Appeals court upholds Florida high school’s transgender bathroom ban

MIAMI — A federal appeals court has ruled that a Florida school district’s policy of separating school bathrooms based on biological sex is constitutional. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced its 7-4 decision on Friday, ruling that the St. Johns County School Board did not discriminate against transgender students based on sex, or violate federal civil rights...

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How many calories are in your Champagne? The label may soon tell you.

Producers of most wine, beer and spirits have never been required to fully disclose on the bottle or can what’s in their products. But that may soon change as the federal government finally responded to a 20-year effort by public interest groups to require more detailed labeling. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau — the agency that regulates labeling in much of...

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Benedict XVI, first pope to resign in 600 years, dies at 95

VATICAN CITY — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the shy German theologian who tried to reawaken Christianity in a secularized Europe but will forever be remembered as the first pontiff in 600 years to resign from the job, died Saturday. He was 95. Pope Francis will celebrate his funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, an unprecedented event in which a current pope will...

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Barbara Walters, a superstar and pioneer in TV news, dies

NEW YORK — Barbara Walters, a pioneer as TV news’ first woman superstar, has died, according to ABC News. She was 93. Her cause of death was not immediately known. Other details, such as where she died, were not immediately released. Walters made headlines in 1976 as the first female network news anchor, with an unprecedented $1 million annual salary. During more than three...

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Suspect in deaths of Idaho students arrested in Pennsylvania

Authorities in Pennsylvania arrested a suspect in the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their beds more than a month ago, authorities said Friday. The killings initially mystified law enforcement and shook the small town of Moscow, Idaho, a farming community of about 25,000 people that had not had a murder for five years. Fears...

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Biden pardons 6 convicted of murder, drug, alcohol crimes

President Joe Biden has pardoned six people who have served out sentences after convictions on a murder charge and drug- and alcohol-related crimes, including an 80-year-old woman convicted of killing her abusive husband about a half-century ago and a man who pleaded guilty to using a telephone for a cocaine transaction in the 1970s. The pardons, announced Friday, mean the...

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Ethics questions on fundraiser, expenses and more: Where George Santos' many scandals stand

Every day brings Rep.-elect George Santos closer to his official Congressional swearing in. Every day also seemingly reveals further problems for the scandal-plagued New York Republican. The unraveling of Santos’ campaign narrative started with a New York Times exposéon Dec. 19 that called into question claims he’d made about attending Baruch College, working at Goldman Sachs...

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