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

Hugo Carvajal Barrios, a former three-star Venezuelan general and once one of the most powerful figures within the Caracas socialist regime, has released a letter from a U.S. federal prison making sweeping allegations about the Venezuelan government’s involvement in narcotics trafficking, organized crime and intelligence operations inside the ...Read more

Donald Trump’s aides and allies are discussing the possibility of making Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent the top White House economic adviser — in addition to his current job — should the president pick Kevin Hassett as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tapping Bessent to lead the White ...Read more

State Board of Education chair Eric Davis is speaking out against the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and recent federal immigration enforcement actions in North Carolina.

At the start of Wednesday’s state board meeting in Raleigh, Davis gave a seven-minute speech warning about what he called the negative changes to public ...Read more

The number of community pharmacies in Virginia — including chains — has declined by nearly 10% since 2019.

That’s according to a new report from the Joint Commission on Health Care, which was tasked with studying access to pharmacy services in Virginia. Legislative staff presented the findings to the commission Wednesday in Richmond.

“...Read more

An F-16 fighter jet crashed in the desert town of Trona, California, on Wednesday, authorities said.

The pilot safely ejected from the aircraft and was in stable condition, according to U.S. Air Force Sgt. Jovante Johnson. The F-16C Fighting Falcon was assigned to the Air Force Thunderbirds, an aerial acrobatic demonstration team based at ...Read more

If you thought lawmakers in Congress would return from a Thanksgiving break ready to buckle down and find a deal on the expiring insurance subsidies under the Obama health law, think again.

There was little evidence of any momentum in the hallways of the Capitol this week. Instead, it felt more like Congress will let the subsidies expire and ...Read more