Open Newswire

WASHINGTON — Two leading Democrats on a U.S. House panel called on the head of an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor responsible for protecting workers’ benefits to take action to address improper health insurance claim denials, in a Tuesday letter provided exclusively to States Newsroom.   Reps. Bobby Scott of Virginia and Mark DeSaulnier of […]

WASHINGTON — Two leading Democrats on a U.S. House panel called on the head of an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor responsible for protecting workers’ benefits to take action to address improper health insurance claim denials, in a Tuesday letter provided exclusively to States Newsroom.   Reps. Bobby Scott of Virginia and Mark DeSaulnier of […]

Rhode Island’s congressional delegation announced Tuesday that the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) will receive $25 million in federal funding to grow its hybrid electric bus fleet. Funding comes from the Federal Highway Administration’s Low or No Emission Grant Program, created under the 2022 bipartisan infrastructure law. The program is meant to help transit […]

State officials are touting the free pre-K program for 4-year-olds. Across the state, about 51,000 students are enrolled

Former governor proposes millionaire's surcharge Former Gov. Pat Quinn is pushing for a state constitutional amendment requiring Illinois millionaires to pay a 3% surcharge on their income tax returns. The former governor said the millionaire’s tax would go to support a $4.5 billion property tax relief fund. Quinn launched the campaign Tuesday outside the Cook County Treasurer’s Office in Chicago. Digital state ID launched Starting Wednesday, Illinois residents can add their Illinois-issued driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet and present their ID using their iPhone and Apple Watch. Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said, for now, Illinois residents must continue to carry their physical ID. Illinois joins 12 other states and the territory of Puerto Rico by offering driver’s licenses and state IDs in Apple Wallet. Money laundering charges The founder of a Chicago cryptocurrency company has been indicted in an alleged $10 million money laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors say Crypto Dispensers CEO Firas Isa, 36, of Frankfort, Illinois and his company, Virtual Assets, have both pleaded not guilty. According to the indictment, Isa’s company operated a cash-to-cryptocurrency exchange business with crypto ATMs at various locations throughout the United States.

Two Ukrainian citizens working for Russia’s FSB intelligence service are suspected of sabotaging a railway line in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on November 18. Speaking to the lower house of parliament, Tusk confirmed two acts of sabotage against the Warsaw–Lublin railway line, which links the Polish capital to the border with Ukraine.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun on Tuesday made his most overt political threat to recalcitrant Republican state senators over congressional redistricting by saying he could look for ways to “compel” them to act and support election challengers to redistricting opponents.

Fiocruz-MG aponta risco de tarifas maiores, piora na qualidade da água e do saneamento com venda da estatal ‘Processo vai na contramão da COP30’, diz pesquisador sobre privatização da Copasa em Minas Gerais apareceu primeiro no Brasil de Fato.

(The Center Square) — Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Lafayette, the only House lawmaker who voted against releasing documents associated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday, said the legislation will hurt people who are named in the documents but did nothing wrong. “It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc,” Higgins wrote on X after the vote. The bipartisan bill passed the House in a 427 to 1 vote. It now moves to the Senate for consideration. President Trump, who had tried to head off the House vote until bowing to pressure from his own party, has indicated he will sign the legislation. Higgins, a Trump loyalist who said last week that he planned to vote against the bill, added that the process of releasing the documents is moving properly through the House Oversight Committee. “The Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation that has already released well over 60,000 pages of documents from the Epstein case,” he wrote on X. “That effort will continue in a manner that provides all due protections for innocent Americans.” Higgins said if the bill is amended in the Senate to “properly address privacy of victims and other Americans, who are named but not criminally implicated,” he would vote for it when it returned to the House. Senate GOP leader John Thune has said changes to the bill are unlikely.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Senate on Tuesday agreed to pass a bill by unanimous consent requiring the U.S. attorney general to release all documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer initiated passage of the U.S. House of Representatives bill to release the files. The U.S. House passed the measure earlier Tuesday afternoon. "People have waited long enough. Jeffrey Epstein's victims have waited long enough. Let transparency reign," Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday. A unanimous consent vote requires agreement from all 100 senators. No senator objected to Schumer's call requesting the release of documents associated with Epstein. The bill will now go to President Donald Trump's desk to be signed into law. Once signed, the Department of Justice will have 30 days to release all unclassified records related to Epstein.

This story was originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on Nov. 18, 2025. The U.S. Supreme Court has set a date for a hearing on Idaho’s transgender athletics ban. The court will hear arguments on Jan. 13. The hearing — and the court’s ruling, likely to come later in 2026 — will resonate well beyond Idaho, and […]

This story was originally published by Capital & Main. A raccoon’s long-toed footprint adorned the muddy lakeshore. A killdeer screeched overhead and a fluffy-tailed coyote loped through nearby grasslands. Yet the animal that wildlife biologist Wendy Hanophy sought on a hot October day remained elusive. The northern leopard frogs she was searching for were likely bedded […]

In the fall of 2024, a North Carolina educator’s public school hosted its 3rd annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration. Hundreds of students and their families joined together to celebrate culture and identity. Excited students practiced performances for months in advance. Families sent pictures of their loved ones long passed to add to the school’s altar that was set to be on display.… The post Perspective | From celebration to crisis, the impacts of aggressive immigration enforcement for our children appeared first on EdNC.

The current base pay for Cal State campus presidents ranges from $370,000 to more than $500,000.

Editor’s Note: The following is a response to the 2025 Dallas Herring Lecture by Dr. Jason Wood, delivered on Nov. 18, from Sharon Decker, former N.C. Secretary of Commerce and current senior advisor for long-term recovery for the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW). Read It’s so nice to be with you today.… The post Perspective | Sharon Decker on leading workforce development efforts in challenging times appeared first on EdNC.

MOUNT PLEASANT — Micah Mallace is making good on his promise to quickly focus on projects that will boost cargo at the Port of Charleston. The S.C. State Ports Authority’s board of directors on Tuesday approved a pair of grants totaling $1.5 million to help two businesses that will rely on Inland Port Greer for […]

(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott is the first governor in the United States to designate two Muslim groups as Foreign Terrorist and Transnational Criminal Organizations. On Tuesday, he made the designations by proclamation citing multiple Texas laws. He designated the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as FTOs, authorizing heightened enforcement against both organizations and their affiliates. The designation also prohibits them from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas. “The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’" Abbott said. "The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable. Today, I designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations. These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.” The Society of Muslim Brothers, known as Jama’ at al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood) was founded in Egypt more than 100 years ago with a stated committment to Islamic jihad (fighting unbelievers) and imposing Sharia (Islamic) law worldwide, the proclamation states. The group is connected to multiple terrorist organizations, including Hamas, and has been banned in multiple Middle Eastern countries like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The proclamation also cites a 2009 federal case, U.S. v Holy Land Foundation, in which CAIR was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a federal terrorism financing case linking CAIR to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. It also cites former CAIR board members, speakers and staff who were sentenced to prison for financing terrorism, conspiring to aid Al Qaeda and the Taliban, bank and visa fraud, financing terrorist causes overseas, violating U.S. sanctions against Iraq, and who were deported for violating federal laws. The proclamation cites multiple bills passed by the state legislature to strengthen state efforts to combat terrorism and prevent terrorist-affiliated groups from purchasing land in Texas as justification to ban Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR and affiliated groups from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas. Abbott made the designation after U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, filed a bill multiple times over the past 10 years to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 to ban all Muslim Brotherhood members from the U.S., The Center Square reported. “The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization,” Cruz has argued. Its members are “committed to the overthrow and destruction of America and other non-Islamist governments across the world, and pose an acute threat to American national security interests,” he said when introducing the bill again in July. “American allies in the Middle East and Europe have already labeled the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and the United States should do the same, and do so expeditiously.” The bill would make Muslim Brotherhood members ineligible for visas or admittance to the U.S., revoke visas of all non-U.S. citizens who are confirmed Muslim Brotherhood members and deport them. It also requires the secretary of State to impose sanctions on all groups directly or indirectly controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, including Hamas. CAIR, which has sued Abbott arguing his antisemitism crackdown on college campuses was unconstitutional, mocked the designation. “Greg Abbott is an Israel First politician who has spent months stoking anti-Muslim hysteria to smear American Muslims critical of the Israeli government,” CAIR said in a statement. “Although we are flattered by his obsession with our civil rights group, his defamatory proclamation has no basis in fact or law. “Unlike Mr. Abbott – who unleashed violence against Texas students protesting the Gaza genocide to satisfy his AIPAC donors – our civil rights organization is an independent voice that answers to the American people, relies on support from the American people, and opposes all forms of unjust violence, including hate crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide and terrorism.” The Islamic group also said it is “ready to sue [Gov. Abbott] again if he attempts to turn this publicity stunt into real policy.”

A Florida bill replacing all allusions to “child pornography” in state statute with “child sexual abuse material” unanimously passed its first committee test on Tuesday. Filed by Rep. Jessica Baker, HB 245 argues that applying the legal term “pornography” to images of sexually battered children is inappropriate, because children cannot consent to sexual activity. “The […]

Após conquistar oito medalhas nas disputas de simples (individual), a delegação brasileira de tênis de mesa paralímpico voltou ao brilhar no ITTF World Para Challenger Giza (Egito). Nesta terça-feira (18), último dia de competições, os brasileiros subiram ao pódio outras nove vezes no torneio de duplas. Foram três medalhas de ouro, uma de prata e cinco de bronze. A mesatenista goiana Lethícia Lacerda, que já faturara ouro no torneio de simples, voltou a garantir o topo do pódio hoje ao lado do catarinense Gabriel Antunes. Na final da classe XD17 mista (para atletas andantes), os brasileiros derrotaram os japoneses Yuri Tomono e Koyo Iwabhuchi por 3 sets a 1 (11/7, 11/7, 4/11 e 11/4). Letícia também assegurou prata na classe WD10 feminina (cadeirantes) ao lado da paulista Aline Ferreira. Elas ficaram em segundo lugar no grupo, com três vitórias e apenas uma derrota. Notícias relacionadas: Tênis de Mesa: Brasil fecha challenger internacional com 11 medalhas. Brasil desperdiça pênalti e não passa de empate com Tunísia. Brasil despacha França nos pênaltis e vai às quartas do Mundial Sub-17. A segunda medalha dourada desta terça (18) para a dupla do paulista Fábio Silva com a goiana Thaís Fraga na classe XD7-10 (cadeirantes) que superaram na final os indianos Bhavina Patel e Shubham Wadhwa por 3 sets a 0 (11/5, 11/9 e 11/9). Depois Thais Fraga arrematou outro ouro nas duplas da classe WD10 feminina (cadeirantes), em parceria com a sul-coreana Oejeong Kang. Elas tiveram 100% de aproveitamento, com quatro vitórias nas quatro partidas do grupo. Também subiram ao pódio com medalha de bronze as duplas de Iranildo Espíndola e Nicole Santos (classe XD4); Carlos Eduardo Moraes e Fábio Silva (MD8); Lucas Arabian e Welder Knaf (MD8); Jean Mashki e Gabirel Antunes (MD18); e Guilherme Costa e Iranildo Espíndola (MD4). A delegação brasileira contou com 14 mesatenistas no Para Challenger Giza, que começou no último domingo (15) com as disputas individuais.

Just 3% of corn acres and 1% of soybean acres across the state of Iowa remain unharvested, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s crop progress and condition report. Corn harvest is just slightly ahead of the five-year average and on target with 2024 harvest figures. Soybean harvest was 100% completed […]