tax break for electric vehicles is ending. How does that impact drivers?

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The tax break of up to $7,500 on new or leased electric vehicles, as well as the $4,000 credit for used EVs, will be gone after Sept. 30.

To clean energy advocates around the country, that means consumers will pay more and the environment will suffer.

The credit for used EVs in particular is a “lost opportunity to reduce transportation ...Read more

Chris Christo/Boston Herald/TNS

Antisemitism in Massachusetts K-12 schools is a 'pervasive and escalating problem': State commission

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Antisemitism is a “pervasive and escalating problem” in local K-12 schools, according to a Bay State commission that’s issuing recommendations for districts to address the growing issue.

The Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism is out with its initial findings and recommendations when it comes to K-12 education in ...Read more