Garland defends memo on violent threats to school boards
CBSN
Washington — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday defended himself against claims from Senate Republicans that a memo he issued about violent threats to school board members could have a chilling effect on parents who are seeking to voice their concerns about their children's education.
Garland's one-page memo, issued October 4, has become a flashpoint in a broader battle waged by Republicans against the Biden administration and schools over mask mandates and the teaching of critical race theory, an academic concept developed by legal scholars to examine the ongoing effects of racism in American policies and institutions.
Opposition to the two issues by parents of school-aged children have led to protests and disruptions of school board meetings, and two officials with the National School Boards Association asked President Biden last month for federal assistance in responding to threats made against local school board members, school administrators, teachers and staff over COVID-19 mitigation measures and the public school curriculum in different states.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday she is "unable to support" Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense. She's the first Republican to state her opposition to President Trump's nominee ahead of his Senate confirmation vote.
Washington — A federal judge in Seattle temporarily blocked President Trump's new executive order that seeks to eliminate birthright citizenship.
The Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, the maker of the addictive painkiller oxycontin, have reached a $7.4 billion settlement with a bipartisan coalition of 15 states for fueling the opioid crisis, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday.
Washington — The Senate is poised to confirm John Ratcliffe as CIA director on Thursday as Republicans work to approve officials to the top posts in President Trump's administration amid delays by Democrats.
More than two years after recalling about 1.7 million Ionic smartwatches sold globally, Google-owned Fitbit will pay a $12.2 million penalty for failing to alert consumers that the products can overheat and cause burns, federal regulators said Thursday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is preparing to travel to Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and other Central American and Caribbean nations in the coming weeks, multiple sources confirmed to CBS News.
A court in India has sentenced five men to death for the gang rape and murder of a teenager as well as the killing of her father and toddler-aged niece.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia's crown prince said Thursday the kingdom wants to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years, comments that came after President Trump put a price tag on returning to the kingdom as his first foreign trip.
Two Native Hawaiian brothers who were convicted in the 1991 killing of a woman visiting Hawaii allege in a federal lawsuit that local police framed them "under immense pressure to solve the high-profile murder" then botched an investigation last year that would have revealed the real killer using advancements in DNA technology.
Attorneys for a man charged with murder in connection with the killings of four University of Idaho students are asking a judge to throw out most of the evidence in the case because they say it all hinges on an unconstitutional genetic investigation process.
Nominations for the 97th annual Academy Awards are being announced Thursday morning after being delayed twice due to the Los Angeles area wildfires.
In one of his first acts after returning to the Oval Office this week, President Trump tasked federal agencies with developing ways to potentially ease prices for U.S. consumers. But experts warn that his administration's crackdown on immigration could both drive up inflation as well as hurt a range of businesses by shrinking the nation's workforce.
Seven San Antonio, Texas police officers were shot by a barricaded suspect Wednesday night, the city's police chief said. The suspect was found dead from a gunshot wound, he added.
A barricaded suspect shot and wounded four police officers Wednesday night who had responded to a residential call in San Antonio, Texas, officials said.
Ali Alfarajalla, a Baghdad-born realtor in Dearborn, Michigan, normally votes for Democrats, but this election was a different story.
President Trump on Wednesday named Sean Curran to serve as director of the U.S. Secret Service.
Howard Lutnick, the billionaire financial executive named by President Trump to head the Commerce Department, has agreed to divest his holdings in a range of business interests, including stepping down from his longstanding position as head of the brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.