IRS criminal investigators see cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens as ripe for fraud, including money laundering, market manipulation and tax evasion — and even celebrities could get caught up in the agency’s probes.

Digital assets have been a growing concern for government agencies as they’ve become more mainstream, with regulators ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Biden administration on Wednesday canceled two minerals leases for the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota, likely killing a project widely condemned for being too close to the pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

The huge underground mine would have tapped major reserves of copper and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — There is growing optimism that the overall omicron surge has peaked in California, but progress across the state remains uneven.

The improvement is most pronounced in places like Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area, where health officials have voiced increased confidence in recent days that the coronavirus test ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the Supreme Court’s 82-year-old liberal pragmatist, plans to retire this year, clearing the way for President Joe Biden to make his first appointment to the high court, two sources told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Breyer, a 1994 appointee of President Bill Clinton, is the senior member of the ...Read more

BEIRUT — The two trucks raced toward the prison and then split up. One hurtled into the gates, the other the security wall, before both erupted in fireballs of metal and masonry. With the perimeter breached, other suicide attackers swarmed inside, toting weapons for themselves and the fellow jihadists they aimed to release. They remained ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The paramedic who first rendered aid to an unresponsive George Floyd testified Wednesday that Floyd was likely already dead in the officers' restraint when he arrived.

Derek Smith, a paramedic for Hennepin Healthcare, recounted the events in the civil rights trial of three former Minneapolis police officers who were on scene ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday was set to provide Russia a written response that rejects most of its demands over Ukraine, as the Kremlin signaled that such a rebuff is certain to escalate the crisis.

With global tensions raging over a possible Russian invasion of the pro-West former Soviet republic, the Biden ...Read more

NEW YORK — The second New York Police Department officer to die from a Harlem apartment shootout will be laid to rest at St. Patrick’s Cathedral a few days after his partner’s funeral.

A wake for Officer Wilbert Mora will be held at the iconic Midtown church on Tuesday beginning at 1 p.m. with his funeral set for 10 a.m. the next day, ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The workplace at Leawood, Kansas, architecture firm Hoefer Welker was so sexist and hostile toward women that the CEO frequently referred to female subordinates as "sexy bitches," according to a federal lawsuit.

Margaret Fitzgerald, the former director of marketing strategies, describes the workplace culture and company ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Joe Ellicott — a close friend of disgraced Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg and a former radio talk show host — agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and distribution of a controlled substance, according to court documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Each charge carries a maximum ...Read more

Police believe the recent attacks on three dogs in a southeast Kansas town are related.

The last time a crime in Parsons, Kansas, got this much media attention was the 2013 quadruple homicide of a mother and her three children, Sgt. Jason Ludwig, a spokesman for the police department in Labette County, told The Star on Tuesday.

The southeast ...Read more

Activision Blizzard Inc. will release at least the next three games in its hit video game franchise "Call of Duty" on Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation, even after the publisher was bought by rival Microsoft Corp.

Before news of the $69 billion acquisition broke last week, Activision had already committed to make the next few "Call of Duty" ...Read more

DirecTV’s decision to drop One America News Network puts pressure on the conservative cable outlet to replace that lost revenue, possibly by building out its online presence.

That will be a steep hill to climb. The number of people installing OAN’s app has plummeted in the past year after surging around the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. ...Read more

California could see fewer cigarette butts and vape pods on the streets under a measure introduced Tuesday.

Assembly Bill 1690 would ban single-use cigarette filters, e-cigarettes and vape products in the state with the aim of benefiting the environment and public health.

"For more than half a century, tobacco filters have caused a public and ...Read more

Omicron has proven the most transmissible of any COVID-19 variant so far, straining hospital systems in every corner of the country. But it hasn’t changed the dynamics surrounding the politics of the pandemic in the states.

As the crisis grinds toward its third lethal year, states have shown little letup in their approaches to the emergency. ...Read more