Author: rpnadmin

Two descendants of Black people once enslaved by a Native American tribe are asking a federal court in Oklahoma to force tribal leaders to issue them citizenship cards as ordered a year ago by a tribal court. A lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City on behalf of Rhonda Grayson and Jeffrey Kennedy names Principal Chief David Hill and the Muscogee Nation Citizenship Board as defendants. It says that Hill and the citizenship board are violating an 1866 treaty between the tribe and the U.S. government by refusing to recognize Black Creek Freedmen as citizens as ordered…

The sender of the first ransom note in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance opened with a direct warning to her daughter, “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, telling her that her mother’s life “is in your hands,” according to a new podcast report. Crime journalist Briana Whitney read the note’s contents aloud during an appearance on the “Crime Junkie” podcast with host Ashley Flowers. “Hello, Savannah. We have your mother, Nancy,” Ms. Whitney said, reading from the letter. “She will be held for ransom.” Nancy Guthrie, 84, has been missing since Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Investigators believe she…

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — Two people have died in flash floods caused by torrential rains in West Virginia this week, the governor’s office said Thursday. An emailed statement from Lars Dalseide, communications director for Gov. Patrick Morrisey, did not provide details on where the bodies were found or how the people died. Their identities were not immediately released. They are the first confirmed deaths from Tuesday’s floods, when forecasters said up to 7 inches of rain fell. Morrisey said some places received 4.5 inches in 37 minutes. Officials in north-central West Virginia have described the devastation as extensive. Video and photos…

OGUNQUIT, Maine — Giant metal roosters are popping up on lawns in and around a community in southern Maine and as far away as New Zealand in support of a 6-year-old autistic girl and her love of the colorful creations. David and Sara LeBlanc had a rotating display of the roughly 6-foot-tall ornaments decorating their Ogunquit lawn until officials in the small coastal town deemed them to be impermissible advertising for their attached restaurant, The Omelette Factory. The couple initially resisted the town’s removal order, insisting the roosters were meant to comfort their daughter Pyper, not advertise their business. “Roosters…

LOS ANGELES — Nearly 150,000 California voters had their mail-in ballots rejected for the state’s June primary, a spike from recent elections even as the state attempts to make voting easier with the goal of boosting participation and counting every ballot. California has become notorious for its ponderously slow vote counts that can drag on for weeks and sometimes longer, largely the result of multiple changes over the years that were intended to increase turnout but have done little to achieve that. Among the changes: Every voter receives a mail-in ballot that can arrive at an election office seven days…

LOS ANGELES — Lawyers for D4vd began showing glimpses into their defense strategy Thursday, pressing police on why they didn’t conduct more DNA testing on items found in the singer’s home and in his car that authorities said were used in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. The questioning came on the third day of a preliminary hearing where a judge will decide whether there is probable cause for D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, to be put on trial on charges of murder, sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of a body. He has pleaded not…

Airports in Tampa, Des Moines and Charleston, South Carolina, have opted into the TSA Gold+ program that allows private contractors to do airport security screening. The Transportation Security Administration says on the Gold+ website that the agency will retain oversight of security operations and standards at airports that enter the program, but that screening will be handled on a “private screener contract model” that gives airports investment “without waiting on lengthy budget cycles.” Officials at the Charleston airport said in a release Wednesday that current TSA employees will have the opportunity to switch to work for the incoming private contractor…

Ford and Chinese automotive company Geely Auto announced plans on Thursday to jointly manufacture low- and zero-emission vehicles at Ford’s Valencia, Spain factory. The partnership is a bid to reignite Ford’s offerings for the European auto market as the legacy carmaker seeks to compete with the likes of fast-moving Chinese companies that are rapidly dominating auto sales across the globe. It comes amid challenges for the American electric vehicle market and increasing global geopolitical tensions driven by U.S. tariff policy. In the U.S., policy all but locks Chinese firms out of the market – though American automakers still partner with…

A plumbing subcontractor who says he is owed nearly $4 million for work on the Barack Obama Presidential Center has suspended operations and laid off 25 union workers, weeks after the Chicago campus’s star-studded opening. Mike Owen, owner of Adamson Plumbing Contractors, told Fox News Digital the financial fallout from the dispute forced his company to abandon roughly half a dozen other construction jobs and pushed it to the brink of collapse. He described the shutdown as a painful but necessary step to avoid bankruptcy. “We were put in a pretty bad corner,” Mr. Owen said of the decision to…

NEW YORK — Oil prices are jumping again Thursday as increased fighting in the Middle East threatens to slow the global flow of crude. Wall Street, meanwhile, is sinking with sharp drops for two of its most influential stocks, Alphabet and Tesla. The S&P 500 dropped 0.8% and may be heading for its first back-to-back weekly loss since March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 363 points, or 0.7%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.6% lower. Stocks sank under the pressure of rising oil prices, which raise costs for many businesses and divert…