The US Department of Education issued a final warning to Maine’s Education Department over its policy allowing transgender women in women’s sports, giving Maine 10 days to sign an agreement aligning with Trump’s 2020 executive order. Failure to comply could result in enforcement actions, potentially leading to the withdrawal of $280 million in federal funding. Maine, facing budget gaps and recent financial mismanagement, may raise taxes or cut services. A recent poll showed 70% of Maine voters oppose the current policy. The discussion highlights potential political fallout and financial implications for the state.
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.
House lawmakers were digging into Jeffrey Epstein's sprawling financial portfolio on Wednesday as a committee deposed his former accountant and tried to understand his connections to some of the world's wealthiest men.
