Laurel Libby, a Maine representative, sued Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau and House Clerk Robert Hunt after her expulsion for criticizing a policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports. All six active federal judges in Maine recused themselves due to a court employee’s connection to the case. The lawsuit was assigned to US District Judge Melissa DuBose of Rhode Island, with Magistrate Patricia Sullivan assisting. The recusals are unusual and raise questions about potential conflicts and public trust. The case’s outcome is uncertain, with potential appeals and Supreme Court involvement, given its unique and high-stakes nature.
Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled or delayed Monday as powerful storms swept across the eastern half of the country and a partial government shutdown affecting airport security screeners dragged into a second month.
Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill. This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash has already hit much of the East.
An inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved higher in January in the latest sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs.
A man with a rifle who crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials are saying was an attack had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official said Friday.
