National

News brief: omicron variant, spending bill stalls, abortion pill decision

5:38am December 17, 2021

How bad could the pandemic get this winter because of the omicron variant? One of President Biden's key agenda items is stalled. The FDA relaxes restrictions on access to abortion pill by mail.

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What's better than eating a gingerbread house? Try living in one

5:33am December 17, 2021

A Utah woman transformed her home into a life-size gingerbread house. Virginia Hoffman, an interior designer, and her husband, an artist, started the tradition in 2019. The decorations aren't edible.

A coyote makes its way through the snow on a hillside north of Reno, Nev.

New legal battle over predator killing in Nevada wilderness

2:41am December 17, 2021

by The Associated Press

Conservationists are suing three federal agencies over an environmental review the government says satisfies requirements to resume killing wildlife in federally protected wilderness areas in Nevada.

Peloton pulls ad featuring actor Chris Noth after sexual assault accusations

10:38pm December 16, 2021

by Jonathan Franklin

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Noth called allegations "categorically false." The ad that was withdrawn was viewed more than three million times online.

Children line up to enter a tent at the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children in Homestead, Fla., in Feb. 2019 The American Civil Liberties Union and other attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of thousands of immigrant families who were se

Justice Department breaks off talks on compensation for separated families

10:10pm December 16, 2021

The U.S. has left negotiations about paying monetary damages to families who were forcibly separated while seeking to enter at the southern border during the Trump administration.

Biden lacks the votes to advance the 2nd part of Build Back Better by the end of 2021

9:53pm December 16, 2021

by Deirdre Walsh

President Biden acknowledged that his Build Back Better spending bill is going to need "days and weeks" to complete, even though Democrats wanted to vote on it by Christmas.

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Judge overturns settlement that protected the Sackler family from opioid lawsuits

9:52pm December 16, 2021

by Brian Mann

A federal judge has overturned a bankruptcy settlement worth more than $4 billion which granted immunity from opioid lawsuits to members of the Sackler family who own the company that makes Oxycontin.

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Defense attorneys called their first witnesses in the trial for Ghislaine Maxwell

8:01pm December 16, 2021

by Jasmine Garsd

Defense began its case in the trial for Ghislaine Maxwell, who is accused of grooming underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell says she's being tried in lieu of Epstein, who died in federal prison.

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National

NASA is about to launch the most powerful space telescope ever

6:07pm December 16, 2021

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

The James Webb Space Telescope will let astronomers peer farther into space than ever before, to see what galaxies looked like when the universe was newly born.

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National

Prosecutor in Crumbley case says charging parents in school shootings is warranted

6:07pm December 16, 2021

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald about working on the Oxford High School shooting case and working towards safer schools.

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