Author: Reporter

The vast majority of U.S. adults are at least somewhat stressed about the cost of groceries, a new poll finds, as prices continue to rise and concerns about the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs remain widespread. About half of all Americans say the cost of groceries is a “major” source of stress in their life right now, while 33% say it’s a “minor” source of stress, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Only 14% say it’s not a source of stress, underscoring the pervasive anxiety most Americans continue to feel about the...

As President Donald Trump declared Washington DC a crime-ridden wasteland in need of federal intervention in August and threatened similar federal interventions in other Black-led cities, several mayors compared notes. The president’s characterization of their cities contradicts what they began noticing last year: that they were seeing a drop in violent crime after a pandemic-era spike. In some cases the declines were monumental, due in large part to more youth engagement, gun buyback programs and community partnerships. Now members of the African American Mayors Association are determined to stop Trump from burying accomplishments that they already felt were overlooked....

The left sees Donald Trump’s attempted takeover of Washington law enforcement as part of a multifront march to autocracy, “vindictive authoritarian rule,” as one activist put it. And as an extraordinary thing to do in rather ordinary times on the streets of the capital. To the right, it’s a bold move to fracture the crust of Democratic urban bureaucracy and make DC a better place for White people to live. Where that debate settles — if it ever does — may determine whether Washington, a symbol for America in all its granite glory, history, achievement, inequality, and dysfunction, becomes...

One program distributes laptops in rural Iowa. Another helped people get back online after Hurricane Helene washed away computers and phones in western North Carolina. Programs in Oregon and rural Alabama teach older people, including some who have never touched a computer, how to navigate in an increasingly digital world. It all came crashing down in May when Donald Trump, on his own digital platform known as Truth Social, announced his intention to end the Digital Equity Act, a federal grant program meant to help bridge the digital divide. He falsely branded it as “RACIST and ILLEGAL” and said...

When Donald Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin met in Alaska on August 15, it was just the latest chapter in the 49th state’s long history with Russia, and with international tensions. Siberian fur traders arrived from across the Bering Sea in the first part of the 18th century, and the imprint of Russian settlement in Alaska remains. The oldest building in Anchorage is a Russian Orthodox church, and many Alaska Natives have Russian surnames. The nations are so close — Alaska’s Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait is less than 3 miles from Russia’s Big Diomede —...