USA

DETROIT — In a decision that favored religious freedom over transgender rights in the workplace, a federal judge ruled Thursday that a metro Detroit funeral home did not discriminate against an employee when it fired her for transitioning from a man into a woman. That’s because transgender individuals are not a protected class under federal

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Speaking at his first campaign rally after shaking up his top campaign staff, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called for “law and order” and said he would “put the American people first again” at the Charlotte Convention Center on Thursday. “We need law and order, and without it, we have nothing,” said

BALTIMORE — The City of Baltimore terminated its contract with an attorney Thursday after learning he was accused of having neo-Nazi ties. The Rawlings-Blake administration said it had fired Glen Keith Allen, 65, a contract employee who had worked on complex litigation for the city since February. The city began investigating Allen’s background after the

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department will phase out its use of corporate-run prisons, after concluding the experiment in privatization failed to reduce costs or improve quality, officials said Thursday. At their height, in 2013, privately operated facilities incarcerated nearly 30,000 inmates, or about 15 percent of the federal prison population. But a recent inspector general’s

The showdown these past few weeks between the Jewish community and the Movement for Black Lives is frustratingly familiar, especially for those who experienced the split between Jewish and black activists during the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. It would be a terrible waste of well-meaning efforts toward shared goals if we were to

NEW YORK — Standing before the glass display case inside Kossar’s Bagels and Bialys, David Zablocki pauses for a moment. The daily offerings lie before him: original; garlic; sundried tomato. “It’s like asking me which of my children I like best, but a hot garlic bialy with the butter melting? That touches my Polish and

HARRISBURG, Pa. � Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday nominated a former top state prosecutor to serve as attorney general to fill out the remaining months of Kathleen Kane’s term. The governor’s selection of Bruce Beemer, if approved by the state Senate, as expected, would end the brief tenure of Kane appointee Bruce L. Castor

WASHINGTON — Allegations of anti-Semitism have surfaced against one of Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisers, raising further questions about the guidance the Republican presidential nominee is receiving. Joseph Schmitz, named as one of five advisers by the Trump campaign in March, is accused of bragging when he was Defense Department inspector general a decade ago

Eight years ago, Hillary Clinton criticized Barack Obama, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, for his response when asked why he was having a hard time gaining traction with Rust Belt and rural voters: Obama said: “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest,