Author: rpnadmin

SPOKANE, Wash. — A man from Spokane, Washington, was arrested Monday and charged with setting one of the three devastating wildfires that are burning through the region. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said Aaron F. Farinacci, 37, was arrested and booked on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with the Old Trails Fire, the largest of the three blazes around Spokane. Together, the fires have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced some 67,000 people to evacuate around the state’s second-largest city. Authorities haven’t stated a possible cause for the other two fires. The wildfires are still completely uncontained, fire…

More than 20 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration on Monday to block it from getting wide access to the personal information of millions of recipients of a benefits program for low-income families. The case is the latest legal action between states and the federal government over the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which like other public programs have come under scrutiny from the Trump administration as sources of potential fraud. The coalition of states sued in federal court in Washington to stop the agency that controls the program from moving ahead with a rule…

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor refused Monday to halt a $656 million judgment against Palestinian authorities in a long-running lawsuit filed by Americans killed or wounded in attacks in Israel. The order signed by Sotomayor comes after the high court ruled last year in favor of the victims and their families. The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority said in court documents that paying the hefty judgment now could destabilize government services in the West Bank. They asked the justices to pause payment as they appeal the reinstatement of the verdict. The lawsuit was filed by victims…

The man serving two life terms plus 40 years after pleading guilty to federal charges related to killing a top Democratic lawmaker and her husband made his initial appearance Monday in state court where he faces similar charges. The state case against Vance Boelter had been on hold pending resolution of the federal case. Monday’s procedural state court hearing came less than two weeks after Boelter’s sentencing in federal court. He pleaded guilty to the federal charges related to the killing of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well as critically wounding state Sen. John Hoffman…

WASHINGTON — Twenty-five states sued the Trump administration Monday over its latest tariffs, calling them a pretext for replacing import taxes the Supreme Court struck down in February. The United States last month imposed double-digit tariffs on 59 countries and the European Union, charging that they had not done enough to crack down on imports produced by forced labor. The new tariffs took effect just as the clock ran out on temporary tariffs President Donald Trump had turned to after the Supreme Court defeat. “After losing at the Supreme Court, the administration is once again trying to illegally raise taxes…

PHOENIX — The Trump administration has ordered construction crews on a border wall to stop drilling wells in drought-stricken New Mexico after ranchers said pumping groundwater needed to make concrete could threaten their livestock. The order comes as crews across the southern border race to complete one of President Donald Trump’s highest domestic priorities – barriers that span four states and received over $46 billion in federal funding. Controversies have sprouted up in Texas and California, with border-town residents and environmentalists reporting a wide variety of issues with construction. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees border wall construction, has…

Nate Rouette and his brother Nelson went shark fishing on Cape Cod hoping for an exciting catch, but were shocked by what they reeled in — a tropical species of shark with a reputation for eating everything it can swallow. The brothers, longtime sport fishermen who live in Massachusetts, released a juvenile tiger shark in late July after catching it from a beach. The five-foot shark is far more common in warmer, southern waters such as the Caribbean Sea, and scientists said its appearance off Falmouth, Massachusetts, is an indicator of warming seas caused by climate change. Nate and Nelson…

The mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, called for protesters to disband from an “autonomous zone” established at the site where a knife-wielding homeless man was shot and killed by police last month. Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the city is preparing to tow vehicles that activists have used to block off the intersection at Williamson Street and Baldwin Street in protest of the police killing of 38-year-old Corey Durell Ruiz. Authorities said officers shot and killed Ruiz, a multiple ex-felon, while he was resisting arrest on July 22 in the state’s capital city. Madison Police Chief John Patterson said Ruiz pulled out…

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Investigators on Monday were trying to determine what led a 24-year-old man to open fire at an Idaho fast-food restaurant over the weekend, in an attack that left three people dead and seven others wounded before authorities say he killed himself. Police Chief Matthew Hicks said Sunday detectives are confident that the gunman, identified as Chad Williams, acted alone in the shooting Saturday at an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, a southern Idaho city of about 56,000 people. He said Williams’ family is cooperating fully with the investigation. An off-duty state trooper and a civilian fired…

Colleges are purging restrictive speech codes under the Trump administration and removing “bias reporting” policies that solicited anonymous complaints about microaggressions, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression reports. The Philadelphia-based free-speech group flagged a record-low 66 schools, or 13.2% of all institutions, with a “red light” rating for written policies stifling campus protests, speaking events and online discussions. That’s down 1.5 percentage points from last year, and reverses two consecutive years of increases under the Biden administration. At the same time, FIRE’s 20th annual report awarded a “green light” to 76 schools — 15.4% of 493 institutions surveyed —…