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Detroit (AP) - Americans across the country this weekend celebrated Juneteenth, marking the relatively new national holiday with cookouts, parades and other gatherings as they commemorated the end of slavery after the Civil War. While many have treated the long holiday weekend as a reason for a party, others urged quiet reflection on America's often violent and oppressive treatment of its Black citizens. And still others have remarked at the

By DR. JOYNICOLE MARTINEZ, Staff Writer In 2015, the U.S. Justice Department concluded that Ferguson, Missouri was using its police department largely as a collection agency for the city. The court practices exacerbated the harm of Ferguson’s unconstitutional and abusive police practices and placed, “particular hardship upon Ferguson’s most vulnerable residents…Minor offenses can generate crippling debts, result in jail time because of an inability to pay and result in the

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China this weekend as part of the Biden administration's push to repair deteriorating ties between Washington and Beijing and keep lines of communication open, the State Department said Wednesday. Blinken will be the most senior U.S. official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office. His visit had initially been planned for earlier this year but was

JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli military said Wednesday it closed an investigation into its shooting and killing of a Palestinian toddler in the occupied West Bank earlier this month. In a rare admission of wrongdoing, the military said the 2-year-old boy was killed unintentionally when a soldier mistook him and his father for militants on the run. The military said it would reprimand one of the officers involved in the

NEW YORK (AP) - After three years, the pandemic-era freeze on student loan payments will end in late August. It might seem tempting to just keep not making payments, but the consequences can be severe, including a hit to your credit score and exclusion from future aid and benefits. More than 40 million Americans will have to start making federal student loan payments again at the end of the summer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans on the right and the left have a lot more in common than they might think - including their strong distrust of each other. A survey published on Wednesday finds that when asked about core values including fairness, compassion and personal responsibility, about nine in 10 Democrats and Republicans agreed they were very or extremely important. Yet only about a third of either group said they

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Regulated sports betting and horse racing should begin across North Carolina in the first half of next year after Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law Wednesday legislation that greatly expands gambling opportunities in the ninth-largest state. The Democratic governor held the bill-signing ceremony at Spectrum Center, home to the NBA's Charlotte Hornets. It could house one of several anticipated sportsbooks allowed at or near professional sports

Gov. Josh Shapiro said Wednesday that crews will work 24 hours a day in Philadelphia to reopen a collapsed section of an important East Coast highway, but he wouldn't estimate how long it will take to get traffic flowing through an artery that is critical to commerce. Investigators continued to look into why a truck hauling gasoline went out of control on an off-ramp and flipped on its side, igniting

WASHINGTON (AP) - Since taking on the role of White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre has become known for frequently dodging questions by citing the Hatch Act. The law bars civil servants from politicking during their day jobs, and Jean-Pierre uses it to deflect reporters' questions involving campaigns. But apparently she wasn't careful enough. The Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that enforces the Hatch Act, said in a

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The Southern Baptist Convention has refused to welcome Saddleback Church back into its fold, rejecting an appeal by the California megachurch over its February ouster for having women pastors. Southern Baptist church representatives at their annual meeting here also rejected a similar appeal by a smaller church, Fern Creek Baptist of Louisville, Kentucky, which is led by a woman pastor. The results of the Tuesday votes