Ex-Trump aide appears at Miami court to testify before federal grand jury
WASHINGTON — A former top aide to Donald Trump appeared Wednesday in federal court in Miami for testimony to a grand jury investigating potential classified-document mishandling and obstruction at the ex-president’s Palm Beach property, according to a person familiar with the matter. Taylor Budowich, who had served as a spokesman...
LBJ’s daughter Luci watched him sign voting rights bill, then cried when Supreme Court weakened it
AUSTIN, Texas — Luci Baines Johnson was a somewhat impatient 18-year-old on Aug. 6, 1965, when she happened to be on what she called “daddy duty,” meaning “I was supposed to accompany him to important occasions.” The occasion that day was President Lyndon Johnson’s scheduled signing of the Voting Rights...
Voting rights marcher recalls being clubbed, hearing fatal gunshot during pivotal day of protests
MARION, Ala. — Della Simpson Maynor was just 14 when she marched for voting rights in her hometown of Marion, Alabama. Her most distinct memory of that evening is of the police attacking the demonstrators. She recalls one officer, on horseback, swinging at her head with a club. “I remember...
Activist’s fight against segregation evolved into political action to push for voting rights
NEW YORK — Norman Hill was at the AFL-CIO office in Washington, D.C., in August 1965, and recalls cheering when he learned the Voting Rights Act had passed Congress. He then took a moment to remember the people “who were killed, literally, struggling to try to get Blacks registered to...
Voting activist killed during Freedom Summer in Mississippi believed country should be integrated
NEW YORK — Stephen Schwerner doesn’t remember how he learned that his younger brother Michael, nicknamed Mickey, was missing in Mississippi along with colleagues Andrew Goodman and James Chaney. What he remembers is that as soon as the family heard the news, they were certain of the young men’s fate....
Andrew Young was at Martin Luther King’s side throughout often violent struggle for civil rights
ATLANTA — Andrew Young’s first thought when he heard the Voting Rights Act had been signed into law was not celebratory. It was strategic. “Where are we going to get the money to get the country mobilized to register these voters?” he recalled thinking at that momentous time nearly 60...
CNN head Chris Licht is out at the global news network after a brief, tumultuous tenureVideo
NEW YORK — The chief executive CNN pushed out of a job on Wednesday faced mounting problems in his first year leading the struggling network: viewership and profits were declining, programming blunders were growing and the network’s journalists were losing confidence by the day. Chris Licht’s very bad year culminated...
For many Southern Baptists, the only campaign question is which Republican candidate to support
Southern Baptists form a core part of the white evangelical Christian bloc that has reliably and overwhelmingly voted Republican in recent elections, and is expected to again in 2024. But Southern Baptists are weighing their options in the GOP presidential primary field — some already lining up behind Donald Trump,...
Young lawyer who helped write voting rights bill ‘star-struck’ as he witnessed 1965 signing into law
WASHINGTON — Joel Finkelstein is an accidental witness to one of the seminal events of the civil rights movement, the signing in 1965 of the Voting Rights Act. He was a year out of law school at Cornell when he received the call to head to the Capitol for the...
Voices from the violent civil rights era see attacks on voting rights as part of ongoing struggle
They are part of a small, vanishing group who lived at the epicenter of the struggle for voting rights six decades ago, an era driven by segregation, violence and the yearning for equality that eventually led to laws bringing the U.S. closer to its promise of democracy for all its...
Japan supports Sweden’s NATO membership as defense ministers strengthen ties
TOKYO — Japan’s defense minister expressed his country’s support for Sweden’s NATO membership during talks Wednesday with his Swedish counterpart, as the two sides called for stronger military ties amid shared concern over threats from Russia and China. Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson said that Sweden sees the need for...
N.D. Gov. Doug Burgum launches bid for 2024 GOP presidential nomination
FARGO, N.D. — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, adding his name to the long list of contenders hoping to dent former President Donald Trump’s early lead in the race. Burgum, 66, made the announcement in the The Wall Street Journal...
Pence says ‘Different times call for different leadership’ in video launching 2024 presidential bidVideo
DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Vice President Mike Pence promised “the best days of the greatest nation on earth are yet to come” in a video released Wednesday formally launching his campaign for the Republican nomination for president. “Different times call for different leadership,” Pence, who served four years alongside...
Pope Francis undergoes abdominal surgery, will stay in hospital for several days
ROME — Pope Francis underwent surgery Wednesday to repair a hernia in his abdominal wall, the latest malady to befall the 86-year-old pontiff who had part of his colon removed two years ago. The Vatican said there were no complications after the three-hour surgery, during which Francis was under general...
Florida grand jury involved in Trump documents probe by Justice Department
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors are using a grand jury in Florida as part of their investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach property, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday night. The grand jury is in addition to a separate panel...
Why is it so smoky outside? Canada wildfires lead to air-quality alerts in northeastern U.S.Video
Intense Canadian wildfires are blanketing the northeastern U.S. in a dystopian haze, turning the air acrid, the sky yellowish gray and prompting warnings for vulnerable populations to stay inside. The effects of hundreds of wildfires burning across the western provinces to Quebec could be felt as far away as New...
House conservatives block GOP bills, voice frustration in response to debt ceiling vote
WASHINGTON — House conservatives staged a mini-revolt Tuesday in retaliation for Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership on last week’s vote to raise the debt ceiling, the right wing banding together to block progress on a mixture of bills and vent their frustration. Led by outspoken members of the House Freedom Caucus,...
2 dead in shooting after high school graduation ceremony in Virginia capitalVideo
RICHMOND, Va. — Seven people were shot, two fatally, when gunfire rang out Tuesday outside a downtown theater where a high school graduation ceremony had recently concluded, causing attendees to flee in panic, weep and clutch their children, authorities and witnesses reported. A 19-year-old suspect tried to flee but was...
Sheriff probes self-defense claim of white woman who fatally shot Black neighbor in front of kids
OCALA, Fla. — Authorities came under intense pressure Tuesday to arrest and charge a white woman who killed a Black neighbor on her front doorstep in a case that has put Florida’s divisive stand your ground law back into the spotlight. About three dozen mostly Black protesters gathered outside the...
Chesapeake Bay report cites environmental justice disparities
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A report on the Chesapeake Bay released Tuesday found strong disparities between communities in different parts of the bay’s watershed in terms of health, economics and social justice concerns. The findings show a larger context for the challenges of improving the health of the nation’s largest estuary,...
Peruvian judge affirms extradition to U.S. of chief suspect in Natalee Holloway disappearance
LIMA, Peru — A Peruvian judge on Tuesday affirmed this week’s planned extradition to the U.S. of the main suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway. The judge’s ruling came less than 24 hours after the attorney for Dutchman Joran van der Sloot filed a writ...
Plane that crashed in Virginia lost contact with air traffic controllers during ascent, feds say
Only minutes into a doomed journey that ended on a remote Virginia mountain, the pilot of a business jet was not responding to air traffic control instructions and the situation was soon reported to a network that includes military, security and law enforcement agencies, according to federal aviation officials. Despite...
Former N.J. Gov. Christie kicks off 2024 GOP presidential bid with swipes at Trump
NEW YORK — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasted no time going after Donald Trump while launching his presidential campaign on Tuesday, calling the former president and current Republican primary front-runner a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog” and arguing that he’s the only one who can stop him. Christie...
Detroit clerk who locked door before customers were shot will face trial
DETROIT — A judge on Tuesday ordered a Detroit gas station clerk to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter, saying his decision to lock the door and then taunt an angry customer contributed to the fatal shooting of a bystander. Al-Hassan Aiyash “continued to pour gasoline on the fire,” said Judge...
Judge blocks Florida ban on trans minor care in narrow ruling, says ‘gender identity is real’
TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, saying in a Tuesday ruling that gender identity is real and the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment. Judge Robert...
