WASHINGTON — Drug Enforcement Administration agents touting immigration arrests, IRS agents poring over documents, the military escorting deportation flights. As the Trump administration works on the president's pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out mass deportations, the flurry of activity has stretched across the federal government —...
Experts: IRS Cuts May Benefit Rich Tax Dodgers, Hurt Revenue
WASHINGTON — The layoffs of roughly 7,000 IRS probationary workers beginning this week likely mean the end of the agency's plan to go after high-wealth tax dodgers and could spell disaster for revenue collections, experts say. The majority of employees shown the door at the federal tax collector are newly...
Stock Market Today: Discouraging Economic Reports Knock Wall Street Further From Its Record
NEW YORK — Wall Street is pulling further from its record after reports on Friday showed worries about President Donald Trump's policies may be hitting the U.S. economy. The S&P 500 was down 0.4% in morning trading, a day after a weaker-than-expected profit forecast from Walmart helped knock it off...
Musk and His Millions Enter Wisconsin Supreme Court Race
Elon Musk’s super PAC is back. Musk, the country’s largest donor during the 2024 election, is returning to campaigns by funding a new effort to help elect Brad Schimel, the conservative candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It is Musk’s first public political spending after Election Day. His super political...
New Allegation of Sexual Misconduct Swirls Around CPAC Chair Matt Schlapp
It’s the political equivalent of homecoming week for conservatives, a chance to revel over President Donald Trump’s return to power and the dismantling of government institutions despised by the MAGA movement. But as the Conservative Political Action Conference got underway outside Washington on Thursday, the group’s influential chair, Matt Schlapp,...
America’s Newest Gun Owners Are Upending Preconceptions About Who Buys a Gun and Why
Ken Green’s tipping point came as he watched an angry mob storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. John Alvarado’s came during the COVID-19 pandemic, as he evolved from a self-described “bleeding-heart liberal” to a deeply religious conservative. A spike in anti-Asian violence in that same period is what...
Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. Adults Identifies as LGBTQ+, Survey Finds
Nearly 1 in 10 adults in the United States identifies as LGBTQ+, according to a large analysis from Gallup released Thursday — almost triple the share since Gallup began counting in 2012, and up by two-thirds since 2020. The increases have been driven by young people, and by bisexual women....
How California’s Wildfire Crisis Is Burning Through Your Wallet
For years, we’ve known that California is a kindling box, waiting for the next spark to ignite another catastrophic fire. Whether it’s downed power lines, dry lightning, deliberate arson, or a flat tire, which lead to the destruction of a family’s property, the threat of large-scale wildfires isn’t just a...
Merced Police Arrest High School Staffer in Sexual Assault Investigation
A staff member at El Capitan High School in Merced has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a student, the Merced Police Department said in a statement on Thursday. Merced police identified the suspect as John Mobley III, 34, who had been employed as an intervention coordinator at the...
Musk Waves Chainsaw and Charms Conservatives Talking Trump’s Cost-Cutting
OXON HILL, Md. — Billionaire Elon Musk appeared at a conservative gathering outside Washington on Thursday waving a chainsaw in the air, showing openness to auditing the Federal Reserve and accusing Democrats of "treason." Musk, the Tesla CEO who has become perhaps President Donald Trump's most influential adviser, spoke about...