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February 21, 2025
Once off the table, bills to charge women who get abortions with murder get votes before failing
Updated 3:54 PM EST, February 20, 2025 Abortion rights advocates feared the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to state abortion bans would also lead to tracking women and charging women who get abortions with murder. No states have allowed either, but the ideas, once off the table, have gotten attention in legislatures this month. Oklahoma lawmakers killed a bill that would have allowed murder charges after a public hearing, and North Dakota did so after a floor debate. Sim ...
Go to discussionTrump administration takes aim at $4B in funding for California high-speed rail
Updated 6:44 PM EST, February 20, 2025 LOS ANGELES (AP) The Trump administration is once again targeting Californias controversial high-speed rail project, with federal transportation officials on Thursday announcing an investigation and possible withdrawal of about $4 billion in federal funding. Voters first approved $10 billion in bond money in 2008 for a project designed to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours. It was slated to cost $33 billion a ...
Go to discussionUSDA suspends scholarship program at historically Black colleges, website shows
February 20, 2025 4:53 PM EST Updated 11 hours ago WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has suspended a college scholarship program for students from rural and underserved backgrounds who attend historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), according to the program website. The 1890 scholars program aims to increase the number of agriculture students at the country's 19 historically Black land-grant universities, which are federally funded and tend to have ...
Go to discussionThe private GOP panic over the slash-and-burn DOGE firings
02/20/2025 04:26 PM EST A growing number of congressional Republicans are desperately trying to back-channel with White House officials as President Donald Trumps Department of Government Efficiency ramps up its slash-and-burn firings of federal workers. GOP lawmakers unleashed a frantic flurry of calls and texts after federal agencies undertook the latest firings this past weekend, with Republicans particularly worried about cuts affecting public safety and health roles. Trumps legislativ ...
Go to discussionStop criticising Trump and sign $500bn mineral deal, US official advises Kyiv
Thu 20 Feb 2025 15.40 EST First published on Thu 20 Feb 2025 13.37 EST White House officials have told Ukraine to stop badmouthing Donald Trump and to sign a deal handing over half of the countrys mineral wealth to the US, saying a failure to do so would be unacceptable. The US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told Fox News that Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, should tone down his criticism of the US and take a hard look at the deal. It proposes giving Washington $500bn w ...
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