Current News

/

ArcaMax

Rebecca Noble/Getty Images North America/TNS

Bill would allow Arizona abortion providers to practice in California ahead of possible surge in patients

Current News / News & Features /

SACRAMENTO — Arizona abortion providers could practice in California under a new law designed to provide care to women who cross the state line as they face newly restrictive prohibitions at home.

The bill introduced on Wednesday aims to expedite temporary authorization for those Arizona doctors to practice in both states and is the latest ...Read more

Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Water quality has improved dramatically in the Chicago River. But how safe is swimming?

Current News / News & Features /

CHICAGO — When organizers announced their plans for an open swim in the Chicago River in September, residents across the city raised their eyebrows.

The days when the river was a dumping ground for the largest slaughterhouse in the world are long past. And, sewage that once flowed directly into the river is now funneled through wastewater ...Read more

South Florida Sun-Sentinel/TNS

Why are so few Haitian refugees arriving by boat in Florida? DeSantis has a theory -- and claims credit

Current News / News & Features /

MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis offered a theory Wednesday about why boats carrying Haitian refugees aren’t arriving on Florida’s shores, even as the Caribbean nation’s capital is largely ruled by violent gangs.

The reason, DeSantis said, is people who might want to leave Haiti don’t try because they know if they’re found on the open ...Read more

Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun/TNS

US-required bridge inspections don't test for ship strike. Then, one hit the Key Bridge

Current News / News & Features /

BALTIMORE — When the Francis Scott Key Bridge was inspected in May 2021, it earned high marks.

Its railings and guardrails met modern standards. Its foundations were “stable” and didn’t show signs of erosion at the riverbed. The protection around its piers was “functioning,” the best grade in that category.

It wasn’t, however, ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Biden signs foreign aid bill, says weapons to be sent to allies within hours

Current News / News & Features /

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

Saul Loeb/Getty Images of North America/TNS

Supreme Court sounds wary of Idaho's ban on emergency abortions for women whose health is in danger

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices voiced doubt Wednesday about a strict Idaho law that would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion even for a woman who arrives at a hospital suffering from a serious, but not life-threatening, medical emergency.

Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth B. Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, ...Read more

Saul Loeb/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Case highlights debate over 'life of the mother' exception

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion — the subject of a case pending before the Supreme Court — has become part of a complicated debate on what constitutes a medical emergency urgent enough to necessitate an abortion in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned.

In arguments before the high court Wednesday, the federal ...Read more

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom via ZUMA/TNS

Donald Payne Jr., who filled father's seat in the House, dies at 65

Current News / News & Features /

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

Alex Kent/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

VIDEO: NYU pro-Gaza protesters chase NYPD chief into campus building

Current News / News & Features /

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

Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/TNS

Mayor Adams' budget plan restores NYPD funding, but won't reverse $58M cut to NYC libraries

Current News / News & Features /

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

Win McNamee/Getty Images North America/TNS

Airlines must report fees, issue prompt refunds, new rules say

Current News / News & Features /

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

DREAMSTIME/TNS

USDA to limit added sugars in school meals nationwide for first time ever

Current News / News & Features /

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

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

FTC chief says tech advancements risk health care price fixing

Current News / News & Features /

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

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Biden signs foreign aid bill, says weapons to be sent to allies within hours

Current News / News & Features /

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

Los Angeles Times/Los Angeles Times/TNS

AI-powered cameras installed on Metro buses to ticket illegally parked cars

Current News / News & Features /

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

Current News / News & Features /

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

Current News / News & Features /

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

Current News / News & Features /

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

Current News / News & Features /

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

Current News / News & Features /

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