HARTFORD, Conn. — Nearly five months after a controversial veto by Gov. Ned Lamont, state legislators battled again Wednesday over the best ways to generate affordable housing in a state with some of the highest real estate prices in the country.

Lawmakers have been clashing for years because of slow growth despite the high rental and home ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The trial of alleged political assassin Vance Boelter may not be scheduled for months because of the reams of evidence awaiting review by his defense attorneys.

A federal judge agreed to extend the deadline for attorneys to compile and review evidence in the investigation on Wednesday during a brief status conference in federal ...Read more

“Locked Up” rapper Akon was briefly arrested in Georgia last week on a bench warrant allegedly stemming from a suspended license and a prior failure to appear.

The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to TMZ on Wednesday that Chamblee police arrested the Grammy-nominated “Konvicted” artist shortly after 11 a.m. Friday on an out-of...Read more

CHICAGO — Attorneys who are alleging inhumane conditions at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview will be able to take photographs, talk to detainees and include a detention expert in an unusual tour of the west suburban facility, which will unfold over four hours on Thursday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura ...Read more

MIAMI — The Cuban rapper accused of attempting to solicit a murder-for-hire plot to avenge the killing of a fellow artist was found guilty in a Miami courtroom on Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Chocolate MC, whose legal name is Yosvanis Sierra Hernandez, schemed to kill Damian Valdez-Galloso, who is behind bars after being accused of murdering ...Read more

A Texas woman who threatened to kill the federal judge overseeing President Donald Trump’s criminal case over the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Wednesday to two years and three months in prison.

Abigail Jo Shry, a 45-year-old Alvin resident, apologized in court, reported CBS News. She told the judge the “abhorrent” and ...Read more

NEW YORK — The brother of a Chinese migrant from Queens who hanged himself while in ICE custody months ago is suing the federal government, demanding answers and transparency about his brother’s death and the agency facility where it happened.

Relatives of Chaofeng Ge, 32, said he was isolated and desperate when he hanged himself in the ...Read more

An end to Pennsylvania’s protracted budget impasse has finally arrived.

Passed with a 156-47 vote in the House and a 40-9 vote in the Senate, the $50.1 billion package moved through both chambers with bipartisan support. Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was a lead negotiator in the deal, signed the budget Wednesday afternoon, formally approving the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — California defense attorneys facing the threat of eviction. Some paying for case-related expenses out of pocket. Others forced to stop taking federal court appointed cases to ensure financial survival.

Defense attorneys laid out the dire circumstances in a Tuesday memo to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of ...Read more

A federal judge on Wednesday said he plans to grant bond to hundreds of immigrants whose arrests during “Operation Midway Blitz” are being challenged under a consent decree that limits so-called “warrantless arrests” that occur without a prior warrant or probable cause.

In a packed hearing at Chicago’s federal courthouse, U.S. ...Read more

CHICAGO — Congressional candidate and digital creator Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh and five co-defendants pleaded not guilty Wednesday on federal charges of conspiring to block a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from entering ICE’s facility in west suburban Broadview during a protest in September.

Abughazaleh, 26, who is ...Read more

Donald Trump “spent hours at my house” and “knew about the girls,” Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier accused of orchestrating sex trafficking of girls and young women, wrote in private emails House Democrats released Wednesday.

“Of course he knew about the girls,” Epstein said of Trump in an email to author and journalist ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As the government shutdown stretched on last week, Travis Puglisi saw something unusual at Joshua Tree National Park: two rangers doing graffiti checks.

“Do you know how often I run into rangers in the park and actually have conversations with them out in the field?” he said. “Never.”

Puglisi would know what’s normal....Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Scores of cars snaked around the block near Sunnyvale Community Services Wednesday, stretching toward the main road as a steady flow of people sought food throughout the morning.

Amid continuing confusion over SNAP benefits, the nonprofit is seeing demand for its food bank peak to the highest levels since the end of ...Read more

MIAMI — There will soon be more Border Patrol agents roaming South Florida to enforce border security and immigration law, thanks to the Trump administration’s billion-dollar injection of federal funds.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael W. Banks said the agency will permanently station more agents ...Read more

CHICAGO — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. government’s mandatory detention of Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano, the day care teacher arrested at a Chicago preschool, is illegal and she must be given a bond hearing.

According to the ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Daniel, Santillana will be given a bond hearing in front ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — After a week of unknowns and conflicting court opinions, Kentucky officials said Wednesday nearly 600,000 residents who rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to buy groceries should see partial benefits restored this week.

“Partial benefits are now flowing to eligible Kentuckians who ...Read more

WASHINGTON — After a delay of nearly two months as Speaker Mike Johnson kept the House out of Washington, a revolt over the Epstein files reached critical mass on Wednesday.

Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., wasted no time after being sworn into office, immediately backing an effort to shake loose documents related to deceased sex offender ...Read more