National News

Infant among 3 people fatally shot at Utah carnival after argument and a teen is in custody

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) — Three people, including an 8-month-old infant, were fatally shot at a Utah carnival after two groups got into an argument, police said. Police officers working at WestFest at Centennial Park in West Valley City saw the two groups Sunday night. “As they approached to break up the altercation, a […]
1 year ago
A judge has halted CoreCivic, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, from housing immigrants facing possible d...

Takeaways from AP’s reporting on shuttered prisons, mass deportation push and no-bid contracts

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Private prison operators are marketing their shuttered lockups to federal immigration officials as President Donald Trump pushes for mass deportations, with some facilities nabbing lucrative no-bid contracts. When Trump, a Republican, took office, politically connected private-prison giants CoreCivic Inc. and The Geo Group Inc. had around 20 idle facilities, partially the […]
1 year ago
Norman Harris, executive director of JMF Corporation that puts on a Juneteenth celebration in Denve...

Juneteenth celebrations adapt after corporate sponsors pull support

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Juneteenth celebrations have been scaled back this year due to funding shortfalls as companies and municipalities across the country reconsider their support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Canceled federal grants and businesses moving away from so-called brand activism have hit the bottom line of parades and other events heading into […]
1 year ago
FILE - Children's Defense Fund Program Director Graciela Camarena assists Lucia Salazar with fillin...

As GOP pushes spending cuts, many say Medicaid and food stamps are underfunded: AP-NORC poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Republican senators consider President Donald Trump’s big bill that could slash federal spending and extend tax cuts, a new survey shows most U.S. adults don’t think the government is overspending on the programs the GOP has focused on cutting, like Medicaid and food stamps. Americans broadly support increasing or maintaining existing […]
1 year ago
A judge has halted CoreCivic, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, from housing immigrants facing possible d...

ICE is using no-bid contracts, boosting big firms, to get more detention beds

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Leavenworth, Kansas, occupies a mythic space in American crime, its name alone evoking a short hand for serving hard time. The federal penitentiary housed gangsters Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly — in a building so storied that it inspired the term “the big house.” Now Kansas’ oldest city could soon […]
1 year ago
FILE - The North Carolina Senate reviews copies of a map proposal for the state's congressional dis...

North Carolina redistricting trial begins, with racial gerrymandering allegations the focus

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina congressional and legislative districts drawn by Republicans that helped them retain majorities in Raleigh and Washington are in court, as federal lawsuits accuse mapmakers of illegally eroding Black voting power in the process. A trial scheduled by a three-judge panel will start Monday in Winston-Salem over allegations that GOP […]
1 year ago
A view of a section of the 1865 Juneteenth General Order No. 3 that is displayed by the Dallas Hist...

A guide to what the Juneteenth holiday is and how to celebrate it

It was 160 years ago that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — after the Civil War’s end and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The resulting Juneteenth holiday — it’s name combining “June” and “nineteenth” — has only grown in one-and-a-half centuries. In 2021, President Joe Biden designated […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump, left, escorted by Air Force Col. Angela F. Ochoa, Commander, 89th Airlift W...

Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in Democratic-run cities, undeterred by protests

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities after large protests have erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Trump in a social media posting called on ICE officials “to do all in their power to achieve the […]
1 year ago
A law enforcement officer trains his rifle towards a house as the officers search for shooting susp...

Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative

NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of assassinating the top Democrat in the Minnesota House held deeply religious and politically conservative views, telling a congregation in Africa two years ago that the U.S. was in a “bad place” where most churches didn’t oppose abortion. Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was at the center of a […]
1 year ago

2 detainees recaptured after escape from New Jersey immigration detention center, 2 still at large

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two detainees who escaped from a federal immigration detention center in New Jersey last week have been recaptured, while another two remain at large, FBI officials said Sunday. The four men busted out of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark during reports of disorder there by breaking through an interior […]
1 year ago

Protester shot and killed at ‘No Kings’ rally in Utah, police say

A man believed to be part of a peacekeeping team for the “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City shot at a person who was brandishing a rifle at demonstrators and hit both the rifleman and a bystander who later died at the hospital, authorities said Sunday. Police took the alleged rifleman, Arturo Gamboa, 24, […]
1 year ago
In this photo from 2022, provided by Helping Paws of Eden Prairie, Minn., state Rep. Melissa Hortma...

A teenager with a job making burritos became a powerful Minnesota lawmaker who trained service dogs

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Melissa Hortman’ s influence at the Minnesota Capitol and her power as a Democratic leader to shape the course of a deeply divided Legislature were a far cry from her job as a teenager making chili-cheese burritos and overshadowed her volunteer work training service dogs for veterans. She was a lifelong Minneapolis-area […]
1 year ago

Flash flooding kills 3 in West Virginia, rescue teams searching for missing people

Flash flooding caused by torrential rains killed three people in northern West Virginia and rescue crews were searching for missing people Sunday, while authorities were assessing damage to roads, bridges, natural gas lines and other infrastructure. Officials said 2.5 to 4 inches (6 to 10 centimeters) of rain fell in parts of Wheeling and Ohio […]
1 year ago
FILE - Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., speaks during a confirmation hearing at the Capitol in Washington,...

Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith contemplates increased security after shooting of Democratic lawmakers

Lawmakers on Sunday continued to reel from the shooting of two Democratic Minnesota state legislators in their homes that led to the death of one and her husband, contemplating a previously unthinkable world where democratically-elected representatives need full-time security details to protect them from the public. “I don’t want to think that I have to […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to sign a bill blocking California's rule banning the...

Trump says Israel-Iran will come to deal ‘soon’ and warns Tehran against retaliating against US

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a stark warning to Iran against retaliating on U.S. targets in the Middle East while also predicting Israel and Iran would “soon” make a deal to end their escalating conflict. Trump in an early morning social media posting said the United States “had nothing to do […]
1 year ago
Palestinians carry bags containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanit...

8 are killed in the latest shooting near Israeli and US-supported aid sites in Gaza

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens more were wounded on Sunday in the latest shooting near Israeli- and U.S.-supported food distribution points in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials. Witnesses blamed the Israeli military, which did not immediately comment. The war in Gaza rages more than […]
1 year ago
FILE - Election workers process ballots for the 2024 General Election, Nov. 5, 2024, in Milwaukee. ...

Justice Department’s early moves on voting and elections signal a shift from its traditional role

ATLANTA (AP) — In North Carolina, it was a lawsuit over the state’s voter registration records. In Arizona and Wisconsin, it was a letter to state election officials warning of potential administrative violations. And in Colorado, it was a demand for election records going back to 2020. Those actions in recent weeks by the U.S. […]
1 year ago
FILE - Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks during a confirmation hearing at the Capitol in Washington, ...

The GOP’s big bill would bring changes to Medicaid for millions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has been clear about his red line as the Senate takes up the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act: no Medicaid cuts. But what, exactly, would be a cut? Hawley and other Republicans acknowledge that the main cost-saving provision in the bill – new work requirements on able-bodied […]
1 year ago

Authorities still searching for suspect in shooting of 2 Minnesota state lawmakers

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (AP) — A massive search was stretching into its second day for a man who authorities say posed as a police officer and fatally shot a Democratic state lawmaker in her suburban Minneapolis home, an act Gov. Tim Walz called “a politically motivated assassination.” Authorities said the suspect also shot and wounded […]
1 year ago
In this image provided by Zoo Miami, Goliath, a 517-pound (234-kilogram) Galapagos tortoise at Zoo ...

Galapagos tortoise celebrates his 135th birthday and his first Father’s Day at Zoo Miami

MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida zoo’s oldest resident celebrated his 135th birthday and his first Father’s Day on Sunday. Goliath, a 517-pound (234-kilogram) Galapagos tortoise at Zoo Miami, became a father for the first time earlier this month, zoo officials said. “Goliath is my hero, and I am sure he will soon be an […]
1 year ago
FILE - A stand for Georgia Pathways is seen at a job fair in Atlanta, Ga., June 5, 2025. (AP Photo/...

Medicaid enrollees fear losing health coverage if Congress enacts work requirements

It took Crystal Strickland years to qualify for Medicaid, which she needs for a heart condition. Strickland, who’s unable to work due to her condition, chafed when she learned that the U.S. House has passed a bill that would impose a work requirement for many able-bodied people to get health insurance coverage through the low-cost, […]
1 year ago
A military parade commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary and coinciding with President Donald T...

The Army turns 250. Trump turns 79. Cue funnel cakes, festive bling, military might — and protest

WASHINGTON (AP) — There were funnel cakes, stands of festival bling and American flags aplenty. There were mighty machines of war, brought out to dazzle and impress. And there was the spray of tear gas against nonviolent marchers in Atlanta and rolling waves of anti-Trump resistance coast to coast. In scenes of celebration, protest and […]
1 year ago
Vehicles sit in the river after being swept away by floodwaters in San Antonio, Tx., Thursday, June...

The death toll from San Antonio flooding rises to 13. All those missing have been found

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The death tool from heavy rains that inundated parts of San Antonio has risen to 13, and all those missing have been found, authorities said Saturday. More than 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain fell over a span of hours on Thursday, causing fast-rising floodwaters to carry more than a dozen […]
1 year ago
Brooklyn Park Police Lieutenant Hjelm sets up a perimeter with police tape near the scene of a shoo...

Political violence is threaded through recent US history. The motives and justifications vary

The assassination of one Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife at their homes, is just the latest addition to a long and unsettling roll call of political violence in the United States. The list, in the past two months alone: the killing of two Israeli […]
1 year ago