Multimillionaire murder suspect Robert Durst listened to startling new testimony Monday while draped in a huge blanket covering his jail uniform and exposed catheter bag at his California murder trial.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Windham refused Durst’s request to delay the day’s proceeding, saying he trusted the jail doctors who ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee is beginning its own investigation into the Trump-era Justice Department’s surveillance of members of Congress and journalists, while the Senate’s top Republican on Monday characterized the scrutiny as a “witch hunt in the making.”

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said ...Read more

ATLANTA — The Georgia secretary of state's office is investigating whether Fulton County kept track of all absentee ballots returned in drop boxes before November's election.

"New revelations that Fulton County is unable to produce all ballot drop box transfer documents will be investigated thoroughly, as we have with other counties that ...Read more

Five House Democrats representing the more moderate end of the caucus threw some doubt on the future of President Joe Biden’s agenda Monday.

The five lawmakers — one more than Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s margin on party-line floor votes — sent a letter to the speaker arguing to “stabilize” federal debt so that it remains roughly the same...Read more

JERUSALEM — The Biden administration wasted no time in embracing the new government of Israel.

The politics of Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, are no more agreeable to President Joe Biden than those of the unseated Benjamin Netanyahu — including the rejection of both a Palestinian state and any agreement with Iran.

But ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — On the eve of California’s vast reopening, the state offered some big-ticket items to encourage more residents to get vaccinated for COVID-19.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced six dream vacation packages as part of the state’s Vax for the Win incentive program in an effort to keep building momentum for vaccination ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Monday evening to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the influential federal appeals court in Washington, with Democrats touting the professional and demographic diversity she brings to the bench.

The 53-44 vote was mostly along party lines to put Jackson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell said Monday it’s “highly unlikely” he’d allow President Joe Biden to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2024 if he were Senate majority leader, once again stirring liberals’ fears about the composition of the country’s highest court and the importance of next year’s midterm elections.

“I think in the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Facing criticism from members of her own party and the possibility of further discipline, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has apologized for her comments last month comparing coronavirus restrictions to the Holocaust.

Greene made her apology during a news conference Monday evening and after visiting the United States Holocaust ...Read more

CHICAGO — The woman known as the “serial stowaway” for her penchant for attempting to sneak onto flights could be transferred this summer to a specialized “problem-solving court” for defendants with mental health concerns.

Admission to Cook County’s mental health court would mean a court-monitored treatment plan for Marilyn Hartman,...Read more

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Vice President Kamala Harris came to Greenville on Monday to kick off a multistate tour as part the Biden administration's push to get 70% of adults in the U.S. with at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by July 4.

As of Monday only 46.3% of South Carolina's residents have received at least one dose, and just 39.5% of South ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Top officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detail a series of mistakes and costly human errors that rendered millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine unusable in a memo posted over the weekend.

The memo also elaborates on federal regulators’ decision to authorize use of two batches of the vaccine ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — San Diego police are on pace this year to nearly double the number of ghost guns — firearms that are assembled by hand and are usually untraceable — that they impounded last year, according to a new report on the proliferation of such weapons in the city.

Police have gone from finding and seizing an average of 17.6 ghost guns ...Read more

Austin's mass shooting early Saturday renewed pleas from Texas Democrats for gun control measures and Gov. Greg Abbott to veto a bill that would end the requirement to obtain a permit to carry handguns.

It's an all too familiar call from Democrats, but one that has yet to lead to tighter gun restrictions. After 23 people died and dozens more ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Legislature on Monday approved a $100 million plan to bolster California’s legal marijuana industry, which continues to struggle to compete with the large illicit pot market nearly five years after voters approved sales for recreational use.

Los Angeles will be the biggest beneficiary of the money, which ...Read more

A massive fire at a chemical plant in northern Illinois spurred the governor to deploy the National Guard to the area as local residents were evacuated. No injuries have been reported.

The industrial fire broke out early Monday morning at a lubricants plant operated by Chemtool, owned by a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The ...Read more

The White House Monday launched a series of videos to highlight crumbling infrastructure in Eastern Kentucky as part of a media push to drum up support for President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure bill.

As moderate Democrats and Republicans have been at loggerheads in coming up with an agreement on how much money to allocate to fixing ...Read more

A vaccine booster shot could help beef up protection against COVID-19 for some organ transplant recipients, a group fearful their suppressed immune systems may leave them defenseless as pandemic restrictions end.

A third of organ recipients who had no antibodies after their second dose developed them after a third dose, according to a small ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Monday he believed that the Republican Party had been “diminished” and “fractured” after the Trump presidency and that he was disappointed that Republicans fearful of political retaliation wouldn’t investigate the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.

Biden, speaking after a NATO summit in Brussels, said he...Read more