WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr on Wednesday stood by his 2019 appointment of prosecutor John H. Durham to investigate the origins of the inquiry into the 2016 Trump presidential campaign’s connections to Russia, and defended his close interactions with Durham during the probe.

Barr’s comments marked the first ...Read more

CHICAGO — One of the two Chicago police officers in a video released this week of a man being beaten while in custody was also captured in footage of a suspect being body-slammed on a city street the same year, records show.

Damien Stewart and community organizer William Calloway held a news conference at City Hall to discuss the video of the...Read more

WALTERBORO, S.C. — Two childhood friends of Paul Murdaugh’s each took the witness stand Wednesday to tell a jury that a third voice heard on a cellphone video, recorded minutes before Paul and his mother, Maggie, were murdered, is the voice of his father, Alex Murdaugh.

The 58-second video, played to the jury on the eighth day of Murdaugh�...Read more

SAN DIEGO — San Diego's General Atomics Aeronautical Systems recently offered to provide two MQ-9 Reaper drones to Ukraine for $1 but first must get approval from the U.S. government.

In a public statement released Wednesday, General Atomics Aeronautical Chief Executive Linden Blue confirmed that the company recently proposed transferring ...Read more

BALTIMORE — A lawsuit alleging that a Baltimore-area apartment management company owned by former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law illegally charged additional fees on late rent payments can proceed, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled this week.

The ruling by the state’s second-highest court is a loss for Westminster Management LLC,...Read more

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — A federal judge questioned Wednesday whether sweeping challenges to the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of Georgia voters amounted to voter intimidation by Texas-based True the Vote, a conservative organization that has promoted unproven claims of election fraud.

But an attorney for True the Vote responded that Georgia...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — FBI agents and a federal grand jury have spent more than two years investigating whether former Michigan House Speaker Rick Johnson and others received bribes in return for awarding state licenses to operate medical marijuana facilities, The Detroit News has learned.

The probe has the potential to raise new questions about ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Before he was arrested and charged this week in what prosecutors described as a "reign of terror" on Southern California roadways, the driver seen on video attacking other vehicles with a pipe had a history of enraged outbursts, vicious threats and domestic violence, according to authorities and court documents.

For weeks, the ...Read more

NEW YORK — Optimism was in short supply Wednesday for two ex-cons busted in a three-borough, two-hour armed crime spree — despite one suspect’s bold prediction of a short stay behind bars.

Suspects Alvin Velez, 34, and Carlos Perez, 24, remained in custody pending a Manhattan Federal Court appearance after robbing 13 people at gunpoint ...Read more

CHICAGO — Regina Michalski made homemade kolaczki and planted beautiful flowers in her Northwest Side backyard every year. Born in Poland in 1926, the “very smart” 96-year-old retired Motorola technician was fluent in German and Russian and lived through the Nazi occupation during World War II, her relatives said.

Many “wonderful’' ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Tom Girardi, the once-vaunted Los Angeles trial attorney, was indicted by federal grand juries in two states on fraud charges that allege he swindled more than $18 million from several clients who had endured catastrophic injuries or tragic deaths of loved ones, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

In Chicago, Girardi and his son-in...Read more

WASHINGTON — What started as an amendment about the Pledge of Allegiance devolved into a heated and prolonged debate Wednesday between members of the House Judiciary Committee during their first meeting of the new Congress.

The committee met to approve panel rules for the new Congress. But the jostling on a seemingly benign measure previews ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy left a White House meeting with President Joe Biden on Wednesday afternoon saying they had a “good conversation,” but made “no agreements, no promises” in regard to the debt limit.

The California Republican reiterated his position that he wants to lift the debt limit in a “sensible, ...Read more

Drought-weary California is entering February with deeper snowpack than it has seen in four decades, reflecting a healthy boost in the state's supply of water but also spurring concerns about dryness in the months ahead.

Statewide Sierra snowpack was 205% of normal for the date on Wednesday, said officials with the Department of Water Resources...Read more

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Congress must act to pass national police reform, Vice President Kamala Harris told mourners at the Wednesday funeral of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who died after being beaten bloody by Memphis police officers last month.

Harris’ trip to the Southern city comes five days after Memphis officials released nearly...Read more

MIAMI — He’s a physician and pastor who aspired to be Haiti’s president, amassing a small group of supporters who introduced him to key security contacts in South Florida who could help him acquire high-powered machine guns and silencers, men with military training and even financing.

But despite evidence that appeared like he was a ...Read more

Some members of the House Natural Resources Committee could be packing heat when they gather in the new session of Congress.

The panel on Wednesday dropped a rule it adopted in 2021, when Democrats were in the majority, that expressly prohibited its members from bringing firearms into their hearing room.

The committee, a common stage for ...Read more

Merck & Co.’s COVID-19 pill is giving rise to new mutations of the virus in some patients, according to a study that underscores the risk of trying to intentionally alter the pathogen’s genetic code.

Some researchers worry the drug may create more contagious or health-threatening variations of COVID, which has killed more than 6.8 million ...Read more

A dozen squirrel monkeys were stolen from a Louisiana zoo over the weekend, days before two monkeys were taken from the Dallas Zoo.

Zoosiana, which is located in Broussard, outside of Lafayette, said the theft occurred shortly before midnight on Saturday.

“The individual targeted facilities of smaller primates and specifically compromised ...Read more