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Katy Kildee/The Detroit News/TNS

Michigan House OKs bills barring biological male athletes from competing in women's sports

Current News / News & Features /

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan House voted largely along party lines Thursday on legislation prohibiting biological male athletes from participating in women's sports and amending the state's civil rights law to stop lawsuits challenging its enforcement.

The Republican-controlled House passed the first bill 58-46 along party lines, while the ...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

'I did what he asked me to do:' Diddy's former fixer reveals unusual job expectations

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A former assistant for Sean “Diddy” Combs took the stand in the rapper’s NYC sex trafficking trial on Wednesday, with a harrowing story to tell.

George Kaplan testified that he was a fixer of sorts for Combs for 15 months from 2013 to 2015, with a salary of $125,000. His job description entailed everything from the mundane to the shocking...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Medical aid-in-dying group sues Colorado over state law's residency requirement

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DENVER — A group supporting medical aid-in-dying sued Colorado on Thursday, alleging the state’s ban on assisting out-of-state residents in ending their lives violates the U.S. Constitution.

Compassion & Choices filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver on behalf of a Minnesota resident with stage 4 cancer and two Colorado ...Read more

Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Rep. Glenn Ivey flying to El Salvador for 'wellness check' on Abrego Garcia

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WASHINGTON — Rep. Glenn Ivey will fly to El Salvador this weekend and try to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration.

“The overall goal obviously is to have continued pressure on the Trump administration,” Ivey, a Prince George’s County Democrat, told The Baltimore ...Read more

Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images North America/TNS N

What government programs should be slashed? NASA nears top of list, poll finds

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So much for shooting for the moon.

Most Americans are on board with slashing space exploration funding in order to rein in federal spending, according to new polling.

In the latest Marquette Law School Poll, 63% of respondents said they would be willing to reduce spending on NASA and its space program to shrink the federal budget deficit. ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Sherri Papini walks back kidnapping hoax claim, says she was abducted by ex-boyfriend

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Sherri Papini is walking back claims her kidnapping was a hoax in a new documentary series, saying instead that she was abducted by her ex-boyfriend and that she later lied about it out of fear.

“Haven’t you ever lied?” she asks. “Have you ever lied in your history of existence? And then has that lie been blown up and broadcast around ...Read more

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images North America/TNS

Minneapolis officials' pledge to keep terms of federal consent decree comes with accountability worry

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Elected officials in Minneapolis say they won’t let President Donald Trump explode five years of police reform efforts.

After the Justice Department asked a judge to dissolve the Police Department’s consent decree this week, Mayor Jacob Frey gathered with police and City Council leadership in a unified pledge to continue to enact the ...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Former L.A. deputy mayor who reported fake anti-Israel bomb threat strikes plea deal

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LOS ANGELES — A former senior member of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ staff has struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors, admitting he called in a fake bomb threat to City Hall late last year that was blamed on anti-Israel sentiment, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Brian Williams, a ...Read more

Calamityjohn/Dreamstime/TNS

Mint orders last batch of pennies after Trump nixes one-cent coin

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The U.S. Mint on Thursday said it has ordered the last batch of pennies after President Donald Trump ordered the elimination of the little-loved one-cent coin.

With the cost of producing a single penny already skyrocketing to about 4 cents, Trump in February ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who oversees the mint, to stop making new ...Read more

Amy Sussman/Getty Images North America/TNS

Jussie Smollett pays $50,000 to charity to settle hate crime hoax lawsuit

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Former “Empire” star Jussie Smollett will reportedly donate $50,000 to charity to resolve the city of Chicago’s lawsuit against the actor, who prompted a hate crime investigation with a fabricated claim he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack.

A judge still needs to sign off on the agreement to finally end a standoff that ...Read more

ABACA/Abaca via ZUMA Press/TNS

'Act of terror': Israeli Embassy workers killed in D.C. were at Gaza aid event

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After gunfire erupted outside a humanitarian aid event for Gaza at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington late Wednesday, Yoni Kalin and his wife, JoJo, watched as museum security rushed attendees away from the doors and others who had just left came tumbling back in.

Among those who came in, Kalin said, was a man who appeared agitated, who ...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

Kid Cudi tells NYC jury his Porsche was blown up after Sean 'Diddy' Combs threatened him

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NEW YORK — Kid Cudi took the witness stand at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Manhattan sex trafficking trial Thursday, telling a jury about how his Hollywood Hills home was burgled and his Porsche was torched in his driveway after the hip-hop mogul learned he was dating Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.

On the stand in Manhattan federal court, the �...Read more

Kelvin Kuo/Los Angeles Times/TNS

At least 3 die on plane that crashed into San Diego neighborhood, leaving 'gigantic debris field'

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SAN DIEGO — A private jet flying in dense fog crashed into a San Diego neighborhood early Thursday morning, killing at least three and sparking intense flames that scorched several homes, mangled dozens of vehicles, and forced almost 100 people to evacuate.

The only people known to have died in the crash were aboard the aircraft, which ...Read more

Jennifer Russell/Dreamstime.com/TNS

Girls confined to 'box' if they fought sex abuse at Florida youth center, lawsuit says

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Of multiple employees accused of sexual abuse at a now-closed Florida juvenile justice center, a lawsuit brought by five survivors says one staffer had girls who objected to abuse, or threatened to expose it, confined to what was nicknamed the “box.”

The small, cement room was used as a form of punishment at the former Milton Girls Juvenile...Read more

Kelvin Kuo/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Music agent Dave Shapiro and ex-Devil Wears Prada drummer believed to have died in San Diego plane crash

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SAN DIEGO — Tributes were pouring in across social media Thursday for music agent Dave Shapiro and drummer Daniel Williams, who were both believed to be involved in the deadly plane crash in a Murphy Canyon neighborhood.

Shapiro was the owner of an Alaska-based company that operated the Cessna Citation II that crashed in a military housing ...Read more

Sophie Park/Getty Images North America/TNS

US bans Harvard from enrolling foreigners, forcing transfers

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration blocked Harvard University from enrolling international students, delivering a major blow to the school and escalating its fight with elite colleges to unprecedented levels.

The U.S. revoked Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, meaning foreign students can no longer attend the ...Read more

Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

DeSantis signs bill prohibiting golf, hotels on Florida state parks

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Thursday to prohibit the building of golf courses, hotels and other amenities on state park land, putting an end to a nearly yearlong controversy that united the state in support of public lands.

The Florida Senate website showed the bill, House Bill 209, called the “State Park ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Groups file lawsuit to undo Justice Department grant terminations

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Five organizations filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department seeking to reverse the termination of a swath of department grant funding last month, arguing the decisions were unlawful and unconstitutional.

The complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which seeks class action status to cover other ...Read more

Ford Motor Co./Detroit Free Press/TNS

GAO finds DOT funding pause on electric vehicle charging illegal

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WASHINGTON — The Government Accountability Office said Thursday that the Transportation Department’s pause on funding for a Biden administration electric-vehicle charging program is illegal under the 1974 law restricting a president’s ability to block or “impound” money appropriated by Congress.

The determination is the GAO’s first ...Read more

Joe Cavaretta/Sun Sentinel/TNS

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, expert in disaster management, warns FEMA 'is going to fail' during hurricane season

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Congressman Jared Moskowitz issued a dire warning just days before the start of the Atlantic Hurricane season, predicting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency “is going to fail this summer.”

Moskowitz, D-Fla., delivered the ominous assessment to his colleagues during a House committee hearing. “I would tell you that the secretary ...Read more