WASHINGTON (AP) — Two influential lawmakers from opposing parties have crafted a deal on legislation designed to strengthen privacy protections for Americans’ personal data. The sweeping proposal announced Sunday evening would define privacy as a consumer right and create new rules for companies that collect and use personal information. It comes from the offices of […]

NEW YORK (AP) — The reposts and expressions of shock from public figures followed quickly after a user on the social platform X who uses a pseudonym claimed that a government website had revealed “skyrocketing” rates of voters registering without a photo ID in three states this year — two of them crucial to the […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is set to consider a bill next week that would reauthorize a surveillance program that U.S. officials consider vital to national security but that critics say raises privacy concerns. The action comes shortly before the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expires on April 19. […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s chief human resources agency issued a new rule on Thursday making it harder to fire thousands of federal employees, hoping to head off former President Donald Trump’s promises to radically remake the workforce along ideological lines if he wins back the White House in November. The Office of Personnel Management […]

Last year objections to a Nebraska bill that sought to ban gender-affirming care for anyone under age 19 ground the work of the Legislature to a near standstill. This year supporters of a companion bill restricting transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams waited until the end of the session to advance it for […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite the country’s deep political polarization, most Americans share many core beliefs about what it means to be an American, according to a new poll. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 9 in 10 U.S. adults say the right to vote, the right to […]

The aftermath of last year’s fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio doesn’t qualify as a public health emergency because widespread health problems and ongoing chemical exposures haven’t been documented, federal officials said.  The Environmental Protection Agency never approved that designation after the February 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment even though the disaster forced the evacuation of […]

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico election officials violated public disclosure provisions of the National Voter Registration Act by refusing to provide voter rolls to a conservative group and its public online database, a federal judge has ruled. The opinion and order Friday from Albuquerque-based U.S. District Court Judge James Browning mostly sided with […]

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Senate’s minority leader proposed legislation Tuesday to overhaul Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Prisoner Review Board after it released a convicted domestic abuser who then attacked a pregnant Chicago woman with a knife and fatally stabbed her 11-year-old son.  Republican Leader John Curran criticized Pritzker and said he plans legislation to […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Although a private browsing mode known as “Incognito” in Google’s widely used Chrome browser has been available for nearly a decade, a legal settlement involving the way it works has casting new attention on this commonly available setting. The settlement disclosed Monday in a federal court is primarily designed to ensure […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Tax season can come with several headaches, from gathering documents to finding the time to sit down and file. But one pain that you want to avoid is falling for a tax scam.  Year-round, scammers look for ways to trick people into giving them money or personal information. There are several […]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. surfing the internet through its Chrome web browser. The records purge comes as part of a settlement in a lawsuit accusing the search giant of illegal surveillance. The details of […]