NEW YORK — Jurors at Donald Trump’s Manhattan trial on Thursday heard audio of him discussing plans to pay hush money to a Playboy model with his former fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen — tying him to the deal his legal team has vigorously sought to distance him from.

“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas Review-Journal has agreed to give prosecutors, police and defense attorneys the majority of data on slain investigative reporter Jeff German’s phone.

“We’ve reached an understanding,” attorney David Chesnoff, one of the lawyers representing The Las Vegas Review-Journal, said during a court hearing Thursday ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — At the University of Pennsylvania’s iconic statue of its founder, Benjamin Franklin, police had dispersed a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters Thursday, only to have a young man break through metal police barricades and rush the statue, scaling it and waving a Palestinian flag high above officers who moved in to stop him.

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NEW YORK — Almost half of the more than 280 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at Columbia University and City College this week weren’t students or faculty at the schools, according to data released by Mayor Adams’ administration Thursday.

The issue of whether “outside agitators” were behind the encampment protests at Columbia and ...Read more

CHICAGO — As protests surge across America just months before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, activists representing LGBTQ+ and women’s reproductive rights say Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is violating their First Amendment rights and is unprepared for the onslaught of dissidents headed to the city this August.

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NEW YORK — A faculty group at Columbia University on Thursday called for a vote of no confidence in Minouche Shafik, the newly minted university president whose tenure has been marred by campus protests and criticism of her use of the New York Police Department.

The campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — When Boise City Council Member Elaine Clegg stepped down in November to join Valley Regional Transit as CEO, she told The Idaho Statesman that “rail is a big issue of mine” and would be a focus for her in the new role at the regional public transportation authority for Ada and Canyon counties.

“I think there’s a ...Read more

A 45-year-old former aircraft quality auditor has become the second Boeing-related whistleblower to die in the past three months, after allegedly suffering from a sudden bacterial infection.

Joshua “Josh” Dean, of Wichita, Kan., worked for Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and was one of the first people to accuse Spirit of ignoring ...Read more

A search in a Rikers Island jail uncovered a large cache of narcotics, including cocaine, K2 and marijuana in vacuum sealed bags, dozens of fentanyl-soaked papers, cigarettes, tobacco and ceramic blades, the Daily News has learned.

The major seizure Tuesday at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center, shown in a video obtained by The News, has ...Read more

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Hard-right Missouri senators early Thursday morning ended their hours-long filibuster of a crucial series of taxes that fund Medicaid, failing to achieve any of their stated demands.

Members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus sat down just before 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning after blocking renewal of the taxes for roughly 41 ...Read more

NEW YORK — The city’s Department of Homeless Services forced at least six migrant families to move from city homeless shelters into hotels that offer fewer services to make way for an expected influx of native New Yorkers who could be seeking shelter beds in the coming months, The New York Daily News has learned.

The move has sparked ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Jerry Boylan, the captain of the Conception dive boat where 34 people died amid smoke and flame over Labor Day weekend in 2019, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for negligence that contributed to the disaster.

U.S. District Judge George Wu said he found Boylan “incredibly remorseful” and that he had not “...Read more

MIAMI — A woman accused of being a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel — and behind a murder near Miami International Airport in 2022 — was sentenced to nine years in federal prison Thursday in connection with a methamphetamine trafficking case.

After pleading guilty, Tsvia Kol, 36, will spend almost a decade locked up. Once ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — The ex-congressional candidate was dressed as Ken from the “Barbie” movie. He was allegedly on top of Christopher Tapp, punching him.

This is what a woman alleged she saw at a Halloween party at an exclusive Resorts World suite — an ill-fated gathering that authorities said would lead to the Nov. 5 death of Tapp, 47, an ...Read more

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Catholic bishop of Monterey, whose district includes San Luis Obispo County, said his diocese could go bankrupt amid a flood of lawsuits alleging childhood sexual abuse.

In a letter to parishioners April 18, the Most Rev. Daniel E. Garcia said after the state reopened the statute of limitations for childhood ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Five days before pro-Israeli counterprotesters attacked a pro-Palestinian camp at UCLA, the university police department asked other campuses for additional police, according to the head of the UC police officers union.

But the requests — which would have provided UCLA with more police officers as they dealt with the camp and ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — One after another, family members aimed their grief and anguish at Heather Pressdee, who sat quietly on the other side of the Butler County courtroom.

Some called her the devil. One woman told her to burn in hell. They told she was not God, that she was no longer in control.

"I hope you live to 100," Jack Rogers' niece told her....Read more

ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating alleged discrimination against Arab, Muslim and Palestinian students at Emory University this year.

The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Georgia) and Palestine Legal filed a federal civil rights complaint against the ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Taylor Shelton, a South Carolina woman in her mid-to-late 20s, wasn’t planning to get pregnant. She took precautions, including having an intrauterine device.

But it wasn’t foolproof, and she discovered she was pregnant at the four-week mark.

Shelton went to a crisis pregnancy center in Charlotte, North Carolina, which...Read more