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Musk, Ramaswamy eye a 5-day week in office for federal workers

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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to lead the newly formed task force to review government spending — said they will push for eliminating work-from-home policies for federal workers, an idea that could spark clashes between the new administration and government employee unions.

“Requiring federal ...Read more

Western NC Democrats warn that funds in state's Helene relief bill won't aid businesses, housing

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Western North Carolina Democrats are blasting wide-ranging legislation passed this week that they describe as a power grab shrouded in a disaster relief package.

The disaster-relief portion of state Senate Bill 382 fails to meet the moment for storm battered Western North Carolinians who need immediate help to keep ...Read more

Royal Canadian Mounted Police/TNS/TNS

Survivor of harrowing blizzard walk across Canada-Minnesota border testifies in smuggling ring trial

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FERGUS FALLS, Minn. – The van carrying 11 migrants from Winnipeg got stuck in the snow as a blizzard raged. Just north of the Canadian border, the driver told the group to get out and walk until they reached a second vehicle that would be waiting.

“He just said, ‘Keep moving straight,’” Yash Patel, one of the migrants, recalled to a ...Read more

YOAN VALAT/AFP/TNS

French President Macron decries firing of Haiti's prime minister, calls decision 'dumb'

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French President Emmanuel Macron, who is visiting several South American nations during his attendance at this week’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is castigating members of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council for ousting the country’s second prime minister, Garry Conille, this year — the country’s third since the 2021 ...Read more

Courtesy Tulare County District Attorney’s Office/TNS/TNS

California student passes state bar at a record 17 years, 8 months old

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SANTA ANA, Calif. — A 17-year-old former Oxford Academy student just became the youngest person to pass the California bar exam.

Sophia Park learned on Nov. 8 that she had passed the July 2024 exam, which will allow her to become a practicing lawyer in the state.

At 17 years, 8 months old, Park beat the record for the youngest person to pass...Read more

Katy Kildee, The Detroit News/The Detroit News/TNS

Trump chooses Michigan GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra to be ambassador to Canada

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LANSING, Mich. — President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday he's nominating Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Canada.

The development means a Michigan resident will have a role in the coming Trump administration and state Republicans will have to select a new leader in the coming...Read more

Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

FBI arrests suspect in plot to bomb New York Stock Exchange

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NEW YORK — A Florida man has been arrested by the FBI on accusations of plotting to blow up the New York Stock Exchange, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Harun Abdul-Malik Yener was charged in Miami-Dade County with “attempting to use an improvised explosive device to damage or destroy a building used in interstate or foreign ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Dallas doc gets 190 years for injecting IV bags with heart-stopping drugs

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A Dallas anesthesiologist has been sentenced to 190 years in prison for injecting “heart-stopping drugs” into IV bags at the surgical center where he worked, leading to the death of a co-worker and “numerous cardiac emergencies,” federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. injected IV bags of saline with a nerve-...Read more

Gardiner Anderson/New York Daily News/TNS

City University of New York plans free speech task force amid criticism on response to pro-Palestinian protests

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NEW YORK — The City University of New York is convening a task force on free speech amid pushback over its response to protests critical of Israel, Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez announced during this year’s State of the University address Wednesday.

The working group is tasked with developing a systemwide policy across its 25 campuses ...Read more

Will new tax on foreign shrimp finally level the playing field on the Mississippi Coast?

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South Mississippi shrimp processors hope more customers will buy U.S. shrimp now that federal agencies have finalized a new tax, or duty, on shrimp from four foreign countries.

The U..S. Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission have ruled that frozen shrimp from Indonesia are being "dumped" on the U.S. market, or sold at ...Read more

Travis Long/The News & Observer/TNS

Top official is out at agency responsible for rebuilding after Eastern NC hurricanes

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Laura Hogshead, the chief operating officer of North Carolina's Office of Recovery and Resiliency, which oversees rebuilding efforts following Hurricanes Florence and Matthew, is no longer employed by the embattled agency.

A spokesperson for the state’s Department of Public Safety, which houses NCORR, confirmed to The News & Observer that ...Read more

Lori Martin/Dreamstime/TNS

Colorado school bus driver accused of abandoning 40 elementary students miles from home

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DENVER — A Castle Rock school bus driver abandoned 40 elementary schoolers Monday evening at a random intersection miles away from their homes, parents and school district officials said.

Parents told 9NEWS that the driver, who was a substitute for the route that day, forced their Clear Sky Elementary School students off the bus near a ...Read more

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Elon Musk slams Massachusetts sanctuary cities as Natick looks to join that group

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Elon Musk slammed sanctuary cities just minutes before the Natick Select Board met Wednesday night to consider committing to that status, which would sharply limit its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Musk took to his social media platform, X, after Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston announced it had arrested two illegal...Read more

News briefs

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FDA’s nutrition goals similar to Kennedy’s, experts say

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to helm the Department of Health and Human Services has said he wants sweeping changes to how the United States approaches health and food, going so far as to suggest that the Food and Drug Administration should eliminate its ...Read more

Lucian Milasan/Dreamstime/TNS

Clock ticking on Joe Biden judge picks. How Donald Trump could shape federal California courts

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President Joe Biden has several federal judicial nominees lined up for California vacancies — but unless they’re confirmed in the next six weeks by the Senate, their chances will fade instantly.

There are six current and future vacancies across California for lifetime federal judicial roles. Biden has selected six individuals who are ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Disregard Michael Wolff's 'nonsense' new book, Trump team warns

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Do not read Michael Wolff’s new book, a long list of Trump campaign surrogates declared on Wednesday.

The book — an as-yet unreleased and untitled new work by the author of “Fire and Fury” — will be filled with falsehoods and is best ignored, according to Trump’s staff, just like they apparently ignored Wolff’s attempt to ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Nearly half of Muslim students at California universities say they have been harassed, survey finds

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Nearly half of Muslim students surveyed at California colleges and universities say they have been targets of anti-Islamic harassment or discrimination in the last school year as pro-Palestinian protests erupted on campuses, a sharp increase from four years ago, the Council on American Islamic Relations said in a new report.

The study, which ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Speaker Johnson targets transgender bathroom access, throwing weight behind Mace

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WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson said transgender women should not use women’s bathrooms in the House, adding fuel to a push led by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,�...Read more

L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

What's the latest on the Colorado River negotiations?

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The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a breakdown Wednesday of five potential paths forward for the fragile state-to-state negotiations surrounding Colorado River operating guidelines that must be updated by 2026.

The Colorado River, which is Southern Nevada’s primary source of water, holds a precarious future as the basin experiences ...Read more

Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Philly voter turnout didn't meet Democrats' expectations. Here's what happened

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PHILADELPHIA — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign poured significant resources into a vaunted operation to turn out voters in Philadelphia. The effort was supported by an army of door-knocking volunteers, and Democrats projected that Philadelphians would turn out in record numbers. They said the Republican get-out-the-vote operation was ...Read more