COLORADO SPRINGS — A system created to prevent tips about child abuse and neglect from slipping through the cracks instead created a big one: Scores of messages sent to Colorado’s statewide hotline piled up unread for four years because of a mistake in an email address. The problem started in 2015, not long after Colorado […]
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Did you know that your personal information is available online to anyone with $10? This isn’t some illegal, dark-web transaction. It’s a service provided by the online data-broker industry, which mines addresses, phone numbers and other personal information, and legally sells that information to anyone who pays. At best, this practice is disturbing. Sometimes, it […]
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To the Editor: Re “Sound, Fury and Prescription Drugs” (editorial, July 7): I heartily agree with your recommendations to constrain prescription drug costs. In addition to efforts at the federal level, state governments have been very active on this issue since 2017. State initiatives become models for federal action, and this area is no exception. […]
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Last week, Michael L. Johnson, a former college wrestler convicted of failing to disclose to sexual partners that he was H.I.V. positive in a racially charged case that reignited calls to re-examine laws that criminalize H.I.V. exposure, walked out of the Boonville Correctional Center in Missouri 25 years earlier than expected. Mr. Johnson, 27, was […]
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LONDON — After Facebook was hit on Friday with a fine of around $5 billion for privacy violations, critics immediately said it escaped largely unscathed: The settlement neither bruised its bottom line nor severely restricted its ability to collect people’s data. Yet even if the Silicon Valley company dodged that bullet, its pain was just […]
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WASHINGTON — The House gave final approval Friday to a sweeping defense bill that would put a liberal stamp on military policy, shackling President Trump’s ability to wage war in Iran and Yemen, restricting the use of military funds at the southwestern border and returning transgender troops to the armed forces. The sprawling $733 billion […]
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WASHINGTON — The House on Friday approved legislation to replenish a depleted federal fund to compensate emergency workers and others who became ill as a result of their work in the ruins of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, extending it for the lifetime of those who were at Sept. 11’s ground zero. The […]
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WASHINGTON — The House voted Friday to curb President Trump’s ability to strike Iran militarily on Friday, adopting a bipartisan provision that would require the president to get Congress’s approval before authorizing military force against Tehran. The 251-170 vote reflects lawmakers’ growing desire to take back long-ceded authority over matters of war and peace from […]
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A British woman was impaled by a metal straw after falling at her home, a coroner said in an inquest this week that highlighted the potential dangers of metal straws. Such straws have surged in popularity as cities, states and even countries have banned single-use plastic straws. The woman, Elena Struthers-Gardner, 60, who had a […]
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Heading into another wildfire season, California’s political leaders have moved with unusual speed to help the state’s utilities erect a backstop against huge liability claims. The State Legislature gave final approval on Thursday to a measure that would set up a fund to help compensate victims for losses from fires started by the utilities’ equipment. […]
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PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron’s government waded into a potentially messy fight with the White House on Thursday as French lawmakers voted to impose a tax on Facebook, Google and other American technology giants despite a blunt warning from the Trump administration. The measure, which the White House said could amount to an unfair trade […]
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[Read all Times reporting on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. | Sign up for the weekly Science Times email.] When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin visited the moon 50 years ago, they left roughly 100 objects behind, including a portion of their lunar lander, the American flag and, yes, various kinds […]
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WASHINGTON — The C.I.A. is quietly pushing Congress to significantly expand the scope of a law that makes it a crime to disclose the identities of undercover intelligence agents, raising alarms among advocates of press freedoms. The agency has proposed extending a 1982 law, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which makes it a crime to […]
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ALBANY — The Democratic primary for Queens district attorney, now enmeshed in a lengthy recount and possibly lengthier court battle, could have another nexus, 150 miles away in the State Capitol. That is where a bill that could help requalify dozens of invalidated ballots awaits Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s signature. The measure is intended to […]
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Two federal judges in one of the most conservative appeals courts in the nation appeared ready on Tuesday to fall for the most specious legal challenge that the Affordable Care Act has faced — which is saying something. The two Republican-appointed judges on the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the […]
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WASHINGTON — Democrats running for president are promoting historically ambitious plans to fight climate change. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. wants to put a price on greenhouse emissions with the aim of eliminating the United States’ net planet-warming pollution by 2050. Former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas has a $5 trillion proposal to […]
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In the grim aftermath of the mass shooting in Virginia Beach in May, Gov. Ralph Northam insisted it was time for action. Thoughts and prayers were not enough, he said, as he called for a special session of the Virginia General Assembly to consider a raft of gun control proposals. That special session began on […]
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LONDON — British lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage and extend abortion rights in Northern Ireland as long as the region’s governing coalition remained paralyzed, setting the stage for changes that would bring the region into line with the rest of the United Kingdom. The votes do not in and of themselves […]
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ImageCreditJames Steinberg On Aug. 1, New Jersey will become the eighth state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who want to end their lives. On Sept. 15, Maine will become the ninth. So by October, 22 percent of Americans will live in places where residents with six months or less […]
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida calls itself the Sunshine State. But when it comes to the use of solar power, it trails 19 states, including not-so-sunny Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Maryland. Solar experts and environmentalists blame the state’s utilities. The utilities have hindered potential rivals seeking to offer residential solar power. They have […]
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