After years of debating how driverless cars should tell the world no one is at the wheel -- flashing text, audio alerts, custom lights -- the feds just stepped in with a single answer: cyan.
A Florida mayor was arrested Wednesday on theft and fraud charges alleging that she illegally enriched herself and family members through a COVID-19 small business relief program launched under her administration, according to the state's attorney general. Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa is being charged with grand theft, a second-degree felony, and organized scheme to defraud, a first-degree felony, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. Espinosa is accused of improperly appropriating $50,000 in funds through the city's Business Boost 2.0 program, according to the arrest warrant.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday issued an opinion finding that illegal aliens are not entitled to a bond hearing under the Constitution, regardless of how long they remain in custody. The decision is a significant win for President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda, as it defeats one of the more pervasive challenges to keeping illegal aliens in custody pending deportation.
Four years after North Texas home builder Scott Sherman completed a federal prison sentence for mortgage fraud, his new construction materials business received a $600,000 cash infusion. The financial boost came from a blind trust set up to prevent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, from any overlap in their personal investments and their actions as elected officials. But previously unreleased records from the attorney general's 2023 impeachment investigation show the trust was far from blind and did not shield the Paxtons from its business dealings, including the investment in Sherman's business. Before long, Wildcatter Sand Services and Grayson County Sand and Gravel, which Sherman built with his father, grew into a vast enterprise with various locations and subsidiaries. And along the way, some of those businesses stopped paying taxes to local governments, including school districts.
Ukrainian interceptors still cannot use the internet at high speed to shoot down Russian attack drones or conduct mid-strike operations as of Friday morning, Ukrainian officials and a drone operator said, despite U.S. President Donald Trump saying SpaceX founder Elon Musk had lifted speed restrictions on his Starshield service. "Morning tests show the speed limits of 140"160 km/h are still there, and the navigation isn't working properly," a Ukrainian government official told POLITICO on condition of anonymity. "As of this morning, instances of connectivity loss at speeds of 161 km/h are still being observed. There is currently no confirmation that the restrictions have been lifted," a defense ministry official told reporters on Friday.
In a blow to President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court said Wednesday that his administration cannot enforce a new policy that restricts treatment for transgender inmates in federal prison. The justices in a brief order rejected an emergency application filed by the administration that sought to block a lower court injunction against the proposal. The court order included no explanation, saying only that two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, would have granted it.
The service members at Navy and Marine Corps hearings are finding ways to keep trans troops in uniform.
A Virginia grand jury has indicted Democratic state Sen. L. Louise Lucas and six others, including members of her family, on charges that she engaged in a racketeering conspiracy to sell marijuana and launder the proceeds. According to the indictment, Lucas, the 82-year-old president pro tempore of Virginia's senate who has pushed for the drug to be legalized, ran several businesses that purchased and sold illegal amounts of marijuana in the state to build her family's wealth.
The Department of State has asked civil servants up for promotions who they voted for in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections. Top State Department officials have indicated that the only candidates eligible for mid- to upper-level foreign service roles were people who had supported President Donald Trump, and that political donations to any Democrat would be disqualifying, The Washington Sun reported Thursday.
Remember when President Donald Trump put his son-in-law in charge of negotiating a grand bargain in the Middle East, back in his first term? Understandable if not, given that no grand bargain emerged and the region is more on fire than ever courtesy of the U.S. and Israel's disastrous war with Iran, the atrocities of the Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza, and a raging conflict between Yemen's Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition. Yet Jared Kushner is more than one of the many ghouls who have clambered over a track record of failure right back into Trump's second-term White House, where he's still a top envoy. He also got owned by the Dutch, according to an excerpt from Matthew Cole's new book, Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East, published in Vanity Fair. Read more
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the record-setting judgment should encourage more states to take the tech industry to trial.
The first case of New World screwworm in wildlife in the United States has been found in an elk in Texas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. The elk was discovered on a game ranch in Pecos County and was reported after being harvested by a hunter, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said.
More than 1,250 people were evacuated from a major US naval installation in Bahrain in March after Iranian attacks threatened American personnel and their families. Five people affected by the departure told MS NOW the evacuation was chaotic, leaving military families to deal with trauma, housing instability and rising expenses months after fleeing the Gulf country.
Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance, according to people familiar with the matter, providing a much needed financial injection as the company looks to cut costs and bolster its stock price.
A Minnesota man is opening up after he saved nearly 20 children when their school bus driver suffered a medical emergency. "I really felt like it was my duty," Ebro Ahmed, 27, told ABC News. "Also, too, it's kids we're talking about, you know. Even if I were to die, it would still be worth it."
Donald Trump said he would settle cases of water contamination at a military base, but only if Republicans win in the midterms.
President Donald Trump warned he'd send "no money" to poisoned veterans if Republicans did not win the House and Senate in November, marking a new low for his shoddy midterms campaign.
Speaking at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, Tuesday, Trump promised that if Republicans kept control of Congress, he'd direct the Department of Justice to "settle all remaining legitimate claims" made by the victims of contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
"If we don't win, there's no money. If we do win, you're getting it, it's going to be finally over with that nightmare that's been going on for so many years. We will never abandon the heroes who served America," Trump said.
