WASHINGTON -- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is asking former Rep. Blake Farenthold to pay for the June 30 special election to fill the seat the congressman vacated when he resigned earlier this month.

Abbott wrote a letter to Farenthold on Wednesday to "demand" that he "cover all costs" for the June 30 special election in Texas' 27th District.

...Read more

Here is a primer on the Golden State Killer from the pages of the Los Angeles Times:

Q: What do we know about the Golden State Killer?

A: The killer is believed to be responsible for 12 slayings, 45 rapes and more than 120 residential burglaries between 1976 and 1986.

The crimes began in Sacramento then moved south through Oakland, and Santa ...Read more

MIAMI -- Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez ran a Miami indoor gardening supply store favored by marijuana growers from across the nation -- some legal, some not. They bought light bulbs, fans and fertilizers with names such as "Bud Candy" and "Big Bud."

His business was so lucrative that he had to stash $22 million in buckets hidden above a closet in his...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A Knott County jury has awarded $67.5 million in damages to two coal miners who claimed defective dust masks led to their debilitating black-lung disease.

Of the total, $62.5 million was awarded for punitive damages against the mask maker, 3M Company, according to the verdict form. The remaining amount compensates brothers ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and the FBI will be making an announcement regarding one of the most notorious serial killers in California history on Wednesday, department officials said.

In the 40 years since the Original Night Stalker began his campaign of terror in Sacramento and moved south through Oakland, Santa ...Read more

It's a cosmic pileup in the far reaches of the universe and nothing like it has ever been seen before.

Using the most powerful telescopes on Earth, astronomers have spotted 14 burning-hot galaxies hurtling toward each other on an inevitable galactic collision course at the edge of the observable universe.

Computer models show that when these ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- One of North Carolina's most notorious all-male prisons is the focus of a court fight over religious liberty led by a transgender witch.

Jennifer Ann Jasmaine says in her handwritten, federal lawsuit that Lanesboro Correctional Institution is blocking the practice of her spiritual beliefs, which happen to be rooted in ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A dog seen trotting down a path with another dog's head in its mouth led Johnson County, Kan., authorities to a horrible site.

Eleven dead and dying animals were found on property owned by Julie Bernet, a Johnson County breeder of expensive German shepherds imported from Europe, and she was charged with multiple counts of ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- As gunman Nikolas Cruz skulked through Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, a person's chances of surviving depended largely on where they encountered him.

One student who came across him on the first floor got away as Cruz loaded his weapon, according to a chilling animation released Tuesday. And all students on ...Read more

NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- A jury of seven men and five women began deliberating Bill Cosby's fate in his sex assault retrial Wednesday.

"You're going to do justice in the case of Commonwealth v. William H. Cosby," Judge Steven T. O'Neill told the panel after instructing them on the charges against the entertainer.

O'Neill sent the jurors to a ...Read more

MIAMI -- When senior officials in Miami-Dade's government returned from an extended trade mission to China and Japan last month, the county took the unusual -- and possibly illegal -- step of erasing all the data from temporary phones issued for the trip.

A log by the county's Information Technology Department lists 13 phones assigned to county...Read more

WASHINGTON -- More than a year after President Donald Trump issued a travel ban that set off the first legal controversy of his presidency, the Supreme Court is set to consider whether the chief executive has the power to bar most immigrants and travelers from five heavily Muslim countries.

The justices will hear arguments Wednesday from ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Three people have been killed and at least seven other people have been wounded in shootings since just after noon Tuesday in Chicago, according to police.

A 19-year-old man was fatally shot in the 5100 block of West Chicago Avenue in the Austin neighborhood just before 9 p.m., police said in a media notification. He was wounded in ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Liberty Gratz is deaf and has vision loss.

That hasn't stopped her from working at Publix. But on the afternoon of April 22, she had an interaction with a customer that will stay with her.

Gratz was kneeling down to arrange items on a lower shelf, when a customer hit her.

"All of a sudden, I felt some woman hit me in my back,...Read more