Author: rpnadmin

A six-month battle over a North Carolina Supreme Court seat ended on Wednesday when the Republican challenger, who had embarked on an extraordinary effort to throw out thousands of votes, conceded the race.The challenger, Judge Jefferson Griffin, said in a statement that he would not appeal a federal court ruling issued on Monday that ordered the state elections board to certify the victory of the Democratic incumbent, Justice Allison Riggs.“While I do not fully agree with the District Court’s analysis, I respect the court’s holding — just as I have respected every judicial tribunal that has heard this case,” Mr.…

Speaker Mike Johnson has dropped one of the most aggressive options the G.O.P. was considering to cut Medicaid costs to help pay for President Trump’s domestic agenda, bowing to pressure from politically vulnerable Republicans and underscoring the deep party divisions imperiling the plan.Leaving his office on Tuesday night after meeting with a group of more moderate members, Mr. Johnson told reporters that House Republicans had ruled out lowering the amount the federal government pays states to care for working-age adults who became eligible for the program through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.Mr. Johnson also suggested he was leaning against…

The humble penny, once a pocket staple, has long since lost its shine in American commerce, but it retains devoted fans who see value beyond its monetary worth. In North Carolina’s Copper Penny Grille, owner Shelly Gref has transformed thousands of pennies into bar tops and artwork, giving Lincoln’s likeness new purpose.”It grew into a little bit of an obsession with me. And then everybody just started donating pennies,” Gref said. “People just come by and they say, I want to be a part of something.”Gref said she appreciates the historical significance of the coins. “I like the older ones because they…

Senior Trump adviser Kari Lake, shown above at a conservative conference earlier this year, announced Tuesday night that Voice of America would rely on coverage from the far-right television network OAN. Voice of America employees that Lake put on indefinite leave are suing to be restored to their jobs. Jose Luis Magana/AP hide caption toggle caption Jose Luis Magana/AP Senior presidential adviser Kari Lake appears to have resolved any doubts about what she wants to do with the Voice of America. Lake seeks for it to look and sound a lot like the far-right One America News Network: on Tuesday…

A bill to restore more than $1 billion in funding for Washington, D.C., that Congress blocked earlier this year has stalled in the House, where Republican resistance to the measure has left its fate in doubt.G.O.P. leaders say they still intend to bring up the bill, blaming the delay on the competing priorities of passing President Trump’s agenda. But some ultraconservative Republicans are opposing it outright, arguing that Washington — a Democratically run city that is home to a significant number of federal workers and Black residents — should not get to spend its own money unless it abides by…

For the second time in just over a week, an F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet assigned to the USS Harry S. Truman has been lost in the Red Sea, a defense official confirmed to CBS News. The two pilots aboard the aircraft sustained minor injuries in the ordeal.  The official said in a statement that the Super Hornet was attempting to land on the flight deck of the Truman Tuesday “when an arrestment failed, causing the aircraft to go overboard.”An arrestment is the mechanism that includes an arresting cable to catch a fighter jet and safely slow it down as…

Neither Klein and Thompson nor many of their critics on the left offer a robust strategy for actually building affordable homes. Here’s one that has been proven to work. Ad Policy A worker assembles components of modular housing in the Capsys factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York in 2016, shortly before it was repurposed as the Nehemiah Spring Creek housing development.(Richard Levine / Corbis via Getty Images) Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s new book, Abundance, is riding high on the bestseller lists. The authors argue that something has gone very wrong in our nation: “Over the course…

Ovidio Guzmán López, one of four sons of the infamous Mexican crime lord known as El Chapo, plans to plead guilty this summer to sprawling federal drug charges, according to court papers filed on Tuesday.If the plea goes through as planned on July 9 in Chicago, Mr. Guzmán López would become the first of El Chapo’s sons, who are known collectively as Los Chapitos, to acknowledge guilt in a U.S. federal courthouse.Jeffrey Lichtman, Mr. Guzmán López’s lawyer, said that his client had not yet reached a final plea deal with the government, but hoped to have one in place in…

Woman killed by alligator while canoeing on lake in central Florida Woman killed by alligator while canoeing on lake in central Florida 00:34 Lake Wales, Fla. — An alligator attacked and killed a woman on a central Florida lake Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. The woman was with her husband at the time of the deadly attack, CBS affiliate WKMG reported.The attack occurred near the mouth of Tiger Creek into Lake Kissimmee, south of Orlando, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a news release. A woman was canoeing when she encountered an alligator and “went into the water,”…

Amsterdam prospered as a banking center even as it declined as a center of manufacturing and commerce. By the late 18th century, Europe no longer wanted Dutch fabrics or Dutch fish, and it no longer needed Dutch ships. In 1783, a group of Dutch merchants sent a gift of salted herring to George Washington, requesting his endorsement and, presumably, seeking a new market. Washington responded that the herring was “undoubtedly of a higher flavour than our own,” but that America had plenty of fish. What remained in demand was all the money the Dutch had made from trade. The merchants…