Associated Press Hundreds of thousands of restaurant servers, hotel housekeepers and other tipped workers in the state will soon make $7.50 an hour before tips, a big raise for them and a significant increase in labor costs for business owners. Like most states, New York allows businesses to pay tipped workers less than the state’s minimum wage as long as …

By David Wood WASHINGTON — Robert McDonald, the secretary of veterans affairs, wrongly claimed in a videotaped comment earlier this year that he served in the Army’s elite special forces, when his military service of five years was in fact spent almost entirely with the 82nd Airborne Division during the late 1970s. U.S. special operations forces (SOF) are composed of …

The global anti-corruption group Transparency International is once again getting pressured by the Kremlin. The move is seen by Russia analysts as part of a broad plan to stifle criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration. Russian prosecutors recently warned TI’s Russian branch, which has been active for more than 15 years, that it may be compelled to register as …