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By LINDSAY WHITEHURST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with e-cigarette companies on Friday in a ruling making it easier to sue over Food and Drug Administration decisions blocking their products from the multibillion-dollar vaping market. The 7-2 opinion comes as companies push back against a yearslong federal regulatory crackdown on electronic cigarettes. It’s expected to give the companies more control over which judges hear lawsuits filed against the agency. The justices went the other way on vaping in an April decision, siding with the FDA in a ruling upholding a sweeping block on most sweet-flavored vapes instituted after…

IE VARSITY BOYS ATHLETE OF THE YEAR, 2024-25 Name: Eyan Turk School: Woodcrest Christian Year: Senior Sports: Cross Country, Track and Field Notable highlights: The final chapters of Eyan Turk’s storied career at Woodcrest Christian were riveting. Turk, a recent graduate who is headed to the University of Kentucky, defended his CIF State Division V individual cross country championship during the fall season. Turk then joined a select fraternity of Inland distance runners during the spring season, as he claimed the 3,200-meter title at this year’s CIF State Track and Field Championship and set a Riverside County record in the…

By TOM MURPHY A small, growing number of employers are putting health insurance decisions entirely in the hands of their workers. Instead of offering traditional insurance, they’re giving workers money to buy their own coverage in what’s known as Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, or ICHRAs. Advocates say this approach provides small companies that couldn’t afford insurance a chance to offer something. It also caps a growing expense for employers and fits conservative political goals of giving people more purchasing power over their coverage. But ICHRAs place the risk for finding coverage on the employee, and they force them to…

By MICHAEL CASEY and REBECCA BOONE BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from withholding billions of dollars in transportation funds from states that don’t agree to participate in some immigration enforcement actions. Twenty states sued after they said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to cut off funding to states that refused to comply with President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. barred federal transportation officials from carrying out that threat before the lawsuit is fully resolved. “The Court finds that the States have demonstrated they will face irreparable and continuing harm if forced to…

The United States is, once again, on the precipice of entering another war in the Middle East. After months of productive negotiations between the Trump administration and the Iranian government to reach a new nuclear deal, the talks were broken off by a series of Israeli airstrikes on June 13, last Friday. The Israelis targeted the homes and apartments of top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) officials, nuclear scientists, and negotiators who had been working with the US. They also hit Iranian nuclear facilities and various military sites Iran would have relied on to defend against Israel’s attack and eventually…

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers at cybersecurity outlet Cybernews say that billions of login credentials have been leaked and compiled into datasets online, giving criminals “unprecedented access” to accounts consumers use each day. According to a report published this week, Cybernews researchers have recently discovered 30 exposed datasets that each contain a vast amount of login information — amounting to a total of 16 billion compromised credentials. That includes user passwords for a range of popular platforms including Google, Facebook and Apple. Sixteen billion is roughly double the amount of people on Earth today, signaling that impacted consumers may have…

By ERIC TUCKER WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden, repeating his baseless claim that the contest was marred by widespread fraud. “Biden was grossly incompetent, and the 2020 election was a total FRAUD!” Trump said in a social media post in which he also sought to favorably contrast his immigration enforcement approach with that of the former president. “The evidence is MASSIVE and OVERWHELMING. A Special Prosecutor must be appointed. This cannot be allowed to happen again in the United…

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, AP Business Writer Aflac says that it has identified suspicious activity on its network in the U.S. that may impact Social Security numbers and other personal information, calling the incident part of a cybercrime campaign against the insurance industry. The company said Friday that the intrusion was stopped within hours. “We continue to serve our customers as we respond to this incident and can underwrite policies, review claims, and otherwise service our customers as usual,” Aflac said in a statement. The company said that it’s in the early stages of a review of the incident, and so…

By MARK SHERMAN WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday revived long-running lawsuits against Palestinian authorities from Americans who were killed or wounded in terrorism attacks in the Middle East. The justices upheld a 2019 law enacted by Congress specifically to allow the victims’ lawsuits to go forward against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. The attacks occurred in the early 2000s, killing 33 people and wounding hundreds more, and in 2018, when a U.S.-born settler was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant outside a mall in the West Bank. The victims and their families assert…

California law already fortunately — in theory — limits the ability of police to share photo-captured vehicle license plate data with out-of-state public agencies. Such as ICE. But considering the several regulations already in place, this aspect of the ship of state is a very leaky boat indeed, as new investigations show that 11 California law enforcement agencies broke this law last month alone, with 10 of those agencies being from Southern California counties. “The Los Angeles Police Department and sheriff’s departments in San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties searched license plate readings on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement…