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Senate Democrats want Housing chief to testify soon

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are pressing their Republican colleagues to summon the Trump administration’s top housing regulator to Capitol Hill for questioning about his turbulent tenure overseeing the nation’s $13 trillion mortgage market.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte should be called to testify before lawmakers ...Read more

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Partying in uniform: Former Naval Academy commandant's carousing raises conduct questions

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Gilbert Clark, the former commandant of the Naval Academy dismissed from his post last month amid concerns over his ability to lead, was seen dancing and drinking alcohol while in uniform with young adults at an Annapolis bar on at least one occasion, according to one witness and a social media video reviewed by the Capital Gazette.

The video...Read more

News briefs

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US Border Patrol plans $5,000 arrest fee for illegal crossers

The Trump administration will start charging a $5,000 fee to people apprehended who entered the U.S. illegally.

The “apprehension fee” will apply to anyone 14 or older who is arrested and determined to have crossed the border without authorization and is deemed inadmissible, U.S...Read more

KRISTINA KORMILITSYNA/Pool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Ukraine-US talks yield 'framework' but negotiations continue

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Negotiators from the White House and Ukraine agreed on a “framework of security arrangements” and discussed what deterrence capabilities would be necessary as part of a peace deal to end the war with Russia, the U.S. said Friday.

“The participants discussed the results of recent meeting of the American side with the Russians and steps ...Read more

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

Mayor Adams says he's cooperating in city corruption watchdog probe

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NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been cooperating with the city corruption watchdog’s investigation into possible violations of ethics laws, his spokesperson said Friday.

“This is a non-criminal, ethics review, and the Mayor is fully confident it will show he followed the law,” Todd Shapiro said of the Department of ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Waymo plans software recall to address bus incidents

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Waymo said it will file a voluntary software recall with U.S. federal authorities after its autonomously driven vehicles repeatedly failed to fully slow or stop for school buses.

The Alphabet Inc. self-driving unit expects to file the notice early next week, which will become public on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s ...Read more

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

NYC charter schools seek to improve ties with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani after rocky start

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NEW YORK — Top charter school leaders are looking to improve ties with Zohran Mamdani as simmering tensions between the mayor-elect and the sector threaten to open a contentious chapter in their relationship with City Hall.

After those differences became apparent on the campaign trail, the heads of 19 charter schools and networks, including ...Read more

Stefani Reynolds/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi, journalist who had alleged affair with RFK Jr., part ways

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Former political journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s tenure at Vanity Fair has come to an end, a year after reports of her alleged relationship with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. upended her career.

Vanity Fair and a spokesperson for“American Canto” author Nuzzi said in a joint statement shared Friday that they “...Read more

Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump Education Department calls back 260 staff it tried to fire

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has ordered more than 260 federal workers it has been trying to fire since March to return to work on Dec. 15 while a court case over their final status drags on.

The staffers at the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which investigates claims of discrimination in schools, were sent an ...Read more

Mandel Ngan/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

FEMA rejects meeting with Newsom during low-profile push for LA fire funding

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WASHINGTON — Gov. Gavin Newsom kept a low profile as he swung through the nation’s capital this week, holding meetings with a handful of lawmakers Friday on Capitol Hill as he renewed calls for billions in federal recovery aid following the Los Angeles fires.

For a governor who has spent recent weeks in the spotlight — trailed by cameras...Read more

Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/TNS

NYC Council panel looking at censure for Councilwoman Inna Vernikov over gun incident

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NEW YORK — The City Council’s Ethics Committee is expected to vote as soon as next week to formally censure Councilwoman Inna Vernikov for openly carrying a gun at an October 2023 pro-Palestinian protest, sources familiar told the Daily News.

The move to censure isn’t expected to come with any concrete penalty, such as a suspension or ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Doggett calls it quits after Supreme Court sanctions new Texas map

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WASHINGTON — Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett is retiring after all, bringing an end to a nearly 50-year political career.

“I will continue working with the same urgency and determination as if next year were my last, which in public office it will be,” the longtime Democratic lawmaker said in a statement Friday.

Doggett had first announced he�...Read more

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Every Florida Congress member to Trump: Keep oil drilling away from our coast

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TAMPA, Fla. — In a rare display of unity, all 28 of Florida’s Congress members and both U.S. senators joined in a bipartisan letter Thursday urging President Donald Trump to keep offshore oil drilling away from the state’s coastline.

The response comes two weeks after the U.S. Department of the Interior unveiled a five-year proposal that ...Read more

Katy Kildee/The Detroit News/TNS

88-year-old grocery worker sheds tears after receiving $1.7 million donation

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BRIGHTON, Mich. — Ed Bambas, 88, choked back tears Friday, saying he wished his late wife could be there as he received a donation of more than $1.7 million from online well-wishers.

"I cannot express any words to how thankful I am," Bambas said during a check presentation in the lobby at Foguth Financial Group in Brighton.

The money was ...Read more

Christopher Spata/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Publishers Clearing House prize patrol hands out sweepstakes check in St. Petersburg

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TAMPA, Fla. — In a hot Publix parking lot in south St. Petersburg, Howie Guja, the guy with the megawatt smile and the Publishers Clearing House blazer, took a selfie behind a minivan as he held an oversize novelty check for $10,000.

Guja and a camera operator named George had flown into Tampa on Wednesday morning from New York. The check ...Read more

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

US Border Patrol plans $5,000 arrest fee for illegal crossers

Current News / News & Features /

The Trump administration will start charging a $5,000 fee to people apprehended who entered the U.S. illegally.

The “apprehension fee” will apply to anyone 14 or older who is arrested and determined to have crossed the border without authorization and is deemed inadmissible, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks said in a statement on X ...Read more

DANIEL SLIM/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Pennsylvania budget office to change leadership as 2026-27 budget season nears

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HARRISBURG, Pa. — The state Office of the Budget will have a new leader going into the 2026-27 budget season after Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Budget Secretary Uri Monson will step down next week to become executive director of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System.

Shapiro said he will appoint a deputy secretary, ...Read more

Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images North America/TNS

In RFK Jr.'s upside-down world of vaccines, panel votes to end hepatitis B shot at birth

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Recent weeks have brought good news about vaccines, with studies indicating that flu vaccination reduces heart disease, shingles vaccines can prevent or slow dementia, and a single human papilloma virus shot protects a girl from cervical cancer for the rest of her life.

But in the upside-down world of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert ...Read more

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

AG Bondi says alleged serial rapist struck because Minnesota is 'soft on crime'

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U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi is taking a “soft-on-crime” shot at Minnesota while her prosecutors are accusing a Minneapolis man of being a serial rapist whose attacks have spanned the past eight years.

Abdimahat Bille Mohamed, 28, was charged Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul in connection with two of the assaults, one in ...Read more

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Epstein Florida grand jury transcripts can be released

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A federal judge in Florida granted the U.S. Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from the original criminal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith on Friday said the transcripts can be released because of a new law requiring the Attorney General to make public all unclassified materials ...Read more