LOS ANGELES — The University of Southern California called off an appearance from director Jon. M Chu and other honorees at commencement in the wake of the university’s decision to cancel valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s speech over security concerns, the university announced in a memo Friday.

The university wrote that “given the highly ...Read more

NEW YORK — The action-packed first week of Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush money trial ended Friday with 12 seated jurors and six alternates locked in — and a fourth failed bid by the former president to sabotage it, paving the way for prosecutors to begin presenting their case.

Four women and one man were selected as the final alternates ...Read more

NEW YORK — Defiant students at Columbia University continued Friday to protest the war in Gaza as some Jewish students, citing ongoing tension on campus, requested permission to study remotely.

The Jewish students said they felt threatened by the large, unrelenting protests surrounding the campus gates. One masked protester reportedly vowed ...Read more

NEW YORK — A Florida man set himself on fire in a city park across from Manhattan Criminal Court where former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial was being held Friday to draw attention to an array of conspiracy theories including his belief that Ivy League colleges were “fronts for the mob,” authorities said.

There was no ...Read more

New York City will no longer be home to the tallest building in North America if a plan freshly approved by Oklahoma City officials stays on course.

However, some residents near the site of the proposed Legends Tower have expressed concerns about the 1,907-foot structure — a number representing the year Oklahoma officially became a state.

...Read more

DENVER — Twenty-five years ago, Michelle DiManna sat in the math office at Columbine High School grading papers and talking to a colleague when she heard students screaming in terror.

Two heavily armed shooters had entered the Jefferson County school late in the morning on April 20, 1999, and proceeded to kill 12 of their classmates and a ...Read more

A Proud Boys leader from Millersville, Maryland, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison Friday for his role in the attacks on the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The punishment was the largest rendered against a Jan. 6 defendant by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has presided over several criminal cases stemming from the ...Read more

Rudolph Giuliani’s creditors expanded their probe into the former New York mayor’s finances, filing more than a dozen subpoenas in his bankruptcy case on Friday.

The formal requests, filed Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, were made by Giuliani’s official committee of unsecured creditors, who are ...Read more

MIAMI — Rapper Kodak Black will face nothing more than a parking ticket in one case after a Broward judge dismissed the second and last criminal charge against him Wednesday in a case stemming from police finding a substance in his Bentley last year.

In December, Black, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, was found asleep on a Plantation road in ...Read more

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey this week accused Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas of offering an “open invitation for illegal aliens to come to Missouri.”

The Republican attorney general issued a vague legal threat in a letter to Lucas, arguing that his previous comments regarding Kansas City welcoming migrant ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Protests over the Gaza war that snarled San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Interstate 880 in Oakland for hours Monday inflamed tempers, led to dozens of arrests and drew a finger-wagging from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“I hope we don’t see it again,” Newsom said, “and I do think people need to be held to account for ...Read more

The man who set himself on fire Friday outside the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial was described by police as a “conspiracy theorist.”

Maxwell Azzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Florida, arrived in New York this week, authorities said.

On Friday, he joined other protesters, Trump supporters and media ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Some senators are pushing to make changes to a House-passed bill that would extend a powerful surveillance authority for two years as differences persist over what privacy protections should be included to renew the program.

Senate Judiciary Chair Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., filed an amendment that ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The House Rules Committee approved a rule late Thursday for consideration of a $95.3 billion foreign aid package in a rare bipartisan vote that signaled solid support for the measure despite considerable GOP opposition.

The committee voted 9-3 for the rule setting terms for floor consideration of the long-stalled aid package, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department responded to three separate alarms at GardaWorld’s Sylmar cash storage facility on the day that thieves stole as much $30 million from its vault during the biggest heist in the city’s history.

Despite the officers’ presence at the property in the early hours of Easter Sunday — including ...Read more

Budget cuts and financial woes forced San Francisco to cancel its annual 420 celebration at Golden Gate Park this year, but a self-described psychedelic church says it will step in to help support the thousands of people expected to still make the "religious pilgrimage."

"Anybody who is going out to Hippie Hill on 420 to smoke a joint, they're ...Read more

NEW YORK — Defiant students at Columbia University continued Friday to protest the war in Gaza, a day after university President Minouche Shafik tapped the NYPD to clear a campus encampment and arrest more than 100 demonstrators.

Dozens of students took over another campus lawn with blankets and Palestinian flags, waking up before the sun ...Read more

NEW YORK — Jury selection at Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial was completed Friday with the seating of five more alternates, clearing the way for prosecutors to begin making their case against the former president Monday.

Trump is accused of falsifying New York business records to cover up a hush-money scheme intended to hide ...Read more

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is requiring air traffic controllers to take more time off between shifts to address fatigue risks flagged by a panel of experts.

FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker is directing controllers to take 10 hours off between shifts and a minimum of 12 consecutive hours off before a midnight shift, he said in ...Read more