Federal authorities on Friday revealed murder-for-hire charges against an Iranian man accused of acting on behalf of a terrorist organization in a plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump. ... Read full Story
Twelve student suspects arrested in Salisbury, Md., on Thursday were charged in an alleged hate crime assault on a man targeted for his sexual preference, according to police. ... Read full Story
Special counsel Jack Smith on Friday asked a federal judge to pause the ongoing legal proceedings against president-elect Donald Trump related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election, according to court documents. ... Read full Story
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a Jan. 6 rioter convicted of smashing a door window inside the U.S. Capitol right before Ashli Babbitt was shot sentenced to eight years in prison. ... Read full Story
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority workers decided to continue negotiations on a new labor contract Friday afternoon, averting a strike that had been set for midnight Thursday. ... Read full Story
More than 500,000 space heaters from GoveeLife and GoveeSmart Electric are being recalled because of safety issues, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. ... Read full Story
Racist texts, some mentioning Donald Trump, were sent to dozens of Black people in several states Thursday and Wednesday. The FBI is aware of the racist texts. ... Read full Story
A teenager, who police believe was armed, was arrested shortly after he was stopped by staff as he tried to get into a Wisconsin elementary school. ... Read full Story
A U.S. district judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that President Joe Biden did not have the authority to provide deportation protection for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens. ... Read full Story
The White House announced Thursday that President Joe Biden will travel to Lima, Peru and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil later this month for two international meetings. ... Read full Story
The mayor of Jackson, Miss., a city council member and a district attorney have been indicted on charges of participating in a bribery scheme,federal prosecutors said. ... Read full Story
President Joe Biden still has no intention to pardon his son,Hunter Biden, who is to be sentenced next month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday. ... Read full Story
Texas' Big Bend sector of the U.S. Border Patrol is beefing up surveillance by adding new, autonomous surveillance towers, Customs and Border Protection announced Thursday. ... Read full Story
President-elect Donald Trump has picked Susie Wiles, his campaign manager, to serve as White House chief of staff upon his return to the White House, his office said Thursday. ... Read full Story
The U.S. Navy conducted its first live control flight demonstration of an uncrewed aerial vehicle that represents the future of naval aviation. ... Read full Story
Windblown wildfires in California have prompted thousands of people to evacuate their homes as flames whipped up surprisingly fast Thursday, officials said. ... Read full Story
Massachusetts State Police won't help federal agencies deport migrants if President-elect Donald Trump moves forward with mass deportations. ... Read full Story
Attorneys for Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger will ask the court to drop the death penalty sentence if he is found guilty in the 2022 deaths of four University of Idaho students next year. ... Read full Story
“After Eric’s betrayal, Harper has landed at a fund dedicated to so-called impact investing in eco-friendly companies, a real-life financial trend that dovetails with a core ‘Industry’ theme: reflexive cynicism toward for-profit institutions that feign social consciousness.” — Alison Herman, Variety, 2 Aug. 2024
Did you know?
Of the many ways Ferris Bueller feigns illness—that is, pretends to be sick—to avoid going to school in the 1986 comedy film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, arguably the most ingenious involves tucking a mannequin version of himself under the blankets of his bed to fool his family. This method of deception provides not only entertaining hijinks but also clues to the origins of the word feign itself. Today, feign is all about faking it, but it hasn’t always been so. One of the word’s oldest meanings is “to fashion, form, or shape,” which echoes that of its Latin source, the verb fingere, meaning “to mold, fashion, make a likeness of, or pretend to be.” It’s one thing to fashion a likeness of oneself as an art project, and another to try and convince your family it’s really you in order to play hooky; it’s this element of deceit that infused other early meanings of feign including “to lie,” “to counterfeit,” and “to forge a document.” Today, people mostly use feign to suggest the act of forming, or giving shape to, false appearances—not of personas (such as, say, that of the Sausage King of Chicago), but rather conditions or feelings, such as happiness, sleep, or outrage.