Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he has directed Secretary of State Laurel Lee to investigate Facebook Inc. for “alleged election interference.”

In a news release Monday, DeSantis’ office said the review comes after a Wall Street Journal story on the company.

The Wall Street Journal’s review of Facebook documents found that the company ...Read more

North Korea test-fired what appeared to be at least one ballistic missile just as its envoy was preparing to address the United Nations, in a pointed gesture of defiance against international resolutions meant to prevent such launches.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectile was fired at 6:40 a.m. local time from land toward ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. — An ex-U.S. Army Ranger from Connecticut faces extradition to the Netherlands where authorities say he was part of a plot by former and active duty American soldiers who hired themselves out as a professional hit squad and murdered a German businessman.

Jacob Mazeika grew up in Bristol and was living in New Haven when federal...Read more

MIAMI — U.S. Coast Guard crews based in Key West stopped a speedboat off the Dominican Republic last week that the agency said was hauling 10 bales of cocaine.

The total weight of the drugs was around 250 kilograms with a wholesale value of about $7.5 million, according to a Coast Guard press release issued Monday.

The 25-foot boat was about...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The nation’s largest prosecutor’s office is moving to dismiss roughly 60,000 marijuana convictions, the latest step to undo what some reform advocates consider the damage caused by narcotics enforcement carried out before Californians voted to legalize marijuana, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced ...Read more

NEW YORK — They believe R. Kelly can die — in prison.

A Brooklyn federal jury found the sex trafficking R&B superstar guilty on all nine counts Monday, delivering a verdict that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life.

The panel deliberated for just nine hours before convicting the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer of a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Nearly six years after the worst methane gas leak in U.S. history forced more than 8,000 families in Porter Ranch to flee their homes, Southern California Gas Co. has agreed to pay a settlement of up to $1.8 billion.

In an announcement Monday, the gas company and its parent, Sempra Energy, deny any wrongdoing. The settlement ...Read more

MIAMI — A second federal lawsuit aimed at stopping sports betting in Florida was filed Monday in the District of Columbia, this time with the backing of two of Miami’s most outspoken critics of gambling, developer Armando Codina and auto retailer Norman Braman.

The lawsuit against U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland alleges that the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday received a COVID-19 booster shot as part of a broader, public push to promote vaccinations in the hopes of slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“Now, I know it doesn’t look like it, but I am over 65. And that’s why I am getting my booster shot today,” said Biden, 78, before receiving ...Read more

New York City may begin to bar thousands of unvaccinated school personnel from their jobs after a three-judge federal appellate court panel lifted a temporary injunction preventing such a move.

The court issued the surprise ruling Monday evening but gave no reasons for the decision, other than saying the injunction that had been entered Friday ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Monday ordered that all correctional officers and staff entering California’s prisons be vaccinated.

The judge sided with a federal court-appointed receiver overseeing the medical care there and rejected efforts to block it by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the prison guards union.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar’s ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy accidentally opened fire inside a Van Nuys courtroom last month, potentially injuring a colleague and prompting an internal investigation, officials said.

The Sheriff's Department confirmed the shooting took place in the Van Nuys courthouse on Aug. 16, describing the incident as an "...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska, already the state with the country’s worst COVID-19 recent-case rate, now also holds one of the country’s highest rates of recently reported deaths.

The state reported another 21 deaths Monday after adding 44 virus-related fatalities — many from last month — to the total last week.

The delta variant and ...Read more

NEW YORK — Chicago-born R&B singer R. Kelly sat nearly motionless in a federal courtroom in New York on Monday, surrounded by his attorneys but looking very much alone.

Gone was the superstardom and all the trappings that for years had come with it: the entourage of bodyguards and managers, the drivers and runners, the sycophants and hangers-...Read more

DETROIT — COVID-19 transmission is at the highest risk level designated by the federal government in every county in Michigan with the addition of Sanilac County in data released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday.

Sanilac County, which previously had a "substantial" risk of virus transmission, became the last...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Nearly six years after the worst methane gas leak in U.S. history forced more than 8,000 families in Porter Ranch to flee their homes, Southern California Gas Co. has agreed to pay a settlement up to $1.8 billion.

In an announcement Monday, the gas company and its parent, Sempra Energy, deny any wrongdoing. The settlement comes ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed Monday the Republican-controlled state Legislature's latest attempt to transfer executive-branch powers — this time, the attorney general's — to itself.

Senate Bill 360 would have prevented any state agency from settling certain lawsuits without the approval of North Carolina's General ...Read more

NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul took executive action Monday to allow medically trained National Guard troops to fill in for hospital workers who are refusing to get their COVID-19 shots despite the state’s vaccine mandate in health care settings.

The mandate requires doctors, nurses and other health care workers statewide to show proof of ...Read more