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Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune/TNS

The middle-class affordability paradox: Wealthy on paper, squeezed in real life

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MINNEAPOLIS — Americans have never been richer.

Personal wealth has more than doubled in the past decade, reaching nearly $186 trillion in the second quarter, Federal Reserve data shows.

The most affluent Americans hold a disproportionate share of that wealth, though. For the majority in the middle, much of what they have is tied up in homes...Read more

Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post/TNS

How the tax measures on Colorado's ballot would interact if voters pass all of them -- or just some

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DENVER — Coloradans face a slew of tax questions on their ballot this year — some with obvious interconnections, and others not so clear. Depending on which ones pass, they could reshape the state’s tax code significantly.

For more than three decades, Colorado fiscal policy has been governed by the voter-approved Taxpayer’s Bill of ...Read more

Michael Tran/Getty Images North America/TNS

What is Lewy body dementia? About the condition Patrick Stewart had

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British actor Patrick Stewart died Wednesday at 86. His spokesperson said Thursday that he died from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.

The two conditions often occur together, said University of California, Los Angeles neurology professor Dr. Keith Vossel, and when that happens, the individual’s decline may be faster.

Lewy body ...Read more

A defunct grocery store in New Mexico in 2020. Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Federal policy helped widen rural America’s fresh food gap, but a 90-year-old law could help close it

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When picking up groceries requires a two-hour round trip, fresh produce can become a luxury. As a food systems researcher, I see this tension firsthand: People need fresh food to be healthy, but rural regions increasingly lack access to it.

Food insecurity among rural households increased from 12% in 2019 to nearly 16% in 2024, ...Read more

A volunteer walks along the U.S.-Mexico border near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif., on June 5, 2025. AP Photo/Gregory Bull

Democrats are the unwitting beneficiaries of Trump’s immigration policies

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In a 2025 investigation, The New York Times reported that officials in President Joe Biden’s administration, in the wake of Biden’s 2020 election win, had viewed rising immigration as “a distraction” best ignored so that the administration could concentrate political resources on more important economic matters.

Scott Shuchart...Read more

For Muslims, Sharia refers to the divinely guided principles of living a moral life. sean zheng lim/iStock via Getty Images Plus

What is Sharia law, and why is it so controversial in the United States?

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At a campaign rally, in Port Huron, Michigan, on Oct. 25, 2026, President Donald Trump accused U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of being a “jihadist” who wants to impose Sharia law – Islamic law – in the United States. His comments reflect a broader pattern among Republican politicians of portraying Sharia as a threat to the ...Read more

Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS

JD Vance cancels Friday trip to St. Cloud

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ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Vice President JD Vance will not be traveling to Minnesota on Friday morning after all, according to the spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota. The cancellation comes hours after the vice president’s office said Vance would be in St. Cloud with a fraud-related announcement.

White House officials did ...Read more

Renee C. Byer/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

California billionaires tax trails in another poll days before election

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California’s proposed billionaires tax is losing support days before Election Day, according to the second major independent poll released this week.

Thursday’s poll by the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley found 42% of likely voters in favor of Proposition 40 and 50% opposed, with 8% undecided. In a mid-September Berkeley ...Read more

Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images North America/TNS

Britt McHenry says 'truly vile' comment sparked drink-throwing incident: 'I was sticking up for myself'

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Former ESPN reporter Britt McHenry says she threw a drink at a man after he said “something truly vile to me” during an incident at a Washington Wizards game last week that reportedly led to McHenry resigning from her job with the U.S. Department of State the following day.

Video footage, posted by TMZ, from the Wizards’ game against the ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

US Justice Department subpoenaed LA election officials last week. More may follow

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The U.S. Department of Justice sent subpoenas to at least two California election officials earlier this month, ordering them to appear before a grand jury on Nov. 4, the morning after voting ends in the midterm elections, according to copies of the documents reviewed by The Sacramento Bee.

The subpoenas were served last week, according to the ...Read more

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump's DHS-owned deportation fleet makes first removal flights

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WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security for the first time has used one of its recently acquired planes to send deportees to Mexico, potentially ending months of uncertainty about jets bought under former Secretary Kristi Noem.

A DHS-owned 737-700 plane made by Boeing Co. made two trips from Texas to Mexico on Wednesday and Thursday...Read more

Rob Nikolewski/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Is the nuclear waste at San Onofre safe from high tides and El Niño?

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SAN DIEGO — Forecasters warn of coastal flooding and high tides in Southern California, but officials at Southern California Edison say dozens of stored canisters containing nuclear waste at the now-shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station pose no public safety threats — even if rainfall in the coming months is heavier than expected. ...Read more

Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Measles case count hits 80 in Minnesota, the highest since 1990

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Public health officials have confirmed 80 cases of measles in Minnesota so far this year — the highest total in 36 years for the highly infectious but vaccine-preventable disease.

The surge is largely because of an outbreak in Todd County in central Minnesota, which so far has reported 57 cases. The county accounted for all 37 of the measles ...Read more

John Autey/St. Paul Pioneer Press/TNS

Trump lawsuits, fraud response at heart of MN attorney general race

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Minnesota voters on Tuesday will decide whether to give Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison a third term or elect private attorney Ron Schutz as the first Republican to hold the office in more than 50 years.

What’s at stake? The attorney general is responsible for representing the state of Minnesota in legal matters like disputes with ...Read more

TNS

A 'compulsion' to hurt kids: San Diego woman pleads guilty to killing best friend's baby

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Within a few short hours, a helpful postpartum visit from her California bestie took a tragic turn: The Pittsburgh mom's new twin boys were both hospitalized — one would not survive — and her friend was the main suspect in the abuse.

That friend, Nicole Virzi, of San Diego, pleaded guilty this week in the 2024 death of 6-week-old Leon Katz ...Read more

News briefs

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Michigan Senate candidates Rogers, El-Sayed take on history, doubters in push for Black vote

DETROIT — Republican Mike Rogers has made a push to win over Black voters in the closing stretch of his second U.S. Senate bid, as rival Abdul El-Sayed works to turn out residents in what one Democratic official called "the most powerful city in this ...Read more

TNS

6 hurt as driver crashes onto sidewalk at NYPD Halloween event in Brooklyn

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NEW YORK — Six people were injured, including three children, when a driver jumped a curb and slammed into a parked ambulance at an NYPD Halloween trick or treat event in Brooklyn Thursday, cops and police sources said.

Driving a black sedan, the out-of-control motorist, 56, careened onto the sidewalk on Bleecker St. near Knickerbocker Avenue...Read more

Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Bukele to Haitians: 'This is not an operation against the Haitian people'

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A week after launching an unprecedented deployment of military prowess onto Haitian soil, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is asking the Haitian people to trust him, telling them Thursday that he’s not invading their Caribbean nation and all he wants is his men back — and to teach Haiti’s gangs a lesson.

Four aviation technicians ...Read more

Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

'Trump-Epstein' bookmobile stops in Tampa carrying 2,500 pounds of Epstein files

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On Thursday morning, a former taco truck cruised into the parking lot of a Tampa Heights shuffleboard bar. One side read “The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile,” alongside a red-lettered call to “Release all the files.”

The other side of the truck featured a timeline of an alleged relationship between the president...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Effort to repeal new Massachusetts abortion law nears 100,000 signatures, on track for 2028 election

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BOSTON — A group seeking to overturn a recent Massachusetts abortion law expanding physicians’ ability to perform abortions after 24 weeks reported that they have gathered nearly 100,000 signatures.

That tally is overshooting the bar to put a ballot initiative before voters in 2028 and potentially suspend the law in the interim.

“The ...Read more