Author: Reporter

A familiar pattern has emerged since President Donald Trump returned to the White House less than three weeks ago. He makes a brash proposal, his opponents file a lawsuit and a federal judge puts the plan on hold. It has happened with Trump’s attempts to freeze certain federal funding, undermine birthright citizenship and push out government workers. Now the question is whether the court rulings are a mere speed bump or an insurmountable roadblock for the Republican president, who is determined to expand the limits of his power — sometimes by simply ignoring the laws. Although Democrats may be...

President Donald Trump said on February 6 that he wants to root out “anti-Christian bias” in the U.S., announcing that he was forming a task force led by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the “targeting” of Christians. Speaking at a pair of events in Washington surrounding the the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said the task force would be directed to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.” Trump said Bondi would also work to...

The emergence of X owner Elon Musk as the most influential figure around President Donald Trump has created an extraordinary dynamic, a White House adviser who is using one of the world’s most powerful information platforms to sell the government’s talking points while intimidating its detractors. In recent days, Musk has used X to promote Trump’s positions to his 215 million followers, attack an agency he is trying to shut down as “evil” and claim a Treasury employee who resigned under pressure over payment system access committed a crime. His use of the social media platform he owns has...

The only moment TiAnna Yeldell has to herself is when she is sleeping, and that does not happen much. The 44-year-old single mom of three works 80-hour weeks to provide for her children, ages 8, 14, and 18. During the day, she is a driver for Pizza Hut, where she earns $9.50 an hour before tips. At night, she cleans trains for Houston’s Metro system, where she earns about $17 an hour. The times that she pulls both shifts, Yeldell sleeps for just two to three hours before getting her kids up and ready for school. Then she does...

It is a trend that has surprised many: Why, despite being squeezed by high prices, have Americans kept spending at retail stores and restaurants at a robust pace? One key reason is a relatively simple one: Wealthier consumers, boosted by strong gains in income, home equity, and stock market wealth, have increasingly driven the spending. That trend, documented by Federal Reserve research, represents something of a shift from the pre-pandemic period. And it suggests that consumer spending, the primary driver of the U.S. economy, could help sustain healthy growth this year and next. Lower-income consumers, by contrast, have been...