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Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Maryland budget will need hundreds of millions more in cuts after Trump's actions, Senate leader says

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BALTIMORE — With $2 billion in budget cuts already on the table, Maryland officials are likely to make hundreds of millions of dollars worth of additional trims to state programs and services because of impacts of President Donald Trump’s actions in the White House, state Senate President Bill Ferguson said Friday.

Cuts to disabilities ...Read more

Georgia judges resign amid ethics investigations

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ATLANTA — The chief magistrate judges of Haralson and Heard counties in West Georgia resigned this week amid state investigations of alleged wrongdoing. Both had just won reelection to four-year terms.

Jason Blackmon resigned as Haralson County’s chief magistrate judge on Wednesday, though he says he could have beaten judicial misconduct ...Read more

Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Trump, Musk move to oust EPA staff in the Great Lakes region, including dozens responsible for protecting drinking water for 30 million in US and Canada

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CHICAGO — For more than two years, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials from Chicago have been aiding a poor, predominantly white Ohio village upended when a train derailed and spilled more than 100,000 gallons of hazardous chemicals.

Vice President JD Vance, a former Ohio U.S. senator, visited the East Palestine accident site this ...Read more

Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Israel drafts plans to allow Gazans passage via ports, borders

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Israel has identified an airport and seaport as potential departure points for Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza, according to a draft plan presented to Defense Minister Israel Katz on how to implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal.

Preliminary ideas were put to Katz at a military briefing on Thursday, said an Israeli...Read more

Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Measles outbreak mounts among children in one of Texas' least vaccinated counties

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A measles outbreak is growing in a Texas county with dangerously low vaccination rates.

In late January, two school-age children from Gaines County were hospitalized with measles. Since an estimated 1 in 5 people with the disease end up in the hospital, the two cases suggested a larger outbreak.

As of Feb. 7, there were nine confirmed and ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

How Trump tamed the '9th Circus': Legal challenges to White House are moving east

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More than 18,000 Californians have been born since President Donald Trump signed his executive order to end birthright citizenship last month — among them, about 9,000 children of immigrants.

Yet, when the American Civil Liberties Union sued to stop the Jan. 20 order, it didn't file in San Francisco, where its lawyers are based and where half...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

SpaceX pushes to Saturday planned launch from Cape Canaveral

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ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX was set to send up the 13th launch from the Space Coast this year on Friday afternoon, but has retargeted efforts to Saturday.

A Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 12-9 mission carrying 21 Starlink satellites is now aiming for liftoff at 1:23 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during a...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Thousands of USAID workers put on forced leave as Trump moves to kill aid agency

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WASHINGTON — Thousands of American USAID workers were put on forced leave Friday as President Trump plows ahead with plans to effectively kill the nation’s main foreign aid agency.

Fewer than 300 officials at the venerable agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters were told to keep working while the rest of the nearly 10,000 staffers have ...Read more

New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance/TNS

6,000-pound massive shark washes up on Cape Cod in the winter: Possibly 'made a wrong turn' and got trapped

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BOSTON — Even though it’s the heart of winter, sharks are still in our frigid waters.

One of those sharks unfortunately washed up dead on a Cape beach earlier this week, as researchers responded to Wellfleet Harbor and took samples from the massive 6,000-pound basking shark.

Scientists are still trying to figure out what caused the fish’...Read more

Trump says he will announce reciprocal tariffs next week

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President Donald Trump said he plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs next week in a major escalation of his trade war with U.S. economic partners.

Trump made the announcement during a meeting with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday but did not identify which countries would be hit.

The push for reciprocal tariffs has long ...Read more

Ex-Miami US attorney appointed by Trump elected chief judge for nation's 5th largest court

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A Miami-Dade judge who served as the U.S. attorney in Miami after President Donald Trump nominated her in his first term, is the new chief judge of one of the busiest circuit courts in the nation.

Ariana Fajardo Orshan, the first woman to head the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, defeated incumbent Nushin Sayfie in a close vote Thursday to ...Read more

U.S. Department of Justice/U.S. Department of Justice/TNS

Trump pardoned him for his role in the US Capitol riot. Now, he's at Georgia's Gold Dome

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When state Sen. Colton Moore made his return to the House chamber after he was arrested for attempting to force his way in, he was greeted by a small crowd of supporters, including a recently pardoned Jan. 6 defendant with a long criminal record.

William Frederick Beals II was arrested in August 2023 and charged with multiple felony and ...Read more

Brandon Bourdages/Dreamstime/TNS

Sacramento County adopts stricter regulations on converted housing for tenant safety

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Stricter regulations for converted housing are going into effect in Sacramento County.

The Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance Jan. 28 which updated the region’s housing code for converted housing.

Converted housing is when real estate developers repurpose commercial buildings, like hotels, into housing, said ...Read more

The Kansas City Star/Kansas City Star/TNS

Missouri schools to ask voters for tax increase to boost teacher pay, improve facilities

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Residents in the Park Hill School District will be voting on two measures this spring that could raise their tax rate in order to boost teacher pay and improve facilities and buildings in the district.

“For the past 23 years, we have been passing no tax increase bonds to pay for all of the newest facilities that we have,�...Read more

Gabriel Bouys/Getty Images North America/TNS

Plane crash in Alaska extends string of aviation accidents

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A plane carrying 10 people that went missing in rural Alaska on Thursday during bad weather looks set to be the third deadly aviation disaster in the U.S. over a span of just two weeks.

The Bering Air flight was reported missing at about 4 p.m. local time while en route from Unalakleet to Nome with nine passengers and a pilot on board, Alaska�...Read more

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

Florida House Speaker Perez looks to review more DeSantis budget vetoes

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – After successfully orchestrating one budget veto override, Florida House Speaker Danny Perez has set up committees to review other items that Gov. Ron DeSantis cut last year, including spending for the arts, criminal justice and healthcare.

Perez assigned House members to four workgroups that are scheduled to begin ...Read more

Handout/Bonnie Cullison/TNS

Maryland lawmakers want limits on pricey prescriptions, say health care system is 'failing us'

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BALTIMORE — For most of her life, Erica Miller suffered from a medical condition she didn’t know she had.

When she finally got a diagnosis and treatment, the cost of her medication varied wildly month-to-month from as low as $45 to as high as $600 — even with insurance. She couldn’t afford the care she needed.

Maryland lawmakers want ...Read more

Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Madigan jurors return for eighth day of deliberations

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CHICAGO — Jurors in the landmark public corruption trial of Michael Madigan are continuing their deliberations Friday, the eighth day of discussions in the marathon case.

Deliberations began Jan. 29 and as of Thursday evening had lasted for about 44 hours. Hanging in the balance is the fate of Madigan, formerly the most powerful person in ...Read more

Jim Watson/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump's second Cabinet: Who's already been confirmed, nominations still pending

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President Donald Trump’s second-term Cabinet will look much different from the traditional slate of business executives and Bush-era officials who served in the last Republican administration.

Trump’s picks to head executive branch agencies reflect his populist approach to power, as nominees like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have...Read more

Residents sue energy companies after massive toxic battery fire at Moss Landing

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After a massive lithium-ion battery storage site exploded into flames in Monterey County — spewing toxic gases into the air and scattering heavy metals over the ground — residents have filed a lawsuit accusing multiple energy companies of failing to maintain adequate fire safety at the facility.

The blaze began Jan. 16 after a fire ...Read more