When New York police officers temporarily reduced their "proactive policing" efforts on low-level offenses, major-crime reports in the city actually fell, according to a study based on New York Police Department crime statistics.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, put a crack in the "broken windows" theory of ...Read more

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Here at the massive Luis Llorens Torres public housing complex on the east side of this wrecked capital, black floodwater stood stagnant as heaps of garbage grew higher.

"We have a car, but we can't go anywhere because of the water," said one resident, 63-year-old Juan Lopez, a retired security guard who was subsisting ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Passed over for higher command, U.S. Navy Adm. Scott Swift on Monday announced his unexpected retirement as commander of the Pacific Fleet.

"I have been informed by the Chief of Naval Operations that I will not be his nominee to replace Adm. (Harry) Harris as the Commander, U.S. Pacific Command," Swift wrote in a prepared statement...Read more

WASHINGTON -- North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker, the chairman of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, plans to deliver a frank, firm message to fellow Republicans Tuesday: Time is running out to fulfill all those promises you made last year.

Start acting fast, he's expected to tell a Capitol Hill news conference, or the party could ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Roger Stone, a long-time ally and informal campaign adviser to President Donald Trump, denied any collusion with Russia and accused a House panel of "cowardice" in a statement he plans to deliver Tuesday before a closed-door meeting with House Intelligence Committee staffers.

"Multiple members of this committee have made false ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has a message for those seeking to link climate change with this year's devastating hurricanes: Fossil fuels are saving lives.

Perry's address to oil industry executives Monday was interrupted by hecklers protesting the Trump administration's skepticism of climate change and its rollback of ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, urged Congress Monday to tread carefully as it considers limiting surveillance powers used by the nation's spy agencies for nearly a decade.

"This is clearly a major issue for the intelligence community," Coats told a group of journalists at his office in suburban Virginia. "It's ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, urged Congress Monday to tread carefully as it considers limiting surveillance powers used by the nation's spy agencies for nearly a decade.

"This is clearly a major issue for the intelligence community," Coats told a group of journalists at his office in suburban Virginia. "It's ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- A recent report by the Los Angeles Times that aides had warned President Donald Trump not to personally attack North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a "false narrative," the president's spokeswoman said Monday.

But Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, did not deny the facts of the story. The Times reported Friday...Read more

BEIRUT -- Sometimes, in the fractious world of Iraqi politics, no means yes.

That was the central message from Kurdish leaders Monday morning when Iraq's Kurds cast their ballots in a controversial independence referendum, despite repeated entreaties and threats from regional and world powers to stop the vote.

The referendum was to decide ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Thom Tillis introduced his "conservative Dream Act" on Monday to provide a pathway to citizenship for as many as 2.5 million young undocumented immigrants.

Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, and co-sponsors James Lankford, R-Okla., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, pitched their plan -- the Succeed Act -- as "merit-based" relief ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- One of Southern California longest-running and ugliest development battles ended in a historic truce Monday when environmental groups agreed to a deal that will allow a new city of 58,000 residents to rise in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The pact clears perhaps the largest remaining hurdle for the Newhall Ranch project, which was ...Read more