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Judge blocks Trump administration from nixing collective bargaining for most federal employees

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order that a labor union says would cancel collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled that a key part of President Donald Trump’s March 27 order can’t be enforced at roughly three dozen agencies and departments where employees are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union.

Judges blocks Trump push to cut funding to public schools over diversity programs

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked Trump administration directives that threatened to cut federal funding for public schools with diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the Republican administration of giving “unconstitutionally vague” guidance and violating teachers’ First Amendment rights.

Jury: Norfolk Southern should pay $600 million settlement in 2023 Ohio derailment

The company that owned the railcar that caused the devastating East Palestine train derailment in 2023 won’t have to help pay for the $600 million settlement Norfolk Southern agreed to with residents.

An Ohio jury decided Wednesday that GATX isn’t liable for the settlement even though the failure of a bearing on its railcar carrying plastic pellets caused the pileup on Feb. 3, 2023. GATX has maintained Norfolk Southern operated and inspected the train and all the cars and was responsible for delivering the cargo safely.

Musk damaged Tesla's brand in just a few months. Fixing it will likely take longer

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk has been called a Moonshot Master, the Edison of Our Age and the Architect of the Future, but he's got a big problem at his car company and it's not clear he can fix it: damage to its brand.

Sales have plunged for Tesla amid protests and boycotts over Musk's embrace of far right-wing views. Profits have been sliced by two-thirds so far this year, and rivals from China, Europe and the U.S. are pouncing.

Woman hugs man who fatally shot her brother and 22 more in racist attack at Texas Walmart

Yolanda Tinajero did not raise her voice as she spoke to the gunman who killed her brother and 22 other people in a racist attack at a Walmart in 2019.

Instead she told him Tuesday that she forgave him, and wished she could give him a hug.

The judge, in a surprising turn in an El Paso courtroom, allowed her to do just that.

Their brief embrace — while Patrick Crusius was still shackled — was among many emotionally charged moments during two days of impact statements given by victims’ family members and survivors.

Shapiro reopens fire-damaged official residence to public as cleanup goes on

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro reopened the governor’s official residence to the public Tuesday for an Easter egg hunt barely a week after an alleged arsonist’s fire tore through one of its wings and said he will begin sleeping there again soon.

“I’m not going to live in fear,” Shapiro told reporters after the annual Easter egg hunt held for children on the west lawn of the residence along the Susquehanna River here.

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