Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued five Texas cities – Austin‚ Elgin‚ Denton‚ San Marcos and Killeen – over ordinances decriminalizing marijuana the cities approved in 2022. Paxton said the ordinances violated Texas laws‚ labelling officials who run the cities as “pro-crime extremists.” Matthew Watkins‚ managing editor for news and politics at the Texas Tribune‚ said the move seems part of an initiative within the state GOP targeting municipalities who implement policies outside the...

Embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis admitted to having a “personal relationship” with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade but says this shouldn’t warrant tossing out the charges against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants. “In 2022‚ District Attorney Willis and I developed a personal relationship in addition to our professional association and friendship‚” Wade wrote in an affidavit released by Willis’ office in court papers they filed Friday. But the filing...

Fulton County‚ Ga.‚ District Attorney Fani Willis (D) acknowledged developing a “personal relationship” with the top prosecutor in former President Trump’s Georgia criminal case in a new court filing Friday‚ but she said it was no reason for her to step aside.  Trump co-defendant Michael Roman last month first accused Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade of having romantic ties‚ claiming it rendered the far-reaching Georgia...

The U.S. has begun retaliatory strikes on Middle East targets from multiple platforms‚ a U.S Defense official has told Fox News.  The strikes are in response to the deaths of three U.S. service members last Sunday on a U.S. base in Jordan.   The fallen troops were Sgt. William Jerome Rivers‚ 46; Spc. Kennedy Landon Sanders‚ 24; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett‚ 23‚ all of whom were from Georgia.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) admitted she had a personal relationship with an outside prosecutor she appointed to manage the election interference case against former president Donald Trump and his allies but denied claims that the relationship had tainted the proceedings. In a 176-page court filing on Friday‚ Willis called the claims against her “meritless” and “salacious.” She asked a judge to reject motions from Trump and other co-defendants that...

The United States carried out retaliatory strikes on Friday in Iraq and Syria against facilities linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and the militias they back‚ four U.S. officials said‚ after a deadly attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops and injured some 40 others. The strikes are believed to be just the first in a multi-tiered response by President Joe Biden's administration in response to the attack last weekend carried out by Iran-backed militants. While the U.S. strikes...

The United States on Friday carried out a series of military strikes against Iran-backed militants in half a dozen sites in Iraq and Syria‚ according to a U.S. Defense Department official‚ marking a sharp escalation of the war in the Middle East that the Biden administration has for four months sought to avoid. President Biden had promised to respond to a drone attack in Jordan on Sunday that killed three American soldiers and injured at least 40 more service members. The military action...

The state of South Dakota has issued an apology letter and a $300‚000 payment to a transgender advocacy group for the abrupt cancellation of a Department of Health contract in 2022. Those are the terms of a settlement agreement inked Thursday in a federal discrimination lawsuit shortly after the cancellation. The group had a contract with the state‚ paid for with federal funds‚ to provide community health worker services to the LGBTQ+ community from its Sioux Falls headquarters. The...

Medical debt will be canceled for around 250‚000 people in Connecticut‚ the first state in the U.S. to do so. The New England state is planning to erase approximately $1 billion in medical debt this year by using American Rescue Plan Act funds. Speaking on Good Morning America‚ Democrat Governor Ned Lamont said that people struggling with medical debt "should not have to suffer twice: first with the illness‚ then with the debt." "I think it is really important that people have a sense...

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) announced Friday a first-in-the-nation plan for the state to cancel medical debt for eligible residents. The state plans to use $6.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds to eliminate approximately $1 billion in medical debt for Connecticut residents. “This is an important priority for our administration and will provide financial and emotional relief to thousands of Connecticut families‚” the governor said on X Friday morning. A recent Consumer...