Author: rpnadmin

BOSTON — At Harvard University, earning straight A’s is about to get harder. Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it would limit the number of A grades awarded to undergraduates, adopting one of the most ambitious efforts by a major university to curb grade inflation. The decision was made by faculty vote earlier this month. The move comes after top grades became so common that some Harvard faculty argued they no longer reliably distinguished exceptional work. More than 60% of all grades awarded to undergraduates in recent years were in the A range, according to university data…

FLORENCE, Ariz. — An Arizona prisoner convicted of killing another man by throwing gasoline at him and lighting a match was put to death Wednesday, the first of three executions planned this week around the U.S. Leroy Dean McGill, 63, was pronounced dead at 10:26 a.m. PDT following a lethal injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. McGill was convicted of murder in the death of Charles Perez, who was attacked with his girlfriend in a north Phoenix apartment on July 13, 2002. It was the first lethal injection carried out this year in Arizona, and McGill didn’t…

MOUNTAINAIR, N.M. — Three people are dead, and more than a dozen first responders were quarantined and being treated Wednesday for exposure to an unidentified substance after being called to a suspected drug overdose at a rural New Mexico home, authorities said. New Mexico State Police said three of the four people who were found unresponsive inside the home east of Albuquerque died. The fourth was being treated at a hospital in Albuquerque. During the response, authorities said, 18 first responders were exposed to the substance and began experiencing symptoms including nausea and dizziness. All of the first responders were…

Peel away all the political posturing, the thorny questions about Somali immigrants and the hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud in Minnesota, and you will find Aimee Bock at the center of things. Bock was the mastermind behind Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that served as a conduit for federal funds meant to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The money was intended for students who might otherwise go hungry because they were missing out on the free breakfasts and lunches at school. By the time the dust settled, federal authorities say, Feeding Our Future had stolen more than…

LOS ANGELES — Attorneys for the man accused of sparking last year’s deadly Palisades Fire in and around Los Angeles can’t introduce evidence or arguments at his arson trial about alleged negligence by the fire department in responding to an earlier blaze, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a fire on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up a week later. The Palisades Fire began Jan. 7, 2025, and burned through the…

A recent study finds “no evidence” that native-born citizens have taken jobs abandoned by illegal immigrants during President Trump’s pursuit of mass deportations. University of Colorado Boulder economists Chloe East and Elizabeth Cox compared U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest data with federal labor data from October 2023 through October 2025. They tracked a 4% decline in “likely undocumented workers” filling agricultural, construction and manufacturing jobs during the period. That includes a 5% decline among undocumented men, who make up 90% of ICE enforcement targets and a substantial share of those industries. At the same time, the study tallied 1.3%…

PHILADELPHIA — The eastern U.S. sweated through a second day of early-season heat Wednesday, with some schoolchildren being sent home while others stayed in sweltering classrooms. The Philadelphia school district shifted to remote learning for students at 57 schools, saying that while it has made progress, a number of schools continue to have inadequate air conditioning. The National Weather Service said another day of record heat was expected from the mid-Atlantic to New England before a cold front brings rain later in the week. Daily high temperature records were broken Tuesday in Portland, Maine, at 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees…

NEW YORK — A 56-year-old woman fell into an open maintenance hole on a busy New York City street and died, police and utility officials said as they investigated how it could have happened. The woman parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV right next to the maintenance hole near the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan Monday night and fell in after exiting the vehicle shortly before 11:30 p.m., police said. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital. It wasn’t immediately clear why the hole was not covered. The utility company Con Edison said it was…

NEW YORK — President Trump scored another win Tuesday against a Republican rival, dislodging Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s primary and knocking out one of his most outspoken critics on Capitol Hill. Massie has been a particularly difficult thorn in Trump’s side. He pushed for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, opposed the war with Iran and voted against Trump’s signature tax legislation last year. He lost to Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein following the most expensive U.S. House primary in history. While Trump has racked up several wins this primary season, this one perhaps sends an even more forceful…

A coalition of Democratic-led states is challenging the Trump administration’s recent caps on federal student loans, arguing the limits will make it harder for students pursuing certain healthcare degrees to attain the necessary training and education. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, plaintiffs representing 24 states and the District of Columbia argued the Trump administration’s rules would disproportionately impact critical healthcare sectors. “This rule will shut talented people out of critical professions and leave communities with fewer healthcare providers they desperately need,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a written statement. “We cannot afford fewer nurses, fewer providers, or…