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California Governor Gavin Newsom said last week the state will dramatically scale back a planned $77.3 billion high-speed rail project that has faced cost hikes, delays and management concerns, but will finish a smaller section of the line. The Transportation Department's Federal Railroad Administration said in a letter it wanted to halt funding because the state had "failed to make reasonable progress." It cited Newsom's announcement to scale back the project.

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 20:55:03 -0500

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kentucky by Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann, 16, seeks $250 million in damages, the amount that Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com and the world's richest person, paid for the Post in 2013.

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 20:40:01 -0500

President Donald Trump expressed confidence on Tuesday that he would prevail against a lawsuit filed by 16 U.S. states seeking to block his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. The group of states, including California and New York, has charged the president and top officials in his administration with taking away taxpayer funds for their communities to fulfill a promise from his 2016 campaign to curb illegal immigration and the flow of drugs. Trump's remarks to reporters in the Oval Office suggested he was not concerned or surprised by the states' legal challenge.

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 19:40:37 -0500

"Later that day, prison guards of the Madison County Detention Center essentially administered the death penalty to Mr. Hill using excessive force, handcuffs and pepper spray," the complaint said. The suit, filed by Hill's mother, Betty Hill, seeks unspecified damages. Betty Hill's lawyers said that in the months that followed her son's death two more inmates died in custody at the jail run by Madison County Sheriff Randy Tucker.

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 19:07:04 -0500

North Carolina poll workers told election officials on Tuesday they illegally viewed early election results last year, the latest evidence in a probe of voting irregularities in a still unsettled congressional race. The investigation into the disputed Nov. 6 election for the state's 9th Congressional District seat also uncovered an unlawful absentee ballot scheme by an operative for Republican candidate Mark Harris, according to testimony at the hearing that could prompt a new vote. The seat has remained vacant since state officials refused to certify Harris' apparent victory over Democratic rival Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast.

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 19:01:54 -0500