TAMPA, Fla. — A legislative proposal that charted the clearest course in years for reviving Florida’s storied Ocklawaha River, dubbed by supporters as the state’s “next great restoration project,” appeared destined for success last month.

Over several weeks, the bill that required a state plan to restore the winding north-central ...Read more

At the time, Francisco thought the worst had happened on that day in August, when he was stopped and arrested by ICE on his way to work in South Jersey.

But he never imagined the odyssey that would follow — a series of transfers among detention centers that propelled him through several states and different court jurisdictions, moving him 1,...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s environmental agency plans to test the soil at an elementary school near Darlington for toxic forever chemicals after learning the property may have been a disposal site for a textile plant’s contaminated sewer sludge.

The S.C. Department of Environmental Services says it has records showing that 91 tons ...Read more

Israel said it will no longer target energy infrastructure after an attack on an Iranian gas field sparked retaliatory strikes against energy assets across the Middle East, causing oil and gas prices to surge and prompting a rebuke from President Donald Trump.

“Israel acted alone,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference...Read more

Denver Auditor Tim O’Brien released a critical report on Mayor Mike Johnston’s homelessness program Thursday, calling his key initiative “poorly planned” and claiming it had cost millions of dollars more than the office reported.

“They needed to have, really, a better plan in place before they started executing,” O’Brien said in ...Read more

President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced a nuclear power project in the southern U.S., the latest initiative stemming from an investment fund the countries established as part of a trade pact.

At the White House on Thursday, the two leaders said that GE Vernova Inc. and Hitachi Ltd. will build BWRX-300 small ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — During testimony in a Minneapolis courtroom, attorneys and previously detained immigrants revealed more insight into their difficulties accessing counsel at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, including instances that came after a judge ordered the U.S. government to overhaul how it offered legal services.

In February, U....Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Another round of “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump is scheduled for Saturday, March 28, with organizers describing a rally at the Minnesota Capitol as a “national flagship” for more than 3,000 events across the U.S.

At noon that day, they plan to march from three separate locations in St. Paul and ...Read more

FRESNO, Calif. — The Fresno County Board of Supervisors has called a special meeting next week to decide whether to strip civil rights leader Cesar Chavez from the eponymous holiday annually March 31.

The special meeting is 11:30 a.m. Monday in the chambers of the Hall of Records.

The board announced the special meeting Wednesday afternoon, ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Santa Clara County judge is weighing whether to remove District Attorney Jeff Rosen and his office from retrying a felony vandalism case against five pro-Palestinian activists — a ruling that could upend one of the most serious prosecutions in the country tied to the wave of campus protests in 2024.

Judge Kelley Paul ...Read more

CHICAGO — It has been more than 50 years since the Rev. Jorge Morales boarded a plane from Chicago headed toward Coachella, California, to join a picket line in support of higher pay and benefits for farmworkers.

But the now 78-year-old Elmhurst resident can still remember César Chavez, the prominent co-founder of the United Farm Workers. ...Read more

After 21 months of struggling to help Haiti’s security forces reign in armed gangs, the international security mission led by Kenya is beginning to draw down, signaling the troubled Caribbean nation’s transition to a new phase of international intervention.

A group of 215 Kenyan police officers who formed the second contingent of the ...Read more

SPRINGFIELD — In a race that took nearly two full days to decide, North Side lawmaker Margaret Croke secured the Democratic nomination for Illinois comptroller on Thursday, edging out west suburban state Sen. Karina Villa.

With 92% of the estimated vote totals counted, Croke of Chicago won with 34.6%, followed by Villa of West Chicago, who ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Museum Board of Trustees is seeking to remove Cesar Chavez, a storied labor leader and civil rights icon, from the California Hall of Fame after an article published Wednesday in The New York Times revealed disturbing allegations of sexual abuse of girls and women for years.

In a written statement issued ...Read more

The flood of outside money that reshaped Illinois’ Democratic primaries on Tuesday delivered uneven returns for the big-money interests that fueled it.

So-called super PACs, or political action committees with unlimited raising and spending power, and aligned organizations poured nearly $33 million into four closely watched Chicago-area ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Over the course of this week, numerous organizations have taken steps to withdraw support for labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, who died in 1993.

The backlash came after the New York Times published an investigation into Chavez after multiple women — including Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United ...Read more

Aliya Rahman, whose arrest during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis went viral, will not face charges after she was arrested at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech in February.

Rahman, a south Minneapolis resident, attended the speech as a guest of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar. The Democrat’s office said Rahman was removed from ...Read more

The political and security shockwaves unleashed by recent events in Venezuela are rapidly reshaping the regional landscape — and for Colombia, they may represent a rare moment of opportunity after years of instability along its eastern border.

Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez said on Thursday that the evolving relationship ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Thursday filed three joint resolutions to block a pending sale of nearly $659 million worth of weapons — including 22,000 bombs — to Israel after the Trump administration this month told lawmakers it would use emergency measures to bypass congressional review of the sale.

The sale and subsequent...Read more