DETROIT — The law firm investigating ousted University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel is examining his use of university funds, officials confirmed.

The Board of Regents on Saturday fired Schlissel, 64, after it determined he was having a relationship with a university employee, which is prohibited under a new policy touted by Schlissel...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The allure of offshore diving proved fatal over the weekend when a Long Beach man died during an excursion to the Elly oil platform off the coast of Huntington Beach.

Theodore Watler, 64, became separated from a dive group who had hired a commercial vessel to take them out to the aging Elly platform Sunday morning.

The area is ...Read more

MIAMI — Florida on Tuesday reported 111,621 cases and 365 new deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after not reporting data during the long holiday weekend, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.

Of the deaths added, all were in the past 28 days, with about 85% of them having occurred in the last two weeks, ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thomas Reardon, a former Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph who over the years was named in more than two dozen child sexual abuse lawsuits, was found dead Sunday in a south Kansas City senior living facility.

Kansas City police told The Star that officers were dispatched with EMS personnel to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the inauguration of President-elect Xiomara Castro in Honduras next week, the White House said Tuesday, signaling a potential shift in relations with the Central American country as Harris continues efforts to deter migration.

“The vice president’s visit will further the commitment she...Read more

Tammy Kaminski can still recall the taste of benzene, a carcinogenic byproduct of burning jet fuel. For nine months after the Sept. 11 attacks, she volunteered for eight hours every Saturday at St. Paul’s Chapel, just around the corner from ground zero in New York City. She breathed in cancer-causing toxic substances, like fuel fumes and ...Read more

NEW YORK — A 77-year-old woman was killed and two other senior citizens injured in a fiery Bronx gas explosion that destroyed a three-story home Tuesday morning, police said.

The blast and subsequent raging blaze decimated the building in Longwood, with an eyewitness recounting how the residence collapsed like a flaming house of cards after ...Read more

The judge overseeing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy approved its debt-cutting plan, a decision that leaves the island poised to exit bankruptcy after hurricanes, political turmoil and the pandemic prolonged the more than four-year process.

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain released the ruling Tuesday, saying “the provisions of the plan...Read more

Team Roc, the social justice arm of rapper Jay-Z's Roc Nation, renewed its calls Tuesday for an intense investigation into alleged corruption in the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, saying there is no excuse to justify the Justice Department's "silence."

In a letter taken out as an advertisement in The New York Times, the organization, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court hears oral argument Wednesday in Sen. Ted Cruz’s challenge to a relatively obscure campaign finance provision, in another case that pits the free speech rights of candidates against a law meant to limit the influence of money in politics.

The Texas Republican’s lawsuit brings the Bipartisan Campaign Reform ...Read more

OXFORD, Mich. — Kylie Ossege, the longest-hospitalized victim in the Nov. 30 Oxford High School shooting, has been back home for the past week, her family said.

Ossege's family provided an update Sunday on her GoFundMe page, which has raised about $139,000 of the $150,000 it seeks to aid in her recovery. Ossege, 17, was shot in the chest.

"...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kevin Strickland, who was freed from prison in November after suffering Missouri's longest known wrongful conviction, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state's prison medical provider, alleging it neglected his serious back needs.

In the federal lawsuit, attorneys for 62-year-old Strickland, who now uses a wheelchair, ...Read more

Accused synagogue shooter Robert Bowers wants his trial moved somewhere else.

In a long-expected move, his lawyers on Monday asked a judge for a change of venue, saying pre-trial publicity makes a fair trial in the Western District of Pennsylvania impossible.

Media coverage in the Pittsburgh region has created a "presumption of guilt," the ...Read more

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pitched a $216 billion state budget proposal on Tuesday that would increase education spending, fund pandemic recovery initiatives and provide bonuses for health care and front-line workers

Bolstered by federal COVID-19 funds and unexpectedly high tax receipts, Hochul sought to strike a fiscal balance...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Deaths from COVID-19 reached 20,000 people in North Carolina on Tuesday, a dark benchmark in the ongoing pandemic.

The milestone comes less than a year after the state hit the 10,000 mark, which happened in February.

The state Department of Health and Human Services reported more than 100,000 new cases over the holiday ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she believes there's "absolutely" enough evidence to bring criminal charges against 16 Republicans who signed a certificate falsely claiming to be the state's presidential electors in December 2020.

Nessel, a Democrat and the state's top law enforcement official, made the comment ...Read more

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Connecticut woman charged with driving a rented SUV through barriers at Mar-a-Lago in January 2020, prompting the Secret Service and Palm Beach County sheriff's officers to fire at her vehicle, was temporarily insane at the time of the incident, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer accepted Hannah ...Read more

NEW YORK — A Bronx gas explosion sparked a massive fire and building collapse Tuesday, killing one resident, police said.

The fireball destroyed a three-story home on Fox Street near Intervale Avenue in Longwood after igniting about 10:50 a.m.

An 82-year-old woman was killed and a 77-year-old woman was critically hurt, police said. A 68-year...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The federal civil rights trial for three former Minneapolis police officers indicted in connection with George Floyd's killing is set to begin Thursday. The men, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, all face Justice Department charges of abusing their position as police officers to deprive Floyd of his constitutional ...Read more