By Hakim Bellamy I promise it was no hyperbole when I said to Dr. Opal Lee, in the presence of her granddaughter Dione Sims: “I hope it doesn’t make you blush when we rightfully call you a living, breathing national treasure.” Roughly 12 hours later, I would be on stage with Sims and Lee in […]
National News
The beginner’s guide to celebrating Juneteenth
By TERRY TANG For more than one-and-a-half centuries, the Juneteenth holiday has been sacred to many Black communities. It marks the day in 1865 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas found out they had been freed — after the end of the Civil War, and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Since it was designated a federal holiday […]
Heinrich-led bump stock ban gained speed, then stalls when one Republican objects
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that it would take an act of Congress, not a Trump-era regulatory rule, to ban bump stocks for firearms. Monday afternoon, New Mexico’s U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, joined by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), announced that they had organized nearly two dozen […]
Severe, chaotic weather around US with high temperatures in Southwest and Midwest, snow in Rockies
By Anita Snow Extreme heat spread across Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas, Colorado and Kansas as severe weather swept across many parts of the U.S. on Sunday. There was unseasonable cold in the Pacific Northwest, snow headed to the northern Rocky Mountains and heavy rainfall forecast from the northern Plains to the Upper Midwest. The […]
Unanimous Supreme Court preserves access to widely used abortion medication
By MARK SHERMAN WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously preserved access to a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court’s first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. The nine justices ruled that abortion opponents lacked the legal right to sue over the federal Food […]
House votes to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for withholding Biden audio
By FARNOUSH AMIRI WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case, Republicans’ latest and strongest rebuke of the Justice Department as partisan conflict over the rule of law animates the 2024 presidential campaign. The […]
US gas prices are falling
By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS Gas prices are once again on the decline across the U.S., bringing some relief to drivers now paying a little less to fill up their tanks. The national average for gas prices on Monday stood around $3.44, according to AAA. That’s down about 9 cents from a week ago — marking the […]
President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is convicted of all 3 felonies in federal gun trial
By RANDALL CHASE, CLAUDIA LAUER, MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, COLLEEN LONG and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER / Associated Press WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Hunter Biden was convicted Tuesday of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally […]
Alzheimer’s drug that can slow disease gets backing from FDA advisers
By MATTHEW PERRONE / ASSOCIATED PRESS A closely watched Alzheimer’s drug from Eli Lilly won the backing of federal health advisers on Monday, setting the stage for the treatment’s expected approval for people with mild dementia caused by the brain-robbing disease. Food and Drug Administration advisers voted unanimously that the drug’s ability to slow the disease outweighs […]
Donald Trump tells a group that calls for banning all abortions to stand up for ‘innocent life’
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and PETER SMITH Donald Trump on Monday urged a staunchly anti-abortion Christian group to stand up for “innocent life,” ambiguously revisiting an issue that Democrats want to make a focus of this year’s presidential election. The former president and presumptive Republican nominee’s pre-recorded message praised the work of those attending the event hosted […]