As it reels from surging gun violence, New York City on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to shoot down a lawsuit seeking to undermine local gun regulations.

In an amicus brief to the nation’s top court, Mayor de Blasio and the city’s top lawyer outlined the need to maintain laws regulating concealed handguns in the five boroughs, detailing...Read more

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego federal judge ruled on Wednesday that a California law banning possession of a baton or billy club is constitutional, noting the prohibition's longstanding nature of being on the books for more than a century.

The decision is the latest from U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez, who has been given jurisdiction over ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Officials across the U.S. government have grown concerned in recent weeks that suspected sensory attacks against American personnel are escalating as an intelligence probe into the phenomenon known as “Havana syndrome” gains steam.

A panel of experts and scientists has been examining what is causing the suspected attacks for ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri attorney general's office is appealing a judge's decision to not recuse himself and disqualify other judges in Jackson County from hearing local prosecutors argue Kevin Strickland is innocent.

Earlier this month, Judge Kevin Harrell denied a motion filed by the attorney general that argued Harrell and other ...Read more

In May 1887, a deliberately set fire tore through San Jose’s Chinatown on Market Street, destroying homes and businesses and displacing 1,400 people. The fire happened not long after the City Council had declared Chinatown — the second on that site and one of five in the city’s history — to be a public nuisance in the way of plans to ...Read more

The alleged leader of a violent Baltimore Crips gang was mistakenly released from federal detention last week and has been recaptured.

Trayvon Hall, 30, who federal prosecutors say led the Baccwest Eight Tray Gangsters in Southwest Baltimore, was serving a three-year sentence for a gun conviction when authorities obtained a racketeering ...Read more

In a move long sought by critics of how the military handles allegations of sexual assaults and harassment, those cases will be removed from the military chain of command and handed over to a new special victims prosecution office by 2027, the Defense Department announced Wednesday.

The change is one of several the Pentagon plans to make based ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Female firefighters are being hazed and retaliated against by male firefighters at the Los Angeles Fire Department, according to graphic testimony given to a city commission hearing this week.

LAFD Battalion Chief Kris Larson, president of the Los Angeles Women in the Fire Service, told the LAFD's Board of Fire Commissioners ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — An alleged boss for Mexico's Sinaloa cartel has been charged by a San Diego federal grand jury on accusations of overseeing drug-trafficking operations at the Arizona border, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Sergio Valenzuela Valenzuela, 52, who goes by the nicknames "Gigio" and "Yiyo," was indicted in 2018 and ...Read more

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the New York Times and his niece Mary Trump over an award-winning investigative report on his tax avoidance — for which she provided crucial documents — is just the former president’s “latest stunt,” her lawyer said.

Donald Trump accused Mary Trump and the Times in the lawsuit of ...Read more

A federal court judge has dismissed all outstanding lawsuits against Ohio State University over its handling of sexual abuse allegations against former university doctor Richard Strauss.

Judge Michael H. Watson issued an opinion late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Columbus granting Ohio State's motion to close the case, saying plaintiffs ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Republican state lawmaker has filed legislation that would create Texas-style abortion restrictions in Florida allowing anyone to sue abortion providers or any person who helps someone get an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

The bill, filed Wednesday by state Rep. Webster Barnaby of Deltona would create ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday a section of the Heritage Act, a controversial law protecting monuments and statues, that requires a supermajority vote to change by the Legislature is unconstitutional.

In a unanimous opinion, the justices wrote that the lawmakers who initially passed the Heritage Act in 2000 ...Read more

WASHINGTON — People over age 65 and those at high risk of severe COVID-19 can receive a booster dose of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE vaccine, the Food and Drug Administration said, opening a new and more controversial phase of the U.S. immunization campaign.

The emergency-use authorization also allows boosters for people 18 and older whose ...Read more

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Surveillance footage at Heritage High School captured the shooting that left two students wounded Monday morning, according to court records filed this week in Newport News Circuit Court.

As the 15-year-old suspect walked down the school’s main hallway, he pulled his black backpack “to the front side of his body,” ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina man accused of threatening to bomb the U.S. Capitol in August is competent to stand trial, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled Wednesday, multiple media outlets reported.

Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, of Grover was indicted by a grand jury Sept. 14 on charges of threatening to use explosive ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden plans to meet in person with French President Emmanuel Macron in October, seeking to mend ties after a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine deal with Australia that outraged officials in Paris.

Biden held a phone call with the French president Wednesday, the first time the two leaders spoke since the submarine deal ...Read more