SmartNews

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) has been referred to the Justice Department for criminal charges by House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Comer accused Cuomo, who is now running for New York City mayor, of making "criminally false statements" about how his state managed nursing homes during the pandemic.

A Harvard scientist whose work on imaging is crucial to a new generation of cancer early detection techniques has been locked up under Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest for around two months, NBC News reported on Monday evening.

"The scientist, the 30-year-old Russian-born Kseniia Pertova, worked at Harvard’s renowned Kirschner Lab until her arrest at a Boston airport in mid-February," reported Jean Lee. "She is now being held at ICE’s Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, and fighting possible deportation to Russia, where she said she fears persecution and jail time over her protests against the war in Ukraine."

Former Pentagon special counsel and federal prosecutor Ryan Goodman said Monday that the national security issues plaguing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have gone from bad to worse — and he suspects a cover-up may have been afoot at the Pentagon.

Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett on her show, “OutFront,” Goodman aired his suspicions following new bombshell revelations that the embattled defense secretary shared confidential attack plans on a Singal chat for a second time – on this occasion, with his wife, brother, personal attorney and about a dozen other people in tow, according to media reports.

President Donald Trump's inaugural fund accepted $1 million from a China-linked firm that his campaign, along with the Michigan Republican Party, used to whip up voters into paranoia during the 2024 elections last year, The Detroit News reported Monday evening.

"Trump's inaugural committee released a list of $239 million in accepted contributions Sunday night, revealing Gotion gave $1 million on Jan. 8," said the report. "Michigan corporations and business executives donated more than $6 million to Trump's second inauguration, according to the disclosure, practically tripling the amount raised from Michigan for the Republican's first inauguration."

President Donald Trump's administration is eyeing new ways to encourage people to start families — and one floated by pronatalists calls for dangling a medal for people who have six or more children.

Among the ideas the administration is considering: so-called "baby bonuses" — a $5,000 infusion to every American mother who has a baby — reserviing scholarship money to applicants who are married or have children and educating women on their menstual cycles so they're informed when they're most likely to conceive, The New York Times reported.

President Donald Trump's administration has made clear they are still standing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth even as a new facet of the "Signalgate" scandal has been exposed — but ultimately, it might not even matter whether Trump wants to keep him, according to an analysis from Politico.

Hegseth already came under fire weeks ago after it emerged that he shared highly sensitive, ongoing military operational strategies in an unsecured Signal chat with a journalist in the discussion. This weekend, it emerged that after the controversy blew up, Hegseth again shared similar content in a Signal chat with his wife and brother.

A Supreme Court showdown is brewing in the world of religious freedom that could hand over certain groups and individuals with a staggering set of new control powers over public education in the country, in a key test of the separation of church and state.

That’s according to Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern, who told readers that the high court will hear arguments in a critical First Amendment case on Tuesday that could surrender censorship rights over LGBTQ+ materials in public schools to religious parents.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force won approval from the Justice Department to access a sensitive database about immigration cases, The Washington Post reported on Monday evening.

The system in question, known as the Executive Office for Immigration Review's Courts and Appeals System, or ECAS, "is used to store records of immigrants who have interacted with the U.S. immigration system, detailing their name, addresses, previous immigration-court testimony and any history of engagement with law enforcement, among other things," said the report, adding that the Justice Department said “ECAS supports the full life cycle of an immigration case” by maintaining “all records and case-related documents in electronic format.”

The death of Pope Francis on Monday morning caused an outpouring of good wishes and mourning from people around the world and across the political spectrum — even if President Donald Trump's comments declaring his excitement to go to the funeral were met with a less-than-warm reaction.

But on Monday, the editorial board for the Wall Street Journal sent him off by attacking his economic views.

The first Black mayor of Lewisville, Texas, was stabbed, and her husband was killed at the hands of their grandson in an early morning attack Monday, police said.

Mitchell Blake Reinacher, 23, has been charged with murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the stabbing of longtime Denton County Commissioner Bobbie J. Mitchell and her husband, Fred Mitchell, the Daily Beast reported.

President Donald Trump made two endorsements for the same race in a post to his Truth Social platform on Monday evening — giving the nod to two separate politicians for governor of Arizona.

"I like Karrin Taylor Robson of Arizona a lot, and when she asked me to Endorse her, with nobody else running, I Endorsed her, and was happy to do so," wrote Trump. "When Andy Biggs decided to run for Governor, quite unexpectedly, I had a problem — Two fantastic candidates, two terrific people, two wonderful champions, and it is therefore my Great Honor TO GIVE MY COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT TO BOTH."

President Donald Trump railed against the Supreme Court on Monday, which he said has "stymied" him at "every turn."

The Supreme Court recently temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act. The high court stressed that the targeted migrants must have a chance to challenge their removal in court.

A coalition of 75 civil rights groups on Monday responded to U.S. President Donald Trump's "escalating threats and actions" targeting nonprofit organizations by launching "The Pact: A Civil Rights Coalition Unity Commitment."

Led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the groups represent "millions of people of every background in every ZIP code across America, exist to serve our communities, protect rights, and advance opportunity for all," the pact explains. "Today we face a campaign by the government to silence and isolate us, stop us from doing our jobs, and hurt the people we serve."