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Matt Stone/Boston Herald/TNS

Boston Mayor Wu pitches $4.9 billion budget with 2% spending increase amid financial crunch

Current News / News & Features /

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu proposed a $4.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2027, saying that the 2% increase over last year’s spending represents the lowest growth in 17 years as the city continues to cut back amid a financial crunch.

Still, the budget is increasing by roughly $100 million, a spike that appears to be largely driven by...Read more

Vince Bucci/Getty Images North America/TNS

Still locked up despite being cleared in Jam Master Jay killing, Karl Jordan Jr. close to freedom

Current News / News & Features /

NEW YORK — A Queens man accused of fatally shooting Run-DMC co-founder Jam Master Jay came one step closer to freedom Monday, months after a federal judge overturned his murder conviction in a bombshell decision.

Karl Jordan Jr., 42, who has been locked up since his arrest in 2020, still faces several pending drug distribution and firearm ...Read more

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images North America/GET

Trump holds fast to Tuesday deadline, threatening Iran's bridges and power plants

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States and Iran are at a “critical point” in negotiating a potential ceasefire agreement, but the chances of reaching a deal by a Trump-imposed deadline on Tuesday evening appeared uncertain.

In a lengthy news briefing at the White House, the president echoed an expletive-...Read more

Leila Navidi/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS

Justice Department's use of military lawyers against civilians in Minnesota courts put to the legal test

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MINNEAPOLIS — After a wave of resignations decimated the Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office, the federal government has tried to offset the staffing crunch with a novel strategy: deploying military lawyers to temporarily serve as assistant prosecutors.

That method now faces a legal test over whether these lawyers can prosecute civilians in ...Read more

Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/TNS

DeSantis signs broad anti-terrorism law critics say targets free speech

Current News / News & Features /

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Following a speech that focused on Muslim groups and religious rules, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday a measure that gives the state the power to label certain groups as terrorist organizations and dissolve their nonprofit status.

It also prohibits public schools and universities from funding educational programs ...Read more

Brittany Peterson/McClatchy Washington Bureau/TNS

How a Hugo Chávez loyalist resurfaced as producer on the 'Melania' documentary

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The credits roll, the lights dim, and on screen appears a name few in the audience would recognize — yet it’s one that once moved quietly through the highest levels of power in Venezuela.

Maximilien Sánchez Arveláiz, a former insider in Hugo Chávez’s government and a figure later touched by one of Latin America’s largest corruption ...Read more

Tasha Poullard/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS

Kentucky Supreme Court terminates impeachment of Fayette Judge Julie Goodman

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky’s highest court ruled Monday that state lawmakers cannot proceed with upcoming impeachment proceedings against Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Muth Goodman.

The opinion and order, issued Monday by the Kentucky Supreme Court and written by Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert, voided Goodman’s articles of impeachment,...Read more

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images North America/GET

Trump amps threat to 'take out' Iran before Tuesday deadline

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President Donald Trump ramped up his threats ahead of a deadline he’s imposed for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face further attacks on civilian infrastructure, while Tehran rejected a ceasefire proposal.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said in a news conference ...Read more

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images North America/GET

Trump holds fast to Tuesday deadline, threatening Iran's bridges and power plants

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States and Iran are at a “critical point” in negotiating a potential ceasefire agreement, but the chances of reaching a deal by a Trump-imposed deadline on Tuesday evening appeared uncertain.

In a lengthy news briefing at the White House, the president echoed an expletive-...Read more

George Washington was initiated into Freemasonry at the age of 20. Strobridge & Co. Lith./Library of Congress via AP

Philadelphia’s founding years were rife with conspiracy fears about ‘godless’ Freemasons and the Illuminati

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How conspiracies spread has changed immensely over the history of the United States, as technology and media have evolved. But the nature of conspiracies has not.

I teach communications courses at Villanova University, 12 miles from Philadelphia, on how conspiracy theories are created and disseminated.

As the nation approaches...Read more

Fertilizer scarcity and costs are just the beginning of the problems. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Hormuz closure threatens the global food supply – why grocery price hikes are coming

Current News / News & Features /

The global energy crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is only the beginning of the economic cost of the war with Iran.

I study how institutions affect businesses and supply chains, and I expect food prices to rise next, with high prices lasting even after whatever point hostilities end.

Along with about 20% of...Read more

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Lawsuit over reporter's death dismissed permanently

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The lawsuit against the parent company of Spectrum News 13 for the 2023 killing of reporter Dylan Lyons was dismissed — this time, for good — after a federal judge ruled that it again failed to show the TV station was responsible for his death.

Lyons’ family sued Charter Communications — the parent company of Spectrum ...Read more

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/TNS

Colorado students left in lurch as state plans to eliminate teacher recruitment program

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DENVER — Weeks from graduation, Colorado legislators are planning to cut a teacher recruitment program that promised to pay two years of a student’s college tuition on their journey toward becoming educators, leaving soon-to-be-graduating high school seniors in a lurch as they scramble to finance their higher education.

Last week, the state...Read more

Handout/NASA/TNS

Farther from Earth than any humans before, Artemis II crew prepares for lunar flyby

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NASA’s Artemis II crew members, farther from Earth than any humans before them, are preparing for their event-filled six-hour flyby of the moon after five days traveling through space.

At approximately 2 p.m. Eastern time, the crew reached another milestone: At more than 248,655 miles from our pale blue dot, no humans have ever traveled ...Read more

Handout/NASA/TNS

Artemis II astronauts break Apollo 13 record, make moving request to name moon craters

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On a day the four crew of Artemis II broke a record set by Apollo 13 for farthest distance from Earth ever flown by humans, they made a request that two new craters be named: one to honor their Orion spacecraft named Integrity, and one the memory of commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife Carroll.

The Orion spacecraft and its four passengers ...Read more

Ivan Cholakov/Dreamstime/TNS

Passenger gives birth just before touching down at JFK airport

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NEW YORK — A passenger gave birth just before arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport over the weekend.

The delivery happened Saturday night as Caribbean Airlines Flight BW005 from Kingston, Jamaica, neared Jamaica, Queens.

“We have a passenger, a pregnant passenger, who’s going into labor at this time. Requesting direct detail,...Read more

Joe Sohm/Dreamstime/TNS

Massachusetts anti-ICE bill would allow illegal immigrants to sue agents

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BOSTON — The Joint Committee on the Judiciary will be taking up a bill Tuesday that would allow illegal immigrants and anyone else arrested or detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to sue the agents who took them into custody.

The proposed bill, An Act Relative to Violations of the United States Constitution Under the Color of Law (...Read more

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images North America/GET

Trump cheers rescue of downed airmen as new Iran deadline looms

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President Donald Trump on Monday celebrated the rescue of two downed American airmen as his latest deadline looms for Iran to agree to a ceasefire deal or get blown “back to the Stone Ages” by a new wave of attacks.

Trump hailed the high-stakes operation that plucked the two Air Force pilots out of a remote mountainous area of Iran where ...Read more

Alex Brandon/Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS

Iran rejects ceasefire, Trump amps threats as deadline looms

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Iran rejected a proposed ceasefire as Donald Trump ramped up his threats less than two days before the U.S. president’s ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face further attacks on civilian infrastructure.

“They don’t want to cry, as the expression goes, ‘uncle,’ but they will, and if they don’t, they’ll have no bridges,�...Read more

Handout/NASA/TNS

Moon's gravity snags Artemis II on crew's way to record-breaking day

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The Orion spacecraft and its four passengers ventured into the moon’s gravitational influence Monday as the Artemis II mission heads to a record-breaking day on the lunar far side before their trip back home to Earth.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy ...Read more