COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Akron-based energy company at the center of a $60 million bribery scheme in Ohio gave a secret $1 million contribution to a dark money group backing Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted in his 2018 bid for governor, cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer reported Wednesday. The contribution from FirstEnergy Corp. to Freedom Frontier, […]

Two tribal nations are accusing social media companies of contributing to the disproportionately high rates of suicide among Native American youth. Their lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles county court names Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms; Snapchat’s Snap Inc.; TikTok parent company ByteDance; and Alphabet, which owns YouTube and Google, as defendants. Virtually […]

The top prosecutor in a northwestern New Jersey county has resigned amid a state probe into allegations that the office lied about caseloads to pad its budget with state money meant for fraud investigations. James Pfeiffer, who had been the Warren County prosecutor since 2019, resigned Friday “effective immediately,” state Attorney General Matthew Platkin said. […]

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her team are leaving China and returning to Washington after trying to tackle the major questions of the day between the countries. Here’s a look at what she tried to accomplish, what was achieved, and where things stand for the world’s two largest economies: UNFAIR TRADE […]

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 […]