CHICAGO — Chicago ended 2025 with $219 million more than expected in its main operating fund thanks in large part to solid tax collections and many departments spending less than they were supposed to, a top official in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration said as the city unveiled its annual financial report.

Adding to the good news: the...Read more

Three ransom notes delivered after “Today" show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared are not legitimate, according to a report.

The debunked messages include a pair of ransom notes received by media outlets in early February — just days after Guthrie was reported missing — as well as a third note that was sent out ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Immigrants detained at two federal facilities in California have launched a boycott in protest of increasing and, in their view, burdensome prices at the facilities' commissaries for items including tampons, coffee and soup.

The Los Angeles Times reviewed a grievance letter and spoke with three detainees who are involved in the ...Read more

Alphabet Inc.’s Google was ordered to pay almost $2 billion to Klarna Group Plc’s Pricerunner unit in a dispute over the search-engine giant’s abuse of power in the market for comparison shopping services.

The Patent and Market Court in Stockholm, which issued the judgment on Wednesday, dismissed most parts of the claim in which ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — The state of Michigan is working to identify the cause of a "sudden and large" increase in an infection that causes gastrointestinal issues.

State health officials have identified 174 cases of cyclosporiasis across southern Michigan since June 22. Typically, the state averages about 50 such cases a year.

The cases have ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Wednesday took his first trip on his new luxe Air Force One, a retrofitted Boeing 747 worth an estimated $400 million transferred for free from the oil-rich Middle East nation of Qatar.

“I’m excited about the first flight,” he told reporters ahead of his flight to North Dakota, where he planned to tour the new ...Read more

NEW YORK — A daredevil couple climbed the spire of the Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday to unfurl a banner about love.

Police were called to the iconic skyscraper where the pair, both dressed in black, climbed from the observation tower to the top of the spire about 12:15 p.m.

The couple then released a banner that ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In mid-June, it became apparent that Altadena was having a moment unlike any other in the 18 months since the Eaton fire burned much of the community to the ground. More than 450 people flooded a June 16 Town Council meeting, focused on what some say is a fight to preserve the neighborhood's identity.

In a community where ...Read more

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump — having failed to convince the Supreme Court to let him fight a verdict holding him responsible for sexual assault — continues to drag his heels in coughing up the $5 million he owes E. Jean Carroll, according to new court filings.

Writing late Tuesday to Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, who ...Read more

Fuel-sipping hybrids have become some of the hottest vehicles on the lot this year as gas prices hover near $4 a gallon.

The problem for Detroit’s automakers is that they don’t have many to offer.

Hybrid sales likely rose more than 9% during the first half of the year, compared with a roughly 3% decline in overall U.S. auto sales, ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Seven additional defendants were sentenced Wednesday in Fort Worth for their roles in a domestic terrorism case involving a July 4, 2025, protest that ended in a shooting wounding a police officer at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado.

Ines Soto, who was convicted along with eight other defendants at a trial ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Skid Row's only post office has closed after what officials said were repeated break-ins and damage to employee property.

Homeless residents, many of whom don't have a car or are disabled, now have to travel outside Skid Row to get stamps or mail a package. The closure has prompted anger and frustration in a community that is ...Read more

DETROIT — A township treasurer in rural mid-Michigan fraudulently withdrew more than $747,000 in taxpayer money to build herself a vacation home and pay bills, according to federal court records that chronicle a rare and unusually lucrative public corruption case in west Michigan.

Former Ionia Township Treasurer Marilyn Harp, 74, is portrayed...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is urging New Yorkers, including a certain pop superstar and Super Bowl champ rumored to be tying the knot at Madison Square Garden, to stay inside amid the heatwave coming for the city.

Mamdani addressed “all New Yorkers” at a press conference Tuesday, just ahead of the heat dome bringing “extraordinary ...Read more

CHICAGO — More than a dozen new laws take effect in Illinois on Wednesday, touching everything from transportation and education to prisons and liquor licenses.

Chief among them is the state’s new $55.9 billion spending plan, which covers the budget year running through June 30, 2027. While the new budget won’t raise the state’s sales ...Read more

Oswadeliz Núñez Ramírez found her son dead following an intense five-day search throughout the areas of La Guaira and Caracas, Venezuela. The young man was part of a group of 146 migrants deported from the United States who arrived in the South American country on the same day two powerful earthquakes struck the country last week.

An officer...Read more

Dozens of new Kansas laws go into effect on July 1. On Wednesday, 124 bills adopted by the Kansas Legislature this spring will be added to the statute book.

Some pieces of legislation were signed into law by Gov. Laura Kelly. Others became law without Kelly’s signature or were enacted over her veto by Republicans in the House and Senate.

...Read more

Millions of Americans are facing heat advisories ahead of the July Fourth holiday as a major heat wave spreads across large parts of the central and eastern United States.

For many people, this is the time of year for cookouts, beach trips and other outdoor activities. Soccer fans are packing into stadiums for World Cup matches. But ...Read more