Jury finds Elon Musk misled investors during Twitter purchase, absolves him of some fraud claims
SAN FRANCISCO — A jury has found Elon Musk liable for misleading investors by deliberately driving down Twitter’s stock price in the tumultuous months leading up to his 2022 acquisition of the social media company for $44 billion. But it absolved him of some fraud allegations, finding that he did...
Judge sides with New York Times in challenge to policy limiting reporters’ access to Pentagon
WASHINGTON — A federal judge agreed Friday to block the Trump administration from enforcing a policy limiting news reporters’ access to the Pentagon, agreeing with The New York Times that key portions of the new rules are unlawful. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., sided with the newspaper...
Missouri judge strikes ballot summary for Trump-backed congressional redistricting plan
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — If Missouri voters get to decide whether to adopt new U.S. House districts backed by President Donald Trump, the ballot proposal presented to them won’t say a word about gerrymandering. A state judge on Friday ordered a new, toned-down description of the redistricting plan after Missouri’s...
Over 5,500 told to evacuate flooding in Hawaii as officials warn 120-year-old dam could fail
HONOLULU — Muddy floodwaters from severe rains inundated streets, pushed homes off their foundations, swallowed vehicles and prompted evacuation orders for thousands of residents in towns north of Honolulu on Friday as officials warned of the possible failure of a 120-year-old dam. Emergency sirens blared along Oahu’s North Shore, where...
Pentagon orders 2,500 troops, 3 warships from California to the Middle East
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is reportedly sending three California-based warships and roughly 2,500 Marines to the Middle East, the second significant deployment in a week. The three warships are part of the San Diego-based USS Boxer amphibious ready group. The Marines are from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at...
Mexican teen migrant dies in a Florida jail holding ICE detainees
MIAMI — A 19-year-old Mexican migrant died at a county jail in Florida that has been holding immigrant detainees, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to ICE, Royer Perez-Jimenez “died of presumed suicide,” although an official cause of death remains under investigation. The death of Perez-Jimenez on Monday...
Feds move to dismiss charges against officers accused of falsifying warrant in Breonna Taylor raid
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Federal prosecutors asked a judge Friday to dismiss the charges against two Louisville officers accused of falsifying the warrant that led police to raid Breonna Taylor’s apartment the night she was killed six years ago. Prosecutors said in a court filing that their review of the case...
Trump officials announce 10-gigawatt data center, gas plants for former Ohio uranium site
PIKETON, Ohio — The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced a public-private partnership to develop a major data center with its own power supply on the site of a decommissioned uranium enrichment plant in southern Ohio, as it pushes commercial development of artificial intelligence technology. The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion...
5 things to know about Afroman’s defamation case and victory
This week, rapper Afroman scored a courtroom win, closing out a defamation trial sparked by the songs he made about a police raid on his home. Here are five things to know about Afroman’s case: 1. His Ohio home was raided by police in 2022 Police raided and searched Afroman’s...
Nearly 90,000 bottles of children’s liquid pain medication recalled
WASHINGTON — Nearly 90,000 bottles of a children’s pain reliever have been recalled due to reports of black specs and other contaminants, according to federal regulators. The Food and Drug Administration posted an online notice about the recall of Taro Pharmaceuticals’ Children’s Ibuprofen Oral Suspension. The company’s website states that...
Trump administration sues Harvard, saying it violated civil rights law and seeking to recover funds
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department filed a new lawsuit Friday against Harvard University, saying its leadership failed to address antisemitism on campus, creating grounds for the government to freeze existing grants and seek repayment for grants already paid. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, is another missive in...
Judge rules U.S. government overreached with transgender health care declaration
PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon. Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy...
CBS News shutters its storied radio news service after nearly a century, ending an era
NEW YORK — CBS News said Friday it is shutting down its storied radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation as part of a round of layoffs, blaming a shift in radio station programming strategies and challenging economic times. When it went on the air in September 1927,...
Democrats aim to turn Trump’s tariffs against GOP in campaigns for governor
WASHINGTON — Less than a week after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul listened as one of the plaintiffs in the case recounted the financial toll of the levies on his wine importing business. “This is a heavy tax and you...
Pete Hegseth’s Christian rhetoric draws renewed scrutiny after the U.S. goes to war with Iran
WASHINGTON — Since becoming defense secretary, Pete Hegseth has found no shortage of ways to bring his strand of conservative evangelicalism into the Pentagon. He hosts monthly Christian worship services for employees. His department’s promotional videos have displayed Bible verses alongside military footage. In speeches and interviews, he often argues...
Clergy seek court order to allow pastoral access to immigrants held at Minneapolis ICE facility
MINNEAPOLIS — Protestant and Catholic clergy are asking a federal judge to order that they be allowed to minister to immigrants in a holding facility at the headquarters of the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota. U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell will hear Friday from attorneys for Minnesota branches of...
Teenagers sue Musk’s xAI claiming image-generator made sexually explicit images of them as minors
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Three teenagers in Tennessee sued Elon Musk’s xAI this week, claiming the company’s image-generation tools were used to morph real photos of them into explicitly sexual images. The high school students, who are seeking to proceed under pseudonyms, filed the lawsuit in California, where xAI — Musk’s...
A look at who holds the reins of power in Iran since the country’s top leaders were killed
ATHENS, Greece — One after another, Israel has taken out Iran’s top leaders. First it was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in the opening shots of the war. Now Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council who was considered one of the most powerful figures in...
Iran hits Kuwaiti oil refinery and explosions boom over Tehran from Israeli attack
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Kuwaiti oil refinery came under Iranian drone attack early Friday and sirens in Israel warned of incoming fire, while explosions boomed over Tehran from Israeli strikes as the country marked the Persian New Year. The war that has rocked the global economy neared the...
Fetterman says Trump Derangement Syndrome controls Democratic Party
Sen. John Fetterman has taken yet another jab at his colleagues, saying on a podcast that Trump Derangement Syndrome controls a leaderless Democratic Party. During an appearance on the “All-In” podcast, host David Friedberg asked Fetterman to name the leader of the Democratic Party and the senator replied, “We don’t...
How the Iran war and surging oil prices are affecting consumers at the gas pump and beyond
NEW YORK — As the war in Iran ratchets up, the price of crude oil has been swinging sharply. Consumers are already feeling the effects of the war and its destabilizing effect on worldwide energy production. Gasoline prices are climbing, and many people will find some of the most immediate...
‘Go big and go loud’: Inside the Justice Dept.’s push to prosecute protesters
Just days after Minneapolis erupted into protest over the second killing of a resident demonstrating against immigration agents, a top Justice Department official delivered a hardball message to federal prosecutors. Go after the protesters with everything you have. In a conference call in late January, the official, Aakash Singh, laid...
Trump vowed to crack down on fraudsters, but he’s pardoned dozens
Salomon Melgen was an immigrant who came to the United States and wound up committing fraud, ripping off American taxpayers by $42 million. “Melgen devised a scheme to enrich himself by defrauding Medicare to the tune of tens of millions of dollars,” an FBI official said when Melgen was sentenced...
U.S. Jews grapple with a surge in attacks and bitter rifts over Israeli policies
For many U.S. Jews, following current events these days can be emotionally tumultuous. Simultaneously, there is widely shared anger at the upsurge of attacks targeting their communities, and deep divisions within those communities over whether to support or oppose various policies and actions by Israel in the conflict-wracked Middle East....
Penn township, borough to gather residents’ feedback on potential merger
Penn Township and Penn Borough residents will have answers next month to questions regarding a merger of the two communities, a move proposed about three years ago. Officials from Penn Borough, a 0.2-square-mile area containing about 435 residents, approached neighboring Penn Township in March 2023 about merging the municipalities. This...
