An East Carolina University fraternity was suspended amid an investigation into reported hazing, university officials said Wednesday.

According to a university crime log, a “campus security authority” on Saturday received a report regarding an alleged hazing incident at Sigma Tau Gamma on Friday afternoon.

Sigma Tau Gamma has been placed ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Republican state lawmaker is drafting legislation to divide Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools into smaller districts and force new school board elections, a proposal that could dramatically reshape public education in Mecklenburg County.

North Carolina state Rep. David Willis, a Union County Republican, has not publicly ...Read more

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen was among 11 Democrats who missed Tuesday’s high-stakes vote on whether to move forward with impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an effort that was ultimately blocked by House Republicans.

Fellow Democrats lambasted the absences, which allowed Republicans to block the impeachment effort through a procedural...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced Wednesday he plans to serve as the top Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee when Democrats take control of Congress next year.

The move clears the way for Senate Ethics Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla., to use his seniority to ascend to ranking Republican on the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The White House's top lawyer has warned House Democrats that their planned investigations into President Donald Trump could expose them to criminal action, a threat that serves as an early sign of how combative the administration intends to be once Democrats take control of the House in January.

White House counsel Will Scharf ...Read more

In the years leading up to his conviction and sentencing in a London Court on rape and sexual assault charges, comedian-turned-YouTube conspiracy monger Russell Brand enjoyed being welcomed into the elite inner circle of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

That included becoming friends with Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who is ...Read more

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner plan to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday to continue a push for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, after a second day of talks between the sides in Abu Dhabi ended in less than two hours.

The envoys want to “try to make more progress on some of the issues that we ...Read more

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is standing by her controversial bill expanding abortion up to the day of birth, as well as her emergency declaration last week to immediately implement it, as the Boston Archdiocese and Catholic leaders across Massachusetts condemn the move.

Healey utilized her executive authority late last week to block a citizen ...Read more

BOSTON — A real estate industry professional said Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposal to scale back certain affordability requirements for developers is too modest to make a meaningful impact on jump-starting housing production in Boston.

Chris Lehman, director of the Small Property Owners Association, said the mayor should instead be focused on ...Read more

Blackbird Mountain Guides, the company whose guides were leading skiers out of the Sierra Nevada backcountry when an avalanche struck their group and killed nine people, has ceased operations, according to an undated note on its website.

“Blackbird Mountain Guides is no longer operating,” a brief note on the company’s home page states. �...Read more

During campaign season, headlines were full of candidates who spoke openly about their faith – and many of them were Democrats.

Adam Hamilton, the new senator-elect from Kansas, is pastor of the United States’ largest United Methodist congregation. Frederick Haynes, who will represent a Texas district in the U.S. House of ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The election of Nithya Raman, a democratic socialist, as the next mayor of Los Angeles promises to have a profound impact on the city’s police force — although perhaps not right away.

Among the most important and widely watched decisions facing the city’s next mayor is about what to do with LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell. Raman ...Read more

Outgoing U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman of New York on Wednesday handed over the reins of the so-called House Bagel Caucus to incoming U.S. Rep. Micah Lasher, keeping the hole-y post in Manhattan hands for another two years.

Goldman, who lost his seat in a primary landslide to incoming Rep. Brad Lander, passed the baton of the dough-little gig to Lasher...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration signaled it would respond aggressively to a Democratic-led Congress with a letter this week threatening to prosecute lawmakers for oversight efforts.

The letter from White House Counsel Will Scharf sent Monday to House Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., argued that ...Read more

As Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the state’s 22nd death warrant of the year, a pastor who counsels people on death row is asking the next governor, Republican Gov.-elect Byron Donalds, for a six-month moratorium on all state-sanctioned executions.

Rev. Jeff Hood, a 42-year-old pastor based out of Little Rock, Arkansas, has been accompanying people ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police and state authorities are investigating a deadly accident involving an LAPD officer who apparently drowned during a training exercise at a backyard pool in Huntington Beach, with officials looking into potential violations of safety protocols related to diving at a private residence rather than a department ...Read more

Thousands of schools in Europe were targeted by bomb threats, leading to evacuations and adding to the recent disruption across the continent that grounded planes and saw supermarket fridges hacked.

In Italy, 6,000 schools received emailed bomb alerts, according to the Education Ministry, with a sizable number of them sending kids home. ...Read more

NEW YORK — A woman was arrested for assaulting two horse carriage drivers in Manhattan’s Central Park, smashing one over the head with a skateboard and punching another in the face while calling them animal abusers in a caught-on-video attack

Abigail Holbrook, 27, is charged with two counts of assault for the Tuesday attack on West Drive ...Read more