The gunman who killed 11 people and injured 6 others during a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 was found guilty of 63 criminal counts, including hate crimes resulting in death, by a Pennsylvania jury on Friday, AP reports.
The big picture: The shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue marked the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, and Friday's verdict brings the harrowing case closer to a close.
Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, was in Little Rock on Friday for a deposition in his paternity case with Lunden Roberts of Batesville, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The two have a 4-year-old daughter together.
Driving the news: Hunter Biden is advocating for a reduction in the previously agreed-upon $20,000-per-month child support payments and is opposed to Roberts' desire to change the girl's last name to Biden.
Former President Barack Obama called out how some Republicans of color downplay racial inequality, specifically naming 2024 presidential hopefuls Tim Scott and Nikki Haley.
Why it matters: Obama, the first and only U.S. Black president, has not weighed much into the 2024 political fray as of yet — and said there was "a long history" of Black or minority Republicans downplaying racial discrimination in the U.S.
A two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that the Minneapolis Police Department has engaged in a pattern of unlawful racial discrimination and excessive force, violating residents' constitutional and civil rights, federal officials announced Friday.
Why it matters: The findings will likely lead to another court-enforced agreement to bring sweeping changes to the embattled department, three years after George Floyd's murder set off global protests over race and policing.
The drug company founded by and formerly led by anti-ESG and DEI crusader Vivek Ramaswamy has a nonprofit arm whose official mission now includes increasing the racial and gender diversity of pharma industry leadership.
Why it matters: Ramaswamy, a longshot 2024 GOP presidential candidate, is best known for arguing that ESG and DEI run counter to fiduciary duty and can have undue influence on cultural change.
New York Times congressional reporters Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater will be out in 2025 with "a rollicking, unvarnished, and deeply sourced account of life inside the Republican Party focusing on the GOP-led 118th Congress."
Why it matters: The book will be a "fast-paced insider's account of how Washington works today," according to Penguin Random House, the publisher.
President Biden will use a Philadelphia address to union supporters on Saturday to make the economic case for his re-election, according to people familiar with his plans.
Why it matters: Biden is presiding over a healthy — if somewhat confounding — Timex economy: It just keeps ticking.
Before there were white cowboys in the American West, there were Latino vaqueros, Indigenous cattle handlers and Black cowboys.
Why it matters: That history, often forgotten in tales of the nation's frontier, is what photographer Ivan McClellan has honored by documenting Black cowboys and cowgirls for nearly a decade — and why he organized a Juneteenth rodeo in Portland, Ore., on Saturday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes Russia will lose the war if Kyiv's long-awaited counteroffensive is successful, he told NBC News in his first interview since his military campaign kicked off last week.
Why it matters: Ukraine is fighting the clock not just in Europe, where Russia's brutal invasion has caused mass destruction and killed tens of thousands of people — but also in Washington, where partisan politics is the top threat to the flow of aid sustaining Ukraine's military.
More than 800,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children have grown up across the country even as their protection under an Obama-era program is threatened by the courts.
Why it matters: It's been 11 years since the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program launched in June of 2012 to provide work permits and protection from deportation for these so-called "Dreamers."
Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who was accused of leaking dozens of intelligence documents to the online gaming service Discord, was indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts of retaining and transmitting classified national defense material, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.
Why it matters: Teixeira, a 21-year-old from North Dighton, Massachusetts, was arrested by FBI agents in April and faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count, per the DOJ.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has announced a run for president, but some are questioning whether he's qualified for the job given how little power the city's mayors actually have.
Why it matters: The part-time Republican mayor doesn't oversee the city budget or any government departments and has no vote on legislation.
The U.S. Supreme Court has preserved a law giving Native American families priority in adoptions and foster care placements of tribal children.
Driving the news: The 7-2 rulingissued Thursday leaves in place the1978Indian Child Welfare Act, enacted after Native American and Alaska Native children were being separated from families and often placed in non-Indigenous homes.
House Democrats plan to introduce a discharge petition next week to try to force a vote on legislation to protect abortion access, Axios has learned.
The big picture: House Democrats under Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have increasingly turned to discharge petitions as their tactic of choice to try to squeeze vulnerable Republicans on sensitive issues.
The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to release the findings of its two-year investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department on Friday.
Driving the news: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and MPD chief Brian O'Hara are scheduled to appear at a Friday morning press conference "on a civil rights matter."
Ticket giants Live Nation and SeatGeek have committed to reveal the entire cost of certain tickets up front when consumers are shopping for options, eliminating what critics have called "junk fees," the White House announced Thursday.
Why it matters: "Junk fees" jack up ticket costs so they are higher than the sticker price on many ticketing sites — undercutting accessibility to some of the hottest shows as demand for concerts is soaring.
The Atlantic's Tim Alberta— fresh off his epic takedown of former CNN CEO Chris Licht — will be out Dec. 5 with a deeply personal, rigorously reported portrait of American Christianity in self-inflicted decline.
Why it matters: Alberta, 37, son of an evangelical minister, was inspired to write "The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory" by a final conversation with his father — who died in 2019, just after visiting Washington to celebrate the release of Tim's bestseller, "American Carnage."
New data shows how deeply families have struggled to stay afloat while working and paying for child care, and how in many cases they've been forced to quit jobs to stay home with a kid — especially if they are Latino, Black or live in poverty.
By the numbers: About 17% of Black children and 16% of Latino kids ages 5 and under lived with a family member who had to quit, change or refuse a job because of child care issues in 2021, according to a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, released Wednesday.
President Biden is almost certain to be Democrats' pick for president in 2024, but he might not win the first two contests of the primary season if they're in the traditional first-to-vote states of Iowa and New Hampshire — a scenario that seems increasingly likely.
Driving the news: Biden's team is indicating he won't be on the ballots in those states if they vote before South Carolina, his choice to have the first primary.
A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager has been accused of stealing and selling body parts donated to the institution as part of a nationwide scheme from 2018 through 2022, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Driving the news: Cedric Lodge, 55, and his wife, Denise Lodge, 63, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, were indicted with several others by a federal jury in Pennsylvania and face charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, per a Justice Department statement, which said the school was a victim in the case.
A New York grand jury indicted former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny in connection with the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a Black unhoused man, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday.
The big picture: Penny, who is white, was initially charged last month with second-degree manslaughter over the train incident. He said in interviews that he was trying to hold Neely until police arrived as the 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator, known for his performances in Times Square, experienced an apparent mental health episode.
