Author: rpnadmin

Republican senators apparently have no Plan B if the Supreme Court sides against President Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship this month. “Seen, Heard & Whispered” uncovered that GOP senators are waiting to see how the justices rule. But they have not had any conversations about how to tackle a loss if the Trump administration suffers a setback when the Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision. “There’s nothing — legislation — going on,” said Sen. Rick Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “There’s no conversation up here, there is none.” The Florida Republican said he is…

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia broke with fellow Democrats Thursday, saying he has a “hard time understanding” claims that the guilty verdict in Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial was racially motivated — remarks that put him at odds with Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who has publicly blamed racism for the outcome. “I have a hard time understanding why they would say that,” Mr. Kaine told Fox News Digital when asked about claims from some Democrats that the verdict was unfair or racially charged. When pressed further, he repeated: “I know what they’re saying, but I have a hard time understanding.”…

DETROIT — Former Associated Press reporter Marlene Louise Johnson, whose lawsuit against the wire service for race and gender discrimination led to affirmative action plans to spur hiring of female, Black and Hispanic journalists, has died at 89. Johnson died May 9 in a Los Angeles-area care facility after being released from a hospital. She had been suffering from dementia, according to her daughter, Morenike Joela Evans. Born in Rochester, New York, Johnson earned an associate’s degree from the University of Buffalo and a bachelor’s degree at Wayne State University in Detroit. At the age of 75, she graduated from…

Washington’s top municipal finance watchdogs are feuding about perennial agency overspending as the D.C. Council eyes more spending hikes in its annual budget. D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson recently asked the Democrat-led Council to hold a September hearing on her April report that Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee routinely hid excess spending with illegal withdrawals from the city’s reserve fund during the past six years —  a claim his office strenuously denied in a response appended to the audit. Her independent office concluded that Mr. Lee made 301 withdrawals from contingency funds to circumvent a city law that bars agencies from…

ATMORE, Ala. — Alabama is waging a last-minute legal fight to execute a man with nitrogen gas Thursday night, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to set aside a judge’s finding that the method violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Jeffery Lee, 49, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. However a federal judge ruled Tuesday that nitrogen executions are unconstitutional and blocked the state from using the method to put Lee to death. The state filed an appeal Thursday asking the Supreme Court to set aside the ruling and allow the execution. “If that ruling stands,…

A fiery North Dakota derailment that happened two years ago demonstrated yet again why the National Transportation Safety Board has been urging the rail industry for decades to replace flawed tank cars that tend to rupture in a crash. The NTSB said in its final report Thursday that the workhorse DOT-111 tank cars are long overdue for replacement because of the way the devastating impact of a derailment is magnified anytime hazardous chemicals leak, especially if they catch fire as they did in this derailment just outside the town of Bordulac, North Dakota. The worst rail disasters in recent memory…

WASHINGTON — The opening of a Canadian-U.S. bridge across the Detroit River, which President Donald Trump had previously threatened to block, was delayed on Thursday due to unresolved issues. In a statement released before a scheduled Friday ribbon-cutting ceremony at the bridge, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority said that “Canada and the United States have agreed to delay the opening of the bridge, taking the necessary time to resolve any outstanding issues.” It didn’t elaborate on what those issues are or how long the delay would last. The 1.5-mile-long Gordie Howe International Bridge spans the Detroit River and connects the Motor…

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday declared he has “zero respect” for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, calling him a “socialist communist” as the Trump administration moves toward a major ICE enforcement surge in the city. Mr. Mullin made the remarks during an appearance on Fox News’ “America Reports,” one day after President Trump signed the Secure America Act — a $70 billion measure that funds ICE and Customs and Border Protection through fiscal year 2029. “First of all, Mamdani is a socialist communist that I have zero respect for,” Mr. Mullin told host John Roberts.…

ORLANDO — The nation’s Catholic bishops gathered Thursday afternoon in Orlando for a liturgy consecrating the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, drawing on a centuries-old devotion to mark the country’s 250th anniversary. Organ, brass and choral singing thundered inside a modern Orlando shrine during the service, a centerpiece of the spring assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Just before the liturgy, bishops and other worshippers knelt before relics of the 17th-century St. Mary Margaret Alacoque, a French nun whose reports of visions of Jesus led to the modern devotion of the Sacred Heart as embodying…

ATMORE, Ala. — The U.S. Supreme Court says Alabama cannot proceed with a nitrogen gas execution after a lower court ruled that the method is unconstitutional. The justices declined to lift an injunction blocking the state from carrying out the nation’s ninth execution by nitrogen gas. The decision spared death row inmate Jeffery Lee, 49, from being put to death by nitrogen Thursday night. A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections said the execution was off for the evening and the state would not try another method. The ruling capped an extraordinary legal back-and-forth over the humaneness of the…