- DALLAS (AP) — A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday ordered rapper Pooh Shiesty to remain in custody on kidnapping charges after allegedly pulling a gun during a contract dispute involving rapper Gucci Mane ’s record label. Pooh Shiesty, whose legal name is Lontrell Williams Jr., appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee Harris Toliver during […]
- NEW YORK (AP) — A Brooklyn activist with a history of arrests at pro-Palestinian protests pleaded guilty Wednesday to setting fire to 11 empty police vehicles last summer. Jakhi McCray, 22, admitted to the June 12 arson spree, which New York City police officials said caused $800,000 in damage to department vehicles. He faces a […]
- PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon appeals court sided with PacifiCorp on Wednesday in a ruling that could possibly jeopardize over $1 billion in damages for victims of the state’s devastating 2020 wildfires. The Oregon Court of Appeals sent the class-action case back to a lower trial court over concerns about a jury instruction given […]
- RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An Army veteran has been charged with sharing classified information about an elite commando unit with a journalist, which one official said put the country, members of the U.S. military and the nation’s allies at risk. Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, is accused of violating federal law, as well […]
- UNITED NATIONS (AP) — More than 1,000 humanitarian workers have been killed across the globe in the past three years, nearly triple the death count in the previous three years, the U.N. said Wednesday. “This is not an accidental escalation — it is the collapse of protection,” U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the U.N. […]
- What one campaign rally in Michigan reveals about young voters ahead of the midterm elections
on April 9, 2026 at 11:18 amANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — As students banged on desks and stomped their feet inside a packed lecture hall at the University of Michigan, someone decades older stood in the back, quietly taking in the scene. Debbie Dingell, a longtime Democratic congresswoman, was there to watch progressive U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed campaign with Hasan Piker, a popular yet controversial online streamer. Dingell has often served as an early warning system for her party, cautioning that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was on track to win Michigan in 2016 and 2024. Now she was once again scoping out the shifting political landscape, and something caught her eye. “Quite frankly, I haven’t seen that many people outside an event yet this year,” said Dingell, whose district includes Ann Arbor and who said her attendance wasn’t an endorsement. A line of mostly young people stretched out the door and down the street, hundreds waiting in the cold evening air on Tuesday. Some had backpacks slung over their shoulders after coming from class, while others had traveled from afar. Although they were there to see a progressive candidate, attendees didn’t fit neatly into any ideological box. Instead, they shared a common dissatisfaction with both major political parties. Their frustration was a reminder of the anger that has coursed through modern American politics and now appears to be simmering within a new generation ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. Liam Koenig was in third grade when Trump was first elected president — a moment that has shaped his generation’s understanding of politics. “It’s just become increasingly more inflammatory,” he said. Now a high school senior in Oakland County, a longtime political bellwether in Michigan, Koenig described an era of constant conflict and anxiety. The mood among his peers, he said, is often somber and frustrated. “I think a lot of us have lost hope in, like, tangible change,” he said. Younger adults are more likely than older Americans to have an unfavorable view of both the Republican and Democratic parties, according to AP-NORC polling from February. Still, that frustration hasn’t led to disengagement for Koenig. He waited for hours to see El-Sayed. He described the campaign as different from what he’s used to seeing, something more like Zohran Mamdani’s successful run for mayor in New York City. He wanted that kind of energy in Michigan. “You’re not going to get people out with business as usual,” Koenig said. Karol Molina, an artist who recently moved from New York City, said she had been hunting for a candidate in Mamdani’s mold when she arrived in Michigan. She settled on El-Sayed, who is facing U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow in the state’s primary. “We want to be able to live and, like, afford life without constantly scraping by,” she said. Molina was looking for a clean break with the past. “I think the Democratic Party is losing because they’re not really listening to what the people really want,” she said. “They’re trying to keep a party that existed before Donald Trump. And that party doesn’t exist anymore.” Ethan Schneider, a third-year student at the University of Michigan, described today’s politics as “a little unserious.” “It’s difficult to remain positive or not be jaded at a young age,” said Schneider. Schneider said he voted for Democrat Kamala Harris two years ago but, like many in line to see Piker and El-Sayed, was critical of her and her party. “Hate them,” he said of Democrats. “They feel very complicit, in terms of all the issues going on now. If not complicit, they’re just doing nothing,” Younger people are rejecting both parties at much higher rates than older generations, according to recent Gallup polling. More than half of Generation Z and Millennials identify as political independents, while a majority of older generations side with a party. The Gallup polling found that this growing group of independents tends to be motivated by unhappiness with the party in power — a dynamic that could benefit Democrats this year but doesn’t promise lasting loyalty. Jacob Abbott, an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, said he feels that the Democratic Party has strayed toward “corporate interest politics.” He dismissed concerns about El-Sayed’s decision to campaign with Piker. The 34-year-old streamer has 3.1 million followers on Twitch and 1.8 million on YouTube, and he’s said “Hamas is a thousand times better” than Israel, described some Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and claimed that “America deserved 9/11.” For Abbott, the controversy underscores a broader vacuum in American politics — a lack of people who can command attention and speak to their frustrations, even if they’re flawed. “So is Hasan perfect? Probably not,” Abbott said. “But he’s much better than the alternative the Democratic Party has had.” Over decades in politics, Dingell has seen long lines and packed rooms before. She was trying to gauge whether there’s something more durable at the event with El-Sayed and Piker. After all, progressive candidates have long generated excitement without winning electoral victories. El-Sayed himself finished a distant second in Michigan’s Democratic primary for governor in 2018. In addition, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a leading face of the progressive movement, fell short in two Democratic presidential campaigns. But some Democrats argue this moment may be different, pointing to recent victories by Mamdani in New York and Analilia Mejia, who won a crowded Democratic primary in a special U.S. House election in New Jersey. “There should be a progressive running everywhere that one exists,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee, who also appeared with El-Sayed. “Every year, every race,” she added. “We might not be victorious, but every single time we have to call the question.” Dingell said she’ll be looking to see what happens next. “Is it something for the kids to do, or is it going to connect?” she said. ___ Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Era of political violence means higher costs for candidate security, a new report says
on April 9, 2026 at 11:18 amSecurity spending for congressional and presidential campaigns has jumped fivefold over the past decade as an increasingly hostile political environment has led to escalating threats against public officials, ranging from doxing to assassination plots, according to a report released Thursday. Federal political committees spent more than $40 million on expenses labeled as security during the 2023-24 campaign cycle, the most recent one for which data is publicly available, according to the report from the Public Service Alliance, a nonpartisan group that focuses on security for public officials. The report did not specify which candidates spent the most on security. The tally also did not count the escalating security costs of the federal government, which includes augmented Capitol Police services for members of Congress and heightened U.S. Secret Service protection for presidential candidates, as well as former and current presidents and their families. It comes after a grim roll call of political violence over the past decade. That includes the 2017 shooting at a Republican congressional baseball team practice in Alexandria, Virginia; the 2022 hammer assault on the husband of Democratic then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in California; the 2024 assassination attempt on Republican then-candidate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally; and the assassinations last year of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband and of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in Utah. “This is not a good place to be as a country,” said Justin Sherman, the report’s author. The report calculated security costs by looking at publicly available filings with the Federal Election Commission and tallied only the expenses that were explicitly marked for that purpose, even though other expenses may have a security component. The total listed security spending represented a small fraction of the billions of dollars spent every two-year election cycle on presidential and congressional campaigns. But Sherman noted that the report totals are conservative and likely understate the financial costs of security for political campaigns. One of the biggest increases has been in the rapidly growing field of digital security, which includes protecting against hackers and monitoring online threats. Spending went from $50,000 total in the 2015-16 election cycle to $900,000 in 2023-24. Sherman noted one of the more disturbing findings is campaigns spending nearly $1 million on home security during the past decade, after spending nothing in that category during the 2015-16 election cycle. That includes such expenses as contracts with response companies, window bars and surveillance cameras. That’s a reflection of the increased threats to public officials at their homes. Critics are increasingly likely to post the home addresses of elected officials on social media, a practice known as doxing. Attacks like the one on Pelosi’s husband in San Francisco and on the Minnesota state lawmaker, Melissa Hortman, and her husband occurred at their homes. “It’s expected that, say, a GOTV event or a campaign rally is going to have metal detectors and security,” Sherman said. But targeting the homes of candidates and officeholders is a new frontier. He noted that members of Congress get money in their office budgets that can be used to pay for security, but people thinking of running for office now have to factor home security costs into their decision-making. “It’s a troubling time when the security spend is becoming a greater barrier for someone running for office,” Sherman said. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Amazon to stock Lilly’s new weight-loss pill at US kiosks, offer same-day delivery
on April 9, 2026 at 10:38 amBy Amina Niasse NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) – Amazon.com said on Thursday its pharmacy unit will stock Eli Lilly’s new weight-loss pill at kiosks located at some of the company’s primary care clinics and offer same-day delivery of the drug. Amazon Pharmacy began delivering GLP-1 medications in 2021, but does not stock injectable versions of the drugs in kiosks because they need to be refrigerated. No need for cold storage is “what allows for broader access and for them to be stored safely in a kiosk for dispensing,” Tanvi Patel, a vice president at Amazon Pharmacy, said of the pills. About half of customers in the U.S. have access to same-day delivery, and the company aims to expand that, Patel said. All customers receive their medications within four days. Amazon Pharmacy fulfills prescriptions made through Eli Lilly’s direct-to-consumer pharmacy platform LillyDirect and has been stocking Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill at its kiosks since January. Patel said Amazon benefits from being Lilly’s dispensing pharmacy because of the Indianapolis-based drugmaker’s early direct-to-consumer focus. Lilly said last week it would begin selling its newly approved Foundayo weight-loss pill directly to cash-pay customers through LillyDirect at $149 per month for the lowest dose. Customers can also access Amazon’s same-day delivery through Lilly’s prescribing partners, such as WeightWatchers, said Patel. Novo’s rival Wegovy pill, which began selling in January, is currently stocked in five kiosks in California, where customers can pick up the drugs at Amazon’s One Medical locations following a medical appointment. Amazon last year announced the kiosks for selling widely used medications such as antibiotics, blood pressure medicines and asthma inhalers, saying the option would reduce barriers to access and limit shipping costs. Patients without a membership to One Medical, Amazon’s primary and urgent care business, can still book an appointment and use the kiosks. A one-year One Medical subscription fee costs $199. As the kiosks are introduced beyond California, Patel said, their locations may expand to other providers or clinics, if allowed by state regulation. Amazon invested over $4 billion in 2025 in an effort to triple its company-wide delivery options this year, targeting underserved small towns and rural areas. By the end of 2026, same-day delivery access should reach 4,500 locales, Patel said. (Reporting by Amina Niasse; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- After Trump’s Iran ultimatum and a fragile ceasefire, Iranian Americans brace for what’s next
on April 9, 2026 at 10:18 amZainab Haider was making the drive home after work with her two young children Tuesday as she contemplated what might come from the deadline President Donald Trump had set for Iran to concede to U.S. demands. Would her relatives in Iran be safe or would they be wiped off the map? Her emotions were heavy, ranging from anxiety and fear to even loneliness as others seemed to be going about their lives as normal despite what could have been pending doom. Ultimately, Trump did not make good on his threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” instead agreeing to a two-week ceasefire in the war. It was another moment of whiplash for Haider and the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living in the U.S. who have been thrust into a seemingly constant state of uncertainty over the future of Iran and their relatives and friends who still live there. For many, the tenor of the latest discourse around the conflict has consumed their thoughts, often preventing them from getting work done or focusing on anything else. Some are protesting the war, while others guard their opinions about what is happening in their homeland, anxiously watching and wondering what the future might hold. Haider was among those protesting Wednesday in Austin, Texas, calling for an end to the war. Gatherings also were held in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities. Aside from speaking out against the war, Haider thinks that mobilizing will create “the kind of pressure that makes it harder for Trump to swing back to this aggressive posturing.” “It’s a huge country,” she said of Iran. “Trump is not going to ever be able to defeat it or wipe it out, but it is possible to do damage. It is possible to do something that affects millions of people, millions of lives.” Haider, a municipal planner and an organizer with the Austin for Palestine Coalition, said hearing Trump offer such an ultimatum was frightening. She does not support regime change, saying that was something for the Iranian people to settle, not the United States. Still, she wanted to speak out even though she came to the U.S. by way of Pakistan with her parents when she was young. She has memories of the neighborhood bakeries and the juice shops she used to visit with her mother and their neighbors. Iranian-American Sheila Amir said that Trump’s social media posts made her fearful on multiple levels. Her first concern was for her Iranian relatives. She has not been able to confirm that they’re OK in the past week amid an internet blackout that has blanketed the country. But the North Carolina-based writer said she also was concerned that an escalation in the war could put her U.S. relatives who are in the military at risk. Their duty, she said, is to “serve and protect the United States of America,” not to destroy the people of Iran. Even those who are supportive of U.S. attacks that directly weaken the Iranian government are struggling to reckon with the most recent threats against civilians. In recent weeks, Roya Rastegar has had many difficult conversations with her family about the conflict. Rastegar and her wife are both Iranian-American. Rastegar said people in her family have been killed by the Iranian government in the decades since the Islamic Republic took power, and the majority of her wife’s family is still in the country. Rastegar, a filmmaker and cofounder of a pro-democracy nonprofit called the Iranian Diaspora Collective, said the frequent reversals have made it more difficult to explain the conflict to their children. “It’s very hard to hold on to the idea that we do not know what’s going to happen,” she said. Rastegar said that the war has presented an impossible moral dilemma. She is deeply concerned that intensified attacks on Iran could cause even more harm to civilians. But she also believes that de-escalating the war without dismantling the Islamic Republic will pose the greatest risk to Iranians inside the country, who would continue to face severe and deadly repression. “It’s really nauseating to just think about my people as being stuck between a regime that’s still killing them and an administration — the U.S. — that is issuing these kinds of threats,” Rastegar said. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ lawyers appeal his conviction with First Amendment argument
on April 9, 2026 at 10:18 amNEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ lawyers are poised to try to persuade federal appeals court judges that the hip-hop mogul was treated unfairly at the trial that sent him to prison on prostitution-related charges, and that the First Amendment should win his freedom. Combs, currently in federal prison in New Jersey, won’t be at Thursday morning’s arguments before a panel of three federal appellate judges. He’s challenging his conviction and more than 4-year prison sentence. His attorneys say Combs’ conviction should be reversed, or he should at least be freed and resentenced to less time. Prosecutors oppose the arguments. In written arguments, Combs’ lawyers repeated claims they made before the trial judge, including an assertion that Combs’ films of sexual encounters between his girlfriends and male sex workers amounted to “amateur pornography” and was protected by the First Amendment. The attorneys said the term “prostitution” should be interpreted narrowly to exclude what they portray as voyeuristic and expressive activity. The lawyers also argue that Combs’ sentence was too harsh, saying the trial judge wrongly based it in part on a conclusion that the crimes involved fraud and coercion and that Combs was a leader or organizer of criminal activity. Combs was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that carried the potential for a life sentence. He was convicted under the federal Mann Act, which bans transporting people across state lines for any sexual crime. Federal prosecutors said in court papers that Combs’ recordings don’t make his case a free speech issue. They said that if Combs was right in claiming that “creative,” “elaborate” and “highly staged” sex acts meant that they were protected by the First Amendment, then “brothels offering elaborate and staged scenes for individuals to have sex with women for payment could claim First Amendment protection.” Prosecutors also said the sentence was proper. Combs’ trial last year exposed the sordid private life of one of the most influential figures in music. The case featured harrowing testimony about violence, drugs and sexual performances that witnesses said he called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.” He did not testify. His defense team acknowledged that he could be violent but argued that prosecutors were straining to make a federal crime out of his personal life. Combs, 56, has been behind bars since his September 2024 arrest. The Federal Bureau of Prisons says he is scheduled for release in April 2028. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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