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Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS

A court ruling that let teachers tell parents about a child's 'gender incongruity' is paused

Current News / News & Features /

A court order giving California teachers full freedom to tell parents about their child's gender identity at school is on hold after an appellate panel blocked it from going into immediate effect.

Had the three-member panel not acted, the ruling, by a federal district judge, would have required immediate changes to policies at hundreds of ...Read more

JIM WATSON/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Trump says Venezuela to send US up to 50 million barrels of oil

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Venezuela would send the United States as much as 50 million barrels of oil, declaring it would be sold with the proceeds to benefit both countries.

“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned ...Read more

JIM WATSON/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Trump says Venezuela will 'turn over' up to 50 million barrels of oil to US

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President Donald Trump said Tuesday evening that Venezuela’s interim authorities have agreed to turn over between 30 million and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States, an unexpected sign of the rapidly evolving relationship between Washington and the Caracas socialist leadership.

It was not immediately clear which Venezuelan entities...Read more

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images North America/TNS

Minnesota Republican lawmakers to testify on fraud before U.S. House panel

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Three Republican members of the Minnesota House are set to testify Wednesday morning before the U.S. House Oversight Committee for a hearing on fraud and misuse of federal funds.

Rep. Kirstin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, the chair of Minnesota’s Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee and a Republican candidate for governor in 2026, ...Read more

Handout/Dominican Republic Customs/TNS

They shipped high-powered ammo, guns to Haiti from Miami, federal prosecutors say

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Months after authorities in the Dominican Republic intercepted a Haiti-bound cache of ammunition and firearms, including a high-powered military-grade machine gun, three Floridians are now facing federal charges for their alleged roles in the trafficking scheme.

Francesca Charles, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and brothers Jacques Pierre, 32,...Read more

Mandel Ngan/Getty Images North America/TNS

California judge weighs whether First Amendment lawsuit against Trump officials can proceed

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — Lawyers clashed Tuesday in a federal courtroom in San Jose over whether student newspaper The Stanford Daily can proceed with a First Amendment lawsuit alleging the Trump administration used immigration law to punish student speech — a case that could set a legal precedent for the constitutional rights of noncitizen ...Read more

News briefs

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Classified Venezuela briefings precede likely war powers vote

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders, emerging Monday from a classified briefing on Venezuela, offered sharply contrasting takes on both the president’s odds of overhauling that country’s government and whether leaving Congress out of the decision to strike was constitutional.

...Read more

LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump won't rule out military force to acquire Greenland

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump won’t rule out the use of military force to acquire Greenland, the White House said, ramping up tension with fellow NATO member Denmark over a dispute that’s surged back into public view following the ouster of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.

Trump is considering many ways of achieving his goal of ...Read more

Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

As Mayor Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Tisch tout drops in city's crime, unclear how their policy differences will play out

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NEW YORK — As NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Tuesday announced the city just saw its safest year since the department began keeping modern-day crime stats in 1994, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, standing by her side, didn’t address how he will fulfill campaign promises to reform policing.

Tisch and Mamdani appeared together at NYPD headquarers ...Read more

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

NC Sen. Thom Tillis pushes to hang plaque in Capitol honoring Jan. 6 law enforcement

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WASHINGTON — North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis announced a plan Tuesday afternoon to ensure that a plaque is hung in the U.S. Capitol to honor the law enforcement who responded to the attack on the building on Jan. 6, 2021.

The plaque has already been created. It was commissioned by Congress in March 2022 in an appropriations bill ...Read more

Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Minnesota queer legislators, advocates band together to protect gender-affirming care

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A flurry of federal actions in President Donald Trump’s second term has transgender Minnesotans wondering whether they will continue to exist in public life.

Rollbacks on the liberties of transgender people have been a hallmark of Trump 2.0 since day one, when Trump issued an executive order declaring that the policy of the United States is ...Read more

Bethany Mollenkof/Los Angeles Times/TNS

What Trump's vow to withhold federal childcare funding means in California

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Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state Democratic leaders accused President Trump of unleashing a political vendetta after he announced plans to freeze roughly $10 billion in federal funding for child care and social services programs in California and four other Democrat-controlled states.

Trump justified the action in comments posted on his social...Read more

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS

Massachusetts deaths from flu rises to four children, with two Boston deaths under two years old

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Boston reported two children have died related to the flu this season Tuesday, the first pediatric flu-associated deaths in the city since 2013, bringing total related deaths Massachusetts children up to four.

“We’ve noted a dramatic increase in flu cases in Boston, particularly among children, and we are very concerned about the severity ...Read more

Mandel Ngan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump warns he'll be impeached if Republicans lose midterms

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump implored Republicans to turn around their political fortunes ahead of November’s midterm elections, warning that if Democrats retake control of Congress, he would be impeached for a third time.

“You got to win the midterms,” Trump said Tuesday at a retreat for the party’s House caucus in Washington....Read more

GIORGIO VIERA/AFP/Getty images North America/TNS

CIA advised Trump against supporting Venezuela's democratic opposition

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WASHINGTON — A highly confidential CIA assessment produced at the request of the White House warned President Donald Trump of a wider conflict in Venezuela if he were to support the country's democratic opposition once its president, Nicolás Maduro, was deposed, a person familiar with the matter told the Los Angeles Times.

The assessment was...Read more

Rhode Island Attorney General's Office/TNS

Brown University mass shooter, MIT professor killer said he didn't regret slayings: 'To hell with you'

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The man who murdered Brown University students and an MIT professor showed no remorse after going on the killing spree, according to the feds who found his hideout videos before he took his own life.

Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente — the Portuguese national who shot and killed students in Providence, R.I., before gunning down an MIT professor in...Read more

Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/Irfan Khan

LA sees lowest homicide rate in decades -- but why killings are down is up for debate

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LOS ANGELES — The city of Los Angeles just recorded its lowest homicide total in more than half a century, mirroring precipitous drops in many other large cities nationwide last year — and sparking a range of theories about what’s going on.

According to tentative numbers reported by the LAPD through Dec. 31, the city tallied 230 homicides...Read more

Miami Herald/Miami Herald/TNS

Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who rebuked homosexuality, sued for sexual abuse by male assistant

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Donnie McClurkin, the Grammy-winning gospel singer and minister who has publicly denounced homosexuality, has been sued for sexually abusing his former male personal assistant.

McClurkin, 66, faces allegations of sexual assault, sexual battery and more in the civil lawsuit filed Friday in New York County Supreme Court. The singer's accuser, ...Read more

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey faces backlash for embattled aide LaMar Cook's $31,000 contract buyout

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BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is facing backlash after the Boston Herald reported that her embattled former aide, LaMar Cook, had been paid over $31,000 in a contract buyout after he was fired for his arrest on cocaine trafficking charges.

As part of the ‘Your Tax Dollars at Work’ series, the Herald reported Monday that Cook was paid a total...Read more

Courtesy Kentucky General Assembly/TNS/TNS

KY Republican lawmaker files anti-DEI legislation for K-12 public schools

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A bill filed by a Republican state senator on the first day of 2026 General Assembly attempts to ban diversity, equity and inclusion practices in Kentucky’s K-12 public schools.

Senate Bill 26 filed by Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, would apply to the Kentucky Department of Education, school districts and public schools.

According to ...Read more