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China signals Xi's purge won't deter 'reunification' with Taiwan

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China indicated that an anti-graft purge roiling the People’s Liberation Army won’t impede its plans for eventually taking control of self-run Taiwan, while also brushing aside doubts about the effectiveness of its military in the wake of the ouster of top generals.

While “peaceful reunification” is China’s guiding principle, “we ...Read more

LAPD would delete nearly 12 million body camera videos under proposed policy change

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LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking a policy change that would allow millions of videos collected from officers' body-worn and dashboard-mounted cameras to be deleted, leaving oversight officials worried that useful footage might be lost in the purge.

In a presentation to the Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday, ...Read more

Alex Kormann/Star Tribune/TNS

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to speak to US mayors, lawmakers to urge end to ICE's unlawful tactics

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MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey will travel to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, to meet with other mayors from around the nation, as well as U.S. senators, to push for an end to the federal immigration crackdown that has rocked his city and left two citizens dead.

Frey said he will attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where he will ...Read more

May1985/Dreamstime/TNS

Sick of fighting insurers, hospitals offer their own Medicare Advantage plans

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Ever since Larry Wilkewitz retired more than 20 years ago from a wood products company, he’s had a commercial Medicare Advantage plan from the insurer Humana.

But two years ago, he heard about Peak Health, a new Advantage plan started by the West Virginia University Health System, where his doctors practice. It was cheaper and offered more ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Housing costs are crippling many Americans. Here's how the two parties propose to fix that

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WASHINGTON — Donald Trump's promises on affordability in 2024 helped propel him to a second term in the White House.

Since then, Trump says, the problem has been solved: He now calls affordability a hoax perpetrated by Democrats. Yet the high cost of living, especially housing, continues to weigh heavily on voters, and has dragged down the ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Meet the only LA landlord criminally charged with harassing her tenants

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LOS ANGELES — The tenants of this 43-unit apartment building in downtown Los Angeles have typical complaints about their landlord Nela Petrusan.

They claim she has not fixed plumbing issues; that she has turned off their hot water; that she allowed a roach infestation to fester and that she has failed to make repairs in an expedient manner.

...Read more

Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/TNS

This Illinois zoo leads effort to protect polar bears as Trump opens Arctic refuge to oil drilling

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CHICAGO — Shortly after her arrival last fall, Amelia Gray met Hudson, and the pair hit it off immediately. They touched their noses together in greeting and chuffed — a soft, breathy, snorting sound that signals affection or reassurance. Amelia Gray rolled on her back, gently pawing at her counterpart. Later that same day, they played in ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

A push to end a fractured approach to post-fire contamination removal

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LOS ANGELES — The patchwork efforts to identify and safely remove contamination left by the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires has been akin to the Wild West.

Experts have given conflicting guidance on best practices. Shortly after the fires, the federal government suddenly refused to adhere to California’s decades-old post-fire soil-testing ...Read more

Octavio Jones/Getty Images North America/TNS

Immigration agents, leaders defy best practices honed by US police for half a century

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LOS ANGELES — Drawing on decades of experience after having dealt with the beating of Rodney King, the killing of George Floyd and more, American law enforcement leaders, civil rights advocates and other legal experts have honed best practices for officers making street arrests, conducting crowd control and maintaining public safety amid mass ...Read more

Indian paramilitary personnel conduct a house-to-house search in Kashmir.
              AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan

ICE not only looks and acts like a paramilitary force – it is one, and that makes it harder to curb

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As the operations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement have intensified over the past year, politicians and journalists alike have begun referring to ICE as a “paramilitary force.”

Rep. John Mannion, a New York Democrat, called ICE “a personal paramilitary unit of the president.” Journalist Radley Balko, who wrote a book ...Read more

TNS

Lawsuit targets NYPD car stops as racially discriminatory, likened to 'stop-and-frisk on wheels'

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NYPD officers too often stop Black and Hispanic drivers without justification, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.

The suit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Bronx Defender Services, comes after a city law went into effect at the start of 2022 requiring officers to document every vehicle stop — as well...Read more

Jill Toyoshiba/Kansas City Star/TNS

Kansas lawmakers vote to police bathrooms in public buildings -- without comment

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Republican supermajorities in the Kansas Legislature passed a bill late Wednesday barring people from using restrooms in government buildings that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth.

The legislation targeting transgender Kansans was adopted after a series of remarkable procedural maneuvers that circumvented all public input on key ...Read more

Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Nevada pushes back against DOJ's lawsuit for unredacted voter rolls

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LAS VEGAS — Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford asked a federal judge Wednesday to dismiss a Trump administration lawsuit that is trying to force Nevada to release an unredacted voter roll list to the federal government.

The administration targeted the state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, in a Dec. 11 lawsuit ...Read more

Tracy Glantz/The State/TNS

In final state of the state address, SC's Gov. McMaster looks to the future

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — With less than a year left in his term, Gov. Henry McMaster sought to look at what the state would be like after he leaves office.

McMaster, South Carolina’s longest serving governor, delivered his ninth and final State of the State address Wednesday. Because of term limits, he cannot run for reelection this year.

In his ...Read more

Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Hundreds of students across Bay Area walk out of school to protest ICE

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Hundreds of students across the Bay Area walked out of their classes Wednesday to protest the recent killings of two people in Minneapolis by federal agents and President Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown.

The local walkouts — which included a march through the streets of downtown San Jose, along with other walkouts near San ...Read more

Maryland power grid faces strain amid record cold, high demand

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BALTIMORE — PJM, the regional grid operator, warned it could set a winter electricity demand record this week as extreme cold grips Maryland and surrounding states, heightening concerns about temporary power outages.

In a report released this week, the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) said electricity demand is elevated across PJM’s ...Read more

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Carney's Liberals see jump in popularity after bracing Davos speech

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OTTAWA, Canada — Mark Carney’s Liberal Party is enjoying a surge in polls after the Canadian prime minister earned praise from other world leaders for his Davos speech urging smaller countries to resist coercion by superpowers.

A new survey released by Leger Marketing finds Carney’s Liberals with a nine-point lead over the Conservative ...Read more

Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Lawmakers visit 5-year-old Minnesota boy, who appeared 'depressed' in detention center

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A 5-year-old Minnesota child detained with his father at a Texas immigration facility appeared lethargic during a visit Jan. 28 by members of Congress, who demanded the family’s immediate release and an end to the use of family detention.

Liam Conejo Ramos, a Columbia Heights preschooler, was taken by federal agents Jan. 20 along with his ...Read more

Elizabeth Flores/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Minnesota's climate lawsuit against the oil industry survives latest challenge

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A lawsuit from the state of Minnesota that aims to hold the oil industry accountable for allegedly misleading the public about climate change can move forward, a state appeals court ruled Monday. The ruling inches the case closer to trial after nearly six years of legal challenges.

The decision affirms a lower court’s ruling, denying a motion...Read more

Ana Ramirez/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

San Diego County approves $8.75 million to combat Tijuana River pollution crisis

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SAN DIEGO — The San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved $8.75 million Wednesday to address the ongoing Tijuana River pollution crisis through health studies, infrastructure improvements and an expanded air purifier program.

The funding package includes $4.75 million for epidemiological studies and a temporary infrastructure...Read more