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Natalie Jones/The Baltimore Sun/TNS

Maryland Senate committee considers developmental disability legal protections

Current News / News & Features /

Disability advocates and residents urged the Maryland Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday to advance legislation designed to prevent people with developmental disabilities from losing Medicaid coverage due to administrative errors and delays.

Senate Bill 742, the Maryland Protecting People With Disabilities Act, would codify in state law ...Read more

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Israel believes Iran war could last months, testing US resolve

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WASHINGTON — U.S. and Israeli officials are privately casting doubt on projections from the Trump administration that the war with Iran could end within a matter of weeks — instead warning that a months-long campaign may be required to destroy the country's ballistic missile capabilities and install a pliant government, multiple sources told...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

What the Supreme Court ruling on gender identity means for students, parents and schools

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The Supreme Court’s ruling Monday affirming the right of parents to know about their child’s gender identity at school has left California educators with complicated questions about how to protect the sometimes competing rights of students, school employees and family members.

The Supreme Court decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta, while falling ...Read more

Saul Loeb/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

US sending charter flights to evacuate Americans in Middle East

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The U.S. State Department announced plans to help evacuate Americans who want to leave the Middle East amid the war with Iran, after conflicting messages about the scale of the threat prompted confusion among thousands of U.S. citizens in the region.

In a statement, the department announced that it would send chartered planes to help Americans ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Senate bill could allow off-duty fire and rescue workers to use medical marijuana

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Medical marijuana may be available to Maryland firefighters and rescue personnel in the future, after a bill allowing its usage advanced a step closer to passing the state Senate on Tuesday.

The bill would protect fire and rescue employees who are registered medical cannabis patients, allowing them to use medical cannabis when off-duty and ...Read more

Michele Ursi/Dreamstime/TNS

Judge pauses new Virginia law limiting social media screen time for children

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NORFOLK, Va. — A federal judge temporarily paused a Virginia law limiting social media access for children while a court case challenging the law proceeds.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, of the Eastern District of Virginia, granted a request for a preliminary injunction in a Friday decision.

The opinion pauses a Virginia law ...Read more

Robin Buckson/The Detroit News/TNS

Michigan House votes to rein in Board of Education after controversial sex ed changes

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The Michigan House approved legislation Tuesday that aims to put a check on the State Board of Education's ability to change model curriculum standards following the board's controversial approval of new sex ed standards last year.

The bill, which passed the House largely along party lines, would prohibit any state board changes to state model ...Read more

AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Trump worries Iran's leaders may be just 'as bad' after war

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump expressed concern that the strikes against Iran could lead to a new leadership that’s equally troubling to Washington as the regime the U.S. and Israel are fighting to topple.

Trump’s comments are likely to spur concerns on the administration’s endgame with the conflict well into its fourth day and ...Read more

Stephen Jaffe/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Analysis: Toppling Iraq's Saddam Hussein unleashed chaos. Why Iran war poses similar risks

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A shock-and-awe campaign laying down a tsunami of bombs. An enemy succumbing rapidly under overwhelming firepower. And a triumphant U.S. president trumpeting a quick and easy campaign.

In 2003, President George W. Bush strode confidently on the deck of an aircraft carrier less than five weeks after he ordered the invasion of Iraq and declared ...Read more

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul announce priority school districts for NYC's first 2-K programs

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NEW YORK — The first cohort of New York City’s free child-care programs for 2-year-olds will open this fall in five local school districts, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday in upper Manhattan.

The priority neighborhoods include Manhattan’s School District 6 in Washington Heights and Inwood; the Bronx’s School...Read more

News briefs

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Israel believes Iran war could last months, testing US resolve

WASHINGTON — U.S. and Israeli officials are privately casting doubt on projections from the Trump administration that the war with Iran could end within a matter of weeks — instead warning that a months-long campaign may be required to destroy the country's ballistic missile ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Lutnick plans to testify about Epstein ties to House panel

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U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to an interview with the House Oversight Committee over his ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, the panel’s chairman said.

“I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the Committee. I look forward to his testimony,” ...Read more

Around 17% of American adults – roughly 44 million people – reported losing sleep over politics in 2024. MDV Edwards/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Stressed out by politics? You’re not imagining it, and research shows that social media is largely to blame

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Does politics stress you out? Did the last election cause you to lose sleep, lose your temper or lose a friend? If so, you weren’t alone.

For the better part of two decades, the American Psychological Association has documented a steady increase in the phenomenon of “political stress” among American voters. However, research and...Read more

Community-based walk-in clinics and behavioral health centers can help men returning from jail or prison find support. Jacob Wackerhausen/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Formerly incarcerated Black men say they’re ‘doing OK’ while trying to cope with depression and PTSD

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“People can assess me, interview me, incarcerate me, observe me, and they can think they know what I need,” said Shawn, a man in his early 50s who spent 15 years in and out of prison. “And that can be an educated assessment, but at the end of the day, I live inside of this body, inside of this head. I know what I need.”

Shawn ...Read more

A group of men inspects the ruins of a police station in Tehran, Iran, on March 3, 2026.  AP Photo/Vahid Salemi

CIA agents successfully executed a plan for regime change in Iran in 1953 – but Trump hasn’t revealed any signs of a plan

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When the bombing of Iran began on Feb. 28, 2026, the Trump administration had not informed the American people exactly what it was prepared to achieve.

Was the attack intended to degrade Iran’s nuclear program? Trump had declared that “obliterated” after last June’s bombing.

Was it to slow Iran’s ballistic missile ...Read more

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Oil jumps, stocks fall, as Trump presses into a widening Middle East conflict

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WASHINGTON — The United States plunged further into conflict with Iran on Tuesday as a new round of strikes heightened fears of an expanding war in the Middle East, sending markets reeling and oil prices soaring and drawing urgent calls from European leaders for a plan forward.

President Donald Trump acknowledged during an Oval Office ...Read more

State reverses course, 43,000 Nevadans to get food aid back -- for now

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LAS VEGAS — Tens of thousands of Nevada residents who lost food stamp benefits at the beginning of the month will receive the aid after all as litigation challenging a new One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act guideline proceeds, according to state officials.

For now, the roughly 43,000 affected beneficiaries will continue to be eligible for the ...Read more

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA Press/TNS

Trump officials outline why they decided to bomb Iran

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​WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump decided negotiations would go nowhere with Iranian officials after Tehran’s “clever” negotiators “procrastinated” and masked their true nuclear capabilities and goals, senior administration officials said Tuesday.

The officials, during a midday call with reporters that lasted just over an hour,...Read more

For Pittsburghers with Middle East ties, a harrowing period after US and Israel attack Iran

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PITTSBURGH — The last text message Carnegie Mellon student Aslan Noorghasemi received from his mother in Iran said: “Freedom has a price, and we are all willing to pay our share.”

“So stay strong, stay happy,” the message read as the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran over the weekend. “Everything will be fine.”

...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Sen. Padilla preps for Trump trying to seize control of elections via emergency order

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Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., is preparing for President Trump to declare a national emergency in order to seize control of this year's midterm elections from the states, including by bracing his Senate colleagues for a vote in which they would be forced to either co-sign on the power grab or resist it.

In the wake of reporting last week that ...Read more