WASHINGTON – A little over halfway through President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday – an event that will be remembered most for partisan rancor – Dallas Rep. Colin Allred received a bit of a surprise. There was the president, a Republican, giving a shout-out to a family leave bill that Allred, a freshman Democrat, had authored. …

WASHINGTON—The historic impeachment trial of President Donald Trump ended Wednesday with acquittal on charges that he abused his power and then engaged in a cover-up. The votes on the two articles of impeachment fell almost entirely along party lines, with one Republican defection, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, on the abuse of power charge, and the outcome did little to deescalate …

Most of the major Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate support government subsidized health care for Americans, but with the option for customers to keep private insurance. The exception is labor activist Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, who supports Medicare for All and abolishing private insurance. “On costs, right now we’ve created the most expensive health care system in the world,” Tzintzún Ramirez …

In the basement of Dallas’ downtown library, deep sleepers who averted the cold winds outside snored. Bare feet poked out of gray blankets on cots provided by the city. At 6:32 a.m. Wednesday, Monica Hardman turned on the lights of a small conference room. “Good morning!” The Office of Homeless Solutions director began to wake the women dozing on white …

  Today will be dry, but cold. Please take extra care if you’re driving this morning as some roads may be icy. Freezing rain, snow and sleet from yesterday are long gone, but could have froze on area roadways or bridges, leading to areas of black ice. This is especially true on untreated and less traveled roads. Outside of the …

ISLAMABAD: As the Senior Officials Meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation starts in Jeddah on Feb 9 (Sunday) to make preparations for the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers, a diplomatic source said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia has shown reluctance to accept Pakistan’s request for an immediate meeting of the CFM on Kashmir. Islamabad’s feeling of unease with the …

WASHINGTON: When Iranian-born German academic Erfan Kasraie received an email from The Wall Street Journal requesting an interview, he sensed something was amiss. The Nov 12 note purportedly came from Farnaz Fassihi, a veteran Iranian-American journalist who covers the Middle East. Yet it read more like a fan letter, asking Kasraie to share his “important achievements” to “motivate the youth of our …

ANKARA: At least 33 people were killed in eastern Turkey Wednesday by a second avalanche which buried a team of rescuers searching for people hit by the first the day before. The bodies of 33 rescue workers and civilians were discovered in Van province, where they had been helping dig out a minibus buried by snow late on Tuesday, the …

NEW DELHI: The construction of a grand Hindu temple at holy site bitterly contested with Muslims moved a step closer on Wednesday when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a trust had been finalised to oversee the project. The razing of a mosque at Ayodhya by a huge crowd of zealots almost 30 years ago unleashed some of the country’s …

SRINAGAR: Two suspected Kashmiri fighters and an Indian soldier were killed in occupied Kashmir on Wednesday, officials said. Indian forces also claimed to have detained a suspected fighter after the fighting. Paramilitary officer Pankaj Singh said three fighters on a motorbike fired at a patrol party on the outskirts of Srinagar. He claimed the soldiers gunned down two of the …