National News

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., arrives at the Secretary of State Archives building in Baton Rouge, ...

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy waves off Trump’s backing of GOP rival in reelection bid

BATON ROGUE, La. (AP) — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on Friday downplayed the impact of President Donald Trump backing a GOP rival in a race that will test whether the the two-term senator can survive the president’s quest to rid the party of members who have crossed him. Cassidy expressed confidence about reelction […]
7 months ago
FILE - Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump takes part in a march for justice for Richard "Randy" C...

Judge dismisses charges against 3 Connecticut officers accused of mistreating paralyzed prisoner

A Connecticut judge on Friday dismissed criminal charges against three current and former New Haven police officers who were accused of mistreating prisoner Richard “Randy” Cox after he was paralyzed in the back of a police van in 2022. Judge David Zagaja dropped the cases against Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera after granting […]
7 months ago
FILE - In this undated photo provided by her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, in January 2025, Any Lucia L...

Judge gives US 2 weeks to retrieve student deported to Honduras while traveling for Thanksgiving

BOSTON (AP) — A college student deported to Honduras while traveling for Thanksgiving in November must be returned to the United States within two weeks, a federal judge in Boston ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns issued an order that required the return of 19-year-old Babson College freshman Any Lucia Lopez Belloza by the […]
7 months ago
FILE - A SNAP EBT information sign is displayed outside of a convenience store in Baltimore, Monday...

A judge says she’ll rule that the US still cannot force states to provide data on SNAP recipients

President Donald Trump’s administration cannot force states to hand over detailed information on people who have applied for or received aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a judge said in a tentative ruling Friday. San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney last year blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture from requiring states to provide […]
7 months ago

Jury deadlocked in the trial of Stanford students charged after pro-Palestinian protests in 2024

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A jury has deadlocked in the trial of five current and former Stanford University students charged after pro-Palestinian protests in 2024. The students faced felony charges for vandalism and conspiracy to trespass after they barricaded themselves inside the university president and provost executive offices. Santa Clara County prosecutors said demonstrators broke […]
7 months ago
Sikhs from across the United States and Canada pray outside Manhattan federal court in New York, Fr...

Indian man pleads guilty in assassination plot against prominent Sikh separatist leader in New York

NEW YORK (AP) — A man from India admitted Friday that he conspired to hire a hitman to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York City, prompting a top federal prosecutor to warn anyone abroad against plotting to kill Americans in the United States. “Our message to nefarious foreign actors should be […]
7 months ago
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. arrives before a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and S...

US lawmakers limp to global security summit trailed by political crises at home

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of U.S. lawmakers were trying to make their way this weekend to the Munich Security Conference to assure allies of America’s reliability, but burdened with political crises at home, their entrance to the annual gathering of international leaders was more of a limp than a stride. Some didn’t make the trip […]
7 months ago
FILE - Paul Caneiro appears for his arraignment in the murders of his brother and his brother's fam...

New Jersey man found guilty of killing brother and his family, then lighting fires to cover it up

A New Jersey man was convicted Friday of killing four relatives in what prosecutors said was a murder and arson plot spawned by a soured business relationship between the man and his younger brother. Paul Caneiro, 59, was found guilty on four counts of murder, two counts of aggravated arson, and two weapons counts in […]
7 months ago

Former NYPD official charged with taking bribes from company selling ‘panic button’ to city schools

NEW YORK (AP) — A former high-ranking official in the New York Police Department has been charged with accepting $35,000 in cash, luxury travel perks and other bribes from a Florida businessman seeking to sell panic buttons to the city’s public schools and police. In an indictment Thursday, federal prosecutors said Kevin Taylor attempted to […]
7 months ago
Coffee is for sale at a grocery store Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)Credi...

Soaring coffee prices rewrite some Americans’ daily routines

NEW YORK (AP) — For years, it was a daily McDonald’s trip for a cup of coffee with 10 sugars and five creams. Later, it was Starbucks caramel macchiatos with almond milk and two pumps of syrup. Coffee has been a morning ritual for Chandra Donelson since she was old enough to drink it. But, […]
7 months ago

4 dead in small plane crash near Colorado ski resort community of Steamboat Springs

DENVER (AP) — Four people are dead after a small plane crashed Friday in northern Colorado near the ski resort community of Steamboat Springs. An Epic E1000, a six-seat turboprop plane, crashed around 12:20 a.m. with four people on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Four people died at the scene, Routt County coroner Mitch […]
7 months ago
Cathleen Special, executive director of the Otis Library in Norwich, Conn., and Emily Gardiner, the...

State Department orders nonprofit libraries to stop processing passport applications

NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. State Department has ordered certain public libraries nationwide to cease processing passport applications, disrupting a long-standing service that librarians say their communities have come to rely on and that has run smoothly for years. The agency, which regulates U.S. passports, began issuing cease and desist orders to not-for-profit libraries […]
7 months ago
The blocked road to a neighborhood in Flagstaff, Arizona, where police say a man opened fire at off...

Arizona man indicted on murder charges after fatal state helicopter crash

A grand jury indicted an Arizona man on two counts of first degree felony murder and dozens of other charges stemming from a state helicopter crash that killed the pilot and a trooper during a shootout between the defendant and police, authorities said Friday. Terrell Storey, 50, fired on officers from multiple rooftops in a […]
7 months ago

Minnesotans welcome the immigration surge drawdown but remain vigilant

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration’s drawdown of its immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities area has been met with relief, but state officials and residents say its effects on Minnesota’s economy and immigrant communities will linger. Thousands of officers were sent to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area for Operation Metro Surge, which […]
7 months ago
FILE - People take photos near a John Harvard statue, left, on the Harvard University campus, Jan. ...

Justice Department sues Harvard for data as it investigates how race factors into admissions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is suing Harvard University, saying it has refused to provide admissions records that the Justice Department demanded to ensure the Ivy League school stopped using affirmative action in admissions. In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Massachusetts, the Justice Department said Harvard has “thwarted” efforts to investigate […]
7 months ago
Teachers, students and supporters rally in support of the ongoing teacher's strike at the San Franc...

San Francisco teachers, district reach deal after first strike in decades

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco teachers who have been on strike over wages and family health benefits have reached a tentative agreement with the school district. The San Francisco Unified School District says schools will reopen to staff Friday and to students Wednesday after two holidays. The strike by about 6,000 public schoolteachers started […]
7 months ago

Judge sentences teen to life without parole for fatally shooting 5 in North Carolina

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A judge sentenced an 18-year-old who acknowledged killing five people in a North Carolina mass shooting to life in prison without parole Friday, rejecting arguments that he deserved the chance for release decades from now. Austin David Thompson was 15 during the Oct. 13, 2022, attack that began at his Raleigh […]
7 months ago
FILE - A Valentine's Day box of chocolates is seen on a store shelf Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Nashv...

Falling cocoa prices won’t necessarily mean cheaper Valentine’s Day chocolates

Cocoa prices have fallen nearly 70% since last Valentine’s Day, but that won’t make heart-shaped boxes of chocolate or even chocolate Easter bunnies more affordable this year. Chocolate prices at U.S. retail stores rose 14% between Jan. 1 and the first week of February compared to the same period last year, according to market research […]
7 months ago
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) facility is seen in Washington, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP ...

What to know about the Homeland Security shutdown starting this weekend

Another shutdown for parts of the federal government is expected this weekend as lawmakers debate new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security is set to expire Saturday. Democrats say they won’t help approve more funding until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations after the […]
7 months ago
New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs talks to the media during a news conference Thursda...

Patriots’ Stefon Diggs to be arraigned and denies assault allegation

BOSTON (AP) — New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Massachusetts on felony strangulation and other criminal charges stemming from an alleged dispute with his personal chef. The arraignment at Dedham District Court was postponed until after Super Bowl LX so Diggs could play in the NFL championship […]
7 months ago
FILE - A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight operates out of King County International ...

US spent $40 million on roughly 300 deportations to third nations, Democratic report finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration spent at least $40 million to deport roughly 300 migrants to countries other than their own as immigration officials expanded the practice over the last year to carry out President Donald Trump’s goals of quickly removing immigrants from the U.S., according to a report compiled by the Democratic staff […]
7 months ago
FILE - People protest against President Donald Trump's policy towards Greenland in front of U..S co...

Trump’s push for Greenland reveals a political weak spot, new AP-NORC poll finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans may be willing to stick with President Donald Trump through almost anything, but his recent push to seize control of Greenland has turned off many in his own party, according to a new AP-NORC poll. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about 7 in […]
7 months ago
An egret takes off in a wetland with newly-planted trees Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Meraux, La. (AP ...

What can toughen Louisiana coast against worsening storms? 4 years and 30,000 trees

MERAUX, La. (AP) — Across the calm waters behind a pumping station near Lake Borgne, hundreds of saplings stand out in the mist, wrapped in white plastic cylinders. To get there and to other sites like it, organizers have ferried dozens of volunteers week after week in airboats. They have a trailer equipped with supplies. […]
7 months ago
FILE - U.S. Border Patrol officers walk along a street in Minneapolis, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (A...

Prosecutors move to dismiss charges against men accused of hitting ICE officer with broom and shovel

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis have moved to drop felony assault charges against two Venezuelan men, including one shot in the leg by a immigration officer, after new evidence emerged undercutting the government’s version of events. In a filing Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota said “newly discovered evidence” […]
7 months ago