NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge narrowed down the jury pool in the gold bar bribery trial of N.J. Sen. Robert Menendez, dismissing three dozen potential jurors late Monday as a second group of 50 people were brought in.

Jury selection is expected to continue Tuesday for the federal trial of Menendez and N.J. businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Danies...Read more

An expansive version of the Equal Rights Amendment could ask Minnesota voters in 2026 if they want to enshrine protections for race, sex and gender identity, and abortion in the state's Constitution.

The DFL-led Minnesota House had planned to vote on their version of the amendment late Monday or early Tuesday morning, which could set off an ...Read more

The top diplomats from South Korea and China held their first face-to-face talks in Beijing in some six years, showing differences over U.S. policies on chip exports and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and China’s Wang Yi agreed in their talks Monday to cooperate for a trilateral summit with ...Read more

Three men who were charged in the 2018 murder of notorious Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger in a federal prison have reached plea agreements, according to prosecutors.

Bulger, 89, was beaten to death in a West Virginia penitentiary on Oct. 20, 2018, allegedly as revenge for being a law enforcement informant, hours after he was ...Read more

NEW YORK — Manhattan federal prosecutors have asked for convicted scam artist Lamor Whitehead — known as the “Bling Bishop” for his flamboyant lifestyle — to be jailed ahead of his July sentencing, according to new court filings.

Jurors previously found Whitehead, 45, guilty of five counts including wire fraud, attempted extortion and...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Each day, landslide damage at the historic Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes worsens.

More windows on the famous glass chapel shatter. Metal framing along its walls and ceiling further torque. New fissures open across the parking lot.

The landslide beneath the chapel — mostly manageable for decades prior — has ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday signed legislation banning the import of Russian enriched uranium, starting a 90-day countdown until limits on shipments of the reactor fuel take effect.

Biden’s signature also unlocks some $2.7 billion in spending, previously approved by Congress, to build up domestic uranium supplies for U.S. ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday signed legislation banning the import of Russian enriched uranium, starting a 90-day countdown until limits on shipments of the reactor fuel take effect.

Biden’s signature also unlocks some $2.7 billion in spending, previously approved by Congress, to build up domestic uranium supplies for U.S. ...Read more

SEATTLE — As Darcy Batura often wanders Cle Elum Ridge, she cherishes the ponderosa pine bark glowing red in the sunshine, releasing a sweet aroma that permeates the forest. A blanket of lupine and yellow balsamroot flowers color the hills this time of year.

Batura, of The Nature Conservancy and a 20-year resident of Roslyn, has been among a ...Read more

BOSTON — At least one Republican lawmaker is speaking out after Gov. Maura Healey seemed to indicate that when it comes to the migrant crisis facing the Bay State, her hands are tied by state law and federal inaction.

State Sen. Peter Durant, a conservative from Spencer, said that the governor has had ample opportunity to address a problem ...Read more

NEW YORK — In hotly anticipated testimony Monday, Michael Cohen took the stand at Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial as one of the final witnesses, telling a Manhattan jury of how he painstakingly arranged to pay off a porn star to influence the results of the 2016 election, working directly off the boss’ orders: “Just do it.”

...Read more

Spending time online may boost your well-being, the results of a large international study revealed Monday.

Researchers at the University of Oxford examined 16 years of data from 2.4 million people, tracking things like life satisfaction and sense of purpose. They found that people with access to the web scored 8% higher in measures of well-...Read more

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois lawmakers plan to make a second push to create a statewide office to help under-resourced public defenders after a previous effort fizzled amid questions over whether the office would remain independent of the judiciary.

Senate President Don Harmon, a Democrat from Oak Park, filed the initial bill to create an ...Read more

Minnesota has sealed nearly 58,000 criminal records related to non-felony cannabis offenses, completing a process set into motion by the state’s legalization law last year.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety on Monday announced the completion of the expungements from the state’s Criminal History System, which the agency said it ...Read more

BALTIMORE — All of the vessels that were trapped in the Port of Baltimore when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed have now left their berths.

The last ship in that group departed Monday morning, hours before an explosion that cut apart a section of steel truss draped across the bow of the Dali, officials said at a news conference Monday...Read more

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Foundation has been forced to suspend operations at least temporarily after failing to file timely tax returns and other documents and being declared “delinquent” by California authorities.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who founded the charity after stepping back from their royal duties in ...Read more

CHICAGO — The city has closed a South Side migrant shelter that had faced resistance from some neighborhood residents when it opened last year.

All shelter residents have been moved to neighboring shelters or to permanent housing, officials said Monday as the city announced it had “recently decompressed” the migrant shelter at the former ...Read more

NEW YORK — For weeks, jurors have heard about Trump fixer Michael Cohen and the role he played in the hush money saga involving Stormy Daniels. Monday, the star witness took the stand, where he’ll be filling in the final blanks in the prosecution’s case, now is in its final days.

Once among the closest allies of the former president, ...Read more

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A Florida man who helped a U.S. Marine and another man from Orange County build a Molotov cocktail they used to firebomb a Planned Parenthood in Costa Mesa two years ago was obsessed with violence and previously had threatened to commit mass shootings, court documents show.

Xavier Batten, 21, of Spring Hill, Florida, ...Read more

NEW YORK — John Catsimatidis, the CEO of WABC radio, offered a detailed explanation Monday for the station’s decision to pull Rudy Giuliani from its airwaves, saying the former mayor repeatedly violated an agreement prohibiting him from spreading claims that fraud caused Donald Trump to lose the 2020 presidential election.

In a written ...Read more