BOISE, Idaho — The Pocatello man accused of calling in a bomb threat to the state Capitol last fall reached a plea deal with prosecutors in another case from that same day that allowed him to avoid a felony charge, according to court documents.

Donald Hawkins, 58, was originally charged with one felony count of false reporting explosives ...Read more

NEW YORK — While the NYPD has yet to determine if an unprovoked stabbing spree on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that wounded two men, including a Jewish resident leaving a synagogue, was a hate crime, local elected officials and community leaders on Friday appeared to fear that bigotry fueled the daylight attacks.

Without directly saying that...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is once again calling for Gov. Greg Abbott to convene a legislative session to address the dangers of data centers.

In a statement released Friday, Miller said Abbott has heard “every one of those warnings and still not acted.”

He is asking Abbott to call a special legislative...Read more

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is slamming her disgraced ex-aide LaMar Cook and the defiant defense of his SNAP benefits — which partially funded his recent trip to Walt Disney World — and for saying he “earned” the $31,000 contract buyout mistakenly paid out by her office.

“Lamar Cook should never have been hired. His actions continue ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — At Vance Boelter’s sentencing on Thursday, Mark Hortman’s father told the court the ultimate justice would have been Boelter’s execution, calling the Justice Department’s acceptance of two life sentences for the murder of his son and daughter-in-law, “a sad day.”

J. Carroll Hortman, 86, described himself a few ways ...Read more

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — Standing before a packed Ramsey County sheriff’s office station in Arden Hills, Nimo Abdullahi tearfully pleaded for a stop to the gang violence that took her son’s life.

“He was about to graduate college, and within five minutes after I talked to him over the phone, he was shot and killed,” she said of her son ...Read more

Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville is calling Mayor Zohran Mamdani a “thug” who should be jailed at Guantanamo Bay because he “hates this country.”

The staunch supporter of President Donald Trump predicted the popular mayor would cross some unspecified line that would lead authorities to arrest him and send him to the U.S. military base ...Read more

OROVILLE, Calif. — Deputy District Attorney Marc Noel said in court Friday that Ronnie Stout II made a series of bad decisions, intentional acts, two years ago that ignited the state’s fourth-largest wildfire in its history, a blaze that destroyed 427 homes in Northern California.

“It left thousands homeless,” Noel told the judge. “...Read more

Measles cases have hit a record in the United States not seen since 1991, nearly a decade before the viral disease was declared eliminated.

The grim milestone comes amid a generational setback in controlling the highly contagious disease, which prior to the vaccine era caused millions of infections a year, and annually left 400 to 500 people ...Read more

Identifying the source of a food-borne illness such as cyclosporiasis — a diarrhea-causing parasite that has sickened thousands of people in the United States — is almost as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.

It's not impossible to narrow down the culprit but it is a challenge because public health investigators are analyzing ...Read more

WINDSOR, Canada — Canadian officials gathered Friday at an inauguration to celebrate the long-awaited opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which is set for Monday and has been hailed as a vital economic link between the United States and Canada.

The event is taking place after six months of delay caused by political drama and ...Read more

NEW YORK — While the NYPD has yet to determine if an unprovoked stabbing spree on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that wounded two men, including a Jewish man, was a hate crime, local elected officials and community leaders on Friday were quick to blame bigotry — and Mayor Zohran Mamdani — for the attack.

“Whether or not this attack is ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The United States and Iran exchanged limited strikes with the latest round of hostilities passing the two-week mark, after President Donald Trump warned of a potential “massive attack” to try and force through a peace deal.

U.S. Central Command said it launched a 13th consecutive night of strikes intended to degrade Iran’s...Read more

DETROIT — The number of reported cyclosporiasis cases in Michigan rose to 8,176 on Friday, a 6.7% increase over the previous day's case count.

Health officials continue to investigate the state's worst outbreak of the parasitic illness that usually causes frequent, watery and explosive diarrhea. As of Thursday, 160 people have reportedly been...Read more

Disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was placed in solitary confinement after getting into a fight with another inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, New Jersey, according to a report.

The brawl broke out earlier this week, after an FCI inmate allegedly “dissed” Combs, triggering a brief war of words that ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is marking 100 days until the midterm elections with a new digital ad shared first with CQ Roll Call.

The ad will run on Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram beginning Sunday in 25 Republican-held House districts that Democrats are targeting this fall. The spot focuses on rising ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland will receive more than $13 million as part of a multistate settlement with seven opioid manufacturers accused of helping fuel the nation’s opioid epidemic, Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced.

The settlements with Alvogen, Amneal, Apotex, Hikma, Mylan, Sun and Zydus resolve allegations that the companies’ ...Read more

MIAMI — The question of how to help Cuba’s transition and reconstruction once there is a transition toward democracy brought together a group of Cuban American academics, businesspeople, engineers and architects in Miami, who proposed strategies to restore and rebuild the country.

Attracting private capital to promote development on urgent ...Read more

The U.S. and Iran exchanged limited strikes as the latest round of hostilities passed the two-week mark, after President Donald Trump warned of a potential “massive attack” to try and force through a peace deal.

U.S. Central Command said it launched a 13th consecutive night of strikes intended to degrade Iran’s ability to attack ...Read more