ST. PAUL, Minn. — Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to order the ringleader of the $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal, the largest known pandemic-era fraud scheme in Minnesota, to pay millions of dollars in restitution.

Aimee Bock, 45, should pay $5.2 million for her involvement in the scheme, prosecutors said in a Dec. 19 court ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is naming a new class of ships after himself as part of his so-called Golden Fleet vision for revamping the Navy.

In a speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, Trump said the Navy will build two ships in a new class of what he described as “battleships” that he is calling the “Trump class...Read more

The top Democrat in the Senate threatened legal action against the Trump administration Monday over its slow and incomplete rollout of the so-called Epstein files. The Department of Justice has so far failed to release any additional new documents from its investigation into the deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Senate Minority Leader ...Read more

More than a dozen tankers have loaded oil off Venezuela’s coast since the Trump administration intensified efforts to curb Caracas’ crude revenue by targeting vessels.

Since Dec. 11, roughly 14 vessels have loaded, and at least six of them were under sanctions, according to data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler. The majority of the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced the Navy will build a new “Trump-class” battleship as part of the White House push to modernize a fleet that’s been hobbled by years of cost overruns and delays.

A poster displayed at the event at Trump’s gilded Mar-a-Lago estate featured an artist’s rendering of a sleek-looking warship ...Read more

NEW YORK — The last protester charged in connection with the 2020 Black Lives Matter George Floyd demonstrations in New York City was sentenced to 50 hours of community service on Monday for his role in a violent clash during which an NYPD lieutenant was seriously hurt, sparking an angry response from the injured officer.

The term was handed ...Read more

WASHINGTON — More than a dozen staffers departed the Heritage Foundation over the weekend to join a rival organization, the latest sign of ideological tumult at the think tank once considered the central node in Washington’s conservative ecosystem and an intellectual bastion for President Donald Trump.

The departures included the entire ...Read more

A federal judge has halted the Trump administration’s plan to divert billions of dollars in homelessness spending away from permanent housing, a decision that California officials and homeless advocates welcomed as a win for preventing thousands of formerly unhoused people from being forced back to the street.

The judge’s order temporarily ...Read more

DENVER — Nine months after she first entered an Aurora detention center, Jeanette Vizguerra walked out of the facility and “into the loving arms of her family” Monday afternoon, her supporters said.

Vizguerra’s family posted $5,000 bail for the detained immigrant rights activist following a Sunday order by an immigration judge that ...Read more

CHICAGO — A federal grand jury has indicted six purported Chicago gang members for racketeering conspiracy, accusing the gang of involvement in 13 homicides as well as spates of other violence across the city in service of protecting their South Side territory.

In a sweeping indictment unsealed on Friday, the alleged Faceworld street gang ...Read more

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia will remain free at least through the end of the month after a federal judge sought more information on whether the United States plans to detain or deport him again.

Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, asked the Department of Justice for additional details and set a schedule through Dec. 30. Abrego Garcia ...Read more

State health officials this week confirmed a case of mpox in an adult Anchorage resident with a history of recent out-of-state travel.

The Alaska Section of Epidemiology said no additional cases or evidence of local community transmission were identified as of Monday, according to a public health alert.

The patient, who is isolating and ...Read more

Maryland officials confirmed a second positive test for bird flu at a commercial poultry operation in Queen Anne’s County last week, the 10th detection in the state this year, as public health experts warn the virus continues to pose a serious threat to animals — but remains a low risk for most people.

State health and agriculture officials...Read more

NEW YORK — A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the corruption trial of former Cuomo and Hochul aide Linda Sun after a federal jury failed to reach a verdict on whether or not she acted as a Chinese agent or committed fraud.

Jurors in Brooklyn Federal Court couldn’t come to a decision on any of the 19 counts against Sun and her husband, ...Read more

ATLANTA — A Kenyan man was sentenced to life in federal prison after plotting what federal prosecutors called a Sept. 11-style plane attack on Atlanta’s tallest building on behalf of a foreign terrorist organization.

Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 35, was found guilty by a New York City jury in November 2024 on all six counts of conspiracy to hijack ...Read more

BOSTON — A police chief from New Jersey pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and three charges of domestic assault and battery following a September vacation in Boston that allegedly turned violent.

Carmen Veneziano, 47, on Monday entered the pleas at Suffolk Superior Court, where he was released on $25,000 bail and conditions that he follow a no...Read more

California’s endangered House Republicans have spent December trying to show how they understand, and are trying to ease, the pain constituents feel as they confront skyrocketing health care costs.

But those Republicans are feeling political pain, as the enhanced federal premium subsidies for tens of thousands of Californians end next week.

...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The family of Rob and Michele Reiner are working on a memorial for the couple, who were slain last weekend at their Brentwood home.

In a statement Monday, children Jake and Romy Reiner thanked the public for the outpouring of support and said details about a memorial will be coming.

Rob and Michele Reiner were found dead in ...Read more