Taking a new tack in the ideological battle over what books children should be able to read, Illinois will prohibit book bans in its public schools and libraries, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker calling the bill that he signed on Monday the first of its kind. The law, which takes effect next year, was the Democratic-controlled […]
The Cuban government was responsible for the death in 2012 of a prominent political activist who had organized a movement that had sought to compel the government to allow more freedom, according to a report released on Monday by an international human rights agency. The activist, Oswaldo Payá, was killed in a suspicious car crash […]
One person was killed and more than a dozen had to be rescued after a tour boat capsized Monday morning while carrying passengers through an underground cavern in western New York, prompting an all-out rescue effort, officials said. Twenty-nine people were on board when the boat tipped over at the Lockport Cave in Lockport, N.Y., […]
Franz S. Leichter, a maverick New York State legislator for three decades whose progressive views on abortion, gay unions and the decriminalization of marijuana eventually became law in the state, helped in no small part by his persistent prodding, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 92. The death, at a hospital, was confirmed by […]
A landmark climate change trial was set to begin Monday in Montana, where a group of youths has sued government leaders, accusing them of embracing fossil fuels in ways that are destroying the environment and robbing the futures of the state’s young residents. The lawsuit, more than a decade in the making, is the first […]
Tens of thousands of fish washed ashore along the gulf coast of Texas starting on Friday after being starved of oxygen in warm water, officials said. Park officials for Brazoria County, which is roughly 65 miles south of Houston, said that a cleanup effort was underway but thousands more fish were expected to wash ashore. […]
Developers hoping to snap up big city real estate often persuade local officials to shower them with taxpayer-funded incentives to seal the deal and prevent them from taking their business elsewhere. But a new film studio set to go up on a Midtown Manhattan pier stands out as an especially sweet deal, at an especially […]
The 2020 campaign to restore race-conscious affirmative action in California was close to gospel within the Democratic Party. It drew support from the governor, senators, state legislative leaders and a who’s who of business, nonprofit and labor elites, Black, Latino, white and Asian. The Golden State Warriors, San Francisco Giants and 49ers and Oakland Athletics […]
This was a week when residents of the three largest cities in Eastern Canada — Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal — experienced a phenomenon that has become all too familiar to anyone who lives in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. [Read: ‘How Could This Happen?’: Canadian Fires Burning Where They Rarely Have Before] At the time of […]
In Colombia, a new illicit product is on the rise. Desperate consumers are sneaking it in suitcases from abroad, hoarding it in their homes, paying outrageous prices online and lining up at clandestine locations to buy it. The contraband? Dijon mustard. A new health law intended to improve Colombians’ diets — which are heavy on […]