KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If Missouri voters overturn the state’s abortion ban in November, how widely available abortion eventually becomes will depend in large part on whether courts block the state’s current restrictions on medications commonly used to end a pregnancy.

Before Missouri became the first state to ban abortion moments after the U...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California has strengthened a new Beaver Restoration Program which is dedicated to supporting the species and their habitats.

With the passing of Assembly Bill 2196, the program has partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The initiative works with California tribal nations, private landowners and ...Read more

WASHINGTON — In a late Friday night missive to congressional leaders, President Joe Biden wrote that the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program is expected to run out of funding before Congress reconvenes after the November elections.

The SBA needs $1.6 billion to keep up with thousands of new applications coming in each day ...Read more

CHICAGO — Lawyers representing Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover filed a motion Friday asking the judge overseeing Hoover’s request for release from a life sentence to recuse himself because of his “intimidating” and “entirely inappropriate” comments at a hearing last week.

The request focuses on U.S. District Judge John ...Read more

Exiled opposition leader Edmundo González said he will return to Venezuela for the start of the new presidential term in January.

González, a presidential candidate in July’s presidential elections, presented detailed proof from a majority of polling stations that showed him as winner with nearly 70% of the vote. He fled to Spain last ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden sought to discourage Israel from attacking Iran’s oil fields, as the U.S. looks to shape Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to a ballistic-missile barrage and keep the region from descending into all-out war.

Biden, addressing reporters at the White House, acknowledged that Israel would respond ...Read more

NEW YORK — Sheena Wright, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ second in command at City Hall, is set to resign from her post in what would be another high-level departure from his administration, which has become besieged by a flurry of federal corruption investigations, according to multiple sources close to the matter.

The first deputy mayor�...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Odds are now high that a system developing in the Gulf of Mexico could become a tropical depression or storm before it makes its way to Florida next week, according to the National Hurricane Center.

As of the NHC’s 8 p.m. Eastern time tropical outlook, forecasters are looking at a broad area of low pressure in the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Menendez brothers have fought a decades-long battle for freedom since being convicted in 1996 in the sensational murders of their parents at the family’s Beverly Hills home.

For years, they made little progress.

But a series of events in the last year have brought them closer to their goal after spending 34 years behind ...Read more

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker will lead a trade mission to Japan accompanied by a number of top legislators, political allies and business people, his office said Friday.

The trip comes as Pritzker has announced ambitious pushes into quantum technology, clean energy and manufacturing, all of which were among the industries his office said would be ...Read more

At least 70 Haitians are dead and dozens of others are unaccounted for following a massacre in a farming community involving one of Haiti’s most ruthless armed groups.

The surprise attack happened in the early morning hours Thursday in Pont-Sondé, whose residents had been trying to defend themselves against the Gran Grif gang. It is raising ...Read more

A year of conflict has ushered in a new era of mass displacement in the Middle East.

Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent sustained Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Israel has expanded its operations on multiple fronts to include the West Bank, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.

With fighting continuing ...Read more

ATLANTA — An off-duty Atlanta police investigator was fatally shot Friday morning after breaking into a Douglas County home, officials confirmed.

The Douglas sheriff’s office said it was around 5 a.m. when deputies responded to a home in the 8000 block of Orkney Way near the St. Andrews Golf Club about reports of an attempted burglary. The ...Read more

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is being widely mocked for suggesting “they” control the weather as many Republican-leaning states, including her home state of Georgia, assess the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene.

“Yes they can control the weather,” the House Committee on Homeland Security official tweeted Thursday night, without...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Kim Kardashian wants Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers convicted in the grisly 1989 murders of their parents, to be freed.

The reality star, daughter of late O.J. Simpson attorney Robert Kardashian, has fashioned herself as an advocate for criminal justice reform. And, in a personal essay for NBC News, she wrote Thursday ...Read more

NEW YORK — Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Mayor Eric Adams’ embattled chief adviser, and former state Sen. Jesse Hamilton were joined on their recent trip to Japan by registered lobbyist Adam Clayton Powell IV and Lisa Lashley, a senior City Hall official overseeing hiring efforts, the Daily News has learned.

The trip, which Lewis-Martin has ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass selected Jim McDonnell to serve as the city’s next police chief Friday, ending a monthslong search process and ushering in a new era for one of the country’s largest police departments.

In picking the longtime lawman — who helped implement a federal consent decree as an LAPD assistant chief and...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orange County judge refused to suppress accused suitcase killer Sarah Boone’s initial interview with police, in which she made statements that could undermine her planned “battered spouse” defense.

Judge Michael Kraynick’s order showed up on the court’s website this morning. The ruling, coming in the final hours ...Read more

NEW YORK — The Department of Investigation is probing Mayor Adams’ administration over its controversial effort to install weapons scanners in the MTA subway system and other locations, the Daily News has learned.

The DOI probe into City Hall’s acquisition of weapons detectors from Massachusetts-based Evolv Technologies — which comes as...Read more