“A federal appeals court has denied a request from dozens of families to reopen a criminal case against Boeing over two fatal 737 Max crashes more than seven years ago. Lawyers for the families had argued that the U.S. Department of Justice failed to properly consult them before reaching a deal last year with Boeing that led a lower court to dismiss a criminal conspiracy charge against the company. The charge stemmed from allegations that Boeing misled federal regulators about a flight-control system linked to the crashes, which killed 346 people. In a unanimous decision released Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it disagreed with the families’ claims that federal prosecutors had violated their rights under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act and therefore could not revive the case.” (04/01/26)
“Private sector employment growth was a bit better than expected in March, but health care and construction continued to provide nearly all the momentum, payrolls processing company ADP reported Wednesday. Job growth totaled 62,000 for the month, down just 4,000 from February’s upwardly revised level but above the Dow Jones consensus for 39,000. ADP’s report does not include government employees. Like February’s report, two sectors essentially provided all the gains. Education and health services contributed 58,000 — identical to the February total — while construction added 30,000. The health services total was held back in the prior month due to a since-resolved strike at Kaiser Permanente that sidelined more than 30,000 workers in Hawaii and California.” (04/01/26)
“A Russian military plane has crashed in [Crimea], killing 29 people on board, the Russian defence ministry has said. Wreckage of the An-26 aircraft was found on Tuesday after the plane lost contact with authorities during ‘a routine flight,’ according to the ministry. It blamed ‘a technical failure’ and reported no external damage to the aircraft, implying that missiles, drones or birds are not suspected of causing the crash. Seven crew members and 23 passengers had been on board as it flew over the … Crimean peninsula …. Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed the crash and said it had opened an inquiry into a flight safety violation. News agency Tass reported that communication with the plane was lost at about 18:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, and the wreckage was found following a search and rescue effort. Ukraine has not commented on the crash.” (04/01/26)
“A Tunisian court handed down a two-year prison sentence to news website editor Ghassen Ben Khelifa, in the latest prosecution targeting media workers, a move the journalists’ union described as part of a ‘systemic’ attack on free speech. The SNJT union said on Tuesday that Ben Khelifa, editor-in-chief of the news website Inhiyaz, was charged with publishing false news in a case dating back more than three years. Ben Khelifa denied the charges, saying the case was fabricated and calling it evidence of a failing system.” (03/31/26)
“The Trump administration is moving the Forest Service’s headquarters out of Washington and into Salt Lake City, Utah, as part of a broader push to shift federal agencies closer to the regions they oversee and reduce the footprint of government in the nation’s capital. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the move Tuesday and said it will begin a sweeping restructuring of the agency, relocating leadership and redistributing authority across the country in an effort officials say will improve decision-making, cut costs and strengthen hiring. The shift represents a significant structural change to how the Forest Service operates, moving top leadership and key functions closer to the western states where the majority of national forest land is located and where wildfire risk and land management demands are most concentrated.” (04/01/26)
“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that helicopter pilots who conducted a flyby of musician Kid Rock’s Nashville estate over the weekend would not be punished, an abrupt reversal of the U.S. Army’s decision to suspend the Apache helicopter crews amid review of their conduct. … Rock published a pair of videos to social media on Saturday showing him cheering on a pair of Apache helicopters flying by and hovering near his Nashville estate, which he has called ‘The Southern White House.'” (03/31/26)
“A mass robotaxi outage in the Chinese city of Wuhan caused at least a hundred self-driving cars to stop mid-traffic, sparking renewed debate around the safety of driverless vehicles. Local police said initial findings suggested a ‘system malfunction’ caused multiple vehicles to stop in the middle of the road on Tuesday. Videos on social media have documented the outage, with one appearing to show it resulting in a highway collision, although police said no injuries had been reported and passengers exited their vehicles safely. Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the police statement, posted on social media site Weibo, the cause of the incident is still under further investigation. Baidu operates its Apollo Go driverless taxi service in dozens of cities across the world, mostly in China.” (04/01/26)
“An American journalist has been kidnapped in Iraq with the apparent involvement of an Iranian-backed militia, the State Department said Tuesday. Shelly Kittleson, a freelance journalist who has contributed to various publications including POLITICO, was seized from a Baghdad street, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, which said efforts were underway to recover her. … In a statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on ‘Iraqi authorities to do everything in their power to locate Shelley Kittleson, ensure her immediate and safe release, and hold those responsible to account.'” (03/31/26)
“President Trump on Tuesday attacked European allies for not doing more to support the U.S. in its war with Iran and signaled they will have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on their own. This was the third time in recent days that Trump signaled publicly he could end the war in Iran without reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. would be leaving other countries to clean up a hugely consequential economic quagmire and restore the flow of roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. When asked about Trump’s post on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stopped short of calling the strait’s reopening a core objective.” (03/31/26)
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a Colorado counselor who challenged a state law that bans ‘conversion therapy’ for minors, ruling that lower courts failed to apply ‘sufficiently rigorous First Amendment scrutiny’ in the case. The high court ruled 8-1 that Colorado’s law, when applied to talk therapy provided by counselor Kaley Chiles, regulates speech based on viewpoint. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter. The Supreme Court reversed a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit that found the law did not violate Chiles’ free-speech rights. The appeals court instead concluded that it regulates professional conduct and only incidentally burdens speech. The ruling from the high court is a narrow one and requires the lower courts to apply a more stringent level of review when evaluating the constitutionality of Colorado’s law.” (03/31/26)
