Nearly two-thirds of for-profit cosmetology certificate programs would face a federal crackdown under new federal rules proposed by the Biden administration.

President Joe Biden says 14.5 million Americans got private health insurance for this year under the Obama-era health law, thanks to help from his administration.

Torrential rain has triggered a mudslide and more floods across Japan, leaving three people presumed dead and forcing the evacuation of dozens of residents.

Torrential rain continues to trigger floods in wide areas of southwestern Japan, damaging homes and disrupting transportation.

In a major step against climate change, President Joe Biden is proposing a return to aggressive Obama-era vehicle mileage standards over five years.

The nation’s consumer watchdog is signaling a more aggressive approach toward the financial services sectors after a few years of being on a tight leash.

The Office of the New York Attorney General said in a new report that a campaign funded by the broadband industry submitted millions of fake comments supporting the 2017 repeal of net neutrality.

Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department is opening a sweeping investigation into policing practices in Minneapolis after the guilty verdict in George Floyd’s death.

(Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday ordered a review of how the Justice Department can best deploy its resources to combat hate crimes during a surge in incidents targeting Asian Americans. They should also focus on improving the FBI’s collection of data on hate crimes, which is “critical to understanding the evolving nature and extent of hate crimes and hate incidents in all their forms,” he wrote in the memo. A main criticism from lawmakers and civil rights groups has been that the U.S. government vastly undercounts hate crimes because the FBI’s reporting system is voluntary. In some states, just 5% of police departments reported any hate crimes last year. The review is aimed at determining how the Justice Department can better prioritize investigations and prosecutions, increase and track reporting of hate crimes and other incidents that could violate federal law and use civil remedies to address bias incidents that don’t amount to federal hate crimes.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday pledged swift work by Congress on a job and infrastructure package that will be “fiscally sound,” but said she isn't sure whether the next major item on President Joe Biden’s agenda will attract Republican backing. AdBut work on passing infrastructure legislation in a Senate split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris providing a tiebreaking vote will probably prove more difficult. Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., recently made clear he will block infrastructure legislation if Republicans aren't included. 3 Senate Republican, said he wants to see bipartisan support for an infrastructure legislation. Cost will be a major hurdle in passing an infrastructure plan.

Whether people want them or not, automakers are rolling out multiple new electric vehicle models as the auto industry responds to stricter pollution regulations worldwide and calls to reduce emissions to fight climate change. Asked Friday about the proposal, the White House said discussions with the auto industry on a fuel emissions standard were still early. Under the Obama-era standards, automakers got double credit for fully electric vehicles toward meeting their fuel economy and pollution requirements. AdBiden also has made boosting electric vehicles a top priority. They described credits granted to automakers for electric vehicles as “loopholes” that do little to reduce emissions in the short term.

President Joe Biden's pick for attorney general Merrick Garland, addresses staff on his first day at the Department of Justice, Thursday, March 11, 2021, in Washington. Welcome to the new Justice Department, likely a much tamer place to be after four years of blaring headlines under Donald Trump. The former president insisted that his attorney general, and entire department, be loyal to him personally, battering the department’s reputation for political independence. “When I walked in the door of Main Justice this morning, it really did feel like I was coming home,” Garland said, referring to Justice Department headquarters. AdAbout 15 minutes later, he took the oath of office, administered by Assistant Attorney General Lee Lofthus.

The Obama administration closed the nuclear deal without making the freeing of American citizens in Iran a prerequisite. The Trump administration then failed to push for the release of the Namazi father and son as hard as it did other Americans held by Iran, Babak Namazi said. Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, called Iran’s continued detention of American citizens a “humanitarian catastrophe” on a news show this Sunday. “My family expects that President Biden and his administration will not make concessions or deals with Iran” absent a requirement that Iran free the father and son, Babak Namazi told reporters. The 84-year-old found that Iran's Revolutionary Guard had unexpectedly placed a new block on his travel out of Iran, however, Babak Namazi said.

The best reality TV show has been on for more than 10 years, and it seems most of mainstream America hasn’t even watched it.

With a change of administrations, it looks like Harriet Tubman is once again headed to the front of the $20 bill. Obama administration Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had selected Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson, the nations seventh president, on the $20 bill. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)WASHINGTON – With a change of administrations, it looks like Harriet Tubman is once again headed to the front of the $20 bill. Obama administration Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had selected Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson, the nation's seventh president, on the $20 bill. Under the schedule Mnuchin announced in May 2019, the redesigned $20 bill would not have come out until 2028 with final designs for the bill not announced until 2026.

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)DETROIT – A new government report says gas mileage for new vehicles dropped and pollution increased in model year 2019 for the first time in five years. The Environmental Protection Agency says the changes show that few automakers could meet what it called unrealistic emissions and mileage standards set by the Obama administration through the 2020 model year. The EPA report released Wednesday says gas mileage fell 0.2 miles per gallon for model year 2019, while greenhouse gas emissions rose by 3 grams per mile traveled, compared with 2018 figures. Mileage dropped to 24.9 miles per gallon while greenhouse gas emissions rose to 356 grams per mile, the report said. It was updated on Jan. 14, 2021, to correct the second paragraph to show that new vehicle gas mileage for 2019 decreased rather than increased.

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden is adding four Obama-Biden administration veterans to his top ranks as he continues to build out his White House team. Cathy Russell, who was Jill Biden’s chief of staff during the Obama administration, will serve as director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, evaluating applicants for administration roles. Louisa Terrell, who served as a legislative adviser to the president in the Obama administration and worked as deputy chief of staff for Biden in the Senate, will be director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. Carlos Elizondo, who was social secretary for Jill Biden during the Obama administration, will reprise his role and serve as social secretary for the incoming first lady. Her role hints at what Biden may focus on as first lady — Adiga previously worked as a director for higher education and military families at the Biden Foundation, and also advised Jill Biden on policy during the Obama administration.

The 9@9: Stimulus bill vote; Obama hits campaign trail; Vanessa Guillen's deathPublished: October 21, 2020, 9:58 amThe 9@9 features some of the biggest stories making headlines at home, around the country and across the globe. Here’s what’s trending

That’s well short of the $383 million his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, and the Democratic National Committee reported raising last month. ___HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE:President Donald Trump is holding rallies in Ocala, Florida, and Macon, Georgia, on Friday night. ___5 p.m.President Donald Trump is predicting a “red wave” of Republican voting in Florida. Most polls show a close race in the important battleground state that both the Republican incumbent and Democrat Joe Biden are courting heavily. ___2:35 p.m.President Donald Trump says he’s moving “heaven and earth” to protect older people from the coronavirus.

Trump campaigned in Florida and Georgia, neighboring states he carried four years ago and must win again to extend his presidency. And earlier this week, Trump had to court voters in Iowa, a state he carried by almost 10 points four years ago. More to the point for Trump's Florida audience, he spoke directly to seniors who have increasingly soured on his handling of the pandemic. “Mishandling the pandemic isn’t enough for Trump,” Biden charged. While decidedly on the defensive on the ground in key states, Trump released a scathing new ad on Friday attacking Biden's record on race.

Trump spoke at an airport hangar in swing-state North Carolina to a crowd that included white-coated, mask-wearing health care workers. For Trump, health care represents a major piece of unfinished business. Democrats, unable to slow the Republican march to Senate confirmation of a replacement for Ginsburg, are ramping up their election-year health care messaging. The gap narrowed for lowering costs of health care: 48% named Biden, while 42% picked Trump. The scramble to show concrete accomplishments on health care comes as Trump is chafing under criticism that he never delivered a Republican alternative to Obamacare.

WASHINGTON The Trump administration will deny new applications for so-called Dreamer immigrants and cut renewals to one year from two years, despite reversals in court that kept alive the Obama-era program to shield young people from deportation. A White House official confirmed the announcement Tuesday. New applications were put on hold when the Trump administration moved to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in September 2017 but two-year renewals have continued, with about 700,000 people currently covered. A federal judge in Maryland ruled earlier this month that DACA should be restored to original form before September 2017 but the administration was mum until Tuesday on whether it would start accepting new applications. The White House anticipates legal challenges.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, declaring in a 5-to-4 opinion that the 2012 initiative was inappropriately terminated by the Trump administration. The court's decision comes nearly three years after Trump announced he was terminating the policy, known as DACA, that has protected more than 130,000 Texans from deportation, the second-highest total after California. Trump's reason for ending the program echoed what many Republicans, including some in Texas, said when it was enacted: immigration law is under the purview of the U.S. Congress and not the executive branch alone. The program gave them a renewable, two-year work permit and a reprieve from deportation. This is a developing story and will be updated

The Environmental Protection Agency has ended an Obama-era drive to regulate a widespread contaminant in drinking water linked to brain damage in infants. The Obama administration announced in 2011 it intended to introduce federal regulation of it. Wheeler says now no federal regulation is necessary. He says that's partly because some states and public water systems already have taken steps to deal with the contaminant. (AP Photo/Ric Francis, File)The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday ended an Obama-era drive to regulate a widespread contaminant in drinking water linked to brain damage in infants.

The Trump administration announced Friday it is eliminating an Obama-era regulation prohibiting discrimination in health care against patients who are transgender. Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, known as the Health Care Rights Law, "prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in certain health programs and activities." The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights group, has said it plans to mount a legal challenge to the rule change, which the Trump administration proposed a similar version of last year. Today, the Human Rights Campaign is announcing plans to sue the Trump administration for exceeding their legal authority and attempting to remove basic health care protections from vulnerable communities including LGBTQ people," HRC president Alphonso David said in a statement. "The Trump administration has made a mission out of putting politicians and religious beliefs above a patient's health care.

WASHINGTON The Trump administration Friday finalized a regulation that overturns Obama-era protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care. The policy shift, long-sought by the president's religious and socially conservative supporters, defines gender as a person's biological sex. The Obama regulation defined gender as a person's internal sense of being male, female, neither or a combination. LGBTQ groups say explicit protections are needed for people seeking sex-reassignment treatment, and even for transgender people who need medical care for common conditions such as diabetes or heart problems. The Trump administration says the notice requirement has become a needless burden on health care providers, requiring billions of paper notices to be mailed annually at an estimated five-year cost of $3.2 billion.

Since then, more than 100 drag queens have sashyed into the Werk Room to launch their careers, and the show has gone on to win 13 Emmy Awards, including two for Outstanding Competition Show. RuPaul became the most recognizable drag queen in America, but it wouldn’t be until the premiere of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” that took Ru and his empire to the global level. The premise of the show is pretty simple: RuPaul and his esteemed panel of judges are searching for America’s next drag superstar. It’s hard to imagine an out and proud drag queen becoming such a success, let alone a drag queen of color to become the face and name of the art of drag. It’s like what RuPaul says at the end of every episode of “Drag Race:" If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell can you love somebody else?