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As Trump pushes deportations, immigration data becomes harder to find

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration likes to promote its immigration enforcement agenda through numbers, with ambitious goals to deport 1 million people, report zero releases at the U.S.-Mexico border and arrest thousands of alleged gang members.For all the boasting, the administration has been releasing less reliable, carefully vetted data than its predecessors on a signature policy that has become one of the most contentious of Trump’s second term.The gap in information and a loss

Grab your camera: UW cherry blossoms to reach peak bloom this week

Seattle’s most beloved sign of spring is just days away.Researchers predict the University of Washington’s (UW) famous cherry blossoms will reach peak bloom on March 20, according to a post by UW News.The 29 pink trees reach peak bloom when 70% of the blossoms have opened, but the week before and after are still great times to visit, UW News noted.Cherry blossom trees are a true indicator of spring, as they accumulate chilling units closer to winter and heating units closer to spring

Water bead toys face new federal safety rules after thousands of children injured

Between 2017 and 2022, an estimated 6,300 children were rushed to hospital emergency rooms for water bead injuries, the CPSC announced.“Water beads are these little, tiny pieces of polymer about the size of sprinkles that you put on ice cream or maybe a pea, and they don’t look dangerous, and that’s part of the problem,” said Herb Weisbaum, contributing editor at Checkbook.org. “But they expand exponentially. They can grow 100 times their size.”RELATED STORIES

‘Inventory is one of the biggest problems’: Gee backs idea to turn empty Seattle office building into apartments

As a developer looks to turn the Liggett Building, an empty historic office building in downtown Seattle, into apartments, KIRO host Gee Scott asks why not?“It makes way too much sense to take some of these vacant, empty spots and turn them into an opportunity for people to live, and by the way, it shouldn’t be hard for Seattle, because right now Seattle got a Bellevue problem,” Gee said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “Everybody is closing up

A media-rating company says a Trump agency is threatening its livelihood

NewsGuard says “this website is unreliable because it severely violates basic journalism standards.” Newsmax has since repeatedly urged Republican lawmakers or regulators to do what they can to silence NewsGuard, the company said in its lawsuit.“NewsGuard was started by Steve Brill to target conservative media and get ad agencies to deny them advertising revenue as a means of censorship,” Newsmax spokesman Bill Daddi said. “Brill is a Democratic Party activist and donor over many decades with a

From slavery to the White House, the Ficklin family served presidents for nearly 8 decades

Presidents come and go from the White House every four years or eight years, but the Ficklin family — Woodson Ficklin, his wife, some of his brothers and sisters, and son Wrory Ficklin — was a constant presence there for nearly eight decades, serving 13 presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama.One family by the president’s side for one-third of America’s 250-year existence.With his 2015 retirement, Wrory became the last Ficklin employed there full time, capping a record of family se

The Latest: Gulf countries report new attacks after Iran warns major UAE ports to evacuate

transport aircraft to fly over the country on Sunday and for a newly serviced plane to transit on Tuesday.Iran’s Revolutionary Guard vows to kill NetanyahuIran’s Revolutionary Guard vowed Sunday to hunt down Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.“If the criminal Zionist prime minister is still alive, we will continue to pursue and kill him with full force,” the IRGC said in a statement.Israel says Iran has launched more missilesThe Israeli militar

Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade among nation’s largest Irish heritage celebrations

Patrick’s Day parade, one of the nation’s largest celebrations of Irish heritage.The parade traditionally draws crowds from across Massachusetts and beyond, with marching bands, floats, veterans’ groups and local organizations making their way along the route through South Boston.City officials said preparations had been underway for weeks, with police, transit officials and emergency crews coordinating safety and transportation plans as large crowds gather in the neighborhood.The event is a maj

Two weeks into war with Iran, Trump has been knocked back on his political heels

A fifth of the world’s traded oil flows through the waterway.“Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,” Trump wrote on Saturday, later adding, “this should have always been a team effort.”It was not clear if that multi-nation push was set to begin or if Trump only hoped it might, however. That’s because he also wrote: “Hop

Fire crews rescue driver dangling over a 20-foot drop-off in Tacoma

The Tacoma Fire Department’s Technical Rescue Team got there just in time, to prevent a precarious situation.A driver in a vehicle somehow ended up dangling over a 20-foot drop-off.The vehicle broke through a chain-link fence and nearly fell from a concrete embankment onto a parking lot below.The vehicle precariously positioned over a parking lot, the driver had to be rescued by emergency crews. (Photo: Tacoma Fire Dept.)The accident took place on C St., near S. 21st St., next to the downt

Air Force Capt. from Covington, Washington killed in Iran war

military officials said.The Ohio Air National Guard’s 121st Air Refueling Wing said in a Facebook post late Friday that three of the dead were airmen who served in the Columbus-based unit.“We share in the sorrow of their loved ones, and we must not forget the valuable contributions these Airmen made to their country and the impact they have left on our organization,” according to the 121st Air Refueling Wing’s post.A new father and a new majorAlex Klinner, a pilot from Birmingham, Alabama, had j

Crew of fatal US military crash included Georgia father and several from Ohio

American flag raised at US Embassy in Venezuela for the 1st time since 2019

flag was raised Saturday over its embassy in Venezuela for the first time since 2019, a move that highlighted the recent shift in relations between the two countries since former President Nicolás Maduro was captured by American troops in January.The reopening of the American embassy comes after several statements from U.S. President Donald Trump in support of Maduro’s successor, acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who has tried to keep negotiations open with the American government.The flag was r

Ruptured pipe that leaked millions of gallons of raw waste into the Potomac is back in operation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The massive sewage pipe that ruptured and leaked millions of gallons of raw waste into the Potomac River returned to operation Saturday after the completion of emergency repairs.DC Water, the utility that runs Washington’s water and sewage systems, reported that it had completed testing to determine whether the 72-inch diameter pipe could handle the flow.The Potomac Interceptor ruptured on Jan. 19, sending 250 million gallons of untreated sewage into the river just north of the

A seat at the table, but no vote yet for a Democratic lawmaker in the Kennedy Center board showdown

“How is the government harmed?”Jankowski said the information — possibly a work in progress — should be provided to Beatty and other meeting participants by Monday.“An action isn’t final until it’s final,” he told Cooper.Trump paid scant attention to the Kennedy Center during his first term, breaking with tradition and skipping all four of the annual honors awards program after some of those being honored in 2017, Trump’s first year as president, threatened to boycott if he par

Snoqualmie & Stevens Passes reopen to traffic after lengthy snow closure

2 at Stevens Pass and Interstate 90 on Snoqualmie Pass both reopened Saturday morning, despite a heavy dump of snowfall overnight.Officials say 22 inches of new snow fell.WSDOT officials reopened Snoqualmie first, just after 8:00 a.m., and required all vehicles without all wheel drive to have tire chains.Later they changed that restriction to requiring traction tires on all vehicles.Traction tires are also required for all vehicles headed over Stevens Pass.Highway 410 between Enumclaw and Greenw

Feds move to dismiss charges against Army veteran who burned American flag near White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has moved to dismiss charges against an Army veteran who set fire to an American flag near the White House last year to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order on flag burning.Jay Carey, 55, of Arden, North Carolina, who has said he served in the Army from 1989 to 2012 and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, was arrested on Aug. 25 after he set fire to a flag in Lafayette Park, which the National Park Service oversees. Earlier that day, Trump s

Sinema admits a romance with her security guard as she fights ex-wife’s lawsuit

Ammel does not connect her to North Carolina in a meaningful way,” Epstein wrote Thursday, adding that no jury would believe that the one message “had any bearing on the destruction of marital love and affection.”Sinema’s head of security hired Ammel after he retired from the Army in 2022, according to the lawsuit, and in early 2024, Heather Ammel discovered messages between Sinema and her husband on the Signal messaging app that were of “romantic and lascivious natures.” That summer, Matt

Construction finishes on a major offshore wind farm, the first during Trump’s tenure

<block>Construction is finished on a major Massachusetts offshore wind farm, the first project to reach this stage during President Donald Trump’s time in office.Offshore construction was completed Friday night on Vineyard Wind with the installation of the final blades, Craig Gilvarg, a spokesperson for the project, said Saturday. Trump, who often talks about his hatred of wind power, has said his goal is to not let any “windmills” be built. Vineyard Wind was one of five major East Coast offshore wind projects the Trump administration halted construction on days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. Developers and states sued, and federal judges allowed all five to resume construction, essentially concluding that the government did not show that the national security risk was so imminent that construction must halt.Another one of the five, Revolution Wind, began sending power for the first time to New England’s electric grid on Friday and will scale up in the weeks ahead until it is fully operational. While Revolution Wind just began delivering power, Vineyard Wind has been doing so for over a year as more turbines were finished. Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, located 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts. It has 62 turbines that will generate a total of 800 megawatts. That is enough clean electricity to power about 400,000 homes.Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has said the completion of this project is essential to ensuring the state can lower costs, meet rising energy demand, advance its climate goals and sustain thousands of good-paying jobs. The Trump administration has been particularly critical of the Vineyard Wind project because of a blade failure. Fiberglass fragments of a blade broke apart and began washing onto Nantucket beaches in July 2024 during the peak of tourist season. Manufacturer GE Vernova agreed to pay $10.5 million in a settlement to compensate island businesses that suffered losses. Vineyard Wind submitted state and federal project plans to build an offshore wind farm in 2017. Massachusetts had committed to offshore wind by requiring its utilities to solicit proposals for up to 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2027. In what might have been a fatal blow, federal regulators delayed Vineyard Wind by holding off on issuing a key environmental impact statement in 2019. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. William Keating said at the time the Trump administration was trying to stymie the renewable energy project just as it was coming to fruition.The Biden administration signed off on it in 2021, as it sought to ramp up offshore wind as a climate change solution. Construction began onshore in Barnstable, Massachusetts.The first U.S. offshore wind farm opened off Rhode Island’s Block Island in 2016, at the end of President Barack Obama’s tenure. But with just five turbines, it’s not a commercial-scale wind farm. The nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm officially opened in March 2024, when President Joe Biden was in office. Danish wind energy developer Orsted and the utility Eversource built that 12-turbine wind farm, called South Fork Wind, 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York.Trump began reversing the country’s energy policies his first day in office with a spate of executive orders aimed at boosting oil, gas and coal. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Friday night that Trump “reversed course on Joe Biden’s costly green energy agenda that gave preferential treatment to intermittent, unreliable energy sources and instead is aggressively unleashing reliable and affordable energy sources to lower energy bills, improve our grid stability and protect our national security.” ___The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s <a href="https://www.ap.org/about/standards-for-working-with-outside-groups/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">standards</a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at <a href="https://www.ap.org/discover/Supporting-AP" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AP.org</a>.</block>

The biggest change to voting in Republican election bill could become a burden for many US voters

The fully expedited process for a new passport would cost at least $257.Birth and marriage certificatesA birth certificate may be a quicker and cheaper choice for most people, but there are twists.The SAVE Act requires a certified birth certificate issued by a state, local government or tribal government. What does not appear to qualify is the certificate signed by the doctor that many new parents are given in the hospital when their child is born. It provides information similar to a certified