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Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

UnitedHealth Group spent $1.6 million on executive security last year

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MINNEAPOLIS — UnitedHealth Group significantly upped spending on security for top corporate leaders last year with the Dec. 4 killing of health insurance executive Brian Thompson.

The Eden Prairie-based health care giant said it spent more than $1.6 million on security for five top executives last year, including CEO Andrew Witty, according ...Read more

Win McNamee/Getty Images North America/TNS

Ruling could give Kennedy more power over health care coverage

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WASHINGTON — A looming Supreme Court decision could result in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wielding more control over the body that recommends preventive health services insurers must fully cover — a possibility that alarms health advocates.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in Kennedy v. Braidwood ...Read more

Douglas R. Clifford/ZUMA Press Wire/TNS

The $10 million steered to Hope Florida charity by the state was Medicaid money, document shows

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The $10 million that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration diverted to a state-created charity last year consisted of Medicaid dollars owed to state and federal taxpayers, contrary to what the governor and other officials have publicly asserted.

Three years ago, lawyers working with the state drew up a settlement agreement ...Read more

Nathaniel Levine/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

California Gov. Gavin Newsom under fire for calling deported man's case a 'distraction'

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For almost a week, Gov. Gavin Newsom has come under fire from his fellow Democrats for dismissing the fervor around a wrongly deported Maryland man as a “distraction” while distancing himself from other Democrats who have sought to unify the party around the ongoing legal battle.

At a Wednesday news conference in ...Read more

Handout/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump administration invokes 'state secrets' as lawyers probe Abrego Garcia efforts

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Lawyers representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge for a hearing after they said Justice Department attorneys provided “nothing of substance” in response to requests for information on how the Trump administration is facilitating the mistakenly deported Maryland man’s return.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had not yet ...Read more

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Deliberations resume in Illinois state Sen. Emil Jones III bribery trial

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CHICAGO — Jurors on Tuesday resumed deliberations in the federal corruption trial of state Sen. Emil Jones III, after nine days in which prosecutors argued Jones had sold his power as a state senator for the promise of a $5,000 campaign contribution and a minimum wage job for his intern.

Jones’ defense attorneys argued that the South Side ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Colorado announces digital passport as part of state's 150th anniversary

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DENVER — Colorado has announced the launch of a digital passport as part of the state’s “America 250-Colorado 150” commemoration, allowing residents to access exclusive discounts and offers from a variety of local businesses, parks and landmarks.

The digital passport will soft-launch this summer with a full rollout planned for 2026, ...Read more

Salvadoran Government/Getty Images North America/TNS

Migrant's deportation from Georgia to El Salvador jail is 'a living nightmare'

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ATLANTA — After nine months of detention in a South Georgia immigrant jail, a Venezuelan father of two hoped to finally be deported to his homeland. Instead, he was flown to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, entering what his lawyers described as a “legal black hole.”

Edicson David Quintero Chacón is one of 238 Venezuelan ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Pete Hegseth claims attack plans shared with pals on Signal were 'informal'

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Tuesday claimed attack plans he shared with pals on a Signal group chat amounted to nothing more than “informal, unclassified” information.

The embattled Pentagon chief insisted he did nothing wrong by using his personal phone to share detailed plans for U.S. strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen with about a ...Read more

Some politicians who share harmful information are rewarded with more clicks, study finds

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What happens when politicians post false or toxic messages online? My team and I found evidence that suggests U.S. state legislators can increase or decrease their public visibility by sharing unverified claims or using uncivil language during times of high political tension. This raises questions about how social media platforms shape public...Read more

I study local government and Hurricane Helene forced me from my home − here’s how rural towns and counties in North Carolina and beyond cooperate to rebuild

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Last year was a record year for disasters in the United States. A new report from the British charity International Institute for Environment and Development finds that 90 disasters were declared nationwide in 2024, from wildfires in California to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.

The average number of annual disasters in the U.S. ...Read more

A warning for Democrats from the Gilded Age and the 1896 election

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More than five months after President Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris, Democrats are still trying to understand why they lost the election and the Senate majority – and how the party can regroup.

These concerns have only increased in the wake of Trump’s sustained activity at the start of his second term. The American public ...Read more

Habeas corpus: A thousand-year-old legal principle for defending rights that’s getting a workout under the Trump administration

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In some parts of the world, a person may be secreted away or imprisoned by the government without any advanced notification of wrongdoing or chance to make a defense. This has not been lawful in the United States from its very inception, or in many other countries where the rule of law and respect for individual civil rights are paramount....Read more

Stripping federal protection for clean water harms just about everyone, especially already vulnerable communities

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Before Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, U.S. factories and cities could pipe their pollution directly into waterways. Rivers, including the Potomac in Washington, smelled of raw sewage and contained toxic chemicals. Ohio’s Cuyahoga River was so contaminated, its oil slicks erupted in flames.

That unchecked pollution didn...Read more

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Southeast Asians in LA region are being detained, deported at routine ICE check-ins

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LOS ANGELES — A growing number of Southeast Asian immigrants in Los Angeles and Orange counties whose deportation orders have been on indefinite hold for years are being detained, and in some cases, deported after showing up for routine check-ins at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices, according to immigrant attorneys and advocacy...Read more

Kenny Holston/Getty Images AsiaPac/TNS

Vance calls for closer US-India ties as trade talks progress

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Vice President JD Vance pushed for stronger ties between the U.S. and India across a range of areas from energy to defense, in remarks delivered during a four-day trip to the South Asian country that brought the two nations closer to a trade deal.

“This is very much a win-win partnership,” Vance said in Jaipur on Tuesday. “The future of ...Read more

Jim Watson/Getty Images North America/TNS

Federal court rulings have slowed down Trump deportation plans. What you need to know

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A flurry of recent federal court rulings have stalled, for the moment, the Trump administration’s efforts to deport as many as one million undocumented migrants this year, as judges increasingly determine that individuals cannot be removed from the country without due process.

Some of the most significant decisions have centered on the ...Read more

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

A 'calamity waiting to unfold': Altadena residents with standing homes fear long-term health effects

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LOS ANGELES — On Jan. 7, two residents on opposite sides of Altadena — Francois Tissot, a Caltech professor who studies the geology of ancient Earth and our solar system, living in the east side of town; and Jane Potelle, an environmental advocate living in the west side — fled the intensifying red glow of the devastating Eaton fire.

The ...Read more

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Why some Georgia immigrants self-deport: 'I'm not going to live in fear'

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ATLANTA — At the start of 2025, Ataulfo was living in Gwinnett County, where a job in landscaping made him feel on track toward achieving his version of the American dream.

Now, Ataulfo is back in Guatemala, picking beans and corn for sustenance and confronted every day by the poverty he tried leaving behind six years ago when he crossed ...Read more

Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America/TNS

States that enshrined Medicaid expansion in their constitutions could be in a bind

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As Republicans in Congress consider cutting the federal share of Medicaid funding, states are weighing numerous options to scale back their programs. But voters in three states have significantly limited those options by enshrining Medicaid expansion in their constitutions — creating a potential budget disaster and a political challenge for ...Read more