Author: rpnadmin

STARKE, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his brother’s 13-year-old stepdaughter to death nearly 50 years ago is set to be executed Thursday evening. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Hitchcock was initially sentenced to death in 1977 after being convicted of first-degree murder in the July 31, 1976, killing of Cynthia Driggers. Then came years of appeals: Hitchcock’s lawyers argued that the trial judge had barred consideration of mitigating evidence, that they weren’t allowed to keep three people off the…

The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a regulatory overhaul of the federal student-loan system, streamlining the repayment system and pressuring universities to lower costs by setting borrowing limits on graduate degrees based on earnings potential. The final rule set for publication Friday in the Federal Register seeks to drive down the costs of graduate school by placing a $257,000 lifetime maximum on federal student loans made after July 1, acting to implement the provisions of the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “Colleges and universities raked in billions of dollars at the expense of students and taxpayers over the past…

LENEXA, Kan. — The pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the U.S. launched a campaign Thursday for the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas, upending the race in a normally Republican state as the GOP’s small majority seems less secure than it was a year ago. The Rev. Adam Hamilton enters the race as a potentially formidable candidate, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many of the eight other, lesser-known Democrats who’ve announced for the Aug. 4 primary would drop out. The winner will face incumbent Republican Roger Marshall, who aligned himself closely with President…

Millions of Americans may qualify for dual Canadian citizenship under a recent change to Canada’s requirements that has led to a surge in applications, multiple news outlets report. This new law grants citizenship to anyone who can prove a direct Canadian ancestor, whether a grandparent, great-grandparent, or even more distant relative. Previously, Canadian citizenship by descent could only pass down one generation — from a parent to a child. Canada’s Bill C-3, became law on Dec. 15, erasing decades of restrictive citizenship rules. Local youth skate with a large Canadian flag on the Rideau Canal to launch celebrations for the…

OAKLAND, Calif. — Elon Musk took the stand for the second day Wednesday in the landmark trial that pits the world’s richest person against Sam Altman, a fellow OpenAI co-founder he accuses of betraying promises to keep the company as a nonprofit dedicated to humanity’s benefit. The trial centers on the 2015 birth of the ChatGPT maker as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion. Musk, who invested about $38 million in OpenAI from December 2015 through May 2017, gave his account of OpenAI’s early years, recounting how he…

MADISON, Wis. — Animal refuge groups said Wednesday that they have agreed to buy nearly 1,500 beagles at a Wisconsin dog breeding and research business that was the site of a violent clash earlier this month between activists trying to break in and police who repelled them with tear gas and pepper spray. Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy said they have entered into a confidential agreement with Ridglan Farms to buy 1,500 of the facility’s roughly 2,000 beagles for an undisclosed price. It’s unclear what the plans are for the remaining dogs. Ridglan Farms…

BOSTON — Federal investigators say they believe the man who carried out a mass shooting at Brown University and later killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor did not act randomly. Instead, former Brown student Claudio Neves Valente, 48, appeared to target places and people for what they represented in his own life – institutions and individuals he associated with personal failure, missed opportunity and perceived injustice. In a detailed behavioral assessment released Wednesday, the FBI said Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, spent years planning the attack in isolation before killing two students and wounding nine others inside an engineering…

WASHINGTON — A Romanian man was sentenced on Wednesday to four years in prison for organizing a wave of swatting calls and bomb threats against dozens of U.S. government targets, including members of Congress, cabinet-level officials, federal judges and the heads of federal law-enforcement agencies, according to prosecutors. Thomasz Szabo, 27, was a prolific participant in a dangerous form of online harassment that has become an increasingly common occupational hazard for public officials across the American political spectrum. Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of nearly five years for Szabo, who pleaded guilty last June to conspiracy and threats charges.…

The Trump administration opened an investigation Wednesday into whether Stanford University violated federal anti-discrimination law with a program to boost teachers who aren’t White or Asian-American. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said that Stanford may have violated Title VI by limiting the initiative for teachers seeking National Board Certification to applicants who “identify as a person of color.” Stanford Graduate School of Education’s National Board Resource Center partnered with the California Teachers Association and the UCLA National Board Project on the fully funded program, entitled the “Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Cohort.” “Instead of helping students…

NEW ORLEANS — A grand jury on Wednesday indicted a Louisiana sheriff whose office came under investigation after 10 inmates broke out of a New Orleans jail in an audacious escape that happened on her watch. Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson is not accused of helping the inmates pull off the brazen jailbreak through a hole behind a toilet, setting off a monthslong search before all the escapees were eventually captured. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said a state probe instead found that Hutson’s poor management of the jail led to the escape. The 30-count indictment handed up by a…