LOS ANGELES — The packages of potato chips, chocolate and various Japanese snacks that arrived at Los Angeles International Airport last month contained more than just tasty treats.

Hidden inside the bundle were insects not fit for consumption, but ideal for exotic beetle enthusiasts.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Leading Republican senators are expressing serious concerns about what they consider the isolationist bent of President Donald Trump’s emerging Pentagon team.

Elbridge Colby, whom Trump has tapped to be the Pentagon’s policy chief, believes the U.S. military needs to focus on China and substantially reduce its forces in ...Read more

CHICAGO — Jurors in the Michael Madigan corruption trial have returned to Chicago’s federal courthouse for their seventh day of deliberations.

They maintained complete silence all day Wednesday, sending no questions or other notes to the judge. That was somewhat unusual: Jurors have sent at least one communication every day since they began...Read more

WASHINGTON — A series of legislative proposals introduced by House Republicans, seemingly aimed at currying favor with President Donald Trump, would almost be funny, according to their Democratic colleagues, if they didn’t hint at a darker reality.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., introduced a bill to put Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore. ...Read more

WASHINGTON — At a largely Christian event that brought hymns and prayer to the heart of the Capitol building, President Donald Trump bemoaned America’s trend away from faith, calling it “one of the biggest problems” and saying, “we have to bring religion back. We have to bring it back much stronger.”

The president spoke at the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration agreed in a late-night court filing Wednesday not to expand access to a sensitive Treasury Department payment system for “special government employees” working with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The filing followed a series of phone hearings for the lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Department of Corrections and Metropolitan Police Department are withholding the names of undocumented immigrants in their custody, citing privacy concerns. But immigration opponents say that information is key for the public to understand what is happening with undocumented people who commit crimes.

The Las Vegas ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts paused the Trump administration’s federal employee buyout offer ahead of its deadline Thursday, as the White House said tens of thousands of employees had taken the offer.

The pause, until at least Monday, came as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Southern California Edison reported to state regulators Thursday that its equipment likely sparked the Hurst fire that burned nearly 800 acres in Sylmar last month but the utility has yet to determine where the much more destructive Eaton fire ignited.

The Los Angeles Fire Department tracked the source of the Hurst fire in ...Read more

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – President Donald Trump’s administration went to court Thursday to challenge sanctuary policies in the state of Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago that limit the powers of state and local police to assist federal law enforcement on immigration-related matters.

“The challenged provisions of Illinois, Chicago, ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The man accused of using artificial intelligence to create a racist recording to defame a Baltimore County high school principal was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly sexually exploiting boys, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland announced Thursday.

Dazhon Darien, 32, the former athletic director at ...Read more

BOSTON — Karen Read’s attorneys will get an extra 10 days to file what they promise will be a “pretty full-throated” motion to toss their client’s cop-killer case, building on a blockbuster claim of “extraordinary” government misconduct in the case.

Read’s attorneys hinted at their latest motion to dismiss in a footnote to a ...Read more

A federal judge Thursday put a temporary hold on a planned midnight deadline for government workers to decide whether to accept President Trump’s offer of buyouts aimed at drastically reducing staff.

District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. said he wants to get more information from the administration and unions representing more than 800...Read more

President Donald Trump outlined his tax priorities in a meeting with Republican lawmakers, including a call to end the carried interest tax break used by private equity fund managers and expand the state and local tax deduction.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump laid out those measures and other provisions ...Read more

An out-of-control Frontier Airlines passenger punched an airplane window so hard that it cracked before he was hogtied by other passengers.

The unidentified man was on board Frontier Flight 4856 on Tuesday night from Denver to Houston, according to Houston Fox affiliate KRIV. The plane landed safely and on time at George Bush Intercontinental ...Read more

In 2024, state legislatures introduced an all-time record of 533 bills targeting LGBTQ+ populations. These policies create a patchwork of legal landscapes that vary widely between and within states, affecting aspects of everyday life ranging from how kids learn and play to where adults live and work.

All of these policies have ...Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Josh Shapiro's third budget proposal was a balancing act.

On one hand, Shapiro, a Democrat in his first term and up for reelection next year, delivered a $51.5 billion budget pitch on Tuesday that incorporated Republican priorities like tax reforms and agricultural funding. On the other, Shapiro maintained a strong ...Read more

Representatives of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency “have been visiting” the Maryland-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to congressional Democrats who are urging the Trump administration not to gut the weather-reporting agency.

“Unvetted and unknown DOGE bureaucrats on Musk’s ...Read more

BOSTON — The new U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts told reporters in her first roundtable interview that her office’s “priorities are to go after the most dangerous criminals on the streets.”

Leah Foley, a 23-year federal prosecutor, was elevated to the top federal law enforcement post for the state of Massachusetts as President Trump’s...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In the days after the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted, authorities throughout L.A. County announced a series of arson arrests.

But those charged were not accused of sparking the devastating wildfires. Their blazes were much smaller — the sort that might have passed unnoticed if huge swaths of land hadn’t already gone up in...Read more