First Run News

PUNTO FIJO, Venezuela — A general with no energy experience has been installed as the head of the state oil company. Arrests, firings and desperate emigration have gutted top talent.

The Internal Revenue Service has a message for the homeowners rushing to prepay their property taxes before new rules take effect on New Year’s Day: Not so fast. The tax bill that President Trump signed into law last week sharply limited the itemized deductions for state and local taxes while raising the standard deduction for individuals and couples. Those rules do not take effect until 2018, however.

It was supposed to be a tax cut for manufacturers. Then it got out of control. World Wrestling Entertainment took it for producing wrestling videos. Regional gas stations claimed it because they mix ethanol with base fuel. Grocery stores asked for it because they spray their fruit so that it ripens. Pharmacies could take it because they have booths that print photos. Republicans in Congress passed that deduction more than a decade ago, and they repealed it in the tax bill signed on Friday by President Trump.

It would have seemed unbelievable in 1990, when there were 2,245 killings in New York City, but as of Wednesday there have been just 286 in the city this year — the lowest since reliable records have been kept. In fact, crime has fallen in New York City in each of the major felony categories — murder and manslaughter, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, grand larceny, and car thefts — to a total of 94,806 as of Sunday, well below the previous record low of 101,716 set last year. If the trend holds just a few more days, this year’s homicide total will be under the city’s previous low of 333 in 20

It would have seemed unbelievable in 1990, when there were 2,245 killings in New York City, but as of Wednesday there have been just 286 in the city this year — the lowest since reliable records have been kept. In fact, crime has fallen in New York City in each of the major felony categories — murder and manslaughter, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, grand larceny, and car thefts — to a total of 94,806 as of Sunday, well below the previous record low of 101,716 set last year. If the trend holds just a few more days, this year’s homicide total will be under the city’s previous low of 333 in 20

After living in Washington for nearly a year, President Donald Trump has yet to enjoy a single non-working meal at a restaurant that doesn't pay him rent.

A singer and potential congressional candidate says she has filed a sexual assault complaint against President Donald Trump's former campaign manager for hitting her twice on her buttocks during a Washington gathering in November. Joy Villa, a Trump backer who wore a "Make America Great Again" dress at the Grammys this year, said Tuesday she plans to meet with detectives in Washington next week about the complaint against Corey Lewandowski. In a phone in

After living in Washington for nearly a year, President Donald Trump has yet to enjoy a single non-working meal at a restaurant that doesn't pay him rent.

Republican Alabama from certifying Democrat Doug Jones as the winner of the U.S. Senate race. The court filing occurred about 14 hours ahead of Thursday's meeting of a state canvassing board to officially declare Jones the winner of the Dec. 12 special election.

When President Donald Trump fired James Comey in May, he said he was acting on the recommendation of Hillary Clinton at the conclusion of the email server investigation months earlier. Yet with each tweet about the Clinton probe, Trump seems to be further undermining his administration's stated rationale for a termination that's now central to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The disconnect between Trump's attacks on Comey's handling of the email investigation and the criticism of Comey by his own