In The News

FREDERICK, Md. — Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner announced legislation that would create an Office of Equity and Inclusion in order to address issues of inequity within the county government.  Additionally, the bill establishes the position of chief equity and... Read More

Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who pressured former President Donald Trump to pay a settlement to a stripper, was sentenced to 30 months in prison yesterday for trying to extort millions of dollars from sportswear company Nike Inc. He is scheduled... Read More

Pfizer is about to seek U.S. authorization for a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, saying Thursday that another shot within 12 months could dramatically boost immunity and maybe help ward off the latest worrisome coronavirus mutant. Research from multiple... Read More

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday asked people and businesses in the nation's most populous state to voluntarily cut how much water they use by 15% as the Western United States weathers a drought that is... Read More

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — On a sweaty recent Thursday afternoon, Alex Berrios is instructing his team on how to get people to register to vote. Extend your hand, he says; it makes folks more likely to stop. Smile a lot,... Read More

WASHINGTON — After weeks of negotiations, a bipartisan infrastructure deal may have been reached, but even Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg knows not to count Washington chickens before they are hatched. “It’s not a small thing to turn the outlines of... Read More

WASHINGTON - A trio of House Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, accused the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies on Thursday of being more concerned with... Read More

Attorneys general from 36 states and Washington, D.C., hit Google LLC with yet another antitrust lawsuit Wednesday, accusing the company of unfair business tactics to monopolize sales of apps used on Android phones.  The lawsuit says Google bought off competitors... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas — Incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott now faces a pair of serious primary challengers in the form of former Texas Republican Party Chairman Allen West and former state Sen. Don Huffines. In his 25 years in statewide politics,... Read More

LANSING. Mich.— Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined students and staff on Wednesday at Ojibwa Elementary in Macomb county to sign a bill that appropriates $4.4 billion in federal COVID relief funding to schools.  According to a release, House Bill 4421... Read More

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has been selected as the new chair of the National Governors Association. Hutchinson, the third Arkansas governor to be elected chair of the group, will serve in the position for 2021-2022. The Republican had served the... Read More

WASHINGTON- A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute outlines structural reforms for unemployment insurance in the U.S., including a stronger role for the federal government in providing that insurance. According to the report, unemployment benefits in the country, a... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday said the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on Aug. 31, saying "speed is safety" as the United States seeks to end the nearly 20-year war. "We did not go to... Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C.- South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and others have appealed a federal court’s preliminary injunction preventing them implementing a ban on the abortion of a fetus with a detectable heartbeat. McMaster signed the South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection... Read More

U.S. health regulators on Thursday approved new prescribing instructions that are likely to limit use of a controversial new Alzheimer’s drug. The announcement came through Biogen Inc., the maker of Aduhelm, which stated the update is intended to “clarify” the... Read More

WASHINGTON - Nine in 10 registered voters want federal infrastructure plans to be paid for with offsets, including clearly identified spending cuts or revenue raisers, a new Peterson Foundation poll found. And the result holds true for 86% of Democrats,... Read More

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy is spending $52.5 million on 31 projects to advance next-generation clean hydrogen technologies and support DOE’s recently announced Hydrogen Energy Earthshot initiative to reduce the cost and accelerate breakthroughs in the clean hydrogen... Read More

The court-appointed attorneys representing Britney Spears in her conservatorship case resigned Tuesday after the pop icon asked a judge for permission to hire her own counsel. The high-profile case is testing whether California's conservatorship laws protect the wealthy celebrities they... Read More

New York held a ticker-tape parade Wednesday for the health care workers and others who helped the city pull through the darkest days of COVID-19, while authorities in Missouri struggled to beat back a surge blamed on the fast-spreading delta... Read More

The deadly heat wave that roasted the Pacific Northwest and western Canada was virtually impossible without human-caused climate change that added a few extra degrees to the record-smashing temperatures, a new quick scientific analysis found. An international team of 27... Read More

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse seemed to have thrown an already turbulent nation into chaos on Wednesday, with a muddled line of succession. Here is a look at the situation: WHO WAS THE ASSASSINATED PRESIDENT?... Read More

More than a dozen states have dropped their longstanding objections to OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's reorganization plan, edging the company closer to resolving its bankruptcy case and transforming itself into a new entity that helps combat the U.S. opioid epidemic... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — The triumph of a moderate Democrat in the mayoral primary in deep blue New York City appears to accelerate a recent trend of some of the party's most fervent voters breaking away from its most progressive... Read More

WASHINGTON - Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and John Yarmuth, D-Ky., are stepping up to protect journalists from being compelled to reveal confidential sources and to prevent federal law enforcement from abusing subpoena power. On Wednesday, the three... Read More

With residential electricity use projected to increase by 2.8% this year, the personal-finance website WalletHub on Wednesday released its report on 2021's most and least energy-expensive states. For the sake of its study, WalletHub compared the average monthly energy bills... Read More

A recent NIH-funded study finds that the frequency and intensity of monthly migraines declined among those on a higher fish oil diet. Researchers from the National Institute on Aging, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, parts of... Read More

During a heatwave in Manhattan there are very few places one can go to cool down, which is why the city offers access to cooling centers around the city for residents. A cooling center is usually a facility, such as... Read More

KALININGRAD, Russia — Public outcry over privacy policy changes to the open-source digital audio editor and recording application Audacity culminated in its parent company, Muse Group, clarifying how it intends to utilize user data. The application, acquired by Muse Group... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that damage to U.S. businesses in the biggest ransomware attack on record appears minimal, though information remained incomplete. The company whose software was exploited said fewer than 1,500 businesses worldwide appeared compromised... Read More

Experts say environmental education needs greater investment if future generations are to be able to fully respond to the climate emergency.   According to an article in Environmental Education Research, co-authored by Alan Reid, editor, and Justin Dillion, Jo-Anne Ferreira and... Read More