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    Tennessee’s top prison official resigning after botched execution of Christa Pike

    Frank Strada leaving position as state launches independent investigation into what went wrongTennessee’s top prison official is stepping down in the aftermath of the failed execution of death row prisoner Christa Pike, the state’s governor Bill Lee announced Saturday.Frank Strada, the department of correction commissioner, will leave his position later in October as the state launches an independent investigation into what went wrong during Wednesday’s botched execution of Pike, according to Lee. Continue reading… More

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    TSA to prohibit airport security officers from sitting down while checking travelers’ IDs

    TSA says rule change is meant to keep officers ‘alert’, but union says it ignores safety and ‘common decency’US airport security officers who verify boarding passes and IDs ahead of security checkpoints will no longer be allowed to sit down while working.The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was moving forward with this change in policy to keep officers “alert”, the agency confirmed recently. Continue reading… More

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    ‘It’s been hard’: families await the return of the USS Abraham Lincoln

    After reports of suicide attempts and food shortages, the aircraft carrier is expected to dock in San Diego this week following a record-breaking 250-plus days at seaA mother in San Diego is counting down the days until her son comes home.“I had a big sign made, welcoming him back,” she said. “I can’t wait to see him.” Continue reading… More

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    The American dream remains elusive in the valley that inspired East of Eden

    John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas is the least affordable city in the US for the middle class, a recent Brookings Institution analysis found Nestled between two mountain ranges at the crook of central California’s coastline sits a valley known as the “salad bowl of the world”.Farm workers stoop over neatly lined rows of crops off Highway 101 to harvest more than half of the nation’s supply of lettuce and nearly a third of its strawberries. The soil here is so rich that author John Steinbeck made the Salinas valley the promised land in his literary depictions of people chasing the American dream: immigrants, farm workers, westward-moving hopefuls, hungering for a better life. Continue reading… More

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    Federal judge halts Big Bend border wall construction in blow to Trump agenda

    Plan to install barriers through popular national park sparked outrage from advocates and politicians alikeA federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expanding the border wall and other security infrastructure across the Big Bend region of west Texas, where contentious plans to build roads and vehicle barriers through a popular national park have led to furious backlash and public protests.US district judge Kathleen Cardone’s ruling after a Friday hearing in El Paso deals a major blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to expand the border wall through west Texas at breakneck pace, while riding roughshod over the objections of local business owners, landowners, public land advocates and politicians from both parties. Continue reading… More

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    DoJ declines to reopen investigation into former Fed chair Jay Powell

    Kevin Warsh’s predecessor had been investigated over cost overruns related to central bank renovation projectThe US ⁠justice department is not reopening a criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell ⁠for cost overruns ⁠related ​to the central bank’s building renovation project, a department spokesperson said on Friday.Attorney general Todd ⁠Blanche – in comments to Bloomberg News, which first reported the development – said he has not ruled out ⁠continuing to look into the project’s oversight and potentially take ​action if evidence of ‌wrongdoing came to ‌light. Continue reading… More

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    Hundreds gather in Mississippi to protest Republican redistricting: ‘This fight is familiar territory’

    Dozens of residents testify to legislature’s redistricting committee in heated hearing, the last of eight Hundreds of people gathered across from the Mississippi state capitol building on Thursday evening to rally against the aggressive Republican efforts to draw maps that favor their own party.Shortly after the US supreme court’s decision in Louisiana v Callais, which severely weakened section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Tate Reeves, the Mississippi governor, moved in lockstep with other Republican governors and lawmakers to call for a special session to redraw maps. However, before that special session could occur, Reeves canceled it and wrote on X that he expected “lawmakers to redraw congressional lines BETWEEN NOW and 2027 elections!” Continue reading… More