Author: Grace Thompson

After it was revealed that a trans student played on the women's volleyball team at one of the conference's universities, a group of over a dozen Republican lawmakers is calling on a collegiate athletic conference to prohibit transgender women from participating. Republican senators and representatives accused the NCAA Division I conference of breaking Title IX's sex discrimination safeguards and failing to comply with its own handbook's gender equity criteria in a letter addressed Monday to the Mountain West Conference's commissioner. According to the letter, allowing biological men to participate in women's sports is unfair and unequal. According to these rules, it makes sense for biological males to participate in men's sports and females in women's sports. It goes on to say that the M...

NEW ORLEANS A federal appeals court in New Orleans issued an injunction Wednesday that halts Louisiana's proposal to hang the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms in the state starting next year. A state motion to temporarily halt an earlier order issued by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles in Baton Rouge while the case is still pending was denied by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge's order remains in force far after the law's January 1 deadline for posting the commandments, since arguments before a 5th Circuit panel are set for January 23. The state argues that only the five school districts that are defendants in a legal dispute are impacted by deGravelles' order. However, while the appeal is pending, it is unclear how or whether the law would be applied ...

The country music artist Sundance Head, who won Season 11 of The Voice, provided further insight on the shooting incident that occurred last week, in which he was struck by a bullet from his own firearm and expressed his belief that he would die. On Thursday, Head, 46, had gone alone to his property near Maydelle, Texas. He was packing his Jeep the next day after a hunting expedition by himself when his.22-caliber handgun exploded. In a series of videos posted on Facebook this week, Head stated, "I wanted to come on and tell you guys that I'm still alive, thank you to the good Lord above, the wonderful first responders that helped me, and the trauma team at UT Tyler." I was certain that my death was imminent. He claimed that it was among the most bizarre things that had ever happened to hi...

After a jury determined that former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger used excessive force when she shot Botham Jean dead in his home six years prior, the jury sentenced her to pay $98 million. Guyger, 36, received the civil conviction and punishment five years after being found guilty of Jean's murder in 2018 and given a ten-year jail sentence. According to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, Guyger did not have a lawyer present during the three-day trial. She didn't have the funds to employ a lawyer, the lawyer who represented her in her criminal trial told the channel. According to a verdict form, Guyger's family was given $60 million in punitive damages after the jury determined that he had acted with "malice, willfulness, or callous and reckless indifference" to Jean's safety and rights. Accordin...

According to officials, facilities at the University of Rochester in New York were vandalized with "wanted" posters that targeted a number of Jewish staff members, leading to the arrest of four students on felony charges. According to a news statement issued Tuesday by the university's public safety officer, Quchee Collins, the four students were charged with felony criminal mischief, and a fifth is under investigation. Their identities are still unknown. "I am incredibly satisfied that through a thorough investigation we were able to identify those who are allegedly responsible and hold them accountable for the deliberate and deplorable actions targeted toward members of our University community, including members of our Jewish population," Collins stated. The harassment and intimidation ...

The world will have its first digital saint in a few months. On Wednesday, Pope Francis revealed that a young web designer who utilized his technological expertise to manage websites for regional Catholic organizations and documented miracles online would be canonized in April. According to Vatican News, Carlo Acutis, who passed away from leukemia in 2006 in Italy when he was 15 years old, will be canonized at the Jubilee for Adolescents on April 25–27. Acutis, who was born to Italian parents in London and was known as God's influencer informally, has been credited by the church with two miracles. The teenager, who is expected to become the youngest contemporary saint in the church, was credited by the pope with a second miracle in May. Four years had passed since he was beatified in 2020 ...

The calculus for Republican senators already evaluating their professional qualifications as they choose whether to accompany their party leader on important government positions has been complicated by the serious sexual impropriety allegations against three of President-elect Donald Trump's high-profile Cabinet picks. Former Representative Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., his choice for attorney general, is charged with paying two other women for sex and having sex with a 17-year-old. Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice for defense secretary, was charged with sexual assault. Additionally, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his choice for secretary of health and human services, was charged this summer with groping a former family babysitter. The accusations have been refuted by Gaetz and Hegseth. "I have so many skeleto...

The Kremlin might have been let down Wednesday if it had hoped to lower the bar for its use of nuclear weapons in order to frighten its adversaries in the West. The United States and its allies' increased support for Ukraine seemed to be a thinly veiled threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin's expanded nuclear strategy. The revised pact now permits Moscow to strike with nuclear weapons in the event that a non-nuclear nation, like Ukraine, that is backed by a nuclear state, like the United States, launches an attack. On the same day that Kyiv launched its first long-range ATACMS missiles against Russia, it was officially approved. However, foreign leaders and analysts expressed concerns that the shift amounted to much more than a new and more concentrated effort to discourage the West, ...

Welcome to the online edition of From the Politics Desk, an evening email that provides you with the most recent coverage and commentary from the campaign trail, Capitol Hill, and the White House by the NBC News Politics team. Senior national politics reporters Natasha Korecki and Alex Seitz-Wald analyze the current status of the contest for the position of next head of the Democratic National Committee in today's edition. Chuck Todd, chief political commentator, also examines how Donald Trump is rapidly depleting his political capital. Register here to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox each daily. After a stinging election defeat, the race to lead the DNC kicks off By Natasha Korecki and Alex Seitz-Wald Two weeks after losing badly to Donald Trump once more, Democrats ...

In a case that dominated the immigration discussion earlier this year, before of the presidential election, the man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley was found guilty of murder on Wednesday. The 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra was found guilty on three charges of felony murder as well as counts of malice murder, aggravated assault with intent to rape, kidnapping with bodily damage, and peeping Tom. Prosecutors requested that he be sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of release. On the fourth day of the bench trial, Judge H. Patrick Haggard of the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court rendered the verdict. Ibarra did not testify in his own defense and gave up his right to a jury trial. After closing arguments, Haggard took a 20-minute pause before deliverin...