US News TheFOXposts

NEW YORK — Former U.S. Rep. George Santos alleged in a lawsuit filed Saturday that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel deceived him into making videos on the Cameo app that were used to ridicule the disgraced New York Republican on the show. The lawsuit filed in U.S. district court for the southern district of New York names Kimmel, ABC and Walt Disney Co. as defendants. A Disney representative listed as a media contact for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show didn't immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment. Santos, who was expelled from the House of Representatives last year after being charged with multiple counts of fraud and stealing from donors, is suing over alleged copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract and unjust enrichment. Kimmel misrepresented himself to induce Santos to create personalized videos “capitalizing on and ridiculing” his “gregarious personality,” the lawsuit alleges. Through Cameo, Santos received requests from ind...

NORFOLK, Va. — Like the other Founding Fathers, George Washington was uneasy about the idea of publicly celebrating his life. He was the first leader of a new republic — not a tyrant. And yet the nation will once again commemorate the first U.S. president on Monday, 292 years after he was born. The meaning of Presidents Day has changed dramatically, from being mostly unremarkable and filled with work for Washington in the 1700s to the consumerism bonanza it has become today. For some historians the holiday has lost all discernible meaning. Historian Alexis Coe, author of “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George of Washington,” said she thinks about Presidents Day in much the same way as the towering monument in D.C. that bears his name. Read More: There’s No Such Thing as a National Presidents’ Day Holiday “It's supposed to be about Washington, but can you really point to anything that looks or sounds like him?" she said. “Jefferson and Lincoln are presented as peop...

T he Rainbow Youth Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ youth and has a call crisis center, has seen a 500% increase in the number of calls it received in the last week, following the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary sophomore at Owasso High School in Tulsa, Okla. Nex passed away on Feb. 8, a day after the teen was assaulted in a school bathroom. The investigation into Nex’s passing remains ongoing. While Owasso Police say that the teen did not die as a result of trauma, parents say they will independently investigate the cause of Nex’s death. The organization received 522 calls from Feb. 16 to Feb. 23, compared to the 87 it typically receives on a weekly basis, according to data shared with TIME. About 70% of calls mentioned the news out of Owasso as a reason for their distress. Even more, 85%, said they were facing bullying at school and/or on social media.  At least 32 crisis contacts identified themselves as students at the high school that ...

SALT LAKE CITY — A small, nonthreatening balloon spotted flying high over the mountainous Western United States was intercepted by a fighter jet over Utah on Friday, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command. NORAD fighter pilots sent in the morning to investigate the balloon determined it was “not maneuverable” and did not present a threat to national security, spokesperson John Cornelio said. The balloon was still in the air, under close observation. NORAD, a joint military command tasked with defending the airspace over the U.S. and Canada, has not said where the balloon came from or why it was flying over Utah and Colorado. There has been heightened interest in reports of balloon overflights after the Military identified — and eventually shot down — a large, white Chinese spy balloon that crossed much of the country last year. But officials said the balloon intercepted Friday was not sent by a foreign adversary and posed no threat to aviation or U.S. security. NORA...

KING CITY, Calif. — A group of men in masks opened fire at an outdoor party in central California, killing four people and injuring three others Sunday evening, police said. Police responded to a reported shooting around 6 p.m. in King City and found three men with gunshot wounds who were pronounced dead in a front yard, the King City Police Department said in a statement. Four other people sustained gunshot wounds, including a woman who died after being transported to Mee Memorial Hospital in King City, about 106 miles (170 kilometers) south of San Jose. The three injured men were transported to Natividad Hospital in Salinas, police said. Several people were at the party outside a residence when three men with dark masks and clothes got out of a silver car and fired at the group. The suspects, who were not immediately identified, then fled the scene in the car. The investigation is ongoing, police said. Source: https://thefoxposts.com/masked-shooters-kill-four-people-at-outdoor-par...

A n active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force has died after he set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, in apparent protest of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which he described as a “genocide.” The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) identified the deceased demonstrator in a statement to TIME on Monday as 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell, whose identity and death were first reported on social media by independent journalist Talia Jane. Bushnell, who was wearing fatigues on Sunday in Washington, was a DevOps engineer based in San Antonio, Texas, according to his LinkedIn profile. DC Fire and EMS initially said in a post on X on Sunday that it transported an adult male in critical condition to an area hospital after being dispatched at 12:58 p.m. to an incident outside the Israeli embassy, where it found the fire had already been extinguished by U.S. Secret Service members on the scene. Secret Service spokesperson Joe Routh told TIME in a statement that o...

RENO, Nev. — A powerful blizzard howled Saturday in the Sierra Nevada as the biggest storm of the season shut down a long stretch of Interstate 80 in California and gusty winds and heavy rain hit lower elevations, leaving tens of thousands of homes without power. More than 10 feet (3 meters) of snow was expected at higher elevations, National Weather Service meteorologist William Churchill said Saturday, creating a “life-threatening concern” for residents in the region around Lake Tahoe and blocking Travel on the key east-west freeway. “Snow totals are already in the feet and will end up by the end of this event, late Sunday, in a range of 5 to 12 feet (1.5 to 3.6 meters)," Churchill said, predicting highest accumulations at elevations above 5,000 feet (1,500 meters). He said that while the storm may not set records, it was an “extreme blizzard for the Sierra Nevada in particular as well as other portions of Nevada, and even extending into Utah and portions of western Colorado.” ...

T he second-largest wildfire in U.S. History , and the largest in state History , is currently sweeping across the Texas Panhandle, burning through more than one million acres of land. Two people have now been confirmed dead as a result of the blazes. Joyce Blankenship, an 83-year-old grandmother was discovered in the remains of her burned home, while Cindy Owens, an Amarillo woman in her 40s, died Tuesday after she exited her truck for an unknown reason while driving in the Texan city Canadian. Sgt. Chris Ray of the Texas Department of Public Safety said that "the fire simply overtook her," NBC reported. The largest of the fires —which spans nearly 1.1 million acres—began at Smokehouse Creek and was 15% contained as of Sunday, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.  A map demonstrating the spread of wild fires across the Texas Panhandle and into Oklahoma. Lon Tweeten for TIME The Windy Deuce Fire in Moore County, which covers more than 144,000 acres, was 55% contain...

W hen Donald Trump stepped off his plane and onto the Texas tarmac, he approached a pool of reporters awaiting his arrival. “Nice weather. A very beautiful day,” he said. “But a very dangerous border. We’re gonna take care of it.” The former President’s trip to the southern border was more than one of his trademark spectacles; it was designed to highlight a signature campaign theme as he transitions toward the general election. But his rival, President Joe Biden, isn’t ceding the field. Just as Trump was touring Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday, Biden was visiting another b order town roughly 300 miles away. By torpedoing a bipartisan immigration reform bill, Biden argued, Trump was trying to engineer a continuation of the crisis for his own political gain. “Instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation,” Biden said to Trump, “join me.”  The split-screen moment reveals the centrality of immigration as a 2024 election issue. Recent polls have found immigration to b...

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court cast doubt Monday on state laws that could affect how Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube and other social media platforms regulate content posted by their users. The cases are among several this term in which the justices could set standards for free speech in the digital age. In nearly four hours of arguments, several justices questioned aspects of laws adopted by Republican-dominated legislatures and signed by Republican governors in Florida and Texas in 2021. But they seemed wary of a broad ruling, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett warning of “land mines” she and her colleagues need to avoid in resolving the two cases. While the details vary, both laws aimed to address conservative complaints that the social media companies were liberal-leaning and censored users based on their viewpoints, especially on the political right. Read More: The Supreme Court Could Determine the Future of Social Media Content Moderation Differences on the court emerged over how to ...

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Army is slashing the size of its force by about 24,000, or almost 5%, and restructuring to be better able to fight the next major war, as the service struggles with recruiting shortfalls that made it impossible to bring in enough soldiers to fill all the jobs. The cuts will mainly be in already-empty posts — not actual soldiers — including in jobs related to counter-insurgency that swelled during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars but are not needed as much today. About 3,000 of the cuts would come from Army special operations forces. At the same time, however, the plan will add about 7,500 troops in other critical missions, including air-defense and counter-drone units and five new task forces around the world with enhanced cyber, intelligence and long-range strike capabilities. According to an Army document, the service is “significantly overstructured” and there aren't enough soldiers to fill existing units. The cuts, it said, are “spaces” not “faces” and the ...

SAN FRANCISCO — Supervisors in San Francisco formally apologized Tuesday to African Americans and their descendants for the city’s role in per Pet uating racism and discrimination, with several stating that this was just the start of reparations for Black residents and not the end. The vote was unanimous with all 11 board members signed on as sponsors of the resolution. “This historic resolution apologizes on behalf of San Francisco to the African American community and their descendants for decades of systemic and structural discrimination, targeted acts of violence, atrocities,” said Supervisor Shamann Walton, “as well as committing to the rectification and redress of past policies and misdeeds.” San Francisco joins another major U.S. city, Boston, in issuing an apology. Nine states have formally apologized for slavery, according to the resolution. “We have much more work to do but this apology most certainly is an important step,” said Walton, the only Black member of the board ...