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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks Feb. 21, 2025, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Gage Skidmore) WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down from her position at the end of August to spend more time with her family, President Donald Trump announced on social media Wednesday. In a post on Truth Social, the president praised Leavitt, the youngest person to serve in the role, as one of his closest aides in the White House and said she will move to an adviser role outside of government. “Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!” Trump wrote. “Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy H...

Members of the media set up outside the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of President Donald Trump's expected arrival on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments to determine if Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship is constitutional. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union has petitioned a federal court in New Hampshire to reaffirm a ruling that found President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order unconstitutional, after the president renewed his attempts to redefine American citizenship despite his loss at the Supreme Court. “This case has always been, and remains, about the President’s effort to fashion new exceptions to birthright citizenship,” according to the  ACLU’s Tuesday filing.  Trump last week  signed two executive orders . One seeks to expand the narrow exemptions to birthright citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil. Another aims to end birth tourism, w...

Students study on laptops inside an elementary school in Farmington, Arkansas, on March 19, 2026. School districts nationwide are grappling with which artificial intelligence tools to invest in. (Photo by Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate) As a new school year begins, some classrooms may use artificial intelligence tools to flag a student struggling with classwork, track attendance or try to raise reading scores. But as school districts make decisions on which tools are safe and worth spending thousands or millions of dollars on, some officials feel overwhelmed by the array of choices. Some states and districts have begun offering guidance for vetting AI purchases, but educators and experts say districts are still carrying much of the burden on their own. While school districts have long wrestled with education technology purchases, AI is different because the industry is moving faster than districts and states can keep up with, said Mark Schneider , a nonresident senior fellow at...

Rep. Rhett Marques, R-Enterprise, giving a victory speech after winning a special primary election for Alabama's 2nd Congressional District on Aug. 11, 2026, in Enterprise, Alabama. Marques Tuesday won the Republican nomination for the seat, defeating five other candidates. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) Rep. Rhett Marques, R-Enterprise, won the Alabama Republican nomination for Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District Tuesday night, defeating five others in a winner-take-all special primary election. As of 8:41 p.m., Marques had about 15,468 votes, about 50% of the total with about 62% of ballots counted in unofficial returns. Hampton Harris, a business owner and attorney, had 6,270 (20.4%). David Matthews, a former Trump appointee, had 5,584 (18.2%).  Marques will face incumbent U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, in the general election, who was the only Democratic candidate to qualify in the race.  The election will take place under a map drawn by the Alabama Legislature in 2...

A masked ICE agent stands guard outside as ICE and other law enforcement agents raid a restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last year. More than a dozen states have enacted laws designed to keep ICE away from schools, but recent incidents illustrate the limits of state and local authority when it comes to immigration enforcement (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) On June 11,  ICE agents trailed a car into the parking lot of Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore. For the family riding in that car, an everyday school drop off quickly devolved into chaos. ICE agents pulled Jesus Acevedo Sanchez from the vehicle, pinned him to the ground and arrested him for being in the country illegally. They also handcuffed and detained his wife, Adriana Gavilan Sanchez, as the couple’s two daughters watched from the back seat and school staff whisked other students away from the scene. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson later told CNN that Acevedo Sanchez...

The Southern Poverty Law Center's headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. A federal judge on Friday declined a motion from SPLC to dismiss federal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, writing the SPLC had not shown enough evidence that it was being targeted for opposition to Donald Trump. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) A federal court judge Friday denied a motion from the Southern Poverty Law Center to dismiss criminal charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice over a program that paid informants to gather intelligence on extremist groups. U.S. District Judge Emily Marks wrote that the civil rights nonprofit did not provide the evidence it needed to show that the Department of Justice was targeting the SPLC because of its opposition to the actions of President Donald Trump. “Though President Trump has specifically criticized the SPLC, the organization has not provided evidence that the prosecutors working on this case were in any way motivated...