WASHINGTON — ​House lawmakers’ appetite for earmarking has grown a year after Democrats resurrected the practice, particularly among Republicans who will face a sensitive decision on whether to maintain “community project funding” in the next Congress if they retake the chamber in November.

Thus far, 121 House Republicans have ...Read more

Two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who investigated Larry Nassar, the former U.S. women’s gymnastics team doctor convicted of sexual abuse, won’t face criminal charges, the Justice Department said.

The decision was made after multiple reviews of evidence and the recommendation of prosecutors, and despite findings that the agents ...Read more

UVALDE, Texas — Under a beating Texan sun, Guadalupe Salazar marveled at the family and friends all around her cooking chicken and burgers on a flaming grill, pouring cups of homemade lemonade and soaping down pickups as part of a pop-up “car wash and plate sale” near the heart of town.

All she could think of were the 21 families who had ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A decades-old plan to widen one of America's busiest cargo corridors was scrapped Thursday, as the agency acknowledged it must find a new way to lessen traffic without adding lanes.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority unanimously voted to end the $6 billion expansion plans for most of the 710 Freeway, ...Read more

UVALDE, Texas — With criticism swelling about the police response to the Texas elementary school massacre, a law enforcement official said Thursday that the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers entered the school “unobstructed” through an unlocked door 12 minutes after police were alerted about a man nearby with a rifle.

Those ...Read more

UVALDE, Texas — With criticism swelling about the police response to the Texas elementary school massacre, a law enforcement official said Thursday that the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers entered the school “unobstructed” through an unlocked door 12 minutes after police were alerted about a man nearby with a rifle.

Those ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — More than a dozen train cars derailed Thursday afternoon after a train collided with a dump truck in Harmar, sending many of the cars into an inlet along the Allegheny River.

County dispatchers said the derailment occurred around 3:50 p.m. in the 2400 block of Freeport Road in Harmar. The area is between the Hulton Bridge and ...Read more

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the National Rifle Association should postpone its convention in the city this weekend out of respect for the victims of the nation’s second deadliest school shooting this week in Uvalde, Texas.

“There comes a point in time when people have to recognize it’s disrespectful to be talking about guns when ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Charles Manson follower and convicted murderer Patricia Krenwinkel has been found suitable for parole, according to an announcement Thursday by state prison officials.

Krenwinkel, 74, is California’s longest-serving female inmate and was a participant in the 1969 murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate by the Manson “family,�...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — A state investigator who looks into teacher misconduct demanded to know who in Orange County Public Schools authorized the purchase of the book “Gender Queer,” a controversial memoir the district pulled from several high school libraries in late October, according to emails between the employee and the school district.

“...Read more

UVALDE, Texas — With criticism swelling about the police response to the Texas elementary school massacre, a law enforcement official said Thursday that the gunman who killed 19 children and 2 teachers entered the school “unobstructed” through an unlocked door 12 minutes after police were alerted about a man nearby with a rifle.

Victor ...Read more

NEW YORK — What a buzzkill!

A Long Island disc jockey who filmed himself smoking weed inside the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 insurrection was sentenced Thursday to 3 years and five months in prison.

“This is history! We took the Capitol,” Greg Rubenacker declared on infamous cellphone footage played at his sentencing in U.S. ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — The 66-year-old grandmother of the man who killed 21 people at a Southwest Texas elementary school Tuesday is in stable condition after police said the gunman shot her in the face before going to the school.

The attacker, Salvador Ramos, killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday.

...Read more

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — May Wells’ heart sank as she watched her husband leave their Williamsburg home in the back of a police car. Her husband, Ray, suffered from early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and his condition had deteriorated to the point that Wells called for help.

“He was having these delusions that there were people in the house ...Read more

SAN JOSE — More than a year after five people were stabbed there in a brutal attack that sent shock waves through the community, Grace Baptist Church in downtown San Jose is facing a new lawsuit that accuses it of failing to protect those who worked and took refuge on the property.

The lawsuit blames the church and its nonprofit partner, ...Read more

DUPONT, Wash. — A yellow school bus carefully chugged up a curving gritty driveway, past early 20th-century dairy barns to the top of the hill of what used to be known as Braget Farm.

Birdsongs and cool, late April morning air greeted the Meadows Elementary School fourth graders as they bounded down the bus steps and gathered outside the ...Read more

UVALDE, Texas — Two days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School here, survivors are recounting stories of the horrifying moments they endured as they were attacked.

Some children hid from the killer under tables, while others faked their deaths by smearing blood on themselves. Some were shot multiple ...Read more

NEW YORK — Donald Trump and two of his adult children must testify in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation into the former president’s family real estate business, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. had fought a February order by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ...Read more

OXFORD, Mich. — Several hundred Oxford High School students walked out of class Thursday, gathering on the school's football field after leaving the building to honor students and teachers killed in Texas on Tuesday.

Footage posted on social media from other outlets shows the students standing in a "U" shape after filing from the school onto ...Read more