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'Excessive and even exorbitant': Chicago Public Schools watchdog urges district to reform travel spending policies

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CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools Office of the Inspector General is urging district officials to reform travel policies amid “questionable, excessive and even exorbitant” spending on overnight trips, according to a report released Wednesday.

CPS travel expenditures, including airfare and lodging, more than doubled between fiscal year 2019...Read more

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America/TNS

Fetterman's new memoir details why he and Josh Shapiro no longer speak

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It’s no secret that Pennsylvania’s two most powerful Democrats do not get along.

Sen. John Fetterman and Gov. Josh Shapiro are stylistic opposites who have butted heads over the years. Now Fetterman, in his newly released memoir "Unfettered," is recounting his version of why that is.

By Fetterman’s telling, it stems from their time ...Read more

David Guralnick/The Detroit News/TNS

Michigan Mormon church attacker beset by twin demons

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BURTON, Mich. — After living in the Utah desert for two years, Jake Sanford returned to Michigan a different person.

Gone was the lovable goofball, the high school cut-up who would do anything for a laugh.

In his stead was a man ravaged by crystal meth, said friends. He also bore something just as encompassing as a drug addiction — an ...Read more

Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Prisoner's case puts Minnesota's wrongful conviction unit under scrutiny

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MINNEAPOLIS — Philip Vance has been waiting four years for the state to decide whether his murder conviction should be overturned.

The 45-year-old is serving a life sentence for the killing of a South St. Paul grocery clerk in 2002. Vance maintains he’s innocent. He points to the lack of physical evidence in the case and the fact that some ...Read more

Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune/TNS

In hurricane-torn Jamaica, this couple's climate-resilient breadfruit program offers food and hope

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After Hurricane Melissa’s exceptionally strong winds subsided, the roots of breadfruit trees clung deep into the fertile Jamaican soil — offering hope and a step toward food security in the future.

For the past 16 years, Mary and Mike McLaughlin, Jamaican natives who now live in Winnetka, Illinois, have helped plant almost half a million ...Read more

Eric Adler/The Kansas City Star/Kansas City Star/TNS

Deported to El Salvador, Kansas City immigrant describes the violent ordeal: 'I lost everything'

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Julio Rojas was 16 when he entered the United States from El Salvador back in 2016, presenting himself to authorities at the southern border in search of legal asylum, “because of the gangs,” he said.

He went to school for two years, found a girlfriend. She had legal residence, and they had a son, born an American citizen, who is now age ...Read more

NC paper has just 2 reporters, 1 editor and 1 dog. They're out to save local news

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HENDERSON, N.C. -- In the grand tradition of small-town newspapers, The Daily Dispatch operates right in the middle of downtown Henderson, North Carolina, where you’re free to barge in, march up to the editor’s desk and announce your fury that the wrong crossword puzzle appears on page A8.

The entire news staff consists of two reporters, ...Read more

Spotmatik/Dreamstime/TNS

While politicos dispense blame, these doctors aim to take shame out of medicine

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The distress that Will Bynum later recognized as shame settled over him nearly immediately.

Bynum, then in his second year of residency training as a family medicine physician, was wrapping up a long shift when he was called into an emergency delivery. To save the baby’s life, he used a vacuum device, which applies suction to assist with ...Read more

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images AsiaPac/TNS

Thailand spurns Cambodia peace deal tied to US trade talks

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Thailand has suspended a peace process with Cambodia that was a condition for tariff negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump, after Thai soldiers were injured in a land-mine blast near the border.

The suspension will remain in place until the Thai armed forces deem “hostilities” have ceased, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told ...Read more

Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Fetterman's new memoir details why he and Josh Shapiro no longer speak

Current News / News & Features /

It's no secret that Pennsylvania's two most powerful Democrats do not get along.

Sen. John Fetterman and Gov. Josh Shapiro are stylistic opposites who have butted heads over the years. Now Fetterman, in his newly released memoir, Unfettered, is recounting his version of why that is.

By Fetterman's telling, it stems from their time serving ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump's 50-year mortgage loses steam as industry questions costs

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Days after Donald Trump’s party lost several key election contests that centered on cost-of-living concerns, the president floated the prospect of a 50-year mortgage to help voters tackle one of their top concerns: housing affordability.

“All it means is you pay less per month,” Trump said in an interview that aired on Monday.

Yet the ...Read more

Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Pennsylvania's top leaders have reached a $50.1 billion state budget deal, signaling a breakthrough in impasse

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HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s top legislative leaders and Gov. Josh Shapiro have agreed to a $50.1 billion state budget deal behind closed doors, according to two sources close to negotiations, signaling a breakthrough in a prolonged budget impasse that has stretched more than four months and stalled state funding to schools and counties.

...Read more

Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Newsom denounces Trump's plan to resume California offshore oil drilling

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As Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate trip in Brazil continues, reports emerged that the Trump administration plans to allow oil and gas drilling off the California coast for the first time since the 1980s.

Newsom called the plan “dead on arrival” and denounced the administration’s consistent pursuit of fossil fuels, saying “the polluted ...Read more

L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Colorado River deadline passes without an agreement

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LAS VEGAS — Information, like water, is in short supply in the Colorado River Basin as seven states blew past the Trump administration’s deadline for an agreement.

Tuesday was Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s major deadline for the states to submit a framework for a consensus-based deal to update the river’s operating guidelines that ...Read more

Jonathan Weiss/Dreamstime/TNS

Washington state on track to deliver full SNAP benefits; $115 million paid so far

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Washington is moving ahead on distributing full food benefits for November, Gov. Bob Ferguson announced Monday night.

That means people in Washington who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program can expect to get normal payments this month.

According to the governor, the state has delivered close to $115 million in benefits...Read more

Jonathan Weiss/Dreamstime/TNS

Amid SNAP saga, Washington state experts say food insecurity can bring health issues

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The ongoing saga around federal nutrition aid is yet another moment that highlights how food insecurity can lead to long-term health consequences, according to Seattle-area dietitians.

The future of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which feeds roughly 42 million Americans, remained uncertain Monday, as the longest government ...Read more

Ramsey County Sheriff's Office/TNS

Minn. lawmaker shootings: Independent investigation to review law enforcement response

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State and local law enforcement agencies in Minnesota are moving forward with an independent review of their response to the targeted shootings of two DFL state lawmakers at their homes in June.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety said Tuesday that an “after-action review” by the International Association of Chiefs of Police will ...Read more

Katie Moore/Kansas City Star/TNS

Kansas county apologizes, agrees to pay $3 million over small-town newspaper raid

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The August 2023 raid on a small-town Kansas newspaper and its owner’s home drew national headlines and was roundly criticized as an attack on press freedom.

Now, rural Marion County is paying for the role it played in signing off on the raids, which followed a local restaurateur’s complaints about journalists investigating her.

On Monday, ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Supreme Court weighing Mississippi mail-in ballot case that could have major impact on Illinois voting laws

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The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a Mississippi case that could have a major effect on Illinois’ efforts to promote voting by mail, as the high court is expected to decide whether such ballots, cast and postmarked on or before Election Day in a general election, can be counted afterward.

The combined suit — brought by ...Read more

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

Trump aides review funds for New York City after Mamdani win

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WASHINGTON — Aides to President Donald Trump have spent the days following Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral race reviewing federal funds that benefit the city to potentially suspend or cancel, a White House official said Tuesday, highlighting the threat of retribution over the democratic socialist’s win.

The ...Read more