COLUMBIA, S.C. — Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh are seeking deep digital data from approximately half a dozen cellphones allegedly associated with the 2021 killings of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, according to a defense motion filed in state court this week.

The attorneys are asking state Judge Debra McCaslin to “compel production” of the deep ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Tuesday announced criminal charges against nine Medicaid providers who allegedly defrauded the state of $3 million.

The single largest instance of alleged fraud centers around a Duluth-based provider of psychotherapy services that the attorney general accuses of claiming more than ...Read more

NEW YORK — The NYPD is reviewing hundreds of instances in which officers used Flock Safety, a controversial nationwide license plate reader network that uses artificial intelligence, the department said Tuesday.

The department has also enacted new rules about officers using outside vendors without approval, but a department spokesman said the...Read more

Like many Minnesotans, Niraphanh Insomphou’s family arrived here in the 1970s after her parents fled Laos. Over the decades, her siblings became U.S. citizens, but Insomphou — who has intellectual and developmental disabilities and is unable to speak — did not.

For nearly 40 years, she has lived in group homes and Medicaid has covered her...Read more

NEW YORK — Striking a blow to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rollout of his pied-à-terre tax on the rich, a Staten Island judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of owners of high-value second homes who sued the city and ordered the city to start the process over.

Justice Wayne Ozzi found that notices the city mailed to property owners ...Read more

SEATTLE — Gov. Bob Ferguson called on Washington voters to reject an upcoming ballot initiative that would bar transgender girls from competing in girls sports at K-12 schools.

Ferguson’s opposition aligns him with dozens of other groups that are rallying against Initiative 638, including Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, the Seattle ...Read more

NEW YORK — A man walking with a cane as he exited a Brooklyn subway was dragged to his death after witnesses said his plastic shopping bag got caught in the train door, police said Tuesday.

Yaw Adu Boahene, 66, was getting off a rush-hour A train at the Utica Ave. station in Bedford-Stuyvesant when his blue plastic bag seemed to get caught ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The White House is using Customs and Border Protection funding to run pro-Trump political advertisements, Democratic appropriators said Tuesday.

The funding comes from last year’s massive GOP budget reconciliation law and was intended for CBP, said House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and House Homeland ...Read more

Cuba’s leaders will learn “the hard way” if they don't enact political and economic changes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday night, adding that the Trump administration is pushing for democratic elections in Venezuela.

In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, Rubio said Venezuela needs economic ...Read more

The Trump administration has dropped its plans to build an immigrant detention center at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in South Jersey, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The office said that in October, after the opening of an ICE detention site at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, Pentagon officials said they ...Read more

The search continued Tuesday for 10 people who were on board a migrant boat carrying more than 60 passengers that capsized off Puerto Rico on Sunday night, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard crews have recovered three bodies from the water since Monday, the maritime service said. Federal agents told the Miami Herald that most of the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration on Tuesday to continue to deport immigrants to countries other than those they came from, known as third-country removals, in an order that also set up a final legal fight over the practice.

Tuesday’s order lifted a lower-court order blocking the practice, which the Trump ...Read more

The holdout juror responsible for the mistrial in Massachusetts mom Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial released a video the night before the defendant returned to court.

Michael Desronvil’s 80-second statement aired on Fox News, where pundits have largely defended his position.

“I know the whole focus has been on me, but we want to reel ...Read more

CHICAGO — The City Hall fight between Mayor Brandon Johnson and opponents has again stalled two ordinances aimed at overhauling Chicago renters’ rights as the sides try to strike a deal.

Aldermen pushing the respective packages announced Monday evening they would continue negotiations and cancel votes on both of them that had been scheduled...Read more

NORFOLK, Va. — A bomb threat was reported at about 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday inside Building 510 at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, according to the shipyard.

Shipyard law enforcement was immediately notified and detained a suspect, the shipyard said in a Facebook post. Employees working inside Building 510 were evacuated following the threat.

Other ...Read more

In the early months of 2022, Democrats in Congress came close to passing an appropriations bill that did not include a provision barring federal funding for abortions — maybe the closest it had ever come in more than 40 years.

But those who wanted the Hyde Amendment included won the battle in the end. Three months later, the U.S. Supreme ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a raft of bills designed to push back on the Trump administration's immigration enforcement in California, including bans on electric shock gloves and a revamped ban on law enforcement face coverings after a previous law was blocked by a federal judge.

The more than 20 bills approved by the ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A new report from Alaska-based organizations and researchers shows that a far greater share of the state’s families and residents are financially struggling than official government statistics suggest.

The United Way of Anchorage released its “ALICE in Alaska” report Monday, with “ALICE” standing for “Asset ...Read more