Author: rpnadmin

A widespread and dangerous heat wave is building across the U.S., with triple-digit highs expected in the Southwest and Great Plains this weekend before spreading eastward under a dome of high pressure that meteorologists say could trap oppressive temperatures for a week or more. Forecasters are advising people to stay hydrated and find places to cool off, warning of temperatures 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (8 to 14 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal in many areas, including at night – especially bad for people’s health because their bodies won’t have a chance to recover. The heat dome is expected to…

One person remains missing in Missouri after heavy rainfall battered parts of the state on Friday, forcing numerous emergency rescues and evacuations, including at a summer camp with more than 200 children. Several other states also face the potential for severe thunderstorms and flash flooding warning on Saturday as the slow moving storms move southward. The National Weather Service said the severe weather impacts a wide region stretching from the Ozark mountains in southern Missouri eastward into much of the Ohio and Tennessee river valleys. The service said the storms could bring damaging winds, heavy rainfall and scattered flash flooding…

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has dismissed the remnants of the government’s landmark case against far-right Proud Boys members who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting to attack the Capitol to keep President Donald Trump in the White House more than five years ago. The case’s dismissal late Friday became a foregone conclusion when Trump last year used his pardon powers to erase every case that the government prosecuted after a mob of his supporters stormed the building on Jan. 6, 2021. The judge who presided over the Proud Boys leaders’ trial saw no basis to preserve the convictions…

Meta has axed a feature in its new AI image generation model that allowed users on Instagram to create images drawing on the publicly available media of other users. In an update Friday, Meta said, “Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.” The feature was rolled out as part of the launch of Meta’s Muse Image model this week. The feature was turned on by default, though…

Don’t expect a quick ruling about a trial for the alleged Charlie Kirk assassin. A five-day preliminary hearing wrapped on Friday, and despite a mountain of evidence presented by prosecutors, Utah County Judge Tony Graf won’t decide until at least September, nearly a year after Kirk’s death, whether to put suspect Tyler Robinson on trial for aggravated murder. Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA and a conservative influencer, was killed on Sept. 10 by a bullet fired from the rooftop of a building on the campus of Utah Valley University. Prosecutors this past week presented surveillance video, DNA evidence and…

A full federal appeals court has cleared Florida to resume a lawsuit accusing the American Academy of Pediatrics of misleading the public about the safety of gender-transition treatments for minors, pausing a lower court injunction that had blocked the case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled Wednesday that it would rehear Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s appeal with the court’s active judges sitting en banc — an unusual move that bypasses the standard three-judge panel — and that it was staying a preliminary injunction entered by U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly of the Northern District…

New York City’s famed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was among a number of Manhattan buildings that recently tested positive for the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease amid the city’s latest outbreak. The city health department on Friday released a list of 31 buildings on the Upper East Side that have been ordered to clean and disinfect their cooling towers as the city deals with the latest outbreak of the disease, which is a serious form of pneumonia. The distinctive, cylindrical-shaped art museum was among 19 that have already completed the remediation, according to the department’s list. The rest were expected…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has approved plans to relocate 28 beluga whales from a closed Canadian theme park. A population of 30 belugas has continued to live at Marineland of Canada in Niagara Falls, 40 miles southeast of Toronto, since the park’s closure in 2024. On Wednesday, SeaWorld announced that U.S. authorities, working with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, approved the transfer of the whales. Marineland, which is no longer able to take care of the whales almost two years removed from the park’s closure to the public, said that “we recognize we can no longer…

Americans’ views on capitalism are split but lean negative, according to a new survey. Just over half of Americans, 51%, believe capitalism is functioning “not too well” or “not at all well,” while 48% say it is functioning “very well” or “somewhat well,” according to a poll released Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal and NORC Research Center. On the role of business versus government, respondents are divided but tilt toward wanting more regulation. Forty-five percent agree that America is successful due to respect for free markets and that government interference makes it weaker, while 52% agree that corporations have…

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants with temporary protected status from seven countries, including Haiti and Syria, had their work authorization extended Friday, hours before expiration. Employment authorization for Haitians was extended two weeks, while authorization for those from Syria, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Myanmar was extended one week. The Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services extended employment authorization for TPS holders, which allows people fleeing natural disasters, war or persecution in their home countries to live and work legally in the U.S. With that authorization initially set to expire Friday, Haitian and Syrian communities across the…