Gov. Jared Polis reduced Tina Peters’ sentence by half on Friday, ignoring months of pleas against such an action by many other Colorado elected officials and the prosecutor who won the former county clerk’s conviction in an election data-breach scheme. In a letter to Peters, Polis wrote that she will “be released on parole effective June 1, 2026” — in just over two weeks. The commutation, which was announced in a group of 44 clemency actions Friday afternoon, reduced Peters’ original sentence of nearly nine years, which was thrown out last month, to about 4.5 years. Polis’ action, coming after more than a year of pressure from President Donald Trump — and several actions taken targeting the state — risked the appearance that he was bending to Trump’s demands. But in an interview with The Denver Post ahead of the announcement, the governor was resolute. Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, has been a public supporter of election conspiracies rooted in Trump’s reelection loss in 2020. But Polis said that “just because somebody believes the Earth is flat — just because somebody believes in conspiracy theories — does not mean that they should receive a harsher sentence for a very specific crime.” Polis’ action drew swift reaction from other elected Democrats. Attorney General Phil Weiser, in an interview, called the commutation “an insult,” “mind-boggling” and “a threat to the rule of law.” And Secretary of State Jena Griswold called Polis’ decision “an affront to democracy” and accused the governor of “selling out our state justice system to cave to a vengeful president.”

This election should be a slam dunk for Democrats. There are billions of reasons it absolutely is not.

Mike Collins, a congressman from Georgia, wants to take away commercial driver’s licenses from noncitizens. Over the past 25 years, truckers for his businesses have been involved in crashes that killed five people and injured more than 50 people.

Amid a glut of anti-LGBTQ+ laws passed by the state legislature over the past half-decade, many queer Texans have decided to pack up and move to greener, more supportive pastures. So many have chosen Seattle that the Pacific Northwest city is now considering declaring an emergency. As first reported by the Seattle Gay News, the City of Seattle is close to declaring a state of civil emergency in response to LGBTQ+ refugees from red states moving there. That comes after Seattle's LGBTQ Commission, an advisory committee that counsels local leaders on matters related to Seattle's queer community, reportedly sent a letter last month asking the city council to make an emergency declaration. The commission said that the city needed "an effective and empathetic response" to protect a "rapid influx of 2SLGBTQIA+ persons seeking refuge in Seattle." For some ex-Texans, Seattle has become a haven. Victoria Scott, a trans woman and freelance writer, lived in Houston working as a programmer at NASA after college in 2018. After coming out as transgender, she said that she found both Houston and Texas hostile. Scott moved around and lived briefly in Reno, Nevada, before settling in Seattle with her wife at the end of 2023. In Seattle, Scott found the foundation she had long needed.

In a state with a long history of arresting pregnant women, one mom in custody says she was left to fend for herself.

Community members and rights groups criticize police arriving at Cincinnati schools on behalf of ICE

The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, bringing new leadership to the world’s most powerful central bank at a fraught moment for the global economy.

Molar found in Siberia features deep hole that appears to show earliest known evidence of dental treatment

Capitalism seeks new parasitic relationship with healthier host.

Banff National Park is reminding visitors about wildlife safety using an amazing close-up photo of a grizzly having its lunch.

Facility would require more power than entire state uses and suck up vast amount of water in drought-stricken area

Waymo is recalling its U.S. fleet of robotaxis after one of the autonomous vehicles was swept away when it drove into floodwaters in San Antonio. The voluntary software recall stems from an incident during severe weather April 20, when a Waymo vehicle “encountered an untraversible flooded section of a roadway,” the company told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Though the vehicle detected the flooded road, it continued into floodwaters at reduced speed. “We are working to implement additional software safeguards and have put mitigations ​in place, including refining our extreme weather operations during ​periods of intense rain, limiting access to areas where flash flooding ‌might ⁠occur,” Waymo said in a statement. The vehicle swept away was unoccupied ​and there were no injuries, but the incident prompted Waymo to review similar scenarios and issue an interim update to its self-driving software. It also suspended operations in San Antonio, a city prone to flooding and where the April 20 incident was the second recent local instance of a Waymo vehicle struggling with flooding.

“It's making me dumber for sure.”

In five days last week, Republicans gained maybe 10 seats in Congress. And not a single citizen voted.

a psychopolitical theory from the writer of McMansion Hell

The streaming giant said the lawsuit “lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information.”

Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, California, has been charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent for China, the Justice Department announced on Monday.

... I think seeing Clavicular in person was so jarring because, for the first time, I got to see what his content looked like from the other side. Online, Clavicular appears statuesque, monotone, and glacial. But in person, the illusion frays almost immediately.

The move follows years of internal and external pressure.

Overly challenging gameplay, slow pacing, and unpredictable pricing make having a concussion a skip