May 30, 2025 4:54 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has audaciously claimed virtually unlimited power to bypass Congress and impose sweeping taxes on foreign products. Now a federal court has said: Not so fast. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and plaster taxes – tariffs – on imports from almost every country in the world. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday allowed the president to temporarily continue collecting the tariffs under the emergency powers law while he appeals the trade court’s decision.
May 29, 2025 11:32 am
(WPXI) WASHINGTON — (AP) — The government is investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in recent weeks received messages from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump’s chief of staff. A White House official said Friday the matter is under investigation and the White House takes cybersecurity of its staff seriously. ,The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that senators, governors, business leaders and others began receiving text messages and phone calls from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles’ personal cellphone. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles number, the newspaper reported. It is unclear how the person gained access to Wiles’ phone, but the intrusion is the latest security breach for Trump staffers. Last year, Iran hacked into Trump’s campaign and sensitive internal documents were stolen and distributed, including a dossier on Vice President JD Vance, created before he was selected as Trump’s running mate. Wiles, who served as a co-manager of Trump’s campaign before taking on the lynchpin role in his new administration, has amassed a powerful network of contacts. Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles that may have been generated by artificial intelligence, according to the report. Some received text messages that they initially thought were official White House requests but some people reported the messages did not sound like Wiles.
May 30, 2025 4:52 am
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday extended an order blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to bar Harvard University from enrolling foreign students. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs extended the block she imposed last week with a temporary restraining order on the government action. Harvard sued the Department of Homeland Security on Friday after Secretary Kristi Noem revoked its ability to host foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Harvard sued the Department of Homeland Security after Noem revoked its ability to host foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced a new effort to revoke Harvard’s certification to enroll foreign students.
May 30, 2025 4:50 am
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Harvard graduates are celebrating commencement at a pivotal time for the Ivy League school. The cap and gown-clad students cheered speakers Wednesday who stressed the importance of maintaining a diverse and international student body while standing up for the truth at a time the esteemed university is under threat by the Trump administration. Harvard’s battles with President Donald Trump over funding and restrictions on teaching and admissions are just the latest challenge for graduates who began school as the world was emerging from the pandemic. Yurong Luanna Jiang, a Chinese graduate who studied international development, told attendees she grew up believing the “world was becoming a small village.” Now, though, she wonders if that worldview is under threat.
May 29, 2025 11:27 am
(WPXI) NEW YORK — (AP) — New York City police are investigating two detectives who worked security at an upscale Manhattan townhouse where a man says he was kidnapped and tortured for weeks by two crypto investors who wanted to steal his Bitcoin, a city official said Thursday. One of the detectives serves on Mayor Eric Adams’ security detail and is believed to have picked up the victim from a local airport and brought him to the townhouse, the official said. It’s not immediately clear if the other detective, who is a narcotics officer, has any connection to the incident. The detectives have been placed on modified leave pending the outcome of the inquiry, according to the official, who was briefed on the case and spoke anonymously to The Associated Press because they are not authorized to discuss the internal investigation. It is not uncommon for members of the NYPD to do private security work outside of their city jobs but they need to receive prior approval. At this point, the official said, the department is looking into whether the officers received that approval. Adams’ office confirmed one of the detectives provides security detail for the Democrat, but said the mayor has no knowledge of what the officer does on his personal time. “Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty,” the mayor’s office said in an emailed statement. “We are disturbed by these allegations.” In response to an emailed inquiry, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed two members were placed on modified duty Wednesday. A spokesperson for the labor union representing NYPD detectives didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday. Crypto investors John Woeltz and William Duplessie have been charged in the case. Their lawyers have declined to comment. Authorities allege that on May 6, the two men lured the victim, who they knew personally, to a posh townhouse in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood by threatening to kill his family. The man, a 28-year-old Italian national who has not been named by officials, said he was then held captive for 17 days, as the two investors tormented him with electrical wires, forced him to smoke from a crack pipe and at one point dangled him from a staircase five stories high. He eventually agreed to hand over his computer password Friday morning, then managed to flee the home as his captors went to retrieve the device. The investigation into the officers began, incidentally, on the same day Adams headlined a crypto convention in Las Vegas, where he described New York as the Bitcoin capital of the country.
May 29, 2025 12:32 pm
LITTLE RIVER, S.C. — (AP) — A 19-year-old has been taken into custody in Illinois and authorities said they plan to charge him in a shooting that hurt 11 people after a party boat cruise in South Carolina. The shooting happened Sunday night on a dock in Little River after a fight on the boat during the three-hour cruise, Horry County Police said. The suspect is expected to be charged with several counts of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime and then officials will seek to extradite him from Lake County, Illinois, back to South Carolina, police said. The investigation into the shooting continues and more people could be charged, authorities said. Officials said 120 people partied on the boat over the holiday weekend and were leaving on the dock when the shooting happened. Ten people were wounded by gunfire, mostly on the lower parts of their body, and one person was hurt by a falling speaker, authorities said. Investigators think only one person fired shots. They didn’t say what started the dispute on the boat and how it led to the shooting on the dock and also would not say what kind of weapon was used. About 3 miles (5 kilometers) down the Intracoastal Waterway, a North Myrtle Beach police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg as he tried to get a boat into the water to respond to the shooting scene, officials said. Little River is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Myrtle Beach. The fishing village is known for its docks and marinas where fishing expeditions, casino boats and several dolphin cruises leave daily.
May 30, 2025 4:48 am
(AP) – Elon Musk arrived in the nation’s capital with the chain saw-wielding swagger of a tech titan who had never met a problem he couldn’t solve with lots of money, long hours or a well-calibrated algorithm. Now that’s over. Musk said this week that he’s leaving his job as a senior adviser, an announcement that came after he revealed his plan to curtail political donations and he criticized the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda. It’s a quiet exit after a turbulent entrance, and he’s trailed by upheaval and unmet expectations. (Photo: AP)
May 29, 2025 4:52 am
(AP) – The White House says Israel has accepted a new U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump submitted a ceasefire proposal that Israel has “backed and supported.” Hamas officials gave the Israeli-approved draft a cool response, but said they wanted to study the proposal more closely before giving a formal answer.
May 29, 2025 12:56 pm
CALICO ROCK, Ark. — (AP) — Arkansas authorities are looking at whether a job in the prison kitchen played a role in the weekend escape of a convicted former police chief known as the “Devil in the Ozarks.”Grant Hardin, 56, was housed in a maximum-security wing of the medium-security Calico Rock prison, where he also held a job in the kitchen, Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson Rand Champion said Thursday. Authorities have said Hardin escaped Sunday by donning an outfit designed to look like a law enforcement uniform. “His job assignment was in the kitchen, so just looking to see if that played a part in it as well,” Champion told The Associated Press. The kitchen is divided into two shifts of about 25 workers each, according to a 2021 accreditation report that involved an extensive review of the prison. In the kitchen, “tools and utensils were stored on shadow boards with proper controls for sign out/in of all tools,” the report states. “A check of the inventory control sheets found them to be accurate and up to date.” The kitchen is in one of 16 buildings on over 700 acres (280 hectares) of prison land. The sprawling grounds include a garden, two greenhouses, and extensive pasture lands where a herd of more than 100 horses is raised and trained by staff and inmates. Hardin, the former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving lengthy sentences for murder and rape. He was the subject of the TV documentary “Devil in the Ozarks.”
May 30, 2025 11:38 am
(WPXI) – A new sedative used in veterinary medicine is showing up in street drugs, leading to severe health complications and frequent intensive care unit admissions, local emergency physicians warn. Medetomidine is the latest drug to be found mixed into opioids sold on the street. “Almost never would we have to admit or hospitalize someone for the treatment of opioid withdrawal prior to October 2024,” said Dr. Simon Ostrowski, an emergency medicine physician with UPMC. “Since then, we are regularly hospitalizing people for opioid withdrawal treatment — and not just hospitalizing them, but in the intensive care unit.” UPMC is currently admitting multiple patients to the ICU daily as a result of withdrawal symptoms. Physicians note that Narcan, a common opioid overdose reversal medication, is largely ineffective against the sedative — similar to the challenges faced with xylazine. “It’s very difficult to reverse,” said Dr. Brent Rau, ER medical director at Allegheny General Hospital. “Like in the case of xylazine there were severe skin reactions, severe wounds that can develop, that can cause amputations and other issues. It does feel like every year it’s something new.” There is currently no rapid test available in hospitals to detect medetomidine, which makes diagnosis and treatment more challenging.
