NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione’s lawyers are discussing a possible guilty plea to resolve U.S. charges relating to the fatal shooting of UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson, but no deal has been finalized, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The plea talks come ahead of a Friday hearing that U.S. District Judge ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has asked a federal appeals court to pause a judge’s order imposing sanctions on him and his lawyers for how they handled his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service while he appeals that ruling.

Trump is challenging a Miami judge’s findings that he brought the IRS case in “bad faith�...Read more

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could soon be equipped with gloves that deliver electric shocks to subdue suspected undocumented immigrants or protesters as they carry out President Trump’s controversial mass deportation campaign.

The Department of Homeland Security plans to buy thousands of the gloves capable of zapping suspects ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Mandatory evacuations were ordered Tuesday afternoon for the Yuba fire burning east of Bridgeport near South Yuba River State Park and the Highway 49 corridor in Nevada County, Cal Fire officials said.

The fire had grown to 10 to 12 acres by about 3 p.m. and was burning at a “dangerous rate of spread,” Cal Fire said. ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two state lawmakers from Los Angeles want tougher penalties for disasters caused by industrial companies after a massive fire in Boyle Heights left neighbors struggling with smoky air and the smell of rotting meat.

Assembly member Mark González and state Sen. María Elena Durazo, both Democrats, are seeking a new law ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Henry McMaster is criticizing a state agency for telling a citizen it would cost $2.4 million to fulfill an open records request for public documents about pollution at an elementary school.

McMaster labeled the Department of Environmental Services estimated cost “ridiculous’’ and unwarranted.

“That should never...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Nevada’s Colorado River czar offered little concrete insight into the status of negotiations at a summit Wednesday as the state braces for the federal government to hand down a final operating plan its water managers aren’t happy with.

“There’s hope that things can change,” said John Entsminger, general manager of the ...Read more

The death toll from Colombia’s earthquake rose to 265 as President Abelardo de la Espriella moved to declare an economic emergency to confront the fallout from the strongest tremor to strike the country in 47 years.

The 7.4-magnitude quake that struck Aug. 10 was the second strongest recorded in Colombian territory in the past century. ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Mayor Jacob Frey proposed a $2.3 billion budget Wednesday that would require a 11.3% increase in the city’s property tax levy, the elimination of 100 positions and the consolidation of several departments.

That would be the biggest levy increase since at least 2000, according to city records. But Frey said the city spending is...Read more

Reality TV personality Joseph Duggar and wife Kendra — who were charged with multiple counts of child endangerment and false imprisonment in March — withdrew their not guilty pleas Monday.

On March 20, Arkansas’ Tontitown Police Department issued arrest warrants for the couple, who were each charged with four counts of endangering the ...Read more

The companies that agreed to pay Maryland $2.25 billion over the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge could ultimately get some of that money back under terms of the settlement obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

The settlement, agreed to in May, calls for Maryland to pursue damages from the Dali’s shipbuilder, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. ...Read more

DENVER — Former University of Colorado Boulder professor Ward Churchill, a controversial symbol of academic freedom and free speech who was fired after comparing 9/11 victims to a notorious Nazi, has died, his former attorney confirmed. He was 78.

Ward died Tuesday in Atlanta of complications from a stroke, longtime friend and former attorney...Read more

NASA says it wants to build bases on the moon. Maryland's Eastern Shore could become a key part of that effort.

“We’re going to the moon, and we’re going to build a moon base, and we’re going to stay,” Wallops Director David Pierce said Wednesday.

Pierce was among the government, business and education leaders gathered at Salisbury ...Read more

DENVER — Denver Mayor Mike Johnston is officially running for a second term, according to paperwork he filed with the clerk’s office this week.

Johnston, who was first elected in 2023, has focused on major upgrades throughout the city, including plans for a new women’s soccer stadium, a new Broncos stadium and development of Park Hill ...Read more

Gunman John Hinckley thought he’d wind up with Jodie Foster even after shooting President Ronald Reagan and being arrested. He now realizes that wasn’t meant to be and wishes the Academy Award winner well.

The 71-year-old attempted assassin was institutionalized until 2016 at St. Elizabeths Hospital after shooting the 40th president outside...Read more

Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday announced she is stepping down as White House press secretary, citing the demands on her time posed by being a mother of two.

Leavitt, 28, who is one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers, said she would leave the post at the end of the month. She recently returned from maternity leave after giving birth ...Read more

CHICAGO — Parts of Cook and Will counties were hit by another round of dangerous weather Wednesday, just a day after two tornadoes tore through Chicago’s southern suburbs.

The back-to-back storms this week are the latest in an unusually volatile year that has already brought a record-breaking number of tornadoes to Illinois. And with ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani laid the blame Wednesday on former Eric Adams Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro for his own step back from a highly controversial plan to shut down Lower Manhattan’s Elizabeth Street Garden to build affordable housing on the site.

During last year’s mayoral campaign, despite growing opposition, Mamdani backed ...Read more