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A revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children is scheduled to be debated before a federal judge in Houston who previously ruled the program illegal. Attorneys representing the nine states that have sued to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the U.S. Justice Department and DACA recipients are set to appear at a court hearing Thursday. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen is expected to reconsider the program, which was changed in October. Hanen is not expected to immediately rule.

    Jurors have found “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson guilty of two out of three counts of rape, and he could get 30 years to life in prison. The jury reached the verdict Wednesday in a Los Angeles courtroom, where Masterson was led out in handcuffs. It was the second trial for the 47-year-old actor, after a jury deadlocked in his first. Masterson has been convicted of raping two women at his home between 2001 and 2003. Prosecutors say he drugged the women so he could assault them, then used his prominence in the Church of Scientology to avoid consequences for decades.

    A Kansas City man accused of shooting a Black teenager who mistakenly came to his door is scheduled to be back in court. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday for 84-year-old Andrew Lester. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of Ralph Yarl in April. The hearing is to set new dates for hearings in the case. A judge has granted a request by Lester's attorneys that court documents in the case be sealed and kept from the public. The judge says he granted the request because national and international publicity prompted threats against Lester, who is white, and made it more difficult to defend his actions.

    The House has approved the debt ceiling and budget cuts package, sending it to the Senate. President Joe Biden negotiated the deal with Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avert a U.S. default crisis. They worked to assemble a coalition of centrist Democrats and Republicans to push it to approval over blowback from conservatives and some progressives. The U.S. was facing a potentially disastrous default in less than a week if Congress failed to act. Despite deep disappointment from hard-right Republicans that budget cuts don't go far enough, it was approved on a bipartisan House vote with Democrats. The Senate is expected to act quickly by the end of the week.

    There are media reports that Justice Department prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of former President Donald Trump from after he left office in which he talks about holding onto a classified document related to a potential attack on Iran. CNN first reported that Trump suggested on the recording that he wanted to share with others information from the document but that he knew there were limitations about his ability to declassify records after he left office. The comments on the recording, made in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, would appear to undercut his repeated claims that he declassified the documents he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, after leaving office.

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    Residents of a partially collapsed six-story building in Davenport are trying Wednesday to move on with their lives after being forced out of their apartments. Two of the building’s residents are missing and believed to be in the rubble. An additional three people also remain unaccounted for, but authorities have said they do not believe they were home when the building collapsed. One resident who was rescued had to have a leg amputated to free her from debris. Her wife says it's like a miracle that she's alive.

    Former Vice President Mike Pence will officially launch his long-expected campaign for the Republican nomination for president in Iowa next week. That adds another candidate to the growing GOP field and puts Pence in direct competition with his former boss, Donald Trump. Pence will hold a kickoff event in Des Moines on June 7, the date of his 64th birthday, according to two people familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details ahead of the official announcement. Pence’s team hopes his message will resonate with the evangelical Christian voters who make up a substantial portion of Iowa’s Republican electorate.

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