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Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Minnesota farmers resist 'new normal' of bird flu that's killed 10M birds

Current News / News & Features /

Avian influenza has now killed more than 10 million birds in Minnesota since 2022, as farmers and state officials continue to deal with a disease that just won’t stop.

The virus, highly pathogenic avian influenza, is no longer inflating egg prices at the grocery store like a year ago. But the virus is still hammering turkey flocks, ...Read more

California should pause 911 transition until more oversight guaranteed, analyst's office recommends

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Legislature should pause the state’s effort to modernize its 911 system until the California Governor’s Office of Emergency services can answer questions about the project, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office recently recommended.

For years, Cal OES has worked to build out a better emergency ...Read more

Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump says US military operations in Iran could last a month or 'far longer'

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday refused to box himself in on how long U.S. military operations will last in Iran, saying the conflict in the Middle East could stretch a month or potentially “far longer” as he frames the mission as one that is necessary to eliminate a “colossal threat” to American interests.

“Whatever ...Read more

Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News/TNS

Alaska lawmakers consider statewide marijuana sales tax

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A Fairbanks lawmaker is pushing to overhaul Alaska's marijuana tax structure, as cultivators and retailers say the current structure is an "existential threat" to their business.

HB 91 would phase out the existing $50 per ounce tax levied on cultivators to replace it with a 6% sales tax paid by consumers, modeled after the "sin tax" in place ...Read more

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Bill Clinton told panel Larry Summers introduced him to Epstein

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Former President Bill Clinton told the House panel investigating Jeffrey Epstein that former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers introduced him to the disgraced financier after Clinton departed the White House.

The panel released video on Monday of its questioning of the former president and his wife, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...Read more

Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Supreme Court questions denying gun rights to marijuana users in test of the 2nd Amendment

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday urged the Supreme Court to limit the reach of the Second Amendment and deny gun rights to "habitual" users of drugs, including marijuana.

But most of the justices sounded skeptical. They questioned whether marijuana users are so dangerous they should not have firearms.

They noted too that ...Read more

Mahsa/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump's Iran war adds potential shock for US economy, voters

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s war against Iran risks delivering another shock to an economy that voters are already disenchanted with, just eight months out from midterm elections.

The biggest domestic effects for Americans would likely arrive via more expensive gasoline, with the U.S. and Israel launching attacks just a few days ...Read more

HELEN H. RICHARDSON/The Denver Post/TNS

Colorado may owe federal government $42 million for improper autism therapy payments

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DENVER — Colorado may have improperly paid more than $75 million to autism service providers and could be on the hook to return more than half that sum to the federal government, a new report found.

The Office of the Inspector General estimated the state’s Medicaid program overpaid $77.8 million for applied behavior analysis services in ...Read more

Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Ulysses Jenkins, Los Angeles artist and pioneer of Black experimental video, dies at 79

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LOS ANGELES — Ulysses Jenkins, the pioneering Los Angeles-born video artist whose avant-garde compositions embodied Black experimentalism, has died. He was 79.

Jenkins' death was confirmed by his alma mater Otis College, where he studied under renowned painter and printmaker Charles White in the late 1970s and returned as an instructor years ...Read more

Mark David Smith/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS

Defense theory is attempt to coax jury to nullify Prairieland case, prosecutors say

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FORT WORTH, Texas — The suggestion that self-defense or defense of others entitled Benjamin Song to shoot at a police officer outside an immigrant detention center in North Texas is absurd, and the judge presiding at the ongoing trial of Song and eight other people under indictment in connection with the shooting should bar defense attorneys ...Read more

Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times/TNS

FBI scrutiny of Superintendent Carvalho, LA Unified School District began with tip from NY prosecutors examining fraud at AI firm

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LOS ANGELES — The investigation that led to last week’s FBI raid at the home and office of Los Angeles Unified schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho was sparked more than a year ago and stemmed from a referral from New York prosecutors working a criminal fraud case involving a technology company with a school district contract that went bust, ...Read more

News briefs

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Iran war is ‘retribution against their ayatollah and his death cult’, Hegseth says

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Monday defended the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, calling the widespread and ongoing attacks a necessary response to threats of nuclear and terror attacks even as the conflict showed signs of spreading across the Middle East.

...Read more

Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images North America/TNS

Neck rash caused by 'preventative skin treatment,' Trump doc says

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President Trump’s doctor downplayed a red rash on the commander-in-chief’s neck as the byproduct of a “preventative skin treatment.”

The 79-year-old president raised further questions about his health Monday when he appeared at a Medal of Freedom event at the White House with a dark-red rash on the right side of his neck, blooming out ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Supreme Court halts redrawing of New York congressional district

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WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court intervened Monday to halt a New York state court-mandated redistricting of the Staten Island-based seat currently held by Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis.

The unsigned order pauses the effort to force the state to draw a new map for the seat on arguments that it violated the state constitution by ...Read more

A banner with the image of Ali Khamenei during a memorial vigil in Tehran, Iran. Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s killing plays into Shiite Islam’s reverence for martyrs, but not for all Iranians

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The day Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed, the Iranian government called for 40 days of public mourning in line with Shiite tradition. It also praised the supreme leader for his martyrdom – a concept considered sacred and significant in the Islamic Republic and Shiite Islam.

While some Iranians came out to commemorate Khamenei, ...Read more

A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran on March 2, 2026. AP Photo/Mohsen Ganji

‘Destruction is not the same as political success’: US bombing of Iran shows little evidence of endgame strategy

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Shortly after the opening salvo of U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, 2026 – with missiles targeting cities across the country, some of which killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – President Donald Trump declared the objective was to destroy Iran’s military capabilities and give rise to a change in government.

...Read more

Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump vows 'whatever it takes' on Iran as conflict widens

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. sent conflicting messages about how long a war with Iran might last as Israel launched new airstrikes on Monday, with the widening conflict reverberating across the Middle East and upending energy markets.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday rejected the idea of an “endless” war with Iran. But President Donald ...Read more

Joshua Boucher/The State/TNS

'A life well lived, a job well done': South Carolina honors the Rev. Jesse Jackson

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — The late Rev. Jesse Jackson is being honored in South Carolina on Monday, with a public visitation at the State House and later a memorial service at Brookland Baptist Church.

Jackson, a civil rights leader who was with Martin Luther King Jr. when he was assassinated, died on Feb. 17, 2026.

The Greenville native was 84. In ...Read more

Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Greg Bovino, other federal agents investigated for Operation Metro Surge actions

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MINNEAPOLIS — The use of a chemical irritant by U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino is among 17 instances of “potential unlawful behavior” by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge currently being investigated for criminal charges, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Monday.

At a news conference on March 2, Moriarty ...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

United Airlines flight returns to LAX after engine fire reports force emergency landing

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LOS ANGELES — A Monday morning United Airlines flight departing Los Angeles International Airport had to turn around and make an emergency landing back at the airport after an engine fire was reported, officials said.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials were called to runway 25 as the Boeing 787-9 carrying more than 250 passengers headed ...Read more