The Senate’s majority leader, insisting his chamber won’t be irreparably damaged by the bitter fight about new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, is signaling he’s willing to take up another high court nomination in the 2020 presidential election season should ...
Read More »California wildfire victims say cleanup crews added to woes
One year after wildfires devastated Northern California’s wine country and destroyed thousands of homes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ first experience cleaning up after a wildfire has turned into an expensive bureaucratic mess. The state’s top emergency official suspects ...
Read More »Chicago verdict raises hope of greater police accountability
A rare scene in the American justice system unfolded Friday in a Chicago courthouse: A white officer stood before a mostly white jury and was convicted of killing a black teenager. It was the second such verdict nationally in two ...
Read More »ACLU files excessive force lawsuit over 2013 takedown
The American Civil Liberties Union alleges in a lawsuit that a Kansas City police officer used excessive force when taking a man into custody in December 2013. The suit filed Thursday against former officer Jordan Nelson seeks unspecified damages. It ...
Read More »Ohio State’s bill for sex misconduct inquiry: $1.5M so far
Ohio State University has been billed about $1.5 million and counting for the investigation into a team doctor accused of sexual misconduct against scores of athletes and other young men decades ago. Most of that cost is for Perkins Coie, ...
Read More »Still Anonymous: White House hunt for op-ed author fades
Remember Anonymous? Last month, an unidentified Trump administration official set off a White House firestorm by claiming in a New York Times opinion piece to be part of a secret “resistance” force out to undermine parts of President Donald Trump’s ...
Read More »Record imports push US trade gap to $53.2 billion
Record imports drove the U.S. trade deficit up for the third straight month in August. The deficit in the trade of goods with China and Mexico hit records. The Commerce Department said Friday that the trade gap — the difference ...
Read More »Not since 1969: US regains ultra-low 3.7 pct. unemployment
The last time the U.S. unemployment rate was roughly as low as the 3.7 percent it is now — December 1969 — the economy was overheating, inflation was spiking and a short recession soon followed. Could that happen again? Probably ...
Read More »Women get financial help in pursuing MeToo cases
A dollar-store cashier from Brooklyn. Five paramedics in Chicago. An aspiring singer shunned by Nashville’s country-music establishment. Thanks to a $22 million legal fund, they’ve now teamed up with top-notch lawyers to pursue #MeToo-style sex-harassment cases that they otherwise couldn’t ...
Read More »Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh clears crucial Senate hurdle
A deeply divided Senate pushed Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination past a key procedural hurdle Friday, setting up a likely final showdown this weekend in a battle that’s seen claims of long-ago sexual assault by the nominee threaten President Donald ...
Read More »Rising rates not a problem, yet, for small businesses
On the long list of concerns for small-business owners, the threat of rising interest rates is closer to the bottom than the top. Maybe not for long. Rising rates are already starting to bite into some businesses’ bottom lines, and ...
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