ATLANTA — The legal battle over whether counties have the right to draw their own district lines went to the Georgia Supreme Court Wednesday.

The case involves the Cobb County Commission’s decision to overrule state legislative redistricting, which would have drawn a Democratic commissioner out of her district mid-term, and claim it could ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Convicted killer and fraudster Alex Murdaugh will appeal his 40-year sentence for federal financial crimes.

His lawyers on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 40-year sentence — perhaps the stiffest ever for financial crimes in South Carolina — was handed down on April 1 by U.S. ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Administrative positions and offices dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion are likely to be eliminated at all public universities across North Carolina following a vote Wednesday by members of the board that oversees the campuses.

The UNC System Board of Governors’ University Governance committee approved a policy ...Read more

NEW YORK — More than 100 pro-Palestinian students Wednesday occupied the main lawn of Columbia University as college President Minouche Shafik defended before Congress her handling of the school’s response to campus antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Members of the House Committee on Education & The Workforce grilled Shafik on the ...Read more

Sentencing has been scheduled for Nicolae Miu, the Prior Lake, Minnesota, man who was convicted of stabbing a teenager during a 2022 confrontation at the Apple River in western Wisconsin.

Miu, 54, will learn on July 31 his sentence from St. Croix County District Judge Michael Waterman after jurors found him guilty on April 11 of first-degree ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says the local labor market would benefit from an influx of workers seeking asylum in the United States legally but who are now stuck in crowded shelters in big cities like New York as they await work permits.

“All are welcome in Kansas City,” Lucas said Tuesday in a social media post in ...Read more

NEW YORK — Over 1,600 illegal mopeds, motorcycles, ATVs and dirt bikes were pulled off New York City streets in a massive NYPD crackdown on the ear-splitting rides, police say.

Cops seized scores of scooters and mopeds without proper registrations and license plates during a 10-day operation across the five boroughs last week. ATVs and dirt ...Read more

The team prosecuting suspected Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann shared with his lawyers lab reports and disclosures focused on 388 leads detectives were investigating.

Heuermann appeared in court Wednesday with his lawyers, who despite the shared information, said they have not received all the evidence they are entitled to.

But Suffolk...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Wednesday to dispense with impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas without a trial, in a show of procedural hardball from the Democratic caucus.

Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who had said his party would quickly dispense of the impeachment, made two procedural ...Read more

DENVER — The Colorado Senate gave initial approval Tuesday to a constitutional amendment that seeks to ultimately allow victims of years-old child sexual abuse to file lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions that protected them.

But Republican opposition, which solidified in late February, still threatens to derail the effort ...Read more

ATLANTA — A faction of protesters who oppose the city’s planned public safety training center have caused more than $10 million in damage by torching construction equipment and police vehicles and committing other acts of destruction throughout the metro area, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Wednesday.

“They do not want Atlanta to have ...Read more

RICHMOND, Va. — After months of heated budget negotiations, the legislature’s Democratic majority and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin have agreed it’s best to scrap the current proposals and start from scratch.

“We’ve got work to do,” said Youngkin, speaking to reporters at the capitol Wednesday. “We will be calling a special ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senators were sworn in Wednesday for their third impeachment trial in four years, this time of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.

Three hours later, they had voted along party lines to dismiss both counts against Mayorkas.

House Republicans, who say Mayorkas has failed to fulfill his duties in upholding ...Read more

The family of O.J. Simpson announced last week the former football star died on April 10 “surrounded by his children and grandchildren.”

But according to Simpson’s longtime lawyer Malcolm LaVergne, the 76-year-old father of four was a sole visitor away from dying alone.

LaVergne declined to tell The Associated Press who was at Simpson’...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan’s 1963 album "The Sidewinder" has been added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry for 2024.

"The Sidewinder," recorded when Morgan was 25, became a surprise hit and is Blue Note Records’ biggest selling album to date. It is one of the 25 songs, albums, or ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Authorities are looking for a group of up to 20 people suspected of committing a string of what Los Angeles police are calling "flash robberies," during which a large group descends on a store, steals merchandise, then runs out.

The robberies have occurred mostly in the evening at stores within a few miles of one another, near ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson pulled the trigger Wednesday on an emergency aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, along with a separate bill on border security that came after a late night of negotiating with GOP members.

Appropriators released three separate bills for Ukraine, Israel, Indo-Pacific allies and the domestic submarine ...Read more

The Biden administration will reimpose broad sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry because the country’s strongman leader, Nicolas Maduro, failed to honor commitments signed in Barbados last year to allow for a free and fair elections this year and banned the elected opposition candidate María Corina Machado from running for president.

...Read more

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump complained Wednesday about jury selection in his Manhattan hush money case as the trial moves faster than expected toward opening statements.

After prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed on a surprisingly robust total of seven jurors in one day, Trump sought to tap the brakes on the process that seemed...Read more