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6 days ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
A new study finds that illegal opioid and fentanyl use were higher under the Biden administration than previously reported. A June national survey of 1,515 adults found that 11% reported using illegally manufactured opioids within the previous year, including 7.5% who admitted to illicit fentanyl use. That’s the equivalent of more than 28 million and 19 million people, respectively, out of 258.4 million adults nationwide.
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1 week ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
President Trump has nominated Mary Anne Carter as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, tapping the same woman who led the independent agency during his first administration as he seeks to gut its budget. Ms. Carter, a former chief policy adviser to then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott, ran the NEA from 2019 to 2021.
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1 week ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
A federal judge in Manhattan has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from clawing back over $1.1 billion in unspent pandemic stimulus grants to K-12 schools. U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday requiring the Education Department to uphold a Biden administration extension of the deadline for states to spend the money.
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1 week ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
A new Gallup poll finds that two-thirds of adults feel priced out of the U.S. housing market, with a record low of 30% saying they will buy a home in the next five years.
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1 week ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
Cybersecurity experts say digital REAL ID scams are targeting immigrants, seniors and Johnny-come-latelies as the federal government tightens identification requirements for domestic air travel. As of Wednesday, the Transportation Security Administration no longer accepts state-issued driver’s licenses, nondriver identifications and learner’s permits lacking the distinctive REAL ID star in the upper right corner.
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1 week ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
The District set tourist and dollar marks for the second consecutive year in 2024, drawing 27.2 million visitors and $11.4 billion in spending, the city’s tourism bureau reported Tuesday. Destination DC said the number of tourists rose by 1.25 million people from 25.95 million visitors who spent $10.2 billion in 2023. That year, local tourism rebounded from sharp declines during COVID-19 public health restrictions to pass a pre-pandemic record of 25.1 million visitors set in 2019.
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1 week ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
Samantha Gleisten has made her share of mistakes teaching generative artificial intelligence to middle school students in Chicago. When she first invited a group of eighth graders to create chatbots with a software program two years ago, one trained his AI to be a narcissist who gave antagonistic “I’m better than you” responses. Another created an AI Snoop Dogg who veered into inappropriate drug references in improvised rap lyrics.
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1 week ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
Worsening finances and social isolation during COVID-19 lockdowns contributed to a post-pandemic surge in clinical depression symptoms among young adults, a study has found. The analysis of 20,040 adults 20 and older found that the average share reporting major depressive symptoms on national health surveys increased from 8.2% in 2013-20 to 12.3% in 2021-23.
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1 week ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed the nation’s largest school voucher program into law, authorizing education savings accounts for parents to spend tax dollars on alternatives to public schooling. The law allows qualifying students to use roughly $10,000 a year in state funds for tuition at any institution beginning in the 2026-27 term, with an initial $1 billion budget cap that will be removed the following year.
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1 week ago | 
washingtontimes.com | Sean Salai
- The Washington Times - Brown University has accused a student journalist of trademark violations for sending a Department of Government Efficiency-inspired email asking administrators to explain what they do all day.
