WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up a major Republican-led challenge to the Voting Rights Act, the centerpiece legislation of the Civil Rights Movement, that could gut a key provision of the law that prohibits racial discrimination in redistricting. The justices on Wednesday are hearing arguments for the second time in … Read more
GENEVA — GENEVA (AP) — Heat-trapping carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere jumped by the highest amount on record last year, soaring to a level not seen in human civilization and “turbo-charging” the Earth’s climate and causing more extreme weather, the United Nations weather agency said Wednesday. The World Meteorological Organization said in its latest … Read more
Texas Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa entered the race for governor Wednesday, criticizing Republican Gov. Greg Abbott as beholden to big donors in an uphill bid to become the first Democrat to hold the office since 1995. Hinojosa, who represents Austin, joins a race that has been without big-name challengers and overshadowed in Texas by … Read more
LAKE CITY, Florida — LAKE CITY, Florida (AP) — A Florida judge has granted a protective order against Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Mills at the request of a former girlfriend who claimed that he threatened to release nude images of her and physically harm her future boyfriends after she broke up with him. Under the … Read more
BOGOTA, Colombia — BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The United Nations warned that mercury contamination from illegal gold mining in Colombia’s Atrato River basin has created a “serious and ongoing human rights crisis,” threatening the health and survival of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities who depend on the river for food, water and culture. In a letter … Read more
CONCORD, N.H. — CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire’s 2020 law abolishing deadlines for lawsuits alleging sexual assault cannot be applied retroactively, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The ruling came in the case of Randy Ball, who sued the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester in 2023 alleging he was raped by a priest at … Read more
SAN DIEGO — SAN DIEGO (AP) — Parents of a U.S. Marine were detained by federal immigration officials and one of them was later deported after visiting family members at a California military base, a case that has drawn attention to how the government’s immigration crackdown is touching military families. Steve Rios, a Marine from … Read more