News category, Page 227

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors will ask a judge on Wednesday for six years in prison for a former FBI informant whose bogus story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes became central to Republicans’ impeachment effort. Alexander Smirnov will be sentenced in Los Angeles federal court after pleading...

HONOLULU — Hawaii authorities on Tuesday asked lawmakers for money to hire eight people and pay for a $2 million expansion of a forensic lab to crack down on the persistent rampant smuggling of illegal fireworks like those that killed four people and injured about 20 more at a Honolulu...

The Girl Scouts have gone cookie cutter. In a bittersweet statement issued Tuesday, the Girl Scouts of the USA revealed two fan-favorite treats, the S’mores and Toast-Yay!, will be discontinued at the end of 2025. That means cookie-lovers have just one year left to stock up before the sweet snacks...

SAN FRANCISCO — Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a federal defamation lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups, months after Bonta sued the oil and gas giant alleging that it deceived the public for half a century by promising the plastics it produced would be recycled. The...

NEW YORK — Lawyers for two former Georgia election workers who are owed $148 million in damages after suing Rudy Giuliani for defamation said Tuesday that evidence proves their clients are entitled to three World Series rings that the former New York City mayor says he gave to his son....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA is pitching a cheaper and quicker way of getting rocks and soil back from Mars, after seeing its original plan swell to $11 billion. Administrator Bill Nelson presented a revised scenario Tuesday, less than two weeks before stepping down as NASA’s chief when President-elect Donald...

Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is the first Senate Democrat to sign onto a Republican-led bill that would require federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants arrested for theft-related crimes. The bill, passed Tuesday in the House, is slated to come up for a Senate vote on Friday. In addition to...

New tax credits are available for companies that generate clean electricity, the Biden administration announced Tuesday, while arguing it would be a mistake for President-elect Donald Trump to try to undo them. The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service released final rules for the clean electricity investment and production...

LAS VEGAS — The highly decorated soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack, Las Vegas police said Tuesday. A laptop, cellphone and watch are still under review nearly a week after 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger...

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho House committee will consider a formal statement asking the U.S. Supreme Court to end same-sex marriage nationwide and allow the state to restore its ban on such unions. State Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, proposed the measure that calls the 2015 decision from the nation’s highest...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers on Tuesday returned Democratic Speaker Joanna McClinton to lead the chamber for the new session after the Republican floor leader bowed out to resolve a deadlock. Democrats won 102 seats in November, a single-vote majority, but one of their members was absent from swearing-in day after...

LOS ANGELES — Dangerously strong wind forced President Joe Biden to cancel a trip Tuesday to the Eastern Coachella Valley, where he was to announce the creation of two new national monuments in California that will honor Native American tribes. Winds began gaining strength across Southern California as forecasters warned...

NEW YORK — A national rights group said Tuesday that more U.S. companies are providing strong benefits and protections to LGBTQ+ employees despite an ongoing effort by conservative activists to get high-profile brands to stop participating in the organization’s annual workplace report card. The education arm of the Human Rights...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on investigations into Donald Trump as an appeals court weighs a challenge to the disclosure of a much-anticipated document just days before the president-elect reclaims office. The ruling from U.S. District Judge...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is set to announce a massive, final weapons aid package for Ukraine as part of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Germany on Thursday to meet with representatives of about 50 partner nations who have come to Ukraine’s defense since Russia invaded nearly three years...

PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, as he declared U.S. control of both to be vital to American national security. Speaking to reporters less than two weeks...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Tuesday it has determined that Sudan’s paramilitary group and its proxies are committing genocide in the country’s civil war and that it has imposed sanctions on the group’s leader and affiliated companies. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the conflict,...

NEW YORK — The man accused of setting a woman on fire inside a New York City subway told detectives, “Oh, damn, that’s me,” when he saw video of the attack but said he couldn’t remember anything, according to a transcript released Tuesday. The interview was made public shortly after...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — More than 5,600 people were reported killed in Haiti last year as a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenya struggles to contain rampant gang violence, officials said Tuesday. The number of killings increased by more than 20% compared with all of 2023, according to the U.N. Human Rights...

WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in November, showing companies are still looking for workers even as the labor market has cooled overall. Openings rose to 8.1 million in November from 7.8 million in October, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. They were down from 8.9 million a year earlier...