WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing spending on federal grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Monday evening order from the White House Office of...
Flawed Emergency Alert Systems Lagged When Residents Needed Them Most During Los Angeles Wildfires
LOS ANGELES — When disaster strikes, government emergency alert systems offer a simple promise: Residents will get information about nearby dangers and instructions to help them stay safe. As the deadly LA wildfires and other major emergencies have shown, alerts rely on a complicated chain of communication between first responders,...
US Children Fall Further Behind in Reading, Make Little Improvement in Math on National Exam
WASHINGTON — America's children have continued to lose ground on reading skills in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and have made little improvement in math, according to the latest results of an exam known as the nation's report card. The findings are yet another setback for U.S. schools and...
Are We All Aliens? NASA’s Returned Asteroid Samples Hold the Ingredients of Life From a Watery World
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world, scientists reported Wednesday. The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that asteroids may have planted the seeds of life on Earth and...
Trump Offers All Federal Workers a Buyout With 7 Months’ Pay
WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday began offering buyouts worth seven months of salary to all federal employees who opt to leave their jobs by Feb. 6 — part of President Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the U.S. government. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the government's...
Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Administration Freeze on Federal Grants and Loans
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a push from President Donald Trump to pause federal funding while his administration conducts an across-the-board ideological review to uproot progressive initiatives. The Trump administration plan plunged the U.S. government into panic and confusion and set the stage for a constitutional...
Warriors to Retire Andre Iguodala’s No. 9 Jersey
SAN FRANCISCO — As Andre Iguodala moves around town in the Bay Area these days, he is regularly stopped by fans eager to praise him for how he carried himself while playing for the Golden State Warriors. For his grit and his drive. For doing all the little things many...
Israel’s Prime Minister Says Trump Has Invited Him to the White House on Feb. 4
WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has invited him to visit the White House on Feb. 4, which would make him the first foreign leader to do so in Trump's second term. The announcement came as the United States pressures...
‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closer to Midnight Amid Global Threats
Earth is moving closer to destruction, a science-oriented advocacy group said Tuesday as it advanced its famous "Doomsday Clock" to 89 seconds till midnight, the closest it has ever been. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists made the annual announcement — which rates how close humanity is from ending —...
Stock Market Today: Wall Street Steadies After Nvidia, Tech Sell-Off
NEW YORK — Nvidia and other U.S. tech stocks are holding steadier Tuesday, a day after tumbling on doubts about whether the artificial-intelligence frenzy really needs all the dollars being poured into it. The S&P 500 was 0.8% higher in afternoon trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 167...