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Donald Payne Jr., who filled father's seat in the House, dies at 65
WASHINGTON — Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr., a former Newark, N.J., city council president who followed his trailblazing father to Congress, has died at age 65, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday.
“With his signature bowtie, big heart and tenacious spirit, Donald embodied the very best of public service,” Murphy said in a statement...Read more
VIDEO: NYU pro-Gaza protesters chase NYPD chief into campus building
NEW YORK — An NYPD chief and several of his officers were chased down a Manhattan street by pro-Palestinian NYU protesters who forced the cops to retreat into a campus building, startling video shows.
NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy, the head of Patrol Borough Manhattan South, was helping two cops in riot gear complete the arrest of a ...Read more
Mayor Adams' budget plan restores NYPD funding, but won't reverse $58M cut to NYC libraries
NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams’ latest budget proposal includes restored funding for the NYPD, but doesn’t reverse a multi-million dollar cut to the city’s public library systems, sources familiar with the matter told the Daily News on Wednesday, raising the specter of additional service reductions at library branches across the five ...Read more
Airlines must report fees, issue prompt refunds, new rules say
WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department on Wednesday finalized a rule requiring airlines to automatically refund consumers for canceled or significantly delayed flights, and another that mandates disclosure of extra fees, like checked bag charges.
The rules, flowing from the Biden administration’s promises to crack down on so-called junk...Read more
USDA to limit added sugars in school meals nationwide for first time ever
U.S. students will soon see reduced added sugars in school meals nationwide as part of an overhaul of the nation’s nutrition standards announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
As part of the agency’s nutrition makeover, added sugars — sugars and syrups added to foods or beverages when processed or prepared — will be ...Read more
FTC chief says tech advancements risk health care price fixing
New technologies are making it easier for companies to fix prices and discriminate against individual consumers, the Biden administration’s top consumer watchdog said Tuesday.
Algorithms make it possible for companies to fix prices without explicitly coordinating with one another, posing a new test for regulators policing the market, said ...Read more
Biden signs foreign aid bill, says weapons to be sent to allies within hours
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a $95.3 billion emergency spending bill that will send military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Pacific partners, capping a dramatic week that culminated with a rare bipartisan outcome.
“When our allies are stronger, we are stronger,” Biden said. “I’m making sure the shipments start ...Read more
AI-powered cameras installed on Metro buses to ticket illegally parked cars
LOS ANGELES — Artificial intelligence-powered cameras are being installed on Los Angeles Metro buses to help ticket cars parked in bus lanes.
Testing is planned for this summer and the program is expected to go live by the end of 2024, Metro said, after two months of community outreach to "ensure that the public is aware of the purpose, ...Read more
When the Supreme Court said it’s important to move quickly in key presidential cases like Trump’s immunity claim
When former President Donald Trump’s attorneys argue before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 25, 2024, they will claim he is immune from criminal prosecution for official actions taken during his time in the Oval Office. The claim arises from his federal charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, but also may ...Read more
Columbia University extends deadline for students to clear pro-Gaza encampment
NEW YORK — Columbia University extended a deadline overnight for student protesters to clear their campus antiwar tent encampment, giving them another 48 hours to pull up stakes and leave, school officials said Wednesday.
The agreement comes just under a week after university officials called the NYPD to break up a prior iteration of the ...Read more
Blinken lands in China for tense talks as US sanctions loom
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in China on a mission to press Beijing on issues including its support for Russia and industrial overcapacity, with the threat of new U.S. sanctions looming over the visit.
The top U.S. diplomat will hold talks with senior Communist Party officials in the economic hub of Shanghai on Thursday, ...Read more
Decades of dallying led to current delay on menthol ban
The Biden administration’s delay in finalizing a ban on menthol cigarettes is the result of decades of resistance, delays and industry lobbying, according to former officials and public health advocates.
The White House blew past a self-imposed deadline to finalize the proposal in March after missing a previous deadline in August. Advocates ...Read more
North Korea stokes arms concerns by sending a rare delegation to Iran
North Korea sent its highest-level delegation to Iran in about five years as the U.S. raised concerns that arms sales from Pyongyang and Tehran have helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In a rare public report of the trip, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a one-sentence dispatch the North Korean...Read more
States move to label deepfake political ads
WASHINGTON — After 20,000 or more New Hampshire voters received a call with the artificial-intelligence-doctored voice of President Joe Biden asking them to skip the state’s primary in January, state officials were in a quandary.
Attorney General John M. Formella launched an investigation alongside others into the robocall that urged ...Read more
LA sees a surge of billboards for personal injury lawyers. You'll never guess why
LOS ANGELES — Among the myriad side effects of the pandemic: a surge in billboards and bus ads for personal injury law firms.
They seem to have sprouted all over Los Angeles.
Morgan & Morgan's blue-and-yellow billboards proudly declare "Size Matters," Jacob Emrani's ads with red cursive writing direct readers to CallJacob.com, and Pirnia ...Read more
Senate approves nearly $61B of Ukraine foreign aid − here’s why it helps the US to keep funding Ukraine
The Senate overwhelmingly approved a US$95.3 billion foreign aid funding package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on April 23, 2024, following months of political infighting that stalled the bill in the House of Representatives. About $61 billion of this aid package will be spent on Ukraine, while $26 billion will go to Israel. Another $8 ...Read more
Do implicit bias trainings on race improve health care? Not yet – but incorporating the latest science can help hospitals treat all patients equitably
There is increasing evidence that implicit bias – non-conscious attitudes toward specific groups – is a source of racial inequities in certain aspects of health care, and lawmakers are taking note.
Since the tragic murder of George Floyd in May 2020, wherein a Black man was killed by police, several U.S. federal and state ...Read more
Nearsightedness is at epidemic levels – and the problem begins in childhood
Myopia, or the need for corrected vision to focus or see objects at a distance, has become a lot more common in recent decades. Some even consider myopia, also known as nearsightedness, an epidemic.
Optometry researchers estimate that about half of the global population will need corrective lenses to offset myopia by 2050 if current ...Read more
Gender-nonconforming ancient Romans found refuge in community dedicated to goddess Cybele
A Vatican declaration, the “Infinite Dignity,” has brought renewed attention to how religions define and interpret gender and gender roles.
Approved by the pope on March 25, 2024, the Vatican declaration asserts the Vatican’s opposition to gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy. While noting that people should not be “...Read more
How trains linked rival port cities along the US East Coast into a cultural and economic megalopolis
The Northeast corridor is America’s busiest rail line. Each day, its trains deliver 800,000 passengers to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington and points in between.
The Northeast corridor is also a name for the place those trains serve: the coastal plain stretching from Virginia to Massachusetts, where over 17% of the country...Read more
Popular Stories
- Senate approves nearly $61B of Ukraine foreign aid − here’s why it helps the US to keep funding Ukraine
- Gender-nonconforming ancient Romans found refuge in community dedicated to goddess Cybele
- Illinois residents encouraged to destroy the eggs of invasive insects to slow spread
- Nearsightedness is at epidemic levels – and the problem begins in childhood
- Steelhead trout, once thriving in Southern California, are declared endangered