Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro will soon become the top-earning governor in the U.S. after an automatic cost-of-living pay bump goes into effect on Jan. 1.

Shapiro, a Democrat up for re-election next year who is often named as a 2028 presidential contender, was already the second-highest paid state leader after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. At about $245,...Read more

Florida’s first bear hunt in a decade ended Sunday, but state wildlife officials still won’t say how many bears were killed.

They also haven’t explained why.

“We’ll provide updates as soon as we’re able to,” a spokesperson, Shannon Knowles, replied by email Monday morning.

The 23-day hunt, which began Dec. 6 and is planned as an...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Central Florida government officials and nonprofits will expand access to shelters ahead of a cold front that will move through the region Tuesday, bringing frigid conditions that will last into the new year.

Tuesday night will likely be the coldest of the week, with temperatures in the 30s expected across the region. The wind...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis Assistant Fire Chief Melanie Rucker will lead the city’s Fire Department in an interim role following the retirement this week of Chief Bryan Tyner, the city announced Monday.

Rucker first joined the department in 1999, and she had most recently been serving as the department’s public information officer.

Her ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The cost of city tap water is increasingly becoming an issue across the Twin Cities area, where residents say they are being soaked by rising rates.

Water rates are rising by as much as 25% in some suburbs, and city leaders say the increases are necessary as many issues — from maintenance of aging systems to expensive projects...Read more

AMMAN, Jordan — When Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire earlier this year, it brought into question the fate of militias Israel cultivated during the devastating two-year war as an alternative ruling force in Gaza. Many expected that Hamas — still the dominant force in the Strip — would hunt them down.

Instead, Israel has shifted the ...Read more

ATLANTA — The planned execution of a Georgia inmate convicted of murdering two women in Cobb County has been halted by a Fulton County judge.

Stacey Ian Humphreys, found guilty of shooting real estate agents Lori Brown and Cynthia Williams in 2003, was due to be executed before Christmas.

But the state’s warrant for his execution expired ...Read more

A call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, coming after fresh U.S. talks with Ukraine, raised new questions over the prospects for a peace deal as the Kremlin signaled new complications.

Putin told Trump that Moscow would revise its negotiating position on Ukraine as he claimed a drone attack on one of his residences, according to the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Nearly half of the people who died in domestic violence incidents in Minnesota last year were bystanders or those who were trying to intervene.

Even as the state’s total domestic violence-related homicides in 2024 dropped from a record number set the year before, the number of bystanders and interveners who were killed ...Read more

From bans on declawing cats and plastic grocery bags to new anti-discrimination protections for students and cheaper insulin, a raft of new California laws takes effect Jan. 1, with others rolling out through 2026.

The measures survived months of negotiations in the state Legislature and scrutiny from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has shown a ...Read more

President Donald Trump held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, according to the White House, a day after the U.S. leader met with his Ukrainian counterpart to discuss efforts to bring a halt to the Kremlin’s war.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday on X that the two leaders had “concluded a positive...Read more

MIAMI — Florida nearly doubled the national average of executions in 2025, with a record-breaking 19 death warrants carried out, according to an annual report released by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Experts say Florida’s “extreme” outlier status — namely, the ramping up of executions — comes at a time when public support ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — A dozen swans have died at Lake Eola in the past week, leaving Orlando officials fearing another outbreak of bird flu at the city’s signature park.

City Commissioner Patty Sheehan posted on Facebook that two dead swans were found on Dec. 23, with the number growing to 12 by Sunday. Due to the holidays the city’s ...Read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he asked Donald Trump for U.S. security guarantees lasting as long as half a century to help deter any future Russian invasion.

Current proposals under discussion as part of a peace plan set out a 15-year term with the possibility for an extension, though “I would like the guarantee to be much ...Read more

The man accused of placing pipe bombs outside the DNC and RNC headquarters on the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol said he targeted both parties because “they were in charge,” federal investigators said Sunday.

Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old Virginia man, told the FBI he was inspired by President Donald Trump’s ...Read more

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation staged over two weeks earlier this month yielded more than 1,030 arrests of unauthorized immigrants with criminal backgrounds across the country, the Trump administration announced Dec. 22.

The crackdown was dubbed “Operation Angel’s Honor” in reference to Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing ...Read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he asked Donald Trump for U.S. security guarantees lasting as long as half a century to help deter any future Russian invasion.

Current proposals under discussion as part of a peace plan set out a 15-year term with the possibility for an extension, though “I would like the guarantee to be much ...Read more

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Monday to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza, whose troubled opening months are stoking concern that regional fighting could resume in the new year.

Trump is to host Netanyahu, his most frequent foreign guest, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after hearing ...Read more