Deputy acquitted of all charges for failing to act during deadly Parkland school shooting

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida sheriff’s deputy was acquitted Thursday of felony child neglect and other charges for failing to act during the 2018 Parkland school massacre, concluding the first trial in U.S. history of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting. Former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson wept as the verdicts were read. The jury...

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New York Dems put abortion on the ballot in bid to retake the House

Left-leaning New York groups pledged $20 million Thursday to support a change to the New York State constitution to protect abortion rights that will be on the 2024 ballot — something they believe will boost turnout for Democrats in key swing House districts. A state Equal Rights Amendment will ask voters next November to codify a number of rights, including abortion and...

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Prosecutors charge three men with insider trading scheme related to Trumps media company

Federal prosecutors in New York charged three investors on Thursday with an insider trading scheme in which they allegedly made more than $22 million in illegal profits by acting on information about a plan to take former president Donald Trump’s media company public. The three men — Michael Shvartsman, Gerald Shvartsman and Bruce Garelick — were investors in a special purpose...

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AI Could Pay Dividends to Americans. Literally.

For four decades, Alaskans have opened their mailboxes to find checks waiting for them, their cut of the black gold beneath their feet. This is Alaska’s Permanent Fund, funded by the state’s oil revenues and paid to every Alaskan each year. We're now in a different sort of resource rush, with companies peddling bits instead of oil: generative AI. Everyone is talking about...

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Migration money feud infiltrates European Union summit

Leaders push for renewing relations with Turkey as the divisive migration issue is increasingly dominating Europe’s political agenda. from Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories https://ift.tt/1QABG2j via IFT...

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Senate Republicans try to stop messy Montana primary

Senate GOP leaders got their dream recruit in Montana. Now they have to work to keep their 2018 loser out. The race to take on Sen. Jon Tester, one of the most vulnerable Democrats on the ballot next year, kicked off Tuesday with a campaign launch by Tim Sheehy, a Navy SEAL-turned-aerial firefighter. Within a day he had secured the support of the chair of the Senate GOP campaign...

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Lowell P. Weicker Jr. maverick senator during Watergate dies at 92

HARTFORD, Conn. — Lowell P. Weicker Jr., a Republican U.S. senator who tussled with his own party during the Watergate hearings, championed legislation to protect people with disabilities and later was elected Connecticut governor as an independent, died Wednesday. He was 92. Weicker’s death at a hospital in Middletown, Conn., after a short illness, was confirmed by his family...

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Debris from implosion of Titanic-bound submersible is returned to land

PORTLAND, Maine — Debris from the Titan submersible has been returned to land after a fatal implosion during its voyage to the wreck of the Titanic captured the world’s attention last week. The return of the debris to port in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, is a key piece of the investigation into why the submersible imploded, killing all five people on board. Twisted...

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Americans remain divided on gun control as national worry over violence rises Pew report finds

As gun-related death rates continue to rise each year in the U.S., a new Pew Research study found that while views about gun ownership and gun policy remain starkly divided along party lines, Americans across the political spectrum increasingly see gun violence and violent crime as issues of national concern. Democrats and Republicans agree on little when it comes to gun...

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How the Supreme Courts decision on election law could shut the door on future fake electors

The Supreme Court’s rejection of a controversial election theory may also have another huge political consequence for future presidential contests: It obliterated the dubious fake elector scheme that Donald Trump deployed in his failed attempt to seize a second term. That scheme relied on friendly state legislatures appointing “alternate” slates of pro-Trump presidential...

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Supreme Court ruling supercharges state fights over partisan gerrymandering

The Supreme Court just turbo-charged the nationwide fight over gerrymandering. It is a rejection of the so-called independent state legislature theory, with the Supreme Court leaving a role for state courts to wade into the increasingly common battles over partisan gerrymandering. State courts have been immensely influential over congressional control over the last half-decade. The...

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Kansas City teen recounts being shot after he rang wrong doorbell

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There was no way, Ralph Yarl thought, that the white man pointing the gun at him through the glass door would shoot him. But the Black teenager, who had gone to the wrong house in Kansas City looking for his younger brothers, was wrong a second time. Yarl’s brothers were actually at a home a block away, and he said in an interview with “Good Morning America”...

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Ivanka Trump dismissed from New York fraud lawsuit against Trump family business

A New York state appeals court on Tuesday dismissed Ivanka Trump from the New York state attorney general’s civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and three of his adult children. The court ruled that legal claims against Ivanka Trump were too old because she left the family business to advise her father in the White House in early...

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The Pentagon tries to get AI right again

Russia’s use of military drones in Ukraine has grown so aggressive that manufacturers have struggled to keep up. China’s strategy for a “world-class military” features cutting-edge artificial intelligence, according to Xi Jinping’s major party address last year. The Pentagon, meanwhile, has struggled through a series of programs to boost its high-tech powers in recent years. Now...

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Civil rights notable James Meredith turns 90 urges people to press onward

JACKSON, Miss. — James Meredith knew he was putting his life in danger in the 1960s by pursuing what he believes was his divine mission: conquering white supremacy in the deeply, and often violently, segregated state of Mississippi. A half-century later, the civil rights leader is still talking about his mission from God. In recent weeks, he made several appearances around...

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Hollywood mogul acknowledges gifts to Netanyahu may have been excessive

JERUSALEM — A billionaire Hollywood mogul took the stand for a second day on Monday in Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, acknowledging that the long list of champagne, cigars and jewelry he systematically gave to the Israeli prime minister may have been excessive. Arnon Milchan, whose production credits include “Pretty Woman,” “12 Years a Slave,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,”...

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Putin tells rebellious Russian fighters to swear allegiance or leave for Belarus

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered mercenary troops who participated in the short-lived weekend rebellion to either swear allegiance to their country or leave for Belarus. In evening remarks from the Kremlin, his first since a short address to the nation on Saturday, Putin presented part of the short-term resolution for the stunning turn of weekend events...

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New York officials remember Richard Ravitch the state's top crisis solver for half a century

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s top leaders mourned the passing of longtime problem-solver Richard Ravitch, who died Sunday less than two weeks before his 90th birthday. “He was never elected to anything, yet he had arguably the most impactful and consequential role in state and city government over the past 50 years,” Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said in an interview with POLITICO,...

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Crypto mystery: New tax rules are MIA

The crypto world has been bracing for a tax crackdown from the Treasury Department for more than a year-and-a-half, ever since Congress approved new rules aimed at making it easier for the IRS to determine how much money people make trading virtual currencies. Since then: silence. Though the IRS considers crypto a major source of tax avoidance, not even a first draft of the...

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