A federal judge has halted the Trump administration’s plan to divert billions of dollars in homelessness spending away from permanent housing, a decision that California officials and homeless advocates welcomed as a win for preventing thousands of formerly unhoused people from being forced back to the street.

The judge’s order temporarily ...Read more

DENVER — Nine months after she first entered an Aurora detention center, Jeanette Vizguerra walked out of the facility and “into the loving arms of her family” Monday afternoon, her supporters said.

Vizguerra’s family posted $5,000 bail for the detained immigrant rights activist following a Sunday order by an immigration judge that ...Read more

CHICAGO — A federal grand jury has indicted six purported Chicago gang members for racketeering conspiracy, accusing the gang of involvement in 13 homicides as well as spates of other violence across the city in service of protecting their South Side territory.

In a sweeping indictment unsealed on Friday, the alleged Faceworld street gang ...Read more

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia will remain free at least through the end of the month after a federal judge sought more information on whether the United States plans to detain or deport him again.

Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, asked the Department of Justice for additional details and set a schedule through Dec. 30. Abrego Garcia ...Read more

State health officials this week confirmed a case of mpox in an adult Anchorage resident with a history of recent out-of-state travel.

The Alaska Section of Epidemiology said no additional cases or evidence of local community transmission were identified as of Monday, according to a public health alert.

The patient, who is isolating and ...Read more

Maryland officials confirmed a second positive test for bird flu at a commercial poultry operation in Queen Anne’s County last week, the 10th detection in the state this year, as public health experts warn the virus continues to pose a serious threat to animals — but remains a low risk for most people.

State health and agriculture officials...Read more

NEW YORK — A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the corruption trial of former Cuomo and Hochul aide Linda Sun after a federal jury failed to reach a verdict on whether or not she acted as a Chinese agent or committed fraud.

Jurors in Brooklyn Federal Court couldn’t come to a decision on any of the 19 counts against Sun and her husband, ...Read more

ATLANTA — A Kenyan man was sentenced to life in federal prison after plotting what federal prosecutors called a Sept. 11-style plane attack on Atlanta’s tallest building on behalf of a foreign terrorist organization.

Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 35, was found guilty by a New York City jury in November 2024 on all six counts of conspiracy to hijack ...Read more

BOSTON — A police chief from New Jersey pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and three charges of domestic assault and battery following a September vacation in Boston that allegedly turned violent.

Carmen Veneziano, 47, on Monday entered the pleas at Suffolk Superior Court, where he was released on $25,000 bail and conditions that he follow a no...Read more

California’s endangered House Republicans have spent December trying to show how they understand, and are trying to ease, the pain constituents feel as they confront skyrocketing health care costs.

But those Republicans are feeling political pain, as the enhanced federal premium subsidies for tens of thousands of Californians end next week.

...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The family of Rob and Michele Reiner are working on a memorial for the couple, who were slain last weekend at their Brentwood home.

In a statement Monday, children Jake and Romy Reiner thanked the public for the outpouring of support and said details about a memorial will be coming.

Rob and Michele Reiner were found dead in ...Read more

ATLANTA — A top Georgia Republican Party official will join a State Election Board that has revived efforts to find fraud in the 2020 election.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has appointed Salleigh Grubbs, first vice chair of the Georgia Republican Party, to the board that writes rules on election practices and investigates allegations of fraud. She ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Though it happened more than 2,000 miles away, the fallout of the assassination of conservative activist and campus speaker Charlie Kirk may reverberate during South Carolina’s 2026 legislative session.

Some House lawmakers want to honor Kirk, who spoke about conservative politics on college campuses, with an annual day and...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — One by one, crew members slowly hauled out large wooden boxes filled with chandeliers, posters, a cash register, the top of a bar, and other items frozen in time from June 12, 2016.

It was nearly all that remained inside the Pulse nightclub, where 49 people were killed during a mass shooting almost a decade ago.

Orlando ...Read more

ATLANTA — A citizen board tasked with investigating deaths and serious injuries in Atlanta police custody opened a handful of investigations this year and is close to completing two of them but still faces a growing backlog of about 50 cases waiting for their action.

The board has gotten more money and hired more staff so it can pick up its ...Read more

NEW YORK — A man held on Rikers Island over accusations he beat to death his roommate in a Bronx drug treatment center died early Monday of a possible allergic reaction — the 15th city jails-linked death this year, officials said.

Kyron Randall, 33, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital about 12:10 a.m. after going into medical distress at the ...Read more

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said that President Donald Trump’s officials held “productive and constructive” meetings with Ukrainian and European counterparts in Florida as part of efforts to end Russia’s war.

The talks included Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and other European security ...Read more

CHICAGO — Beheshta was preparing for finals at Oakton College, where she is studying to become an echocardiographer, when she got a text from her sister in Italy.

“Hey, do you know what happened in the United States? They’re saying they will send all the people from Afghanistan back,” Beheshta, 30, recalled, paraphrasing the message.

...Read more

DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that cities cannot punish lawbreakers beyond what state courts would allow for the same offense in a ruling that could set precedent for hundreds of municipal courts around the state.

The justices ruled that when a municipal ordinance and a state statute prohibit identical conduct, ...Read more

NEW YORK — A federal jury has awarded $2.56 million to a protester who says she was left brain damaged after NYPD cops slammed her head to the pavement during a 2020 Black Lives Matter George Floyd demonstration in Brooklyn.

Before talking to the streets on June 3, 2020, Brigid Pierce, then 37, held a director of marketing job, had written ...Read more