The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has issued a draft proposal that would allow nearly 500,000 gallons of wastewater daily at Blue Origin’s Merritt Island facilities that would affect the Indian River Lagoon.

The permit would allow Jeff Bezos’ rocket company to operate an industrial wastewater treatment facility that could ...Read more

In almost every election cycle, politicians toot their own horn when it comes to rising wages, pointing to higher paychecks as proof that the average worker is thriving. But under the Biden administration, millions of Americans—faced with mounting grocery bills, rising rent, and shrinking savings—could see that these higher paychecks did not...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — In September, the Turning Point USA chapter at the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus held a vigil to honor its founder, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was murdered days earlier.

Thousands stretched down the street and attendees waited in the heat with signs and flowers. The chapter, part of the national ...Read more

Eliza Brader worries she soon will need to prove she’s working to continue receiving Medicaid health coverage. She doesn’t think she should have to.

The 27-year-old resident of Bloomington, Indiana, has a pacemaker and a painful joint disease. She also has fused vertebrae in her neck from a spinal injury, preventing her from turning her ...Read more

Northeast of the capital city of Des Moines in central Iowa, the 400-student Collins-Maxwell Community School District is one of many across the state shifting to a four-day school week.

Like many rural K-12 schools, the district has struggled to find teachers, and it sees the four-day week as a useful recruiting tool. It also wants to curb ...Read more

SEATTLE — Seattle drivers spent more time in traffic this year than they did in 2024, as construction on major corridors continued and remote work ebbed.

Motorists spent nearly three extra days behind the wheel, as the typical driver in the metro region lost 68 hours to traffic congestion in 2025, up 8% from 63 hours last year, and 19 hours ...Read more

ABHA, Saudi Arabia — From the air, Abha's mountains emerge as a shock of emerald green rising from a sea of sand. Terra firma brings other surprises: a bracing wind that has me grabbing for a jacket — a piece of clothing all but ignored in other parts of Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, so much of Abha, the capital of the southwestern province of Asir...Read more

As California students continue to lag behind pre-pandemic achievement levels, candidates vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom say that state bureaucracy is to blame for a lackluster education system in one of the most powerful economies in the world.

Teachers and elected officials agree: Education is being underfunded. Organizations such as the...Read more

Gov. Maura Healey is condemning President Donald Trump for threatening to withhold funding for SNAP from 21 blue states, which the White House says refuse to comply with USDA anti-fraud data requirements.

Following an event at the Department of Public Health headquarters in Boston on Wednesday, Healey called the Trump administration’s move �...Read more

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new vaccine approval philosophy upends established regulatory practices and could put the health and safety of Americans at risk, according to an article written by a dozen of the agency’s former leaders.

The revamped framework was described in an internal email written by Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s ...Read more

The Trump administration will increase vetting of applicants for H-1B visas, with a specific instruction to reject anyone who was involved in “censorship” of free speech.

The instructions were outlined in a State Department cable sent to U.S. missions abroad on Dec. 2.

“BE ON THE LOOKOUT: APPLICANTS RESPONSIBLE FOR OR COMPLICIT IN ...Read more

The number of immigrants confined in federal detention facilities has surged past 65,000, perhaps the highest figure ever and a two-thirds increase since President Donald Trump took office in January.

The 65,135 in custody across the nation represents a shattering of the 60,000 threshold, which was last passed briefly in August before dropping ...Read more

More than 900 flights were delayed Wednesday at Denver International Airport as a winter storm dumped several inches of snow on the metro area.

As of 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, 939 flights at DIA were delayed and 11 were canceled, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Flights headed in and out of DIA were being delayed by an average of ...Read more

A number of pro-Palestine groups slammed Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani for his decision to retain Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner in an open letter, accusing Mamdani of abandoning a cause central to his political identity.

Dozens of groups signed onto the Tuesday evening letter, including Students for Justice in Palestine’s national and ...Read more

Joesley Batista, co-owner of a sprawling business empire led by the meat-processing giant JBS NV, is quietly positioning himself as a connector trying to defuse political tensions between the Trump administration and Venezuela’s ruling regime.

Batista traveled to Caracas last week in a bid to persuade President Nicolás Maduro to heed Trump�...Read more

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday signed an executive order blocking federal, state and local agencies from using any city-owned parking lots, ramps, garages or vacant lots to stage immigration enforcement operations.

The directive, effective immediately, follows reports that the Trump administration is preparing targeted enforcement ...Read more

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta on Wednesday announced the creation of an online portal to report alleged misconduct of federal agents in California.

The online portal, which sends the submitted information to the California Department of Justice, allows people to submit video and photos. The state leaders said the ...Read more

More than 1.5 million bags of different shredded cheeses sold at major retailers, including in California, have been voluntarily recalled due to possible metal contamination, authorities said.

The recall was initiated in early October by Great Lakes Cheese Co., an Ohio-based company, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The ...Read more

The federal health insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act allowed the enrollment of fake beneficiaries and the payout of accompanying premium subsidies, a Government Accountability Office report published Wednesday found.

The report, which included identity testing, analysis of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ...Read more