CHICAGO — With the five-year anniversary of the slaying of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez looming, the woman accused of killing the teen and cutting her baby out of the womb in a sensational case that drew international attention was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Clarisa Figueroa, 51, entered a guilty plea on charges of first-degree murder...Read more

MIAMI — The American founder of an orphanage in Haiti pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to new federal charges accusing him of traveling from Miami to the island and sexually assaulting four underage boys under his care more than a decade ago.

But during his detention hearing in Miami federal court, a prosecutor said Michael Karl Geilenfeld “...Read more

House Speaker Mike Johnson slipped into deeper political peril Tuesday as a second GOP lawmaker backed an effort to oust him over his support for aid to embattled Ukraine.

Rep. Thomas Massie, an archconservative from Kentucky, said he would co-sponsor a measure introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, that could end Johnson’s ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In the market for senior police officials, Los Angeles is hiring.

As of this week, the city faces an unprecedented three vacancies in key LAPD leadership and oversight positions: chief, inspector general and executive director of the Board of Police Commissioners.

The current inspector general, Mark Smith, was named Monday as ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court cast doubt Tuesday on the legality of obstruction charges lodged against some 300 rioters arrested for breaking into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The court’s conservatives questioned whether the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was aimed at corporate accounting fraud, can be used more broadly to prosecute those...Read more

CHICAGO — With the five-year anniversary of the slaying of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez looming, the woman accused of killing the teen and cutting her baby out of the womb in a sensational case that drew international attention was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Clarisa Figueroa, 51, entered a guilty plea on charges of first-degree murder...Read more

NEW YORK — New York City has built a massive unconstitutional database of recorded phone conversations between jailed suspects and people on the outside — with the ability to track and sort them by the sound of the speaker’s voice and words used, a new lawsuit alleges.

From Jan. 1, 2020 through Jan. 1, 2022, the database contained just ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — A warrant has been issued for the arrest of state Rep. Kevin Boyle, Philadelphia police said Tuesday, after Boyle allegedly violated a protection from abuse order his ex-wife had filed against him.

Boyle, 44, who is seeking reelection to an eighth term, was expected to be charged with violation of a PFA by communication, said ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams’ legal defense trust has spent more than $743,000 on lawyer fees so far and recently hired onetime mayoral hopeful Bo Dietl’s private detective firm to vet donations to the fund, new filings reveal.

The trust, which Adams launched in November to cover costs associated with the FBI’s investigation into his ...Read more

Jewish families will gather for Passover this year in circumstances that will, like the celebration itself, reflect on dark times while looking ahead toward better ones to come.

The holiday lasts from the evening of April 22 to the evening of April 30 in 2024. The first two nights of the celebration involve a Seder, a ritual meal ...Read more

House Republicans on Tuesday delivered articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate, but the Democratic-led upper chamber planned to promptly reject what they deride as a politically motivated stunt.

A group of 11 GOP lawmakers marched across the Capitol to officially bring to the Senate the ...Read more

Some of Haiti’s best-known media personalities and journalists appealed for help Tuesday amid ongoing attacks by armed gangs that have shut down the international airport, paralyzed the capital and increasingly poses risks for those trying to cover the news.

In a joint appeal, 90 Haiti journalists and the group Reporters Without Borders ...Read more

BOSTON — Nearly 100 potential jurors arrived at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., this morning for the first date of the murder trial of Mansfield’s Karen Read.

Ahead of the arrival of the potential jurors, Judge Beverly Cannone issued her ruling on the most contentious pretrial issue: whether the defense could use the third-party ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Federal geologists blame the latest collapse of Highway 1 in Big Sur on a relatively common rockfall caused by weather, waves and gravity that eventually cracked the steep cliffside beneath the roadway, according to a new analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The good news is that researchers didn't see a larger landslide at ...Read more

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — When she was 16, Sara Tasneem said she had been forced to marry her rapist while she was six months pregnant.

“My abuser was 13 years older than me and he was able to marry me and continue abusing me for the following seven years under the protection of a marriage certificate,” Tasneem said.

Tasneem said she faced ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden came into office in 2021 vowing to undo Donald Trump’s harsh policies on the U.S.’s southern border and work with governments across Central America to reduce the motivations for their citizens to head north.

Tapping decades of experience with the region, Biden rebuilt relationships with efforts to boost economic ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida is about to make it harder to challenge books in schools.

A new law — signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday — will limit the number of books that can be challenged by people without children in a school district, a move the governor said will help reduce the number of frivolous challenges across the state.

...Read more

Alec Baldwin should be concerned after “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez received the maximum sentence for her role in the October 2021 on-set death of the Western’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, according to a legal expert.

Baldwin, 66, will stand trial in July for involuntary manslaughter, having inadvertently fired the live round that...Read more

The Anti-Defamation League recorded more incidents of nationwide antisemitism in 2023 than ever before — and only California reported more incidents than New York.

The ADL, which has been documenting hate crimes against Jews since 1979, said it tracked 8,873 cases of antisemitism last year. That marks a 140% spike from 2022, and equates to ...Read more