NEW YORK — A Ponzi schemer got a six-year prison sentence Thursday for his boozy bamboozle to trick investors into thinking they were giving loans to wine collectors who were putting up their rare bottles as collateral.

The wine didn’t exist, but the hangover was real — Stephen Burton’s scheme siphoned more than $83 million from 141 ...Read more

The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the state’s gerrymandered congressional map from being used in the November election, a seismic ruling that halts a Republican attempt to force Kansas City’s longtime congressman out of office.

The unanimous decision found that Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins was wrong to reject a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The two Minneapolis police officers wounded by gunfire during a mass shooting in Loring Park on Wednesday have been identified by authorities.

Joseph Michnowski, a five-year veteran of the force, and Yayhe Ahmed, a 2024 lateral transfer who previously served with the Richfield and Metro Transit police departments, were struck ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The United States and Iran have intensified tit-for-tat military strikes in recent days, remaining locked between ceasefire and all-out war as the White House struggles to end the six-month conflict.

“Very clearly militarily, we are stalled,” Republican Representative Pat Harrigan of North Carolina, who sits on the House ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The volatile behavior of a man suspected of carrying out a mass shooting in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday had been well-documented by officials in various county and city agencies. It did not stop him from having the ability to possess the firearm that was used to allegedly carry out a shocking act of violence.

Just before 5...Read more

As was to be expected, many prominent women around the country paid tribute to Gloria Steinem on Thursday, following the news of her death at age 92.

Melinda French Gates praised the feminist icon for the “decades of energy, brilliance, and advocacy she devoted to women’s rights,” while Oprah Winfrey said the crusading journalist and Ms. ...Read more

MIAMI — St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew is in South Florida following a health scare over the weekend.

Drew, 49, confirmed his whereabouts in a video message, telling citizens of his eastern Caribbean island-nation that he and his wife traveled to the Miami-area “on the advice of medical specialists in St. Kitts and Nevis ...Read more

NEW YORK — New York City has seen one of its safest summers ever, NYPD stats show — even as hate crimes and subway assaults rise.

Between June 1 and Aug. 31, cops investigated 195 shootings, 32 fewer than during the same three months last year, which at the time was a record low, police said.

Only 66 murders occurred during those three ...Read more

A former senior Haitian government official wanted on corruption allegations in his volatile homeland, who was arrested last week by U.S. immigration authorities, was deported Thursday along with 100 other Haitian nationals.

Renan Hédouville, a lawyer and human rights advocate who served as Haiti’s ombudsman, asked to voluntarily return to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let the Postal Service enforce new rules for mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections, a move that some states have warned would wreak havoc as they prepare to send ballots to voters in the coming days.

The Justice Department filed an emergency request on ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — A federal appeals court has paused a decision that would have prevented Idaho officials from enforcing the state’s abortion ban against a specific doctor when pregnancy threatened a woman’s health or put her at risk for death from self-harm.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday ordered a stay of an injunction that U...Read more

WASHINGTON — A day after Donald Trump said flatly that someone else will be president in 2 1/2 years, Vice President JD Vance reignited the 2028 embers Thursday with another turn at the White House briefing room podium, though he played coy about his own plans.

Vance sparred with reporters over the conflict with Iran, gas prices, data centers...Read more

WASHINGTON — Billionaire Leon Black failed to appear Thursday morning before the House committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein and instead filed a lawsuit seeking to block subpoenas for his testimony and documents related to women in Epstein’s orbit.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer told reporters he was ready to hold the Apollo ...Read more

Vice President JD Vance Thursday warned that gas prices could stay high indefinitely and admitted there is no end in sight to the Iran war.

President Trump’s top lieutenant shrugged off Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s promises that Americans would be paying $3-a-gallon prices at the pump by Labor Day and blamed “crazy” Iran for ...Read more

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration on Thursday unveiled a projected $882.4 million hole in the 2027 budget, officially starting the clock for another slugfest with aldermen over how to close the gap before the end of this year.

The mayor cast the predicament as all too predictable in a briefing with reporters in which he ...Read more

FRESNO, Calif. — A bat found at Yosemite National Park tested positive for a viral disease that’s fatal for people and animals, park officials confirmed.

The big brown bat, which was found dead outside the Curry Village Showerhouse in May, tested positive for rabies, Yosemite National Park said in a news release on Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Several members of a key state legislative committee said Thursday they wanted to see additional safeguards on the use of license plate reader cameras, including requiring a warrant for the data to be accessed.

Other members of the Interim Joint Judiciary Committee said their constituents want the cameras, which are made by ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentuckians convicted of domestic violence would have their names, dates of birth and photographs placed in an online registry, to be made public after a second offense, under a bill being proposed by a state lawmaker.

The bill also would require online dating services operating in Kentucky to conduct criminal background ...Read more

NEW YORK — Tributes poured in Thursday for the late Gloria Steinem.

New York officials were among the legions of public figures who showered accolades and gratitude on the late activist, expressing both sadness and the determination to carry on her work, after she died Wednesday at age 92.

“Gloria Steinem inspired generations,” wrote Gov...Read more

An ICE agent has been charged federally over his alleged actions tied to the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in north Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge.

A federal grand jury indicted the agent, Christian Castro, but the charges remain under seal, according to people familiar with the indictment. One of those people confirmed that the ...Read more