The termination of payments to providers has coincided with a massive spike in detainee deaths and medical crises.

You might not know Paul Pressler’s name. But your life has been profoundly affected by the fruits of his labor. Though he may not be as familiar as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, or other lions of the religious right, few have done more to shape our modern political and religious landscapes. Fueled by an unyielding belief in biblical inerrancy—the notion that Christian scripture is the perfect, literal word of God—Pressler in the eighties and nineties pushed the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s second-largest faith group, into a civil war that drove moderates from its ranks. As the architect of the SBC’s so-called conservative resurgence, Pressler—or the Judge, as many knew him—played a crucial role in the marriage of the Republican Party and the white evangelical voters who still sustain its power. For nearly four decades he served as a quiet GOP power broker, helping elevate generations of conservative Christians to the Texas Legislature, Capitol Hill, and the White House. That legacy began to crumble in 2017, when Rollins filed a lawsuit in Harris County alleging that Pressler had raped him repeatedly over decades and that prominent Southern Baptist figures and churches had concealed or mishandled evidence that Pressler was a sexual predator. Perhaps because of Rollins’s lengthy rap sheet—which included convictions for drunk driving, drug possession, and theft—the lawsuit received scant attention in the months after it was filed. Then, around January 2018, while burning out the last hour of an evening reporting shift at the Houston Chronicle, I found a document buried in thousands of pages of court filings showing that in 2004, Pressler had agreed to pay nearly half a million dollars to settle an assault lawsuit. Other filings contained references to additional accusers, at least one of whom was willing to come forward about other sexual misconduct. Intrigued, I started calling sexual-abuse survivors who had spent years warning the SBC that its 47,000 churches were being infiltrated by predators. They all told me the same thing: This is far bigger than one lawsuit.

Archaeologists think a broken bronze cup found in Spain was made for a soldier as a memento of his time stationed at Hadrian's Wall in England.

A spokesman for Rudy Giuliani says the former mayor of New York City is in critical but stable condition at a hospital.

The Flex Loan, a new type of payday loan pioneered by Advance Financial in Tennessee, allows residents to borrow up to $4,000 at a 279.5% interest rate.

The University of Houston's Special Collections Library is home to thousands upon thousands of priceless books and ancient manuscripts. But I was there to look at something most people threw away when they left college: blacklight posters from the 1960s and '70s printed and sold by a Houston company that no longer exists. My guide (or perhaps trip-sitter) for the day was Christian Kelleher, the Director of Exhibitions and External Relations at UH's libraries. Founded in 1969, Houston Blacklight & Poster Company was once one of the biggest distributors of the bright, colorful posters that adorned dorm rooms, basements and garage hangouts and became synonymous, along with lava lamps and bongs, with hippies and the counterculture movement.

Louisiana Republicans have eliminated an elected position days before an exoneree who overwhelmingly won the New Orleans-based clerk seat was set to take office. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry quietly signed legislation abolishing the longstanding Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court position into law Thursday, according to Louisiana Secretary of State spokesperson Trey Williams. Republicans say wiping away the office is a consolidation effort meant to make the local judicial system more efficient and cut costs. But Democrats describe the change as government overreach — arguing that it infringes on a predominately Black parish’s decision at the polls. Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly 30 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, easily won election to the criminal court clerk position in November, beating the incumbent and earning more than two-thirds of the vote. He had been set to take office next Monday and has asked a federal judge to allow him to take office as scheduled.

More than 60 units and 200 firefighters were called to the scene.

President Michael Kotlikoff backed his car into a student and drove over the foot of a recent graduate after what he called a "harassment and intimidation incident" in a Friday email blast to the Cornell community.

The arrest of a US military officer who participated in Maduro’s capture and the investigation in France into the tampering of thermometers at Charles de Gaulle Airport are the latest incidents of misconduct in the prediction market

Last week’s assassination attempt wasn’t a false flag. But the long-term internet brain rot producing the theories is real.

A Democrat running for Michigan’s 2nd House District in November has filed a campaign complaint against one of his primary opponents, a transgender woman, alleging that she violated state campaign law by not listing her deadname on her affidavit of identity submitted to run for office.

A China policy giving Africa’s biggest economies tariff-free access to its market for the next two years came into effect Friday while its economic rival the United States seeks to impose new import taxes under President Donald Trump’s push for protectionism. The China deal covers Africa’s 20 largest economies, including South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Kenya. China had already dropped tariffs on 33 poorer African countries, meaning 53 of the continent’s 54 nations are now eligible for “tariff-free treatment” for their goods, according to China. The country not eligible is the small nation of Eswatini because it is the only one in Africa that maintains formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

The four homicides recorded in April represent the fewest killings in a month in the city since 1970, when police began tracking monthly crime statistics.

A Baltimore County man who for years performed in blackface as the 1920s entertainer Al Jolson is running for the Maryland House of Delegates. He’s listed on the ballot as Bobby Al Jolson Berger. Berger said he stopped performing as Jolson in blackface in 2016. He said people got angry at him, but claimed they misunderstood that what he was doing wasn’t racist. According to the Baltimore Sun, a 2015 fundraiser planned for the six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray was canceled because Berger was going to be the entertainment. It was called “racist and in poor taste.” In the 1980s Berger was fired as a city police officer because of his blackface performances. He sued and successfully got his job back.

Broadnax, who was convicted of killing two music producers in Garland in a 2008 robbery, is the third inmate executed by the state this year.

Uatsdin has spread amidst a growing interest in pre-Christian religious traditions as an important part of ethnic identity in the North Caucasus.

Isaiah Kirby, a 21-year-old Owings Mills native studying zoology at Michigan State University, was fatally shot by East Lansing Police Department officers.

By the time Maine Gov. Janet Mills launched her Senate campaign in October, Graham Platner was already drawing large crowds and raising impressive amounts of money. Mills supporters – including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – thought she could prevail with a pitch for electability based on her statewide name recognition, backing from Senate Democratic leadership and a tidal wave of opposition research on Platner. They were wrong, and on Thursday, Mills ended her campaign weeks before the June 9 primary.

Mexican president says she won't arrest officials indicted by the U.S. on drug charges without firm proof.