New Mexico Hails Expanded Free College, but Some Remain Wary

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Even after failing a test that set her back a semester, Maribel Rodriguez will be heading back to nursing school this fall with a generous new state scholarship that abandons eligibility criteria to help more working adults get a college degree. New Mexico is expanding its “Opportunity Scholarship,” which has already paid for Rodriguez’s tuition and allowed her to apply for federal grants toward living expenses like gas and groceries. She’s reapplying to the nursing program and hopes to finish her degree without racking up debt that could hurt her husband and three children. “I didn’t think a whole lotmore

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Biden Blames the ‘Putin Price Hike’ for Inflation

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For President Joe Biden, the pain Americans are feeling in their pocketbooks comes down to an increasingly repeated slogan: “Putin’s price hike.” For more than a month now, his administration has tried to blame rising prices on the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine. But the truth is a little more complicated, analysts say. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington. …

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Oklahoma Governor Signs Bill to Make Abortion Illegal

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Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill into law on Tuesday that makes it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, as part of an aggressive push in Republican-led states across the country to scale back abortion rights.  The bill, which takes effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns next month, makes an exception only for an abortion performed to save the life of the mother. Abortion rights advocates say the bill signed by the GOP governor is certain to face a legal challenge.  Its passage comes as the conservative U.S. Supreme Courtmore

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Biden Announces Ghost Gun Rules, Nominates New ATF Head

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U.S. President Joe Biden announced his administration’s efforts to regulate so-called ghost guns on Monday, including banning the manufacturing of kits that consumers can assemble themselves to make a gun that lacks a serial number, making it untraceable. Gun rights groups pledged to fight the rule.  “Law enforcement is sounding the alarm,” Biden said at a White House event as he held a ghost gun. “Our communities are paying the price.” “A year ago this week, standing here with many of you, I instructed the attorney general to write a regulation that would rein in the proliferation of ghost guns,more

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Appeals Court OKs Biden Federal Employee Vaccine Mandate 

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A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld President Joe Biden’s requirement that all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed a lower court and ordered dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the mandate. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by President Donald Trump, had issued a nationwide injunction against the requirement in January. When the case was argued at the 5th Circuit last month, administration lawyers noted that district judges in amore

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US Doesn’t Want a Trade ‘Divorce’ From China

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The United States is trying to be strategic about how it “realigns” its trade relationship with China, but is not interested in a large-scale “decoupling” or a trade “divorce,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in an interview this week. Tai made the remarks in Singapore, where she had traveled to discuss the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. The purpose of the framework, she said, “is to allow for the United States and our most like-minded partners in this region to be able to collaborate on key economic issues and emerging global challenges. And those include working together to promotemore

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Scavino, Navarro Held in Contempt of Congress in Jan. 6 Inquiry

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Former Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino were held in contempt of Congress on Wednesday for their monthslong refusal to comply with subpoenas rendered by the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The two men became the latest members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle to face legal jeopardy as the select committee continues its more than nine-month-long probe into the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years. The near-party-line 220-203 vote will send the criminal referrals for Navarro and Scavino to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. Themore

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GOP Blocks Senate COVID Bill, Demands Votes on Immigration

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Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt Tuesday to begin Senate debate on a $10 billion COVID-19 compromise, pressing to entangle the bipartisan package with an election-year showdown over immigration restrictions that poses a politically uncomfortable fight for Democrats.  A day after Democratic and GOP bargainers reached agreement on providing the money for treatments, vaccines and testing, a Democratic move to push the measure past a procedural hurdle failed 52-47. All 50 Republicans opposed the move, leaving Democrats 13 votes short of the 60 they needed to prevail.  Hours earlier, Republicans said they’d withhold crucial support for the measure unless Democrats agreedmore

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Biden Proposal Would Fix Glitch, Expand Health Care Access

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U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced plans to expand access to health care by proposing changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to allow millions of additional American families to purchase health insurance plans and obtain tax credits to offset the cost. “When today’s proposed rule is finalized, starting next year, working families will get the help they need to afford full family coverage — everyone in the family,” Biden said in remarks at the White House ahead of signing an executive order to improve access to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. Biden was accompanied by Vice Presidentmore

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Ivanka Trump Testifies About 2021 US Capitol Riot

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Ivanka Trump, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter and one of his senior advisers, testified Tuesday before the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.   Her testimony, given remotely, came days after her husband, Jared Kushner, another former senior White House adviser, testified virtually before the committee.  The nine lawmakers investigating the attack — seven Democrats and two Republicans — have been intrigued by the role Ivanka Trump played at the White House as her father made last-minute pleas to then-Vice President Mike Pence to try to block lawmakers from certifyingmore

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Biden to Extend Student Loan Repayment 3 More Months

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The Biden administration is set to extend the moratorium on repayment of student loans until August 31. The payments were scheduled to resume May 1 after the moratorium went into effect early in the pandemic when the economy contracted sharply, and many Americans lost their jobs. Now, some lawmakers say the extensions are needed because of high inflation. The extension, the fifth, reportedly would affect some 43 million Americans who have a combined student loan debt of more than $1.6 trillion. Some 7 million have defaulted on their loans, meaning they haven’t made a payment in at least 270 days.more

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US Senate Bargainers Reach Agreement on $10 Billion COVID Package

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Senate bargainers have reached agreement on a slimmed-down $10 billion package for countering COVID-19, the top Democratic and Republican negotiators said Monday, but the measure dropped all funding to help nations abroad combat the pandemic.  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the deal would give the government “the tools we need” to continue battling the disease. Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, trumpeted budget savings in the measure that he said meant it “will not cost the American people a single additional dollar.”  At least half the measure would have to be used tomore

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Biden Supreme Court Nominee Advances to Full Senate Vote Later This Week

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Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson advanced one step closer to serving on the U.S. Supreme Court with a key U.S. Senate committee Monday advancing her nomination for a full floor vote later this week.  U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee to serve on the highest court in the country is expected to pass the narrowly-Democratic-controlled Senate, making her the first African American female Supreme Court justice in U.S. history.  Senate Democrats praised Jackson’s breadth of experience ahead of the vote on her nomination, calling her one of the most qualified nominees in the history of the Supreme Court.  “Justice Jackson will bringmore

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Palin Files Paperwork to Run in Alaska US House Race

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Sarah Palin on Friday shook up an already unpredictable race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, filing paperwork to join a field of at least 40 candidates seeking to fill the seat that had been held for 49 years by the late-U.S. Rep. Don Young, who died last month. Palin filed paperwork Friday with a Division of Elections office in Wasilla, said Tiffany Montemayor, a division spokesperson. The paperwork was being processed by the division, she said. The field includes current and former state legislators and a North Pole city council member named Santa Claus. The deadline to file wasmore

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Trump Son-in-Law Kushner Testifies in Capitol Riot Probe

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Former White House aide Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former U.S. President Donald Trump, answered questions Thursday from the House panel investigating last year’s assault on the Capitol.  Kushner, the highest-ranking Trump adviser and the first family member to testify so far, appeared in private by video link voluntarily and was not subpoenaed.  The House of Representatives committee is piecing together a detailed account of the events of the January 6 insurrection itself, but also of efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the misinformation campaign falsely claiming widespread fraud that led to the violence.   Kushner was returningmore

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Trump Asks Putin for Dirt on Biden Family, in Echo of 2016

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In an interview Tuesday, former U.S. President Donald Trump specifically asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to release information that Trump believes would implicate the family of U.S. President Joe Biden in financial wrongdoing. In the interview with the “Just the News” television program on the network Real America’s Voice, Trump suggested that Putin might want to provide the information because he thinks it would harm the United States. “As long as Putin now is not exactly a fan of our country,” Trump said, the Russian leader might be willing to explain why in 2014 Russian businesswoman Elena Baturina, the wifemore

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US Congress Moves Closer to Passing Major China Legislation

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The U.S. Congress is one step closer this week to passing major legislation addressing competitiveness with China. The America Competes Act passed the U.S. Senate on Monday on a vote of 68-28, setting the stage for the legislation to be reconciled in the U.S. House of Representatives for final passage. A significantly different version of that legislation passed the U.S. House in February on a vote of 222-210.    The White House welcomed progress on the legislation in a statement Monday night, saying “there is clear bipartisan support for the sorts of investments the president has long championed — likemore

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Biden Defiant, Cites ‘Moral Outrage’ as Reason for Putin Comments

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U.S. President Joe Biden’s whirlwind diplomatic tour of Europe might be most remembered by his words about Russian President Vladimir Putin: “This man cannot remain in power.” Two days after his utterance, Biden clarified that although he won’t back down from the sentiment, the U.S. did not plan to take Putin out of office. VOA’s Anita Powell reports, from the White House, on what this means as this Ukraine conflict enters a second month. …

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