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Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

The South Side shaped Barack Obama. Can his presidential center reshape the South Side?

Current News / News & Features /

CHICAGO — The threads connecting the Obama Presidential Center to Hyde Park and the South Side began with a hopeful want ad from a Chicago organizer and piqued interest from a recent college graduate searching for something more. It was 1985 and Jerry Kellman needed help. Barack Obama needed a deeper purpose.

And so began a chain of events ...Read more

Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

One US-made drug treats congenital syphilis, and the country is running short

Current News / News & Features /

The United States has a shortage of the only first-line medication recommended for pregnant women with syphilis to prevent passing it to their baby, even as congenital syphilis rates have been skyrocketing.

Last July, drug manufacturer Pfizer issued a voluntary recall of brand name Bicillin L-A, or penicillin G benzathine — a long-acting ...Read more

Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times/TNS

What COVID is teaching doctors about the relationship between viruses and cancer

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — In early 2022, around the time the Omicron variant started driving a new surge in COVID-19 cases, researchers at James DeGregori's University of Colorado Anschutz lab noticed something unusual: When lab mice with dormant breast cancer cells were infected with either influenza or SARS-CoV-2, the animals were significantly more ...Read more

Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post/TNS

For Denver students, documenting immigration court at ICE facility is both 'draining' and 'very rewarding'

Current News / News & Features /

DENVER -- As a teenager, Jennifer Gutierrez Marquez sat in federal immigration court in Denver translating the proceedings from English to Spanish to help her undocumented parents along their path to becoming permanent U.S. residents.

Now, the 25-year-old University of Denver graduate student frequents those same courtrooms, hoping the research...Read more

(Andrew Jones/KFF Health News)/KFF Health News/TNS

They're uninsured after Obamacare became too costly. And they're far from alone

Current News / News & Features /

SUGAR GROVE, N.C. — Year after year, Ross and Rebecca Tobiassen saw their healthcare costs rise, having relied on the Affordable Care Act for federally subsidized health insurance since its start in 2014. Year after year, the couple in western North Carolina kept their coverage, believing the peace of mind was worth the cost.

But in December,...Read more

Mandel Ngan/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Trump blows through his Iran red lines in justifying peace deal

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his team had several red lines that they used to justify the U.S. war against Iran. At a news conference Wednesday, Trump largely brushed them aside.

Explaining his decision to agree to an interim peace deal, Trump repeated his insistence that the country would never get a nuclear weapon. Yet he went on...Read more

Handout/National Hurricane Center/TNS

Tropical Storm Arthur forms in Gulf, hurricane center says

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center on Wednesday said Tropical Storm Arthur formed off the Texas coast, making it the Atlantic season’s first named storm.

As of a special NHC 11:30 a.m. EDT advisory, the center of Arthur was located about 60 miles east-northeast of Port O’Connor, Texas and 165 miles west-southwest of Lake ...Read more

John Autey/Pioneer Press/John Autey

St. Paul man charged with threatening Mayor Kaohly Her in wake of political assassinations

Current News / News & Features /

Videos that surfaced online showed St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and Melissa Hortman with bullet holes in their foreheads, according to charges announced Wednesday.

They were posted on the same day that Hortman, former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, was assassinated, along with her husband at their Brooklyn Park home.

...Read more

Atta Kenare/Getty Images North America/TNS

US-Iran deal takes effect as focus turns to Strait of Hormuz

Current News / News & Features /

President Donald Trump signed an interim deal to end the war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, speeding up the timeline for the agreement to go into effect despite blowback from Republicans who said it amounted to a victory for Tehran.

The so-called memorandum of understanding is now in effect, a U.S. official said. It was unclear if ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

LA City Council agrees to put noncitizen voting, police oversight measures on Nov. 3 ballot

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday moved forward with a wide-ranging package of potential revisions to the city’s constitution, including taking a first step toward giving noncitizens the right to vote in city elections.

The noncitizen voting measure was part of a package of proposed city charter changes that will be ...Read more

Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Pa. Supreme Court blasts DA Larry Krasner's office, saying it misled judges in seeking to vacate old murder convictions

Current News / News & Features /

In a forceful and scolding opinion, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office misled the courts, “violated its duty of candor,” and submitted false statements when asking a judge to vacate a 2004 murder conviction.

In the opinion released Tuesday, Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote that ...Read more

Joshua Boucher/The State/TNS

First Murdaugh hearing set for retrial: Will he appear? And what will he wear?

Current News / News & Features /

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The first in what is likely to be many hearings leading up to the retrial of Alex Murdaugh’s double murder charges has been scheduled for late June.

The hearing will take place Monday, June 29, at the Lexington County courthouse, according to a notice tucked away on a section of the Colleton County clerk of court public ...Read more

200 people leave their homes as growing fires menace West Miami-Dade

Current News / News & Features /

Growing brush fires in West Miami-Dade led to hundreds of people leaving their homes on Wednesday as flames scorched 14,000 acres, shut down roads and sent smoke into the sky.

More than 200 people voluntarily left their trailer park as brush fires continued to burn through nearly 14,000 acres over the past four days, authorities said. The ...Read more

Here come the black bears to the Pittsburgh area

Current News / News & Features /

A black bear swimming at North Park and other bears visiting Stanton Heights and Franklin Park are among more than 40 reports of bear sightings in Allegheny County since May 1.

This is not unusual.

“I don’t think there are any more bears passing through Allegheny County than usual,” said Lt. Andy Harvey, a game warden and information and...Read more

U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina/U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina/TNS

Raleigh man who posted Facebook video threatening Trump faces federal charges

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A Raleigh man who allegedly posted Facebook videos threatening to kill President Donald Trump was arrested and charged by federal officials Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced Wednesday.

Christopher Key-Torrion Carnes, 33, was charged with communicating threats against the president of the ...Read more

Tinashe Chingarande/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Ed Hale alleges election meddling, then posts AI-created image of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore

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Hours after accusing Gov. Wes Moore of trying to influence Maryland’s Republican gubernatorial primary through campaign ads and mailers, Republican candidate Ed Hale posted an AI-altered image on social media that may violate the state’s new law against deceptive election-related deepfakes.

The post featured an AI-generated image of Moore ...Read more

Chicago Police Department/TNS/TNS

Years after her death, body camera footage showing Chicago Officer Ella French's final moments is made public

Current News / News & Features /

CHICAGO — Nearly five years after her death, body camera footage that captured the last moments of Chicago police Officer Ella French’s life was released to the public Wednesday.

The harrowing footage had not been publicly viewed outside of the 2024 criminal trial of the man later convicted in French’s killing. French’s partner, Carlos ...Read more

Renee C. Byer/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

California Legislature keeps 'hand grenade' corporate tax proposal alive for next governor

Current News / News & Features /

To labor leaders and advocates behind a campaign to align California Democrats behind increasing what corporations pay in state taxes, the Legislature’s budget agreement — though not yet ratified by the governor — includes what they see as a hard-fought win.

The deal the Assembly and Senate coalesced behind includes a step toward a ...Read more

News briefs

Current News / News & Features /

Luigi Mangione to mount emotional disturbance defense to justify killing of United Healthcare CEO

NEW YORK— Luigi Mangione plans to mount a psychiatric defense at his state murder trial this fall, an attempt to justify killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on the grounds he was experiencing an extreme emotional disturbance, a Manhattan ...Read more

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Illinois AFL-CIO puts off endorsements in rebuke to Democrats over stalled labor priorities in Springfield

Current News / News & Features /

Organized labor, one of the Democratic Party’s most politically active and reliable constituencies, issued a stinging rebuke to the state’s one-party Democratic rule on Wednesday when the Illinois AFL-CIO deferred making any candidate endorsements for the Nov. 3 general election due to the Illinois General Assembly’s lack of action on ...Read more