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Trump official signals no US nuclear test blasts planned for now

Current News / News & Features /

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he expects U.S. nuclear-weapons testing sought by President Donald Trump to stop short of actual atomic bomb explosions for now.

“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests,” Duffy said on Fox News’ "The Sunday Briefing." “These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we...Read more

PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Golden age of cocaine smuggling puts Brazil's fragile truce with Trump at risk

Current News / News & Features /

Murilo Sampaio stood on a camouflage-painted boat on the Amazon, scanning for smugglers, when three oil barges appeared on the horizon.

The military police chief had been told to check for drugs on every vessel coming down the Solimões, the name given to the upper stretches of the Amazon in Brazil. As Sampaio and his crew reviewed the convoy�...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Many fear federal loan caps will deter aspiring doctors and worsen MD shortage

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Medical educators and health professionals warn that new federal student loan caps in President Donald Trump’s tax cut law could make it more expensive for many people to become doctors and could exacerbate physician shortages nationwide.

And, they warn, the economic burden will steer many medical students to lucrative specialties in more ...Read more

Baltimore Sun/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Wealthy Baltimore homeowners underpay on property taxes while poor overpay, studies find

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BALTIMORE — More than a decade of research from multiple sources shows Baltimore’s wealthy homeowners paid less than they owed in property taxes, while poorer homeowners paid more than they owed.

A 2023 study conducted by a member of Strong Towns Baltimore — the group is now known as Baltimoreans for People-Oriented Places, or BaltPOP —...Read more

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Racial health disparities could widen as states grapple with Trump cuts, experts warn

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Racial health disparities may widen as states, universities and nonprofits grapple with federal funding cuts to programs that were aimed at filling gaps in care, public health experts say.

As part of its federal restructuring and crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, the Trump administration has been shuttering federal ...Read more

Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Finland's border region once profited from Russia. Now unease Is growing

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As a child during the Cold War, Sari Tukiainen would climb a hill in her hometown of Imatra and look over the border to the smokestacks of Svetogorsk, wondering about the Soviet Union that lay beyond.

Later, she was among the Finns who earned well from their neighbors, as Russian tourists poured over the frontier and filled Imatra’s streets, ...Read more

Homeless service provider's CEO placed on leave, law firm to probe property valuations

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LOS ANGELES — Two top officials at the Weingart Center Association, one of Los Angeles’ most prominent homeless services providers, have been placed on leave while the nonprofit conducts an internal review into its housing projects.

Weingart has retained an outside law firm to probe “certain” homeless housing projects “in light of ...Read more

Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Philly to provide $7 million for food assistance and federal workers amid SNAP disruptions

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PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia is directing $7 million in city funds to food pantries, federal workers, and vulnerable families as the federal government shutdown passes the one-month mark, disrupting the country’s largest food assistance program.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker signed an executive order Saturday allocating the funds as part of a ...Read more

Family of 5, including 3 children, killed in NJ house fire on Halloween

Current News / News & Features /

NEW YORK — A fast-spreading house fire killed two adults and three children, all from the same family, in Paterson, New Jersey, on Halloween night, officials said Saturday.

Members of the Paterson Fire Department were dispatched to 15 Emerson St. for a reported structure fire shortly before 10 p.m. Friday, the department said in a news ...Read more

Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Chicago-area man killed by ICE honored at Day of the Dead celebration: 'Someone who was wanted'

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CHICAGO — Candles, candy and colorful flowers adorned the ofrenda, or altar, that a couple of dozen people helped build Saturday to honor Silverio Villegas González, the man shot and killed by an ICE agent in northwest suburban Franklin Park nearly two months ago.

At the intersection of Grand Avenue and Emerson Street, near where the ...Read more

Amy Sussman/Getty Images North America/TNS

Rapper Meek Mill handcuffed by cops outside NYC club after tip he might have had gun, sources say

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NEW YORK — Rapper Meek Mill was handcuffed early Saturday morning outside a Midtown Manhattan nightclub as police searched his car for a gun, according to police sources.

Cops searched the car of the Philadelphia-born rapper, whose real name is Robert Williams, 38, around 4 a.m. after stopping three men in the vehicle, which matched the ...Read more

Philip Fong/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Trump plays nice with Asian allies stung by repeated threats

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After months of tariff threats and brow-beating on defense spending, American allies in Asia had ample reason to be wary of President Donald Trump. But he ended up using a three-nation tour of the region to hammer home a clear message: The U.S. still has your back.

Trump said the U.S. was “wedded” to South Korea, addressed some of its ...Read more

Alejandro A Alvarez/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

9 Pagans biker gang members charged in shootout at Wawa in Montgomery County that left 6 wounded

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PHILADELPHIA — Nine members of the notorious Pagans motorcycle gang were arrested and charged in connection with a shootout at a Wawa convenience store that left six people injured, including two bystanders, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele announced Friday.

On Oct. 17 just after 9:10 p.m., the Pagans surrounded two members...Read more

PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump warns Nigeria it may face US military action over attacks

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President Donald Trump threatened possible U.S. military action in Nigeria, saying its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians” by Islamic militants.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he’s instructing the Pentagon “to prepare for possible action” and threatened an immediate cutoff in aid to Nigeria, an OPEC member...Read more

Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times/TNS

As SNAP benefits lapse, thousands show up to Southern California food banks

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LOS ANGELES — On Saturday morning, Genaro Alfonzo pulled up to the Kia Forum in Inglewood wearing his Los Angeles Dodgers hat and jersey, with a flag for his Boys in Blue flapping from a Toyota pickup truck.

But the morning after his beloved Dodgers won Game 6 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Alfonzo was not happy. It was ...Read more

Ricardo Makyn/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

28 Floridians rescued from Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa's devastation

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MIAMI — As Jamaica slowly recovers from the most catastrophic hurricane to hit the country, more than two dozen Floridians stranded there have been rescued and returned home Saturday afternoon, officials said.

Hurricane Melissa killed at least 19 people in Jamaica and left thousands in the country without power, water or internet. It leveled ...Read more

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Trump would make Supreme Court history by attending tariffs case

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has said he feels an “obligation” to watch in person as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs his powers to impose tariffs on much of the world. If Trump does, he will make history as the first sitting president ever to attend oral arguments at the nation’s highest court.

There is no record in the Supreme ...Read more

Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/TNS

ICE arrested 105 people in Idaho in raid. What do we know about those they took?

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BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho immigrant who entered the U.S. lawfully 10 years ago but overstayed his visa was among the many people swept up in the FBI and ICE raid on a racetrack last month in Wilder, according to Neal Dougherty, a Nampa lawyer and partner at Ramirez-Smith Law.

The man had no criminal history, but Dougherty said agents told him ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Colorado Rep. Jeff Hurd asks US Energy Department to order that coal plant stay open

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DENVER — Colorado Rep. Jeff Hurd has asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to issue an emergency order that the two units at the Comanche power plant keep operating because there’s a risk of an energy shortfall if the coal facility in Pueblo County is shut down when planned.

The Republican who represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional ...Read more

=Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/TNS

Colorado governor's budget proposal takes aim at Medicaid spending, eyes Pinnacol spinoff -- again

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DENVER — In the last budget that Gov. Jared Polis will usher through from conception to enactment, the term-limited Democrat hopes to wrestle down ever-rising Medicaid costs, he said Friday in unveiling his proposal.

It’s a plan that proposes clamping down on dental benefits, requiring prior authorization for more services and making ...Read more