KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Six people were killed in homicides Saturday and Sunday in Kansas City, marking the deadliest weekend in a year already on pace to see a record number of slayings.

The violence that plagued various parts of the city for a 26-hour period ranged from an accidental shooting to domestic violence to disputes settled by gunfire. ...Read more

ATLANTA -- Georgia voters will soon be able to go online to order an absentee ballot for the November presidential election, according to a rule the State Election Board approved Monday.

The board voted unanimously to create the absentee ballot application website, which is planned to go live by the end of this month.

The website will help ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- That $400 a week in additional COVID-19 unemployment benefits President Donald Trump announced Saturday? Cash-strapped states have an easy out to provide only $300.

The memorandum that Trump signed Saturday announcing a new "lost wages" program to replace the now lapsed $600 weekly federal pandemic supplement said states would be ...Read more

Far fewer people are flying during the COVID-19 pandemic, but those who are seem more likely to try to bring firearms on the plane: The rate of passengers carrying guns through U.S. airport security tripled in July compared with the same month last year.

Airport screeners for the Transportation Security Administration announced Monday that the ...Read more

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Amid an unprecedented electoral debacle, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico said Monday it will evaluate claims filed by two candidates from opposing political parties who are calling for all the votes cast at Sunday's suspended primary election to be counted immediately.

The parties involved have until 2 p.m. Tuesday to ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia's surge in gun violence continued over the weekend, with at least 25 people shot on Saturday and Sunday, including two 11-year-old boys wounded in separate incidents, police said.

One of the 11-year-old boys was wounded in a triple shooting Sunday night in Grays Ferry. The other was shot near a playground Saturday ...Read more

ATLANTA -- Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday ruled out ordering public school systems to impose mask mandates for returning students and teachers, echoing his opposition to statewide requirements to wear face coverings to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Kemp, speaking at the opening of a testing site at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, said he was ...Read more

SHANGHAI -- Media tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken supporter of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests, was arrested Monday along with his sons and several colleagues at the Apple Daily newspaper in a shocking assertion of China's power over the city's long-cherished media freedoms -- and a chilling turning point for its independent journalists.

In a...Read more

BALTIMORE -- A "major" gas explosion ripped through three homes in the Reisterstown Station neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore, killing one woman and seriously injuring at least six others.

The explosion occurred before 10 a.m. at Reisterstown and Labyrinth roads, just behind Reisterstown Road Plaza shopping center near the city-county line. ...Read more

ATLANTA -- Transgender high school students must be granted access to bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, the federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled.

The closely watched case granted a legal victory to Drew Adams, a transgender student who sought access to the boys' bathroom at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra, Fla. The ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Two body-worn camera videos from the day George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police were publicly released Monday by the court after a coalition of media companies intervened and argued for their unrestrained release.

The move comes more than a month after a defense attorney filed the two videos with the court as part of a ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- President Donald Trump may be coming to Pennsylvania later this month to formally accept his renomination for president.

"We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations -- The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Florida reported the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases since June 23.

With 4,247 new cases reported Monday, the count is less than half of the new infections only two weeks ago on July 27.

A positive trend also is evident in people who need emergency care. Emergency department visits for COVID-19-like illness also ...Read more

SEATTLE -- The city of Seattle has agreed that a court order should bar police from targeting journalists, legal observers and medics with crowd weapons.

The city also has agreed that the order should bar police from using the declaration of a riot as justification for indiscriminate force at protests.

Seattle made those concessions in an ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said.

More than 100 people were arrested as of 9 a.m., according to Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown. ...Read more