WASHINGTON — Posing as Americans, North Korean technology workers secured remote work contracts with hundreds of U.S. companies as part of a scheme to help fund Pyongyang’s illicit nuclear weapons and missile programs, the U.S. government said on Thursday.

For three years, starting in October 2020, a U.S. national named Christina Chapman of...Read more

Leaders and lawmakers in Missouri must do more to protect vulnerable youth inside the state’s unlicensed boarding schools, advocates said at a Thursday news conference in Kansas City.

And that should start, they said, with Attorney General Andrew Bailey. He could do more to bring attention to the alleged abuse at schools across the state, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California bill to regulate therapeutic psychedelic use and another that would require employers to allow employees to disconnect from work in their off hours were the latest victims of a process used to kill bills without public comment.

The bill involving psychedelics, SB 1012, was the latest attempt by Sen. Scott ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer lied to government investigators and likely obstructed justice during a massive federal probe into a fraudulent lawsuit orchestrated by his office, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent that was made public this week.

Feuer, who has not been charged with any crimes, maintained his ...Read more

After a few weeks of finger pointing and viral social media posts, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has found claims that the state was illegally attempting to register non-citizens to vote are unfounded.

State Rep. Adam Morgan, R-Greenville, who is running for Congress in District 4, sparked a frenzy of questions regarding non-citizens ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Rocklin Unified School District Board of Trustees voted Wednesday night to enter into a legal agreement with the Liberty Justice Center in its ongoing legal battle with the California Department of Education.

Four members of the five-person board voted Wednesday to work with the group, which has offered to represent ...Read more

Doctors’ offices and clinics affiliated with hospitals would have to report allegations of patient abuse to the state health department under a measure introduced by Illinois lawmakers this week — legislation that comes about three months after a Chicago Tribune investigation examined the issue.

Under current law hospitals must promptly ...Read more

Minnesota is poised to prohibit book bans in schools and public libraries as part of an education bill the House approved Wednesday, the last step before it heads to the governor for his signature.

The law, which would become effective July 1, establishes a so-called "Library Bill of Rights" and states that libraries cannot restrict access to ...Read more

When Peter Gorr got his first solar roof in 2011, he didn’t know what to expect.

But installation went smoothly, the smooth black panels lowered his electric bills, and Gorr — who is very concerned about climate change — relished the opportunity to lower his carbon footprint.

He recalled with a chuckle how his wife, Susan, kidded him ...Read more

WASHINGTON — An overdue plaque honoring police who responded to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is finished and waiting to be installed, but Republicans are not taking action to publicly display it, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday.

“It is ultimately a decision of the speaker and the House Republican majority. And there’s ...Read more

The Missouri Senate collapsed into bitter recrimination on Thursday amid an effort to urge Attorney General Andrew Bailey to not use state dollars to defend three Republican senators facing federal lawsuits for sharing social media posts falsely accusing a man of being a shooter in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting.

Sen. Mike ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — With summer break and disciplinary action looming, 30 student protesters at Hamline University began tearing down their long-standing encampment Thursday outside Old Main, the gothic administrative building off Snelling and Hewitt avenues that houses the office of the university president.

Students, some of them new ...Read more

NEW YORK — Michael Cohen completed a third day on the witness stand Thursday and is set to face more grilling next week as Donald Trump’s historic hush-money trial nears its conclusion.

After jurors were sent home for the day around 4 p.m., Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told the court that he expects to spend roughly another hour and a half ...Read more

MIAMI — The “Skittles Man” — nicknamed for his huge supply of rainbow-colored fentanyl pills — is one of seven members and associates of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel sent to prison in recent months by a federal judge in South Florida.

The Skittles Man, whose real name is Roque Bustamante, supplied thousands of deadly Mexican-made ...Read more

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday vetoed a wide-ranging package of tax cuts passed with bipartisan support and said she will call the Legislature into special session, a move certain to anger Republicans and potentially some Democrats who had embraced the measure.

The Democratic governor said she would announce the date of the special session...Read more

BALTIMORE — The crew of the Dali, the ill-fated vessel that slammed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its collapse, are still onboard nearly two months after the deadly disaster.

The crew, made up of 20 men from India and one from Sri Lanka, were manning the ship when it collided with one of the bridge’s support pillars ...Read more