Pope Francis hosted a group of transgender women — many of whom are sex workers or migrants from Latin America — to a Vatican luncheon for the Catholic Church’s “World Day of the Poor” last week. The pontiff and the transgender women have formed a close relationship since the pope came to their aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were unable to work.
The three individuals charged with running brothels in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., that allegedly hosted high-profile clientele, including political and military leaders, brought in over a million dollars running the operation, a top federal investigator on the case said Wednesday. According to an affidavit submitted to the U.S.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Incumbent Erin Mendenhall has won her reelection bid for mayor of Utah’s capital in a ranked-choice contest that included a challenge by Salt Lake City’s former Mayor Rocky Anderson. Ballot returns released Wednesday, which included all scannable ballots in the Salt Lake County clerk’s possession, showed Mendenhall with 58% of the vote to Anderson’s 34%, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
A group of 20 Romanian nationals — including two with organized crime ties — were nabbed Tuesday after illegally entering the U.S. from the Canadian border, authorities say. Border Patrol agents apprehended the subjects after four vehicles were observed crossing the international boundary from Canada into the United States, according to a press release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Agents were alerted to the illegal crossing just after 6 a.m.
The head of Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ super PAC has resigned amid internal turmoil within the organization over its strategy moving forward into 2024. Chris Jankowski, a veteran operative in Republican politics, submitted his resignation letter, effective immediately, to the board of Never Back Down on Wednesday. “Never Back Down’s main goal and sole focus has been to elect Governor Ron DeSantis as President.
A Wisconsin museum is facing backlash after its annual Christmas tree festival included some controversial entries this year. Of the 66 trees on display at the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, the ones that seemed to draw the most attention belonged to the Satanic Temple of Wisconsin and the Bay Area Council on Gender Diversity. The trees, which will be on display until Dec.
The demand for Rare Earth Elements is growing as the world transitions to cleaner energy sources. Rare Earth Magnets are used in electric cars, wind turbines and other evolving technology. Regulations and environmental concerns have slowed production of magnets in the U.S. as China ramped up its manufacturing with fewer workplace standards.
A Republican-drawn map for Tennessee’s Senate seats violates the state Constitution because lawmakers incorrectly numbered the legislative districts in left-leaning Nashville, which affects which years those seats are on the ballot, a panel of judges ruled Wednesday. The ruling centers on maps passed by the Republican-supermajority Legislature in 2022 during the once-a-decade redistricting process.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down Maryland’s handgun licensing law, finding that its requirements, which include submitting fingerprints for a background check and taking a four-hour firearms safety course, are unconstitutionally restrictive. In a 2-1 ruling, judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said they considered the case in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that “effected a sea change in Second Amendment law.
Democrat Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown took action against a member of his own hate crime task force on Tuesday after numerous antisemitic social media posts by the member surfaced, including a claim that the babies murdered in the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas attack were “fake.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration said Tuesday that it is appealing a court ruling that blocked a state regulation to make Pennsylvania’s power plant owners pay for their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, even as the Democrat warned lawmakers to get to work on a better alternative. In a statement, Shapiro didn’t pledge to enforce the regulation, should his administration win the appeal at the Democratic-majority state Supreme Court.
Republican Celeste Maloy beat state Sen. Kathleen Riebe, a self-described moderate, to win Utah’s special election Tuesday night, filling the last remaining open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Associated Press called the race at 8:36 p.m. local time. The election, which was held in Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, was triggered by the resignation of former Republican Rep. Chris Stewart, who left Congress in September due to his wife’s unspecified illness.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday that Washington D.C. “has abandoned us” in regards to the ongoing migrant crisis the city and other parts of the country are facing — days after he announced stinging budget cuts to education and policing due to the crisis. “D.C. has abandoned us, and they need to be paying their cost to this national problem,” Adams said during a town hall in Brooklyn, according to Politico.
There was chatter among Congressional reporters about wandering over to The Monocle for a drink last Wednesday night. The Monocle is an old-school Capitol Hill watering hole located next to U.S. Capitol Police Headquarters and across the parking lot from the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Senators sometimes hang out there while they wait for the body to get its business together for late night votes. It was pushing 9 p.m.
Backers of a proposal to change Ohio’s troubled political mapmaking system will finally be able to start gathering signatures, after clearing a second round of state approvals Monday. Citizens Not Politicians now has until July 3 to collect roughly 414,000 signatures required to put its constitutional amendment before voters in November 2024. Supporters are expected to fan out across the state beginning this week to try to make next fall’s statewide ballot.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a stern defense of President Biden’s “stamina” on Monday, his 81st birthday, when questioned over the growing concerns surrounding his age.
New Hampshire should be spending at least 80% more per pupil on public schools, a judge said Monday in one of two rulings that could force significant changes to education funding. Lawmakers have been grappling with the issue for decades after the state Supreme Court ruled in the 1990s that the state is required to provide and pay for an adequate education. In response, the Legislature began sending each school district a set amount of aid per pupil — currently $4,100.
Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger Page announced on Monday that he plans to retire in August 2024. In a statement from Tennessee’s court system, the 68-year-old said his time as a judge has been humbling, inspiring and the honor of a lifetime. He was first appointed to the high court by former Republican Gov. Bill Haslam in 2016. His last day will be Aug. 31.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas will endorse former President Donald Trump for their party’s 2024 nomination when the two team up Sunday near the U.S.-Mexico border, GOP sources in Texas confirm to Fox News.
An Oregon Democratic congressional candidate is embracing her past and looking to “reclaim her sexuality” after a clip of her working at a Manhattan BDSM dungeon was leaked online earlier this year.
President Biden on Saturday called for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestinians in the Middle East, but one that is “free from Hamas” as he put forward his plan for peace in the region in the wake of the Hamas terror attack against Israel. “The Palestinian people deserve a state of their own and a future free from Hamas,” he said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is urging the city’s richest to open their wallets to help the city weather a financial storm created by the ongoing migrant crisis, days after the city unveiled deep budget cuts. “This is a moment where it’s an all hands on deck moment,” Adams told a Police Athletic League lunch on Friday, according to the New York Post.
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee is calling for an investigation into the now-defunct House January 6 committee, accusing former and current lawmakers who served on the committee of “deliberately” hiding some of the footage from the Capitol riots. Lee’s comments came after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., began releasing more than 40,000 hours of footage taken at the U.S.
The Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) late Wednesday night to fund federal agencies into early next year, temporarily averting a government shutdown just before the holiday season. The bill passed by a vote of 87-11, with 10 Republicans and only one Democrat voting no. GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Tim Scott were absent for the vote. The House of Representatives passed the CR on Tuesday by an overwhelming majority of 336-95. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
EXCLUSIVE: Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rubbed salt on the wound Wednesday by trolling his opponent, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, over her heavily scrutinized vow to require all social media users be verified.
President Biden repeated his reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” on Wednesday just hours after a spokeswoman for the Chinese government vowed her country would be “unstoppable” in eventually retaking Taiwan. Biden’s comments came at his press conference concluding the U.S.-China summit in San Francisco when a reporter asked if he would still refer to Xi using the term, which he used for the first time in June. “Well, look, he is.
The biggest question on Capitol Hill this week is whether the meanest, toughest people in the country come from Oklahoma or Tenneseee? California? Perhaps you’re dreamin’. “I’m a guy from Oklahoma first,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., a former MMA fighter on Fox News Radio. Mullin rose from his seat on the dais during a Senate hearing to challenge Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to a fistfight. Mullin even loosened his wedding ring.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas may endorse former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination when the two team up Sunday near the U.S.-Mexico border.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was caught on video running over a Chinese child while playing a pickup basketball game during his trip to the country. The short clip, which was shared by RNC Research, an arm of the Republican National Committee, features the California governor showing off his ball handling skills before making a move toward the basket and running right through one of the children attempting to defend him.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday said he stands by the decision to decertify any pro-Palestinian student groups that side with Hamas from state college campuses, arguing that to allow these groups to openly side with “brutal terrorist organizations” is like committing “suicide as a country.