WASHINGTON — As they work to raise taxes on U.S. companies doing business abroad, Democrats are considering honing some details to align with a landmark deal for other countries to charge similar levies and curb tax avoidance in the process.

House Democrats drafted their international tax plan with an eye on the global talks when they made it...Read more

In another blow to the future of standardized testing for University of California admissions, a faculty group has recommended nixing the use of an alternative assessment to replace the SAT in a new report to UC leaders.

The UC Board of Regents, in a move that reverberated nationally, unanimously voted last year to drop the use of the SAT and ...Read more

BALTIMORE — When a 26-year-old man pursued by police crashed his vehicle in Baltimore County and died, a detective from a new division in the Maryland attorney general’s office, along with members of the state police crash team, was dispatched to the scene.

Two days later, on Oct. 11, investigators from the Independent Investigations ...Read more

It isn’t just people who are unvaccinated using Florida’s 25 monoclonal antibody treatment clinics, according to Florida officials.

About 45% of the more than 135,000 people who have received the COVID-19 treatment were fully vaccinated, state officials estimate. In parts of the state with higher vaccination rates, such as Miami-Dade County...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The COVID-19 vaccination rate is lower among California state workers than among the state's general population, according to data from the state Human Resources Department.

Fewer than two-thirds of state workers — about 62% — were vaccinated as of Oct. 7, according to preliminary figures provided by department ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff pleaded for President Donald Trump to release him from prison early, insisting he never denied his crimes but complaining that his 150-year sentence was more than some notorious traitors received.

“I am asking that the president commute my sentence simply as an act of mercy and grace,” Madoff...Read more

SINGAPORE — The U.S. Defense Department said Friday that it was working to provide condolence payments to relatives of 10 innocent Afghans killed in a mistaken drone strike and to help relocate some of them to the United States.

The payments were discussed in a virtual meeting Thursday between Dr. Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for ...Read more

AUSTIN, Texas — Moving with haste, the Texas Senate approved legislation Friday night that would require transgender students to play public school sports according to the "biological sex" listed on their birth certificate.

Republican senators sped matters by skipping a public hearing on House Bill 25, eliminating a step that had brought ...Read more

CARSON, Calif. — When Otilia Marquez drives through Carson with her mom and little sister, the air stinks so much that one of them always jokes: “Who farted? Who didn’t take a shower? Put your shoes back on!”

One afternoon, Marquez’s sister whipped out a can of Febreze, stuck it out the open car window and gave a spray. At home, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The former executive director of California's largest labor union and her husband were taken into custody Friday on charges including tax fraud, embezzlement, perjury and failure to pay unemployment insurance taxes.

Alma Hernández and her husband, Jose Moscoso, appeared in Sacramento Superior Court and then were booked ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden urged a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to hold accountable any witness who refuses to cooperate with the probe, as lawmakers moved toward a contempt finding for one of former President Donald Trump’s top advisers.

“I hope that the committee goes after them...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said he’d like to see his economic plan address a “whole range of issues,” even if funding for individual provisions must be pared back or timed to expire in order to keep the cost of the legislation down.

“The question is how much of what is important can we get in the legislation,” Biden told ...Read more

NEW YORK — New York Attorney General Letitia James launched her investigation Friday into the Brooklyn love-triangle shooting where an NYPD officer wounded her ex-girlfriend and executed a romantic rival with her service weapon.

New York’s top prosecutor will handle the probe into Officer Yvonne Wu’s lethal and unprovoked Wednesday ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The proliferation of homemade “ghost guns” has skyrocketed in Los Angeles, contributing to more than 100 violent crimes this year, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a report released Friday.

Detectives have linked the untraceable weapons to 24 killings, eight attempted homicides and dozens of assaults and armed ...Read more

United Kingdom Home Secretary Priti Patel ordered a review of police security for members of Parliament after Conservative MP David Amess was fatally stabbed at a meeting in his constituency.

The attack revives questions about the safety of lawmakers meeting face to face with residents in their districts, usually with little security. A 25-year...Read more

The U.S. continues to observe activity at North Korean nuclear sites that is “inconsistent with full denuclearization,” the Defense Intelligence Agency said in a report issued Friday.

The conclusion, based on observations at the Yongbyon nuclear site and elsewhere, echoes assessments delivered to former President Donald Trump by U.S. ...Read more

CHICAGO — A reputed Chicago gang member used his own name to purchase a car used in the slaying of Chicago rapper FBG Duck, then returned the vehicle less than two hours later when the dealership accused him of lying on a financing application, prosecutors said in a detention hearing Friday.

Tacarlos Offerd, 30, was one of five alleged ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Standing in front of a Broward County judge Friday morning, Parkland school gunman Nikolas Cruz finally uttered the word so many have waited to hear him say.

“Guilty,” he said. Again. And again. Four times, he admitted committing a crime — though it was not the crime that made him one of America’s most vilified...Read more