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Rosie Manins/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Houston County loses appeal in deputy's trans surgery case

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ATLANTA — A ruling that Houston County and its sheriff violated federal law by refusing to provide health care coverage for a deputy’s gender transition surgery has been upheld by the Atlanta-based federal appeals court.

Sgt. Anna Lange, a transgender woman who has worked for the Houston County Sheriff’s Office since 2006, said her court ...Read more

Arvin Temkar/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Federal court hears Georgia's Cobb school district appeal in map lawsuit

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ATLANTA — The lawsuit over the Cobb County School Board electoral district map made its way to federal appeals court Tuesday, after the school district appealed a lower court’s ruling that the map likely violated federal law.

In 2022, voting rights groups filed suit against the Cobb Board of Elections, alleging the school board and state ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Ex-Marine from NJ arrested for threatening to kill white people in mass shooting

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A former Marine from New Jersey has been arrested for threatening in violent social media screeds to slaughter “as many” white people as possible, federal prosecutors announced.

Joshua Cobb of Trenton, who is Black, is facing one count of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce, according to a statement issued Monday by the...Read more

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

16 year old charged as adult in Florida shooting

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ORLANDO, Fla. — A Daytona Beach teen accused of firing gunshots last month into a crowd during a brawl at a late-night party at Cabana Live in Sanford will be tried as an adult and faces life in prison.

Ten people were reported injured in the April 28 melee, including Houston Texans wide receiver Tank Dell, before a security guard tackled and...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

NASA announces another delay to Boeing Starliner launch

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The first crewed flight for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will have to wait a little bit longer but is still targeting a May launch. The mission is now slated for no earlier than May 21 at 4:43 p.m, NASA revealed Tuesday.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were sitting in the capsule last week atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Gavin Newsom wants California cities to plan housing for homeless -- without enough money to fund it

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is sponsoring a bill that would push cities to take homeless residents into account when crafting their housing goals.

But would this legislation actually result in more affordable housing? There are concerns the state is not providing enough money to get it built.

Cities have struggled to ...Read more

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS

Boston Mayor Wu plans to take her children to taxpayer-funded Vatican climate summit

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BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said she’s bringing her children to a climate summit she and the governor are attending in Italy this week on the taxpayers’ dime.

Wu’s office sent an itinerary Monday of the mayor’s six-day trip, which begins Tuesday and includes mention of a stop her two sons will be partaking in that ties back to ...Read more

MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

House Speaker Mike Johnson, more Trump loyalists appear at NYC hush money trial to show support

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NEW YORK — House Speaker Mike Johnson and a legion of Donald Trump loyalists appeared Tuesday at the former president’s hush money criminal trial as Trump nemesis Michael Cohen took the stand for a second day.

The conservative congressional leader trashed the trial as a partisan stunt to hurt Trump’s campaign in a brief statement to ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Gov. Jared Polis has signed three more Colorado housing reform bills into law. Here's what they will do

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DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed two marquee land-use reform bills into law Monday, clearing the way for the building of more accessory-dwelling units and denser development in cities and suburbs across the Front Range.

“The success of this bill will be measured in years,” Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Denver Democrat who sponsored the ...Read more

5 years after fatal encounter, jury to hear murder case against Washington cop

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SEATTLE — The evening of May 31, 2019, a troubled 26-year-old man and an Auburn police officer with a violent history came together in a fateful, fatal 67-second encounter outside a neighborhood market.

Now, five years later, a King County jury this week will begin hearing testimony — expected to last at least a month — to decide whether ...Read more

Wildfire smoke is back – fires burning across Canada are already triggering US air quality alerts in the Midwest and Plains

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Dozens of wildfires are burning across Canada in May 2024 and sending unhealthy smoke blowing into the northern U.S. again. At the same time, the southeastern U.S. is getting smoke from Mexico, where drought conditions have been fueling fires.

Last year, Canada’s record 2023 wildfire season introduced millions of Americans across ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Hepatitis A spreading among Los Angeles homeless population, health officials say

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LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is investigating an outbreak of the highly contagious liver disease hepatitis A among its homeless population.

Health officials said five cases of hepatitis A have been reported since mid-March among people experiencing homelessness. The virus, which can spread among people even...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images of North America/TNS

Michael Cohen testifies he discussed hush money reimbursements with Trump at the White House

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NEW YORK — Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s loyal lawyer-turned-chief antagonist, told a jury Tuesday he discussed hush money reimbursement with Trump at the White House upon returning to the witness box at his Manhattan trial Tuesday.

Cohen testified that he discussed the reimbursement payments with the then-president during a visit to the ...Read more

MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

House Speaker Mike Johnson visits Trump trial to criticize hush money prosecution

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Speaker Mike Johnson joined a cavalcade of top Republicans defending former President Donald Trump on Tuesday amid his New York criminal trial focused on hush money payments over an alleged affair in the leadup to the 2016 election.

Johnson’s appearance outside the Manhattan courthouse, where he criticized the criminal case as a partisan ...Read more

Prosecutor opposes bill to help moms whose babies are born with drugs in system

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CHICAGO — A proposal to change the way Illinois handles new mothers with drug-use disorders is meant to prioritize treatment, but it has prompted “grave concerns” from a prosecutor who oversaw one infamous case.

A bill in Springfield would end the requirement that prosecutors be notified when a baby is born with controlled substances in ...Read more

Israel, Hamas talks in limbo after Rafah move, says Qatar PM

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Cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas have reached an impasse following the Jewish state’s ground offensive on the outskirts of the Gazan city of Rafah, according to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Over the past few weeks, “we have seen some momentum building but unfortunately things didn’t move in the...Read more

Zelenskyy asks Blinken for Patriot air defenses for Kharkiv

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to allies to provide Ukraine with air-defense batteries to shield its second-biggest city as Russia launched a large-scale offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

“We need, today, two Patriots for Kharkiv,” Zelenskyy told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a meeting in Kyiv, referring to ...Read more

Russia detains second Defense Ministry official in bribery case

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Russia detained another top Defense Ministry official on bribery allegations, the second case in less than a month as President Vladimir Putin shakes up his military leadership.

The head of the ministry’s personnel department, Yuri Kuznetsov, is accused of accepting a large bribe from a group of business people in return for favors, Russia�...Read more

Wars cause widespread pollution and environmental damage − here’s how to address it in peace accords

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As wars grind on in Ukraine and Gaza, another location ravaged by conflict is taking steps to implement a historic peace agreement. From the mid-1960s through 2016, Colombia was torn by conflict between the government, leftist guerrilla movements and right-wing paramilitary groups. Now the government and rebels are working to carry out a ...Read more

Vatican conference on ‘climate resilience’ is the latest in a long line of environment initiatives by Pope Francis and the Catholic Church – 5 essential reads

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From May 15-17, 2024, American leaders including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy will be attending a global conference on environmental issues. The host? The Vatican.

The summit, “From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience,” will focus on human adaptation, not just trying to mitigate climate change. ...Read more