A supervisor overseeing background checks warned last year that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was hiring many new officers who had not undergone basic vetting, violating federal rules and putting the agency at risk of misconduct, a newly released whistleblower complaint shows. The official was a unit chief in ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, where background […]

CHICAGO (AP) — Two more beluga whales have died at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, including one that was rehomed at the facility just weeks earlier as part of an international effort to rescue Canada’s last captive whales, the aquarium announced Wednesday. Rain, a 20-year-old female, was the second to die out of a group of four […]

The U.S. Postal Service is poised to launch a hastily built, error-riddled computer system that could jeopardize the process of mail voting relied upon by one-third of all voters, according to a whistleblower statement released Tuesday by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. The effort is part of the implementation of President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting […]

When Simon’s wife of 43 years passed away, it felt a bit like he’d died too. In his overwhelming grief, Simon sought companionship online, like so many other lonely widows and widowers. Almost immediately he met Emily. But over the next few months, Emily, who Simon realized too late was a fake, stole $800,000 from […]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An immigrant rights group sued the Trump administration Wednesday to block the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from using federal databases that it alleged are being used to target naturalized citizens who are eligible to vote. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington on behalf of the Coalition for […]

Federal judges have varied their commutes, hired private security and fortified their homes, including with panic buttons, amid a barrage of threats and harassment in recent months that has left many of them anxious about their safety, according to two new studies. In an astonishing admission, one judge acknowledged considering an alternative ruling to avoid […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the school system in Kansas City, Kansas, over its policies on transgender students. The lawsuit comes more than a year after the Education Department first said it was investigating four districts in Kansas following a complaint from the Defense of Freedom […]

The U.S. Postal Service is poised to launch a hastily built, error-riddled computer system that could jeopardize the process of mail voting relied upon by one-third of all voters, according to a whistleblower statement released Tuesday by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. The effort is part of the implementation of President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting […]

Of the child safety measures agreed to in Meta’s landmark legal settlement, no category contains more detailed requirements than its commitments on age assurance — and for good reason. No matter how well the protections work, they are of little use if Meta can’t tell which users are kids. Determining which accounts belong to children […]

In 2023, the Texas Legislature unanimously passed a law raising auto insurance costs for Texans by $1 to combat rampant catalytic converter theft. Three years later, a little-known state agency has devoted at least $30 million of that fee toward supercharging the state’s Flock surveillance network, placing cameras along highways and streets from El Paso […]

When Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi decided he wanted pandas at the Honolulu Zoo, he approached the Chinese Consulate-General in Los Angeles, who gave him some advice: Go to China. The trip, a 10-day whirlwind this past spring taken by Blangiardi and his wife, who was born in Beijing, cost taxpayers roughly $30,000 and involved the […]

MIAMI (AP) — A controversial policing tactic that permitted staggering amounts of deadly fentanyl to reach the streets as federal authorities sought to build bigger drug cases is now under investigation by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, sent a letter Monday to Attorney General […]