Vice President Kamala Harris tried to buck up the Democratic Party’s biggest donors on Friday, telling about 300 of them that there was little to worry about in President Biden’s campaign. Ms. Harris spoke to the group at a time of extraordinary turmoil among Democrats, with many hoping that she will replace Mr. Biden as the party’s nominee. But several listeners said they found the meeting overall to be of little value and even, at times, condescending, believing that the message...

July 19 (Reuters) - Over its past two terms, the U.S. Supreme Court has put an end to five high-profile and politically sensitive cases emerging from one particular federal appeals court on the same basis, declaring that the litigation should not have been allowed in the first place. In all five cases - involving abortion rights, online free speech, federal student loans, immigration and Native American child welfare - the justices overturned rulings by the staunchly conservative...

President Biden's top campaign advisors both weighed in on Friday to comment on widespread speculation surrounding the 2024 presidential race. The first clarification came from Campaign Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon, who left no room for question during an interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "The president's in this race," O'Malley Dillon told the hosts. "You've heard him say that time and time again, and I think we saw on display last night exactly why, because Donald Trump is not...

Employees of a Texas-based nonprofit that provides housing to unaccompanied migrant children repeatedly subjected minors in its care to sexual abuse and harassment, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged in a new lawsuit.  From 2015 through at least the end of 2023, multiple employees at Southwest Key Programs, the country’s largest private provider of housing for unaccompanied children, subjected unaccompanied children in their care to “repeated and unwelcome sexual abuse,...

US President Joe Biden is looking forward to "getting back on the campaign trail next week", fortifying his commitment to stick in the race as more Democrats on Friday called for him to step aside as the party nominee. “The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win," he said. His statement comes amid conflicting reports of conversations within Mr Biden's circle and the larger party about the president's future. Over the last several weeks, the president has been...

President Joe Biden said on Friday that he would be returning to the campaign trail next week to continue to take on rival Donald Trump, as he contends with the fallout of his COVID-19 diagnosis and growing calls from Democrats for him to bow out. "I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week to continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump's Project 2025 agenda while making the case for my own record and the vision that I have for America: one where we save our...

TikToker EchoBadlistener has his hands full with four dogs: Morty (deaf and blind), Echo (deaf and visually impaired), Winston (overweight), and Frank, who, in his owner’s estimation, is “not too smart.”But even though Morty can’t see or hear, he enthusiastically greets his owners whenever they come home. A recent TikTok video that has been seen over 9,000 times shows how Morty has given his high-energy hellos to his owners over the past four years.Although Morty sometimes takes a little while to find their exact location, once he zeroes in, he leaps up and grabs them with his paws or makes excited doggie donuts in the middle of the kitchen. @echobadlistener Little kangaroo #deafdogsoftiktok #blinddogsoftiktok #fyp #threedeafdogs #morty #babymorty So, how does Morty know when his family is home if he can’t hear or see? Dogs have an incredible sense of smell up to 10,000 times greater than a human’s. So he picks up on their scent when they enter the house. He is also probably very sensitive to familiar vibrations, such as a door opening and closing, and can feel footsteps when people walk across the floor.Morty and his sister Echo are deaf and have vision problems due to birth defects that come from breeding merle dogs. Merle is a genetic pattern in a dog's coat that causes irregular patches of color on a lighter background. It's also known as dapple in some breeds. When two merle dogs breed, each puppy in the litter has a 25% chance of becoming a double merle. Double merles have a very high chance of having congenital eye defects and hearing impairment due to a lack of hair pigment in the inner ear. But being deaf and blind doesn't stop Morty from recognizing his owners and showing them what a good doggo he is.

Kids and phones—it’s the modern age dilemma of every parent. When to let them have a phone, what apps to allow them to use on it, how to monitor their usage…none of these are questions with set answers. The only thing we do know is that making the wrong choice can lead to serious consequences for a child’s mental health and development, so parents are understably wary. One mom named Kailey recently shared how this anxiety even led her to taking away her tween daughter’s phone after she had already had it for a year. In a video posted to her TikTok, Kelly explained that at first giving her two daughters phones at the age of 10 brought her “peace of mind.”Phones gave her daughters more independence to roam the neighborhood and go to friend’s houses, while still being able to contact her if anything went wrong, and she could track their whereabouts. This felt especially important to her since so many parents don’t have landlines, nor do they exchange each other’s contact information. Kelly “struggled” with this decision, given all the information out about granting kids phones too early, but ultimately thought this was the best option. That is…until now. Kailey went on to say that over a year's time, she has seen firsthand how “detrimental” phones can be. Perhaps most surprising of all, Kailey added that it wasn’t social media that was the big problem. “You can block the social media. That stuff’s all easy,” she said. “What it is ... is hormonal girls being jealous.” @the_geriatricmillennial Taking away my 11 year old daughters phone agter having one for a year because its feeling like more negative than positive lately. No opinions needed, parentinf kids in the digital age is hard enough but would love to hear what other parents are doing to maintain their kids independence while also being safe #momofteens #momoftweensgirls #momofdaughters #parentingadvice #teenswithphones #millennialmom #momsover30 ♬ original sound - Geriatric Millennial | Kailey Kailey then shared the story of how her daughter was out with friends when one of those friends posted on Snapchat. Her daughter doesn’t have Snapchat but was recorded in the video. Another friend who does have the app saw the video and demanded to know why Kailey’s daughter was hanging out with that friend instead of them. Cue drama. “And then my daughter feels bad and she has to make up a lie because she doesn’t want to hurt that friend’s feelings.”While Kailey knows that jealousy and teenage girls have gone hand-in-hand long before iPhones, she felt that—despite all the precautions she’s taken—it only made the problem worse. This eventually led her to deactivating her now 11-year-old’s phone. “We can’t keep them from having phones forever...they’re a part of the teenage experience now, but at what expense?” she concluded. “We as parents need to band together and agree that we’re not going to allow it until 14, 15, 16.”Down in the comments, other parents understood Kailey’s experience completely. One person shared “My daughter is 11. I reluctantly got her the phone last summer. I totally regret it. The texting drama is nuts. I have all social media blocked.”However, many felt like this decision would bring about more problems—either by compromising her daughter’s trust or ending up making her feel isolated from her friends.“When you take it away they will hide more from you,” one person said. “They will make accounts on their friends phones, and now they won’t talk to you about problems.”“I was cut off from my friends because I was the only one without a phone (at 11 specifically) and it was the worst thing for friendships. Nobody cared to include the girl they can’t text. I’m 26 now,” another recalled. Others pointed out that it might be overlooking the real problem: navigating conflict. As one person put it: “It sounds like you need to have multiple conversations with her about making good friends vs bad friends and being mindful about who she surrounds herself with and a lesson on boundaries with friends.” In a follow-up video, Kailey stood by her choice, acknowledging that while we’re never going back to a time without smartphones and their inherent issues, she thinks that waiting until her kid is older is the necessary “happy medium.” Finding a happy medium is a good way of putting it, for sure. And getting to that balanced place might require some experimentation, since no two kids are alike, and since this is still fairly new parenting territory. Of course, knowing how long to keep kids as kids is not new and will always be a challenge for parents in one way or another.