CHICAGO — Three Illinois men were arrested Wednesday on federal charges alleging they illegally entered the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.

Anthony Carollo, 23, his brother, Jeremiah Carollo, 45, and their cousin, Cody Vollan, 31, were all charged with misdemeanor counts of unlawfully entering a restricted government building and ...Read more

Hundreds of truckers who haul goods at Southern California ports and railyards are petitioning to unionize, hoping to convince federal authorities they’re really employees and not contractors as their company claims.

In a Wednesday filing with the National Labor Relations Board, the Teamsters union requested a unionization election be held ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday sought to reframe his presidency as one “of challenges but also enormous progress,” even as he acknowledged voters were disheartened in the face of the persistent and deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

“For all this progress, I know there’s a lot of frustration and fatigue in this country,” Biden...Read more

DETROIT — School officials did not discover ammunition on display by Ethan Crumbley the day before the Nov. 30 Oxford High School shooting, the district's superintendent wrote in a statement disputing multiple accusations made in a lawsuit against the district.

Oxford School District's Superintendent Tim Throne blasted the lawsuit, filed by ...Read more

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has tested positive for COVID-19 and is working from home, his office said Wednesday.

Paxton's communications office declined to address questions about his vaccination status.

Paxton joins other high-profile Texas politicians in contracting COVID-19, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who credited ...Read more

CHICAGO — A group of Chicago civil rights attorneys signed a letter to Mayor Lori Lightfoot Wednesday asking her to withdraw an ordinance introduced in September that aims to allow the fining of gang members and gives police the authority to seize their property.

The proposal, called the “Victims’ Justice Ordinance,” was introduced as ...Read more

WASHINGTON — An aerospace contractor’s alleged overcharging of millions of dollars for military spare parts is triggering the latest partisan debate over where to draw the line between too much oversight of Pentagon contractors and not enough.

The Defense Department inspector general reported last month that Cleveland-based TransDigm Group ...Read more

DETROIT — Attorneys for accused Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley expected to argue Wednesday for the teen to be relocated to a juvenile facility while he awaits trial but any discussions were held privately with Judge Kwame Rowe pending a formal hearing next month.

In a brief virtual status conference with three assistant prosecuting...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A 15-week ban on most abortions moved forward Wednesday in the Florida Legislature, despite fervent opposition from Democrats and abortion rights advocates.

A House committee advanced the measure on a 12-6 party-line vote in the first legislative debate on the controversial bill. Abortion is presently legal up to 24th week...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The three Sharon Hill police officers who fired at a car at a high school football game in August, killing 8-year-old Fanta Bility, apparently did so in violation of the department’s use-of-force policy, according to documents reviewed by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

That policy, adopted in January 2016, bars officers from ...Read more

CHICAGO — Cook County Judge William Raines has been taken off the bench of his felony courtroom after he was caught on a YouTube livestream last week mocking an attorney who had argued before him earlier that day.

According to an order signed Tuesday by Chief Judge Timothy Evans, Raines has been reassigned to “restricted duties or duties ...Read more

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump lied about seemingly everything related to his business empire, from the value of his properties around the world to “objective facts” like the size of his penthouse in Trump Tower, Attorney General Letitia James charged in an explosive 115-page petition.

New York State’s top prosecutor said that she’...Read more

MIAMI — A key suspect in the murder investigation of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was arrested Wednesday by federal agents in Miami after being extradited to the United States.

Rodolphe Jaar, a Haitian businessman who had been convicted of U.S. cocaine-trafficking charges a decade ago, was detained by Dominican authorities earlier this ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — A Seminole High School student was wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon that forced a lockdown of the campus by police, according to a school official.

The Sanford Police Department said on social media that it was responding to the shooting at around noon and that “there is no longer an active threat.”

According to ...Read more

NEW YORK — The teenager who killed Barnard College student Tessa Majors during a botched robbery was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years to life in prison.

“At the end of his sentence, Rashaun Weaver goes home. Tess doesn’t,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos said before Rashaun Weaver learned his fate.

Weaver was 14 ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Three former Minneapolis police officers who were originally scheduled to be tried in March in state court in George Floyd's death will instead be tried in June.

Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill issued an order Wednesday moving the trial's start date from March 7 to June 13 after defense attorneys and ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s refusal to cooperate with the congressional committee investigating last year’s Capitol assault marks his most definitive rejection of the Jan. 6 probe — thrusting him and the committee into uncharted legal and political waters.

His rebuke of the panel pushes its members closer to the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the Republican National Committee joined Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Wednesday in urging the Supreme Court to strike down a campaign funding law that bars winning candidates from collecting checks from donors to pay off personal campaign debts of more than $250,000.

It's the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony J. Blnken delivered in-person assurances to Ukraine’s besieged leaders Wednesday, threatening to punish Russia if it invades the former Soviet republic.

“The world is watching,” Blinken said in a short news conference with Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in the capital city of Kyiv.

...Read more

A website through which people in the United States can request free COVID-19 tests from the government launched Tuesday, Jan. 18. But some people have reported technical issues with ordering the tests.

President Joe Biden’s administration is purchasing 1 billion rapid at-home tests to be made available for free as the omicron coronavirus ...Read more