Current News

/

ArcaMax

Trump administration immigration policies have received pushback from leaders of sanctuary jurisdictions, as well as protesters. AP Photo/Ryan Murphy

When Washington and the states are in conflict, the ultimate winner is not always certain

Current News / News & Features /

The Trump administration’s aggressive policies on immigration are receiving pushback not just on Capitol Hill but across the country. Democratic leaders in multiple states are refusing to cooperate with immigration arrests.

In response, the federal government is refusing to share evidence with state investigators in the deaths of ...Read more

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government expanded access to telehealth for older adults insured by Medicare.   FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images

Telehealth is widely used by older adults insured by Medicare, new research shows

Current News / News & Features /

Americans age 65 and older who are insured by Medicare logged about 60 million telehealth visits annually between 2021 and 2023 – about 31 million for mental health and 29 million for other health issues. That’s the key finding in a new study I co-authored in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

We also found that people with ...Read more

Communities rely on vaccination clinics, restaurant inspections and disease surveillance systems run by local and state public health departments.  Sean Rayford/Stringer via Getty Images

Public health needs steady budgets – and federal funding uncertainty cause real harms, even if the money is later restored

Current News / News & Features /

Since early 2025, several large federal health grants to states have been suspended and then restored after legal challenges. On Feb. 13, 2026, for example, the federal government moved to suspend about US$600 million in public health grants to four states before a federal court temporarily blocked the action. Hundreds of millions of dollars ...Read more

Is the social media platform she's using, rather than the content she's viewing, a threat to her well-being? Fiordaliso/Moment via Getty Images

How Instagram addictiveness lawsuit could reshape social media – platform design meets product liability

Current News / News & Features /

A Los Angeles courtroom is hosting what may become the most consequential legal challenge Big Tech has ever faced.

This is an inflection point in the global debate over Big Tech liability: For the first time, an American jury is being asked to decide whether platform design itself can give rise to product liability – not because of ...Read more

Stressing over authenticity isn't unique to the social media age. Qi Yang/Moment via Getty Images

Today’s obsession with authenticity isn’t new – being true to yourself has troubled philosophers for centuries

Current News / News & Features /

Today’s youth cherish “authenticity,” but is it a virtue? According to a report from Ernst & Young, more than 9 in 10 Gen Z respondents indicated that being authentic and true to yourself is extremely or very important. In fact, most of them claimed authenticity is more important than any other personal value.

This finding ...Read more

Open pit gold mines have spread across large areas of the Orinoco Mining Belt in recent years. Magda Gibelli / AFP via Getty Images

Venezuela’s fragile environment faces rising risks as US pushes for oil and critical minerals and illegal gold mining spreads

Current News / News & Features /

Venezuela’s Orinoco River Basin is a wild land of lush forests, grasslands and a vast delta of jungle wetlands teeming with wildlife. River dolphins and endangered Orinoco crocodiles ply its waterways, and over 1,000 freshwater fish and bird species can be found there.

During the rainy season, the Orinoco is the world’s third-...Read more

Alie Skowronski/Miami Herald/TNS

Florida surgeon general wants to abolish school vaccine mandates. Lawmakers aren't on board

Current News / News & Features /

ORLANDO, Fla. — Though Florida’s top medical official proclaimed last fall that the state would end all vaccine mandates for school children, six months later the Florida Legislature looks unlikely to take the drastic, first-in-the-nation action.

Some lawmakers proposed bills this year that would tweak current vaccine laws, but their ...Read more

Senate Democrats/TNS

Senators demand return of deported California DACA recipient

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called for the Department of Homeland Security to return a California woman with DACA who was recently deported a day after her green card interview.

DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is the Obama-era program that since 2012 has shielded certain immigrants ...Read more

Photo by Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/TNS

Senators vote to give Florida's governor the power to label 'terrorist' groups

Current News / News & Features /

MIAMI — The Florida Senate approved a bill Thursday giving the governor the ability to label groups as “terrorist organizations,” a move that targets college students and Islamic schools that receive state voucher money.

Under HB 1471, college students could be immediately expelled for supporting a group dubbed a terrorist organization �...Read more

Iran and Israel trade fire as war impacts global supply chains

Current News / News & Features /

Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire as the war in the Middle East entered a seventh day, with the impact rippling across global supply chains and energy markets.

Oil headed for the biggest weekly surge since 2022, with shipping through the critical Strait of Hormuz at a near-total halt. Qatar warned that a protracted war could “bring down ...Read more

AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Pakistan rules out talks with Afghanistan as clashes continue

Current News / News & Features /

Pakistan won’t begin talks to end clashes with Afghanistan until Kabul stops supporting and harboring militant groups that launch cross-border attacks from its territory, a spokesman for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.

“There won’t be any talks,” Sharif’s spokesperson for foreign media Mosharraf Zaidi told state-run Pakistan ...Read more

The neuro disease rat lungworm has reached California

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — A disease that can cause neurological illness and meningitis in people, rat lungworm, has been found in wild opposums, rats and a zoo animal in San Diego County, indicating its establishment in California for the first time.

Researchers reported their findings in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the U.S. ...Read more

Trump woos Venezuela with potential deals as relations reset

Current News / News & Features /

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was still flying back from Venezuela when the Trump administration made it official: The U.S. would re-establish diplomatic relations with the South American country, seven years after suspending operations at its embassy in Caracas.

The formal step marked the culmination of Burgum’s two-day mission in Venezuela...Read more

Lesley Martin/Pool/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

DOJ releases Epstein files with accusations against Trump

Current News / News & Features /

Three FBI interviews that contain graphic sexual and physical assault allegations against President Donald Trump were released Thursday by the Justice Department.

The reports were follow-up interviews a woman gave to the FBI in 2019, when the agency was investigating Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking crimes.

There is no...Read more

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images North America/TNS

Democrats say immigration fight won't ease with Noem's departure

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — The ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared to have no immediate impact on her department’s partial shutdown, as the two parties sparred anew over a Democratic demand for an immigration enforcement overhaul.

Within minutes of President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was replacing Noem with Sen. ...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

This hip LA neighborhood is installing emergency sirens to warn of ICE raids

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Communities have used loud sirens to warn people about approaching storms, tsunamis and tornadoes, but now some activists in Los Angeles are using sirens to warn about immigration agents.

Since President Donald Trump took office, Los Angeles communities have seen a stark increase in the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs ...Read more

Pennsylvania legalized online gambling in 2017. Tatiana Maksimova/Moment Collection via Getty Images

Nearly a third of Pennsylvania gamblers are at risk of problem gambling − but few seek treatment

Current News / News & Features /

Nearly three times as many Pennsylvania adults gamble online today than just a few years ago.

And as online platforms make gambling easier and more convenient, some Pennsylvanians are gambling more often and may be more prone to developing problems.

We are researchers at Penn State’s Criminal Justice Research Center and the ...Read more

The sun rises over New York City as a heat wave arrives in June 2025. Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

2025 was hotter than it should have been – 5 influences and a dirty surprise offer clues to what’s ahead

Current News / News & Features /

The past three years have been the world’s hottest on record by far, with 2025 almost tied with 2023 for second place. With that energy came extreme weather, from flash flooding to powerful hurricanes and severe droughts. Yet, by most indicators, the planet should have been cooler in 2025 than it was.

So, what happened, and what ...Read more

The neighborhood had nearly double the youth arrest rate of the other 76 Denver neighborhoods combined. Royalty-free/Getty Images

How Denver’s Northeast Park Hill community reduced youth violence by 75%

Current News / News & Features /

Northeast Park Hill, a Denver neighborhood, has a long history of violence. During Denver’s summer of violence in the early 1990s, it was considered ground zero for gang conflict.

From the late 1990s through 2014, violent crime in Northeast Park Hill declined from its peak in the early ’90s but remained persistently higher than ...Read more

Canceled flights due to the Iran war have made it difficult for Americans to leave countries in the Middle East. Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Operational secrecy kept the US from making evacuation plans – and that means Americans in the Mideast could wait days

Current News / News & Features /

As the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, American citizens living in or visiting the Middle East found themselves stranded in countries facing bombing attacks by Iran. The State Department on March 2, 2026, urged Americans in 14 Middle Eastern countries to leave via “available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks.�...Read more