BOSTON — If Tufts University calls on the police to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, students behind the movement say they’ll boycott commencement.

Roughly 320 undergraduate and graduate students set to receive their degrees later this month have sent a letter to university President Sunil Kumar urging Tufts to stay away ...Read more

The Arizona Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the state's 1864 abortion ban, sending a measure to the Democratic governor that would end weeks of turmoil and keep in place a 15-week abortion limit enacted in 2022.

In a testy and emotional session that included angry spats, a senator reading from the Bible and another playing a recording of his ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — A former adviser to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder intends to sue the attorney general, former solicitor general and the Wayne County prosecutor on allegations that the unsuccessful criminal case pursued against him stemming from the Flint water crisis amounted to malicious prosecution.

Richard Baird, who served as Snyder's ...Read more

BALTIMORE — With less than 24 hours remaining before early voting begins, Baltimore mayoral candidate Thiru Vignarajah withdrew his candidacy Wednesday and endorsed rival Sheila Dixon, potentially shifting votes on the eve of the election.

His late exit from the Democratic race is the first time Vignarajah, a repeat candidate for both mayor ...Read more

NEW YORK — Manhattan prosecutors on Wednesday told a judge they will retry disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein following the overturning of his rape and sexual assault conviction and will be ready for trial as soon as this fall.

The decision was announced by prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office at a hearing...Read more

NEW YORK — Over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested when an army of NYPD cops stormed Columbia University to end the seizure of a school building where all the doors had been barricaded with bicycle locks, officials said Wednesday.

Officers, some wielding chainsaws, climbed in through windows Tuesday night to enter Columbia’s ...Read more

NEW YORK — Cops including two high-ranking NYPD officials proudly hoisted an American flag — and a school worker pulled down and tossed away a Palestinian flag — after evicting protesters encamped at City College, video posted by the department shows.

Kaz Daughtry, the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner for Operations, posted the video early ...Read more

Mitt Romney says he resents being compared to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem after she bragged about killing a pet dog over its troublesome behavior.

The former Republican presidential standard-bearer insisted that he did nothing nearly so cruel as Noem by strapping a pet dog to the roof of his car, a much-mocked episode from his 2012 White ...Read more

President Biden ripped former President Trump over abortion on Wednesday, the same day a draconian ban went into effect in Florida.

Biden derided his White House rival for giving his blessing to Republican-run states that have enacted ever-stricter restrictions on abortion since the conservative Supreme Court rolled back the Roe v. Wade ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — University administrators canceled classes at UCLA on Wednesday, hours after violence broke out at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on campus.

Just before midnight, a large group of counterdemonstrators, wearing black outfits and white masks, arrived on campus and tried to tear down the barricades surrounding the encampment. ...Read more

MIAMI — Democrats and abortion-access advocates have been warning for months of an impending voter backlash against Republicans who backed Florida’s six-week ban on the procedure. Now, it’s time to find out whether they’re right or wrong.

The six-week ban, which was quietly signed into law last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, went into force...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she is ready to call for a vote to remove Mike Johnson as House speaker, even if it ultimately fails with Democrats’ help.

Greene, at times angry and cursing during a Wednesday morning news conference on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, said Johnson is a weak leader who has allowed the ...Read more

ATLANTA — Nine University of Georgia students were among the 16 people arrested Monday for trespassing at an Israel-Gaza protest on the university campus, according to the UGA police department.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported 10 students were arrested. However, one person was a UGA graduate, not a current student, ...Read more

There were tears, hugs, prayer and singing in Charlotte, North Carolina, after the United Methodist Church removed a line prohibiting the ordination of LGBTQ clergy that had been in place since 1984.

According to Unite Methodist News, delegates - without debate - voted 692 to 51 for the changes on the day’s consent calendar, which enabled the...Read more

NEW YORK — A city Department of Investigation probe of mayoral adviser Timothy Pearson has been expanded to include his role in NYPD personnel and promotional matters concerning officers involved in two lawsuits accusing him of sexual harassment and retaliation, the New York Daily News has learned.

DOI probers have asked the NYPD for a wide ...Read more

The White House announced Wednesday the approval of more than $6.1 billion in automatic student loan relief to nearly 317,000 borrowers who enrolled at any Art Institute campus between January 2004 through October 2017.

The U.S. Department of Education found that The Art Institutes and its parent company, Education Management Corporation, “...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In the midst of tense demonstrations at USC over the war in Gaza, officials found a swastika drawn on a campus fence.

"Clearly it was drawn there just to incite even more anger at a time that is so painful for our community," USC President Carol Folt wrote in a statement on Instagram. "I condemn any antisemitic symbols or any ...Read more

When its six-week abortion ban went into effect on May 1, 2024, Florida joined nearly two dozen other U.S. states that ban abortion or greatly restrict it.

These laws came into effect after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade ended nearly 50 years of the constitutional right to abortion in the United States....Read more