National News

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., flanked by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., center, and Sen. ...

Thune’s first big test as Senate leader has arrived with Trump’s tax bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Only six months into the job, Senate Majority Leader John Thune faces a massive challenge as he tries to quickly push President Donald Trump’s sprawling tax and spending cuts package to passage with the support of a divided GOP conference. While most Republican senators are inclined to vote for the bill, Thune […]
1 year ago
FILE - Steve Kramer is seated June 5, 2024, at Superior Court, in Laconia, N.H., during his arraign...

Consultant behind AI-generated robocalls mimicking Biden goes on trial in New Hampshire

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A political consultant who sent voters artificial intelligence-generated robocalls mimicking former President Joe Biden last year goes on trial Thursday in New Hampshire, where jurors may be asked to consider not just his guilt or innocence but whether the state actually held its first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Steven Kramer, who faces decades […]
1 year ago
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrives for the cabinet meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germ...

New German leader plans to discuss Ukraine and trade with Trump in Oval Office visit

WASHINGTON (AP) — Germany’s new leader is meeting President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday as he works to keep the U.S. on board with Western support for Ukraine, help defuse trade tensions that pose a risk to Europe’s biggest economy and further bolster his country’s long-criticized military spending. Trump and Chancellor Friedrich Merz have […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks during a summer soiree on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesda...

Here are the 12 countries Trump placed under travel bans, and the 7 newly under travel restrictions

President Donald Trump cited a range of reasons for placing 19 countries under new travel bans or restrictions in the U.S. They include allegations of lax screening of travelers, “a significant terrorist presence” in its territory, a government that wasn’t cooperative enough in accepting deported citizens or residents who were prone to overstaying their visas […]
1 year ago
Democratic mayoral candidates Andrew Cuomo, left, shakes hands with Zohran Mamdani, center, as Whit...

In a crowded NYC mayoral debate, Cuomo faces attacks from all sides

New York City mayoral race front-runner Andrew Cuomo was forced to fend off a volley of attacks from his Democratic primary rivals in a debate Wednesday, with his opponents unleashing pent up barbs at the former governor in an attempt to chip away at his lead. Cuomo was on the defensive from the opening bell. […]
1 year ago
FILE - Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, app...

Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing said he ‘had it coming,’ according to prosecutors

NEW YORK (AP) — Six weeks before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel in December, suspect Luigi Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and said killing the executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming,” prosecutors revealed Wednesday. The Manhattan district attorney’s office […]
1 year ago
FILE - People walk between buildings, Dec. 17, 2024, on the campus of Harvard University in Cambrid...

Trump moves to block US entry for foreigners planning to study at Harvard University

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is moving to block nearly all foreign students from entering the country to attend Harvard University, his latest attempt to choke the Ivy League school from an international pipeline that accounts for a quarter of the student body. In an executive order signed Wednesday, Trump declared that it would […]
1 year ago
FILE - A military aircraft waits for migrants to board from a bus at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Tx., Th...

Guatemalan man deported to Mexico returns to US after court orders Trump administration to do so

A Guatemalan man deported to Mexico, whom President Donald Trump’s administration was working to bring back after a court order, landed in the United States on Wednesday, his attorneys confirmed. The man, identified in court documents by initials O.C.G., landed in California via a commercial flight and made contact with his legal team while waiting […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks during a summer soiree on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesda...

Trump announces travel ban affecting a dozen countries set to go into effect Monday

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is resurrecting the travel ban policy from his first term, signing a proclamation Wednesday night preventing people from a dozen countries from entering the United States. The countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. In addition to […]
1 year ago
Tanks and other military vehicles are transported via railroad to Washington, D.C. for an upcoming ...

Army leaders defend parade and border spending as Congress presses for answers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Army leaders on Wednesday defended spending as much as $45 million to add a parade to the service’s 250th birthday celebration on June 14 in Washington, saying it will help boost recruitment, as Congress members argued that the money could be better spent on troops’ barracks or other priorities. Members of the […]
1 year ago
FILE - People vote at the Allegiant Stadium polling place, Nov. 5, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jo...

Bipartisan deals on voting and election changes are rare. It just happened in one swing state

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Facing a legislature dominated by Democrats, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo stood before Nevada lawmakers earlier this year with a message that some did not expect to go far: “Set aside partisan politics.” It was a plea that might have seemed more aspirational than realistic, given the country’s deep polarization. Yet it […]
1 year ago
FILE - A poll worker puts up a sign for a ballot drop off location on the first day of early voting...

Judge largely denies request to block restrictions on getting measures on Florida’s ballot

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has largely denied requests by grassroots campaigners to block portions of a new Florida law that restricts the state’s citizen-driven process for getting constitutional amendments on the ballot. Organizers of separate campaigns to expand Medicaid and legalize recreational marijuana had urged U.S. District Mark Walker to block implementation […]
1 year ago
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Sept. 30, ...

Trump orders investigation of Biden’s use of an autopen, claiming White House cover-up

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered his administration to investigate former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to sign pardons and other documents, increasing the pressure on his predecessor as House Republicans also requested interviews with members of Biden’s inner circle. An autopen is a mechanical device that is used to […]
1 year ago

A crane collapses kills 2 at a Florida construction site, officials say

MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Two people died Wednesday after a giant crane collapsed at the construction site for a new central Florida hospital, officials said. The collapse occurred at the site of the new Cape Canaveral Hospital in Merritt Island, which is on the Atlantic coast about 60 miles (90 kilometers) east of Orlando. […]
1 year ago
FILE - Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. displays pictures of three civil rights workers, ...

Judge weighs government’s request to unseal records of FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is weighing a request from the Trump administration to unseal records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. — files that the civil rights leader’s relatives want to keep under wraps in the national archives. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., said during a hearing […]
1 year ago
In this photo provided by the Horry County Police Department, police officers respond to the scene ...

Lawyer for South Carolina party boat shooting victim says no one checked IDs or for weapons

No one was checking IDs or for weapons before a party boat cruise that ended with a shooting that hurt 11 people in South Carolina over Memorial Day weekend, a lawyer for one of the victims said. Police have announced a second arrest in the May 25 shooting at a dock in Little River, taking […]
1 year ago
Investigators use a metal detector to collect evidence at the scene of a mass shooting, Sunday, Jun...

North Carolina law enforcement outraged over bond for suspect in house party shooting

NEWTON, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina local law enforcement expressed frustration on Wednesday that a man charged in connection with last weekend’s shooting around a house party that left one person dead and 11 others injured had been out of jail for unrelated charges lodged against him in April. Garon Nathaniel Killian, 20, of Lenoir, […]
1 year ago
Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, June 4, 2025 in ...

Jury deliberations near in Weinstein sex crimes retrial

NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors in retrial are due to start deliberating Thursday, with dozens of witnesses, scores of documents and two days of closing arguments to sift through. The seven-woman, five-man jury will start its private discussions after getting legal instructions from the judge Thursday morning. Closing arguments concluded Wednesday, with prosecutor Nicole Blumberg […]
1 year ago
A judge has halted CoreCivic, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, from housing immigrants facing possible d...

Judge blocks private prison operator from housing ICE detainees at shuttered Kansas center

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday barred a major U.S. private prison operator from housing immigrants facing possible deportation in a shuttered Kansas City area detention center unless it can get a permit from frustrated city officials. Leavenworth County Judge John Bryant agreed after a packed hearing to grant the city of Leavenworth’s […]
1 year ago
FILE - Prisoners look out of their cell as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tours the Terror...

Judge says migrants sent to El Salvador prison must get a chance to challenge their removals

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration must give migrants sent to an El Salvador prison a chance to challenge their removals. U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg said that people who were sent to the prison in March under an 18th-century wartime law haven’t been able to formally contest […]
1 year ago
FILE - Garth Fernandez, Central Valley regional director for the California High-Speed Rail Authori...

Trump administration signals it will slash funds for long-delayed California high-speed rail project

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Trump administration signaled Wednesday that it intends to cut off federal funding for a long-delayed California high-speed rail project plagued by multibillion-dollar cost overruns, following the release of a scathing federal report that concluded there is “no viable path” to complete even a partial section of the line. Voters first […]
1 year ago
FILE - U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, speaks at an event at the International Defense Exhibition ...

Trump names nominees to take over commands in the Middle East and Africa

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is nominating Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to take over as the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, the Pentagon said Wednesday. If he is confirmed, it would mark just the second time that a Navy admiral has held the job. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a […]
1 year ago
This undated image released by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections shows Jackson Vogel. (Wiscon...

Jury convicts Wisconsin inmate accused of killing cellmate for being Black and gay

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man doing time for trying to kill his mother was convicted Wednesday of strangling his cellmate to death. A jury found Jackson Vogel, 25, guilty of first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the death of 19-year-old Micah Laureano at the Green Bay Correctional Institution last year, WLUK-TV reported. […]
1 year ago
FILE - Cain Oulahan, Ramon Morales Reyes' immigration attorney addresses the media, May 30, 2025 in...

What to know about Ramón Morales Reyes, a Wisconsin man falsely accused of threatening Trump’s life

CHICAGO (AP) — A man falsely accused of threatening President Donald Trump’s life faces deportation even as Wisconsin authorities say the Mexican immigrant was framed and is a victim of a violent 2023 attack. Ramón Morales Reyes was thrust into the national spotlight last week when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused him of writing […]
1 year ago