The Portland City Council authorized a $400,000 payout Wednesday to settle a lawsuit from a disabled protester who accused Portland Police Bureau officers of using excessive force against him during racial justice protests in 2020. Why it matters: The settlement is the largest single payout by the city tied to the 2020 protest lawsuits and highlights the growing financial and legal consequences regarding police misconduct. Context: Dustin Ferreira, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta and...

Members of the House Ethics Committee met behind closed doors Wednesday but did not reach an agreement on whether to publicly release a report detailing their sweeping investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general. Several Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have said they want to review the House report on the yearslong investigation into Gaetz, R-Fla., before a Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for him next...

The House Ethics Committee deadlocked Wednesday afternoon on releasing a report from its investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), President-elect Trump’s pick to be attorney general, deciding against releasing the results of an investigation after a party-line vote. A swarm of reporters waited outside an Ethics Committee meeting for more than two hours before Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.) emerged to announce there was no agreement by...

The House Ethics Committee did not come to an agreement about whether to release its report detailing the yearslong investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) said Wednesday after the committee met for a closed-door session. The committee adjourned after two hours of meeting, with lawmakers emerging from the closed-door meeting declining to comment. However, no decision was made on whether to publish, according to the chairman.

Employers and workers may not realize it, but they just dodged a bullet. They can thank a federal judge in Texas who just tossed out a Biden administration rule that tried to raise the salary threshold for overtime pay by 65%, from $35,568 to $58,656 per year (a range that includes about 12 million workers). That new threshold would have exceeded the earnings of more than 70% of workers in lower-cost states such as Arkansas, Mississippi, South Dakota and West Virginia. The same thing...

On Friday a federal judge in Texas struck down a new rule from the Biden administration aimed at extending overtime protections to millions of workers. Judge Sean D. Jordan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that the Labor Department went beyond its authority in issuing the regulation earlier this year. He granted summary judgment to the state of Texas, which had sued to stop the rule from taking effect.

A federal judge in Texas entirely eliminated a rule from President Joe Biden’s administration that expanded overtime protections for workers by requiring employers to pay overtime premiums to more salaried people, multipleoutlets reported, eliminating one of the highest-profile Labor Department rules enacted during the Biden administration. Judge Sean D. Jordan in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas—who was appointed by President-elect Donald Trump in his...

U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Boston announced on Wednesday the arrests of two illegal immigrants who have been charged with forcibly raping children in Massachusetts, as well as a third individual who was convicted of raping a child in Brazil, and was hiding in the U.S. after being caught and released at the U.S. border in 2022. The arrests come after Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said her state would not cooperate with President-elect Trump’s federal immigration...

Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile during an attack on Ukraine on Thursday, Kyiv's air force said, in the first known use in the war of a powerful weapon designed to deliver nuclear strikes thousands of kilometres away. The launch was the latest sign of rapidly mounting tensions in the 33-month-old war after Ukraine fired U.S. and British missiles at targets inside Russia this week despite warnings by Moscow that it would see such action as a major...

Federal investigators have established a web of payments among Matt Gaetz and dozens of friends and associates who are said to have taken part with him in drug-fueled sex parties, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. Among those who received money from Mr. Gaetz were two women who have testified that he hired them for sex, according to the document and a lawyer for the two women. The lawyer said payments to the women ultimately totaled around $10,000.