National News

FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott A...

Supreme Court will take up a new case about which school sports teams transgender students can join

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a case over state restrictions on which school sports teams transgender students can join. Just two weeks after upholding a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, the justices said they will review lower court rulings in favor of transgender athletes in Idaho and West […]
1 year ago
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., walks behind his security detail through a crowd of repor...

The Latest: House leaders rush toward a final vote as Democrats hold the floor

House Republicans are ready to vote on President Donald Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax breaks and spending cuts bill early Thursday after staying up all night with GOP leaders and the president himself working to persuade skeptical holdouts to drop their opposition by his Fourth of July deadline. Final debates began in the predawn hours after […]
1 year ago
FILE - Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers gives the annual State of the State address, Jan. 22, 2025, at the...

Governor signs budget in early morning to secure Medicaid funds

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a new two-year budget in the early morning hours Thursday in a race against Congress to ensure the state gets a federal Medicaid match that it would lose under President Trump’s tax and spending cuts package. In an extraordinarily rapid succession of events, Evers and Republican […]
1 year ago
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee presents a signed bill that bans the sale of assault-style weapons in t...

How Rhode Island finally pushed a partial assault weapons ban over the finish line

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Passing a new law restricting assault weapons took Rhode Island lawmakers more than 10 years, but it may offer a road map to other states looking to ease the proliferation of such firearms. For advocates, the fight is a prime example of the current challenges to passing gun control measures in […]
1 year ago

House GOP clears key hurdle on Trump’s big bill, pushing it closer to vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — Up all night, House Republicans voted pre-dawn Thursday to advance President Donald Trump’s tax and spending cuts package, recouping after GOP leaders worked almost around the clock trying to persuade skeptical holdouts as they race to send the bill to his desk by the Fourth of July deadline. A roll call that […]
1 year ago

Chicago police say a shooting has wounded multiple people

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police said they were responding to a shooting Wednesday night in which multiple people were hit. No additional details on the shooting were immediately available, including the number of people shot and where the incident took place. Officer Julio Garcia, with the Chicago Police Department, said police would be releasing additional […]
1 year ago
As the monsoon cranks up in the southwestern U.S., a rainstorm moves across the plains near Rio Ran...

Monsoon season brings the promise of rain for the arid southwestern US

ESPAÑOLA, N.M. (AP) — Clouds build up in the early afternoon and gusty winds push in every direction. The skies darken and then comes the rain — often a downpour that is gone as quickly as it came. This seasonal dance choreographed by Mother Nature marks a special time for the southwestern United States and […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump talks with reporters before a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of th...

Trump will kick off a yearlong celebration of America’s 250th anniversary with event in Iowa

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deliver a “spectacular” yearlong birthday party to mark 250 years of American independence. On Thursday, he will be in the U.S. heartland to kick off the patriotic festivities leading up to next year’s anniversary. The event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines […]
1 year ago
Historian Jennifer Cromack points out the word "Slavery" on a recently found, 178-year-old anti-sla...

Anti-slavery document from 1847 reveals American Baptists’ commitment to abolition

GROTON, Mass. (AP) — Jennifer Cromack was combing through the American Baptist archive when she uncovered a slim box among some 18th and 19th century journals. Opening it, she found a scroll in pristine condition. A closer look revealed the 5-foot-long (1.5-meter-long) document was a handwritten declaration titled “A Resolution and Protest Against Slavery,” signed […]
1 year ago

Man charged with killing former Minnesota House speaker is due back in court after delay

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The man charged with killing former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and wounding a state senator and his wife, is due back in federal court Thursday for a hearing that was put on hold after his lawyer said his client had been unable to sleep while on […]
1 year ago
In this courtroom sketch, Sean "Diddy" Combs reacts after he was convicted of prostitution-related ...

For Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, could a lesser conviction mean a greater public rehabilitation?

For nearly two years, a nearly nonstop parade of allegations and revelations has ravaged and unraveled Sean “Diddy” Combs’ carefully cultivated reputation as an affable celebrity entrepreneur, A-list party host, Grammy-winning artist and music executive, brand ambassador and reality TV star. It culminated in a verdict Wednesday that saw Combs acquitted of the most serious […]
1 year ago
Massachusetts Health Connector Executive Director Audrey Morse Gasteier poses for a portrait in the...

Massachusetts advocates fear Trump’s bill will unravel health safety net in Obamacare’s model state

BOSTON (AP) — In the state that served as the model for Obamacare, advocates and health care workers fear the Trump administration is trying to dismantle piece-by-piece a popular program that has provided insurance, preventive care and life-saving medication to hundreds of thousands of people. Provisions contained in both the Senate and House versions of […]
1 year ago
FILE - People enjoy the summer day in the pool on Wednesday, June 24, 2020, in Omaha, Neb. (Anna Re...

Why hosting a July Fourth pool party may cost less this year

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans have one more reason to celebrate this Fourth of July: getting all the gear needed to host a pool party costs less than it has in years, according to a market research company’s preliminary data. The total price to buy beach towels, a beverage cooler, bathing suits and other accountrements […]
1 year ago

Authorities search for a woman who got off a cruise ship in Alaska to hike and didn’t return

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Authorities were searching for a woman visiting Alaska’s capital city who did not return to her cruise ship from a hike she said she was taking, officials said Wednesday. The Juneau Police Department said it received a report Tuesday afternoon that the 62-year-old from Kentucky, who told relatives that morning that […]
1 year ago
Brian Kohberger, charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students, appears at the Ada Co...

A Q-Tip and spotless car were key evidence linking Bryan Kohberger to murders of 4 Idaho students

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The lead prosecutor tasked with finding justice for four University of Idaho students killed in a grisly quadruple stabbing more than two years ago laid out his key evidence Wednesday at a court hearing for Bryan Kohberger, who agreed to plead guilty earlier this week to avoid the death penalty. The […]
1 year ago
FILE - Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday,...

Photos of celebrity trials that have garnered wide-spread attention

A New York City jury convicted Sean “Diddy” Combs on prostitution-related charges but acquitted him of sex trafficking and racketeering. The case joins a list of high-profile celebrity trials, including those of O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Harvey Weinstein and Alec Baldwin, that have captured public attention. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP […]
1 year ago
Defense attorney Carl Arnold speaks during a hearing on claims of juror misconduct in the jailhouse...

Judge denies bid by the suspect in Tupac Shakur’s killing for a new trial in a jailhouse fight

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who is awaiting trial in the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, has lost a bid for a new trial in a separate battery case tied to a jailhouse fight. The ruling came Wednesday after a tense hearing in a Las Vegas courtroom that underscored the […]
1 year ago

Small skydiving aircraft goes off runway in New Jersey, sending at least 5 to hospital

MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — At least five people were taken to a hospital when a small skydiving aircraft went off the end of a runway at an airport in New Jersey on Wednesday evening, according to authorities. The incident at the Cross Keys Airport involved a Cessna 208B carrying 15 people, according to a […]
1 year ago
FILE - A nurse loads a syringe with a COVID-19 booster vaccine at an inoculation station in Jackson...

FDA vaccine official restricted COVID vaccine approvals against the advice of agency staff

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s top vaccine official working under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently restricted the approval of two COVID-19 vaccines, disregarding recommendations from government scientists, according to federal documents released Wednesday. The new memos from the Food and Drug Administration show how the agency’s vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, personally intervened […]
1 year ago
FILE - Bouquets of flowers stand along a makeshift memorial for victims of an attack outside of the...

Judge ends order blocking deportation of family of man charged in Boulder firebomb attack

DENVER (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ended an order blocking the deportation of the family of the man charged in the fatal firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado, noting government lawyers say the man’s relatives are not being rushed out of the country as the White House originally stated. Hayam El Gamal and her […]
1 year ago
The grave marker of 75-year-old Pfc. Reba C. Bailey, a former missing person cold case named Seven ...

Military honors bestowed on Illinois veteran identified nearly a decade after death

CHICAGO (AP) — Standing near the gravestone for the relative he never met, Mark Bailey accepted the crisply folded American flag from the Army officer, hugged it to his chest and closed his eyes. Though the person he called his aunt — born Reba Caroline Bailey — had been estranged, missing for decades and died […]
1 year ago
Police check cars arriving at the "Alligator Alcatraz," a new migrant detention facility at the Dad...

Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center is set to receive its first group of immigrants

OCHOPEE, Fla. (AP) — The first group of immigrants were scheduled to arrive Wednesday night at a new detention center deep in the Florida Everglades that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” the state’s attorney general said. “Alligator Alcatraz will be checking in hundreds of criminal illegal aliens tonight,” Florida Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier said […]
1 year ago
Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought testifies during a Senate Appropriations Co...

Some education grants in limbo were used for ‘leftwing agenda,’ Trump administration says

The Trump administration has accused states and schools of using federal education grants earmarked for immigrants’ children and low-income students to help fund “a radical leftwing agenda.” The administration this week withheld more than $6 billion intended for after-school and summer programs, English language instruction, adult literacy and more, saying it would review the grants […]
1 year ago
Diddy trial (1)...

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is denied bail after mixed verdict clears him of top charges in sex crimes case

A judge declined Wednesday to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs, potentially allowing the hip-hop mogul to be freed to await sentencing in his sex crimes case. The bond decision came after a jury convicted Combs of federal prostitution-related offenses but acquitted him of sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Combs, 55, has been behind bars […]
1 year ago