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More NC state agencies sign ICE cooperation deals. See the documents and details

Current News / News & Features /

RALEIGH, N.C. — Agencies required under a bill passed by Republican state lawmakers to sign agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — which allow their officers to carry out immigration enforcement duties typically performed by federal agents — have now done so.

On Tuesday, The News & Observer reported that the State ...Read more

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Housing groups challenge Trump funding clawback

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WASHINGTON — The National Urban League and several local housing nonprofits nationwide challenged part of the Trump administration’s last-minute cancellation of congressionally appropriated funds.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday night in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, focuses on one portion of the $810 million cancellation...Read more

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Trump says South Korea will invest $54 billion in Alaska natural gas pipeline

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday touted what he described as a commitment by South Korea to invest $54 billion in a liquefied natural gas pipeline in Alaska.

Surrounded by Alaska leaders and members of his cabinet, Trump said his administration’s trade agreement with South Korea would subsidize the construction of the costly 800-mile gas ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

California lawmaker sues DHS over attempted search of Sacramento law firm by ICE

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California Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, is suing the Department of Homeland Security after the agency’s refusal to provide records regarding an attempted search of a Sacramento law firm last month by federal immigration agents.

The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court, demands information on the incident which unfolded when ...Read more

Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Pennsylvania confirms a fifth death associated with widening measles outbreak

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PHILADELPHIA — A fifth person has died amid Pennsylvania's growing measles outbreak, state health officials confirmed on Wednesday.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health said in a news release that an unvaccinated resident of Lancaster County tested positive for measles and has died.

Health officials said they would not release any ...Read more

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FlyDubai incident renews debate over cockpit video recorders

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WASHINGTON — A harrowing incident involving a pilot who stabbed his colleague during a FlyDubai flight is reviving a decades-old debate over whether commercial aircraft should be equipped with video recording equipment.

In situations where cockpit altercations or pilot actions are part of an accident investigation, cockpit video would ...Read more

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AI safety measures widely backed by most Americans, poll finds

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WASHINGTON — A vast majority of Americans favor requiring artificial intelligence companies to meet independent safety benchmarks for their models, even if those standards mean slowing development of the technology, according to a new poll.

Against a backdrop of growing global anxiety over AI risks, 91% of those surveyed think it’s very or ...Read more

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Gavin Newsom signs California antitrust law that some say doesn't go far enough

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Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Wednesday that aims to put a check on corporate power in the state, but that some advocates say does not go far enough.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1776, makes it unlawful for a company or person to hold a monopoly over business, even if they are acting on their own. It is an expansion of the state’s current ...Read more

Shallow graves yield 2 bodies in remote California desert. Police are searching for more victims

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LOS ANGELES — Along a desolate stretch of California desert highway, next to a ramshackle home, law enforcement officials dug for a second day on Wednesday in a search for bodies.

Detectives working a homicide investigation discovered the remains from two people on Tuesday in the remote area of Lancaster, authorities said.

They resumed ...Read more

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Woman who allegedly shot at Rihanna's LA home indicted on attempted murder charge

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LOS ANGELES — A 36-year-old Florida woman was indicted Wednesday for allegedly using an assault rifle to spray bullets at Rihanna's Los Angeles home earlier this year, nearly striking the singer and her husband.

Ivanna Ortiz will stand trial on one count of attempted murder, 10 counts of assault and three counts of shooting at an inhabited ...Read more

'God never listened': Clergy sex abuse survivors speak out in new AG report

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BOSTON — Mental illness and addiction, the inability to form connections with others, a loss of faith — those are just some of the consequences that clergy sex abuse survivors have faced, as chronicled in a new 200-page report from the Attorney General’s Office.

The investigation into the Catholic Dioceses of Springfield, Worcester, and ...Read more

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DOD spent record fiscal 2026 funds at breakneck pace in final weeks

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WASHINGTON — In the last two months of the fiscal year that ends Wednesday, the Pentagon spent tens of billions of mandatory dollars from last year’s reconciliation law, intensely accelerating spending from its unusually large overall budget for the year, congressional sources said this week.

The Pentagon spends scores of billions of ...Read more

HANNAH RUHOFF/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Newsom signs law to support Asian American college students amid federal cuts

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Colleges and universities in California will soon be able to apply to get designated as Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander-serving institutions under AB 2374, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Tuesday. This comes about a year after the U.S. Department of Education ended several grant programs for federally ...Read more

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'Toothless messaging'? Senate agenda caught up in midterm branding

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WASHINGTON — As senators looked for the exits this week, Republican leaders forced votes on two hot-topic campaign issues: data center electricity costs and lawmakers’ ability to buy and sell stocks.

Democrats tried to label both as “toothless” last-ditch messaging bids, saying Republicans are merely trying to boost their sagging polls ...Read more

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US troops leave Iraq, but future of Iran-backed militias remains uncertain

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BEIRUT — America opened its “forever war” in Iraq more than 23 years ago with “Shock and Awe.” It ended it Wednesday with little of either, even as the legacy of that conflict — which saw Iraq endure sectarian bloodbaths, civil war and an insurgency that made Baghdad the car bomb capital of the world — continues to cast its shadow...Read more

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Carnegie Mellon to open Miami campus after multibillion-dollar gift from hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin

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PITTSBURGH — Carnegie Mellon University will open an innovative campus in Miami after a $3 billion donation from hedge fund CEO Kenneth Griffin, whose nationally historic gift will also aim to bolster CMU’s flagship Pittsburgh campus.

The gift from Griffin — the founder of Citadel whose nearly $50 billion net worth makes him the 37th ...Read more

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St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her says Chief Axel Henry pushed back against questions on police operations

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — In the St. Paul mayor’s first extended public comments since the police chief filed a lawsuit against her, she said he had pushed back when she asked for information about police operations.

Kaohly Her, who took office in January, has been asking questions of all city departments, and Chief Axel Henry didn’t receive them...Read more

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Hegseth picks Musk, Luckey, Gingrich for warfare research unit

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WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a sweeping speech to junior officers and enlisted troops, announcing new military commands and projects, including one to be led by Elon Musk, Anduril Industries Inc. founder Palmer Luckey and former House speaker Newt Gingrich to research the future of warfare.

In a “State of the Force�...Read more

News briefs

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NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani finally gets top-level security clearance, 9 months after taking office

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani has finally received high-level security clearance from the federal government, after nine months on the job without it, the mayor said Wednesday.

It’s unclear when he got the green light, though the news comes ...Read more

HECTOR AMEZCUA/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

California to ban child marriage in 2027 after Gov. Gavin Newsom signs law

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After years of lobbying from women’s rights advocates and child marriage survivors, California will ban child marriages starting next year.

Current law allowed exemptions for minors under 18 who obtain parental permission and a court order. Assembly Bill 1267, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Wednesday, bans marriages ...Read more