The Spectrum & Daily News
Privatizing space brings COMPLICATIONS
Private companies are no longer peripheral participants in U.S. space activities. They provide key services, including launching and deploying satellites, transporting cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, and even sending landers to...
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Study pinpoints surge in heat-related 911 calls
PHOENIX – Extreme heat is increasingly the culprit behind 911 emergency calls among older and lower-income individuals and those living in the Intermountain West, new research out of the University of Arizona has found. The study, published Feb. 4 in...
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Trump delays strikes on Iran power plants
The Pentagon is weighing sending an additional 10,000 troops to the Middle East as the war with Iran rages, multiple news outlets reported. It remained unclear when a decision will be made on whether to send the additional combat soldiers, according...
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Envoy: U.S. has sent ‘action list’ to Iran
The Trump administration on March 26 confirmed for the first time that it has passed a 15-point “action list” to Iran through Pakistani officials to end the war. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed the diplomatic efforts at a Cabinet meeting, saying...
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Iran appears to reject U.S. plan
Iran on March 25 rejected the United States’ ceasefire plan to end the war, calling the proposal “excessive,” Iranian state media reported, as thousands of U.S. Marines and paratroopers deployed to the Middle East. Iran considers the 15-point plan...
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Opening day dreams
PHOENIX – We could all use a little optimism. Maybe more than a little. We are in so many ways a nation divided, by so many things. Sometimes it seems as if nothing can unite us again. Is there nothing we can rally behind, all of us? And just like...
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Student protester released after year
Leqaa Kordia of Paterson, New Jersey, a protester who demonstrated against the war in Gaza at Columbia University in 2024, was released from immigration detention on March 16 after a judge set bond and federal authorities declined to block the order,...
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Troops deployed to Middle East region
Despite President Donald Trump’s promises of the war with Iran ending soon and broad domestic disapproval of further involvement, the United States is sending more troops to the region, a defense official said. The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit,...
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Iran’s path murky after loss of leaders
DUBAI – The killing of Iran’s most influential power broker, Ali Larijani, has pushed the Islamic Republic into a more uncertain phase, complicating decision-making in Tehran and narrowing its options as the war grinds on. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran...
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Israel kills another top Iranian official
Israel said it had killed Iran’s intelligence minister in its second targeted killing of a top leader in two days, as President Donald Trump suggested he might abandon the task of reopening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic, Iran’s huge Pars gas...
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American intelligence official quits over war
The head of the National Counterterrorism Center resigned in protest over the Iran war as Israel said on March 17 it had killed Iran’s top intelligence official. Joe Kent, a conservative politician and decorated former Army Ranger and CIA paramilitary...
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TRUMP DEMANDING BACKUP IN IRAN WAR
President Donald Trump demanded more countries send reinforcements to secure the Strait of Hormuz for international shipping as oil prices stayed at $100 a barrel on March 16, amid the continuing Iran war. U.S. gas prices climbed higher in recent...
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Wanted: Volunteers to host nuclear waste
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration’s plan to unleash a wave of small futuristic nuclear reactors to power the AI era is falling back on an age-old strategy to dispose of the highly toxic waste: bury it at the bottom of a very deep hole. But there’s...
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‘FAILURE ON OUR PART’
MILWAUKEE – In June 2023, a 13-year-old Wisconsin girl for the first time entered a website known for videos and images depicting publicized death, torture and rape. Eighteen months later, she committed the deadliest school shooting in state history...
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6 U.S. service members killed in plane crash
Six more U.S. service members were killed when their refueling aircraft crashed after a midair collision over western Iraq, officials said March 13, as the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran reached the two-week mark with few signs of slowing down. The...
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MALARIA FIGHT MOVES FORWARD
Every year, malaria kills more than 600,000 people worldwide. Most of them are children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa. But the disease isn’t confined to poor, rural areas – it’s a global threat that travels with people across borders. For decades, the...
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Trump juggling war and midterms
Can President Donald Trump run both a war and a midterm campaign at the same time? He is discovering just how difficult that can be. In week two of the biggest military operation of his presidency − a conflict that already has ensnared the Gulf...
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Experts weigh in on U.S. approach to Iran
The United States’ bombing campaign in Iran amounts to a war launched without congressional authorization, according to many legal and defense experts. But they also say courts likely won’t step in, leaving Congress as the only potential check on the...
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Oil prices soar as Iran names leader
As the U.S.-Israel war with Iran entered its 10th day on March 9, oil prices soared over fears of a prolonged conflict, President Donald Trump demanded “unconditional surrender” and the Pentagon made public the name of the seventh U.S. service member...
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Trump: No interest in Iran negotiations
As the United States-Israeli offense in Iran advanced into its second week, President Donald Trump said that he is not interested in negotiations. Instead, he raised the possibility that the war would continue until the Middle East country no longer...
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SOLAR STANDOFF
After wind turbines came to Ford County, Kansas, in 2006, the roads got fixed, schools were rebuilt and for the first time in decades, dozens of new houses were constructed. ● “We just added another crop,” said Deloyce McKee, 76, whose family has...
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Trump demands Iran’s surrender
President Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” in a social media post the morning of March 6, insisting “there will be no deal” to end his 7-day-old war with the battered Persian Gulf power. The president added in a social media post...
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Ballroom vote delayed
A vote on President Donald Trump’s plans for a $400 million White House ballroom was rescheduled, as a commission in charge of deciding the project has been deluged with more than 35,000 written comments and 104 people who wanted to testify at a March...
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Drone strikes hit U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia
The United States ordered nonemergency government personnel and their family members to leave Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan and closed several diplomatic missions across the Middle East on March 3 as the war with Iran escalated. The move...
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U.S. fighter jets crash in Kuwait
The Trump administration’s conflict with Iran will not be “endless,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on March 2, as the United States and Israel’s joint air strikes against Iran expand, the death toll rises and a congressional debate over President...
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Tehran retaliates after leader killed in strikes
Three U.S. service members were killed amid the ongoing conflict in Iran and five were seriously wounded, according to American military officials. “Several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions – and are in the process of being...
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Doctors weigh in on the measles vaccine
MILWAUKEE – After a quarter century in which the United States was considered free of endemic measles, it’s back. As of Feb. 19, 982 confirmed measles cases have been reported in the country in 2026, according to the latest data from the Centers for...
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Clinton depositions show changed Democratic Party
WASHINGTON – In late February 2016, Hillary Clinton cruised to an overwhelming victory in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary – an unambiguous statement of the former first lady and secretary of state’s dominance over her party as she...
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Iran floats talks for non-nuclear issues
GENEVA – The United States and Iran could reach a framework for a deal if Washington separates “nuclear and non-nuclear issues,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters, adding that remaining gaps need to be narrowed during a third round of talks in...
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Trump touts economic gains in his address
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump declared the country is booming, his opponents are “crazy” and his administration is engaged in unprecedented levels of “winning” in a marathon State of the Union address that comes as polls showed deep skepticism of...
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Former ICE lawyer testifies to Congress
ICE supervisors are teaching “new cadets to violate the Constitution” amid President Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations, a former agency lawyer testified to members of Congress. “The ICE academy is deficient, defective, and broken,” former...
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Detainee’s mother is Schumer’s SOTU guest
NEW YORK − A Bronx mother whose eldest son was one of the first New York City students detained by federal immigration agents is Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s personal guest to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union, USA TODAY...
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Foster hometown pride to grow civic engagement
Eileen Higgins won a historic victory in December. She became the first woman ever elected mayor of Miami, as well as its first Democratic mayor since 1997. ● Although the stakes in the city’s Dec. 9, runoff election were high, interest was not − 4 in...
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FBI to cut vetting steps for some agent applicants
WASHINGTON – The FBI plans to make it easier for existing employees to become agents, removing two longstanding steps in vetting applicants as the bureau faces a staffing crunch under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to two people...
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Supreme Court strikes down tariffs
WASHINGTON − A furious President Donald Trump slammed the Supreme Court after a landmark decision striking down his power to impose sweeping tariffs. “I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do...
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CA avalanche killed 8 despite warnings
The warnings were clear and eerie. A winter storm warning forecast up to 8 feet of snow in California’s Lake Tahoe region and avalanche conditions were considered “very dangerous.” Blackbird Mountain Guides, now under scrutiny for its role in the...
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Modern tech helps, hinders Guthrie case
TUCSON, AZ – The search for Nancy Guthrie is unfolding in the desert foothills north of Tucson and across digital networks, where investigators are working to piece together physical evidence and electronic traces left behind by her possible...
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AI COMPANIES GEAR UP TO SELL ADS
Eighteen months ago, it was plausible that artificial intelligence might take a different path than social media. Back then, AI’s development hadn’t consolidated under a small number of big tech firms. Nor had it capitalized on consumer attention,...
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Accountability unlikely for Epstein accomplices
To advocates for transparency and accountability surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department’s release of 3.5 million pages of files was underwhelming. The department withheld another 2.5 million pages and heavily redacted much of what it did...
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Trump’s governor snub draws many questions
President Donald Trump has been warring with Democratic governors since returning to the White House, whether by targeting their states for strict immigration enforcement and funding cuts or mocking them with insults, such as calling Illinois Gov. JB...
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Homan says Minnesota ICE operation will end
The Trump administration said it is ending the controversial immigration operation in Minnesota that sparked nationwide protests after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in January. White House border czar Tom Homan on Feb. 12 said he...
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Man released in Guthrie disappearance probe
More than a week after Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, went missing from her Arizona home in a possible kidnapping, law enforcement took a person in for questioning. Pima County Sheriff ’s Department deputies “detained a subject during a...
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Deadline looming for DHS reforms
WASHINGTON – Congress and the White House are locked in negotiations over potential reforms to the Department of Homeland Security as a deadline to shut down the agency approaches. Lawmakers have until the end of Feb. 13, to reach an agreement or risk...
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Hundreds protest against ICE outside Super Bowl
SANTA CLARA, CA – They came, they marched, they chanted − all under a close watch. But it wasn’t ICE agents who patrolled the streets on Super Bowl Sunday, as many had anticipated. Hundreds of people on Feb. 8 took over a main thoroughfare less than 2...
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Epstein files
contact with Epstein in 2011, according to the Norwegian tabloid VG. “I must take responsibility for not having investigated Epstein’s background more thoroughly, and for not realizing sooner what kind of person he was,” Mette-Marit said in a...
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A father uncovers truth behind son’s death in jail
COMPTON, CA – The man in the suit arrived in an unmarked car on a spring morning in 2020 with the worst news James Brown had ever heard. His 30-year-old son Jamall was dead. Brown hadn’t heard from his son in the days since he was detained on a parole...
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MAGA vs. Bad Bunny splits Super Bowl
Sen. Tommy Tuberville was thrilled to attend the Super Bowl in 2025 when he hitched a ride on Air Force One, joining President Donald Trump and several other Republican lawmakers for the big game. “Happy Super Bowl Sunday,” the Republican senator for...
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7 states tinker with congressional maps
WASHINGTON – The jockeying between Republicans and Democrats for advantage in the 2026 congressional elections is continuing as the Supreme Court chose not to review California’s redistricting plan, with seven states in the midst of redrawing maps for...
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Pedestrian deaths by trains persisting
In 2018, high-speed passenger trains branded as Brightline started running along the formerly freight-only Florida East Coast Railway. Initial service from Miami to West Palm Beach was extended to Orlando in 2023. ● Unfortunately, the southern end of...
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USAID raised early alarm on Gaza crisis
WASHINGTON — U.S. Agency for International Development staffers in early 2024 drafted a warning to senior officials in Joe Biden’s administration: Northern Gaza had turned into an “Apocalyptic Wasteland” with dire shortages of food and medical...
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Trump actions worry free-speech advocates
The FBI search of a Washington Post reporter’s home on Jan. 14 was a rare and intimidating move by an administration focused on repressing criticism and dissent. In its story about the search at Hannah Natanson’s home, at which FBI agents said they...
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Judge orders ICE to release child, father
A federal judge in Texas has ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from an immigration detention center by Feb. 3 at the latest, as President Donald Trump said he has directed the Department of Homeland Security not to...
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Catholics condemn ‘nationalism on steroids’
The rift between President Donald Trump and the Catholic church’s leadership is reaching biblical proportions. The country’s highest-ranking Catholic archbishops took the rare step of issuing a joint statement on Jan. 19, rebuking United States’...
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Shutdown still possible despite DHS deal
Lawmakers appeared to be closing in on a deal endorsed by President Donald Trump to avoid an extended government shutdown, but a key player said a brief government closure may be inevitable as there still was work to be done Jan. 30 as funding was set...
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Thousands train to legally record ICE Session draws 147,000 enrollees nationwide
Two people have been killed in Minnesota while monitoring the activity of immigration officials, but that hasn’t deterred tens of thousands of others who appear eager to volunteer for similar roles. More than 147,000 people all over the country signed...
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Consumer-driven future seen for GLP-1 drugs
LONDON – Ask executives in the health care industry about the future market for weight-loss drugs and the analogies are telling: monthly GLP-1 medicine subscriptions like a streaming video membership; dose decisions managed on a smartphone app; access...
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Judge orders ICE director to court
MINNEAPOLIS − Minnesota’s chief federal judge ordered the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to appear in court over what he says is the Trump administration’s repeated failure to grant detained immigrants bond hearings despite judicial...
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‘They didn’t leave us anything at all’
DEIR DIBWAN, West Bank – The Jewish settler outpost of Or Meir is small. A handful of prefabricated white shelters, it sits at the end of a short dirt track on a hill leading up from Road 60, a major route that dissects the Israeli-occupied West...
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Minnesota officials vow accountability
Minnesota leaders are vowing to hold federal officials accountable for the fatal shooting on Jan. 24 by a Border Patrol agent of a 37-year-old ICU nurse, whose death has sparked fresh protests in a state already rocked by the recent killing of Renee...
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Navajo man alleges detention despite ID
PHOENIX – Peter Yazzie told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents where they could locate his Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood, birth certificate and other documents proving that he was both a U.S. citizen and a Native American. It made...
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U.S. faces ‘human rights emergency,’ group says
One year into the second Trump administration, the United States has quickly eroded human rights safeguards, according to Amnesty International. The nonprofit released a report Jan. 20, the anniversary of President Donald Trump retaking office, saying...
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‘VERY DISAPPOINTING’
CHICAGO – In Chicago’s workingclass Pilsen neighborhood, a 1960s-era oil-fired power plant rises up from an industrial lot behind Dvorak Park, which in warmer weather is packed with children climbing on its colorful playground and zooming down...
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Greenland
Trump also posted a doctored image that showed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sitting in the White House’s Oval Office next to a map showing Greenland and Canada as American territory. He posted a separate AI image with him planting...
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Federal probe into Good questioned
First Amendment groups are concerned that the federal government’s investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis will have negative implications for free speech. The concern follows New York Times reporting that the Department of...
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Farm economy shows widening cracks
CHICAGO – Across the U.S. Farm Belt, these have become depressing times. Farmers are facing another season of low prices, high costs and difficult decisions about how – or whether – to keep operating. Banks are cutting off some growers just as they...
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Trump releases health insurance framework
WASHINGTON – Facing pressure to address affordability concerns, President Donald Trump called on Congress to pass a series of measures aimed at lowering drug prices and health insurance costs as he unveiled a long-awaited health care plan that is...
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President threatens Insurrection Act in MN
President Donald Trump on Jan. 15 threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would give him power to deploy armed forces domestically, as tensions ratcheted up yet further in Minnesota following a second shooting involving a federal agent. The...
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ICE detention centers are expanding in U.S.
President Donald Trump’s second term has brought sweeping changes to immigration enforcement. One of the top takeaways: Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention has expanded dramatically, both in the number of people being held and the sites...
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MN faces obstacles to charge ICE agent
Many in Minnesota and across the country were outraged by the killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration agent in a Minneapolis neighborhood and called for the agent to face charges. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who oversees the city’s...
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Polls: Venezuela invasion splits American opinion
President Donald Trump’s strike on Venezuela has evenly split the country: Republican hawks are cheering the Jan. 3 raid that dragged President Nicolás Maduro to New York to face criminal drug charges, while Democrats question whether constitutional...
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Trump foreign focus may hurt midterms
WASHINGTON – Even before the United States seized control of Venezuela and ousted its leader, some of President Donald Trump’s allies worried he was giving too much attention abroad while Americans made clear their top concern was the economy and cost...
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