Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, no longer plans to whip votes in his chamber for his party leadership.

In Congress, whips count votes and ensure the wishes of their party and leadership are followed.

“(Senator Tillis) and I had a discussion,” Majority Whip John Barrasso said Thursday, his team told McClatchy. “It was ...Read more

Walmart has recalled about 850,000 Ozark Trail 64-ounce stainless steel insulated water bottles because of the possibility of the lid forcefully ejecting and posing serious injury risks, including loss of vision.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that the lid can shoot off after a person attempts to open the bottles when carbonated...Read more

BALTIMORE — Thursday’s suspected overdoses in Baltimore’s Penn North neighborhood came just after city officials rolled out Mayor Brandon Scott’s plan to use hundreds of millions of dollars from settlements to tackle the city’s opioid crisis.

At a July 2 news conference, Scott announced that the new Mayor’s Office of Overdose ...Read more

The story of Great Lakes whitefish is not a happy one, state fish biologist Stephen Lenart warned on Thursday, but it needs to be told as their numbers decline.

Lenart presented the uncomfortable facts about the iconic Great Lakes species during a Michigan Natural Resource Commission meeting on Thursday.

The long-lived fish are prized table ...Read more

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a new policy on Thursday that would effectively bar migrants in the United States illegally from accessing certain federal education and medical programs, such as Head Start.

HHS said in a statement the new restrictions restore compliance with a 1996 law known as the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Thursday objected to quick passage of legislation that would restore full deductibility of wagering losses after Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto made the unanimous consent request.

The bill from Cortez Masto would fix a provision enacted in the massive reconciliation package last week that would allow...Read more

A Delta flight traveling from Madrid to New York City was forced to make an emergency landing on a remote island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean this week, stranding nearly 300 passengers and crew overnight.

Delta Flight 127 departed Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport around 12:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, and was scheduled to land at ...Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on Thursday launched an investigation into the state of Minnesota following a new Department of Human Services policy that calls for supervisors to provide justification for hiring non-diverse candidates in underrepresented roles.

The federal department said the new DHS protocol may ...Read more

Hank Brennan earned $566,000 for his work as special prosecutor in the second Karen Read murder trial, records show.

Brennan is a defense attorney hired by Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey to lead the prosecution in the second trial of Read on charges including second-degree murder in the Jan. 29, 2022, death of Boston Police Officer...Read more

If you’ve played the video game “The Last of Us” or seen the television adaption, then you’ve heard of cordyceps — a “zombie” fungus that infects its host and takes over its body. This leads to the main plotline of a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with “infected” humans shooting fungal spores from every pore.

The cordyceps ...Read more

The Trump administration has sued California over the state's voter-approved animal welfare law, which protects hens, pigs and calves from being kept in small cages, claiming the law has driven up egg prices and violates federal farming laws and regulations.

"California has contributed to the historic rise in egg prices by imposing unnecessary ...Read more

Although Kate Middleton and Prince William’s children aren’t often in the public eye, the couple often find ways to include them in their various outings.

And when the young royals do step out with their parents, the youngest’s personality is usually on display.

Middleton and William share three kids together, 11-year-old Prince George, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Maryland won a key fight on Thursday to keep the future headquarters of the FBI in Greenbelt.

After the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday to preserve $1.4 billion in funds for use at the Greenbelt site for the new FBI headquarters, Republicans tanked the amended bill to prevent it from advancing out of the ...Read more

BOSTON — After adding new attorneys to her cause, Karen Read said she intends to ask the court to toss a civil case against her.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, was acquitted last month of criminal charges including second-degree murder in the Jan. 29, 2022, death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, her boyfriend at the time. With that trial now...Read more

Measles cases throughout the U.S. are on the rise — but Southern California is faring better than other states.

Nationally speaking, more cases have been reported halfway through 2025 than any other year since the disease was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000.

In California, 17 cases have been reported thus far in 2025. In 2024, the ...Read more

The lawmaker wife of scandal-tarred Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed for divorce on Thursday, citing “recent discoveries” and infidelity.

State Sen. Angela Paxton said she moved to end her power marriage of 38 years to the Republican U.S. Senate candidate “on biblical grounds,” a euphemism for adultery.

“I believe marriage is...Read more

NEW YORK — A state appellate court ruled Thursday that Mayor Eric Adams must move to enact a package of legislation that would expand the city’s rental assistance program, an initiative City Council Democrats argue is critical amid a citywide housing crisis.

The legislative package, which was adopted by the City Council last year after the ...Read more