CHICAGO — Aldermen passed a measure Wednesday banning officers with ties to extremist and hate groups from working in the Chicago Police Department.

The City Council voted 28-to-21 to approve the ordinance that requires the Police Department to fire officers with ties to groups like the Three Percenters or Proud Boys. It also prohibits the ...Read more

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — With 11 days remaining in their spring legislative session, Illinois lawmakers are considering legislation that would create a state panel empowered to review the costs of prescription drug prices and whether medicine is inaccessible to those who need it the most.

The bill to establish a Prescription Drug Affordability ...Read more

Airbnb Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky defended his company’s use of Chinese artificial intelligence models, saying U.S. lawmakers who worry Chinese firms can access Americans’ user data are “misunderstanding” the technology.

Airbnb is not a customer of Alibaba or other Chinese companies, he said in a Bloomberg TV interview on...Read more

Federal prosecutors have leveled their latest fraud charges against a group of people accused of stealing millions from Minnesota’s housing and child care programs.

Fahima Egeh Mahamud faces one count of conspiring to defraud the United States, alleging that from October 2022 through December 2025, she collected $4.6 million by submitting ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — California has seen an uptick in wildfires, from Siskiyou County to San Diego.

Southern California has caught the brunt of the surge. Nearly a dozen fires have, together, consumed more than 26,000 acres of varied terrain in the region over the last week, in remote island chaparral as well as brushy foothills bordering ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. and Iran traded threats of escalation on Wednesday as the weeks-long stalemate in the Middle East dragged on without resolution.

President Donald Trump told reporters the U.S. was in the “final stages” with Iran, sparking investor hopes that a deal was close. Treasuries surged and oil dropped sharply.

But the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A St. Paul attorney representing the ICE agent charged with pointing his gun at motorists during Operation Metro Surge said Wednesday that his client will turn himself in after prosecutors issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest in April.

Criminal defense attorney Ryan Pacyga filed a certificate of representation for Gregory ...Read more

President Donald Trump signed a bill into law Tuesday that will allow water managers to build a $2 billion pipeline under a national conservation area.

The Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Water Pipeline Act was championed in Congress by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Rep. Dina Titus, both Democrats. Ultimately, the pipeline will meet ...Read more

JUNEAU — The Alaska Legislature is poised to adopt a balanced budget on the final day of the regular legislative session, sending Alaskans $1,200 in cash payments.

The House voted Tuesday evening to adopt a $12.8 billion spending plan to fund agency operations and state services. The Senate is expected to take up the vote on Wednesday.

The ...Read more

NEW YORK — After years of advocacy, New York lawmakers are changing the state’s primary school aid formula to drive much-needed resources to the city’s growing population of homeless students.

The revised formula, known as Foundation Aid, establishes a new weight for students who are homeless or in foster care, according to an education ...Read more

BALTIMORE — A federal judge on Wednesday denied a motion to delay an upcoming civil trial tied to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, keeping the case on track to begin June 1 in U.S. District Court.

“Staying the current course is the most efficient use of judicial resources,” Judge James Bredar said from the bench, rejecting a ...Read more

NORFOLK, Va. — Gov. Abigail Spanberger took action Wednesday on the last bills before her, including vetoing some immigration protections and signing paid sick leave into law.

Spanberger vetoed legislation that would have prohibited federal immigration arrests at courthouses, schools, hospitals and polling places. In her veto statement, the ...Read more

MIAMI — Two former campus Republican leaders have been barred from stepping foot on Florida International University’s campus, after the school suspended the students for two years over a racist group chat created by the Miami-Dade GOP’s then secretary.

Abel Carvajal, the creator of the group chat and a third-year law student, was found ...Read more

NEW YORK — Donike Gocaj, the 56-year-old woman who was killed falling into an open manhole in Midtown Manhattan, died as a result of the intense heat inside the manhole beneath the streets and trauma from the fall, according to the city’s medical examiner.

An autopsy revealed Gocaj’s cause of death as a combination of scald burns with ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The crack of a gavel late Sunday marked the failed end to a nearly yearlong effort to strengthen Minnesota’s gun control laws.

It began after the assassination of DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman in June and was given urgency by the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis a few months later, but...Read more

The gunmen who killed three people at the San Diego Islamic Center left behind a 75-page document that preached hate, anti-Islam and antisemitism and promoted violence and chaos, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told the Los Angeles Times.

The manifesto was titled “The New Crusade: Sons of Tarrant” and made reference ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A wildfire that forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate Simi Valley jumped to 15% containment overnight, according to officials.

The blaze began around 11 a.m. Pacific time Monday off Sandy Avenue and moved to nearby homes, destroying one, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It had ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The relationship between some Republicans and President Donald Trump could be taking a “pretty sour” turn as some GOP lawmakers primaried out of their congressional seats by White House-backed candidates explore a newfound freedom to vote their minds.

That bodes poorly for Republicans’ efforts to unify and maintain their ...Read more