NEW YORK (AP) — The news lit up the world of weed: U.S. health regulators are suggesting that the federal government loosen restrictions on marijuana. Specifically, the federal Health and Human Services Department has recommended taking marijuana out of a category of drugs deemed to have “no currently accepted medical use...
Election Workers Have Gotten Death Threats and Warnings They Will Be Lynched, the US Government Says
WASHINGTON — More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a Justice Department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote. Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods between elections,...
Liberal Groups Seek to Use the Constitution’s Insurrection Clause to Block Trump from 2024 Ballots
As former President Donald Trump dominates the Republican presidential primary, some liberal groups and legal experts contend that a rarely used clause of the Constitution prevents him from being president after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The 14th Amendment bars from office anyone who once took an oath...
Fed’s Preferred Inflation Gauge Shows a Modest Rise in Latest Sign of Slowing Price Increases
WASHINGTON — An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained low last month, adding to signs of cooling price increases and raising the likelihood that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged when it next meets in late September. Thursday's report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose just...
Ex-Proud Boys Organizer Gets 17 Years in Prison, Second Longest Sentence in Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Case
WASHINGTON - A former organizer of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison for spearheading an attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election. The sentence for...
Justice Clarence Thomas Reports He Took 3 Trips on Republican Donor’s Plane Last Year
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is acknowledging that he took three trips last year aboard a private plane owned by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. It's the first time in years that Thomas has reported receiving hospitality from Crow. In a report made public Thursday, the 75-year-old justice said he was...
Possible Prison Coffee Shop Part of Newsom Plan to Remake San Quentin
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom has ambitious and expensive plans for a dilapidated factory at San Quentin State Prison where inmates of one of the nation’s most notorious lockups once built furniture, and lawmakers have given him the greenlight to start with little input or oversight. He wants to spend...
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell Appears to Freeze up Again, Unable to Speak
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appeared to briefly freeze up and was unable to answer a question from a reporter at an event in Kentucky on Wednesday, weeks after he had a similar episode in Washington. As seen on video from a local news station, the 81-year-old McConnell was...
A Palestinian Kills an Israeli Soldier in a West Bank Truck Ramming Attack and Is Fatally Shot
TEL AVIV, Israel — A Palestinian driver slammed his truck into soldiers at a busy checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, killing one of them before being shot dead, Israeli authorities said, in the latest bloodshed in a relentless cycle of violence to roil the region. The violence came...
10 Drugs Targeted for Medicare Price Negotiations as Biden Pitches Cost Reductions
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden touted the potential cost savings of Medicare's first-ever price negotiations for widely used prescription drugs on Tuesday as he struggles to convince Americans that he’s improved their lives as he runs for reelection. The drugs include the blood thinner Eliquis, diabetes treatment Jardiance and eight other medications....