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Why a Haitian social media influencer known for his sensational blogs is in ICE custody

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MIAMI — A popular Haitian social media blogger and influencer who often riled people with his controversial posts has been arrested on immigration fraud, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Hervé Laplante, the former host of a hit show “Pi lwen Ke Zye” on Tele Caraibes, who boasts tens of thousands of followers on ...Read more

Boston Herald/Boston Herald/TNS

Karen Read retrial jury sent home for weekend

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DEDHAM, Mass. — Jurors who will decide the fate of Karen Read were sent home for the weekend after not quite two hours of deliberation following closing arguments that echoed their openings now more than a month and a half ago.

Back then, the prosecution said the case of the Jan. 29, 2022, death of John O’Keefe, Read’s boyfriend and a ...Read more

Queens public defender arrested at Rikers Island jail with drug-soaked legal papers, law enforcement says

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NEW YORK — A public defender with a Queens nonprofit mired in controversy was hauled off in handcuffs after he was caught smuggling 130 sheets of suspected THC-soaked paper into a jail on Rikers Island, officials said Friday.

Bernardo Caceres, a lawyer with Queens Defenders, was visiting his client, burglary defendant Luis DeJesus, at the ...Read more

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Graffiti at night. Cleanup in the morning. The night-and-day difference in the LA protests

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LOS ANGELES — On Wednesday morning, the 18-year-old drove an hour from her home in Ontario to downtown Los Angeles to protest ongoing federal immigration raids and President Donald Trump’s deployment of the military to the city.

Gryphon Woodson, a new high school graduate, grabbed a pair of goggles and a black bandanna to cover her face. It...Read more

Leigh Vogel/Getty Images North America/TNS

Smithsonian museum director resigns 2 weeks after Trump said he fired her

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President Donald Trump got his way Friday, just not on his terms.

Two weeks after Trump said he fired the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery director, Kim Sajet, she stepped down of her own accord.

"It has been the honor of a lifetime to lead the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is ...Read more

Offshore drilling threat resurfaces along Georgia's coast

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SAVANNAH, Ga. ― Opening the Georgia coast to offshore drilling is again under consideration, and the public has until Monday to comment.

The federal agency that manages energy resources along the Outer Continental Shelf, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, is in the early stages of developing a schedule for offshore oil and gas leases that...Read more

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Survivors, families tour Pulse, but questions persist

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Laly Santiago-Leon sat on the floor inside the Pulse nightclub, the exact spot where her close cousin died with his partner in one of the nation’s worst mass shootings nine years ago.

“It helped with closure,” she said with tears on the ninth anniversary of the massacre. “But there will never be closure, but an ...Read more

Saba/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Covert actions key to Israel's strikes on Iran: Mossad

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JERUSALEM — The Israeli Air Force’s strikes in Iran were prefaced by a number of covert operations spearheaded by Israel’s spy agency, including building a drone base inside of Iran, an Israeli security official said Friday.

The new details showcasing the extent of Israeli Mossad commandos’ involvement in the campaign — gleaned from a...Read more

Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Judge finds ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan lied on witness stand as sentencing continues

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CHICAGO — A federal judge ruled Friday that former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan lied repeatedly and willfully on the witness stand when he testified in his own defense.

U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey made the finding as Madigan’s sentencing hearing got underway, listing a series of examples from the trial record where ...Read more

Jack Guez/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Iran retaliates against Israel's withering attack by launching missiles into Tel Aviv

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AMMAN, Jordan — Israel launched a punishing air campaign on Iran early Friday, killing some of the upper echelons of Iran’s military leadership along with destroying parts of its nuclear and military infrastructure in a compound operation involving warplanes and drones. The attacks constituted the most significant escalation between the ...Read more

Kansas Department of Revenue/Kansas Department of Revenue/TNS

Trans Kansans will be allowed to change gender on driver's licenses -- for now

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time in nearly two years, Kansans will be allowed to change the gender on their driver’s licenses and state identification cards.

In a ruling published Friday, the Kansas Court of Appeals reversed a district court judge’s injunction preventing the Department of Revenue from accommodating requests to change...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Thunderstorms could put damper on Trump's military parade

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Possible thunderstorms are in the forecast for around the time President Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C. military parade is scheduled to get underway Saturday. But marchers may catch a break.

The event honoring the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday, which also falls on Trump’s 79th birthday, is scheduled to hit its stride at 6:30 p.m. when tanks...Read more

Armin Karami/Getty Images North America/TNS

Israel attacks Iran's nuclear sites, kills senior commanders

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Israel launched strikes across Iran on Friday morning, targeting nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders in a major escalation against its chief adversary that risks sparking a broad war in the Middle East.

The strikes were far more extensive than those Israel carried out against Iran last year and underscored the country’s ...Read more

Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

Trump administration has no plans to release Mahmoud Khalil despite federal court ruling

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NEW YORK — NEW YORK — The Trump administration said Friday it does not plan to free recent Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil from a Louisiana detention center, despite missing a morning deadline to challenge his release in federal court.

New Jersey Federal Judge Michael Farbiarz on Wednesday granted Khalil...Read more

Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Anti-Trump 'No Kings Day' protests planned across Minnesota

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MINNEAPOLIS — Dozens of protests are planned Saturday across Minnesota, part of a nationwide demonstration against the Trump administration.

The so-called “No Kings Day” demonstrations coincide with President Donald Trump’s planned military parade for the Army’s 250th anniversary, which also falls on the president’s birthday and ...Read more

Boston Herald/Boston Herald/TNS

Karen Read retrial jury begins deliberations

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DEDHAM, Mass. — The fate of Karen Read is now in the hands of a jury who listened earlier today as attorneys presented very different versions of what happened on Jan. 29, 2022, in closing arguments that echoed their openings now more than a month and a half ago.

Back then, the prosecution said the case hinged on Read’s alleged admission to...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

On eve of anti-Trump protests, downtown LA curfew turns nightlife hub into ghost town

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LOS ANGELES — On a game night in Los Angeles, 10-year-old Boomtown Brewery in the Arts District can host 500 fans just five minutes walking distance from the Dodger Stadium shuttle at Union Station.

With the Dodgers hosting their archrival San Francisco Giants over the weekend, one might expect the cavernous brew hall with giant projection ...Read more

Win McNamee/Getty Images North America/TNS

Analysis: 'Israel is in charge'-- Netanyahu made sure Trump's Iran diplomacy was no picnic

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WASHINGTON — As Donald Trump hobnobbed with lawmakers at the White House congressional picnic Thursday evening, Israel’s military was striking targets inside Iran just hours after the U.S. president had signaled that he preferred giving diplomatic talks another chance.

The scenes on the South Lawn, and then back inside the West Wing, ...Read more

Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS

R. Kelly asks court for a prison break, alleging officials want a racist gang to execute him

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An attorney for R. Kelly is painting a picture of corruption and deceit among the ranks of the federal Bureau of Prison’s staff and inmates, alleging there is a target on his client’s back that can be removed only if the disgraced R&B singer is sent home.

Beau Brindley is asking that Kelly be placed in temporary home confinement while ...Read more

Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan arrives at federal court for sentencing in corruption case

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CHICAGO — Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan arrived Friday at the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago for his historic sentencing in a long-running corruption case that shook the state’s political world to the core.

Madigan, 83, who for years was widely hailed as the most powerful politician in the state, gave a slight ...Read more