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Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Zuma Press/TNS

Sen. Durbin announces retirement, capping off more than 4 decades in Congress

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois announced Wednesday that he would not seek reelection next year, opening up a safely blue seat that’s likely to spark a competitive Democratic primary.

“The decision of whether to run for reelection has not been easy. I truly love the job of being a United States senator,�...Read more

Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa/TNS

Pete Hegseth ordered Pentagon makeup studio for TV appearances, report says

Current News / News & Features /

Defense Secretary and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered a makeup studio to be installed in the Pentagon so he can freshen up for TV appearances.

The vanity project was initially planned to cost taxpayers $40,000 before being scaled back, according to CBS News.

Hegseth’s powder area is reportedly located inside a green room...Read more

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Jurors hint at impasse in bribery trial of Illinois state Sen. Emil Jones III

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CHICAGO — Jurors on Wednesday told the judge overseeing the federal corruption trial of state Sen. Emil Jones III that they may be approaching a deadlock in their deliberations.

In a note late in its second full day of talks, the panel wrote to U.S. Judge Andrea Wood that it may not be able to agree on two counts, those alleging bribery and ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Bank of America, Merrill Lynch settle lawsuit with 2 Black women claiming bias

Current News / News & Features /

Bank of America and its Merrill Lynch investment company settled a lawsuit with two Black women employees who said they were excluded from opportunities because of their race and sex, according to New York federal court records reviewed by The Charlotte Observer.

Financial advisors Linda Davila and Cathy Bender had filed suit in November on ...Read more

Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

'Sabotage': DeSantis team blasts texts across state criticizing Republicans

Current News / News & Features /

Florida House members had an interesting Wednesday thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Around noon Eastern time, constituents of Republican lawmakers around the state started getting a text message.

“It’s Gov. DeSantis. Florida House leaders are working with Democrats to stop our agenda and sabotage Florida’s success,” it read. “Call your ...Read more

Jason Getz/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Universities speak out against government 'overreach,' but South is more muted

Current News / News & Features /

More than 320 university leaders united this week against the Trump administration, signing onto a statement decrying “unprecedented government overreach and political interference.”

Few institutions from Georgia and the South joined the resistance.

Universities in Republican-led states in the South have largely stayed silent amid the ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Feds launch first-of-its-kind sting with Florida cops to deport undocumented immigrants

Current News / News & Features /

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Federal authorities launched a large-scale operation in Florida this week to find and detain some 800 undocumented immigrants, in the first coordinated immigration enforcement effort with state police since the Trump administration came into power.

The Department of Homeland Security-led effort — nicknamed Operation ...Read more

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS

Lawmakers visit detained Tufts student as Trump administration appeals return order

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BOSTON — A group of Bay State lawmakers described “harrowing” conditions as they recounted a visit to a Louisiana immigration facility, and they warned that if university students can be detained there without a trial, so can anyone else.

“When the government can imprison people like them — who dissent — without due process in this ...Read more

PAUL KITAGAKI JR./The Sacramento Bee/TNS

State workers raise $15K for billboard blaming worsening traffic on California Gov. Gavin Newsom

Current News / News & Features /

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With state workers returning to offices four days a week this summer, more commuters can be expected on Sacramento-area highways during the week. Public employees who are being told to work in person want drivers sitting in that gridlock to blame one person: Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Think traffic is bad now? Wait until July ...Read more

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

US Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois says he won't run for sixth term

Current News / News & Features /

CHICAGO — Dick Durbin, whose tenure as one of Illinois’ longest-serving U.S. senators has also been a testament to the power of seniority in the chamber, announced Wednesday he would not seek a sixth term next year, setting up a scramble among potential successors vying for a politically coveted six-year term.

“The decision of whether to ...Read more

Oliver Contreras/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump's anti-Christian bias task force begins. Here's what they're watching for

Current News / News & Features /

Efforts to quash what President Donald Trump’s administration perceives as “anti-Christian bias” were formally launched with a meeting among members of a task force established under a presidential executive order issued earlier this year.

The meeting, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 22, invited Cabinet members and three ...Read more

Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS

Illinois parade shooting survivors share their pain, grief and anger at sentencing hearing for Robert Crimo III

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WAUKEGAN, Ill. — Victims, survivors and relatives of those killed during the Highland Park July 4 parade shooting were among those who told their stories Wednesday in Lake County Court, either through the submission of victim-impact statements or by taking the witness stand, during the sentencing hearing for Robert Crimo III.

Crimo, who ...Read more

Ocean County Sheriff's Office/TNS

New Jersey wildfire swells to 12,500 acres, could become biggest in 2 decades

Current News / News & Features /

A forest wildfire in Ocean County, New Jersey, just miles from the Shore had ballooned to at least 12,500 acres as of Wednesday and was still spreading, according to state officials.

The fire could become New Jersey’s largest in 20 years, Shawn LaTourette, the commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said at a news ...Read more

Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump ramps up pressure on Zelenskyy to accept peace agreement

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LONDON — President Donald Trump ratcheted up pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept a peace deal that critics fear will favor Moscow, accusing the Ukrainian president of prolonging the war that’s now in its fourth year.

Trump’s latest broadside against Zelenskyy, made on Truth Social, comes even as Ukraine and its European allies have ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Dr. Warren Hern closes Boulder Abortion Clinic after 50 years

Current News / News & Features /

DENVER — The Boulder Abortion Clinic, one of the relatively few options for third-trimester pregnancy terminations and a frequent target of anti-abortion demonstrators, has closed after 50 years.

Dr. Warren Hern, the clinic’s outspoken director, said Wednesday that he’d run the practice for 50 years as of January, and saw his final ...Read more

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America/TNS

Health experts: Axing CDC research on maternal health a 'huge' step backward

Current News / News & Features /

ATLANTA — Researchers and community workers in Georgia are speaking out against deep cuts to work on maternal and infant mortality that appear in a draft budget proposal for federal health funding.

The cuts, if enacted, would add significantly to the staff cuts at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the Trump ...Read more

NC judges rule against GOP plan to strip governor of election board appointments

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RALEIGH, N.C. — A panel of judges on Wednesday struck down a GOP plan to wrest control of North Carolina’s election boards from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein and transfer it to the Republican state auditor.

In a 2-1 ruling, a Republican and Democratic judge in Wake County Superior Court agreed with Stein that a bill passed in the final days of...Read more

Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images North America/TNS

Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro calls on society to reject political violence following arson attack: 'Our shared responsibility to do better'

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HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wrote that there is a “shared responsibility to do better” in an opinion piece published Wednesday in the New York Times, continuing his call for society to reject political violence after an arsonist attacked the governor’s mansion last week.

Shapiro, a first-term Democratic governor, ...Read more

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

Florida pushed anti-abortion nonprofit to run ads against Amendment 4

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration last year gave an extra $5 million to a network of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy clinics and asked it to run advertisements opposing a proposed abortion amendment, the group confirmed Wednesday.

But the Florida Pregnancy Care Network’s board chose not to run those types of ads, the ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Colombian man dies in ICE custody at jail in central Missouri

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A Colombian man being held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at a local jail in central Missouri died earlier this month, the agency said.

The man, Brayan Rayo-Garzon, died April 8 after he was found unresponsive at the Phelps County Jail, in Rolla — which is about 100 miles west of St. Louis — the agency said.

ICE said ...Read more