Some schools cancel class pictures after online claims surrounding links to Epstein
MALAKOFF, Texas — Some school districts in the U.S. dropped plans for class pictures after widespread social media posts linked a billionaire with ties to Jeffrey Epstein to the photography giant Lifetouch, which on Friday called the claims “completely false.” The disruption to school picture plans in Texas and elsewhere...
Judge says she’ll rule U.S. cannot force states to provide data on SNAP recipients
President Donald Trump’s administration cannot force states to hand over detailed information on people who have applied for or received aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a judge said in a tentative ruling Friday. San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney last year blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture...
What to know about the Homeland Security shutdown starting this weekend
Another shutdown for parts of the federal government is expected this weekend as lawmakers debate new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security is set to expire Saturday. Democrats say they won’t help approve more funding until new restrictions are placed on...
Trump says he’s sending second aircraft carrier to the Mideast as he seeks Iran deal
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday he decided to move a second aircraft carrier into the Middle East as he presses Iran to make a deal over its nuclear program. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, is being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the...
Authorities investigating eerie new footage from days before Nancy Guthrie abduction
Authorities are investigating eerie new footage from the days leading up to the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy. The roughly 20-second Ring camera footage, from the early hours of Jan. 23, was published Friday by TMZ, which says the video was recorded roughly 6.5 miles from 84-year-old Guthrie’s home...
Feds open a perjury probe into ICE officers’ testimony about the shooting of a Venezuelan man
MINNEAPOLIS — Federal authorities have opened a criminal probe into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about a shooting in Minneapolis last month, as all charges were dropped against two Venezuelan men. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons said Friday his agency opened a joint probe with the...
Inflation measure falls to nearly 5-year low as gas prices fall and housing costs cool
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key measure of inflation fell to nearly a five-year low last month as apartment rental price growth slowed and gas prices fell, offering some relief to Americans grappling with the sharp cost increases of the past five years. Inflation dropped to 2.4% in January compared with...
Teachers describe immigration enforcement’s impact on classrooms in challenge of Trump policy
In one testimonial after another, teachers detailed all the ways President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has shaped their work and the lives of their students. In a court filing Thursday, educators around the country described rumors of immigration raids that scared away students, immigrant parents who stopped sending their children...
Minnesotans welcome the immigration surge drawdown but remain vigilant
MINNEAPOLIS — The Trump administration’s drawdown of its immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities area has been met with relief, but state officials and residents say its effects on Minnesota’s economy and immigrant communities will linger. Thousands of officers were sent to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area for...
Penn Township accuses The Club at Blackthorne of violating the municipality’s zoning ordinance
The Club at Blackthorne, a private event and wedding venue, is in violation of Penn Township’s zoning ordinance, the municipality’s solicitor said Thursday. The 36,000-square-foot Club at Blackthorne is located off of Harrison City-Export Road in the township’s Blackthorne Estates housing community, which is accompanied by a golf course. The...
As electricity costs rise, everyone wants data centers to pick up their tab. But how?
HARRISBURG — As outrage spreads over energy-hungry data centers, politicians from President Donald Trump to local lawmakers have found rare bipartisan agreement over insisting that tech companies — and not regular people — must foot the bill for the exorbitant amount of electricity required for artificial intelligence. But that might...
Shooting at a South Carolina State University residence complex kills 2 and wounds 1
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Two people are dead and one person wounded after a shooting at a South Carolina State University residential complex, the university said, prompting a nearly eight-hour lockdown that was lifted early Friday. The Thursday night shooting happened a little over four months after two shootings during homecoming...
2nd U.S. aircraft carrier is being sent to the Middle East, AP source says, as Iran tensions high
WASHINGTON — The United States will send the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Middle East to back up another already there, a person familiar with the plans said Friday, putting more American firepower behind President Donald Trump’s efforts to coerce Iran into a deal over its nuclear program. The...
Trump boasts of over $1.5B in political funds. How he chooses to spend it could rock the midterms
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has bragged about building a political war chest exceeding $1.5 billion — a staggering sum that he can wield at his whim to shape November’s midterms and the 2028 race to succeed him. Trump’s stockpile — which dwarfs any amounts raised by his predecessors in...
Trump pardons 5 former NFL players for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday pardoned five former professional football players — one posthumously — for various crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking. The pardons were announced by White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson. Ex-NFL players Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the...
Western Pa. dairy farmers welcome return of whole milk to school cafeteriasVideo
The recent passage of the federal Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act marks a strategic effort to reverse a decade-long decline in dairy consumption. By rolling back 15-year-old guidelines to let schools put whole and 2% milk back on menus, the law is aimed at providing a long-sought economic boost...
New astronauts launch to the International Space Station after medical evacuation
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A new crew rocketed toward the International Space Station on Friday to replace the astronauts who returned to Earth early in NASA’s first medical evacuation. SpaceX launched the replacements as soon as possible at NASA’s request, sending the U.S., French and Russian astronauts on an expected...
Speaker Mike Johnson says he disapproves of Justice Department logging lawmaker searches of Epstein files
WASHINGTON — Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday that he did not think it was appropriate for the Justice Department to be tracking the search histories of lawmakers who are reviewing files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The rare rebuke to the Trump administration came as photographs emerged revealing...
Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler to resign after emails show close ties to Jeffrey Epstein
NEW YORK — Kathy Ruemmler, the top lawyer at storied investment bank Goldman Sachs and former White House counsel to President Barack Obama, announced her resignation Thursday, after emails between her and Jeffrey Epstein showed a close relationship where she described him as an “older brother” and downplayed his sex...
Shapiro unveils plan to address Pa. housing needs
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a plan Thursday to boost housing construction and affordability over the next 10 years. “For too many families in Pennsylvania, housing prices are rising faster than their paychecks and the American dream of owning a home no longer feels possible, but it doesn’t have to...
Top U.S. prosecutor appointed to New York Albany office by judges is immediately ousted
ALBANY, N.Y. — A lawyer appointed by judges to be the U.S. attorney for northern New York was immediately fired by the Justice Department in the latest clash between the Trump administration and the judiciary over the process for selecting top federal prosecutors. Donald Kinsella spent less than a day...
Trump immigration officials shown video of Alex Pretti’s death in tense Senate hearing
WASHINGTON — The men tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda were made to watch a video of the shooting death of Alex Pretti in a slow, moment-by-moment analysis on Thursday by Sen. Rand Paul, who repeatedly cast doubt on the tactics used by federal officers and...
Judge says U.S. must help bring back a handful of Venezuelans deported to notorious prison
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to make arrangements to allow some of the Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador to return to the U.S. at the government’s expense. The case has been a legal flashpoint in the administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown. It...
New York officials raise rainbow flag at Stonewall in rebuke of Trump administration
NEW YORK — New York politicians defiantly raised a rainbow flag Thursday at the Stonewall National Monument amid a boisterous, cheering crowd, rebuking the Trump administration for removing the well-known symbol of pride from the LGBTQ+ landmark. “We did it,” said Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal after helping raise the...
Top Trump antitrust official leaves post following disputes over big mergers
NEW YORK — The top antitrust official in the Trump administration is leaving her post amid tension about greenlighting big mergers in recent months. Gail Slater, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for antitrust, posted on X Thursday that it was with “great sadness” that she was leaving after just...
