Author: rpnadmin

A federal judge blocked part of an expansive executive order signed last month seeking to overhaul election laws, writing on Thursday that President Trump did not have the authority to require documentary proof of citizenship for all voters.“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the states — not the president — with the authority to regulate federal elections,” wrote Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Federal District Court in Washington. She pointed to federal voting legislation being considered in Congress, adding that the president could not “short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”But the judge did not block another key part of the…

A charity meant to help people stay off public assistance was the signature project of Florida’s popular first lady, Casey DeSantis. But over three years, it had managed to raise only about $2 million to help struggling families in Florida.Then last fall, a $10 million windfall suddenly arrived from an unlikely source: a Medicaid contractor embroiled in a case of overbilling.Within weeks, the money was gone — not to churches or other groups helping the needy. Instead, the Hope Florida Foundation quietly funneled it to two nonprofit political committees that helped Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies defeat a November…

The highest-ranking Democrat in the Florida Senate announced in dramatic fashion on Thursday that he was leaving the party, the latest setback for Democrats whose influence in the state has rapidly diminished.State Senator Jason W.B. Pizzo, whose district includes parts of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in South Florida, said in a speech on the Senate floor that he was changing his voter registration to “no party affiliation,” the most common registration in Florida for independent voters.“The Democratic Party in Florida is dead,” Mr. Pizzo told his fellow lawmakers. “There are good people that can resuscitate it. But they don’t want…

President Trump made an unusually sharp appeal to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday, calling on him to stop his bombing campaign in Ukraine and agree to a peace deal after the deadliest attack on Kyiv in nearly a year.“Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!” Mr. Trump wrote on social media.Russia’s missile attack came a day after the Trump administration threatened to abandon peace talks if Ukraine did not accept a U.S. peace proposal that heavily favored Russia.Mr. Trump’s comments were striking because he…

President Trump and Elon Musk promised taxpayers big savings, maybe even a “DOGE dividend” check in their mailboxes, when the Department of Government Efficiency was let loose on the federal government. Now, as he prepares to step back from his presidential assignment to cut bureaucratic fat, Mr. Musk has said without providing details that DOGE is likely to save taxpayers only $150 billion.That is about 15 percent of the $1 trillion he pledged to save, less than 8 percent of the $2 trillion in savings he had originally promised and a fraction of the nearly $7 trillion the federal government…

President Trump issued an executive order on Thursday making it easier for the government to fire federal employees who are in a probationary period.Probationary government workers already have far fewer job protections than their established colleagues, and they were the Trump administration’s first targets for mass firings earlier this year. At least 24,000 of those terminations have led to court-ordered reinstatements that were overturned on appeals.Normally, probationary federal employees attain full status in one or two years, depending on the job — unless the agency they work for takes steps to dismiss them, which usually involves citing poor performance.Under the…

Roger J. Stone Jr., the longtime associate of President Trump’s, has been lobbying for a pioneering cryptocurrency investor known as “Bitcoin Jesus” who is facing federal fraud and criminal tax charges, according to congressional filings.Mr. Stone filed paperwork last month indicating that he had been retained by Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin investor who was charged last year and accused of shielding his cryptocurrency holdings from $48 million in taxes.Mr. Stone noted in a filing last week that he had been paid $600,000 by Mr. Ver since early February to help his client’s case, partly by trying to abolish the…

The Primary School opened in 2016, just a couple miles from Facebook’s headquarters. Its mission was to serve as a tuition-free hub where children from low-income families could be educated and have access to health care and social workers under one roof.Dr. Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician married to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, worked with Meredith Liu, an educator and friend, to build the school in East Palo Alto, Calif., a diverse town that rarely reaps the benefits of its far wealthier Silicon Valley neighbors.They talked about how low-income children were more likely to have experienced trauma early in…

One of the nation’s most elite liberal arts schools, Amherst College has historically also been one of its most diverse. In 2023, federal data revealed that its overall Black enrollment, 11 percent of the student body, far outstripped many other similar institutions. So it was particularly jarring to the Amherst community last fall when data for the entering freshman class revealed that only 3 percent of its members were Black.Quincy Smith, an art major, joined one of the most diverse classes in Amherst history in 2022 and said gatherings of Black students feel different now: “There’s less engagement, fewer people…

Politics / April 21, 2025 The Maryland senator put a wedge between Trump and Salvadoran dictator Bukele and showed Democrats how to find their spines. Ad Policy Senator Van Hollen takes questions at Dulles International Airport upon his return from El Salvador, where he met wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia on April 18.(Pete Kiehart / The Washington Post via Getty Images) On Sunday, Senator Chris Van Hollen conquered all five morning talk shows. He was by far the most coveted guest after his return from El Salvador, where he stood down the country’s despot and secured a meeting with the…