WASHINGTON — U.S. officials encountered more than 1.7 million migrants crossing the border with Mexico over the past year — a record number likely to escalate Republican attacks on the Biden administration’s handling of immigration.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 1.73 million southwest border encounters overall, but many were...Read more

WASHINGTON — Democrats ended the legislative week Friday without a “framework” agreement on their partisan spending and tax package, but leaders said they’d continue negotiating through the weekend on a handful of unresolved issues.

Optimism was so high that Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters the House may vote on the budget ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Democrats are facing the possibility of a much shorter extension of an expanded child tax credit they’ve touted than many had hoped, which could ultimately stave off cuts to other aspects of the benefit they are fiercely defending.

As negotiators work to trim the House’s budget reconciliation bill from a $3.5 trillion plus ...Read more

MIAMI — A gunman opened fired on Doral police officers on a busy road Friday morning, wounding two of them before he was felled by police bullets, the department said.

Both officers are expected to survive. One officer was injured in the face by shrapnel or broken glass. The other was shot in the chest, arm and leg — but he was saved by his...Read more

MIAMI — After a slowdown during the coronavirus pandemic, federal authorities in South Florida are accelerating their crackdown on foreign corruption in Venezuela’s government and the diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. banking system.

The latest target: Colombian businessman Alvaro Pulido Vargas, who has been charged...Read more

SEATTLE — Police are searching for at least one suspect in the fatal shooting of four people in an East Tacoma neighborhood on Thursday afternoon.

Two female victims and one male victim were shot dead on Everett Street, Tacoma police spokesperson Wendy Haddow said. A second male victim with life-threatening injuries was taken to a hospital, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused the Biden administration of undermining the independence of the U.S. judiciary as a presidential commission explores ways to revamp the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court.

In remarks honoring the tenure of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, McConnell referenced a recent ...Read more

NEW YORK — Welcome to the Bronx.

A heckler interrupted Vice President Kamala Harris' speech Friday as she promoted the Biden administration’s Build Back Better agenda at a YMCA in the borough.

Harris was discussing the details of the expansive infrastructure plan before a room packed with New York elected officials and some local families ...Read more

CHICAGO — Workers in state licensed day care centers will have to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing under an executive order Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued Friday.

The state estimates the order will apply to 55,000 workers at nearly 2,900 day care centers licensed by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Friday�...Read more

Sexual assault became an even more prominent issue at Lyft in recent years, according to the company’s community safety report released Thursday.

Although reported sexual assaults made up less than 1% of the ride-share giant’s completed U.S. trips in 2019, the latest year for which the report accounts, there was a significant uptick between...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis police officer was driving nearly 80 mph on residential streets when he struck Leneal Frazier's SUV this summer while pursuing a suspected stolen vehicle, resulting in Frazier's death, according to criminal charges filed Friday.

The Hennepin County Attorney's Office charged officer Brian Cummings with second-degree...Read more

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri taxpayers funded Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s trip to Texas Thursday to announce his filing of a lawsuit seeking to resume construction of a southern border wall, a spokesman confirmed Friday.

Schmitt’s office would not immediately release a tally of the costs, directing The Kansas City Star to file a public ...Read more

DETROIT — Redistricting experts urged the panel redrawing Michigan's voting boundaries to provide additional data and rationale to support the maps they've proposed so far, arguing the information will be essential if and when the maps are challenged in court.

The comments come as Michigan's Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission moves...Read more

The campaign to insulate California against another winter coronavirus surge got a major shot in the arm this week when federal health officials adopted criteria that will allow millions of additional residents to receive COVID-19 vaccine booster shots.

Eligible recipients will be able to book appointments for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida’s COVID-19 cases and positivity rate plunged this week to their lowest levels since the first week of the summer when the delta wave began its surge through the state.

The number of new cases for the week dropped to 15,314, according to a report released Friday by the Florida Department of Health. The case ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — A Broomall man who worked as an international tabloid journalist was convicted this week of forgery, identity theft and tampering with public records after state prosecutors said he “wielded electronic devices as weapons” by creating a racist email he claimed came from a Delaware County official.

Nikolaos Hatziefstathiou, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A document formally charging Robert Durst with murder in the death of his first wife was filed in a New York courthouse earlier this week, days after the real estate scion was sentenced to life in prison in California for the murder of his confidante, Susan Berman.

The one-page complaint formally charges Durst with second-degree...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday refused again to put on hold a Texas abortion law that makes it illegal for doctors to end a pregnancy after about six weeks.

Instead, the justices said they will hear arguments next month on whether the Justice Department has standing to sue Texas over a law that denies women the right to choose ...Read more

BALTIMORE — To hear Gov. Jim Justice tell it, West Virginia isn’t almost heaven. The state’s already there, and his earthly paradise beckons to Marylanders just beyond its borders.

Justice took to video Friday to preach annexation to the residents of Maryland’s three westernmost counties, embracing a quixotic request in official letters...Read more